Christmas Is Not Your Birthday

Post written by Aaron Bouwens.

photo courtesy of George Eastman House’s

Last year while at a conference at Ginghamsburg UMC in Ohio, I was introduced to the concept of Christmas is not your birthday. Instantly I fell in love and lead our congregation through the process of celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Since I have already seen commercials and other advertisements for this year, I thought it was time to get moving. What if we reduced the consumer within us all, while at the same time made it possible for others to simply live?

Gandhi is credited with saying we must live simply so that others might simply live. Have you ever noticed the abundance in which we live? Right now I have a friend from Uganda visiting in the States. When askes about his experience in Wegmans his conclusion is we have much in the United States. In that Wegmans there was more food stockpiled than most Ugandan villages will see in the next year, and three miles away there is another Wegmans. What if we began to live more simply, consuming less, so that others might benefit from our abundance? What might it look like to live simply so that others might simply life at Christmas time?

Step one is to reduce the amount we spend consuming the commercial Christmas. Less on presents, less on parties, just simply less. While some tell me lobster is really yummy, not a fan, do we really need it at the party? Do we need all the decorations? Do we need a tree? Simply spend less money on stuff that will pass.

Step two is to match what you spend in a missional gift. Dollar for dollar give to a missional organization what you have spent on all the Christmas stuff. It is not a time for us to get presents, rather it is time to give presents in the name of the birthday boy Jesus. This can be to a local shelter, food pantry, or missionaries. Lat year our church invested in a mission in Kenya educating and feeding hundreds of children daily. This year we will be raising the funds to send a shipping container to Uganda. In this container will be resources and supplies for rural, bush, pastors to further reveal the kingdom of God to the people of Africa.

Step three is actually more difficult than the first two. Don’t stop when the new year hits. Continue to live simply so that others might simply live. Give gifts to others in the name of Jesus all year. Form a lifestyle of generosity, where we celebrate the work of God all the time.

As you begin to look ahead to the Christmas seasons, I encourage everyone to consider how they are consuming. There are people all over the world who live annually on what we consume in a day. The last thing we need is more stuff this Christmas. Join me in remembering Christmas is not your birthday. If you are interested in joining in with us on the shipping container, send me an email and I will get you all the details.

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Upromise: Free Money for College

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Upromise is a very easy way to save money for college. There are several ways in which you can save money, and the great thing is that, you don’t even have to think about it. Once you sign up and register your credit cards (don’t worry it’s safe), you just go about your normal spending habits and save money.

Here’s how it works. Basically you register your credit cards, shoppers club cards, etc., for any company that is part of the Upromise program. When you buy certain products or eat at eligible restaurants, a portion of the purchase price will be deposited into your Upromise account. It’s that easy.

Amy and I have been doing it for probably about 6 years and we have $300 in our account. Now maybe you were expecting more money, but again, we signed up 6 years ago and I forgot about it until I received a recent email statement. The great thing is that I haven’t done anything different in these last six years to try to help Upromise. In fact, I should probably have a lot more, because for about half the time I forgot to update Upromise with my new debit cards we receive routinely from the bank.

Another great feature is that you can have family and friends sign up as well. For example, your parents can create their own Upromise account and pass their savings on to your little one.

What if you don’t have a child yet? Are your kids already through college? Doesn’t matter, you can still start saving now, and then when you do have kids or grandkids, you can move that savings into a 529 plan that can be used for their college expenses.

I’ve spent probably about 1 hour on the last six years on Upromise signing up, and registering new cards. That has earned me $300. I suppose if I spent a little more time actively finding places to spend my money that support Upromise, I’d have much more, but I like the idea of not having to do anything extra to earn free money.

Check it out – it will certainly be worth your time.

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Learning from my Best and Worst Purchases

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of Normann Copenhagen

I’ve learned a lot about value from the material things that I’ve purchased in my life. There are several principles that stand out. Here is a list of the best and worst purchases I’ve made…

My Worst Purchases

• The Warranty on my first several vehicles: I never used them, or at least not enough to even pay for the cost of the warranty.

