Episode One
/Sam and Erica's Marriage podcast
Money in your marriage Part 1 of 4: Money - How to spend it
Episode 001
January 7, 2019
Introduction
Who we are
How we got here
What the podcast is all about
Discussion
How should we spend our money
To bless our family, especially our spouse.
So, what do you want money for?
1 Timothy 5:8 ESV — But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Proverbs 13:22 ESV — A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
Deuteronomy 28:12 ESV — The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
Do you want money to:
Live a certain lifestyle
Buy nice things, nice home, nice cars, luxuries, etc.
Provide security
Emergency fund
College fund
Retirement
And of course there’s debt - we’ll talk more about that in a future episode
We should spend it with a purpose - The spending plan
Find a format that works for you
We use a spreadsheet
Spending cash/ envelope system (Dave Ramsey)
Money and Marriage God’s way has examples of four systems
cash/ envelopes
pencil and paper
Software
Apps and web based
Begin with prayer
Be open to each others concerns
Review at the end of the month so you both understand the adjustments for next month.
Allocate every dollar
Estimate all income then subtract all expenses
Allowances are important!
Budget money for dates, eating out, shopping, etc.
Be honest!
Your first attempt won’t be perfect. Stay at it. It will get better.
Proverbs 27:23 NIV — Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;
Ecclesiastes 7:12 NIV — Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.
ACTION ITEMS
Try to prepare your own budget
Pray for our podcast
Share our podcast with your friends
Copy and share this link: seasonsministries.org/podcast
RESOURCES
Budget - Excel spreadsheet
http://www.christianswithambition.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/glbl-budget-template_v1_1.xls
Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover
Transcript
00:13
Welcome to Sam & Erica's marriage podcast. Here we will talk about practical ways to have an even better marriage and ways to handle the challenges that are sure to come. Regardless of where you are in your marriage, your age, or how long you have been married, this podcast is for you. We will discuss difficult topics from dealing with past hurts and unforgiveness to making date night spicy. Even if you're single, you probably want a better marriage than the marriages you've seen. Join us weekly as we discuss ways to make marriages better. We invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
01:00
Welcome to Sam and Erica's marriage podcast. Wow, this is really exciting. Okay. All right. Welcome to Sam & Erica's marriage podcast. This is episode zero zero one, uh, for those that don't know that's podcast talk for our very first episode. We really, really want to thank you for tuning in. If you haven't, if you can't tell yet, we plan to have a lot of fun. We planned to laugh a little bit, uh, to really talk about marriage, to talk about marriage uh in a way that we all kind of wish we did more often. That's good. Um, Erica and I been married for 28 years and I'd say for the better part of the last 10 or 15 years, we've been involved in marriage ministry one way or another. We've been with couples in every season of marriage. We've been with new couples, we've mentored, we've counseled, we've uh, helped couples in crisis just one way or another.
01:59
You know, the Lord is always had us involved in marriage. So when the idea of a podcast came to fruition, it almost felt like the next natural step. Uh, we hope that the topics that we discuss are going to be relevant. We hope that you enjoy them. Uh, and we believe we were sincerely believe that there are things that are going to make your marriage better. How when we talk about topics, uh, interestingly enough, uh, we plan to talk about everything we plan to talk about marriage from A to Z. There's no topic that I think that, that we're afraid to discuss. Um, when we were coming up with topics, when we really decided, okay, we're going to do this podcast thing, and we decided, okay, it's time to figure out what it is we're going to talk about. Uh, we decided to send out a survey so we created a survey and sent it out to some friends and some family, uh just kind of asking for their feedback, asking them, what are some things you'd like to hear in a marriage podcast? I'd have to say the result. I, I'd have to say it surprised me a little bit. I was definitely hoping for some different answers because the number one topic that people wanted to hear about in a marriage podcast was money.
03:23
I actually, I wouldn't say that the results surprised me simply because we know that through mentoring, through counseling, through just having conversations with our friends and just couples in general, we know that the bottom line is money. When you peel back all the layers of that onion, the issue is money. I can say I didn't want to talk about it because it's just that sensitive. We know that it creates all kinds of, uh, strife in a marriage it creates just uncomfortable situations. But when you really look at the survey, we know that money is the thing that the couples wanted to talk about.
