Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to look through all the wants, desires, and dreams I have listed related to FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT and find out “Which one is most important to me now?” That is the ONLY question I am to consider. Not “I have to do this first” or “I’ll want this in 10 years…” “Which one is most important to me now?” That’s it. Each round will take two wants and get a winner, and then those winners will face off, and so on until there is only one thing. Let’s see where this goes.

Round 1

1.       Be completely debt free (7/21/10)

2.       Buy a new tractor, complete with attachments (9/9/10)

Be completely debt free.

3.       Buy a working farm (7/17/10)

4.       Buy lower level season tickets to the Indianapolis Colts (9/9/10)

Buy a working farm.

5.       Buy someone else a house (7/18/10)

6.       Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R.G. LeTourneau (Financial /Career Development)

Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R. G. LeTourneau

Round 2

1.       Be completely debt free.

2.       Buy a working farm.

Be completely Debt Free

3.       Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R. G. LeTourneau

Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R. G. LeTourneau

Final Round

1.       Be completely Debt Free

2.       Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R. G. LeTourneau

Give away an increasing proportion of my income: Read the biography of R. G. LeTourneau

This one was pretty short and sweet. I knew from the beginning what the final two would be. I wasn’t sure about the very last “tourney” but as I thought about the question “which is most important to me now,” I was reminded that while I’m already on the journey to becoming debt free (one more credit card at 0% fixed and the mortgage), it’s a process I’m not extremely excited about pushing right now, as I’ve already taken a $1,000 / month pay cut just to help things “work out” through this transition period. Throwing extra money at debt is great, but right now, it’s not the most important thing.

What I would like to do right now is to take stock of where I am in my giving, both to my church and other ministries I care about. I know we’ve made progress over the past 3 years to the point that our charitable giving each month rivals our mortgage, but I don’t really know where we are at, and I’d like to know that, so that I could set clearer goals as to where we’d like to get to.

This goal is specific also to reading a book, and since I just finished a book this weekend, that’s also on my mind. I think I’ll go ahead and order it tonight.