Tag Archives: finances

March 4, 2011

You Can’t Have That!

By Chris LoCurto
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Today we are in Kansas City for the EntreLeadership 1-Day event teaching business owners and leaders how to grow and build their business. And I just want to say that I am a capitalist! I have no problem with someone leaving the cave, killing something, dragging it home, and keeping it!

My New iPhone 4 Arrived today! - June 29, 2010

The Bible specifically says the diligent will prosper. If I decide to put my energy into creating a product that changes or enhances lives, and I make money for that, what’s the problem?

There is this crazy idea that you shouldn’t be able to make a lot of money for your hard work. If you do, you should give it all away. Who came up with this idea?

I don’t know who came up with the idea, but I do know who brings it up all the time. It’s always someone who doesn’t have anything. Someone who isn’t willing to work their tail off to obtain a better standard of living.

Someone who thinks that life and money should be handed to them. This is the same person who wants to partake in luxuries but doesn’t want the company who makes those luxuries to have any money.

Question for ya: How would Apple research, develop, and get the iPhone out to market if it didn’t have any cash? “Didn’t a lot of this stuff start in a garage somewhere?” Yes! And do you remember how long it took to get to market? Be reasonable.

Does this mean that I don’t think businesses should give? Not at all. In fact, David Green, CEO of Hobby Lobby, recently gave $70 million to a university. $70 MILLION! Now ya can’t do that if you don’t have any money, can you?

On the way back from lunch today, I saw two people standing in a median, each with a stop sign on a stick that read, “STOP CORPORATE TAKEOVER.” That’s right. Two healthy-looking people, in the middle of a workday, denouncing corporate “greed” to everyone who drove by.

I didn’t see that they were getting much support. After all, most of us were on our way to earn our living by working for those “greedy” corporations who pay us.

I believe most people are not upset about what other people have. They’re upset about what they don’t have. Again, the diligent prosper. If you want more, instead of being jealous of someone else, try working harder. Or come up with other ways to make money.

Don’t be a hater! (That’s street lingo.) I once heard that the difference between jealousy and envy is with envy, you want what someone has. With jealousy, you want what they have, and you don’t want them to have it.

Let’s just work on getting what we want and not worry about what others have, mmmkay? Please share some situations that you’ve experienced.

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2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in EntreLeadership, Financial

January 20, 2011

Aren’t I Your Favorite?

By Chris LoCurto
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being on a missions trip…it’s how to negotiate! Okay, I’ve learned a ton of spiritual stuff as well, but inevitably, on each missions trip comes the free day where you go to the local market. Ohhhhhh yeaaaaaaah, shopping at its finest. This is where you can find just about anything carved out of a coconut…or a stump. You can get your hair braided so tight that your grandchildren will have a headache. You can pick up a cross made out of….stuff that you don’t recognize. It’s the day we ‘set free’ the kids that have traveled with us, and tell them to go buy something to bless their parents and supporters.

It’s not uncommon for you to be walking by the huts, which are outside in eleven thousand degree weather, for the seller to wave a fan handmade out of banana leaves at you and tell you that they have air conditioning. It’s quite funny, but you have to realize that these are people trying to put food on their table just like the rest of us. At these markets we would always tell the youth on the trip with us to not just take the first price offered. These folks are used to negotiating. In fact, in most countries other than ours, they are used to negotiating at markets. Therefore, you always figure out what you are willing to pay for the item, go lower than that, and try and negotiate to your price. What’s really funny is watching one of our youth lock onto something that they really want, and they try to negotiate. Once they see you’re sold, they don’t back down. But if you act like it’s no big deal, they will drop the price with every step you take walking away from their merchandise.

“That’s great Chris, I’m sure that’ll help me on my next missions trip. But what can I do with that here?” Well, the truth is, I negotiate stuff here all the time just by asking. The Bible says you have not ’cause you ask not. So ask! Many times at car rental places I have been the sweetest and most charming guy, and then asked for a free upgrade by saying, “Can you upgrade me for free since I’m your favorite?!” The crazy thing is, it has worked more than not. The same thing at hotels when asking for a better room. During Christmas, when a store is packed, is a great time to ask for a discount. Just about anyone is able to give a ten percent discount.