04:02
Yeah. I think for, for me, seeing it in writing, that was the kind of uncomfortable moment because like you say it, we didn't want to talk about money. Most people don't want to talk about money. I was really hoping that we get to talk about, you know, how to romance your girl, how to, uh, how to, how to find hobbies that both people can like. Like how to have a little more laughter in your marriage. You know, I, I wanted to talk about some fun stuff. So when the surveys all came back money, I just said, forget what the survey said. I'm going to do what I want it to.
04:40
You know, the survey actually really gave us a general idea. It kind of let me know that couples really want to talk about this issue. It's a, it's an issue that we didn't talk about when we were children and they probably can tell that it's having some kind of effect on their marriage and you know, we didn't talk about it and they want to talk about it. So I unfortunately it's the topic of discussion for today for this podcast. That's
05:07
right. It is the topic of discussion because as much as I didn't want to do it, uh, it didn't take long. It didn't take long for Erica and I and Erica really being the, the brains of the operation. Don't believe it. To really get my mind in order that if this is what people really want to talk about in this podcast is really about serving you, then this is what we should really talk about. And um, it just so happens that this last summer we actually spent about six weeks doing a small group about money in marriage. The, the book that we actually used the resource in addition to the Bible of course was uh Money and Marriage God's way by Howard Dayton. Uh, and you can find the link to that book in our show notes. But that was really, um, that was like preparation for the results of the survey. So as soon as I kind of got my bearing and my wife helped me to get my bearing, we realized, okay, the money is what we're going to talk about. If money is what people want to talk about, money is what we're going to talk about. Now in our podcast, the way it's structured, each month we're going to have a large topic of which will break down each week into four smaller topics. So we are going to spend the month of January talking about money, just some different ways, different aspects of money as it pertains to marriage.
06:38
One of the things that we also found out in reading the Money and Marriage God's Way by Howard Dayton is that money is the number one things that couples argue about. No question. And so again, this is something that, that we absolutely have to talk about. Um, and then when we talk about, most times when you talk about money, the response is, oh my goodness, here they go. They're going to be in my business. That's not what we're doing. Absolutely. Actually, you know, we're going to share some personal experiences from being 19 and married to not knowing how to handle money to some trial and error that we've experienced in our own life too. You know, getting down to what is the importance of using a spending plan. I'm going to call it a spending plan and Sam's going to refer to it as [inaudible]
07:22
budget, that's right, It's a budget. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a spending, I know we, we will call it a spending plan most of the time because it's because spending plan does make sense, right? That's really what it is. And I don't want to get ahead of what we're going to talk about today. Uh, but a spending plan is really important because as most believers know, uh, the Bible is filled with instruction, uh, pictures, examples where God uses money to teach us lots of things. Uh, so for us to not talk about money or to be afraid to talk about money really wouldn't be a Biblical approach to the topic. It should be something we should talk about more often. Uh, I believe just as Erica pointed out a little earlier, I wish that I had had a lot more discussion about money growing up. Like, um, you know, to understand finance a little better personal finance to understand budgeting and saving. It's just not the way that, that I grew up.
08:31
It's not the way that I grew up either, but I really, you know what, I don't think that it was because it wasn't what our parents wanted for us. They really just did the best they could to hold on. I mean, you know, we both grew up in single parent households and the struggle was real. Yeah. Um, you know, my mother was doing the best that she can to raise four children and keep the lights on. So, you know, it wasn't that she didn't want me to know and it very well could have been that she didn't even know. We can go back and from you know, a couple of generations and even find out if in fact that was something that she learned from her own parents. That's a good point. And so we, you know, we would just want to do something differently. We've taught our children and we just want, you know, pass down a legacy of, of being a little bit more self controlled and how we handle our finances. Yeah,
09:19
I agree with you 100%. So, uh, like I said, we're going to be talking about money for the month of January. And a couple of things that we're going to talk about this in this episode is first, how should we spend our money? One of the things that causes a lot of the conflict that we've witnessed is when two people in a marriage have two completely different ideas on how to spend the money. Like we know that there's a finite amount of money and it's difficult when both people think that it should go to a different place. So in determining how we ought to spend our money, I believe is the beginning of the spending plan or the b word. You can't do a budget, I'm sorry, a spending plan, unless you predetermine what it is you want to do, with your money, you know, we, we have to ask ourselves some real questions.
