Saturday, December 1, 2012

Maka-feke



President Thomas S. Monson spoke at General Conference April 2006 about a Tongan Octopus Lure or Maka-feke.

Excessive Debt if one of the maka-feke's of life that he warned us about.

President Thomas S Monson - General Conference 2006 - Maka-feke

The final maka-feke I wish to mention today is one which can crush our self-esteem, ruin relationships, and leave us in desperate circumstances. It is the maka-feke of excessive debt. It is a human tendency to want the things which will give us prominence and prestige. We live in a time when borrowing is easy. We can purchase almost anything we could ever want just by using a credit card or obtaining a loan. Extremely popular are home equity loans, where one can borrow an amount of money equal to the equity he has in his home. What we may not realize is that a home equity loan is equivalent to a second mortgage. The day of reckoning will come if we have continually lived beyond our means.
My brothers and sisters, avoid the philosophy that yesterday’s luxuries have become today’s necessities. They aren’t necessities unless we make them so. Many enter into long-term debt only to find that changes occur: people become ill or incapacitated, companies fail or downsize, jobs are lost, natural disasters befall us. For many reasons, payments on large amounts of debt can no longer be made. Our debt becomes as a Damocles sword hanging over our heads and threatening to destroy us.
I urge you to live within your means. One cannot spend more than one earns and remain solvent. I promise you that you will then be happier than you would be if you were constantly worrying about how to make the next payment on nonessential debt. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read: 
Pay the debt thou hast contracted. … Release thyself from bondage.


The American Bar Association has indicated that 89 percent of all divorces can be traced to quarrels and accusations over money.

When children come along and reach the age of accountability, they too should be involved in money concerns on a limited partnership basis.




Church Flyer - The quotes below on one side and 7 Baby-steps on the other.

"Too many of our youth get into financial difficulty because they never learned proper principles of financial common sense at home. Teach your children while they are young. Teach them that they cannot have something merely because they want itTeach them the principles of hard work, frugality, and saving. If you don't consider yourself informed well enough to teach them, all the more reason for you to begin learning. Abundant resources are available--from classes, to books, to other resources.”
-Joseph B. Wirthlin

"The number of marriages that have been shattered over money issues is staggering. The amount of heartbreak is great. The stress that comes from worry over money has burdened families, caused sickness, depression, and even premature death." 
-Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt... Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage." 
-Gordon B. Hinckley

"When we make purchases on credit, they give us only an illusion of prosperity.  We think we own things, but the reality is, our things own us." -Joseph B. Wirthlin

"It is so easy to allow consumer debt to get out of hand.  If you do not have the discipline to control the use of credit cards, it is better not to have them.  A well-managed family does not pay interest- it earns it."  
-L. Tom Perry

"You have to act for yourself and be a participant before the welfare program is active in your household.  Moving out from there, then, to quorums, to united teamwork... tremendous results can come." 
-Harold B. Lee

“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; … Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” -J. Reuben Clark

 “The prepared person should establish financial goals, pay tithes and offerings, avoid debt, wisely use and preserve economic resources, and save during times of production for times of nonproduction.” -Marion G. Romney

“Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty.”          
-Benjamin Franklin






Motivation Factor

Everyone knows how to lose weight: 
    Eat Less/Exercise more.

Everyone knows how to become debt free:
    Spend Less/Save more.

Why isn't it that easy? 
We must find what will motivate us to go through the pain to get the prize.

God wants us to follow his commandments.
He wants us to be like Him and be free.

Motivation Ideas:
  • Add up the Interest you are paying every month.
  • Think about what you could be doing with this money instead of paying the Interest.
  • How old will you be when the debt is paid off?
  • Own your home, retire, feel at peace.
  • Read a book.
  • Listen to testimonials below.



Testimonial from a Teenager.

We asked our Nephew to read the book "The Total Money Makeover
At first he and his mother said that he simply doesn't have the time.  Too busy.

Then he asked us if we would give him some money for scouts.
We said we would do a deal with him that would actually give him more than he was asking.

If he read the book and gave us:
  1. A one page report on what he learned.
  2. A spreadsheet of what one year of college is going to cost.
  3. Find three jobs that interest you and would pay $50,000 or more a year after he finishes college.
All of a sudden, he wasn't too busy.
He agreed and we signed a contract with a time frame of 3 months. 
It was a great experience for all of us. 
So great that we extended the offer to all of our nieces and nephews (age 16+).  Some took advantage of it, other's were too busy or not interested.  A teenager not interested in money....weird. (You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.)

Here is part of his report.

After reading the Dave Ramsey book I have to look back and think about all I have learned.
It is amazing at what can be inhaled through just reading a book. It is definitely life changing and I know that I will be a better person because of it.
It has taught me so much about finance but also about setting your mind on making a goal and doing it.

In a way I look at debt the same way as sins in the aspect that once you have committed a sin you can always repent of it.Yes, it will be harder to repent of it, than if you just didn't sin in the first place, but the point is that there is always a way back and if you are determined and refuse to give up for anyone or anything in the world then you will succeed.

