Financial Foundation Builders

The Bible is amazing. It actually gives us insight that will help us with our choices, priorities, our struggles with materialism, our struggles with wants versus needs, giving and saving, as well as other very practical, daily issues we all face. One of the interesting realizations for me over the years has been that how we use our TIME impacts our finances greatly. I must reprint some numbers from Richard Swenson's Margin, to help put our societal ills in perspective. In a lifetime the average American will:

Spend 6 months sitting at traffic lights waiting for them to change
Spend 1 year searching through desk clutter looking for misplaced objects
Spend 8 months opening junk mail
Spend 2 years trying to call people who aren't in or whose line is busy
Spend 5 years waiting in lines
Spend 3 years in meetings (I think I've surpassed this already)
Learn how to operate 22,000 different things
Commute 45 minutes every day
Be interrupted 73 times every day
Receive 600 advertising messages every day (TV, newspaper, magazine, radio, billboards)
Travel 7700 miles every year
Watch 1700 hours of television every year Open 600 pieces of mail every year (I think this is monthly for us)

Wow! The choices we make greatly impact our peace of mind, our priorities, AND our finances. You cannot separate finances into it's own little box. For an individual to be financially free, they must first become desperate. The forces battling our check books, credit cards, and time are desperate. The media, marketing, and peer pressure require that we get a desperation for education and action so that we can make immediate and impactful changes. Are you desperate?

Our closets are full, we need 3 car garages, temporary storage for our stuff, and it really is not even OURS if we are in debt. We have less time and money for family, church, and beneficial ministries, less time for prayer and meditation, and less energy and interest in helping others. We have been duped folks! When our spouse calls, or God calls, or the children call, do they get a busy signal? If you really stop a minute and think about all of this it should stir up some anger and discontent with our lifestyles. Put that frustration to anger and ACT! My goal is to move you to action--to stir you up and encourage you to move out!