FINANCIAL PLANS #1

 

            Are you like me? Do you like lists? I like to joke that sometimes I have a list of lists. When I was getting ready to go to college, I prepared a list of the various lists that I would need to create to be ready…list of books, of clothes, of groceries, of items for the room, etc. etc. Each week, when I get in the office, I sit down with my calendar and with my list from the prior week and create a list for the upcoming week… of appointments, of tasks, etc. Some of the tasks are “repeaters”, but some are new. As new work comes it, I add it to the current week’s list. Each item gets crossed out as it gets done. For me, that plan works; it forces me to go through, in my mind, everything I have to consider for the upcoming week and allows me to plan what time I have available and how to do what I need to do in the time I have.

            Of course, not everyone is a list person. But all of us should do planning of some kind for various reasons. One of the plans we should put in place are financial plans. You’ve probably heard some of the statistics: most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and many have no savings.

            For the same reason that I create a list: I can’t keep everything memorized in my head; we have to have a written plan, because we can’t keep our financial lives in our head either!

            For a personal financial plan, it should:

• ·         Prioritize savings for the future
• ·         Focus on reducing existing debt
• ·         Divide the rest of your income into your expense categories, like housing, food, clothing, transportation.

·         Do all of this, keeping God in mind.

            This same idea could help your church too! Churches should have financial plans as well. Many churches, both pre-COVID and post-COVID are in the mindset that they have financial problems. I still hold the firm belief that no church has financial problems; the money issues that they have are symptoms of the real problems. A financial plan would help you and the church leadership focus on what those real problems are. Next week, I will talk about how to start financial planning for the church.

 

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like help with financial planning.