10:28
You know, what do I want to do with my money? You know, do I want to buy a nice home or do I want to have a nice car? Do I want to have a lot of shiny things? Like, you know, I've got an affinity for some logos. You know, I want some, I want some logos, man, I want, I want to have some of the stuff that I want to have. That's, that's some of the stuff I want to do with money. But do I want to look big picture, don't want to look long term? Do I want to be able to retire early or do I want to be able to send my kids to college? Or right now the government is shutting down at 800,000 people that aren't going to get a paycheck. You know, do I want to have a substantial emergency fund tucked away because you just never know what tomorrow brings and none of these things are bad. Uh, even me wanting some shiny stuff, like that's not a bad thing either.
11:20
I think that it's important to, um, I really believe that it's important for us to look inside ourselves and really answer that question truthfully. What is it that I want this money to do? And then, and then we have to talk about and think about our spouse because, and when we talk about oneness, what our spouse, their desires and their goals and what they want their money to do is just as important as what we would want our own money to do. Because now it doesn't belong to us. It, I mean, to me it belongs to us as a unit, as a, you know, a husband, wife, and our family.
11:54
So those things we have to, we have to discuss. We have to have sit down and have those difficult but necessary discussions with our spouse. And I think too though, they're difficult in the beginning and, and, and they will be difficult from time to time because I found that when we have lots of money, the discussions are much, much easier. Oh, well, yeah, that's true. We don't want, you know, there's no beef when there's excess. It's when things get tight to those conversations get a little tougher. We actually have a, with, with my mother in law around the holidays, she generally calls us to find out if we're going to be getting a divorce after January because around Christmas time it gets a little thick in the Watson household, that's right we have a tradition of A. Running out of money and B. Being angry at each other. That is the tradition.
12:51
So my, my mom calls and says, Hey, uh, you know, uh, you guys are fighting over there yet and we generally say yep, yep, a little bit, and then she says, uh, you you broke. And we go pretty close. And she says, Oh, well, I'm sure my granddaughters are going to have another great Christmas, Merry Christmas, and she hangs up the phone. But we believe that just as Erica was saying, first and foremost, the Bible teaches us that our finances ought to be used to bless one another. I think that's a very real concept when you look at, you know, like 1 Timothy 5:8 you know, it almost reprimands us if we aren't doing that very thing. You know, that scripture says that if we don't provide for the members of our household that we're worse than a nonbeliever, like God sees us in a different light if we're living in a certain way, if we live in, in a way where our finances aren't a blessing to our household, that we are actually outside of his will.
14:00
So much so that we're not like as bad as unbelievers, but we're worse than an unbeliever. That's not the way that the people of God ought to act with their money. And I think that that's, that's a good place to land. You know, that's a, that's a great first marker when you're thinking about, okay, how should I spend my money? Right. I think when we think about it a little further, the spending plan, and I said spending plan, I didn't use the b word, makes so much more sense in that context because how better can you get those things accomplished then to consider where each dollar is going, not just to think about it, but to decide to make a decision as to where each dollar ought to go.
14:52
I think it's important when you say decision that both parties are a part of the decision making and how the finances or where the money should go. Because you know, we know and in our household, you have one idea of what the money should be spent on and I generally have another idea that includes a left and a right shoe.
15:14
So I think that it's, it's very important that,
15:17
and you know, in all seriousness that that we as a married couple should come together and make the decision on how the finance it should be spent.
