Today on MoneyLife

Chuck begins today telling listeners about plastic pitfalls to avoid from a recent Wall Street Journal article.

1. As you pay down your balance, the credit card company may lower your credit limit without telling you. As a result, you're more likely to go over the new, lower limit and end up paying penalties.
   
   
2. If you have too many credit inquiries, your credit card company may decide that you've become a higher risk, and increase your interest rate.
   
   
3. Your credit card company may even raise your interest rate because too many other people are defaulting and their revenues are down. Even if you've always paid on time, you're left "holding the bag."

Make sure you check your statement closely every month!

Chuck reminds listeners about the upcoming WMBW Town Hall Meeting in Chattanooga on August 19th. Howard Dayton and Chuck will participate and take questions from the audience.

In the second segment, Chuck introduces Sharon Epps, Crown's Executive Vice-President for Content and Media.

Sharon talks about the new MoneyLife Basics series of booklets. They are updated versions of Larry Burkett’s popular pamphlets on budgeting and money management.

People who don’t have a spending plan live by their bank balance or credit limits. Some people are always looking to their next paycheck to get them out of trouble. Too often, folks have no savings, so everything that happens is an emergency. Some people do well with managing fixed expenses but struggle with variable or one-time expenses.

Chuck and Sharon discuss some of the obstacles people encounter when setting up a spending plan:

• fear
• setting up too complicated a budget
• getting emotionally overwhelmed
• denial

The booklet Spending Plan Solutions is helpful in applying God’s financial principles to your life. It takes a step-by-step approach:

1. List monthly expenditures
2. Evaluate your monthly income
3. Compare your income and expenses

Chuck and Sharon point out that hope comes from the Word of God and His Holy Spirit. It also helps greatly to have an accountability partner. You can also get an online Crown Money Map Coach. For more information, call 1-800-722-1976 .

Chuck and Sharon cite a couple of Scripture passages:

• Luke 14:28, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?"
  
  
• John 13:17, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

Chuck’s closing thoughts:

• When you apply God’s Word, you experience a whole new level of freedom
• A spending plan is critical
• A spending plan is developed in three steps (track expenses, list income, reconcile the two)
• MoneyLife Basics will help you do that and online Money Map Coaches are available to help
• Money Map coaches are trained volunteers who are online to help you for free

Steps to Making a Budget

In making a budget, there are several steps, each requiring individual effort.
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• Read More

Need for a Spending Plan

Without a spending plan, it is impossible to know where your money goes each month and whether you will have available funds for the things you need.

• Read More

Budget Busters

Budget busters are areas that can result in financial disaster if not accounted for properly.

• Read More

Finding Financial Freedom

The Lord owns everything and we are merely stewards of what is His. He has clear ideas on how He wants His people to function as His stewards.

• Read More

Other Resources:

• ABCs of Money Package
• Career Direct
• God's Pinciples for Operating a Business
• Business By the Book
• Crown Mvelopes