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Mark’s 18 Very, Very Personal Rules for Financial Advancement
By Mark Anthony McCray
Money is not the most important
thing in life.
Now, having said that and
depending upon who you are and your disposition, it may not even rank in your
top ten priorities. The listing of one's priorities is between a man and his
God. I certainly understand that and would not presume to become a party in
such a discussion. For me, after having spent so much of my early years without
any money to speak of, I certainly learned more about what is truly important
in life and came to appreciate things such as my health, my family, my
relationship with God through Jesus Christ and my purpose.
I consider knowing and walking
in one's purpose to be the ultimate pursuit in life.
Frankly, however, there are
myriads of books on the bookstore shelves that will suggest to you what things
you ought to value and what things ought to be important to you. There are
myriads more books to tell you how to pursue those objectives. I have taken a
distinctly different approach: my focus is money in this Blog article.
Cash. Green. Cabbage. Benjamins;
not just now, but for the long term - the really long term.
My primary objective in writing this blog is to benefit me. You see, as a
Believer and follower of Christ, I believe it's going to be very difficult for
me to move into the level of personal productivity and prosperity I desire and
for which I believe I was created, unless I am participating in supporting
God's economy financially. Many of the other things that I classify as
important - even more important than money - are much harder to attain without
at least some money. It takes money to provide for my family, to afford a
better than perfunctory education, to have the money to give to charitable
organizations.
To grow and expand in life, we
have to have a surplus - more than enough for our immediate needs for food,
clothing and shelter.
Further, I know that you'll be
blessed as you participate in the kingdom economy. The Lord said through the
pen of Paul that we will reap bountifully even as we sow bountifully. But, we
aren't often taught as such. We are hoping and even praying for financial
prosperity (the reaping bountifully part), but we neglect the precursor (the
sowing bountifully part).
Specifically, I'll attempt to
address the matter of attracting money, keeping and managing it and growing it
so that generations beyond us can benefit from your work, wealth and wisdom.
Therefore, this is intensely personal for me. I feel the need to do better
financially for myself and for my family and for my community. I have and I am
actively seeking the voice of God in writing this. I need His guidance.
Largely, these are the things that I believe I need to do every day in order to
walk in greater financial prosperity.
My secondary goal is to benefit
the kingdom of God by bringing more people into a place where they are actively
supporting their local churches and other ministries that are advancing the
gospel of the kingdom. I am convinced that the ministry of the true gospel of
Christ is suffering from a severe lack of financial support from God's people.
The trouble is that many preachers can't talk about money from their pulpits
and broadcasts without being penalized by the people to whom they are talking.
Simply put, parishioners become offended and leave the church or stay and
withhold their financial support in disgust. Very few seem to respond to
financial pleas by increasing their giving consistently, forever.
On the other side, I don't want your money. I'm not writing this to solicit
funding from you, the reader. Very few Christians write about money and say
that. If and when you are compelled by what you read here to increase your
giving to the work of ministry, please take it to your local pastor. If you
aren't a member of a church, I suggest that you find a bible-believing and
teaching ministry in which you can be planted and grow in Christ. Then, give
them your financial support. There isn't anything wrong with supporting the
ministries that we might all see on television and/or listen to on the radio.
However, I do have a problem with television evangelists and prophets who want
you to send them money without encouraging you to support your own pastor.
Correspondingly, I think each of our first responsibility for financial support
is to our own church. I believe that if we are sending money to a PO Box half
way across the country, but not contributing to the church around the corner
where we attend services, we are in error.
My opinion.
So, again, my goal is to inspire you to give to the support the ministries of
the men and women of God, who labor among us right where we live and work. We
must not forget the ones who pray for us by name, baptize us and christen our
children, marry us, counsel us and, ultimately, bury us. The Bible teaches us
that we must support those who labor in teaching us the Word. We act as if the
preacher who reminds us of the scripture wrote the passage himself. They
didn't. It's put in there as part of God's plan for the support and
perpetuation of the gospel message, and it's an extension of how God chose to
support the Levites as recorded about in the Old Testament. Same God. Same
principle.
Why this article?
This is a collection of advice
that I was looking for when I was younger, thin on experience and had not a
clue as to how to manage my financial affairs as a Christian, entrepreneur,
husband, father and first time Chief Executive Officer of a start-up company. I
was completely lost financially and felt almost without hope of things ever
changing. There have been times at which my family was barely eating. We were
barely staying in our home with the utilities still on. I had no money in the
bank and piles of debt on my accounts.
