The Bible Reading Plan seems to be the most talked about piece when it comes to the Radical Experiment but I am not going to neglect the other very important components. Today I want to address “Sacrifice Our Money for a Specific Purpose.”
As an “accountant” (I’m not really an accountant I just say that this time of year), I love numbers. I love to know statistics, percentages, all of that. I guess I should have known that I was going to work with numbers when I was a child because my dad, who worked in the prison system, would get the Florida Department of Corrections annual statistics report and I would read it like a book. For some reason I was so fascinated with learning about what counties had the highest crimes, race, gender, age, the types of offences, how much crime had increased since the last year, decade etc.
Anyways, the church has done a remarkable job providing resources for the other four areas of the Radical Experiment but I feel like this one you are just kind of left hanging (This is not entirely true, see FPU entry next). There are links to books, websites and sermons under “Resources” on the website that are definitely great tools but I wonder just how many people are taking advantage of those. Maybe I am just critical (in a good way) because I know a good bit about financial planning.
Personally, I started thinking about this in November when Radical Experiment was first presented. I have accumulated some good and some bad debt that I am trying to tackle with a vengeance and there doesn’t seem to be enough coming in. As I continued to think about it and pray about it, I began to realize that although debt repayment is extremely important, serving God by caring for those in dire need is even more important and cannot be neglected. By being obedient to his Word, you are actually allowing God the opportunity to bless you. That is very hard to do because as a financial planner I desperately want to get out of debt (the bad debt especially).
I have not made any major changes in my spending yet. I decided to sponsor a child but that honestly does not feel like much of a sacrifice, now that I’m two months into it, considering it costs less to sponsor a child than it does to feed my dogs each month. I decided I needed to look at the numbers, the percentages, the facts on where my money went in 2009. I try to do this each January but this time with Radical Experiment in mind. I have an Excel spreadsheet that I keep up with how much I spend in different categories each month with a percentage column that totals what percentage of total spending that category is. I try to be as exact as possible, which means if I go to Wal-Mart and spend $50 and bought toiletries, dog stuff, and groceries I put a roundabout number for each of those categories on the spreadsheet so it’s pretty accurate.
As I analyzed the amounts I spent in each category in 2009, I was able to make a concrete goal for 2010 that I can monitor throughout the year. My goal is to double my 2009 giving (percentage, not dollar amount) to God’s Kingdom. By having a goal like this that I can monitor, I will be able to make sacrificial choices throughout the year to help me attain this goal and if by year end I have not achieved it I will most likely sacrifice my Christmas bonus (if I get one) or even Christmas presents from my family to achieve this goal. It may not seem like much to some, but for me having a goal like this makes a big difference.
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