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Are you in debt? Do you need a strategy?\nto get out of debt? Well, today I've got a\nguest that's gonna help you do just that\nso, stay tuned. \n\nHow do I bring my faith to\nwork how do I tap into the power of God.\nWhy am I going\nthrough this adversity?\nHi I\u2019m Os Hillman. I've\nbeen helping leaders like you answer\nthese question for over 30 years.\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\nLet's learn and grow together.\nWelcome to TGIF Today God Is First .\n\nSo welcome to our podcast this week. It is such\na delight to have my daughter as my\nguest this week and her name is Charis\nBrown and Charis is in the media and she\nhas a new book out and it's a book that\neveryone's gonna benefit from and so she\nis author of two books she actually\ncreated a new book when she was working\nfor me called TGIF for next generation\nand her new book is called Alt Money\nChoices: Securing financial freedom one\nchoice at a time and she speaks to\ngroups about faith and finance she's\nalso an editor for ClarkHoward.com and\nmanaging editor for ClarkeDeals.com\ndaily deals website started by a\nconsumer expert radio talk show host and\nNew York Times bestselling author Clark\nHoward. She lives with her husband just a\nfew miles from a with their cat in North\nAtlanta well. Charis great to have you on\ntoday thanks for having me dad well\nyou've done a great job with this new\nbook and we're gonna get into some\ndetails but before we do let me just\ntell people that you know this is your\nsecond book and you wrote TGIF for next\ngeneration which is a daily devotional\nand you can get it online at your\nwebsite what website is that if they\nwant to go and sign up for your place oh\nwell if they want to get the free\ndevotional its prison ministry at work\nbut of course you guys have copies so I\nwould encourage people to get copies\nfrom you too so yeah it's a it's a 365\nday daily devotional\nand her ministry site is Prismministries.org or prism ministries.org but\ntoday we're talking about this new book\nand Clark Howard you know it's\ninteresting he is a household name in\nAtlanta and a few other cities. How many\ncities is he in now? He's in quite a few\nthere's a there's a long list of media\naffiliates that will air the show in\ndifferent markets um you know LA it's\none of those big cities that\nregularly air the Clark Howard show so\nyeah well he's quite a name in different\nmarkets and he helps people save money\nand it evidently has rubbed off on\nKarras because she now has a book that\nhe is endorsing and he won't endorse a\nbook that doesn't prove it's going to\nsave people money so you can be sure\nthis has been field-tested by a Clark\nbut he gave a great recommendation for\nthe book and today we're going to talk\nabout this and listen to what Clark says\nabout the book\nI loved Charis\u2019s book. I couldn't stop\nreading it and I finished it in a couple\nof hours what I love about Charis\u2019s story\nis she's so methodical about her process\nand she's not preaching at people she's\nteaching how to get their money in order\nand so that's what we're going to learn\ntoday and so we're going to go ahead and\nshut our video off so today we're going\nto talk about top 10 financial mistakes\npeople make that cost them money and how\nyou can avoid them you know curious when\nI looked at that list I thought that was\nan incredible list of things that you\nknow money just flows out of our pockets\nso easily sometimes and you put together\na list and different aspects of what\nthose ten things are that eat people's\nmoney and so we're gonna go through each\none and you're gonna tell us what we\nneed to know about it and mistake number\none is over buying on a home tell us\nabout that alright well a home you know is probably\nthe biggest one of the biggest financial\ndecisions that will make in a lifetime\nbecause a home is generally the most\nexpensive part of somebody's budget if\nyou look at someone's pleasure\nlike a pie you know if the housing cost\nis going to take up a big portion of\nthat pie and so um you know you really\nwant to think about that and not in\nterms of what your Realtor is telling\nyou and what your banker is telling you\nbecause often they're going to try to\nget you into something that is at the\nmax of what you can afford but what you\nreally want to do is you want to look at\nyour budget and you don't want your\nhousing expense to eat up you know more\nthan 25% 20% if you can get it down to\n15 that's really ideal um but you know\npeople so many people over buy on their\nhouse and then they don't have money\nlater in retirement when they need it\nmost and so just to