Financial Freedom Workshop - Session 7

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).

2 Kings 20:1

“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.