The point is, it’s not that difficult to negotiate a better rate on the things you are buying. Just be realistic,and expect someone to do the same to you. :-)

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January 12, 2011

Oh, I Wasn’t Supposed To Do That?

By Chris LoCurto
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no credit

Image by TheTruthAbout via Flickr

A fantastic comment came in from the great Misty Gilbert:

“Chris, I do have a scenario recently experienced and am curious what you all would advise. I have a client (doctor) that has purchased a practice that has been in business 24 years. He is not out of debt and is not following The Baby Step principles. In fact, he has a very poor situation with bankruptcy 6 years ago.

I am setting up his practice from the ground up. I know none of this follows the “Dave Plan” but wondered how you would advise a business owner in regards to credit. How do you help someone when you have run into issues getting him a bank loan, credit card machine, vendor agreements, utilities when he has poor credit?

I know Dave would say he shouldn’t buy the business if he can’t pay cash for it, and he can’t. I know Dave would say operate the business without credit cards, and he won’t. Do you feel credit is a good thing in the business world? How would he establish these things with no credit? Maybe this can be a blog post?

For those of you who’ve been through our stuff, and have never run your own business, you’re probably thinking this is a silly question. But the truth is, this is a very common question that we get from business owners. When you step into the business world, you have a hard time finding people who are running a business debt free. They’re out there, you just don’t notice them until you start running your business debt free. Therefore, it seems reasonable to use debt to start and grow your venture. This, however, is a really bad idea.

All throughout the Bible it says that debt is either a curse or it’s something that a fool does. Nowhere does it differentiate between personal and business. Therefore, if you can’t run your business debt free, you shouldn’t be in it. “But how can anyone start a business then?!?!” Save for it. Yes, save money. Sixty percent of all new businesses start on less than $5,000. You need to work like crazy at what you’re doing until you save enough money to move into what you love. Plain and simple. “That’s great, how does it help this guy?”

Well, he’s already bought the practice, so he’s in. But from here on out he needs to run it like they did in the old days. Obviously he shouldn’t be getting any loans at all. He should have proven to himself that with the bankruptcy, debt isn’t the way to go. Instead of a credit card machine, he goes to an old carbon slider. If the issue with getting a machine is lack of credit, he doesn’t take cards right now; checks and cash. Or, get PayPal hooked up to a debit card. Vendors may have to be paid up front for a while until he earns their trust. It’s the same with utilities. You can do a turn on fee and first month’s payment. Is it tough? YES! But I can promise that the sweat equity will be way less stressful than the bankruptcy was!

The biggest issue, (by the way, this was a softball pitch by Misty, she actually knows the answer) is to actually plan for the future. Manage cash flow so you can actually have something to build a business with. Jumping in with nothing and expecting everything to work and make lots of money is an immature way of running a business. Adults plan and prepare. Seventy-four percent of the Forbes Four Hundred say that getting out of debt and staying out of debt is how they became successful.

Last year I started a real estate company with cash. No debt, and I only make moves that I can fund with cash. Plain and simple. There’s no business deal that could make me want to go back into debt. I trust God WAY more than I trust me.

Give me your thoughts on this topic. Leave a comment on this post for others to get involved.


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6 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Financial, Small Business

January 6, 2011

Dude…Where’s My Car?

By Chris LoCurto
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Car rental counters of New Chitose Airport
Image via Wikipedia

It’s almost an inevitable question when talking with people who aren’t fully immersed in the FPU plan. When I tell people that I haven’t had a credit card in now eleven years, they have a tendency to say, “You don’t have any credit cards whatsoever?! How do you…rent a car. I hear you can’t rent from most rental car places without a credit card!”

