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I can’t even count how many readers have emailed me asking me about whether or not they should tithe while getting out of debt. Tithing is a fiercely debated topic (read comments on the post I wrote called Tithing in the New Testament for proof) as you would expect with anything that seems to not make sense. I still wonder in amazement at how so many of God’s principles are absolute foolishness to non-christians… I mean who in their right mind would give expecting to have more?
That said, I will use this post as a summary of how I commonly answer the “tithing in times of challenge” questions. I will lay out my thoughts about the subject and what I have found from the Bible about it. The Bible says that we all know in part, so I don’t claim to know the answer for everyone, but this is what I have landed on. If this is a question you are asking for yourself, I suggest you pray and dig into your Bible!
I get a kick out of stepping out in faith. I absolutely love it. When I was 20 I packed up everything I owned an moved to Florida without a job lined up because I felt God calling me. I still remember the uncertainty of my ability to hear from God coupled with the thrill of the faith-walk. Turns out I was hearing from God and that season was a huge turning point in my life. I would have missed out on so much and I would be nowhere near where I am today spiritually had I not stepped out in faith and obeyed that leading.
The reason I bring this up is because we (Linda and I) have taken the same leaps of faith with tithing. As I detailed in a post called my tithing experience, I explained that due to an error on my part I found out that even though we thought we were tithing, we were actually about 1-2% short. With the same anticipation and feelings of uncertainty, we decided to fix the problem and increase our giving up to 10% - even though this would take our expenses higher than our income. Within a DAY we saw God kick our income up over our expenses. I am convinced he was trying to teach us a valuable lesson about His faithfulness - I never want to forget it.
While we have been working to pay off a huge chunk of debt over the last few years, we have been faithfully tithing. It would be nice if I could say that I started tithing and the next week a check came in the mail to pay off all of our debt, but God doesn’t seem to do it that way very often. He seems to be interested in changing us than just making the problem disappear. Honestly, what good would it do if He made all our debt disappear without us learning the discipline of handling our finances properly? If we created all the debt by over-spending, then we would just end up in the same place again.
While I haven’t received a $100,000 check in the mail yet, we have seen numerous large chunks of our debt paid off over the last few years - I thank God for them and am convinced that He was involved in bringing them to us.
Simply put, I think yes. I would be willing to bet that if we had spent the last 3 years paying our tithe money to our debts, we would not be near as far along as we are.
If you are like me and a little bit taken back by the high price of replacing the pages in your Franklin planner, I just found a great alternative. It does require a little bit of an upfront investment and some elbow grease, but it should pay for itself very quickly.
This website called DIYplanner.com has tons of free Franklin Planner templates for every size. Basically all you have to do is print them out, cut them down, punch holes and you are good to go.
What you need to create your own planner pagesI dug around and played with the site for a while because I was intrigued at all they had to offer. They have planner template kits that you can download that include all the pages you need. It looks like the calendar pages are dated back to 2007, but you can get the 2009 calendar pages here – and just like the rest of the site, they are free! If you are just starting out with the whole “print your own planner pages” thing you should read their beginner guide.
Anyway, if you are fed up with the high prices of replacing your planner templates, I suggest taking a look.
Proverbs 1:32
“…and the complacency of fools shall destroy them.”
I was doing a little bit of studying on this verse and I looked up the definition of complacent. Webster’s definition surprised me – the first definition was “self-satisfied” and the third was “unconcerned”.
I had never thought of this verse in this way. I had always just assumed complacent meant lazy. These definitions of the word shine a new light on it for me. When I think of someone who is self-satisfied, I think of someone who has accomplished something. A truly lazy person probably wouldn’t have much to be self-satisfied with, but what I am getting from this verse is that even if we have had accomplishments in the past, we can not rest on our laurels.
It reminds me of how Rome fell. It wasn’t because they were lazy – I am sure a lot of energy was spent becoming the powerhouse of the world that they were. But, they fell (some historians argue) because they became self-satisfied or complacent.
I am always amazed at how quickly we can adapt to situations. You know the old story that a frog will jump out of a pot of boiling water, but will keep swimming if you increase the heat slowly? I am keeping my eyes open for the areas in my life where complacency may be setting in. I often find that if I am getting a bit too comfortable in an area, I might need to step it up a bit.