give you a couple of\nfigures you know if you buy a $250,000\nhouse that's gonna end up with interest\nbeing over $400,000 if you buy a\n$500,000 house that's gonna end up being\nover $700,000 because of the interest\nand so you can see how much that adds up\nover time you know one of the things\npeople don't realize is if you just pay\na little extra every month you can\nsignificantly reduce the overall amount\nthat you're going to spend and reduce\nthe term of your loan just paying an\nextra fifty or hundred dollars a month\ncan make a big difference yes that's so\ntrue yes and that's one of the things\nthat we highlight in the book just about\nyou know it's little changes that you\ncan make that will make a big difference\nso that's definitely one of those\nchoices that you can make yeah all right\nmistake number two over buying on a car\nwell we just actually bought a new car\nnew to us it's not a brand new car it's\na 2009 Honda but we were really feeling\ngood about this decision because we were\nable to buy cash and just like you dad\nlike when you helped me buy my first car\nmy dad helped me you know you put 50%\ndown I put 50% down and we paid cash for\nit which is great so we paid for this\ncar in cash and you know when an expense\nstarts to meet a psychological need\nversus a physical need that's when we\ntend to overspend so I don't know about\nyou but like I saw all these Lexus\ncommercials and different brands of cars\nover the holidays it's like this\nDecember to remember event and you know\nit's like Oh your spouse could be\nsurprised by this forty five thousand\ndollar car and you know I think for most\nAmerica\nthat would be a surprise but not in a\ngood way because you know if you're\nmarried you want to talk to your spouse\nand your significant other about any big\nfinancial purchase and so you know with\ncars seeing these table. you at CNBC no it's\nactually forms so Forbes wrote a piece\nabout how buying new cars can delay your\nretirement by years it can delay it 14\nyears 15 years just because people you\nknow um take cues from commercials to\nbuy their cars and so what you really\nwant to do is the sweet spot in car\nownership is buying a two-year old used\ncar because you know once it starts off\na lot it's lost a lot of value so and\nthen really being intentional about\nresearching the kind of car that you\nwant to get making sure it's reliable\nmaking sure it's good on gas you know\nbecause we want to get all the bells and\nwhistles but those bells and whistles\ncan cost us and when we're paying for\nimage when it comes to cars that can\nreally cause us to overspend yeah that's\ngood I know that we recently bought a\ncar and found out that you know we we\nsearched all over Atlanta and we went\nbeyond Atlanta and don't be afraid to\nlook beyond your own city to find the\nbest deal because sometimes it's it's\nnot in your particular city Atlanta is a\nvery competitive market for certain\ntypes of vehicles and so you want to\nreally look everywhere when you're\nsearching for a car but that's good\nadvice all right number three is mistake\nnumber three is going out to eat too\nmuch ooh that one hurts well yeah I mean\nyou know it's just so convenient to go\nout to eat one of the things that we did\nin our 11 month long experiment is you\nknow this book is about the little\nchoices that we made and that we\njournaled throughout 11 11 months\ntimeframe and one of those choices that\nwe made was making different decisions\nwhen it came to going out to eat and\nmaybe choosing a less expensive\nrestaurant over a more expensive one and\njust knowing how much that adds up over\ntime that can make a huge impact in your\nbudget but even you know you don't have\nto deprive yourself maybe going to\nChipotle or chick-fil-a or something\nlike that um you know instead of going\nto a sit-down more expensive restaurant\nthat can really make a big difference\nand just to put it into perspective a\n$50 meal out once a week cost twenty six\nhundred dollars per year so you think\nand you think about wow what can I do\nwith that money I could put that money\ninto my retirement account my brought my\nIRA I could go on a vacation with it and\nso it's just about figuring out where\nyour money is going and putting it in\nplaces where you really want to go\nbecause it's so easy to spend that money\ngoing out to eat but maybe you know\nthere's something else that you could do\nwith that money yeah and you say habits\nyou know a lot of a lot of times we get\nin the habit of just going out and don't\neven think about it so it's I think it's\nwhat you're saying is let's be\nintentional about you know being frugal\nor being disciplined about how many\ntimes we're