Sermon Central
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Financial Freedom Workshop - Session 7
Contributed by Aaron Mishoe on Apr 2, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: Show your family you love them by doing estate planning.
Download the free PowerPoint and teaching materials at www.LisbonWC.org/free.htm
FINANCIAL FREEDOM WORSHOP
Session 7
Developed from the books Your Money Map: A Proven 7 Step Guide to True Financial Freedom and The Total Money Makeover.
REVIEW
- This is our last session today.
- We started the workshop by helping you form a budget.
- Following a balanced budget and working through the destinations slow and steady will bring you to today’s location eventually.
- If you are not at this point yet, let today give you hope for the time when you will be.
THE ROAD TO FINACIAL FREEDOM
MONEY MAP
Destination #1
- Begin using a spending plan
- Save $1,000 for emergencies
Destination #2
- Pay off credit cards
- Increase savings to one month’s living expenses
Destination #3
- Pay off all consumer debt
- Increase savings to three month’s living expenses
Destination #4
- Begin saving for major purchases (home, auto, etc.).
- Begin saving for retirement.
- Begin saving for children’s education.
- Begin saving to start a business. (If this is a goal for you.)
DESTINATION #5
- Buy an affordable home.
- Pay off your mortgage.
DESTINATION #6
- Home mortgage paid off.
- Children’s education funded.
- Confirm estate plans are in order.
- Begin investing and increase giving
- The first two parts of this Destination are basically a check list.
- Check it off it you have completed these.
- The last two are action plans which we will focus on this week.
- When you reach this Destination of being debt free including the house, you have entered the top 2% of America (Ramsey).
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die’.”
ESTATE PLANNING
- Does everyone need a will?
- The only person that can get by without a will is someone that owns nothing and has no family.
- Everyone else needs a will!
- Most of us will be the most wealthy in our lives at the point of our death. We have a house and a car that we don’t need plus other belongings.
Dying without a will
- “70% of Americans will die without a will” (Ramsey).
- If you die without a will, the state decides how to distribute your assets and even who will be the guardian of your children.
- Dave Ramsey says, “A will is a gift you leave your family or loved ones. It is a gift because it makes the management of your estate very clear and light-years easier.”
- Estate planning is not merely a financial or legal matter; it is a spiritual exercise we work out in God’s presence and for His glory.
Note about prepaid funerals
- “Preplanning the details of your funeral is wise, but prepaying is unwise” (Ramsey).
- One woman at age 39 decided to pay $3,500 for a prepaid funeral.
- If she would have invested that $3,500 in a mutual fund ...” at the average age of death the mutual fund would be worth $368,500! (Ramsey).
- Proper planning for retirement or investing will more than pay for a funeral.
- Preplanning is good, but not prepaying.
Select the next stewards of God’s money
- After wealthy John D. Rockefeller dies, his accountant was asked how much he left. The accountant responded, “He left it all”.
- 1 Timothy 6:7 “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing our of it.”
- You have only three choices for who will receive your estate:
~ Your heirs
~ Non-profit organizations
~ Government
Providing for your heirs
- Proverbs 13:22 ‘A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”
- Train your children to be wise with money before you die.
- The inheritance should not be distributed until they have been trained.
- Proverbs 20:21 “An inheritance gained hurriedly at the beginning will not be blessed in the end.”
- If you are able, consider giving part of your inheritance away while you are still alive.
- It is one way to guarantee it goes where you want it to.
- One man gave his children their inheritance a little at time at ages 21, 30, and 35.
- His hope was that they would learn from their mistakes and become wiser with their money.
- You can also gage how each of your children will handle money and decide how much or if they will get more in the future.
- How much will you leave your family?
- Some have limited it to only cover the costs of college and vocational training.
- Other choose to leave it all to their children.
Consider holding a family conference
- Few areas have more potential for harming family relationships than squabbles over inheritance.
