Thirsty for Financial Planning that Works

Creating budgets and taking advantage of other financial planning measures help us to prepare for short and long term, expected and unexpected expenses. We work hard with the intent to earn enough income to cover such expenses, and of course, hope to enjoy a surplus that allows us to build a comfortable nest egg for the future.

Most of us plan for regular expenses relating to housing, transportation, clothing, grocery, insurance, education, etc. If we're wise, we also try to prepare ourselves for unexpected expenses...financial emergencies that occur when the water heater stops working, when the transmission fails, when the kids need expensive schools supplies, or when a spouse walks out. How many times have we experienced emergencies that have cost us more than our budgets or nest eggs could handle?

Unexpected expenses...don't you hate them? You know what I mean. You're happy about your new discipline to save and are proud of yourself for building up your savings account from $50.00 to $1,000.00, when all of a sudden you experience a financial emergency that is set to cost you a minimum of $1,600.00. Not only will it wipe out your savings; you also don't have the other $600.00 (or more) you'll need to pay the expense in full. What will you do?

What about those of you have worked hard and denied yourself some really fun opportunities in order to pay off that $8,000.00 of debt in one year, but now are unable to enjoy being debt-free because you have no savings to handle life's emergencies. So, when the IRS sends you a notice that a previous tax return included discrepancies that now require you to pay the federal government $793.00, your debt-free-self has no money to pay them.

What have your experiences been like? Has an unexpected expense ever left you in the uncomfortable position of trying to decide whether to pay your rent/mortgage or your car payment, whether to buy groceries or your prescription drugs, or whether to keep your cable service instead your internet service? Trust me, you are not alone. I have been there and done that!

That's why I'm thirsty for financial planning that works. I live to help people establish budgets and encourage financial habits that enable hard working individuals to spread their finances around in ways that will allow them to meet their financial obligations while simultaneously building their savings and emergency funds. In essence, I have a passion to prepare people not only to experience the unexpected but to answer it with a nest egg set aside just for it.

What about you? Do you have an "Unexpected" Fund or Emergency Fund to help offset irregular expenses? If so, how do you make it work for you? If not, how do you handle the unexpected when it occurs?

Thirsty for a Good Time!

With 3 days left until Christmas, I'm excited! I'm not excited about opening gifts, drinking eggnog, chewing on candy canes, or watching my sons open Christmas presents. No, I'm excited about our opportunity to celebrate everything pertaining to the birth, life, sacrifice, and gift of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! We'll wake up early to pray together as a family, eat breakfast, get dressed, and join fellow churchgoers in worship at an 8am service. Afterwards, my husband, four sons, and I will return home and commence celebrating our own little family traditions...traditions that may seem insignificant to an outsider, but that allow us to make the most of spending quality time together on such a marvelous occasion.

That's what we are always excited about on Christmas Day. That's what we're thirsty for. Precious time spent on a special occasion to commemorate all that Jesus' birth welcomed. We enjoy expressing our love and appreciation for one another by way of home made cards, poems, and letters. We all sit around together listening as each person shares the love they've received from every member of the family. We break out our special sparkling grape juice and crackers to remember Christ in our family communion. Later, we take pleasure in watching The Veggietales:  The Toy That Saved Christmas, and recalling our younger selves watching it in years past. And each year we add to our traditions. Last year, we included the DVD, The Nativity Story as one of our must-see Christmas movies.

Bottom line...we enjoy every single moment together as a family on Christmas day. What will you do to quench your family's thirst for a good time on Christmas day? What are some of your family's Christmas traditions?

Thirsty for an Intervention

Do you know someone who is drowning in credit card debt...someone who can't seem to control their spending habits? Has a friend recently revealed the truth about his or her credit card debt? Perhaps you've noticed that your sister's trips to the mall are getting out of control. What are you doing about what you see? How are you handling your concerns for your friend?

Just as most of us wouldn't sit around and watch silently while someone we love abuses drugs, we shouldn't standby and wink at our friends' reliance on credit cards (especially if their debt is growing). So, what should we do? Here are my suggestions for holding a private intervention:

• Brainstorm - write down your thoughts about your friend's credit card use and spending habits (it is important to be as specific as possible if you hope to successfully convey those concerns).
• Plan - figure out the most comfortable, conducive time and environment to talk to your friend (again, consider exactly what it is you want to say).
• Meet & Greet - show up on time and invest a few minutes in complimenting your friend for his or her attendance, appearance, and admirable strengths.
• Get serious - express your concerns and offer any advice and assistance you have to show your support and commitment to helping your friend to change his or her current habits.
• Share - reveal your own credit card journey and share what you've learned along the way.
• Cheer - reiterate your love, hope, and faith in your friend's ability to change his or her credit card use and reduce current credit card debt.
• Follow up - check in with your friend once a month, or at the least once a quarter (every 3 months) to see how he or she is doing and how you might be able to help.

