Friday Finance Round Up – “I’m Still Here” Edition

Yes, I’m still here, alive and doing well. 

I haven’t posted in a while, but I do have a valid reason! 

I’ve been working behind the scenes on a brand new Redeeming Riches site with a complete redesign!

The scheduled launch is Monday – barring any major obstacles!  I’m really excited to get back to providing content on a regular basis on a whole new platform. 

Keep your eye out for the new Redeeming Riches on Monday. 

As for now, here is a round-up of this week’s can’t miss content from around the web!

52 Ways to Make Extra Money – PT Money

Phil provides a link to his most popular post in a downloadable e-book format.

Personal Finance Doesn’t Absolve Personal Responsibility – FiscalGeek

Paul describes the faulty views that’s so easy to fall prey to including blaming others for our financial mess.  Realizing that personal finance is our responsibility goes a long way in getting the focus off of others and back on ourselves so we can do the things necessary to get ahead.

How Much Interest am I Paying on Debt Each Month – Debt Free Adventure

What’s cool about Matt Jabs is that he is willing to open up his financial situation to you and give you an inside look at the progress he’s making.  It’s motivating and inspirational to see his commitment to get out of debt and get in control of his personal finances.

Elements of a Financial Check Up – Personal Dividends

Check ups are vital for your physical health to spot any problems before they turn into major issues.  They also serve your financial health well also.  Miranda shares some tips on things to keep in mind for your regular check ups.

Have a great weekend and I hope to see you at the NEW Redeeming Riches on Monday!!

Why You Need a Larger View of Your Money (And So Do I)!

This past weekend at my church, my pastor, Steve Dewitt,  passed on some spiritual lessons he learned while on a recent trip to China.

He shared a story of a conversation he had with a pastor of an underground Christian church.

Steve asked this man about the persecution for being caught as a Christian in China – the pastor responded with joy as he mentioned it’s not as bad as it used to be.  He said:

Not long ago, you would’ve been sent to prison for the rest of your life, but now it’s only for a year or two!

Sent to prison for being a Christian for a year or two?  It’s not as bad as it used to be?

As a Christian living in America – the land of the free – I cannot fathom what worshipping in secret for fear of being caught would be like.

I’m thankful for all the freedoms we have here in America; but there is one major thing to note about these Chinese Christians – they have real, authentic passion for Jesus Christ that is lacking in many of us here in North America.

You can’t worship God without passion if there is the realistic possibility that you’ll be thrown in prison for your faith!  

What This Has to Do With Money

Chinese Christians are generally poor – yet they are passionate, generous and faithful.

In fact, Steve mentioned one person he met there whose annual salary is about what you or I would pay for our cell phones in a year! 

All too often we (I) get consumed with our (my) own personal finances that I forget about the grander scheme of things :

– there are others who are getting thrown into prison because they are Christians.

– there are others in the world and even in my community who are without proper food, clothing and shelter.

– there are others, who despite having only some – or even none – of the luxuries that I have, are passionate for Jesus and who find their greatest joy in Him and not in material possessions.

I know what I need – and perhaps you do too – I need a shift in perspective!

I need to realize that my village is small, God is big and He’s doing mighty works for the gospel.

I need to realize that I am the one who is poor, not the Chinese Christians.

It’s not all about me – it’s all about Him!

I pray that God would transform our hearts so that we have a larger view of our money and can therefore be more generous, more faithful, more passionate, receive more joy and ultimately bring greater glory to Him!

Friday Finance Round Up – October 16, 2009

If you haven’t yet, consider staying current with Redeeming Riches by receiving my posts FREE through email or RSS Feeds here.  Also, follow me on Twitter here.

Friday Finance Round Up is a weekly post that includes interesting articles and blog posts on money found during the week from across the web.

1. How God Worked in the Life Of One Debt Free Blogger: A Testimonial – Bible Money Matters

Awesome story of freedom from debt and sin from former atheist Brad Chafee who runs the Enemy of Debt blog.

 

2. Roth Mania – JoeTaxpayer

Joe takes a look at the Roth IRA conversion hype that’s been going around.  I, for one, am a big fan of Roth IRAs, but I agree there has been over hyping going on.

