Biblical Stewardship Quotes Leading to Proper Perspective

“Let me assume the role of eternal financial counselor and offer this advice: choose your investments carefully; compare their rates of interest; consider their ultimate trustworthiness; especially compare how they will be working for you a few million years from now.” -Randy Alcorn

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” -Jim Elliot

“The only antidote I can find in the Scriptures for greed and materialism is letting loose and giving what God has given you to help other people. If you do not release what God has entrusted to you, it will wrap its arms around your throat.” -Chip Ingram

“The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.” -William James

“I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still posses.” -Martin Luther

“We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The less I spent on myself, the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.” -Hudson Taylor

“Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.” -A.W. Tozer

ICE: In Case of Emergency Contact Methods

There are three key ways ICE or In Case of Emergency is being utilized today.

1) Wallet or purse ICE card. Great because we do not always have a phone with us and even then batteries go down. Contact Jane at 123-456-7890 Allergic to bees

2) Place dash and then the letters ice -ICE so this contact shows up a t the top of your contacts. -ICE Mary and -ICE David and -ICE Joan. Some add a sticker on back of phone with ICE printed.

3) you could use an app like iEmergency+ from Apple to download and have information placed in the APP to get rapid response teams more inform as to medical conditions.

I shared this with a friend of mine and she told me one of her best friends was at a hospital for 5 hours and nobody knew who she was or what to do next as she was in a coma. This could have great helped for responders, friends and especially the one needing proper attention.

Case Study for Effective Accountability for Elderly

Are you responsible for an elderly parent or relative? Let me share with you a story of one of my clients, and ask yourself does this sound familiar.

Roger is 66, this year he has finally retired after years of hard work, but unfortunately he is working as hard as ever because his aging mother and aunt are suffering from various illnesses, including both physical and mental issues including the onset of Alzheimer’s. He travels to see them frequently and does his best to monitor their bank accounts and to help them both with bills and money issues. Each day he logs into their different accounts and attempts to monitor all their activity, banking, credit cards and household expenses, it is time consuming and a major burden and only something that you would do for a loved one.

If you or someone you know is like Roger, caring for another person’s finances, helping with their health issues, and you are getting worn out, please consider a using a process that family trustees and advocates have used for over a decade.

iSteward, is a tool and process to help those like Roger that are overwhelmed by the time and energy it takes to stay on top of their loved ones that mean so much. How can iSteward help?

iSteward is a fast and easy way to organize and make the complex more simple. It is a private, safe and secure website where everything can be monitored and reviewed with the touch of your fingertips. There are custom alerts in one place for all accounts. No need to login to all the accounts and monitor anymore as iSteward has tools to help you. We like to think of it as a personal financial home page, with added layers of safety and security.

First, iSteward is NOT is transaction site. What do we mean by that phrase? No movements of money whatsoever, unlike banking, credit card and brokerage account sites, there is never any movement of your funds through iSteward. This web portal is designed to ease security pressures and allow for the very best in monitoring and reviewing of all your different accounts.

If you are working with multiple professionals, such as a health care advocate, an elder-care attorney, tax professionals and financial advisors, iSteward process will serve as a central depository for secured information. You no longer have to trust on outside emails and attachment files; rather utilize the iSteward state of the art file security system to deliver sensitive materials to those different professionals.

As we all grow older and have become more cautious over technology, the more sense it makes to have a secured Non-Transactional portal to see everything and be on top of it all in one place. This safe and intuitive process is easy to set up and monitor all activities of brokerage accounts, banking, tax, insurance and legal issues. There are thousands of professionals using this technology daily to do just that- collaborate and provide secure information and planning.

Want to learn more then check out other iSteward blogs and articles at www.StewardshipMatters.net, and while you are there watch a short video on iSteward.

CPA Alliance Utilizes iSteward Process for Greater Success

iSteward process helps bring clarity and tools that matter to busy and successful Certified Public Accounts and Enrolled Agents. By utilizing a private and secured portal that can track and monitor everything in one place. Manage more with alerts and process that clients can collaborate with professionals and the many financial institutions they use.

Set yourself apart as a leader and team leader as you collaborate with other professionals and you are driving the information leading to greater success. Learn more by watching the video below and building value in your practice.

The Stewardship of Time

What motivates or controls you will drive your waking moments. I was reminded this week of the biblical view of the stewardship of time, by author and speaker Ken Boa. He says, “God has apportioned an individual enough time to accomplish God’s purpose for that individual. He determines the length of our stay on earth and our areas of influence.”