15:25
Absolutely. When we get into the actual nuts and bolts of how spending plan works, we're going to talk about that a little bit. Uh, but even before you get into the spending plan, those are conversations that we have to kind of know about each other going in, you know, what is my spouse's desire for our money? You know, if Erica has a desire to be debt free, which I don't, which we know going in that if I choose to spend all of the money on golf clubs, which he wouldn't, that we're probably going to have some conflict come budget time. So that's something that I consider as I'm bringing myself into the spending plan conversation. I'm considering my spouse. And I think that's the beginning. The, the, the actual sit down at a table with the pencil and paper can't be the beginning of your budget.
16:27
The budget planning has to begin in the consideration of your spouse and then the consideration of your family. You know, if you got children, you know, you have to think about their needs ahead of your desires. If you really want to do this in a Godly way. Dave Ramsey lays out in his book the Total Money Makeover, some really good strategies about finance, personal finance, and a spending. Uh, in our research we found that a rule, whether it's crown financial or Dave Ramsey or Money and Marriage God's Way that the consensus is that you have to have a system. You can't just go at this thing when the direct deposit hits it's, there's a race to the bank. Again, like that, that just won't work, right? You've got to have a plan and no matter what you call your plan, whether you're plan is a budget, a spending plan, whether you decide, hey, we're going to use the cash and envelope system, whether you decide we're going to use an APP, we're going to use our, our, uh, our cloud based
17:38
A lot of banks now have, uh, well they all break out what you're spending looks like for you in real time. Every day we're going to use that kind of thing. You gotta have a plan and you've got to have a plan that works for you. Uh, one of the things that, that we've had, we've heard this from couples, uh, for a long time is they've got a plan, but the plan was one person's idea, right? And the other person is miserable with the idea that's called a bad plan. That's a bad plan. That's a bad plan. So, uh, before we start actually talking about the plan again, we just want to say that if you are a believer, then you know already what we're going to say. The first step in actually executing a spending plan is prayer. We have to first acknowledge that none of this stuff is ours.
18:36
Like, okay, the money in my bank account does not belong to me. The money in Erica's bank account does not belong to her. And believe me, before the month is over, we're going to talk about separate bank account. I'm not at all saying that there ought to be separate bank accounts. I think you should go into a little bit more detail about that. Okay, Okay. Just so they, you know, just for clari, just for clarification purposes. Right. We believe that there ought to be a joint bank account. Yes. That everybody's money goes into a joint bank account. Now we also believe and as people that have struggled with spending plans, because we have, uh, we know that it works so much better when there's a regular allowance. So in our practical experience we have checking accounts that are separate that our allowance goes into on designated days throughout the month based on different deposits that are coming in. We have a regular amount and it's distributed at a regular interval. And what we do with our allowance is our business. If I decide I want to take my entire allowance and blow it on something that really stupid, Erica gets to laugh at me, but she does get to tell me that I can't do it? That's my money I get to do with what I want. But the rest of it goes into that joint bank account and we do our spending household spending out of that joint account.
20:11
I think it's also important for um, you know, the listeners to know that it's the exact same amount. Our allowance is not predicated on how much money you make or how much money I make. It is the exact same amount um that goes into to each account, yours goes in your account. Mine goes into my account. So that, that was just something that I wanted to share it because it's important a lot of times, you know, depending on who makes more money, that person ends up having a little bit more expenditure income and that's really not fair. And to the other party there's a lot of resentment and stuff. So we believe that it's very important for the allowance to be equal. And that's one of the
20:48
biggest things about money. Money can sow the seed of resentment in your relationship. Like very few other things can, you know, one person feels like another person has less responsibility. One person's making a lesser contribution, one person is getting their way more often. When we were doing our pre show talk bae, you mentioned, um, a person having resentment about the kind of car they drive. Uh, you know, there's just so much room to, for the enemy to just kind of get a foothold in the area of our finance and that seed is resentment. You know, we kind of let that resentment get in there and it just grows into something that kind of taints the the rest of our relationship.