going to eat out etc exactly\nwell mistake number four is not saving\nenough for retirement yeah that's a big\none and unfortunately it's it's one that\naffects so many Americans um you know\nmost of us don't have enough retirement\nmoney saved but it is the top financial\nregret of the elderly and so and that's\naccording to an article by CNBC and so\nyou know if at all possible you know if\nyou're you know even just starting you\nknow start at 1% saving for retirement\nand then just build up you know year\nafter year and once you get used to a\ncertain amount of income it makes it far\neasier to live with that income later in\nlife and so um you know I would\nencourage people whether you're in your\n20s 30s you know start now just start\nwith a little bit and see how much that\nlittle bit can grow because anything\nthat you put into a retirement savings\naccount a Roth IRA is a great place to\nstart um with a company like Vanguard or\nfidelity and you know you can see that\nincome really start you know beefing up\nas it you know works with compound\ninterest and so that would definitely be\nsomething that we need to do better at\nas Americans\nwhen you say Roth our IRA why don't you\nexplain what that is for the folks sir\nso I RA is an individual retirement\naccount and you can use these accounts\nto stash away money for retirement you\ncan do a traditional IRA or you can do a\nRoth IRA and a Roth IRA is a better\noption to many people something that\nclerk talks about a lot when people are\njust getting started\nbecause you pay the tax now with a\ntraditional IRA you pay the tax once you\ntake it out later but you can stash I\nbelieve this year at 6500 dollars in\neither of those and that's the maximum\nthat you can put in there but if you're\nnot already contributing to a 401k at\nwork the 401k would be the number one\nplace to start because if you have a\nmatch that's like free money so\ndefinitely want to start with a 401k and\nthen see if you can add them to an IRA\nprobably a Roth IRA if you can yeah and\nyou know saving it's not just saving by\nputting money away but it's also not\nspending and you know that's one of the\nyour testimony about writing your own\nbook was about in fact why don't you\nshare briefly with the folks what\nhappened with you and kind of what\nmotivated you to get out of debt yes\nabsolutely and you know this is kind of\nschool of hard knocks for me because dad\nhas always told me not to get into that\nbut I did for school and I started start\na business and I was like nineteen\ntwenty and so um I had over thirty five\nthousand dollars in student loan debt\nhanging over me and when my husband\nJustin I got married we had a combined\ntotal of three hundred thousand dollars\nof debt because we had two homes and we\nbought them at the height of the market\nand we had to we have credit card debt\nwe had car loans and so we really had to\nwork hard at getting all of those debts\nout of the way but we kept knocking them\nout and so the student loan was was the\nfinal kind of straw and I really wanted\nto pay that off as quickly as possible\nso that's where this whole idea about\nmany choices came from and recording\nexpenses and making a better financial\nchoice and so we were able to pay off\nthat student loan that was $27,000 at\nthe start of the year and we were able\nto pay that off within 11 months mm-hmm\nthat's awesome so one of those things\nthat you had to do was budgeting and\nthat's mistake number five how important\nis budgeting that is still hard I think\nit's always going to be hard for us and\nmany people and you know budgeting is\nsomething that you know people hear it\nand I was chatting with a women's group\nand I mentioned budgeting and they're\nall I go it's a groan that will echo\nthroughout the room but budgeting is you\nknow not necessarily constraints it's\njust kind of guidelines and a plan and\nso you know there's plenty of free\nbudgeting\nout there budgeting doesn't have to be\nhard there's you know clarity money\nthere's mint there's all kinds of apps\nthat you can just plug in you know your\ninfo and it'll spit out what you're\nspending and then you can kind of decide\nwhere your thresholds are for different\ncategories so another way to do it is\ncash one thing that we did is and we\ncontinue to try to do is especially with\nfood expenses and grocery expenses we\ntry to use cash because you have that\nset amount and we treat cash much\ndifferently than we treat a credit card\nthat one yeah with a credit card it's so\neasy to swipe and studies have shown\nthat we spend less when we use cash\nbecause we have a different relationship\nwith cash because we see it leave our\nhand and so it's a much