Luke 14:28 – ‘But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?’

It is important that you know what you need to earn before you get paid anything. Not all jobs pay you as soon as you’ve completed a task or a day’s work. Some jobs pay fortnightly or even monthly – you have to work a set amount before you see any money. Just because you have earned a certain amount of money, doesn’t guarantee payment at a set time.

$100 is an important figure for me. I have a set goal of how much income I would like to earn each week on various projects that I do. This doesn’t always tie in however, with what I get paid in a given week. For example, some of my income comes in via:

• Amazon affiliates
• Amazon book sales
• Google Adsense
• Udemy – an online platform for courses
• TeachersPayTeachers – a website for digital educational products

For the first three sources that allow me to earn money, I need to earn at least $100 in total before I am paid by them. For my book sales on Amazon, this has to occur in one particular currency. Most of my sales are made in the US and UK, so although I may accumulate the given $100 in a month, this doesn’t mean I’ll get paid if that sum spans over four different currencies!

It’s great to earn a large sum of money in any given week or month. It’s important to know however, that this money is going to get paid in the near future. It is very difficult to be a wealthy Christian if you are earning, but scraping by because you haven’t been paid!

In your endeavour to accumulate wealth, make sure you have sufficient cash flow. If money isn’t coming to you, then it cannot go through you for investments or blessing others. If you have a job that pays you monthly, then it is very important to be on top of your budget and know that you can make your pay stretch for a month until you are paid again.

If you are looking for other opportunities to earn, try to find possibilities that pay regularly so you consistently have money coming in that you can live on, save, tithe and invest.

It is my prayer for you:

• That you will recognise the importance of regular cash flow, no matter what you earn
• That for income that is paid to you monthly or less frequently, that you will be able to budget this well to avoid any financial issues.
• That you will be able to generate different streams of income that come in at different times of the month, to increase your cash flow.

Today’s prayer:
Lord I thank you for the possibility to earn, but for also getting paid once I have earned. Help me to find income earning opportunities that provide me with money on a regular basis, so that I am not left without or desperately waiting for pay day.

Actionable ideas:
Meal plan; organising what you will cook each week or month will help you to utilise what you have bought, rather than leave food unused in cupboards and buy other things.

*these posts are from Wealthy Christians, a 30 day devotional.  You can download it free on Smashwords.

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2 Kings 4:6 – 7 – ‘When the containers were full, she said to one of her sons, ‘Bring me another container.’ But he answered her, ‘There are no more.’ Then the olive oil stopped flowing. She went and told the prophet. He said, ‘Go, sell the olive oil. Repay your creditor, and then you and your sons can live off the rest of the profit.’’

If you are in a position to have purchased a house and acquired a mortgage, it may be worth considering if your savings are best utilised in a savings account. They may be better off in an offset account. This sits against your mortgage.

Let’s consider an example to explain the benefit of this.

You have $10,000 sitting in savings. In a savings account, it is able to earn you 3% per annum. This is around $300 a year in interest. At the end of the financial year, you will be paying tax on this $300, which will decrease the total.

If you opened up an offset account with your mortgage and deposited your $10,000 here, then it would be acting as if you had paid off $10,000 from your mortgage. So you would be saving interest on $10,000. Now your mortgage interest rate will be higher – let’s say around 4.5%. So you’re saving $450 of interest on your mortgage each year, rather than earning $300 which will then be taxed.

What do you feel is a better investment of your money? Earning interest or decreasing your debt with the same sum of money? This is entirely up to you. One thing you should note is that setting up an offset account after you have already established a mortgage will probably cost you a one-off fee. Chances are your interest rate will increase a little too, with this offset account.

Be sure to look into all the costs. A higher rate on your mortgage to open an offset account is only worth it if your savings are substantial enough to offset the interest.

This can be a great way to reorganise your finances if the savings are going to be available to you for a length of time. It may not be worth changing things if you have them for less than 12 months and then plan to use them on a holiday or other purchase. If you are planning to continue to build your savings however, this can be a wise financial change to make. And in time, as your debt decreases your mortgage payments may also be able to decrease, resulting in you saving more for your offset. This in time will result in your debt decreasing more and your repayments lowering. And so the cycle continues! Repaying debts is a great way to improve your financial future.

It is my prayer for you:

• That you will recognise the different ways you can organise your money to best benefit your financial situation without having to bring in more income.
• That you will decide what is better for your individual situation – earning interest on savings or decreasing debt with it.
• That you will look into all conditions associated with financial accounts before committing to any.

Today’s prayer:
Lord I thank you that it is possible to rearrange my finances in many different ways that can benefit me. Help me to recognise all the options and to adjust as I see fit and then to stick with this change to see the benefits.

Actionable ideas:
Compare the benefits of saving money and earning interest, with keeping loans down that are incurring you interest. A mortgage may charge 5% interest while savings earn you 4% interest. It is wiser financially to put extra funds against the mortgage and save interest of 5%, rather than earn interest of 4% that ends up getting taxed.

*these posts are from Wealthy Christians, a 30 day devotional.  You can download it free on Smashwords.

Want to be kept in the loop about Wealthy Christians updates? Sign up to the Wealth in the Bible mailing list.

Proverbs 22:26-27 – ‘Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else. If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.’

