christian investing during a financial meltdown

God is best known for eternal fire insurance, a market segment He dominates. Few people understand that God also offers a full range of financial advice and services with over 700 Bible verses referring to money or money management.

God has certain advantages which make His investment management preferred. Although unregulated and not subject to any minimum capital requirements, the Lord has more than adequate reserves. After all, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), all the earth and everything in it belongs to Him (Psalms 24:1;50:12). He spoke creation into existence (Genesis 1).

Unlike other investment or insurance companies, the ability of the Lord to fulfill His promises is never subject to systematic risk.

Today I’ll note just two of His less known, and certainly less utilized SIV’s. (No, a SIV is not a Structured Investment Vehicle, but a Scriptural Investment Verse.) These allow investors to leverage their initial financial investments with God to obtain even larger returns. From His prospectus:

Honor the LORD with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.
~ Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV)

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will repay him for his deed.
~ Proverbs 19:17 (ESV)

You may be wondering if these investments are so good, why don’t more people use them? The Lord faces a lot of competition in markets other than eternal fire insurance. With fire insurance He is the only reliable provider, and couples the insurance with long-term retirement benefits.

I guess people don’t trust God too much unless there are no alternatives.

Be blessed.
RB

shakespeare is here -- starting today

The American Shakespeare Center
Stark Raving Sane Tour will be performing
The Comedy of Errors
October 26th (that be TODAY) at 1:30 and October 29th at 7:30
Hamlet
October 27th, October 31st, and November 1st - all at 7:30
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
October 28th at 7:30, and November 1st at midnight

All performances in SLU's Eben Holden Center
CLICK for campus map

Ticket price: $5.00 each

TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT THE SLU STUDENT CENTER and THE BREWER BOOKSTORE
CLICK for campus map

random thought . . . . no random walk: shakespeare - stark raving sane tour

best thing that happened this week

Sunday:
Miss Lois playing in the leaves.




Be blessed!
RB

the other palin

Michael Palin and John Cleese in two of my favorite Monty Python sketches.

Note that a chartered accountant is a British version of a CPA.



. . . and the famous Parrot Sketch

5 things you may not know about the palins

This video from cbs.com is a little more complimentary. Enjoy.



These are from the October 18th SNL. I'm sorry, but I still have trouble telling the difference between Sarah Palin and Tina Fey.

The Opening



Weekend Update

palin as president

Want some interactive satire? I thought this was funny even though not very complimentary to Gov. Palin.

Click the link below. Search the interactive picture for hidden links, then click, listen and see what happens. There is a lot to explore and it is supposed to be updated daily.

Palin as President

life and local elections

Election Day is two weeks away. None of the candidates in St. Lawrence County's Congressional, New York State Assembly or State Senate races post information on their campaign sites about whether they are pro-life or pro-choice. So I had to do a little hunting.

Pro-Lifer Darrel Aubertine (D-WF) is running for re-election against challenger Dave Renzi (R-C-I) in New York State Senate District 48. Dave Renzi is endorsed by the NYS Right to Life Committee and according to this email from his campaign,

Dave Renzi is PRO LIFE and has stated it several times.
~ john@daverenziforsenate.com (email 10/20/08@8:37am)

In New York State Assembly District 118, Addie Jenne Russell (D-WF) and Robert "Bobby" Cantwell (R-C-I) will face off. Russell is pro-choice and has the endorsement of Planned Parenthood Advocates of NY.

I emailed the Cantwell campaign site about his position and I am still waiting for a reply. However, the NYS Right to Life Committee has not endorsed Cantwell.

For those interested in the issue of gay marriage, Russell is also endorsed by Empire State Pride Agenda, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group.

Pro-Choice Dierdre Scozzafava (R-I-WF) is running unopposed in the 122nd Assembly District. She is endorsed by Empire State Pride Agenda. Planned Parenthood Advocates endorsed her two years ago but not in this election.

The sanctity of life or abortion rights will be issues neither in the 48th SD, with two pro-lifers running, nor in the 118th and 122nd AD's, with no apparent pro-lifers running.

However there are differences between the candidates in NY's 23rd Congressional District. Representative John McHugh (R-C-I), running for reelection, has been endorsed by NYS Right to Life Committee. His opponent, Pro-Choice Michale P. Oot (D-WF) believes, "Abortions should always be legal" (source).

Be blessed.
RB

no depression but things will stink for some time....

From: Greg Mankiw's Blog: Jeff Frieden on the Current Crisis

why do we save so little?

U.S. saving rates have always been low and now are the lowest they have ever been. We save the smallest percentage of any country.

Q: Why do Americans save so little?

A: Because we can.

Financial innovations in the past ten years allows Americans access to something their parents never dreamed of: The Home ATM.

The ease of home equity loans have allowed Americans to dip into, and deplete, what historically has been a major source of household wealth. That is the equity in their home (i.e., the value of their houses less the amount left on their mortgages). Prior to the last ten years home equity loans were not so easy to get.

The chart below helps show this. The blue bars are the amounts of money U.S. households have taken out of their homes (a negative saving) each year since 1991. You see it rise steeply until housing prices crashed in 2007. (When housing prices crash, there is a lot less equity to borrow against.)

Source: Calculated Risk: The Adjustment Process

What I find even more interesting is the red line. This is the amount withdrawn from the Home ATM as a percentage of disposable, or after-tax, income. (The vertical scale is on the right-hand side of the chart.) As you can see, a few years ago it was as high as 9% of income. This is why during those same years overall U.S. household saving rates were zero to negative. Although some people were saving, others were dissaving. That is, spending a lot of the wealth stored in the value of their homes. (Click here for U.S. saving rate chart.)

Hmmm.... A credit crunch is here. A recession is coming. Household savings are low. People are in debt up to their ears. All these things have never happened together.

2009 should be interesting.

Be blessed.
RB
(a.k.a. Prof. Sunshine)

a confession

Confession: I facilitate a local presentation of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Last week the lesson was on credit cards, why you shouldn't use them, how you fall in traps, stay away from them, etc.

I had a credit card bill due Friday. It had a good sized balance since I used it when I traveled in late August. Besides, I get cash rewards! I got busy last week and forgot to pay it. Substantial late penalty, completely wiping any "cash rewards."

click on picture to enlarge if you cannot read the red sign

Yeah, they know what they are doing. They have a plan.

Yeah, hypocrisy is a strength of mine.

Be blessed.
RB