Rule of
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Keep three to six months' living expenses in a bank account for emergencies. Until you manage to save that much, a credit card and a home equity line of credit can be tapped as a last resort.
Household Budgeting is a Shared ResponsibilityOnce a newly married couple starts sharing financial responsibilities, there is a natural tendency to over-spend with each person assuming there is enough money in their joint bank accounts to cover his or her individual expenses. In effect, no one is truly in charge of the household finances and they often end up spending the same dollar twice. The result is bounced checks, overdraft fees, late fees, higher interest rates and troubling phone calls . . . . "Responsible Budgeting" continues.
Living Within Our Means
Every thing we bring into our lives involves a choice, a trade-off. We simply can’t have it all. We have to give up money to buy something. We have to give up time in order to earn the money. If we overspend and use credit impulsively, we sacrifice our future by becoming slaves of the lender. As slaves, we lose our spiritual freedom because our minds are preoccupied with money worries . . . "Living Thriftly" continues.
Jesus Gave Us Bread for the Journey, Not Caramel Cinnabons
Bob Larranaga
" . . . give us this day our daily bread . . ." (Matthew 6: 11)
We've come a long way from the day when Jesus said to pray for our daily bread. Our consumer-oriented society continually creates and sells new things we never realized we needed until advertisers convinced us we couldn’t live without them.
Today's average supermarket carries more than 30,000 products: Heinz ketchup has 57 varieties. Baskin-Robbins has over 100 flavors (Penguin Swirl, anyone?). We have dozens of bottled waters to choose from – imported or domestic, spring, mineral, organic, flavored, vitamin-enriched, fluoride or fiber added. We even have endless varieties of trash bags. A single brand of trash bag, Hefty, has 21 different ways to dispose of our garbage. Maybe more. I stopped counting.
We have so many choices that we're left to wonder if there is something better out there that we just haven't tried. But the next choice is usually more costly than the previous one. We may want a cup of coffee but we reach for a Mocha Grande Frappuccino. We may want a car but we drive an Infinit QX56 SUV. We may want a new television set, but we buy Samsung's state-of-the-art fourth generation plasma screen TV with surround sound. We may want a piece of bread but we reach for a Cinnabon.
When Jesus said we were to pray for our daily bread, He was encouraging us to pray daily so that we would have the wisdom and insight to know the difference between our needs and our wants.
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