Faith Based Investing

What’s in these Games?

Now…that Black Friday is here, Christmas and the gift giving season is officially upon us! My whole mission in life is help others incorporate their values, beliefs, and faith into their spending, giving, savings, and wealth building areas of life. So when I come across information that is helpful in one of these areas, I will pass it along as quickly as I can.

I came across a guide that I thought I would share with everyone. One of the most popular gifts for kids, especially teenagers are video games. For anyone concerned about the content of the video games you or your loved ones may be considering as Christmas gifts, this list will help you achieve a better understanding of some of the most violent and anti-family games available to date.

BASIC GUIDE (Ratings only):
VideoGame-Basic.pdf

GRAPHIC GUIDE (Full graphic description of content):

VideoGame-Graphic.pdf

Thanksgiving is here and we really do have much to be thankful for – living in the greatest country in the world, with an amazing level of comfort and freedom compared with many other places.

When we think of Thanksgiving, images of colonists, Native Americans, peace and goodwill and Plymouth Rock usually come to mind. But there is more to the story, and more to the tradition.

Our American Thanksgiving essentially continues the age-old celebration of the harvest feast, which stretches back as far as 3,000 years. The Jews celebrated the Sukkoth. The Chinese celebrated the Chung Ch’ui. The Greeks and Romans had harvest feasts of their own. The common thread? They were all celebrations of good fortune, gratitude and relief.

Early colonial life was marked by hardship. In 1621, the Massachusetts colonists had endured persistent hunger, and the local Native American community had been decimated by introduced diseases. But the fall of 1621 brought peace, and farming techniques learned from the Native Americans had improved the lives of the colonists. A day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by Governor William Bradford, to be shared by colonists and Native Americans. So Thanksgiving was a day of reflection and appreciation.

Thanksgiving didn’t become an “official” holiday in America until about 250 years later. Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day holiday in 1863, when the country was going through one of its roughest times.

Right now, while the nation is enduring a tough economic time, there is still much to be grateful about. Our quality of life is remarkably high. We come through tough times and solve problems – and we deserve to celebrate.

From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” – Vince Lombardi

This post isn’t about the morality of gambling, but rather about what happens when you come into a windfall of money – whether it is from an inheritance, sale of a business, a big break, or winning the lottery. If you cannot handle money responsibility before you have a windfall, chances are you will not be able to handle money afterwards. What are you doing to prepare? Like the farmer who prepares the field for rain, are you preparing your finances so God can bless you?

Be Careful What You Wish For
Kenneth and Connie Parker were winners of a $25 million jackpot. Their 16-year marriage disintegrated just months after they became rich beyond their wildest dreams.

William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988 but now lives on his $450.00 a month Social Security check after relatives, and an ex-girlfriend tormented him until he invested and shared his millions with them.

The 2002, $314.9 million dollar Powerball winner Jack Whittaker was sued by an Atlantic City casino in 2004 for allegedly writing bad checks from a closed bank account in West Virginia.

Evelyn Adams, who won the $5.4 million dollar New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice in 1985 and again in 1986 gambled most of it away, and is broke today.

Billie Bob Harrell Jr. hit the $37 million dollar Texas jackpot in 1997 only to end his own life less than two years later when he realized that all he wanted his marriage more then the money, but that it was too late to fix the strained marriage. Why was it strained? His spending habits spiraled out of control, and his wife only wanted a normal life which was anything but.

Juan Rodriguez had been thrown out by his wife Iris prior to purchasing a winning New York lottery ticket worth $149 million. She reconciled with him for two weeks, then filed for a divorce taking half of his winnings with her.

Many people wish, dream and pray for a quick fix. My point is fix the problems before asking for more money. We should be very careful about what we wish for as everything comes with a price, including winning the lottery, especially when it involves winning millions of dollars. The actual chances of becoming a multimillion dollar lottery winner are astronomical to begin with, but if it happens or you come into a windfall, miraculous things can happen that will forever change a person’s life, for better or worse.

Even though huge winnings can change a person’s life style dramatically, it is said that if you were happy before winning a huge sum of money, then you will be happy afterwards, but if you were an extremely unhappy person to begin with, winning a multimillion dollar jackpot will change nothing except the size of your bank account. In other words the problems that you had are still lying in wait to rear their ugly head, and the lottery money only temporarily covers up the problems for a brief period.

