Helping You Think and Plan Ahead

Consider using the following questions to help you look ahead and think ahead:

Topic Question: Will the wife work outside the home?

Depending on how one answers that question there are many implications as to how they ought to be living today. For example if you answer no, the wife will not work outside the home, this impacts:

1. Vehicle purchase: Pay cash for a vehicle so that car payments do not burden the family to a point that you can no longer afford to live on one income.
2. House purchase: When considering what you can and cannot afford, if the wife is currently working do not include her income. Make the purchase only on one income.
3. Emergency Fund: If you would like to make this transition but are financially leery, start living on one income now, save the difference, and then you have some funds that will help make the transition easier.
   

Topic Question: Do I want my kids to go to college?

Depending on how one answers the question there are implications for today.

For example if you want your kids to go to college this impacts other decisions such as:

1. Teaching your children to handle money: It does not matter if you plan to help your kids with the bill or not, but they need to be taught today to handle money so that whatever help they do get will be a blessing to them.
2. Encourage your child to get a part-time job: People rarely go to college for nothing. A little sacrifice now on your children's part will go a long way towards preparing them for college.
3. Open a college savings fund like a ESA. Those few dollars every month will make a big difference in the future.
   

Sit down today and think ahead. What does the future look like for you and what decisions can you make today that will start putting those ideas into action?

Begin with the End in Mind

What if you were to script your life today? As Stephen Covey says in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit Number 2: begin with the end in mind. We ought to do the same in our financial lives. See the end and then decide today based on that end.

What do you want to do with your money?

• I want there to be peace between my spouse and I on issues of money.
• I want to help the church, the poor, the needy.
• I want to do what I love - I’ve been thinking about changing careers.
• I want to travel.
• I want to stay home with the kids.
• I want to volunteer at the church.

These are decisions that typically only those who begin with the end in mind get to make.

How did we get to be in this mess?

"How did we get to be in this mess?", perplexed people often ponder. When did we choose this life? How did it get to a point that I couldn’t sleep at night? What happened that made me afraid to pick up a phone? When did things get this bad?

Drowning in a sea of debt is a conscientious decision few have made. The flaw of many was simply thinking only about today.

Margaret Atwood in her book Payback: The Shadow Side of Wealth rightfully remarks, “a story is a string of actions occurring over time.” Often we would not have selected our current status, but one, two, or a hundred poor decisions along the way have led to a mess.

Perhaps you are a young person who has yet to script much of your story. Or perhaps even you are an older person who so far has been fortunate enough to avoid large amounts of consumer debt. It might even be that you are already struggling with massive amounts of debt. Regardless, the rest of the story is waiting to be scripted. Interestingly, you can either write your own script or just a few ignorant decisions and before you know it 10 -15, 20 years of your life has already been scripted by the need to repay.

Look ahead. Where do you want to be tomorrow? What needs to happen to your finances today so you get to choose your own story?