AUSTIN DEBT HELP

I live here in Austin and I can help you with your debt. I like to meet my clients in person. I also give public speeches, feel free to attend and meet me in person.

I understand that you are going through a very painful time in life. Please review the rest of my website there are many answers to your debt questions on my entire site.

Debt Stress Overload

 The cost of financial stress for some has become a life and death matter. The rising unemployment rates have accompanied a rise in suicide rates.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which operates 24- hour crisis help lines around the country, reported an increase in calls to it’s hotline of 18 percent. In January 2007 the calls were 13, 424 compared to a high of 59,500 two months ago. The reason for the increase is sited as financial desperation.  Those who become hopeless are overwhelmed by; long term unemployment, loss of job opportunities, personal failure, unmet bills, collection calls and threat of foreclosure.

As long as there is life, there is hope. If you are experiencing financial stress, make a call. There are options available. 

Margin & Money

The sermon last summer was entitled “Margin & Money”. Here are my notes from that sermon. To be clear and grant credit where it is due I want to point out, most of my notes are taken verbatim and contain very little of my own writing. To listen to the complete sermon;
http://mediaplayer.hcbc.com/sermons/30 .

There are so many sources here in Austin for Debt Help you just have to seek them.

“Margin & Money” by Tim Hawks, at HCBC.

The opening question was “How much money do I need so I never have to worry about money again?”

We, as Americans, live in a state of worry and turmoil about money. A recent article from USA Today, stated college students had an inability to understand basic money issues. Today’s college students leave college with debt and then plunge into greater debt driving them into financial ruin.

Where does the money go?

• The first group live on 95% of their income with 5% going toward retirement.
• The second live on 85% of their income with 5% going to retirement and 10% to giving.
• The third have no idea what they are living on and spending more than their incomes. Some are living on 104% of their incomes, supplementing with credit cards.

The thinking that creates such a variable between households is, “If I only made, X more, than things would be better”. Then I could save, then I could give, then I could plan for the future. In reality the opposite is true. If you continue to spend at the level of your income, no margins for the future needs, you will always be in a scramble to increase your funds.

The margin is the gap from what you spend and from what you earn. If you live on 80% of what you make you will have a buffer against life’s future needs.

The definition of margin is; “The amount of money you have left to spend after your living expense and commitments have been met.”

If this need for margin is so great, it begs the question; why do we not create financial margins in our lives?

Americans tend to live with a false hope when job loss occurs. The false hope is that everything will be alright and to continue life as normal. That normal is continued to spend at the same rate even without the income. The net results lead to car loss i.e. automobile repossession and loss of property such as foreclosure.

The message was loud and clear, live on a % of what you make.

Another belief is that if we could just increase our income we would have the margin to buff us against the loss. The opposite tends to be true. Income does not take away worry. An example is when you have a job making 25k and you lose that job, there are a number of jobs available for that same 25k pay. When you have a job making 250K and you spending all your income, and you lose that job, your worries are increased. First off there are not that many jobs offering 250K as 25K and your obligations are committed to a much higher pay scale. Your worries are magnified and your losses are greater when you live without margins.

When you live with no margin you are stealing from yourself. Proverbs 21:20 is summarized as, ‘the wise man store up some of what he produces’.

Save a % of what you make, no matter your income level.

Two ways we steal from ourselves is emotionally and relationally. We steal from ourselves emotionally by not living a life of peace. We become unsettled, and worry about making ends meet. A fear for the future needs of retirement, kids education, and fear of sickness.

We steal from ourselves relationally; couples arguing over money and children demanding material objects. We fail to take joy in our own success. We are robbing in joy over what we have when we continually look for our next purchase. We are robbed from the joy in our professions. The professions may be a worthy asset to our community such as a teacher, but the pay can be too low.

The meeting ended with Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender.”

When there is no margin, we feel in bondage and we lose the ability to charter our own course.

Ever wonder what is the first thing I say to a client is? “I maybe able to help you”.

Those are my first words, because it is the truth. Often a client will call in great financial distress with a myriad of financial problems mixed into another type of life crisis. And they want me to tell them I can solve their problems. In reality until we address the life crisis, get the numbers in place i.e. track the cash flow, and find out what the clients goals are, it is unknown if I can help them.