• My First Vehicle: My first major vehicle purchase after getting a full time job was a Ford Expedition. It broke down many times and was a gas guzzler.

• Inexpensive but Cheap Clothes: I’ve purchased a lot of clothes in the past that I found on clearance or from cheaper retail stores like Walmart, that I end up never wearing.

photo courtesy of andrew_cosand

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Save $$ at Local Restaurants

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

Restaurant.com is a great way to save some money the next time you go out. Their website offers a very easy to use search feature. Just punch in your zip code and bring up a list of local restaurants that are offering decent savings of your bill.

Common Gift cards seem to be:

• A $10 Gift Card for $3
• A $25 Gift Card for $10

Convenient Printing: As soon as you purchase your Gift Certificate with any Major Credit Card or Paypal, you can print it out immediately.

Beware of the Catch: At first glance it is an incredible deal. But be sure to check out the restrictions. Many of the restaurants only allow you to use the gift card with a minimum purchase. So instead of saving $7 when you spend $10, you are saving $7 when you spend $25.

If you’re dining out anyways: Why not save a few bucks. If you know you’ll spend the minimum purchase price limit the restaurant has, then it takes just a few minutes to purchase and print. It’s certainly worth checking if one of your favorite local restaurants are listed. My wife is always amazed that simply handing someone a piece of paper can save you money ($7 in this case).

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Emergency Fund: Quest for the Best Online Bank Account

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of .jo.hardell.

We’ve been following the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover program and are on Baby Step #3 – fully funding our emergency fund. The first step is to save up $1000 emergency fund. Step two is pay off all of your debt (not including your mortgage) and step thee is saving up three to six month’s worth of expenses as your full emergency fund.

Available but not too Easy. You want to have your Emergency fund some place where you can get to it when you need it, but not someplace where you can take money out on a whim. Making it slightly inconvenient will help prevent those impulsive moments when you find a great deal on a Disney Vacation package and it suddenly becomes an emergency that your family sees Mickey.

Going Online. We could easily have created another sub account in our local bank, but it would be all too easy to transfer funds over to our existing checking account. So we decided that a separate online bank account was the way to go.

Most bang for your buck. There are two ways that you can earn money when signing up for an online bank account. The first is, obviously, interest. And interest rates are pretty crappy right now. I did some research on all of the most popular FDIC insured online banks and they are all running about the same. The highest rate I could find (with a bank I feel comfortable with) was 2.25% from a bank called Ally (formerly GMAC). The second way you can earn money is from a signing bonus or referral bonus. The best program I came across was ING Direct’s refer a friend program. ING Direct, however, has an interest rate of 1.5%.

Earn up to $525. With ING Direct’s refer a friend program, you simply have someone who already has an account refer you and you’ll get an email on how to sign up. When you do sign up, you’ll receive a $25 bonus and your friend who referred you will receive $10. You can refer up to 50 people.

Bonus vs. Interest. So the key comes down to determining if you will make more money from the difference in interest rates (2.25% vs. 1.5%) and the bonuses from signing up and referring friends. We are going to start out with $5000 and using the Savings Calculator on Ally’s website, I determined how much interest we would earn in a year from the two banks. Ally (2.25%) would earn us $114 in interest from our $5000 and ING Direct (1.5%) would earn us $76 in interest. That’s a difference of $38. However, that’s where ING Direct’s refer-a-friend program comes in. I would get $25 right away for signing up and then another $10 per friend that I refer. So as long as I can refer two friends (giving me $45) I would earn more than the difference in interest.

Best of both worlds. I figure, why not sign up with ING Direct and earn as much as I can from referrals and when I have helped out as many friends as I can (earning me $10 each for my thoughtful acts) then I would transfer that money over to Ally and earn the better percentage rate on my savings.