Now, if that’s you, I don’t mean to offend you, but you’re a little behind the times. With what I get to do, I have traveled every year, for the past ten years, more than most people I’ve ever met. (See the Southwest Airlines post to see how many flights.) I say that to then say, I’ve done all of that travel with only two debit cards; a business debit card and a personal debit card. Now, in the early days, it was a little difficult to rent from the companies that charge too much for a car, but why rent from them anyway. The reason they didn’t take debit cards was simple, you most likely won’t upgrade with a debit card. They’ve since realized that they are losing business by not taking them. For the last five or six years, I haven’t found a company that still only takes credit cards.

With that said, there are some things you have to deal with. Most places ARE going to put a hold of a certain amount on your bank account. But again, if you’re following the plan, you should actually have MONEY in your account. It’s usually anywhere from $150 to $300, and it gets removed when you turn in the car and pay for it. At an airport rental place, you most likely can’t rent one way with a debit card without calling first. And, it’s always a good idea to call anyway just to make sure you haven’t found the one branch that’s still stuck in the past. (We almost never actually call and I still haven’t had a problem.) Other than that, it’s the same as with a credit card. The world is changing my friend. The more people refuse to use credit, the more companies will pay attention!

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December 31, 2010

Is That Your Wallet Vibrating…

By Chris LoCurto
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Tomorrow is a brand spankin’ new year! And with each new year, comes resolutions. In our business, we have two New Year’s: one at the beginning of each year, and one when the kids go back to school. Both times of year people decide that they are going to get their finances in order. It’s a funny phenomena. It’s like people wake up one day and think, “Oh crud! My finances are whack!” Or something like that. Then they seek out any possible way to try and get back on track, as if they were on the tracks to start with. There’s a lot of midnight cable watching, brother-in-law asking, get rich scheme talkin’ goin’ on. But for a select percentage of the population, they actually get on a plan that changes how they handle their finances for life: our plan! (Insert guy with pearly white teeth and a single “DING” sound.)

But let’s go back to the other FANTASTIC ideas that will help people stop their horrid spending habits and get focused on the things that will truly make them rich. Like the three wallets that fine folks at M.I.T. came up with. As Michael Koretzky reported, they developed some wallets to combat “our consumer impulses.”

  • The Bumblebee – which vibrates whenever your bank registers a transaction.
  • The Mother Bear – which has a hinge that gets tougher to open as your account gets smaller.
  • The Peacock – which inflates or deflates as your account gets cash flush or cash poor.

As I read this I couldn’t help but think, “These are some great novelty items.” That’s right, novelty. “But Chris, wouldn’t that stop my over-spending? Wouldn’t that keep my bank account full? Wouldn’t that get me on the path to financial freedom?” Uhhhhhh, no. It really wouldn’t. Disciplining yourself to be on a budget that allows you to spend for what you need AND (here it comes) want, will get you on the path. Yes you can actually budget the things that you want as well as need. Actually having a plan of how to live on less than you make will get you on that path. A trick wallet that tells you how dumb you’ve been lately isn’t the thing that’ll do it. Pretty soon you’ll just get tired of the wallet telling you what you can and cannot do, and you’ll toss it for the one that was more spender friendly.

Please…pleeeeeeease start your year off right and get on a plan. It’s really not that hard to do, and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

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December 22, 2010

That’s Just Silly

By Chris LoCurto
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We’ve known Dave Ramsey for a long time. A really long time. And while I would charge the gates of hell with him, side by side with nothing but water pistols, I do have to say that I have had…oooooh…moments of doubt. I know, I know, it’s crazy, but you have to realize that until ten years ago, we….dare I say it…weren’t following the plan. We were friends with Dave and Sharon, but didn’t realize how stupid we were being. So when we started the plan, a little tool popped up for us to use: the Envelope System. To which I said, “That’s just silly. I’m not carrying that around.”

In case you don’t know, the purpose of the envelope system is to take the budget that you should have done, spending money on paper before the month begins, and filling  the envelope with cash for the budget categories that you don’t just write checks for, like bills. Examples would be groceries, eating out, entertainment, clothing, etc. (In one guys case he had a pot envelope. Yes, pot. When he realized how much he was spending a month on pot, he quit smoking.) So if you budget $100 for entertainment, that’s all you end up spending. When the envelope is empty, you go home and count the number of ketchup packets you have in the fridge for entertainment instead.

