Financial Reality Check!

If you truly want to change your finances, it’s going to take Guts.  If you can’t accept living in debt, like most Americans, or even like your close friends and family members, you have to make a stand and be different.  That takes Guts.  You have to let go of your secret life of pretending everything is all right.  You have to be honest with yourself and others in your life.  That takes a lot of Guts, too.  And most importantly, you can no longer rely on yourself.  You have to put all your faith and trust in God like never before, which will definitely take Guts.  Heck, just be honest and share my life with you took Guts.

 

First, let’s talk about putting all your faith and trust in God.  The bottom line is, by putting all your faith and trust in God, you are simply “Seeking God first.”  Most of you probably think you do this anyway.  I thought the same thing myself.  But like you, I was in store for a reality check. 

 

Reality Check: “If you buy things you do not need, with money you do not have, you are not seeking God first in your life.”¹ 

 

I’ll say it again, “If you buy things you do not need, with money you do not have, you are not seeking God first in your life.  If that description fits you, and you are not ready to accept that statement as truth, then you need to delete this program off your hard drive.  Otherwise, you are just wasting your time.   However, if you’ve got the Guts to accept reality and are ready to do something about it, then you are on your way to a new and exciting debt free life.  So, let’s start seeking God first.

 

Jesus told us to first seek God, and then all other things will be provided for us.  So let’s do something Gutsy and make a decision right now to start seeking God first today.  Now that you are fired up, we need to figure out exactly how to seek God first.  Thankfully, Jesus told us how to do that, too.  When a rich man asked Jesus how to do this, he told the rich man to give everything away and follow him.  Jesus also told his disciples how to seek God: to “Deny yourselves” and follow him.  But how do we apply this message today?  Does this mean we need to give away all of our worldly possessions and start preaching the gospel around the globe?  Probably not.  I don’t really think that God wants most of us to be homeless evangelists.  My interpretation of these scriptures is that I need to deny myself my material wants and desires, then truly make God first in my life.  Then, and only then, should I allow myself my wants again.  A little heads up here.  Your wants are going to change drastically after your priorities change.

 

Okay, let’s kick this off with something a little Gutsy, like a 30-day challenge.  I came up with this challenge for my friends and family.  It proved to be quite an interesting ordeal for most.  It’s quite simple.  For the next 30 days, you are going to buy nothing except the things you absolutely need.  Try to deny your daydreams of an in-ground pool and hot tub, complete with a fully-equipped outdoor kitchen.  If you catch yourself wanting, just make a mental note “I am giving it all away.  I am denying myself.  I am seeking God first, no matter what.”  I promise you, if you can faithfully do this challenge for 30 days, you will see a world of changes starting to take place in your life.  Think about it.  The worst thing that could possibly happen is you won’t rack up any more credit card debt next month.  So if you think you’ve got the Guts to hang, your 30 days starts…. Now!

 

Now you have 30 days to focus on seeking God first and shaping up your finances.  If you are like I was, you probably don’t know where to begin.  It’s simple, really.  You are going to begin with a plan.  If you look in the Old Testament, you will find a proverb that goes a little like this: “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.”  For our finances, it goes more like this: “Where there is no vision or plan, your finances will surely perish.”  Unfortunately, I was living proof of that proverb.  So let’s make a plan – a vision for your financial future.  It’s quite simple to do.  You only have four steps to take:

 

1. Account for debts, even those pesky medical bills you have been trying to pretend don’t exist.
   
2. Commit to paying all of them each and every month, even if it’s only five bucks a month. 
   
3. Use the “Got Guts? Debt Eliminator” system to knock your debts out one by one.
   
4. Start giving and saving today.  I don’t care if you only have fifteen minutes of time to give someone, or only have one dollar to save.  You must start today.  This step is crucial or the first three steps won’t matter at all.

 

That’s it.  Just 4 steps and you will be debt free for life.  Let’s take a look at each step and see how they will impact your life.

 

 

Step 1:  Account for all your debts.

You have to hold yourself accountable and recognize all your debts.  I know for me, this was a far cry from my usual approach of “If I just ignore it and pretend this bill doesn’t exist, eventually I won’t owe it anymore.”  Yes, this really was my approach, and no it did not work or I would have titled this “Living Gutless” instead of “Got Guts.”  The easy road doesn’t exist.  You have to hold yourself accountable for your debts.  So write them all down on a blank piece of paper.  List how much you owe, the interest rate, and the minimum payment.  I was shocked to see that I had 26 separate medical bills on top of my 5 credit cards, 2 installment loans, and my first and second mortgages.  Before you get all depressed here, quickly go to step two and totally empower yourself.  Huh Rah!

 

Step 2:  Make a commitment to pay them all.

Now that you have identified each and every debt, you need to start paying on them.  I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of empowerment I got when I paid $5 towards each and every one of my 26 medical bills that first month.  For the first time in my life, I was in control of my finances.  I was steering the ship.  The feeling was unbelievable and I couldn’t wait until the next month.  It only got better when I started receiving new statements from the hospitals with “Thank You” and reduced payoff options.  Wow!  It was great.  So get started and pay the minimum amount due on all the bills you can.  Then pay as much as you can afford towards your smallest debt.  Congratulations!  You are now on your way to an amazing, debt free life.