Keep it rolling. Another idea is that once you have a fair amount of money saved up, say $15,000, then divide it into thirds. Place one third of your emergency fund into a 6 month CD. Then in three months place another third into a 6 month CD, and that would leave one third always available in case you did have an emergency. But it would also allow you to earn a little more interest on your money.

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Do you qualify for the $8000 Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers?

Post written by Steve Otto. Follow me on Twitter.

photo courtesy of AMagill

We just recently refinanced our house and when my wife posted that as her status on Facebook it created quite a buzz. Quite a few people asked if we took advantage of the $8000 tax credit. There seems to be several interpretations as to who qualifies for the $8000 tax credit and a few theories on how to beat the system.

Here are some answers to a few common FAQs concerning the Tax Credit, taken from FederalHousingTaxCredit.com

1. Who is eligible to claim the tax credit?
First-time home buyers purchasing any kind of home—new or resale—are eligible for the tax credit. To qualify for the tax credit, a home purchase must occur on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. For the purposes of the tax credit, the purchase date is the date when closing occurs and the title to the property transfers to the home owner.

2. What is the definition of a first-time home buyer?
The law defines “first-time home buyer” as a buyer who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase. For married taxpayers, the law tests the homeownership history of both the home buyer and his/her spouse.

For example, if you have not owned a home in the past three years but your spouse has owned a principal residence, neither you nor your spouse qualifies for the first-time home buyer tax credit. However, unmarried joint purchasers may allocate the credit amount to any buyer who qualifies as a first-time buyer, such as may occur if a parent jointly purchases a home with a son or daughter. Ownership of a vacation home or rental property not used as a principal residence does not disqualify a buyer as a first-time home buyer.

3. How is the amount of the tax credit determined?
The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.

4. Are there any income limits for claiming the tax credit?
Yes. The income limit for single taxpayers is $75,000; the limit is $150,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return. The tax credit amount is reduced for buyers with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $75,000 for single taxpayers and $150,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return. The phaseout range for the tax credit program is equal to $20,000. That is, the tax credit amount is reduced to zero for taxpayers with MAGI of more than $95,000 (single) or $170,000 (married) and is reduced proportionally for taxpayers with MAGIs between these amounts.

The biggest area of confusion seems to be with defining ownership within the past three years. Don’t confuse owning a home with purchasing a home. If you purchased your home 10 years ago, but have lived in it (and owned it) for the past ten years, then you were a homeowner for the past three years.

Another area of confusion is if the current home is in only one of the spouses names. Bottom line – it doesn’t matter. Even if the husband and wife file separate returns, it doesn’t matter. As explained here ,if you are married and one or both of you owned a home within the past three years – you do not qualify as a first time home buyer.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, Realtor, financial adviser, or mortgage expert. But I am pretty good at researching information on Google. Ubervice and Steve Otto are not responsible for any decisions you make based on this information. You should always consult an appropriate professional for more accurate information and guidance.

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Budget Master [Free Software]

Budget Master 1.0: This is an excel spreadsheet to help you create your monthly budget. Download the file and save the original. I would recommend copying this file to a new one for each month. For example, in January you will copy it to January2009Budget.xls. Your budget should be flexible enough to change each month. Don’t create a one time budget and expect it to never change. Follow the tabs at the bottom and use the tooltips to walk through creating your budget.
Budget Master 1.0

Disclaimer: Ubervice and Steve Otto are not responsible for any errors or mistakes in the excel spreadsheet. Excel is required to use the Budget Master program. You may post questions or comments but support is not guaranteed.

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Books on Careers and Finding Your next Job

I’m hesitant to write an article sharing these resources, because I believe the media has instilled a huge amount of fear in all of us and has made our economy to sound much worse than it really is.

The last thing I want is for this to be just another article that puts thoughts in your head that our economy is horrible and add to the doom and gloom. To get some actual statistics on how we are really doing check out Dave Ramsey’s Town Hall for Hope.