different\nexperience even though most of us are\nencouraged to use plastic because it's\nso convenient so budgeting is definitely\nyou know one of those things that we\nwant to try to get a hold of when it\ncomes to success with money yeah and I\nthink that you know talking about credit\nand debt and you know nowadays they're\nreally trying to lure us into the credit\ncards because of a 2% cash back or 3%\nand you know all of that that may be\ngood on the front end but it actually\nencourage you to spend more because you\nthink oh I'm putting a say I'm putting\ngetting money back though and all you're\ndoing is spending more money and but\nthat's so true you know when I go to the\ngrocery store and pull out cash to pay\nfor something I take it more seriously\nthan if I just use my credit card right\nexactly exactly and one thing that you\ncould do is you know if you want to use\ncredit cards and you want the benefits\nof the cashback or whatever you can use\ncredit cards for fixed expenses that\nyou'd be paying for anyway and you know\nuse cash maybe for those more variable\nexpenses that you know can get out of\nhand easily yeah and it's so important\nfor you to not carry over in your\nspending and kirie debt on a credit card\nbecause that will absolutely eat you up\nwith the high interest rates of most\ncredit cards and so you know the the way\nyou beat the credit cards is those\nrecurring incomes or recurring expenses\nuse the credit card for that if you want\nto build miles or you want to you know\nbill cash back but the way you beat them\nis you\nthat thing off every month and that's\nthat's when it that that card becomes\nyour servant instead of you being the\nservant to that death right exactly\nexactly I mean if if you can't do that\nwith credit cards maybe just stick to\nthe cash or the debit you know but yeah\nthat's definitely I mean number one roll\nof credit cards make sure you can pay it\noff every single month yeah\nmistake number six falling for scams\nwell you know there are so many scams\nthat steal people's money and Clark's\nConsumer Action Center gets calls um you\nknow every day hundreds of calls from\npeople who are who have fallen prey to\nsome kind of scam you know there's tons\nof scams that are happening right now um\none of the most popular ones has been\nthe IRS Social Security scam where you\nget a call from the IRS and they're\ntelling you that you owe money and are\nthreatening you um you know but the IRS\ndoes not communicate that way they send\nletters and mail so security is the same\nway so what you want to do is if you're\nfaced with something like a phone call\nor somebody that wants to sell you\nsoftware or something do a little bit of\nresearch about it um don't immediately\ntake action try to stop yourself from\ntaking action when it comes to any of\nthese things and do some research and\nsee if there is a scam out there that\nyou need to be aware of a lot of times\nthere's government websites that have a\nlist of scams that are popping up and\ngreater frequency I say you can check\nthat out um but that's definitely\nsomething that you know to watch out for\neven gift card scams where you know\nsomeone might want to sell you a gift\ncard and then it ends up not having any\nmoney on it so just be aware of the\nscams that are out there um Clark coms a\ngreat resource for looking for scams and\nthen some of those other websites are\nreally great too yeah and be careful\nwith investments that are promising very\nhigh returns you know back in the 90s I\ngot taken I became a victim to a Bernie\nMadoff type of scam where he was having\n20% interest and you know he just you\nknow that interest those those reports\ncame every month saying oh he made this\nmuch he made this much then all of a\nsudden I get a phone call from my\nmanager and he says all of your money is\ngone the man\nthat we'd been working with was a scam\nartist and they had fled the country and\nthat was over half a million dollars and\nwe never got one penny back and so be\ncareful with the types of investments\nthat you go into and when they claim to\nhave incredible returns it's probably a\nsituation that you really need to think\ntwice about Wow and I know that was a\nreally painful and I'm glad that you're\nsharing it with everyone because so many\npeople have gotten taken by scams like\nthat and you know as the slide says if\nit's too good to be true it probably is\nyou know you just have to watch out and\ndon't use any income that you really\nneed in an investment you only want to\nuse cash that you can afford to lose in\nan investment that's a very good word\ntheir mistake number seven shopping as a\nhobby\nokay well this goes back to habits and\nyou know in