"Now What?"

By Renee, LSWA

Good question! I'm glad you asked. So you've made your list of SMART goals, mapped out your vision and created a great budget but still you can't seem to make any progress. What's missing? According to Adele B. Lynn in 50 Activities for Developing Emotional Intelligence, we can be deterred from achieving our life long dreams by what she terms "Spirit Killers." These spirit killers can block our growth and we have to work to overcome them. But first, we have to recognize them and understand how they work.

1. Celebrity Ego: Our own egotism holds us back. We already know how great we are so there's really no need to make changes. Right? This kind of thinking keeps us from confronting the truth and from seeing reality. We need to just throw off the celebrity status and get real.

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Serving Up Success

By Renee, LSWA

"The family that plays together stays together." I LOVE FUN! My family and I recently participated in an all day scavenger hunt. We had an awesome time being silly and focusing on the common goal: getting the most points so we could be the winners! How selfish of us. Well, not really. It was a game and the goal was to be the winner. But if having fun was the only thing my family focused on, I imagine that selfishness would creep in and kill the mood. As much as I love fun, it's not the only life lesson I want my children to learn.

How about the family that serves together? I believe serving others individually or with our families brings joy and a sense of purpose that I cannot even begin to describe. Our own 41st President was quoted as saying, "From now on, any definition of a successful life must include serving others." Regardless of politics, I think he got this right. Wouldn't it be cool if we could combine fun and serving? I think we can!

No matter what age you are, if your children are young or old, there are ways you can teach them the value of thinking of others needs. We are all constantly being bombarded in school, by the media, in the office or on the big screen by the mindset that "it's all about me." As parents, we can often unintentionally send this message to our kids too. As babies, the world does revolve around them, but eventually they have to learn to live as part of a family unit and in community. What better way to teach them this than to expose them to opportunities to bless other members of our communities.

Here are some simple ways to get you and your family having fun and helping others.

1. Serve a meal at a local soup kitchen.
2. Collect school supplies for a homeless shelter.
3. Walk your elderly neighbors' dog.
4. Bake cookies for the new family on the block.
5. Take a meal to a new mom.
6. Participate in Operation Christmas Child-one of my family favorites!
7. Serve at your home church in a ministry.
8. Adopt a road and do trash pick-up.
9. Read a book to a nursing home resident.
10. Send cards to our service men and women.

I could go on and on but I want to know your ideas. What do you and your family do to serve together?

Play together but don't forget to serve together. Joy and peace will abound.

Pirates, Knights and Credit Reports

By Renee, LSWA

"I'm singin' F to the R to the E to the E to the C to the R to the E D I T
RE to the PORT to the dot to the com, Come on everybody grab your bikes and sing along."

We all know the commercials and could probably sing every one of them, but do we really get it? Knowing what is on our credit report is crucial to everything we do from renting/buying a house, buying a car, even some jobs are looking at our credit reports. But beyond knowing what our credit report says, we need to be focusing on keeping our credit in good standing. I can not stress this enough. Get on a budget and keep yourself out of debt! I work with families every day whose only barrier to moving on from homelessness to self-sufficiency is poor credit. Landlords don't want to rent to someone who has a history of bad debt and/or foreclosures or evictions. Now I know that not all debt is the result of poor money management but the majority of it is.

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Part II - The Joy Of Budgeting: Navigating the Course

By Renee, LSWA

Starting a budget is like starting on a journey. You have to know where you are to set your course. Step one is knowing your present level of spending. You may want to keep a daily spending diary for a few weeks to a month to help you know how you spend your money. Compare that with your monthly income.

Step two is determining what represents a reasonable standard of living at your present income. For example, according to Crown Financial Ministries, a family of three/four with an income of $45k should not be spending more than 32% of their net spendable income on housing in an average housing market. That's about $890/month total on all housing expenses including utilities and maintenance. In high cost housing areas, the recommended amount is 55% or $1551/month. This website also provides percentage values based on your income for other areas of spending as well.

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Part I - The Joy Of Budgeting (Seriously?)

By Renee, LSWA

Seriously. For too many people, the word budgeting leaves a bad taste in their mouth. Punishment comes to mind for many. It does not have to be that way. A budget is simply a financial management tool for the home. We plan our meals, our car tune-ups, our work week. Why wouldn't we plan our home money management? Bringing these areas under control relieves burden, worry, anxiety and stress. It maximizes our finances so we can be more effective in all areas of our life.

The goal is to live within our means. That is, we don't spend more than we make on a monthly basis. Ideally, this means that we don't use credit cards for daily living expenses and we practice self-control. It means we keep our needs, wants and desires in check.

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