January Finance Tip

Wise Stewards Finance Tip

In his April 2004 Conference talk entitled Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin outlines five key steps to financial freedom. This month we’ll look at:

· First, pay your tithing.

· Second, spend less than you earn.

· Third, learn to save.

· Fourth, honor your financial obligations.

· Fifth, teach your children to follow your example.

It’s a new year! What a great time to get a new start! As you work on your resolutions for this year, don’t leave the kids out. Share your goals with the family. You’ll be more likely to achieve them if someone else is watching. Better yet, make family goals this year. Make it a goal to save up for something fun or important and let each family member do their part to help. Little ones can save their pennies too and feel like they’ve done something very important.

Discuss tithing in family home evening and share your progress with each other every week. This is a perfect opportunity to share your testimony of the importance of tithing and the blessings received from Heavenly Father from paying it. Your example is the most important thing you can show your kids to help them develop healthy habits. This can include healthy eating and exercise, scripture reading and prayer, and yes - money habits. Being open and honest about the rewards and consequences of your money habits and developing good habits will bless your children’s lives for years to come. If you don’t have children or they’ve grown and gone, you can share goals with others around you. We can all benefit from a good example and we can all use encouragement from each other.

You Have the Choice: Your Path to Financial Freedom

In General Conference of October 2010, President Monson spoke to the brethren about The Three R’s of Choice. Wise council from a prophet can be applied to all areas of our lives and to all who are willing to listen. President Monson referred to Alice in Wonderland where Alice asks the Cheshire cat, “Which path shall I follow?” The cat answers, “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which path you take.” President Monson comments, “Unlike Alice, we all know where we want to go, and it does matter which way we go, for by choosing our path, we choose our destination. Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed – the courage to say no, the courage to say yes.”

We all want to reach a destination of financial freedom where we no longer have to worry about money and where money, or the lack of, is not the dominating force in all of our decisions. In order to do that we have to set realistic goals and have the courage to say no, or yes, to those important decisions in how we manage our resources. President Monson reminds us that “Each of us has come to this earth with all the tools necessary to make correct choices. The prophet Mormon tells us, ‘The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.’ ” We have all the resources we need to be able to make correct choices. We have access to the Spirit. As we are righteous, obedient and prayerful,the Lord will guide us in the paths that we should take – and that includes the path to financial freedom.

With that in mind, and the beginning of the New Year, it’s a good time to assess your financial health and set or re-evaluate your financial goals. Remember how important it is to make specific and realistic goals, both short term and long term. One of your goals may be to have the funds for a family vacation, but if you don’t have an emergency fund or are struggling to pay the monthly bills, a more realistic goal may be to build up your $1000 emergency fund. So, here’s a brief summary of some steps that you can take on your path to financial freedom.

• Pay Your Tithing
• Create a Budget: Stick to it and Review it
• $1000 Emergency Fund
• Get out of Debt!
• Expand Your Emergency Fund (3-6 months living expenses)
• Fund Your Retirement
• Prepare for Upcoming Events (car, mission, college)
• Save for Your Dreams

Also keep in mind that financial goals should be set as couples and as a family. Everyone that contributes to the decision making can also contribute to the decision keeping, so involve all members of the family that are mature enough to contribute. Having the support of our families and the Lord by involving them in our decisions will help us on our path to financial freedom.

Teaching Your Children How to Save - part 1

Saving money is a hard concept to learn, especially for a young child. I remember hearing often as a child the phrase ‘that money is burning a hole in your pocket’. Thankfully, my parents were able to teach me to save my money and I don’t hear that phrase anymore. As parents, we have a very important responsibility to teach our children to save and prepare them for a stable financial future. With examples to follow and the knowledge we give them, hopefully our children will be prepared to be financially responsible by the time they are young adults.

Teaching our children to save their money is one of the best things (besides the gospel) that we can pass on to our children to prepare them for the future. But how do we do it? Here are a few tips that may assist you in teaching your children to save:

First of all, Start Young. Any child who can hold money can spend it (or save it). The earlier you start, the easier it is to make it a habit and life-long practice. But it is never too late to teach your children, even your grown children, about saving.

Second, Make it FUN. If it’s fun, your child will do it, do it without you telling them to and probably remind you to do it too. Find some fun money banks that interest your child and will make saving fun. Be excited when your child earns money and can put it in their own money bank. My 2 year old loves to find money to drop into his bank. And along with that, find a fun way for them to save and pay their tithing. My kids have a separate jar for tithing and love filling out and turning in their own tithing slips.

Along with making it fun, your child is also never too young to have a savings account. Many banks and credit unions have special savings accounts, CDs, etc available to young savers. Sometimes the interest rates are better, they have lower minimum amounts and also offer incentives to young children or youth for saving. Let the bank or credit union help you make it fun to save. Take a ‘field trip’ to the bank to deposit their money. The more fun it is, the more they will want to do it.

Third, Set Goals. If your child is saving just because you tell them they need to, it’s not very fun or exciting for them. Discuss with your child what they are saving for. Elder Marvin J. Ashton wrote in the One for the Money pamphlet, “‘Save your money’ is a hollow pronouncement from a parent to a child. ‘Save your money for a mission, bicycle, doll house, trousseau, or car’ makes understandable sense.” If they have a reachable goal, then they are more likely to understand the benefits of saving and begin the habit of saving for their wants.

Your child may need to be reminded of those goals on a regular basis. How often have your children, or even you, been tempted to purchase something small like a candy bar while waiting in the check-out line? If your children know that those impulse buys have to be bought themselves and that it will take that much longer to save for their goal, then they (and you) are more likely to save for what really matters.

Related Ensign Articles for more reference and tips:
Margo Johnson, “Lessons of an Allowance,” Ensign, Sept. 1996, 71

Marvin K. Gardner, “Staying Prepared,” Ensign, Feb 1979, 24

Jenniev J. Poulson and John R. Christiansen, “Can Children Learn to Manage Money?,” Ensign, Jan 1971, 57

Kay Przybille, “Stretching Your Dollars,” Ensign, Jun 2009, 36–37

New Year's Resolutions

It’s the start of a new year and with that comes the tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions. When you are making your resolutions and setting your goals, don’t forget your finances. Financial goals are just as important! Maybe you have already made your financial goals and instituted a plan for achieving them. If that’s the case – congratulations! Now would be a good time to review your goals and check your progress. If you feel at a complete loss – here are some ideas for financial goals:

Build your emergency fund: a good target is 3-6 months of living expenses, but start with just a month if that is too overwhelming.

Dump your debt: start paying as much as you can afford on your lowest debt amount. When that is paid off, use that amount to pay off the next largest debt.

Save for that future expense: don’t forget your car, washing machine, etc (you name it) doesn’t last forever. If you know that yours is getting close to the end, save for the next one so you can pay cash!

Plan for retirement, college, vacations: Determine what is important to your family and make a plan to pay for it!

Create and live by your budget: if you don’t have one, make a goal to create your budget and then use it.

The key is to prioritize your goals, make a plan, stick to it and review your plan periodically. Just as with any goal, it won’t get accomplished if you don’t set the goal, write it down and review your progress. Good Luck!