the book um I just shared\nthat habits are one of our most\nmoney-saving assets and that is so true\nand what you know being in debt taught\nJustin I was that you know we'd learn to\nlive on less than what we made and so\nthat was something that I think will\njust you know have such an impact on me\nfor the rest of my life just trying to\nlive beneath our means and pay off that\ndebt but shopping you know I mean some\nof us or shopaholics I you know of\ncourse I'm looking at deals all the time\nwith my job and it's very tempting but\nyou want to be careful not to make\nshopping one of those things that's\nfilling another kind of void you know\nshopping can be fun it's fun to get\nthose deals\nI love deals deal hunting but we just\nwant to make sure that our habits are\nnot leading us as you said before into a\npath of you know bondage where you know\nwe're becoming a slave to a certain\nhabit or whatever so that's something\nthat is just good to watch out for well\nI think the other things addictions can\ncome in a lot of different forms and an\naddiction is anything that you can't lay\ndown voluntarily and if you find that\nyou simply have to shop or have to do\nsomething else then you most likely have\nsome kind of an addiction and you need\nto look at the root cause of that and\nwhat need you're trying to meet that\nthat shopping or whatever\nit activity it is is trying to meet and\nso this is an area that is very\npractical and we need to look at it and\nsee what it might be doing to us mm-hmm\nyeah that's good\nmistake number eight not having\ninsurance yes and so you know we often\nthink about insurance like car insurance\nhomeowners insurance renter's insurance\nbut other kinds of insurance are often\noverlooked for example a disability\ninsurance you know Social Security the\nSocial Security government website tells\nus that one in four of today's young\npeople will be disabled at some point in\ntheir lives and so it's really important\nto consider disability insurance as\nyou're looking at budgeting and monthly\nexpenses because um you know anyone can\nbecome disabled at any moment so it's\nreally good to think about short term\ndisability and long term disability I've\ngot a friend of mine she's she's\nchronically sick and she's been that way\never since she was 27 and so it's just\nsad for me to watch that because you\nknow she could have probably had a much\neasier time if they had known about\ngetting disability insurance when they\nwere in their 20s I said that's just\nsomething that I would just just plead\neveryone to look at just because the\nstatistics are real 25 percent of us\nwill be in some you know place where\nwe're not able to work and so it's\nreally important that we are covered not\njust in our car insurance but also\ndisability insurance and of course\nhealth insurance another factor in that\nis to make sure that you have income\nthat you can live off of two to three\nmonths you know set aside in an account\non a amount of money that if something\nhappens that you can go to that money to\nbe able to offset what might happen you\nknow you never know it was what comes\nacross our path sometimes and having two\nto three months of operating income is a\nwise thing to do and that's separate\nfrom your long-term insurance not\ninsurance but long-term retirement\nsavings this is a short-term money that\nshould there be an emergency in other\nwords it's your emergency fund\nright so if you can't put that much\naside yet just start putting a little\nbit toward that account and set it up as\na separate account as a money market or\nsomething like that and just put money\nin there until you get to at least three\nmonths of operating income and if you\nhave that money saved up maybe you won't\nneed the short term disability insurance\nbut yes that is that is definitely\nsomething that that would be good for\neveryone to consider mistake number nine\nnot paying bills on time well you know\nwe live in a credit-based society and I\nknow that there's some financial experts\nout there that you know don't use the\ncredit cards and don't want to rely on\ncredit but you know credit becomes a lot\neasier if you're looking at buying a car\nor you need to buy a house and so paying\nbills on time is definitely a part of\nthat and so when you're looking at a\ncredit score thirty five percent of\ncredit history is based on our thirty\nfive percent of the credit score is\nbased on your history and then thirty\nthirty percent is the amount owed so\nthat's over 60% of the total credit\nscore and so when you're paying bills on\ntime especially credit cards your credit\nscore is going to go up and you want to\nmake sure that your debt to credit ratio\npercentage