I’m an avid reader, and I’m also a frugal shopper. So anytime I find a new website that save me money on books it is a great thing.

I found out about PaperBackSwap.com from The Simple Dollar.

This website is basically a huge community where you can exchange books. When you first sign-up for membership, you are asked to list nine books you want to swap. After doing this you receive three credits that you can use to request any of the one million books that are currently available.

Any time a book that you have listed gets requested, you are given a label to print out and use to wrap and mail. It’s really quite easy. I just signed up for an account and listed nine books that I don’t want anymore. Within two days I already had a request for two of them. I printed out the labels and shipped them out at the post office this morning. So now I’ve gained two more credits that I can use.

Check it out and start trading books. If you have old books laying around your house, this is a great way to reduce the clutter as well.

Trent over at The Simple Dollar has an excellent post about “What, Why, and How I Read“. I knew that he was well read, but it was still a shock to hear the vast amount of reading he does each day. Four books and four magazines in a week is pretty amazing. One commenter mentions how that comes down to two pages a minute in the couple hours he reads each day. But the content in his blog goes to show his knowledge and expertise on many subjects.

According to this article, Americans watch an average of 19 hours of television each week. That’s almost 3 hours a day. Yikes! When I started college I committed to reading consistently each day. If we can afford to watch 3 hours of television, surely we can afford to read for at least 1 hour a day.

So here’s a typical reading schedule I have each day:
- 30 minutes of reading my Bible (My quiet time with God)
- 30 minutes of reading magazines or blogs
- 30-60 minutes of reading various books

The magazines I read currently are The Economist and Kiplinger’s. Since I don’t have cable to watch CNN, I get my world news facts mainly from The Economist. This news magazine has heavy content, and I often struggle to finish an issue in one week before the next one arrives. But reading it helps me keep informed about world politics, finance, and science and technology. I highly recommend it. Kiplinger’s is a personal finance magazine that I also highly recommend. I used to get Money magazine, which is equally as good. What I really appreciate about Kiplinger’s magazine is that no matter what level of expertise you have, there are always new tips and insights you can learn.

I’m usually reading 3-4 books at any given time. Currently I’m reading:
Weight of Glory - C. S. Lewis
Comma Sutra: Position Yourself For Success With Good Grammar - Laurie Rozakis
Frommer’s Greece - John Bowman (For my upcoming honeymoon)

Read all sorts of literature and writing to exercise your mind. Sometimes I pick up classics to challenge my level of reading. All in all, reading increases my knowledge, adds to my vocabulary, and improves my writing. If you aren’t in the habit of reading each day, set a goal and try it out. Even a commitment to read 30 minutes a day can greatly benefit you.

One final thought. Whenever I fly on a plane or take public transportation, I always notice people that have nothing to read. This boggles my mind. As soon as I get into my seat I pull out one of my magazines or one of my books and start reading. Then usually the guy next to me looks at me and gives me a bored look. But after a few minutes he reaches for the Skymall catalogue and peruses it three times from cover to cover. My advice, don’t ever be caught without something to read. Most of you carry a backpack or purse, so it’s easy to carry a magazine or a paperback with you. In fact, I carry a pocket New Testament on my person at all times. I’ve turned to it many times when I have some down time, or I’m in a situation where I’m waiting for something.

This is the last lesson in the Managing Finances God’s Way series. My church has been working through this material during our Sunday School classes. Overall, I’ve been pleased with the quality of the material and the information offered in this study.

In this final lesson we look at the topic of how God desires us to enjoy the resources that he has blessed us with. The DVD lesson was led by Chuck Bentley, from Crown Financial Ministries.

Bentley teaches us that “God truly wants us to enjoy the resources that he has given to us.” He gives us four supporting ideas from the Bible that confirm this to be true.

1. The Lord expects us to take care of our families. 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” God blesses us with resources, and He intends for part of those resources to be used to provide for the family.

2. The Lord wants us to enjoy regular periods of rest and refreshment. We each need opportunities to be refreshed and renewed by God. Even with a hectic schedule, God desires us to allow our resources to give us that rest that we need.