It is easy to purchase a lot of items today on credit. Ultimately, this means that you get the product at a time when you can’t afford it and you pay it off over a set term. This tends to cost you a lot more than if you had bought the item with your own money.

If you buy a house you may receive an interest rate of let’s say 4% per annum. Over a thirty year term, you will end up paying about 120% interest on the sum of money you borrowed plus you still have to pay off the borrowed amount. In this regard, I think a loan is ok – your house and land generally will increase in value over time and the interest rate is low, although over a long term. If you think about it though, a $200,000 loan will cost you this as well as $240,000 in interest or $440,000 in total will be paid off at the end of the 30 year loan.

If you gain finance to purchase a car, chances are the interest rate will be considerably higher. On top of this, the car will devalue very quickly in the space of 12 months. In light of this, financially it may be much wiser to save up and purchase a new car or to even get one second hand that is a couple of years old. This will save you a lot of money over the longer term.

Buying on Credit

Whenever you need to buy something on credit – acquire a loan to purchase an item – it is worth considering the item itself. Will it increase in value over time? Or will it decrease in worth? This is a good way to consider what should be bought on credit.

In this regard, I think that credit cards can be dangerous. The interest rate you need to pay if the loan isn’t paid on time is high. Plus, as soon as you acquire interest, this in turn earns interest. It is very easy to get into debt this way and have to pay back so much more than you borrowed.

Wherever possible, make it a rule to only purchase on credit that which will increase in value over time – a house or land, for example. For things that will quickly decrease in value, find a way to purchase them second hand or save up until you can buy them outright without having to lock yourself into repayments with high interest. In this way, you’ll only be acquiring what is considered ‘good’ debt by investing in an asset that increases in value over time. Other than this, try to avoid the use of credit.

It is my prayer for you:

• That you will recognise that not all debt is bad, but will instead appreciate the need for a loan for investment items such as a house.
• That you will be able to recognise the value of saving for an item and buying it with cash, rather than on credit.
• That you will desire to avoid debt as much as possible and make financial choices with this in mind.

Today’s prayer:
Lord I thank you that it is possible to purchase items that I wouldn’t normally be able to buy with the use of a loan. Help me to recognise good investments and to stay away from those that will only acquire me debt for an item that is of little value.

Actionable ideas:
In times of plenty, don’t splurge this extra. Save a set percentage and use it to build up for times of need. If you unexpectedly come into money (like a tax refund) use it to decrease debts or increase savings.

*these posts are from Wealthy Christians, a 30 day devotional.  You can download it free on Smashwords.

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Proverbs 13:11 – ‘Wealth gained quickly will dwindle away, but the one who gathers it little by little will become rich.’

Give me $1,000,000 and I will comfortably live out the rest of the days of my life without actually spending the million. Ha! Christine, you say, that is not possible. You need to spend the money to be able to live.

Wrong.

Let’s do a little math. What is 5% of $1,000,000?

Well if 10% is $100,000, then half this is $50,000, right? So your million dollars sits in a savings account and earns you 5% per annum. So if you earn $50,000 for the whole year, then this means you’re earning around $137 per day, or around $959 a week.

How much do you earn on a weekly basis? I can honestly tell you now that my family earns – and lives comfortably – on less than this. So yes, I can boldly say that if I had one million dollars to live on, I would actually only live on the interest it could earn me at 5%.

But what if the economy isn’t doing so well, Christine, what then?

Well let’s say you can only get 3% – which is closer to current figures – then this is still $30,000 per annum. And yes, I could live on this! In fact, my husband and I with our two children do. We save as much as we possibly can and live on what we need to be comfortable.

So I look at the above figures and get excited – even though I don’t anticipate being given $1,000,000 anytime soon! What’s even more exciting to me is the fact that this $1,000,000 has the potential to grow over the year.

How is that you ask? Well, you get paid your interest monthly after it is acquired daily. So, after a month you get paid your 5%, or 30 days of earning $137 in interest each day. So January 1 you start with $1,000,000. January 31st you’re paid $4,247 in interest!

Residual Income

Now you have $1,004,247. Now, presumably you don’t spend the whole amount in one day. You make use of the money to live over the next month. And for every day that you have over $1,000,000 sitting in your account, you are then earning your interest of $4,247 for the following month as well as interest on your recently acquired interest! Wow.

Yes, this is an extreme example, but it does show you how interest can increase over time and truly work for you. This is the benefit of any savings account. For money that isn’t needed right now, why not place it into a savings account where it can earn interest? This is a way to earn that you don’t have to work for – the money does it all for you and then your earned interest goes on to develop more interest for you. This is an example of residual or passive income.

It is my prayer for you:

• That you will truly grasp the importance of a savings account
• That you will take the time to shop around for the best rate of interest your money can earn and set up an account
• That you are able to consistently deposit money into your account so that it can work for you

Today’s prayer:
Lord I thank you for the opportunity to do something so simple that can greatly benefit my financial situation. Help me to be a good steward of the money you have placed into my care.

Actionable ideas:
Shop around for the best interest rate that you can find. Many banks offer a higher introductory rate for new customers. You are already saving, make sure the money is earning as much for you as it can! Term deposits are another way to earn more if you don’t need the money for a length of time.

*these posts are from Wealthy Christians, a 30 day devotional.  You can download it free on Smashwords.

Want to be kept in the loop about Wealthy Christians updates? Sign up to the Wealth in the Bible mailing list.