A week or so ago, I did a review of Jim O’Donnell’s The Shortest Investment Book Ever. In the review I mentioned that I thought the book was perfect for those who haven’t started their 401k or 403b because they don’t know what funds to invest in. In the most simple terms Jim explains to the reader exactly which funds to invest in and why.
If you don’t have a 401k, 403b, or Roth IRA started, you should. And if you feel clueless as to how to invest the money, this book is for you.
I have an interview scheduled with Jim for next week and his publicist emailed me the other day saying that they wanted to donate 5 copies of the book to CPF readers! Woo Hoo!
I just saw this article called “My credit card was cancelled” on the money section of CNN.com. In it a reader asks a question about why her credit card company closed her account and how it would affect her credit score. The answer was a new one to me…
I have always heard that having a long-running relationship with a credit card company is a good thing. For that reason we have kept our two oldest credit cards open while closing all the others. We also occasionally purchase something on them and quickly pay it off - supposedly activity on them is better than no activity.
These are the things I have heard in the past, so that is why we have done them. I honestly don’t care too much about my credit rating since I have adopted a bit of Dave Ramsey’s philosophy. The only thing I intend to go into debt for is real estate and the .25% rate difference that we may get isn’t much of a concern for me, since I am planning to have it paid off in less than half the time anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all about saving money by being diligent, but there are only so many hoops that I am going to jump through to keep the best possible credit score. I mean if you have ever read (the often-changing) list of dos and don’ts to have a good credit score it can make you feel like you are walking on a tightrope trying to appease Experian, Transunion, and the other one.
We just recently paid off our last credit card. We have been working the last three years to pay off over $30,000 of consumer debts. I love the feeling of not having credit card bills to pay each month and I am not about to put a balance back on my credit card to get me an extra 5 points on my credit score. But, that’s just me, if you are into that sort of thing, by all means have at it! 
Anyway, back to the article…
The answer that was given in response to the reader question was surprising to me…
“Credit-card companies lose money on dormant accounts, and as they feel the economic pinch, they’re more apt to close them. Unfortunately, as you suspected, closing your oldest card can lower your credit score. The length of time your accounts have been open is the third most heavily weighed factor in your FICO score (after timeliness of payments and the amount you owe). Plus, eliminating a card reduces your available credit, which could also lower your score.”
I didn’t know that they lose money on inactive accounts. I guess it is good to know. They went on to explain that…
“If you have a lot of other cards and a credit score of 720 or higher, one closure won’t have much effect on your score. But if you have a slim credit history and few cards, it’s wise to make sure your oldest accounts stay active. So use your card at least once every three or four months.”
While the mortgage and financial crisis seems to be old news, Forbes points out that the next industry to have a crisis of it’s own is the credit card industry.
They said, “Capital One disclosed rising delinquencies and loan losses for the month of November because of unemployment and the weakening economy.”
This isn’t really surprising if you think about it, but we can be sure that the credit card companies will be changing some policies as they adapt. Apparently Bank of America, Citi, and AMEX have already begun to raise rates and minimize credit limits for many cardholders.
The Forbes article has a few suggestions…
- Experts advise reading the terms and conditions on your account statement every month, so you can pick up on any unexpected changes your card company slips into the fine print.
- Make sure you don’t use too much of your credit limit. Use no more than 30% to 40% of your available credit on one card and across all your cards. Going past that threshold is a trigger lenders to change terms.
A few of my own suggestions…
It is surprising, but it is still legal. You can be a customer who never paid a bill late, is using 40% of your credit limit, and did everything right, but see your interest rate sky-rocket overnight. I just watched a video yesterday about a guy who did just that and had his rate go from 7% to 30% overnight - for no apparent reason. And he can do nothing but suck it up and take it.
The good news is that there have been so many complaints over the last few years that the government has stepped in and is creating new rules to prevent credit card companies from doing this. Read more below…
While banks can raise rates for future balances, the new rules, which aren’t expected to take effect until 2010, won’t allow them in most circumstance to increase the rates consumers pay on existing balances.
The rules also prohibit banks from raising rates when a customer falls behind on other bills, say a utility payment, not related to their card account.
Card companies will have to give consumers 45 days notice of any interest rate changes, up from the 15-day notice period currently in force, and give them more time to make payments.
Have you had any nightmare experiences with credit card companies?