[48 days is one I have personally read and recommend -
it's also in our UberStore]

Having said that, if you are someone who has been laid off or you simply would like to work towards a new career, here are some books I came across on Amazon worth reading:

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Town Hall for Hope [Update]

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Dave Ramsey’s event Town Hall for Hope last night was enlightening. If you missed it you can go here to see how you can watch the event. Dave spoke for about 30 minutes about what is really going on in the economy and then answered a lot of questions that you may be thinking.

I’d like to touch on a few of the highlights and information that Dave pointed out.

Government: One of Dave’s main points is that the government is not going to fix this situation. He provided a terrific historical background of how the economy and the government faced similar situations in the past and the government’s involvement is not the answer. One of my favorite quotes from Dave was this:

Bush tried to bail out stupid and now the current administration is trying to stimulate stupid.

Perspective: Dave Ramsey shared some statistics to put things into perspective. Here are a few:

Before we entered this ‘recession’ our unemployment rate was at 5%
The current unemployment rate is at 8.5%
That is a difference of 3.5%
A recent poll showed that 47% of Americans are afraid they may lose their job.
So only 3.5% of American’s have lost their jobs, but half of all Americans are AFRAID.

60% of foreclosures occurred in only five states.
50% of foreclosures occurred in 45 counties.
These foreclosures are happening in very specific areas.
Again – most Americans have a fear (which is coming from the media) that our economy is in a horrible state – and we are losing hope.

Dave’s Challenge:
For those of you who are struggling with Hope – here are three things you can do.

1. Get up and take action. When you get moving, a lot of good things happen. Much more than sitting on the couch watching Opera re-runs. Your best chance at success is you.

2. Don’t participate in loser talk. If you hang out with losers, you will become one. This may mean that you need to turn off the news.

3. We need to learn to give again. Find some ways to give. Something amazing happens to not only the recipient, but also you as the giver when you give of your time and money.

Town Hall for Hope Resources:

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Dish Network – Lowering my monthly bill by $21

Dish Network Customers –

I made a quick phone call and saved $21 off of our Dish Network monthly fee:

Removed the warranty…………………..$5.95
Removed the ‘Platinum HD Pkg’……….$10.00
Removed the $5 monthly phone fee…..$5.00

The warranty doesn’t really do much for us. If anything large breaks, we are not locked into a contract, and I would simply cancel our service.

We found we were being charged for a Platinum HD pkg, which we never signed up for. It sounds like they split our original HD pkg into two separate packages and we were being charged $10 for the Platinum package which includes programs like HD Fishing that we never watch (or even knew we were being charged extra for).

Finally, we are charged $5 a month because we don’t have our Dish Receiver hooked up to a phone line. I explained that we don’t have a home phone (only cell phones) and they were nice enough to permanently remove the monthly fee.

If you use Dish Satellite, it’s worth a quick call to possibly lower your monthly bill by up to $21.

Non-Dish Network Customers -

If you are not using Dish Satellite, I believe they offer the cheapest solution for HD programming and DVR. I often contact Time Warner and Direct TV to compare, and they usually average about $20-30 more per month for their similar service.

My only complaint about Dish Network is that they do not have High Def locals in the Rochester area – only Standard Def locals. However, I use my ClearStream4 HD Antenna to pick them up for free. My HD Antenna cable plugs right into my Dish Network receiver so the HD locals show up right in the programming guide.

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Town Hall for Hope with Dave Ramsey

Town Hall for Hope

Connect with families across the nation for a truly radical message: HOPE.

Tired of hearing the fear, doom and gloom that’s filling the airwaves? Join Dave Ramsey for a nationwide town hall meeting and discover what’s happening with the economy, how we got here, and where we’re going. Plus, Dave will answer your questions live throughout the event!

Join Dave Ramsey for this free event April 23 at 8:00 p.m. EDT in one of the thousands of venues across the country as we stand together to reignite the fire of hope! Learn more.

Find out where you can attend this FREE event here.

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Is suspending raises simply the thing to do?