is below 30% overall which\nmeans that the amount that you owe is\nthirty percent is thirty percent of the\noverall credit that you have if that\nmakes sense because that also has a big\nimpact on your credit score yeah now a\nlot of times we get these promos for\napps that will give us their credit your\ncredit score do you recommend people\ngetting that how important is it for\nthis them to stay in touch with their\ncredit score yes that's a really good\nidea and when you know the whole Equifax\nbreach happened a lot of people are very\nconcerned about their credit and rightly\nso so one of the great ways to keep\ntrack of that is Credit Karma it's over\nthe K and so you can go on that site and\nyou can monitor your credit and if\nthere's any changes to your credit say\nif somebody opens an account in your\nname Credit Karma is going to alert you\nof that and so you'll be able to catch\nit in time a lot a lot of things that\npeople or times what people do is\nthey'll actually freeze their credit and\nif they're concerned about you know\nstealing their credit history or\nwhatever or opening accountant accounts\nin their name they can actually freeze\ntheir credit you know if you don't have\nanything that you need to apply for you\nknow you have a house it's pretty much\nset you're not making any big changes\nthat's another great way to keep\ncriminals from accessing your credit\nwould be to do a credit freeze good\nmistake number 10 getting into debt\nthis is probably my top mistake\nand the book you know all money choices\nthis is all about our journey of getting\nout of debt and making better financial\nchoices you know but that can cost us so\nmuch overtime um you know in Proverbs I\nknow you've said this many times says\nborrower is slave to the lender proverbs\n22:7 and so we want to be careful that\nmoney is our slave and we're not a slave\nto money but the cost of financing can\nbe pretty high we think about mortgages\nthey're generally considered good debt\nbecause you're actually you know going\nto get your house but you're still\npaying a whole lot in interest for\nexample a one hundred and fifty thousand\ndollar mortgage is going to cost almost\nfive thousand dollars in interest in the\nfirst year and so you know when you\nthink about that compared to um you know\nthe tax write-off you're getting most\npeople don't even Ida Mize so it's kind\nof a wash so you know when people are\ntouting like home ownership you just\nwant to be aware of what you're actually\nspending an interest because that can\nreally add up over time I remember you\nknow one of my biggest mistakes was you\nknow buying a house with an\ninterest-only loan I don't know what I\nwas thinking but I thought the market\nwould go up and up and it didn't crash\njust almost as soon as I bought that\nhouse and so when I look back at how\nmuch money I was paying an interest it\nis absurd and how much I could have\ndirected that money in other places like\nyou know saving for retirement or\nbusiness or whatever and so um that's\none thing that you know work generally\naccustomed to as a society is getting\ninto debt but we you know in order to\nsave more money and you know have more\nfinancial stability in our lives we\nreally need to think about and think\nhard when we are faced with getting into\nthat because that can cost so much in\nthe long run you know over the years\nI've had people talk about the whether\nyou should pay off your mortgage if you\nhave the ability to pay it off and I\nhave always said yes\nabsolutely you want to do that and some\nwould kind of you know argue that point\nto say that well why would I want to do\nthat you know I've got my money over\nhere collecting interest and I get an\ninterest deduction on my mortgage and\nthe answer to that is you're presuming\nupon the future for the first thing now\nyou don't know that you'll be able to\npay that in the future when you have the\nability now and that's exactly what\nhappened to me back in the 90s when I\nhad that Bernie Madoff situation I could\nhave paid my mortgage off at that time\nbut I didn't based on that logic so then\nafter that happened it was tough for me\nto make that mortgage for season and so\nthey also that the premise that you're\nhaving a tax deduction\nlook you're paying a whole lot more\ninterest than the benefit you're getting\nfrom a tax deduction then if you had\npaid off that completely so there is no\nbetter feeling than living in a house\nthat you know is paid for and nobody can\ntake it from you you never know what's\ncoming down the pike and so you know\nthat presumption upon the future is not\nfaith it's presumption so if you have\nthe ability to pay it off\npaid off if you have the ability