Credit card debt is keeping too many of us awake at night, and is preventing too many of us from experiencing a variety of opportunities because of its affect on our credit ratings. You know someone in this situation, don't you? Well, today is the day for you to join me...get thirsty for an intervention, and then go make it happen!

Thirsty for Proper Perspective

Get Wise About Using Debit Cards and Online Banking

In 1997, a friend attempted to persuade me to get on board and join the revolution...the debit card revolution. No matter how much she explained what it was and how it worked...no matter how many times she tried to reassure me that it was not a credit card, I refused to jump on the bandwagon and go to my bank to sign up for one. I wanted nothing to do with a card that looked too much  like a credit card. I was sure that it was just as dangerous as a credit card, and I knew way too many people who were deeply in debt. I just didn't trust the plastic check card. I was convinced that having a debit card would be more trouble than it would be worth.

Fast forward to the present day and I have to admit that not only do I have and keep a debit card on me at all times, I have three of them! They're easy to get, convenient to use (gas station, anyone?), can sometimes be used for identification purposes, and make purchased items easier to track for people who don't keep up with their receipts. And who doesn't love the convenience of driving up to a teller machine to deposit cash or checks without having to fill out a deposit slip and wait for our turn with a bank teller?

For all of the benefits and conveniences debit cards provide, they have also been a source of many sleepless nights for account holders who have trusted them way too much...people who have failed to track their transactions, balance their accounts, and avoid accumulating overdraft fees. Last week, I took my own little poll and asked everyone I knew if they use checkbook registers or some other system to track their finances and balance their books. 98% of them said, "no". NO? NO! "What do you mean," I asked. Each of them gave me the same explanation:  they use online banking as their sole source of tracking and managing their finances. Can you believe that? I couldn't!

I asked each person how they account for outstanding transactions that haven't yet posted online. Some were convinced that they never have outstanding transactions, others relied on their memory, while others simply weren't sure. So, you probably won't be surprised when I tell you that 100% of them had overdrawn their bank accounts this year as a result of failing to keep up with their financial activities, 86% of them had overdrawn their accounts at least once within the past six months, and 54% of them have overdrawn their accounts within the past three months.

Can you imagine how much the banks have made by charging and collecting overdraft fees from these account holders who place all of their financial trust in online banking? Let's say 10 people fail to properly manage their accounts and each of them are charged two $35.00 overdraft fees in exchange for the same bank covering the costs of allowing all of their transactions to clear. The bank would earn a total of $700.00 in overdraft charges! That $700.00 could be charged and received by the bank for "insufficient funds" transactions that might cost them less than $50.00 in total to cover for those account holders.

For this very reason, I am encouraging more and more people to use their checkbook registers to record and manage their finances. No one cares more about your financial stability than you do so why not take responsibility for its success? If you hate the mundane, tedious job of writing down every financial action you take, spend a few dollars to purchase (and use) personal finance software (i.e., Microsoft Money, Quicken). You can also do a little research to find out if there are service companies in your area that can assist you in recording and managing your finances at a reasonable price. I provide such services for individuals and small businesses all the time. You'd be surprised by how affordable they can be (especially in comparison to regularly paying overdraft fees created by mismanagement). Besides, most people are better prepared and much more motivated to manage their own finances after approximately 3 months of personal finance training or services, and all of them feel better about having a financial reporting system that allows them to see how they're working their money and how their money is working for them.

Thirsty for Simplicity

If you were to ever show up to my house on Christmas Eve, you'd find that the area under the Christmas tree which is usually reserved for wrapped gifts is pretty bare (if not completely). Aside from the few gifts our sons receive from loved ones who insist on doing so, the tree trunk stands alone. However, if you were to take a glance at our six Christmas stockings hanging from the mantle, you'd quickly recognize where most of our time and attention is spent. Each stocking is plush and full to the brim with letters, poetry, and plenty of artwork. It's the little things in those stockings that fills our hearts and lives for the day.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  I have no qualms with people buying and exchanging Christmas gifts. I appreciate the idea of focusing time and finances to prioritize others, and I definitely admire all of the charitable efforts that effectively help those who are less fortunate at the end of the year. Still, I long for the day when we can embrace the holidays with more focus on faith in God and simple acts of kindness, rather than on what we wish we had to give others, what we plan to buy for them, or what we resent not receiving from the people we love.