Experts have looked into the lives of past lottery winners and have learned that not all multimillion dollar winners have a happy ending. A common issue within our society is the belief that money solves most of our problems. Another big problem is the lack of financial guidance when being handed over a large amount of money. In fact nearly one third of multimillion dollar lottery winners become bankrupt in just a few short years after their big win. If you are not accustomed to having great wealth as many of these big lottery winners were not, then the problems that come with suddenly having a lot of money overnight can be so overwhelming that depression becomes inevitable.

Having a solid foundation in your faith, in your relationships, and in your money management habits are critical. Preparing to receive wealth is one of the surest ways to obtain wealth. In The Faith-Based Millionaire, I have identified twelve essential habits that lead to faith-based wealth. Following the bible as a guideline is the surest way to obtain wealth in a way that honors God!

This past Sunday at church, we viewed a video from http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

What a wake up call!  It showed that it would take 10 billion dollars to solve the world’s drinking water problems (one of the world’s leading causes of death) yet Americans spend over $450 Billion per year on Christmas. If you haven’t seen this video, check it out.  

Two ways to change the world this Christmas:

1) Given the difficult economic times we are living in, my wife and I decided to spend less on Christmas this year and give more to our favorite life-changing ministries. 

2) Another idea we are going to take advantage of is: www.tradeasone.com.
This is a place where you can buy gift items (jewelry, toys, coffee, purses, etc) from people in poverty strucken nations. Fair trade allows you to give unique, high-quality gifts to family and friends — while giving hope and income to the poor.   As an ethical purchaser, you help break cycles of poverty in the developing world. Through gifts and everyday purchases, you can use your spending power to make the world more fair.

What are your thoughts?

Will you be Late for the Party?
Imagine someone sent you an invitation to a party. It was a party you could not afford to miss. You received the invitation in the mail, yet it had no date on it, no one to contact, just the place where it was being held. You would have three options:
1) Arrive Early: head to the location immediately and wait to make sure you’d be there when the party started
2) Guess: You could estimate what day the party was and show up when you thought it would start, but risk missing the party.
3) Skip It: You could choose not to go to the party.

What a Year and It’s Still Not Over!
2008 has been a horrible year for investors. Make no mistake about it; we saw the collapse of the housing market, a wide-spread global credit crisis, major corporate bankruptcies, and government interventions. We also watched as energy prices hit record highs to then drop like a brick. We also saw rising food prices, a historical US election, and a $700 billion rescue package in an attempt to necessitate the failing U.S. economy. And the year is not over yet!

The year 2008 is a year many of us would like to forget. As 2008 closes out, what do we have to look forward to in 2009? More of the same? Or will the tides finally change? No one knows for sure. People like Jim Cramer will tell you the next five years is no time to be in the market. I keep hearing, “the sky keeps falling, “the world’s going to end”, “this will never come back”. The pundits and doomsayers keep selling the bad news and many of us are caving in. You may want to sell your stocks, lock-in your losses, and move on to more stable investments. This is precisely the wrong course of action!

The Party Will Be Here Before You Know It!
Staying invested ensures that you will be at the rally party – the point when the market recovers. No one knows when this will occur, but it will happen. It’s better to be early than to not arrive at all. For many, you have lost so much that you cannot afford to miss the party. Do you realize that if you have lost 40% of your investment value in your portfolio, if you move to a CD at 2%, it would take over 25 years to recover?

During down times, you need to be willing to tighten your budget, set aside more savings, and keep putting new money to work in the market. Many great companies are being treated like they have the bubonic plague. Even better, there is a select group of companies picking up market share, streamlining their businesses, and putting themselves in great positions to earn super-sized profits down the line. Will you reap the reward? Not if you get out and miss the party!

If we can just be patient as the economy sorts itself out, we will see our country can recover. The Great Depression eventually ended, the savings and loan crisis came to a halt, and life went on after the technology blow-up in the early 2000s, and the world carried on after Sept. 11th. While each of those events generated significant panic, what each event had in common was they presented a very good time to buy stocks.  Don’t miss the party!  RSVP Today!

A lot of people really enjoy cakes. Me, however, I have always been a pie guy – apple, blueberry, lemon meringue, coconut pie. You name it, if it’s in a pie, I’ll eat it- within reason, of course. My wife, on the other hand, rarely likes pie, but loves cake. A good cake has some key ingredients. If you look at most cake recipes: Two of the main ingredients include eggs and flour. You can attempt to substitute these ingredients, but in most cases you sacrifice the taste. With money management, if you miss one of the main ingredients, it can be much more of a disaster. Let’s look at one of the most important factors in dealing with finances.