Furthermore, I was powerless to
help those in need or support my church and favorite charities the way I would
have wanted. I was hurting and feeling helpless.
I needed help and I discovered (through an answered prayer) some books and
other resources towards which I believe the Lord lead me to help me begin to
change my financial perspective from poverty to prosperity. In my seeking, I
got down on my knees and asked the Lord to begin to change me. I figure that if
it were true that our circumstances are a reflection of our thought patterns, I
need changing, not just my pocketbook. In fact, if I could change, I could
change my situation.
That's why I asked the Lord to
lead me towards wisdom - primarily through books, sermons, classes, etc. that
would begin to rewire my brain. To put it bluntly, I don't just want new
information. I want to be DIFFERENT between my ears.
Hopefully, you, the reader,
will benefit greatly from the challenges, pain and subsequent growth, freedom
and joys I have experienced. I have laid out this article so that 1) no one
section contains so much information that you can't immediately put its truths
into action 2) you can approach this in terms of focusing on one concept at a
time. If you are like me, and you're serious about taking your finances from
nothing to something to many things, I believe you'll enjoy and benefit from
this article greatly.
1. Pay God first. I believe in tithing. There are countless books and opinions
on the topic, but I believe it to be a spiritual principle that predates the
"Law" and is supported and encouraged by the Lord Jesus Christ, as well. The
concept of the tithe is to recognize that everything is the Lords, and so we
honor Him by bringing Him back 10% of all of the increase with which He blesses
us. I am a proud tither. I appreciate the chance to honor the Lord with my
obedience in tithing. I can recall too many times wherein I didn't have any
income on which to tithe. It seems to me like an insult to the Lord to refuse
to bring back what is His after He has been so kind to me.
2. Pay yourself second. I
believe in saving. I can't allow myself to spend everything that I take in, or
I'll never advance. Save as much as you can. Protect your backside with
insurance and prepare for rainy days with savings. W. Clement Stone once said,
"If you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you."
There is a lot of truth in this statement for saving demonstrates the ability
to control our emotions and our circumstances – to appreciate the bounty, but
not forget the lean times.
3. Then pay everyone else. Plan
and budget. Don't allow any dollar to be idle. Know where every dollar is
supposed to go and what work it's supposed to do for you before it shows up.
4. Sow bountifully. Give as much as you can. I believe in giving. I believe
that my harvests increase as I sow more. I believe that the Lord promises me an
increase in righteousness as I increase in my giving. There are countless
encouragements throughout the word of God that we will receive multiplied
blessings (harvests) as a result of our giving (sowing). If you aren't
prospering the way that you would like, perhaps you should examine your giving
records? Maybe there is a blessing that God has for you that you haven't
obtained because it requires you to sow a seed in faith?
5. Always, always, always ask
for the money. The sooner this lesson is learned, the better. As an entrepreneur,
sales professional or any other professional whose compensation is based on
performance, we have to become accustomed to ASKING for what we want. If I
don't ask, I don't get. Be importune. Read Luke 11. That's the model. I've been
recently blessed to see this attitude in action. Ask! Ask! Ask! If you don't
ask, you don't get, and you'll be surprised at how many good things will come
into your life just because you opened your mouth to ask for them.
6. Be diligent. To quote my
Pastor, Thaddeus Eastland, diligence is best defined as "thinking it
through, then getting after it and then staying after it." Work as hard as
you can. Respond to customers and opportunities quickly. The best ones don't
wait for you. Diligence isn't just about working hard, however. It's about
rising early and looking for every possible opportunity to achieve a goal –
uncovering every rock. The Bible says that "the hand of the diligent makes
rich" in Proverbs 10:4. This is just one of the many encouragements in the
Bible towards diligence in all that we do.
7. Negotiate as much as you can. Negotiate
everything. The price isn't always the price. Ask for a discount. If you don't
get a discount, ask for more at the same price. Here's the thing...you won't
always get the answer that you want. However, my experience is that about half
of the time, you'll get what you're asking for, and sometimes you'll get more.
You've got nothing to lose, and you just might find that it doesn't take as
much money to get ahead when you're not paying full price!
8.
Always keep cash on hand. A lot of opportunities are missed for lack of means
to move quickly. Zig Ziglar made it a habit to leave home with at least $100 in
his pocket every day. Who knows? Sometimes you'll come across an opportunity to
be a blessing to someone.
9.
Pray as much as you can. Prayer changes things. God can and will give you
guidance on the right money moves to make if you ask Him for wisdom. He can and
will also give you favor, which is better than having money.
10.
