Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 09, Issue 07: Conquering Our Finances Part III

Picking up from part II of this series, we said it's more efficient to manage the four main categories of our budget in four separate folders, that is, bank accounts or whatever kind of folders each of us prefers. It actually doesn't cost anything to have a bank account today if you maintain the stipulated balance. We figured out how to manage our savings in two separate bank accounts and now we want to figure out how to best manage our immediate spending and future spending. But before we get to that, let's talk a little more about emergency savings.

The reason we separate our investment savings from our emergency savings is because we don't want to risk investing our emergency reserves in a long term investment vehicle that we can't access in the immediate term should we need it. We want our money to work for us, and not be out of reach when an emergency strikes. We don't want to hustle around trying to borrow to finance emergencies when we have resources stashed away in investments. That wouldn't be smart. We want to be able to sort ourselves out when we need to and not be desperate and at the mercy of others when we have already done the hard work of saving.

Our emergency fund should sit in an account or investment vehicle that we can access without notice, or within a few hours. We just need to be disciplined enough to access it only for the emergencies we defined the fund to be for when we set It up. Consider putting it in an interest bearing savings account. Bank accounts don't generate much interest, but that's okay because growth is not the point of this fund. The purpose of an emergency fund is to finance unexpected but defined emergency expenses.

There are different emergencies that we could find ourselves in. They could range from having to settle a loved one's big medical bill in the absence of insurance, to abruptly losing a job or business in absence of alternative sources of income. Let's focus on the latter. The question that comes to mind next is, what is the minimum level of emergency reserve we should aim to maintain at any given point?

Since it's hard to tell how fast we can secure another job should we abruptly lose the only one we have, the ideal level to aim for while still at our current job is an amount significant enough to cover our basic living expenses for 6 to 12 months. This implies that if your basic living expenses for a month cost 4,000 units, you want to accumulate a minimum of 24,000 to 48,000 units. This would afford you enough breathing space until you secure your next income generating activity. Sometimes people stay for several months or years before securing another job, so the more we can accumulate in this reserve, the better.

Enough with savings, now we can talk about spending our 6,000 units. Everyone spends money on certain things. The difference comes in whether or not we are keeping track of the things we spend money on, we are happy with how much we are spending on each of them, and we are aware of the impact they have on our current financial well being and future financial independence.

Just a few weeks ago I finally admitted to myself that it's time to replace my old car that has served me well for 10 years. It needs to go because it's getting to the point where if I keep it any longer it could turn into a money pit, take me over the budget I have set aside for vehicle maintenance. What is clear in my mind about the potential purchase is what the value of the car I pick would translate to in terms of insurance and maintenance costs. I am already used to a rather friendly old car's insurance and maintenance budget that I want to be sure to not digress very far from just for the sake of having new car.

Prior to making a new acquisition, it's not enough to consider just the initial cost. We must think of the recurrent costs the acquisition will require thereafter. Unless our income goes up, increase in spend means reduction in savings. For my car situation, I had to consider how much more I am willing to spend on insurance and maintenance so that I pick my next car wisely, fully aware of what I am getting myself into. I had to consider the amount of units I am willing to reduce my savings by in order to accommodate the amount I have to top up to maintain a new car. Even when our income increases, it's not smart to up our spend. An increase in earnings should be an opportunity to save, give and invest more.

We have touched on one of future spending items to have on our budget for our 6,000 units, that is vehicle insurance and maintenance. I have seen people squabble when their insurance falls due and wonder how come they didn't know the payment was coming up. That's because most people only budget for their immediate spending then have to hustle to pay for future spending tickets when they fall due. Let's discuss all matters future spending and immediate spending in part IV.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 09, Issue 06: Conquering Our Finances Part II

In continuation to part I of this series, we are at the stage of laying out how to program our net earnings, after taking out our tithe and taxes. We broke down savings and spending into two broad categories for each, that is savings for investments and savings for emergencies, and immediate spending and future spending. It is better to manage these four categories in separate folders. That may mean four bank accounts, or four drawers, or four purses or four envelopes for you.