21:38
Hmm. You want to share that story about the car? It was actually just a, um, a lady, you know, a friend of mine who we've been walking together with for a long time and she was, you know, sharing with me that her husband kind of, she felt like her husband manipulated her into buying a specific car and you know, she just, she has issues with that. She feels some resentment toward him. Now. I'm not sure if it's what kind of car it is, but I just know that, It was, you know, that there was an issue. I'm going to just go out on a limb and say that it was probably a little bit more car than they could afford. Okay. Okay. At the time, ok he wanted her to have a fancy car, right, that's right, right, and you know, they have student loan debt and small children and that just didn't fit well with her. Ok, Um, and so there is some, although she's driving around in a nice fancy car, she's having some issues because of their financial situation
22:36
and those are the kinds of things that we just want to guard against and, and being honest and open as we began the spending plan discussion is how we really guard our hearts against that resentment. So when we talk about a spending plan, again, we've mentioned a few resources and because this is episode zero zero one, uh, anytime we reference a book or a website or a a resource or product, you'll always be able to find a link for that in what's called our show notes. So if you scroll down, when you click on the episode, if you scroll down a little bit, you'll see the link for the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover book. You'll see the link and you click on those links they go straight to Amazon. We're not selling books or anything, they go straight to Amazon it and it just provides a way for you to get the resource.
23:35
You also, any websites that we reference, any ministries we talk about, you'll always get their contact information right here in our link. So when we talk about the spending plan that we're going to talk about this in this episode, we're talking about a splending, a spending plan that we've used personally for years. Uh, and the link for it is in our show notes just as I just said. But the way this spending plan works works well for us because it gives us the room to allocate where each dollar, regardless of who gets paid, when we get to tell each dollar where it's going, we start our, our budget talk with prayer because the money isn't ours. We asked that God would tell us what we ought to be doing with our money, how we ought to steward his money.
24:30
One of the things that I think is important, and we'll probably get to this a little bit later in the show, um, but I think it's important to talk about it now. If this is your first time ever doing a spending plan or ever even talking about finances as a unit, as a, as one couple, you have to understand that two things, there is going to be some tension, which is why prayer is ridiculously important. And then the second thing is that it's not going to be right the first time. Yes sir. You're going to, you're going to have to go in and tweak it maybe month two, month three because it's going to take some trial and error. They're going to be some items in there that you're not going to put in there in the beginning. She's going to have some items. He's going to have some items and so you're going to have to make some adjustments. So be flexible, be very prayerful and know that this is something that absolutely can be done. Absolutely. Um, and, and with a little practice, it'll be fine.
25:27
One of the things that we advise couples to do when you're entering into the spending plan is to, to be open to hear your spouse like there. There were things that I just never considered when I'm doing this independently of my spouse. Like we talked about, you know, we've got three grown daughters. So the amount of money that it takes for three women, four women to have their hair done, like this is something that's coming from a shaved guy. This is something that I would have never been able to put together on my own. But whether we put it in the spending plan or not, these ladies are going to get their hair done.
26:16
So, true that, the spending, right the spending plan just puts it out on paper, right! It makes us both understand, hey, these are real needs and this is what it's going to cost. It helps us to be better prepared and it helps us to be able to get those things accomplished. Nothing would make it tougher for me than to know that my wife goes to work day and she can't get her hair done. That that would be, that would mean that I gotta be doing something wrong. One of the things that the spending plan also does is it kind of gives you, um, sort of what that APP does on my phone with the bank. It really gives you an idea of the amount of money that's being frivolously spent, you know, because before my personal care was on the budget or the spending plan, I got my hair done, my nails done and pedicure and I'm just spending, spending, spending and not really realizing, wait a minute, Samuel would always tell me the money has got to come from somewhere is the money is not finite.
27:26
And so that really helped me to see, wait a minute, I may need to pull back or started using some of my allowance on my personal care or maybe not get my hair done every other week or you know, but that kind of thing. Those are something that's just another thing that the spending plan will bring to light. And just so you know, personal care should be in the spending plan. It should not be part of the allowance unless a person has like some kind of problem. They just, they just, one pair of shoes every month is just not enough. Then that's some stuff they need to take care of on their own. That is true. But things like personal care, things like clothing, those kinds of things should be part of your household expenses. They're not allowance items in our budget and in the, in the budgeting that we've read about those things or household expenses, you guys will be able to fine tune and determine what level of those things should be carried by the household and which ones should be carried in their allowance.