3. The Lord tells us that when we enjoy his blessings, we bring him more glory. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 says, “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”

4. The Lord instructs us to enjoy blessing the people he puts in our lives to serve. God intends the blessings and resources to benefit not only ourselves, but also our neighbors who may be in need. 2 Corinthians 9:11 says, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Bentley goes on to share dangers that can rob us of our enjoyment of God’s resources.

1. Worry - Matthew 6:25 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” Bentley encourages us to replace anxiousness with trust and prayer. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

2. Comparison - When we compare ourselves with other people, we often end up becoming prideful, or feeling a sense of self-pity. The antidote to this danger is to replace comparison with contentment. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’.”

3. Selfishness - This sin can so easily creep up on us as we enjoy what God has blessed us with. The goal should be to imitate Christ in his selflessness. This selfishness should be replaced by sacrifice. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

4. False Guilt - If the handling of our finances needs improvement, God offers us forgiveness and grace. We can replace this sense of guilt with gratitude because we know that God is faithful to those who confess and seek forgiveness. We are all in the process of becoming more like Christ, and so there is always room for growth. Romans 8:1 teaches us that, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

In the end, what it all boils down to is an issue of the heart. Jesus taught us that we cannot serve two masters. We will love one and hate the other. Though our money and resources may give us a false sense of worth or security, we should never place our hope in these material things. Only God who is the provider of all things deserves our trust and obedience.

This is lesson five of the series Managing Finances God’s Way that my Sunday school is going through. The video lesson was led by Howard Dayton, the CEO of Crown Financial Ministries.

Dayton begins by citing Bible verses that specifically address the issue of debt:

Romans 13:8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.”

Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

The deeper we get into debt, the more of a servant we become to our creditors. So Dayton shares nine steps to becoming debt free.

Step 1 - Pray. Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Step 2 - Develop of debt free mind set. This comes down to will and determination. You must be fully committed in becoming debt free.

Step 3 - List all your debts. Write down how much you owe and what interest rate they are on.

Step 4 - List everything you own. Ultimately we’re looking for things that we could sell. The money you make can be put towards the debt.

Step 5 - Establish a spending plan. This is essentially sitting down with your family and writing down a basic budget for the things you really need.

Step 6 - Establish a debt repayment schedule. Dayton shares the same method that Dave Ramsey always teaches: the debt snowball method. Although the interest rates might be different, there is a psychological motivation to pay off small debts first and eliminate one debt after another.

Step 7 - Consider earning additional income. The only caution here is to ensure that this doesn’t cause tension or neglect to the family.

Step 8 - Consider a radical change in your lifestyle. I agree with Dayton here that this is one of the most crucial steps in getting out of debt and staying out of debt. Having a debt problems is often because we try to have a higher standard of living.  It is not because we don’t make enough income.  Lowering your standard of living ensures that you will not fall back into debt.

Step 9 - Don’t give up. There is in fact a light at the end of the tunnel.  With patience and diligence, debt can be eliminated once and for all.  Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

After the video lesson, my small group had a good discussion time as well.  In an Asian culture in which my friends and I grew up, our parents were very adamant about being careful with credit cards and paying the balance off in full.  In fact, I didn’t end up getting a credit card until senior year in college because my mom always told me too many people are careless with credit cards.  But amongst my friends and I, we don’t have much consumer debt, but we do have student debt.  Whether from law school, dental school, business school, or even undergraduate, a common theme is that many of us young professionals have large student debt.

We are all determined to pay off our loans and get out of debt.

Okay maybe I’m a little quick to pass judgment. Last night I was at Borders reading the book Getting Things Done by David Allen for almost two hours. The book has had a cult following ever since its publishing back in 2001. A lot of people subscribe to its tenants and techniques and swear that it has revolutionized the way they manage their daily life. One finance blogger has even claimed that GTD has completely changed his life. If the methods for time management found in this book have been helpful to others, I was hoping that it would be helpful to me as well.

