Finances... UG!
[ Posted by Maggie Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:42:42 GMT ]
Here’s a topic that most of us don’t like dealing with, our finances. Well we have some things going on right now that are requiring us to take a deeper look at our finances. Our first step in our current situation was realizing that we needed help.
John has some co workers that have a financial adviser that they recommend so we made an appointment. We were relieved to know that this wouldn’t cost us more money! He waives his right to charge a fee and asks for referrals instead. (If anyone is interested I’d be more than happy to pass his info on.) We enjoyed talking to him and were pleased with his finance philosophy. He said that he wouldn’t put us in any situation that he wouldn’t put his own family in in our circumstance, and he has 3 little ones who he obviously dotes on. :)
After talking to him we were feeling pretty confident, we had a lot of things in place that he said we all should have. Things like life insurance, a will/trust, emergency fund with 3+ months salary (not quite there yet, but working towards it), etc. But then he gave us homework. He wanted us to do a budget report of last month’s spending. Well this morning I printed out bank statements and started adding. OUCH! I’m not going to share with you my findings.
This was a wake up call for us, finances are something you need to be attentive of 100% of the time, no sticking to a budget one month and then slacking off the next. The Lord has given us many resources that we are to be good stewards of. I’m thankful that we have someone that will work with us to get on more stable ground (not that we’re in dire trouble, just not where we would like to be).
So here’s a question for you, how are you being a good steward of your finances? If you’re in charge of them, are you being diligent? If your hubby is, how are you making that money stretch? I realized that I spend much more money on groceries than I thought. Any ideas on how to reduce that? I already shop in bulk, visit a few stores, plan meals, make a list and usually do a good job at sticking to it.