28:32
But you'd be making a mistake to take grooming just because I, I have a shaved head and it cost me $4 a month, to expect my wife to be able to maintain her hair with $4 a month? Yeah. No, that ain't gonna happen. No. Okay. So we talked about being prayerful, going into your spending plan. We also talked about being open to the needs of your spouse and your family when you're doing your spending plan. The next thing you talk about in your spending plan is estimating all the income. So every dollar that comes in has to go on the paper. We've had experiences with people that have had other streams of income, uh, whether it be from a side job or it'd be some, child support is an issue. Uh, we've had people that have hobbies where they make money in their hobbies and you will be shocked at the level of resentment that can get into a relationship because one person feels like I'm really struggling and the other person gets to go out to lunch every day.
29:48
You know, and, and though that's something that you guys have to work out for yourselves, we can't answer that question for you. We can warn you that that's going to cause resentment. So a good spending plan will always include every dime that's coming in. It should also include every dime that's going out. So you take every dollar that's coming in and you're going to subtract every expense, every expenditure, including your allowance, including your date night money, including your personal care. If you check out the, uh, the budget that we have in the show notes, you'll see it's a pretty extensive list. Some of those things you won't even have, but there'll be some things on there that you do that there'll be some things that aren't on there that you do have and you just change those, those blocks. You add your actual bills, take away the things that you don't have uh, but you really do need to A count for all the money that's coming in and B, be honest about everything that's going out. Right. Uh, and allowances, again, allowances are important. I think that, uh, if you really want to insulate your finances, having a regular allowance is a huge step.
31:11
I agree. I think that it's, um, it's a huge step in so many ways. I mean, you mentioned this earlier, we go to work every day and to not be able to have, you know, a little bit of money to buy a pair of shoes or get a golf club or chipotle or, you know, go out to lunch with a girlfriend. It's resentment that's built up in that because you're going to work every day. And then, you know, the other thing is that for me, if I needed to feel like I was in control of a little bit of my own money and so not control as ha this is mine, not yours. But you know, I needed to just feel like I had a say and how, you know, a percentage of our income was being spent. And so I agree the allowance is so, it's so very important for so many different reasons.
32:06
Yeah. Also, like I just said, you know, having money in air for date night, having money for shopping, for clothes, having money for personal care, all of those things have to be in your budget. In the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover, he actually has a column called blow money. I think in a lot of other programs, I believe Money and Marriage God"s Way, it's called miscellaneous, but there ought to be a little cushion in your uh budget and depending on how much money you make or how much money you owe out, uh, that will kind of determine what blow money is. But there ought to be a little cushion. You know, you don't want to live so tight. You want to determine how much money goes into blow money, but you also want to have something there because there will be a night when you've spent all of the allocation for eating out.
33:04
But nobody feels like cooking. That's our house. So when that happens, you need to be able to pull from some place and the miscellaneous or blow money is a great place to pull from uh, so neither person has to pull from their allowance. It's a great place to pull from without the guilt. Right. You know, because if you, you know, say you have to pull it from your allowance or I have to pull it from my allowance, now I'm feeling a way because I have less allowance and we both ate pizza. So you know, you know, or you know, you don't have to, you pull from grocery money or you know, you pull from, there are certain topics or certain categories that you can't pull from. You can't pull from gas money. Right. You know, you can't pull from car registration, car insurance, health insurance, you can't pull from those things.
33:57
You right, you can't from mortgage or car payment. But you know, I think that it's a real good idea to have the blow money and you know, depending on where you are in your life, you may not, your grocery bill may not be as big as it was when you had small children in the house. So you can take that amount and put it, you know, in a different spot. And that's a great point. And that kind of goes back to something you said a little earlier. You won't have this thing right in your first attempt, right? Like you're going to have some stuff that you're going to overestimate big time. You're going to have some stuff that you underestimate big time at the end of each month. That's your opportunity to reset to see that thing that you kind of miss, uh, judged. You kind of overestimated the amount that it costs to put fuel in both cars for two weeks.