 

3. Dow Jones Hits 10,000 – So What? – Financial Highway

What a week for the markets!  Ray takes a look at whether the Dow hitting 10,000 is merely a psychological boost or if it has any significance in this market recovery.  

 

This Week’s Links

• 7 Ways to Make Your Money Go Further was included in Lazy Man and Money‘s Personal Finance Links

 

• Do You Make These 4 Common 401k Mistakes was featured at the Paragon Wealth Management blog.

 

• How to Protect Your Important Documents was included in Christian PF‘s interesting links for the week.

How to Protect Your Important Documents

If you haven’t yet, consider staying current with Redeeming Riches by receiving my posts FREE through email or RSS Feeds here.  Also, follow me on Twitter here.

 

 

This is a guest post from Jay Scott over at jinij.com the personal finance for dummies blog.

 

 

Wouldn’t you agree it’s easy to forget the simple things in personal finance?

Many of us spend a lot of time keeping our finances in order, making sure we have enough saved for retirement, sacrificing to keep our budget on track and working hard to make a comfortable life for our families.

But sometimes we forget to do the obvious and protect the valuable papers we work so hard to acquire.

Unfortunately, a disaster can happen any time and destroy many of the things we’ve worked hard for.  It can happen to anyone so we should be ready at all times.

It is a real part of life and many families end up in all kinds of legal battles because important papers got burned or washed away.

If you do not already have your records in a safe place you should make it a priority to safeguard them from disaster.

You will have enough on your mind trying to find a safe place for your family after a disaster; knowing your finances are still in good order will give you less to worry about.

It will be much easier to deal with the insurance company if you have copies of your insurance documents.

Here is a list of things you can do to help prevent the loss of important financial records:

Have Copies of important documents:

Fire, flood, theft and just plain mistakes can cause untold damage to your financial records. Having copies in your home and keeping the originals in a safe place can save you from a huge headache.

Make sure you state clearly on the copies that they are copies and not the originals and also note where the originals can be found. It is also recommended when making the copies to do so with the staples intact to preserve validity of the originals.

Protection from natural disasters:

Another precaution is to safeguard the papers you have to keep at home, to protect them from the elements.

A fire retardant safe is a great investment and can be purchased at any office supply store for around $50.

You should keep your important documents such as Insurance cards, Birth Certificates, Social Security Cards, tax papers and anything else of importance.

Digitizing and storing:

With today’s technology you can store digital copies of your documents on CDs, thumb drives and other portable digital storage devices.

You can even store not-so important documents on your personal area of Google documents. This is a great way to keep your finances organized and will make it very easy for you to make copies when you need to.

There are even web based personal financial managers such as mint.com that tracks and stores your financial information automatically.

With a little effort we can take some preventive measures to protect ourselves.

It may take some time to get it all done, but compared to the years it might take to get it all back in order, that time is insignificant.

We all hope for the best, but being prepared for the worst can save you time and money after a disaster.

Friday Finance Round Up – October 9, 2009

If you haven’t yet, consider staying current with Redeeming Riches by receiving my posts FREE through email or RSS Feeds here.  Also, follow me on Twitter here.

 

Friday Finance Round Up is a weekly post that includes interesting articles and blog posts on money found during the week from across the web.

The US Government’s Credit Score – Loans and Credit

This is a scary look at what Uncle Sam’s credit score would look like if we could rate it!

 

Investing and Money Rules of Thumb – Financial Highway

Great post by Financial Highway for those looking for some rules of thumb to start out with.

 

10 Attributes of the Perpetually Broke – Bible Money Matters

Pete offers some telling signs of those who always seem to be having financial difficulty.  The last one was particularly insightful.

 

Weekly Links

This past week was a good one for links.  Here’s a look at what went on:

• Do You Recognize These 5 Roadblocks to Reaching Your Financial Goals was included in Evolution of Wealth’s Sunday Link Rodeo and at Joe TaxPayer’s “Reading My Fellow Finance Writers” round up.

 

• 5 Ways to Win the Race to Retirement was included in One Money Design’s Weekly Round Up and also included in Buck$ome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement round up.

 

• How to Save (Potentially) Thousands by Spending $3.99 was included in the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights hosted by Financial Highway

 

• Should You Buy Accidental Death Insurance was included at Fiscal Geek’s Thursday Round Up

 

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