Alright, so we are in a recession, right? Well, technically no. We are not. As Dave Ramsey shares in his article Recession-Proof Yourself:

By definition, a recession doesn’t happen until the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers—how you measure the number of goods made and sold in the USA—goes down for 6 consecutive months. Even though the economy has slowed, it’s no reason to completely freak out and think the world is going to collapse. Don’t let the talking heads on the nightly news make you emotional and cause you to freak out about the economy. If you let your emotions dictate your actions, you’re going to be broke your whole life.

Thoughts on Suspending Raises: Many of my family and friends have shared that their company is suspending raises and/or a company 401(k) match. In fact, I’ve experienced that my self at my company. Raises AND 401(k) match have been suspended for one year because my company anticipates a difficult year.

I think since everyone is in such a spirit of fear right now, we all believe and almost expect companies to do layoffs, suspend raises, or do away with other benefits. I would ask one question when you hear of a company doing this? Has the last six months directly impacted this company so badly that they need to suspend raises? Ask yourself how your company makes a profit. Do they do so by selling a product? Have sales been that drastically reduced that the company needs to pass this to their employees? And if so ask yourself this: in the past when the company has had record profits, did they feel the need to reward all of their employees with extra bonuses? Interesting, isn’t it.

Going against the grain: I’m sure you have heard recently that Wal-mart is actually giving about $2 billion in bonuses to its employees which comes out to an average of $1000 per employee. What an amazing thing to do. Especially in this horrible recession! I am losing respect for companies that hurt their employees because they can get away with it, due to the fear the media has given us, and I’m gaining respect for companies like Wal-mart who aren’t using fear to put more money in their pockets.

Again, I understand that some companies are suffering from the economy and have to make hard decisions. I don’t have a problem with that. I do have a problem with companies who take advantage of the situation.

What can I do?
First of all, who is telling you the economy is in a horrible state right now? The media right? I would recommend you listen to Dave Ramsey for a few weeks and see if your worries don’t go away, or at least lessen a little. These economic tragedies we hear about so often lately really affect a very small percentage of people. Like Dave says, and I’m paraphrasing here; “Yes – it is very difficult for the people this actually does affect, but it is very small percentage of the population and the media is going berserk on this.” So if you have lost your job, I do feel sorry for you, and I don’t discount what you are going through. However, we need not let the media blow this out of proportion and impose a spirit of fear on us.

Three simple steps:

• Read Dave’s article on how to Recession-Proof Yourself
• Stop listening to the media. Try to focus on your own circumstances and how this is directly affecting you. For most of us, there really is no significant change. I know that’s faux pas to say right now, but really think about that for a minute.
• Think big picture. Five years from now, the economy will likely be doing great. (Again, this is what Dave Ramsey suggests). Your 401(k) may be half of what it was six months ago, but are you planning on retiring in the next year? Your house value may be down, but do you absolutely need to sell in the next year and half?

So what if I am impacted?: What if you did lose your job? What if you do need to retire and your 401(k) is half its value? What if you are on the verge of losing your house?

• Let me first recognize that it does suck to be in one of these positions. But one thing you can control is your attitude. Recognize that this is something short term and it may actually be a blessing in disguise. Perhaps losing your current job will lead you to a newer, better job. Perhaps delaying your retirement a year will open some new friendship at work. Perhaps losing your home will put you closer to family and the love and support they offer. And through all of this, perhaps your character will grow.
• Understand that your value does not change based on your circumstances. I heard an amazing story on K-Love recently. Would you take a hundred dollar bill from me right now if I offered it to you? Of course you would. Now what if I crumpled up that $100 dollar bill. Would you still take it? Absolutely. Now, lets say I threw it on the ground and stomped on it. Would you take it then? I’m sure we all would. You see, the value of a $100 bill does not change, based on the condition it is. It is still valued at $100. The same is true for us. Our value doesn’t change based on what condition(s) we are in. We are still just as valuable in God’s eyes.

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