There's nothing I hate more during the Christmas season than to see faces full of anguish and voices cracking with embarrassment as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers express their disappointment for not having enough spending money to buy Christmas gifts. Can't we all just get back to simpler times, when Christmas meant so much more than opening gifts and comparing presents?

I pray for the day when gift exchanges take a back seat to expressions of faith, family, and fellowship during the Christmas season. I have complete confidence and hope that my prayer will one day become an answered reality. In the meantime, I will remain thirsty for simplicity.

Thirsty for a Zero Balance

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Bible is full of hard truths, and one of those hard truths is found in Proverbs 22:7, "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is a servant to the lender" (New Living Translation). How true it is! Carrying debt is an awful burden and paying interest on that debt is almost unbearable. No matter how great or small, when we owe others, our hard work and earnings become more beneficial to our lenders and less satisfying to us. When we live debt-free, we decide what kind of work we'll do, what kind of money we want to earn, and what we'll do with our earnings. However, when we're in debt, our responsibility to lenders influence all of these decisions.


Our financial planning processes should not be consumed with prioritizing payments to lenders but with expressing our faith, caring for our families, and loaning and giving money away to people and organizations in need. Debt distracts us from focusing on what we have to give to others to what we need to receive for ourselves in order to loose the grip of the financial shackles we're wearing. That's not how we were created to live. We were created to live as examples who successfully influence the liberation of others from their own chains. Sometimes circumstances dictate that we help to free others as we become free, but it's a whole lot easier to do when we are already free.

Now more than ever, I am thirsty for a zero balance on every debt I have because I am also determined to completely serve God with my money, not my lender. Five years ago, my husband and I were determined to break our dependence on credit cards and other forms of credit, and we did. Now, we're determining to be free of debt and guess what? We're on the road to succeeding at that as well.

I'm grateful for all of you who have embarked on this journey to financial freedom with me, and I'm excited to see how God will transform us all along the way. However, I have to be honest and tell you that I am more excited about the day when I can type a blog post entitled, We Made It! We're Debt-Free! I am thirsty for it because I know it will enable me to do what's really in my heart to do, and that is to finance the path for other people's freedom.

That day will come, not just for me but for many of us and I can hardly wait! 

Thirsty for More to Give Away

There's nothing like bringing a smile to someone's face or watching as tears fall from a grateful recipient's eyes as he or she accepts an unexpected or much needed gift from my hands. I love to give gifts, especially when the people I am giving them to have no idea what I'm up to. The joy and pleasure I receive from giving gifts wasn't born out of a need to be important or to feel superior to others. It's arose from a simple passion to touch lives and remind others that they matter.

Don't get me wrong. I don't like giving gifts to everyone. I have given gifts to ungrateful, thankless people who would rather have received something else. I don't allow that to discourage me because I remember that my motives were pure and that the goal was accomplished. However, sometimes I do become discouraged when I seem unable to give substantially more of myself, more of my resources, and more of my skills away. My remedy for this lies within the context of our focus this week...to increase my discipline and commitment to save in order to expand my ability and the avenues in which I am able to give more to others. 

That's what I'm thirsty for today.

I want to be like my Heavenly Father. I want to represent Him by extending my heart and hands to others so that they know they aren't forgotten...that they aren't alone...that they aren't insignificant. I'm not looking just to give anything to anyone. No, I'm prayerfully asking the Lord to show me how to save more money, who to give to give it to, and how to give it to them. What better way to live than to allow our lives to be poured out as a resource that preaches to others that still, Jesus lives!

Thirsty for You

By nature, I am a servant; a leader who finds the most fulfillment in serving others. I have a gift for encouraging people and cultivating their potential to see and believe things in themselves and about themselves that they haven’t previously been able to see or believe. I have a knack for influencing growth. That’s what I do and that’s why I’m here. 

I started this blog to invite you on a journey with me to spiritual and financial freedom. I believe it’s a tool I can use to continue to learn and grow while also giving myself, my gifts and talents away in service to you. Having said that, I’m thirsty for you…thirsty to learn what it is that you need spiritually and financially…thirsty for a revelation of how I can best serve you and help to cultivate a lifestyle that fully embraces Christ and the freedom He offered us millenniums ago.

