Limit Expenses, Avoid Co-signing Contracts & Signing Rushed Contracts

How to rock this task: 

• Create a one page budget

• Don’t rest until we are out of all cosigned and rushed signed contractual arrangements

Today's Devotional:

This week we will focus on getting out of debt and keeping out of debt. If our expenses are more than 1/3 of income, we are probably in over our head in expenses and/or debt. If we have debt, it is probably impossible for us to limit our expenses to 1/3 of income. Since many people are imprisoned by debt, we should be willing to explore other ways to live than by paycheck to paycheck to cover our expenses. If we have trouble limiting our expenses to 1/3rd of our income, we should start asking God for creative ways to increase our income and decrease our expenses. One of the practical ways of increase our income. I recommend that we focus on work that pays well so if we need to seek out a special degree, certification, and license we should do it! The training that we do should increase our value and make us highly sought out. This is necessary to prevent us from having to get 3 or 4 jobs to cover our expenses. God wants us to obtain gainful employment. So He gives us witty ideas, inventions, self-control, discipline, etc. and wisdom to apply the knowledge to become very valuable in our environment (Proverbs 8:12). Imagine earning good income, living a debt free and our expenses are limited to only a third of what we make.

We want to avoid entering into a slave relationship with creditors (Proverbs 22:7). We want to avoid the debt trap. In the cases we do borrow, the right thing to do would be to pay it back (Psalm 37:21) and a fast as possible. Did you know originally the mortgage was meant to be paid, biweekly in 5 years with 20% down payment?

In other words, we should have a plan to avoid financial troubles. We should keep good records, because God wants for us to keep track of what we spend, owe and earn (Proverbs 27:23). God wants us to be wise with our assets. So let us write down where we want our money to go with a one page budget. We should allot 33% of income to savings and investing, allot 33% of income to giving and allot 33% of income to expenses. If we don’t have enough income to allot 33% of income to expenses, we should take steps necessary to increase our income, decrease our expenses or both.

We mentioned that we should try to limit 1/3rd of our income to expenses and if our expenses exceeded 1/3rd of our income. We should do everything we can to get our expenses below 1/3rd of our income. In today’s task we will try our best to never co-sign anything for someone, because the Bible warns us to not be accountable for someone else’s debt. When we are a cosigner, we become the security on what would most likely be a high interest loan. Proverbs 22:26 says, “Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety for debts;” When we co-sign, we are borrowing money for someone else. God doesn’t want us to get in debt for someone else who has no way to repay.

Proverbs 27:13 states that cosigning can actually lead us to losing all we own even our own shirt on our back. So we need to say “no” to avoid being caught in a financial trap of carrying someone else debt. God want for us to free from sin and debt. So if we ever get caught in the trap. We can’t sleep and rest until we get out! We need to pray for God’s wisdom on the best way to get out of debt and say “no” to new debt!

Also, it’s important to read the fine print on a document, before signing. Don’t sign until we check the deal thoroughly and we can’t give into the pressure of limited time offers.

Today's Scriptures: