debt

What Debt Promises

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

What I can promise you, debt will bring if you don’t manage debt and let debt manage you!

For so many people in this world, debt can be debilitating. Shopping with friends and you get asked: “would you like to apply for a credit card?” You qualify and here we go.

Most young people are never really taught the importance of good credit and managing money properly.

Debt – noun

something, typically money that is owed or due.

credit card, credit card bill, bankruptcy

Here are the promises debt makes and will keep:

  1. Constant stress over how you will pay your credit cards or other bills at the end of the month.
  2. Family stress. The number one killer of marriages is money. Buy homes we cannot afford, cars, furniture, clothes, on and on. Until the end of the month, and the dining table is covered in bills!
  3. Parents working one or two jobs to make it from one paycheck to the next. Waking up to find children grown and bitter. Why? You were never there! To busy trying to make a living, you forget to have an experience.
  4. The barrage of endless phone calls letting you know the obvious. You’re behind and we need a payment!
  5. Picking which bill gets paid and who does not get any money this month.
  6. Food vs. Credit
  7. Feeling as though one wrong move and financially, you are ruined. Stress beyond limits!
  8. Dark moments, suicidal thoughts all over bills.
  9. Keeping up with the Jones’s only to find ourselves in bankruptcy.
  10. Bad credit and loss of buying power. High rates of interest.

Imagine someone in your family deathly ill and you cannot come up with the money to travel. Another of debt’s promises!

Emotional purchases will sink your financial boat the quickest.

For example:

You go into a car dealership to buy a new car. You have a budget and payment in mind. Shopped online and narrowed down your search. All good stuff.

Upon arrival at the dealership, you begin to browse. “Wow look at this color, look at this car, check out these accessories.” All, of course, are on vehicles outside your budget. The internal battle begins. Metaphorically we’ve taken a raging alcoholic into a bar and said, don’t drink anything I will be back in an hour to pick you up! Only to come back and find your alcoholic passed out drunk.

If you do not control your spending, your debts will overtake your life. Guaranteed! Not too many things in this life come with a guarantee but debt does.

I have worked around consumer credit for thirty years now. Debt has also overtaken my life because I allowed it to get totally out of hand. The ten promises above are indicative of my own life. Poor choices have cost me plenty.

Parents or young people starting out. Educate yourself about credit and debt. Buying that beautiful $300 shirt that will make you look amazing. Won’t look so amazing at the end of the month if the money is not there to pay for it.

Sure, you can make the minimum payment and the $300 shirt becomes a $2000 shirt. Do the math on 26% interest and see what happens to the cost of just one item. Living paycheck-to-paycheck over several years. Chipping away at maxed-out credit cards will overtake your financial life.

Properly managed credit will make sure that your life will be filled with joy. Buying power and forethought to pay will allow you to own homes, cars, beautiful furniture, and other assets. With little to no stress.

TAKE EMOTION OUT OF ANY FINANCIAL EQUATION!

It does not sound fun, but the wake behind poor decisions can last years. Worse still ruin any chance you have of being a homeowner.

Imagine a mortgage broker coming back to you and saying, “unfortunately, YOUR credit will not allow us to give you a loan.” Devastating. Your credit prevents you and your spouse from homeownership. Sounds damned harsh because it is.

What can help:

  • Check out books by great financial folks like Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, let experts guide you.
  • Check out the credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. Lots of excellent free resources.

If you have credit issues, you can recover. Start back small and work your way again. There is always hope and with diligence, you will be back on track.

Questions or comments:

Faith or Give Up

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

What happens when you stay in faith even amid ruin? I can actually answer that!

Last month was shaping up to be brutal income wise. Negativity, in my own mind, was snowballing to the point I was in a very dark place. My day job is sales, and we no longer get commission vouchers to know where we are during the month with no real way to track. Not the fairest method to manage sales people “not my monkey not my circus.”

Handed deal after deal saying credit was not sufficient to purchase. Yet no notes that the company even tried beyond sending it in. Finance you have to walk on more difficult credit customers. Since this was my job for the last 25 plus years of my career. Particularly hard for me when I know some could be deals.

hope, prayer, freedom

Letting all this get to me it clouded my brain. Frustration took over.

Somehow through all of this, I mustered up the courage to continue to let God know that I was still here. Over-and-over I would say, “God has me.” Staring a mountain of debt in the face each month is tedious.

During the month, I would take time to just let God know I don’t see a way, so please make a way. I freely admit most of the time, I was really stressing out. Somehow though I was able to show God that it might only be a mustard seed of faith, I have hope.

Finally arrived pay-day. Contemplated how I would survive the month, what was I going to lose, on-and-on. Had asked God many times to please show me he is with me, that I don’t want to be in this dark hole.

My friend, who works in accounting stopped in my office to hand me my paycheck. As I sat in my chair, bracing myself for the worst. Opening the envelope to immediately look at the dollar amount. I had to stare at it for a moment to realize it was so much more than I imagined it would be. “Oh, my” and I began to cry.

Not only could I meet the obligations, but I also have enough left to pay extra. Not any other time in my life did I feel so humbled.

Keep in mind we are not privy to our income. Sales commissions can range from $100 to thousands, but we have no real way to know. So opening your paycheck is literally like seeing a lottery ticket. It may win big or may not win at all.

The point to all of this is, stay in faith. Even when you cannot see a way, a way is being made if you let God know, do the work you need to every day. I admit honestly if giving myself a grade, it would be a D-, yet as the bible says:

Matthew 17:20 King James Version (KJV)

20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; it shall remove; nothing shall be impossible unto you.

We all struggle through tough moments, and it is very hard not to lose faith and hope. For many years in my life, something like this last month, I would have thrown in the towel long before God could provide a miracle.

You just have to talk to God.

Comments & Questions:

 

 

Who is the Enemy

/ Robert Bruton / Leave a comment

Does the Devil Exist? Not the stereotypical Devil in the movies.

My life has never really been around the church or too caught up in religion. Never really understood what it meant to have a spiritual experience. I made fun of bible thumpers and religion. That comes from ignorance. It’s easy to make fun of something you’re ignorant too.

Fast forward fifty odd years to today. For a time, I studied metaphysics, enjoyed Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and other spiritual teachers, just putting my toe in the water. I attended a few classes, did some fun work. I learned meditation, yoga, and visualization. Never really got the deeper side of spiritual life.

Few more year’s pass and life took a giant dump straight on my head. Oh, indeed this is my doing you understand. You can’t blame your life on anyone but yourself. Take ownership of that. “Own that shit”—Harley Quinn.

In debt up to my neck, separated from my wife, past due with the IRS, and the list goes on. This time in my life, at times, got very dark and hopeless. Hopelessness brings about dark thoughts about does your life even matter. Who would give two shits’ if you were gone? Scary times.prayer,faith, spiritual

When you’ve hit rock bottom, it does lend itself to the revaluation that maybe you might need help beyond earthly help. Don’t have the money for therapy or any mental health care. Going to have to bootstrap help if I wanted it. So, begins my journey back to finding some spiritual peace.

This time I chose to seek the church. Didn’t want so-called organized religion but wanted to the Bible-based teaching of God’s word. What promises did the Bible hold out that I could have? Was I even deserving of any peace? With nowhere to turn, I got on Joel Osteen’s website and looked for a Church close to me. I do like Joel Osteen and read all his books.

As I began to search out God, my depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts went out of control. Man, I could not believe how hard I was crashing. It was worse now than it had ever been. I would cry, wondering, “oh my God, what did I do to piss you off this bad?” What I came to learn from wonderful folks in my Church this was then enemy attacking my thoughts, not God.

No, my head does not spin, and I don’t spit green vomit at the priest (for those of you that have seen the Exorcist). It took me a few weeks to grasp this. The attack in my head was not God punishing me at all. The Devil is keeping me right where he has had me most of my life. In a depressed state, with no hope.

The question for me became what is causing my life to for a time rock along all is well to falling off a cliff? Why do I continue to fall short in my life? For me, this took falling to rock bottom. To losing what I loved the most to finally saying to God, there has to be a better way. What do I do God?

So begins my journey to find spiritual awakening. How do I find peace? How do I find the life that the Bible promises? You’ve heard part of my answer finding the right church family. The second part of this is research into the why of my life. Why do I fail at just about everything? Not a pity party this is a real question I believe for all of us.

When I would share my feelings with people in my Church that have what I am seeking, true faith in God. I would say, why is God punishing me so hard? To the point of dark thoughts against myself. The pain is beyond what at the time I thought I could endure. One person in my Church explained to me this was an attack by the enemy. What did I say?  The enemy who is that?

Okay, so you’re telling me the Devil lives in me. Oh, great, I’m possessed. The reply is NO; you’re are suffering from an attack in your mind. The enemy wants you to be depressed, he wants you to lose everything, and he would even love for you to do something stupid. Wow, this was a lot to swallow, but it made sense.

We have a choice to believe the enemy who is a liar above all. Or, we can choose to find the word of God and have the life Jesus bought and paid for with his. The attack on me continued to get worse.

Times I would be sitting in my truck and scream at God “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” Where are you get in the game? Again, the enemy is filling my head with doubt. When you calm your mind (I do in meditation), then you can begin to feel God.

What helped me to understand this is Napoleon Hills book Outwitting the Devil. All of us love and have most likely read Think and Grow Rich. This new book did not get published in his lifetime. His family waited some thirty years to publish it. I will not spoil it for you, but it’s an eye opener from a beloved author. It helped save my life in many ways.

Another person who has opened my understanding of how a spiritual life works are TD Jakes. One of his sermons had me crying in thanks because it made sense to me ultimately. Let me paraphrase what I heard. “The enemy’s attack is not punishment, the enemy’s fierce attack is because he is afraid of you, he is afraid of your power.” The enemy is about to lose you from his bond in your life. Anytime, you speak the truth, God’s word or praise over your life. Expect, him to put garbage in your head to change you into his thinking.

Take time to do some preparation in your life for a change. Don’t do it alone! Find a Church that you feel comfortable with attending. It may take visiting a few, but you will find one. Get involved with folks you see that genuinely walk-the-walk pardon the cliché. Read and study all that you can. Always have in your mind that at every corner and turn your head will be telling you, oh this is stupid. All this faith and Church stuff is bologna. That is the enemy!

Here is where you have to get out of your head. We have to learn to live from your hearts, our soul vs. our head. Learning to receive God in our hearts, this is where you will find peace. Don’t scream, I can’t do that, yes you can. It is the hardest thing for me, as well.

Find a place where you feel at peace. A lake, pond, Mountain View, fountain, anywhere that makes you feel at peace. Where you can find God to speak to your heart, this is where you will find peace. The enemy has you in your head with you trying to figure everything out. Faith is giving all your cares to God and letting it be. The enemy will tell you, “you better take control, life is about to get WAY worse if you don’t  do something about it.” That’s all horse manure. Go to God in prayer, don’t BEG! Thank him for already blessing you with that which you desire.

 Always pray as though you already have that which you need. You will come to learn that all God asks is for your faith. Show him you are faithful even when it looks like disaster is imminent. Don’t lose hope no matter what!

The enemy lives in your head; God lives in your heart. Learn to decern the difference and life will truly change for you. It’s not hard, but it’s a battle. The enemy will not give up easily, but I know in my heart that if you stay strong in faith, God will pull you through. Have an open heart!