I have heard Dr. Myles Munroe say on the radio that “without God I cannot and without me God will not.” The same is true of all of us. You have something I need, I have something you need, and God has many things that we all need. There are situations and experiences in our lives that will not change without us first surrendering them to God. Meanwhile there are situations and experiences in our lives that will remain the same until we realize that we have already been equipped to deal with them. Still, the solutions to some issues are more near to us than we realize because we refuse to take advantage of opportunities to gleam from someone else. 

God doesn’t balance my checkbook for me because I am well able to do that myself; however, He is able to open doors that can offer professional opportunities that will forever change my financial reality. Finally, you have information, experiences, and wisdom to share that could teach me things about life, money, and myself that I am not even aware of right now.

So, here I am waiting to hear from you…waiting to discover what you need from me, waiting to learn from you, and eager to see how together they will bring glory to God’s name.

Thirsty for Consistent, Forward Movement

Have you ever watched the animated movie, Finding Nemo. It's a tragic, yet comical little story that centers around a father fish, Marlin who, while still grieving the loss of his wife and all but one of his unborn guppies ends up on a frightful journey to try to rescue his only living offspring, Nemo, after a fishing boat captured him in a net. As a result of his previous loss, this father fish had attached himself to fear the way a newborn baby attaches herself to her milk bottle. Still, tragedy struck again and Marlin found himself in a situation that forced him to decide whether to turn back or press forward. He had to decide whether he was going to go back home and grieve the loss of his only son or allow his fears to be transformed into the courage he needed to press forward and find him. Along the way, he became acquainted with Dory, an imperfect, forgetful, yet lovely blue fish who became Marlin's guide and encourager. At one point, Dory sang, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. As annoying as Dory's little jingle was to him, it succeeded in inspiring Marlin to forget the past and press towards the possibilities of the future. Dory motivated Marlin to keep moving consistently forward.

Prior to meeting Dory, Marlin was lost and afraid. He was frustrated and confused. He frantically searched for what was  most valuable to him, but he needed direction and he needed to know he wasn't alone. Marlin didn't know what to do or where to go until Dory offered her knowledge and talents to the mission. Together, they survived the ups and downs of the journey. They incurred scars, and faced uncertainties and setbacks, but guess what? As a team, they met their goal. They found Nemo. In the end, the father and son were reunited with a stronger bond and a brand new friend!

Similar to Marlin, some of you may be stuck in the middle, trying to decide whether to stop hoping for a better financial reality or to use your fears to propel you into the courage you need to press forward and swim, swim, swim your way into financial freedom. Well, I am here to be your personal, blog-writing, Dory. I am here to be a guide and an encourager who has knowledge and talents to offer. I am here to help you to accomplish your mission, and together you and I will face the ups and downs that are sure to present themselves as you endeavor to move consistently forward until you have endured every setback and conquered every fear that has been causing financial freedom to elude you. And who knows, perhaps we'll become friends along the way.

So, what are your questions and concerns? Don't want to post them here? Feel free to email me at cmbriscoe7312@gmail.com.

Thirsty for Resolute Vision

If there is one thing all boss money mentalities possess, it is resolute vision. There isn't one person who has attained true freedom without a visionary's mind. A person can stumble into success or gamble their way into riches, but it takes vision to enter into and maintain a wealthy place...a place where a person is able to leave footprints that lead to a legacy of domination and innovation for generations to follow. Such visionaries live full lives and die empty of potential; and when they're gone, the world remembers forever that they were here.

That's what I'm thirsty for. I'm thirsty for resolute vision. I'm thirsty for clarity in purpose and tenacious determination to see God's vision in me come to fruition. I don't want to experience a portion of this; I must experience all of it. I must attain the boss money mentality not just for me or for my family's sake, but for the benefit of everyone who is meant to receive God's contributions from my life while I am here and after I'm long gone.

I refuse to be one of those people many of us have seen lying on their death beds wishing they had more time to give, wishing they had been a better person, or wishing they had done more for others. I'm going to die knowing that I embraced God entirely, obeyed His instructions, and followed His plans to the end. Like the New Testament apostle, Paul, I will be able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (II Timothy 4:7).

I have vision. As a matter of fact, I have many visions. What I am thirsty for now is the type of resolute vision that will lead me securely into the boss mentality so that I can unequivocally lead others to it as well, so we can all cry as William Wallace did in the movie Braveheart, "Frrrreeeeeddddddooooooommmmm!!!"