 

Step 3:  Knock out your debts with Guts.

Now put all your debts in the “Got Guts? Debt Eliminator.”  Just enter your information and click the Calculate My Got Guts Debt Elimination Plan.  There is only room for 15 creditors, so I had to lump all my medical bills together.  Since all of them had zero interest, this worked fine.  The program will prepare you a step by step plan to eliminate all your debts.  After you review your plan and put it in action, pinch yourself, because life can really be this good.  Don’t forget to check out the rest of the program.  The “Got Guts? Debt Eliminator” is designed to change as your life circumstances change.  You can view each of your creditor’s detailed schedules by clicking on its corresponding button.  You can update any debt’s interest rate as it changes, or enter annual fees.  If you are feeling really Gutsy, commit an extra $50 a month to paying off your debts and you’ll get there even faster.  This is your tool to become debt free, so use it. 

 

Step 4:  Gutsy Giving and Saving

Why is it Gutsy?  It takes a whole lot of Guts to give or save when it feels like you have absolutely nothing; but do it anyway.  The Bible tells us “we must give to receive” and “you reap what you sow”.  We must take these scriptures to heart and live them in our daily lives.  Fortunately, giving is one of the easiest and natural things we can do.  Just remember this, “If you love, you give.”  How simple and true.  In fact, God loved us so much, he gave us his only son as a ransom sacrifice.  Now that’s love…perfect love.  So if you are seeking God first, you are basically following two commandments:  “Love God with all your heart” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  So get out there and love your neighbor.  Next time you take your trash out to the curb, take your neighbor’s trash too.  Help someone with their finances.  You definitely know how lonely it feels to live in financial despair.  If you have some extra money one month, give it away.  I guarantee you will receive it back at least tenfold down the road.  Just give and give freely, with no intentions of receiving, and you will have some amazing stories to tell. 

 

One of my company’s dearest and oldest clients is always making the statement, “You can’t out give the Lord.”  She lives that statement daily, and is living proof you really can’t out give the Lord.  Betty, my client, started giving like most of us, when she felt like she didn’t have much to give.  About 15 years ago, she gave $4,000 to her favorite charity.  The next year she was able to give them $6,000.  When I first met her, about 10 years ago, she was able to give them $10,000 a year.  Well, to make a long story short, the section of land Betty and her family have lived on for the past 40 years started producing something about six years ago called “Oil.”  Last year alone, she gave $640,000 to charities.  Now that’s the awesome power of the Lord giving back.  I could tell you many other stories about people who started giving and received incredible blessings from it.  So muster up some courage, get your butt off the couch, and start giving some of your time and resources today.

 

In addition to giving, you need to start developing the habit of saving.  Most experts want you to wait until you are completely debt-free before you start to save.  However, I disagree.  I feel this is way too important to put off.  You need to start saving now for two reasons.  First, you must develop the habit of saving each month.  In fact, once you develop this habit, it will be extremely hard to break.  Second, you will have emergencies in your life that will require money than you currently have in your checking account.  You definitely don’t want to charge it.  You want to be able to pay cash from your savings in these circumstances.  Just make sure you’re not saving too much at the expense of slowing down your debt elimination plan.  By the way, take a look at your savings on the “Got Guts? Debt Eliminator” program.  After you are debt-free, the program automatically snowballs your monthly payments into your savings account.  Just about everyone has over $1 million in savings after 30 years.  It’s simply amazing. 

 

Got Guts? Extra Credit

There are three additional things you can do to catapult your success.  First, keep a journal and record everything that you or your family abundantly received.  For instance, write it down if someone paid for your lunch, if you got a free sample, or an unexpected tax refund.  No matter what it is, if it’s abundant, write it down.  NO, you aren’t keeping score here.  You are just reinforcing the fact that you are receiving, so you must keep on giving.  Secondly, every time something good happens in your life, raise your hand, clench your fist, then pull your fist down to your side, while saying “SWEET!!!”  Yeah, at first people will think you’re a little crazy, but soon they will be joining you.  Lastly, find two people that need help with their finances.  Share what you have learned here and make a commitment to help one another.  Remember this scripture “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  So help others, form a support group, and enjoy your journey to become debt-free.

 

You might be wondering if my family is debt-free.  Not yet.  We are still on our journey just like the rest of you.  To help keep me focused on where I’m going, I often repeat these two phrases.

 

“If you are buying things you do not need, with money that you do not have, you are not seeking God first.”

 

“You can’t out give the Lord.”

 

In closing, if I have helped just one person, then this debt management system has served its purpose.  I hope you can take this knowledge and expand on it, while living a life seeking God first, giving generously, and living debt-free. 

 

To God’s Glory and Love I give all of this.

 

Daniel and Kendra Meek

 

 

¹Paraphrase from Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv, Message Series: “30 Days to Live,” Week Two

 

 

Copyright 2007 Synergy Educational Services, Inc.