Friday, February 17, 2012

Unlearning Personal Finance: A Guide to Switching Gears for ...

All of us should learn basic principles of personal finance. I?ve introduced my basic financial principles here and here.

However, as Christians we should be prepared to unlearn what we?ve learned about personal finances.

At the very least, we must always be able to identify when we need to transition our focus from saving to giving and from earning to serving or when we need to focus on others more than ourselves.

An Example from Learning to Write

  • ?Don?t start a sentence with the word ?And?.?
  • ?Every paragraph must have at least three sentences.?
  • ?Every sentence must have a subject, noun, and verb.?

These are all things my high school English teacher used to say to me.

And now, I?ve developed my own style of writing. Sentences can be are short. Crisp. Brief.

Paragraphs can contain only one sentence.

Before we customize, personalize, and apply our own approach, we must be familiar with conventional advice.

Then we can feel free to break it.

Challenging Conventional Personal Finance Advice

While some conventional financial advice has roots in the Bible, we are often in danger of taking most of our financial cues from culture, not Christ.

For that reason, I use this blog to challenge conventional personal finance advice.

That means it is your job to analyze your situation and see if you need to rethink, change, or transform your approach to money.

Our family has followed conventional advice so that our family is now free to use our resources for something more. Had we not followed conventional personal finance advice from the beginning, I don?t think we?d be in a position to break conventional advice.

I believe there are many people who have now graduated beyond the ridged financial advice. People who need to be prayerfully considering how to do more with what they have been entrusted.

Learning to Switch Gears

Many of us are rolling up our big fat wealth snowballs.

However, if you?ve been following successful financial advice and have a healthy financial footing, you?ll need to prayerfully consider transitioning your focus.

Christians who have healthy, solid finances should be in a better position for generous giving. In fact, that should be the goal.

The tragedy is that some folks who do achieve the stage of ?financial freedom? never switch gears into generous giving.

Step #1: Get a healthy financial footing.

Step #2: Use your resources on behalf of your family, and in increasing increments, on behalf of others.

Have you ever had to switch gears with your financial focus?

Did you like this article? Pass it along ...

Other Great Articles:

  1. Learning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Financial Health: Part II
  2. Learning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Financial Health (Part I)
  3. Christian Personal Finance Blogs | January Highlights
  4. Top 10 Christian Personal Finance Books
  5. MH4C Special Report: October Christian Personal Finance Blog Report

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Source: http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com/unlearning-personal-finance-a-guide-to-switching-gears-for-successful-christian-finance/

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