What about you? What are you thirsty for today?

THIRSTY FOR CHANGE

Almost twenty years ago, I became acquainted with a young man who has since become one of my closest friends. When I met him, he was straight off the streets, unemployed, and living with his mother. He was an irresponsible young man, an absent father, and a brand new convert to Christianity. I saw a man who was as full of all of God’s potential as he was of the guilt and weight of his past…a past that was threatening to destroy his chance to change. I watched as he attempted to keep his mind submerged in the mentality of a hustler on the streets while trying to grapple with God’s call for him to be transformed by a renewed mind. This young man waivered for some time, trying to figure out whether to maintain loyalty to the street life he’d known or faith in the Christ who had redeemed him from sin and despair.

My new friend straddled the fence for a couple of years. He began to go to church almost regularly but wouldn’t go to work. He pursued dates with women but made little effort to spend time with his children. He earned a reputation for borrowing money and never paying it back. This fellow seemed to have no sense of integrity or desire for responsibility. He was a taker. He had a slave mentality and too many of us were his enablers. We didn’t realize then that by supplying his every need every time he asked, we were actually degrading him. We were all so passionate about witnesses a true transformation in his life that we couldn’t see how we were responsible for hindering him from becoming the type of man we were hoping and praying God would cause him to become. My friend couldn’t reach a decision to see himself through God’s eyes and fulfill heaven’s plans for him because we were all too busy being god for him.

Soon enough, we all ran out of the money, patience, and time that funding his slavery required. None of us were willing or able to feed his addiction to handouts long term. Therefore, we were forced to let go and let God deal with our dear brother. Of course he was upset with all of us for a while because we had taught him to depend on us to supply all of his needs (and wants). It wasn’t long, however, before he was working full time, living on his own, and getting to know God for himself. The less we did for him, the more he began to change. In a few short years, my friend became a reliable employee, an excellent tenant, a wonderful father and provider, and a man with profound integrity. Because we stopped holding his hand and moved out of the way, God was able to get hold of his mind and transform his life.

Today, my friend is a middle-aged, married, Christian man who leads his home, provides for his family, and opens his home to people in need. He is a leader in his workplace and in ministry; and he is a financially stable individual who invests in his family’s future. Every now and then I see remnants of the young man I was introduced to so many years ago but overall, he’s an entirely different man today. The enslaved mind that had once been ruled by bad decisions and circumstances is long gone. Not only is my friend paying his own way now, he’s praying his own way too!

Aren’t you thirsty to see someone’s mind change so that their lives can change? Is there someone in your life who needs you to stop being god for them? Are you that someone who needs to stop looking for handouts and seek God for a hand up? We should all be passionate about seeing ourselves and other men and women’s minds and lives change until freedom rings. What are you doing today to help imprisoned minds walk out of the doors of open jail cells and into privilege of God's freedom? What are you doing about the condition of your own mind?

Are You Thirsty?

Have you ever been really, really thirsty? I mean thirsty to the point that if your arch enemy was standing next to you with a flat Diet Coke up to his big, soup-kitchen lips, you’d snatch it out of his hand, throw your head back, and gulp the whole thing down? Have you ever been so thirsty that nothing else would do except a nice, cold glass of water? You didn’t want soda or juice or Kool-Aid or Gatorade…just some good ‘ole water! Life was miserable until you got it, right?

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “Crystal, What are you thirsty for”? In other words, I’m been analyzing my life and my dreams to hone in on my passions. I’ve been assessing my hobbies, my skills, my experiences, and my ambitions. What am I really thirsty for? What am I after? What am I thirsty for in my relationship with myself, God, and others? What lengths am I willing to go to for what I believe? What is it that I am determined to see manifested in my character and in my life? What is it that I absolutely refuse to die without?

In Psalms chapter 42, verses 1 and 2, David expressed his passion with these words:  “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I stand before Him?”

I don’t know about you but there are certain dreams and realities I will not be denied. I am determined to have them. They will come to fruition because I am committed to tenaciously persevering until I have attained them.

What about you? I know that some of you are in tune with your life’s passion…that invisible thing you are striving to achieve, but many are still in search of it.

These are some tough questions, but I’d love to hear what you’ve come to realize about your passions, as well as how you are committing to moving towards them. Will you resolve to have your thirst quenched? Will you experience the living water of dreams fulfilled, or will settle for a dehydrated life that leads to life in a dry place and death to your life’s potential?