Unfortunately I only got through a quarter of the book last night. I tried utilizing speed reading techniques but I still feel like I’m a slow reader. Darn it, I hate how I subvocalize as I read. From what I’ve read so far, the GTD system seems a little clunky. Allen does a great job of writing clearly and concisely, but so far, the system itself comes off as being complex and convoluted.  It would take me some time to set up the system and even more time to get comfortable with it until it becomes second nature.
I’m going back to Borders again tonight and committing to read more of the book. In the end I guess I can’t truly comment on whether this book deserves high regard until this GTD system is tested in the real world.

I’ll report back in a couple weeks and if I see significant improvements in my time management and productivity, I’ll write a full review for the book.  Until then time is money, so go and get things done!

My church is continuing through a Sunday School series called Managing Finances God’s Way. We went through the fifth lesson today on the topic of saving and investing. The lesson was taught by Ron Blue who is the president of Christian Financial Professionals Network.

Blue begins this lesson with a few Biblical principles that ought to govern our savings and investing.

Proverbs 28:20, “A faithful man will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”

Principle: “The world says, ‘Get rich quick.’ The Bible says, ‘Get rich slow.”

Luke 14:28, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?”

Principle: “Take a long-term perspective on all of your investment decisions.”

Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.”

Principle: The Bible teaches us to diversify out investments.

Wealth comes from long-term investing and using a strategy of diversification. Einstein has been reported to have said that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” You don’t have to earn a lot to necessarily accumulate wealth. The key is to be consistent in saving and to start early.

Blue gives a five-step sequence to invest wisely. Let’s take a look at each step:
1. Pay off consumer debt.
Paying off credit card debt is one of the first priorities in saving and investing. I agree with Blue that this ought to be the first step. Sometimes big sacrifices need to be made, or even a lifestyle change in order to attack the problem of consumer debt.

2. Set money aside for an emergency fund.
Although Blue sets this as step 2, I am tempted to say that this should be done in conjunction with step 1. If setting aside money for an emergency fund is difficult, one can set a goal to save just a few hundred dollars. Even a few hundred dollars can be a comforting buffer as you work to get out of debt.

3. Save for major purchases.
The next step Blue gives is to set goals and save for major purchases. Whether saving for a down-payment or a new vehicle, creating a savings plan can help attain your goals.

4. Diversify your investments to meet long-term needs.
This next step is a must-do for both short-term and long-term investments. It is true that you shouldn’t place all you eggs in one basket.

5. Begin taking calculated financial risk.
I think this step can be applied any time as you begin to invest and save for the future. The amount of risk you take should depend primarily on your time frame of investing. If you have a long time horizon, you can be willing to take more risk. But if your time horizon is short, you don’t have the luxury to risk losing your money. Your investment choices should be more conservative with less time.

This is the third part of the Sunday School series that my church is going through in Managing Finances God’s Way.

Ron Blue is the president of Christian Financial Professionals Network. He led the DVD session in this lesson. He starts off by giving us four biblical principles of money management:

1. Spend less than you earn. Proverbs 21:20 says, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”

2. Avoid the use of debt. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

3. Build an emergency fund. Proverbs 6:6-8 says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

4. Set long-term goals.

The way Ron Blue sees it, you can do five things with money:

1. Giving. For Christians, “giving should be the first priority”.

2. Saving and Investing. “A little bit over a long time frame makes a big difference.”

3. Debt Repayment. “If you borrow money, then you are obligated to repay it”.

4. Taxes. Just as Ben Franklin said, “there are two things certain in life: death and taxes.”

5. Lifestyle. We ought to “provide for our family, have a lifestyle we are content with, and enjoy what God has given us.”

This lesson has provided simple but important principles in our stewardship of our finances. Out of the five things we can do with money, its often giving and debt repayment that gets neglected. Personally, I think I’ve done a decent job setting goals and building an emergency fund, but I’d still like to completely get out of debt soon. With over twenty thousand in student loans it feels like a long road ahead. Hopefully with discipline and wise money management it will soon be a reality.

I went through lesson 2 of Managing Our Finances God’s Way yesterday at church. It was another really good lesson and this time it taught by Chip Ingram.

Chip started off the lesson with similar principles as Rick Warren had done in the previous lesson. “God owns everything, and we are his money managers.”

But we are not only managing God’s money. Chip goes into detail about how we are stewards of other gifts as well:
our time, our role as a spouse or parent, our spiritual gifts, the gospel, and finally the people that God has placed in our lives.