And me in all of my brilliance, thought that I had a better way. But we did something that I thought was pretty smart. We collected receipts on things that we bought for a couple of weeks. It was just something that I wanted to see out of curiosity. When I saw how much money was being spent at the BP on just sodas and junk food, I became a huge proponent of the envelope system. It was ridiculous! We quickly decided that Dave was right….’cause Dave was right, and we began making giant steps towards getting control of our finances, and getting out of debt.

We hit it hard for a year and got completely out of debt except for the house. We went on a work trip, where we tagged a couple of vacation days on, and I forgot to get the budget done and the money for the envelope system. But I thought, “It’s no big deal, I’ll just use my debit card and keep track in my head what we’ve spent. I won’t go over.” Well, I’m sure you know what happened next.

So next time you see something that seems a little silly, maybe spend a few minutes actually learning what its purpose really is. It just might save you some trouble.

Now I know those of you reading this have had a similar experience. Comment about it.If you are enjoying these posts, be sure to click the follow button.

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December 16, 2010

Don’t Touch That!

By Chris LoCurto
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Theif caught in the act

Image by GollyGforce - on a new quest via Flickr

Ann Brenoff posted a couple of months ago about an armored truck in Indianapolis that dropped a few boxes of cash on the street. People slammed on their brakes, leaped from their cars, and grabbed as much money as they could. Then they took off with their new-found blessing. At least that must be the way they saw it. I’m a little shocked, although I probably shouldn’t be, that people would not see that as stealing. It took a guy picking what was left up, putting it in his car, and waiting for the police for people to stop taking the money. Ann feels that this is a sign of the economical times hitting people so hard that they would be willing to steal. Hmmmm.

We were on vacation in Orlando sitting out at the pool waiting to watch one of the Harry Potter movies on a big screen they put out there. The movie is so not important to this story, but it was pretty cool to watch a movie on a big screen at a pool. Anyway, we were working on our iPads when a couple from England sat down next to us. The husband immediately made a comment about our iPads and shared how they both have them. He then ran back to his room, grabbed his iPad, ran back, and began to show us how to “jailbreak” it and get whatever applications you want. He then made the comment, “why not, they’ve been stickin’ it to us for years!” I can’t help but wonder who they are. Where do you find “they”? Should there be a www.they.com that you could blame for all of your hardships in life? To the best of my knowledge, most of the they’s are people or small business that created an application that make my life either easier or more fun. I’m not really sure how they have “stuck” it to me for so long. Maybe I’m ignorant about how I’m being taken advantage of by the guy who created iThoughts, which makes my life so much easier, and he only charged me $9.99 for it. Hmmmm.

While I think the issue of stealing is deeper than just hard economic times, (I’m Christian you see) I do know that when you follow God’s principles for handling money, you don’t need to steal. In fact, you have no desire to steal. Crazy thing is that when you come to the realization who it actually belongs to, a natural result is you becoming more of a giver. Does that mean you won’t fall on hard times, heck no! It just means your dependency becomes less on survival like wild animals, and more on trust that He will provide for you every day. “Well that’s easy to say sitting where you are now, on the other side of this kind of stuff!” Ha! I laugh at you! (Which is really me since I’m writing this) If that’s what you’re thinking, they you’re definitely someone who doesn’t know my history personally. More importantly, if you feel that way, then you’re most likely in the situation I’m talking about. Try something different. Try changing. Try spending time on your knees asking for help. You’ll be amazed at the outcome.

I would love to hear your comments on either of these two situations, or some that you have experienced. I may just put a post out of those comments in response to this post. Let’s see.If you are enjoying these posts, be sure to click the follow button.

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November 18, 2010

Why the Church is Broke!