Before setting up our folders, we first determine how much we want to save and how much we want to spend from the 9,000 units we had available to program in part I last week. Assuming that at the goal setting stage, we determined to save 33% and spend 67% of our earnings, we will save 3,000 units and spend 6,000 units from this current receipt. Let's also assume that out of our savings total, we want to program 40% for emergencies and 60% for investments.

In our spending categories, we have bills and expenses that we finance within the month of receiving our earnings, and others that we pay for at a later time such as quarterly, semi-annually or annually. For instance, we pay for our housing, utilities, groceries, domestic support, fuel/bus fare, entertainment, grooming and other irregular incidentals monthly, whereas school fees for our children or ourselves, maintenance and insurance for our vehicles and houses, clothes and shoes, vacations, school uniforms and accessories and membership fees for most of us are due quarterly or semi-annually or annually.

Think of bank accounts as folders. At work, we store and maintain different documents in different folders to effectively distinguish separate records for better management of each. Mingling our savings with our spending money in the same pool makes it difficult to efficiently manage and stay on top of each category. If you are a holder of one bank account, you must admit it's difficult to tell things apart and stay true to your budget consistently.

Imagine a cutlery drawer in your kitchen that doesn't have an organizer, such that your many teaspoons, knives, folks, and table spoons are thrown in randomly. Better still, imagine a hospital where patients' records are not filed in separate folders, that rather, the loose sheets of paper for different patients are all put together in drawers or cabinets. That's how managing your money in one bank account can be like. My recommendation is to maintain about four money management systems. If some of your transactions are in cash form, have four bank accounts and one cash account system. We will elaborate this further in part III of the series.

The first two accounts would be savings accounts, one for our investments or future use, and the second one for emergency savings. Going by our assumptions above, we would put 1,200 units into our emergency savings account and 1,800 units into our investments savings account. We would repeat this with every earnings we receive, applying the same percentages to the varying units we receive. As the units in these accounts pile up over time, we would look for viable investment opportunities to invest the units in our investments savings account to make our money grow and earn us passive income in future.

Next week we will begin with how to efficiently manage our 6,000 units that we have programmed for immediate and future spending. We will also consider what levels of emergency savings to aim for.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 09, Issue 04: Make God Your Goal

As we always do, we have focused these first moments of the new year on our aspirations and intentions. We have focused on the goals we want to go after in the new year, dreams we want to pursue, themes we want to live our days around. But the reality is, not every beginning of a new year is promising for all us. Sometimes some of us begin a new year desperate for a miracle, or on the verge of giving up.

I listened to something astounding several days ago and set a reminder for myself to go back to listen to it keenly at a later point. The reminder kept popping up on my screen but I didn't get to it until today.

It's about a principle found at the end of the sixth chapter of the book of Matthew. With a bit of my own emphasis here and there, I am going to relay the message the way the speaker said it, as I couldn't possibly put it across any better. I couldn't get the name of the speaker but I credit this article to him.

Many of us allow our problems to make us desperate and we manipulate God's presence. We use God as a means to get a miracle instead of using a miracle as a means to get to know God. When we do this, we are like the children of Israel who cried out to God to get them out of Egypt. In reality, they didn't really want God, they just wanted freedom. And God was a means to get that freedom.

But Moses used the exodus from Egypt as a means to know God. Because when God took too long on the mountain, the children of Israel worshiped a cow. But when God took too long on the mountain, Moses waited on God. Because to Moses, God was not a means to a goal, God was the goal.

Something happens when you make intimacy with God your number one goal. It numbs your desperation. It doesn't remove the problem, it just makes your problem not the most important thing in your life.

You may still be struggling with your finances or with pain in your body, or with stagnation, or with a form of barrenness or lack, a wilderness situation of sorts. But you understand that God is bigger than your problem. You reckon that God's presence is more important than your issue. And what God wants you to do is more important than your struggle. And when you get busy pursuing God, He begins to ask you, "What do you want?" Because intimacy with God kills your desperation.

Desperation is dangerous. Because when you are desperate for your miracle, you become impatient, and when you become impatient, you always produce Ishmael. When you are desperate for your miracle you cannot differentiate between God's supply and Satan's bait.

When you are desperate for your miracle, God is always a means to a goal. And when you get the goal, God gets left behind.