34:50
Or you kind of underestimated how much you guys eat out. You have to be honest with those numbers and make the necessary adjustments in the next month, right? This is something that you can do. It's one of those things where, you know, we don't say that, that God tells us to do a certain thing and then doesn't give us the power to do it, right? A plan, a spending plan is one of those things that we find in scripture got references this thing, this concept a lot, and he certainly wouldn't tell us is something we ought to do and then not give us the ability to do it. Uh, so, um, a scripture comes to mind, Proverbs 27:23, uh, "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give attention to your herds". That's God saying, you know, hey, you need to know your inventory. Like you need to know you're a pluses in your minuses.
35:45
You need to be, you need to be thinking about your costs. You need to be thinking about your assets. This is something that you're supposed to be managing that's just stewardship and a spending plan is the act that a good steward would take with God's money. So being flexible is important. Being able to go and revisit that thing is really important. Uh, if you've got questions or comments, if you think we missed something, if when you go to our website, seasonsministries.org click podcast, you'll see a little button there that says voicemail. We would love it if you would leave us a message. Let us know what you thought. Let us know if we, if we missed anything about the spending plan. Uh, let us know if you'd like to hear further or more about spending plans.
36:36
Thank you for listening. It has been a pleasure to serve you in this way. We hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. We hope this spending pam plan blesses you, um, in your finances this week and we look forward to I miss something. Oh, go,
36:55
come back to that. Hold on to that. Thank you part. Okay. Um, so in addition to that, we also want, we want to ask three things of you. Uh, we want to ask first and foremost that you try to do a spending plan. If you and your spouse don't have a spending plan, we ask that you give it a shot. We really believe that this will add value to your marriage. This is one of those action steps that you can take to make your marriage better. So we just want you to give it a shot. If you don't use the spreadsheet, the budget that we use, that's fine. Find something that works for you, but do it. Do something with this. Let 2019 be the year that you bring your finances, uh, into a new place. We're going to ask that you'd really, really give this thing a try.
37:49
And it's you and your spouse sit down, talk about the money until every dollar where to go. We also going to ask you to pray for our podcast. You know, this is a new thing for us. Uh, we're, we're excited about it, but we're also a little nervous, you know, we don't know how this thing's going to go and we are praying that it goes well and we're praying that we get through it. You know, we don't want to be fighting about this podcast thing so we want you to pray for our podcast. If you could join with us in praying for this podcast, we'd really appreciate it. And the last thing we want you to do is to share the podcast with your friends. You know, a lot of people in the Christian community don't know a lot about podcasting. They're gonna be a lot of people that you know, that you may mention to and, they won't have a clue how to hear us.
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So we would like it if you would just either tell them to follow us on instagram. They can go to our instagram page and that will be a link right there for them to be able to get to us. They can go to our website, seasonsministries.org click podcast. And they"ll be able to play, the episodes right from there. Of course we're going to be, we're on itunes and Google play store soundcloud. You'll be able to find this in all those places. But we're asking that you just share this thing that you let people know. Two things that I actually want to back up and say, the first thing is make sure when you guys get ready to do your spending plan that you're in a good place with your relationship. You definitely don't want to sit at a table and talk about money after you've been fighting or after you've been up all night with a sick child.
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The other thing is you may want to think about picking a specific date and time of the week. That way when you get ready to come to the table and talk about the spending plan, you are prepared. That's it. Yup. We, uh, just one thing to add to that, one of the things that I didn't say earlier is that if you're going to do your spending plan monthly, like most people do, and like we do, you make sure that you do your spending plan before the money comes in. So that means you're going to do it at the end of the month. You're going to set up that little time for the two of you to meet at the end of the month. Okay. All right. Again, we just want to thank you guys again for listening. Thank you for your support. Uh, it's been really great. Uh, we hope that you listen, check us out in the next episode. Where we're gonna continue our conversation on money? And again, just thank you. God bless. God bless.