to pay\nan extra hundred a month do that\nanything you can do to reduce the amount\nof interest you're paying and to get\nthat house under your belt and not the\nbanks bill right exactly\nall right so we've been talking about\nall money choices securing financial\nfreedom one step at a time you can get\nit on our bookstore at tji at bookstore\ncalm you can also get it on Kara's\nwebsite at Alton money choices calm and\nyou know some of the practical things\nyou're going to learn in this book are\nhow small choices can really add up\nand why changing your money habits have\na big impact over time and you're going\nto read about Karis is strategy for\npaying off twenty seven thousand dollars\nof debt in 11 months she took small\nchoices that added up over time and how\nto make saving funny money fun\nand the science of making better choices\nmoney mentalities have separate the rich\nfrom everyone else and simple steps you\ncan take I encourage you to get this\nbook so you know Kerris has been on this\njourney with me for many years and after\nall these years we've been equipping\nleaders and we've been thinking about\nhow we can help those that we've been\nserving for these years go deeper and\nhelp them with specific things that they\ntell us they had help need help with and\nso we've been listening to some of our\nlisteners and I would encourage you that\nif you'd like to know about these coming\nthings that we're about to do that we're\ngoing to announce very shortly within a\nmonth or two about a new program you can\nget on the waiting list for that it\nbecome God's change agent com that's\nbecome God's change agent calm and if\nyou get on the waiting list you'll be\nthe first one to be notified you'll get\na discount on this new program that\nwe're going to be doing plus you will\nget a download that's free of my top ten\nbiblical truths for succeeding in life\nand work and so if that's of interest\nyou just go to become God's change agent\ncomm will cost you anything just to be\non the waiting list and that'll be a\nfree download now let me remind you that\nif you're listening on iTunes we want\nyou to rate our podcast that allows us\nto encourage others to come to our and\nsubscribe to our podcasts and download\nthe podcast audio and if you're watching\nus on YouTube we want you to subscribe\nto our Channel and share your comments\nat the bottom of the presentation on\nYouTube and that will allow us also to\nhave more people watching our programs\nand so let's curious when we come back\non the video just for a moment as we say\ngoodbye to our friends and let's see if\nI can do that there we are there we are\nboth so again the book is all money\nchoices and it's a great read it's not a\nvery big book it's only 118 pages so you\nyou know I like those kind of small\nbooks you can read almost in one session\nbut you won't do that in this cuz you\nneed to really study what to do and take\nthe advice that she has there well Kara\nsays we close out today any final words\nfor those that that are out there well I\nthink one of the things that just became\nsuch a big theme of the book is you know\njust realizing how much God gave us\nchoice and how it's one of the gifts\nthat he gave us you know in the Garden\nof Eden he gave Adam and Eve a choice\nand so you know one of the most\nimpactful things that I want people to\nget from the book is just to realize you\nknow you might be in a certain situation\nor you might be facing a big challenge\nright now but you know there are choices\nthat that you have that you may not even\nhave thought of yet and you know God has\ngiven us creativity as well and so you\nknow even though we might feel like\nwe're in a tough spot um you know he can\ngive us ideas and solutions to those\nthings that we're facing and so um you\nknow he just gave us such a big gift\nwhen it came to her choice and so I just\nwant to encourage people with that yeah\nand that's a good word I think that\nwhenever we are intentional about\nsomething like this God sees that it's a\nit's a step of faith and sometimes when\nyou put your first foot forward towards\nsomething God multiplies it and it's\namazing how many things can change you\nknow in my own situation although I'd\nlost a half million dollars at the end\nof seven years God restored all of it\nback and I had no idea that was going to\nhappen but I was just seeking God and\nasking him to help me walk through that\nseason and I paid off all the debts I\nowed as a result of that crisis and\nthat's important so be faithful in the\nlittle things and the big things and God\nwill honor that faith so what cares\nthanks so much and everybody joining us\ntoday god bless you and we'll see you\nnext week