Never stop selling, promoting or telling your story. Market every day. Don't
miss a day. Don't slack. Be relentless. Relentlessness is the one marketing
strategy that never, ever fails. When you stop selling, you're on the path
downward financially. When you are relentless about selling, you're moving up.
Never stop marketing and selling. If you can't do it personally each day, find
some ways to use leverage to do it for you – email blasts, sales reps, print
ads, etc. can leverage your time and money effectively.
11. Get up early and get after
it. They say money never sleeps. It does. But it gets up early. This is closely
related to the concept of diligence. A word study on diligence uncovers that it
carries with it the idea of getting out of bed and getting started early.
Personally, I know that my most productive days and "seasons" have been when
I've been most intentional about rising and getting to work before everyone
else. When I get up late, I often feel like the whole day is close to being
wasted.
12. Communicate often and
honestly to anyone to whom you owe a financial obligation. If you owe money to
someone, talk to them about it. The absolute worst thing to do is to act like
there's no elephant in the room.
13. Don't allow banks to take
your money through fees. Never pay banking and financing charges. Pay bills
early and get a discount. I hate giving people money for nothing with a
passion! Get rid of your credit cards so that you're no longer paying money for
the convenience of them. If you plan ahead and save, you don't need them
anyway. You probably don't need your credit cards or the charges that come with
them. Debit cards work fine for most purposes with some planning.
14. Talk to people. People
still do business with people, and sales are still based mostly on trust. When
I get on the phone, when I take meetings, I make money. This means that I need
to answer my phone, make meetings and return correspondence quickly. Plain and
simple. if I am not talking to people, I am getting broker. If I am talking to
people, I'm getting richer.
15. Gratitude and Appreciation. It is hard to increase while despising what you
do have. How can we expect the Lord to bless us when we aren't appreciative of
what He's already done? How can we envy the successful and expect to join their
ranks? Thoughts of anything less than thankfulness for our blessings and
opportunities keep us out of position to receive more. Take stock of your
benefits and not just of your deficits.
16. Simplify and delay
gratification. Do you really need it? Do you really need it now? If you don't
have it, you may not need it. This is related to the concept of saving. It's
not that we should plan to live lives "without" but that many of the things we
want, can be saved for and purchased later, cheaper and sometimes not at all
after we've reflected on them a bit.
17. Use leverage. Leverage #1:
Put money to work making more money. Leverage #2: Find ways to capitalize on
the efforts of others. Look for business opportunities that allow you to make
money while you sleep. It's very difficult (nearly impossible?) to become
wealthy solely off the efforts of your own hourly output. Leverage #3:
Systematize your work so that it doesn't take as much energy to accomplish the
same outcomes. Leverage #4: Invest in tools that allow you to do more and do it
more efficiently in less time. This is the very practical area that I believe
separates middle class from upper class. Most of the wealthy people whom I have
known have been masters at using OPM, OPE and OPT (other people's money, other
people's energies and other people's time). This is also one area in which I
believe I need to work on myself the most.
18. Earn as much as you can. Be relentless about your goals and creative about
how to achieve them. Give yourself a raise. Raise your value to people and dare
to be compensated for it. There is no virtue in earning less than you are able
and gifted to earn – to be as productive as you can be with your time, talents
and treasures. How do you know that your bounty isn't designed to be a blessing
to someone else? Doesn't the Bible say that a good man leaves an inheritance to
his children's children?
If you have a tendency towards
becoming a money-hungry power broker, it is not my desire to encourage your
love for money so that you walk away from God. However, I am heartsick over the
false dichotomy with which a lot of Believers operate so that they are afraid
to prosper. Many are afraid to prosper because they believe it is somehow
holier to be impoverished. So they live well below their privilege and fail to
use basic financial wisdom in stewardship.
There's also the other extreme
within Christendom whereby everything is about prosperity.
I hope to live with financial
balance according to the guidance of Proverbs 30:8-9 whereby I am not so
overtaken with poverty that I disgrace the name of the Lord. Neither do I want
to be so overtaken by riches, that I feel like I don't need Him. I hope that
I've written something that helps you find greater financial wisdom and prosperity
with proper spiritual perspective.
To your success.
Mark Anthony McCray is the CEO of Houston, TX
based First Capital Commercial Finance (http://www.dealsdone.net)
and CashOutGuy.Com as well as the Founder of "Live Big, Die Empty" a
ministry and movement designed to help people live life more abundantly and
walk in the purposes for which they were created. Write or call 832-566-2001
for more information and follow Mark on Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/MARKMCCRAYorhttp://www.twitter.com/LiveBigDieEmpty