But when you are satisfied in God, in spite of your problem, God now takes interest in your problem. God takes interest in your dream. God takes interest in your desires. God begins to say to you, "Let's make your dreams come to pass." He takes interest in them because your dreams are now not coming out of a place of desperation, they are coming out of your satisfaction in the presence of God.

As we begin the new year, let's not use God as a means to get a miracle, rather pursue Him, and use our miracles as a means to know God. Let's make God our goal, because when we seek first the Kingdom of God rather than what we want, He begins to ask us what we want.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes (Matthew 6:30-34, MSG translation).

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 09, Issue 03 One Word Theme

I learnt about one word theme from a YouVersion Bible plan provided by the authors of "One Word" book, Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page. I went on to download and read the one word action plan and a free chapter of the book from their web page that drove the point home. The concept is about using a word as a focus for the year rather than a long list of resolutions.

According to the authors, the one word is meant to replace resolutions and goals altogether but for me at this point, I found it useful as a tool to focus my goals. I decided on my one word theme and went on to use that as the stand point for each of my goals.

Your one word could be growth, respect, peace, purpose, passion, drive, focus, balance, life, courage, generous, go, thankful, intentional, love, discipline, intimacy, confidence, inspire, sparkle, joy, motivate, believe, commitment, explore, trust, shine, awesome, solid, etc. It may stem from what you struggled with in the previous year and want to get right this year. It may be what you want to attract in your life or how you want to show up in life this year. Whatever it is, when you decide on your one word for the year, it gives you more clarity, passion and focus for your life.

When I was doing this prayerfully, my mind wrestled with two words, growth and intentional. Although I was certain I wanted to grow in all my goal categories, I understood that the key component for me to grow is intention. I understood that what I lacked in previous years is a strong sense of intentionality to give me an 'omf' to go after the life that I want. I realized that I tend to step back into comfort and safety than move forward into growth. I went on to list the things I want to be intentional about and mirrored that into my goals.

From the study and living my one word theme so far, I concur with the authors that it brings simplicity and focus. It cuts through the distractions and keeps us focused on what really matters. For instance, if your one word is love, that is what would inform the goal categories you select, and thereafter steer you to pursue things that communicate love to you and others. You would identify the actions that you would take and the activities that you would engage in as well as the interactions you would avoid to make you feel loved or to express love to yourself and others.

The authors of this concept said that the one word theme stretches us in all areas of life. And if you have God help you identify your word, He would use your one word as a light and mirror - illuminating your path and revealing things that need to change. It facilitates a great journey of highs and lows, all designed to make you into the person you were created to be.

To me, one word theme is about simplifying life. I remember relating so well with a paragraph from the authors. This is what they said, "It's hard to simplify life. Narrowing the focus seems impossible. Over this past year you may have been asked several times, "How is it going?" Your response was probably something like, "I have been SO busy!" You never hear anyone say, "I have had so much time in my hands and I'm looking for something new to do". That person doesn't exist".

They went on to say, "You have tons of responsibilities and your schedule is crazy. You feel like you're sprinting in life. That's why we need to be intentional about clarifying and simplifying life. Embrace the simple discipline of developing just one word as a theme for the upcoming year". This is when I knew for sure that I needed this.

The point is to boil down your list of resolutions to one word, making it basic and simple. Your one word will have impact in all the six dimensions of your life: mental, physical, emotional, relational, spiritual and financial. Living out your word will keep you focused and prevent you from being distracted.

For optimal realization, the authors advised to keep your word front and center throughout the year. Tell your accountability partners and your family your word for the year. Write it in your journal. Post it in prominent places so you see it on a regular basis. Talk about it with your family at the dinner table. Create reminders for yourself. Do whatever it takes to keep it in focus and keep it fresh. What gets your attention gets your focus. What gets your focus gets done.

My addition is that you have your one word be one that whenever you see it or think about it, it illuminates your goals, such that you don't have goals that fall outside your one word theme. It should be a word that you can fit all your goals into. Let it feel like if someone were to use a magnifying glass to read your one word, they would see all your goals at a glance. As we live out our one word, let God use the simplicity of our one word themes to revolutionize our everyday lives.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi