Been thinking a lot about money lately. For one thing, it's my job to think about money and to talk to people about money, and to facilitate the generous stewardship of money. And for another thing, I am now earning what feels like substantial amounts of money, for the first time in my life.
I was getting a little overwhelmed with the thought of so much expendable income - I know how quickly it tends to get eaten up by little impulse purchases - so I called my financial advisor to see how I can start to create some responsible financial structure. As it turns out, I had the right idea already - save, invest, and don't spend money on things you regret later.
So now I have a comprehensive financial plan for my life. There is plenty of room in the budget for fun and entertainment, but also a sizable chunk for savings and investments and emergencies and the down payment I hope to make on a house someday in the not-too-distant future. And tithing. (And I'm finding out that tithing is fun. :-)
Interestingly (at least to me), the more I talk about money, the more I realize what an important role money plays in relationships - in fact, I've learned in my counseling classes that the two most common issues that married couples argue about are sex and money. And as my idea of finances gets more mature and stable (at least that's how it seems to me), the more I want to find that same spirit in a spouse. It's not exactly something you can put in your internet dating profile: "seeking financially responsible man who thinks tithing is fun" (you might as well write "boring freak seeks same"), but still, it's one of my filters now.
I'm interested in how you run your financial lives. Do you have financial plans? Do you stick to a budget? (You can always comment anonymously if you don't want to talk about this stuff publicly.)
Friday, November 03, 2006
not by bread alone...
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4 comments:
Well, I decided last night (while having dinner with a friend who makes twice as much as me and another friend who makes three or four times as much as me and whose spouse makes at least ten times as much as me . . .) that sometimes it's okay to let someone else buy me dinner :)
I'm pretty frugal by necessity, but given my incredibly low income I put an astonishingly large amount into my retirement account. But I also sometimes splurge on fun activities and events--nice dinners occasionally, travel. So I guess I'm similar to you, except after a year of tithing I now don't give any money to church, mostly because I don't have a church at the moment. (But hey, if you average the two years together, it's still 5%.)
I've enjoyed finally being able to be intentional about my money (giving and saving) after so many years of living either as a volunteer or a student. I still gave money at those times, but never made any moves toward saving. It feels so responsible to say I have a financial advisor - but I do & it is fun to be able to both save and give away.
About a week ago I was sitting in the secretary's office doing some things when an laborer walked in and said he wanted to give his tithe to a church - a good organization. He said, "I want to tithe. I just made $80, that means I give $8, right?"
This man obviously didn't have a lot of money, nor a lot of experience with money - but he was so excited to be able to tithe. It was so amazing.
Wow.
we have a budget, which i keep in excel. it has gone all to hell in the past couple months (moving is expensive, i don't have a job) but usually we're pretty good about it. not as anal retentive as i would like to be; my hope is to change that pattern as soon as i have a job. we also have long term financial goals; these, too, depend on my making money as well so we have extra for savings....
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