Honesty
The first key ingredient is honesty. Proverbs 21:6 makes this quite clear:
“A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”

If we are dishonest in our business practices, our financial matters, work life, and other ways we acquire wealth, we may may obtain wealth, but risk having it all wash away. Matthew 16:26 helps us sort this out: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When Dave came to see me, the look on his face told the whole story. He looked like he had the wind knocked right out of him. “Jay, I should have listened to you. Years ago when you gave me advice, I never listened, now this.” Dave’s financial advisor, Brad had attempted to hang himself after it was discovered he had stolen tens of millions of dollars from his clients. Dave, who had most of his life savings with Brad “the Northshore Swindler”, awoke to the news that he would probably never see much, if any of that money again. Lives were set in chaos because of the greed and lack of honesty that Brad took in his business. Like a house of cards, the whole thing came crashing down. Brad also lost everything: his wife, his radio station, his mansions, cars, and his freedom. He is now in prison for at least 20 years. Was it worth it? No amount of money is worth it when it comes at a price.

We need to be honest in all of our financial dealings: in our businesses, in the workplace, and in our financial transactions. Honest profits make good profits. Make it a top priority to be honest with your fellow workers, your customers, and those you interact with you on business and personal matters.

I wrote The Faith-Based Millionaire to help people obtain wealth in an honest, faith-based manner so they can experience financial freedom and give more to help God’s people who are poor and struggling.  My prayer is that this book be used as a tool to change minds, hearts, and wallets for God’s glory!  Please spread the word about this book and site.

Here are a few questions to ponder:

What are some areas of your financial life where you were not completely honesty?

What effect did this lack of honesty have on those involved? On you?

How could you have done things differently?

photo credit: thedabble

“But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” –C.S. Lewis

“If you suffer, thank God! — it is a sure sign that you are alive.” –Elbert Hubbard

How often do we seem to be between a rock and a hard place? We seemed to be pinned against the wall. All hope is lost. You are overdrawn on the checking account, the credit cards are maxed. It is a struggle to make ends meet. Or you are about to retire and the stock market collapsed, delaying your plans for years. Any number of financial circumstances can appear to be a disaster. There seems to be a growing sense of doubt. However, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. There is always hope in Christ. He can help you no matter where you are. You just need to let go and place your trust in him.

Peter always had a dream of being a dentist. The thought of helping people maintain, repair, and protect their teeth, seemed like a noble and rewarding path. He did research, talked to people he knew in the profession, searched for schools, then made his careful calculated decision to pursue dental school – a minimum 8 year commitment. He knew the cost of school was going to be incredible – deep into six figures, but the starting salary and future income potential would take care of itself.

As much research and homework as he did, Peter could not prepare himself for the incredible letdown that was ahead. In his third year of dental school, he wanted to quit. He did not like his school, his professors, or even the material he was learning. The process, procedure, and life applications became dull and meaningless to him. He lost focus on his early dreams when he found they had no substance. What really drove him into the profession? He searched and searched and found the answer was money and the approval of his dad. This was his dad’s dream, not his.

After a lengthy discussion with his dad who drove over 500 miles to personally consult with Peter, It was demanded that he finish what he started. So, Peter reluctantly, continued school. The desire and will to drop out of school continued year after year. He finally finished his dental program and entered the “real world” knowing he wasgoin g to take “a job” that he despised.

His great financial dilemma suddenly appeared: with over $300,000 of school loans and payments resembling a large mortgage payment, Peter need a high paying job. The only solution he saw was to work in the dental field for enough time to pay the loans off. He estimated it would take approximately 8-10 years. With this in mind, he loathed work. It was like a prison cell. He would often become physically sick over his new life. But little did he know his dream job was right around the corner. While reading a dental trade magazine, Peter found an article on ways to maximize the value of his practice to sell to other dentists. He figured out that if he worked hard for 2-3 years ad marketed his practice and created a consistent income he could get out of debt more quickly and move on to a new passion. He found that he liked working with other dentists and loved coaching. Three years as a dentist and Peter sold his business, paid off his school loans, and now provides coaching to other dentists. He is loving life! In this new journey, Peter finds hope, strength, and inspiration. The Lord does provide! He may be preparing you for the next chapter of your life!

Passage Deuteronomy 4:30:
When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you, in the latter days you will turn to the Lord your God and be obedient to His voice.

Where is your financial dilemma?

How have you overcome past financial dilemmas?

What changes could you make to improve your situation today?