December 1, 2004

• What they don’t tell you in college.
  
  
  
  Seems like they teach
  you how to get into debt but not how to get out of it.  If you
  want to be a good steward of God’s money, read the following tips that
  I’ve learned (from living and great conversations with Randy &
  Krystal, Nick and my sister in the last few days). 
  
  
  Honoring the Lord with Your Wealth (Prov 3:9-10)

  1.  Tithe 10% of your gross income (gross = how much you earned before taxes are taken out of it).  “God’s economy is simple:  you honor Him and He will honor you.”
  2.  Save 10% of your net income (amount that you take home after the taxes are taken out of it)
  3.  Get a part-time job while you’re in college so you can pay some of your tuition. 
  4.  Don’t take student loans just because they offer it to
  you.  Take only what you need.  See if Mom & Dad will
  give you a loan.
  5.  Don’t let the credit card system take advantage of you. 
  Take advantage of the credit card system.  (See below regarding
  credit cards.)
  6.  After you graduate, get a full-time job and try to pay off
  your debt as soon as possible.  Don’t go into ministry with a huge
  debt.
  7.  If your job doesn’t have a 401K option; start an IRA account for your retirement.

  Credit Cards
  1.  Don’t purchase anything you can’t pay at the end of the
  month.  Once you’re in debt, the interest keeps building, and it
  becomes very hard to pay off.
  2.  Don’t get too many credit cards.  It makes it appear, to those who are checking your credit, that
  you’re living beyond your means.  (But on the flipside, cancelling
  a lot of credit cards shows you can’t handle your debt.  So it’s
  better to start off by not getting a lot of cards.)
  3.  Paying off your balance completely, steadily every month brings about good ratings, good credit
  4.  Incurring a debt is never good credit (except for house mortgages)
  5.  Getting a credit card that allows you to earn “cash back” is a
  great idea.  This is how you take advantage of the system. 
  The best one out there is the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card,
  which gives you 5% cashback for your purchases at grocery stories, gas
  stations and drugstores and 1% on everything else.  This one
  doesn’t have as many limitations as all the others.  And there are
  no annual membership fees.  Just think!  If you get one of
  these cards, you can get cash back for making purchases that you
  normally make anyway. So why not?  (If you have any more questions
  regarding this,  Nick could probably help you.)   Just remember to pay off the balance at the end of each month!

  • 4:23 pm
  • 3 Comments