An anecdote that Chip shares captures this idea well. When he was a young and just starting out as a pastor, an elder in his church decided to invest in him and teach him stewardship values. The elder gave Chip a checkbook and $5,000 to spend however Chip saw fit. The elder asked Chip to carry that checkbook everywhere and that every morning when he woke up he was to ask how best the money could be used to serve other. He gave examples like: the troubled teen looking for a place to stay, the family struggling to pay the utility bills, a homeless man in need of food. As time past, Chip began to realize how careful he became about using the checkbook and how he intentionally looked for opportunities to be generous. If was easy to be a good steward of that checkbook, but he realized that his own money and salary ought to be treated in the same manner. Chip had learned a valuable lesson from that elder that if we truly live as if we are managing someone else’s money, we would be more prudent in our spending and we would be more intentional in our generosity.

Chip concludes by challenging the viewer to dedicate everything to God. All that we own, the salaries we make, the jobs that we have. He gives us five reasons why we should dedicate it all to God:
1. It all belongs to Him.
2. You are his money manager.
3. You cannot serve two masters.
4. You can make an impact on eternity.
5. God blesses that which we dedicate.

After the video we separated into small groups and talked about the principles we just learned. For myself one of the biggest challenges is to truly live believing that everything belongs to God. Its so easy to forget and live as if my salary and my savings were mine to use however I want. Fortunately I have an encouraging fiancée who is like-minded and on the same page with me about these issues. We constantly challenge each other in our faith and how we steward our finances. We both believe that everything belongs to God and that he calls us to manage His money and resources. Though God has blessed both of us with good income we both strive to take what we need and then be generous with the rest.

Like other bloggers I am a bibliophile. I read a lot of books. I have a lot of books. Once I get married and move into a new apartment, I hope to have even more. Okay, okay, I know that I don’t have to own every book that I read, but it is nice to have a decent collection. But I need a place to put all these books.

Currently I have a mishmash of bookcases that are all different sizes and shapes. I still have some books in paper bags that I bought at used book library sales. The frugal part of me wants to buy a few more used bookcases from craigslist, but to be honest I have never been satisfied with MDF laminate bookcases. They are cheap construction, prone to chipping, and they aren’t particularly good looking.  I’d rather spend the money to buy matching bookcases and that are more durable and sturdy.
I’ve been looking at different solid wood options but I haven’t found anything I like yet. Ideally it would be nice to set up three large bookcases in my apartment when I move in and I wouldn’t have to worry about shelf space for a long time.

I’ve been looking at the option of building my own and customizing the dimensions. I found two bookcase building plans that I might try out:
Black & Decker Projects
Popular Mechanics Projects

My church went through the first lesson of Managing Finances God’s Way and it was really good. This first lesson was taught by Rick Warren on The Big Picture, a broad overview of the Bible and money.

Rick Warren teaches us that everything we have is a gift from God. He desires to work through each of us and our finances.

He first covers two misconceptions about money that people often have:
1. Money is evil. 1 Timothy 6:10a “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. The Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of evil. Money itself is neutral whether we have much or little. But God desires to be the Lord over our lives instead of having money be our master.
2. Money is the key to happiness. We know that winning the lotto or making millions in our lifetime doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness. In fact the Bible says in Mark 8:36 “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

“True financial freedom is not determined by how much money you make, its determined by how you spend what you have.” Ultimately its an issue of contentment. “A truly wealthy person is a person who is content with what he or she has.”

After the 20 minute video, we broke up into small groups for discussion questions. In our group we talked about how content we are in our current financial situation. For me I shared that I have been really grateful for the job that I have and the ways in which God has provided for me in the past. I also believe that God has been teaching me lessons on stewardship and generosity these past couple of years. Although I will still be paying off my student loans for a while, I’m able to save money for my wedding and take care of all my expenses.

In the video Rick Warren concludes with the thought that our finances is an acid test of our faith. I agree wholeheartedly that the way we steward our finances is an indication of where our heart is. I look forward to next Sunday when we will cover lesson 2 - Dedicate It All To God.