The apostle Paul stated his perspective, to look at your life as that of two days: today and That Day. When we are defined by the eternal or That Day, it gives meaning to the temporal or today.

In light of the following Scripture we should consider Time:

Psalm 31:5a “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

God owns all things including time, and like all other the assets we have been entrusted, we should be good stewards with our time.

James 4:4 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow, you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Today is a gift, that is why we call it the present. Unfortunately, we often need to be faced with death or experience firsthand the shortness of life by another’s passing away to truly appreciate the today.

Ecclesiastes 8:5 ”Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.”

When we presume our future will be there but by doing that we sometimes squander the opportunity of today. To make the most of our time, we must steward time as God’s time.

Jim Rohn would say this about the present. ”Wherever you are, be there.”

With technology and media hitting us with more and more distractions, it is all the more important that we intentionally pull away and unplug ourselves. This will allow us time to reflect on the order and the important things in our lives, so we can live into that purpose for which we are called. This is a journey rather than a status of arrival or a place.

Time management experts often state, show me your calendar and I will show you what you care most about. Another indicator is to look at how you choose to spend or invest your free time or leisure time (sometimes called margin). Is there any margin in your life? If not, you should find a way to carve out some margin to reflect and think about your purpose and influence.

Today Matters: Managing Decisions

John Maxwell, an evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor who has written more than 60 books, primarily focusing on leadership says, “We over estimate tomorrow and under estimate the now or present. We are either preparing or repairing.” The decision managing process under estimates the now or present.

We often ask ourselves, “Am I taking care of today?” For so many people, having a daily agenda is an important tool in answering that question. They find an agenda to be a helpful way of keeping your thoughts organized and is useful for setting and accomplishing daily work duties or goals. In fact, it will help you in at least knowing what duties you can accomplish, which ones that you need to delegate to others and which ones must be put off to another day.

What can we do about the past? Learn from our past successes and mistakes. If we have done wrongs, then we can ask forgiveness of others, apologize for a misunderstanding or perceived wrong in someone else’s mind. This will allow us to be able to set a new course and strive for higher calling and purpose and seek to make good on the present.

In the world of financial matters there are some tools that many have found to be helpful in making better decisions.

Check out one of our recent March blog posts, Decision Making Process and Seven Barriers .

Student Debt is Killing the Next Generation

In 2012, the average of the total student debt load had increased to $27,253, which is an increase of 58% over the past 7 years. There are over 1 million American adults with over $100,000 of student loan debt, and the total outstanding student debt is $870 billion. With tough times hitting parents and new college graduates and underemployment at 11 year highs, the repayment of that debt is tougher than ever before.

Could you be wasting money sending children to college who are not ready to go to college? I recently attended a luncheon where a University President shared how he interviewed freshman and sophomore students over a period of years and found majority had no idea what they were going to do with their lives. They said they were trying to find themselves, more important he noted they had no sense of purpose and how they would use their skills and interest to make a living. He came to the conclusion, for a majority of those students and their parents, that economically it would be cost efficient if the student took off a year, go on vacation, join the Peace Corp or go to work a year or two to find themselves than taking up space and wasting tuition money in college classrooms.

Parent should know that when they cosign on these loans it is the same as you signing for the money. Like many of the federal student loan programs, private bank loans and Parent PLUS loan do not offer any loan forgiveness; in fact student loans are one of only a few types of debt that cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.

We are hearing talk from the federal government that offer federal loan programs are now looking to place a lien on the Social Security payment checks of parents who cosigned their child’s federal student loans. Another important consideration is how poor repayment can hurt individual credit rating or score. What happens to the debt if God forbid the child becomes disabled or dies?

Parents we must take a good look at the problem that is starting to arise from these federal student loans and the amount of debt our children accumulate getting their college education.

One resource online is The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and they have a kit called “Paying for College”, at www.consumerfinance.gov/paying-for-college aims to help students faced with lack of repayment and finance options.

Here are a couple of alternatives to going to a four year college or university right out of high school: Technical or trade schools are great, consider work where training is provided, or one of the more popular solutions, live at home and go to community college first 2 years. You can also join a branch of the military service, where one of the benefits of serving is your partial payment of your college tuition.

Financial Planning: Getting from Here to There

If your financial plan is not addressing inflation right now, then you are cheating your future and that of your family. Real financial planning engages coaching, knowledge on various options and strategies, and how to implement and follow the progress of your individual plan. There is a lot more than crunching numbers, and that is where we help you with your personal financial planning process, which will help you get from Here to There. The following video is a quick primer on one of the processes we use to help clients plan their resources and become good stewards for their families. Click below to view.