Thank you so much for requesting me to read it!  The knowledge I have learned will serve me good for the rest of my life and I am very grateful for the opportunity you have given me to not only read the book but to do research on college expenses and possible career opportunities.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Compound Interest



PDF Version


CompoundingInterest.doc
Excel Spreedsheet - Change Interest Rates and fees to see how it affects your outcome.

The sooner you start saving for retirement the more you will have.

Compounding Interest is a beautiful thing.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Bi-Weekly Mortgage Payments

No time to edit and make it look good so I will just post an email conversation I had with a friend.

---

I'm always going back and forth about whether to
pay the house off or keep the money in an account to pay the house
off. I definitely see both sides to Ramsey's vs Edelman's argument.

The bank has to be willing to receive payments for this and their is usually a fee to set it up.

This is not magic.
You are simply paying 1 extra payment a year.

If you are going to go this route you should try and put more down on your house at the beginning. As the bank makes most its money off of you in the first 5 years. And most people only hold their house for 7 years.

The negative side.
The faster you pay it off, the less you can deduct on taxes.

I'm not sure why I reply to your emails.
I already know you know this.

Craig.

-----

So one of the most amazing things I have
learned about investing is is Bi-Weekly mortgage payments.
This can easily take 7-10 years off your 30 year
payment plan.


Please take a look at my favorite website of financial
calculators:

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/ExistingBiweekly.html

Monday, March 30, 2009

Howto add Dave Ramsey Podcast to iPod using iTunes

After you have downloaded and installed iTunes from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Click on "iTunes Store" then type "Dave Ramsey" into the Search box.




Now Click Subscribe.



Everyday you turn on your iTunes you should get a new 40 minute Dave Ramsey radio show episode. If it does not automatically download, right click and select "Update Podcast."







Now attached your iPod.
It will show up in the left.
Click on the podcast tab to make certain your iPod and computer Sync.






If you don't have an iPod you can listen to the podcasts from your computer by pressing play.
There are a lot more podcasts out there.
Ric Edelman
Real Estate
Investing

Thursday, October 16, 2008

How to Purchase an Index fund with Scottrade




When you purchase an Index Fund it will be under the "Mutual Fund" section.
$3000 is the minimum initial investment.




Reinvesting the cash back into the fund will help it grow faster.




This page is to helping you to remember that this is a long-term investment.
The cost of $17 is higher than the usual $7 because it is an Index fund instead of individual Stock.
I believe if you have a Vanguard account, they don't charge you the $17 cost.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Index Funds

Index Funds

"Indeed, I have terrible news about brokers and money managers generally - news which I expect you've suspected, but couldn't quite believe, all along. There are no brokers who can beat the market consistently and by enough of a margin to more than make up for their brokerage fees. Or, if there are a few, they are not going to work for peanuts - and any account under $500,000 is peanuts. By and large you should manage your own money. No one is going to care about it as much as you."

"This is a very simple concept but profound: just by investing all the money you have earmarked for the stock market in the Vanguard Index Trust, you will generally do better than most bank trust departments, mutual fund managers, and private investors--with far less effort!"
Andrew Tobias "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need."

Example Portfolios with multiple Index funds
http://www.thekirkreport.com/lazy_portfolios/index.html


VTSMX - (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund)

http://www.fool.com/investing/mutual-funds/2007/04/26/the-4-best-words-of-investing-advice.aspx

First, hold a portfolio that's diversified across market caps and industries. One way to do this is to anchor your portfolio in a broad market index fund such as Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX) -- a low-cost option that holds more than 3,700 names and includes heavy exposure to stalwarts such as Microsoft, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Thus, when your micro caps inevitably dip and dive, the effect on your portfolio will be muted by the relative stability of your index.


Buffett on Index vs ETF

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=4A899C35-02F6-42CB-BB01-7B7E303003D4&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo


Other Vanguard Index funds

http://www.fool.com/investing/mutual-funds/2007/05/07/vanguards-best-index-funds.aspx?source=mppromo

Monday, September 15, 2008

Saving & Investing

Here are the notes of a class I taught today.
More detail is found within the blog.

Saving & Investing

1) Emergency Savings – 3 to 9 months of monthly costs.
http://savingsaccounts.com/
• HSBCDirect
• EmigrantDirect
• INGDirect
Avoid credit card debt and using retirement account.
Reduce stress with job loss, car accident, and natural disaster.

2) Retirement Account - matching.
• 401k, TSP, 403b, Roth IRA
"By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually outperform most investment professionals." ~Warren Buffett

The miracle of Compounding Interest:
http://www.geocities.com/craigfield12/IRASheet.jpg

3) Education - the fun way!
iTunes - Podcasts
• Dave Ramsey - Basics
• Ric Edelman - Advanced
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Expert Opinion – Great Articles

4) Take Action!
If you know you are going to have 7 years of plenty what decisions will you make before the 7 years of famine?

My blog:
http://colonial-investment-club.blogspot.com/

Dave Ramsey classes taught to 60% of high school students in Utah, sponsored by Zions Bank.
http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/index.cfm?intContentID=8922