If you own a house, especially with a sub-prime mortgage, you’ve probably heard the recent news that Countrywide is going to refinance up to $16 billion of loans to help people avoid foreclosure. This is great news amidst the recent housing crisis because it means people will be able to stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure. Those who were taken advantage of by predatory lending, and those who simply made unwise decisions, during the housing boom will have a chance to fix things up and avoid possible horrible outcomes …

One of the most moving movie scenes ever, that has impacted my day to day life, is this scene from Schindler’s List.
The background (for the couple who haven’t scene it) is Schindler is a German businessman who has saves the lives of over a thousand Jews by employing them in his factories during the Holocaust. The clip is longer, but the first four minutes is the part I’d like you to watch.

Schindler, who did so much and is a hero to many, still has sincere regret about some of his …

Last week we talked about discerning between ‘Needs’ & ‘Wants’ and then we discussed practically what constituted a ‘Need’. Today, I want to discuss how do we handle ‘Wants.’
Financial Lesson #2: What to do with Wants
I hear the term ‘blessed’ thrown around a lot amongst Christians and in Churches as it relates to financial well-being. I believe that is extremely unbiblical, and it gives us a false notion of how to handle our Wants. The fact that someone has a lot of money (say a brain surgeon) often has more …

“If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”
- 1 Timothy 6:8
 

One of the greatest struggles for a Christian in the consumerist American culture that we are a part of is to be content. You are daily bombarded on all sides by hundreds of advertisements telling you that you need this product or that. Even within the church, Sunday mornings continue to perpetuate word-of-mouth advertising about the new outfit, restaurant or electronics purchase. Is it even possible to step back from that culture, that has been so …

Through out the week I post a lot more then the daily post you get in your feedreader or email. I post small posts called ‘asides‘ throughout the day. For now, you can only read the asides on the website, but they have a custom look so they are easy to recognize. I figured the best way to get you interested is to give you a little sneak peak of what types of things I’m posting. Below is the asides from the past week. If you find them interesting, then …

My friend, Bryan, wrote this earlier this week:
On one of our evening walks recently, we realized that we could see the glow from all of the televisions in all of the living rooms on our block. It was just past Dark, that time of the evening that casts a blue light over everything. There was a slight cool breeze, and leaves were drifting down all around us from the canopy of old trees that live on our street. The air was just crisp enough to need a light sweater. It …

(bonus points to whoever can tell me what movie quote the title is a rip-off from)
If you were tuned in yesterday, you learned that there is a big difference between NEEDS and WANTS.  I even gave a couple examples yesterday, but I’ll be giving a lot more today. I think it’s extremely important to discuss needs and wants, and to be honest about the difference. Far too often, I hear people use the phrase: “I really needed that…” or “You need to…” And usually they are referring to something that …

In light of the interest in my previous post about budgets, I figured it would be good to resurrect a serious I started a while back on financial lessons. These aren’t complex or fool proof, but they are some steps on how I think about money. I think these will be my Wednesday posts for a while.Financial Lesson #1: Discerning your Needs and Wants
You must sit down (and if you are married, you both need to sit down) and draw up a list of your basic NEEDS (That you spend …