By Chris LoCurto
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We spend our every day here at Financial Peace Plaza to convince people that being in debt is one of the dumbest things they can do. Along with that we spend a ton of time trying to convince businesses that there is no difference in what God says about finances for people and business. He doesn’t say, “Get out of debt, but only if it’s personal debt. Don’t worry about the business stuff, I’m down with that.” The truth is that the Bible says that the borrower is SLAVE to the lender. No special dispensation to the church in that statement. We confess that we are trying to be devoted followers of Christ, and we follow the things He tells us to do, but when it comes to the topic of debt we tell God, “Thanks for the help on everything else buuuuuut, I think I’m smarter on this subject.”  The church is no different. As an individual we convince ourselves that the fact we were approved for a car loan must be a blessing of God. As a church if our Sunday service ends up with 3 people over capacity we convince ourselves that God wants us to go heavily in debt to build a bigger building.

As we tell churches all the time, people are tired of giving to a mortgage payment that has no end in sight. They will give to build a building that’s needed and paid for with cash, and they will give to pay off a mortgage that leadership is pushing to eliminate. But the every weekend speech about how much the church needs the money for the bills, and then they go further into debt, people are done with that. A recent report from Empty Tomb Inc. shows that while giving to churches is down, giving to religious organizations, such as World Vision and Salvation Army,  is actually up. The reason is simple, people want to give to something that’s bigger than them. They want to give to something that they believe is going to change lives and a building campaign just doesn’t do it for them. Because of this fact, churches have had to cut the exact things from their budgets that make people feel good; missions, outreach, free cupcake day. Okay, that last one is still in place at most churches. The scary thing is quite a few churches are now taking out loans to pay their payroll.

The solution? Do what a small band of rebel churches are doing and get out of debt. Stop borrowing period! During Momentum I teach a lesson called Mission Matters. In there I show how the church should apologize to the church body by letting them know that they have made mistakes in the area of money and needs the help of the congregation to fix it. You would be amazed at how quickly the hearts of your people will LEAP on board the “pay off the church mortgage” train when you show that on the church is focused on change, and has bigger and better things that it wants to do. But it starts with being debt free. It is not uncommon now for churches to be calling in on the show yelling that the church is debt free and when asked how they did it they say that their people got fired up about what the people of God could do with a debt free church. Look at it this way, what are your other options? Keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing? Well, let me know how that works out for you.If you are enjoying these posts, be sure to click the follow button.

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September 11, 2010

Rationalizing Debt

By Chris LoCurto
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I had another one of “those” conversations with a guy last night about the difference between bad debt and “ok” debt. It’s like saying a broken femur is bad, but there are times that it actually helps. Let’s see, when could that help? I guess when you have your heart-broken for the first time, and you’re crying on the curb across from your mom’s office, (Or something like that…definitely didn’t happen to me.) if someone came up to you and hit you in the thigh with a baseball bat it would definitely distract you from the other pain, so I guess I could see how it could help.

The truth is that there is no ok debt! Nowhere in the Bible did God use debt to bless someone. Instead, every time you read about it, it’s a curse…like Aspartame. Since finances are the second most discussed topic in the Bible, my belief is that somewhere around the time God was laying the foundations of the Earth, He realized what kind of mess His kids would get in with money, so He gave us a ton of info on what NOT to do. It’s sad to me that as Christians we claim to be fully devoted followers of Christ, and agree with all of His “rules”, but when it comes to the subject of debt we somehow think we’re smarter. “It’s ok God, I got this!”

Do yourself a favor, the next time you feel like rationalizing debt that you’ve been using for a long time, find someone who’s been doing it God’s way for a long time and compare net worth’s. Don’t stop there, compare contentment…happiness…oh and giving. Am I saying that their life will be void of problems? Absolutely not. But I am certain they don’t start their day off worrying about how their family is going to make it, and they don’t drop their head on the pillow at night looking forward to spending a few hours not being focused on financial problems. Give it a try, what do you have to lose other than the debt…and collection agents…and the feeling you get each time you look in the mirror? Believe me, I remember it. The issue is that you are the problem. The greatest thing is that you are also the solution! Get out there and make the change.

Still trying to rationalize?

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