Larry Burkett Financial Reading »
I've recently finished reading several books by Larry Burkett, including Debt-Free Living: How to Get Out of Debt (And Stay Out), Investing for the Future and The Coming Economic Earthquake. Each of the books, as I'm sure you may surmise, has to do with economics and (personal) finances.
Most are relatively dated, not only because he died a couple of years ago, but because many of the books I found were at the thrift store, meaning they've been on someone's shelf for a while, until someone - perhaps the same person, perhaps not - decided to pass them along to someone else, which is where I come into the story.
Though dated, I really enjoyed the books. To be sure, Mr. Burkett was what you'd call a cynic - but I think he did espouse some good concepts. Getting out of debt is a great one. While we haven't ever had much debt (in recent years, anyway), we made a new resolution to get our house paid off, and we think it will be a done deal by the end of this year. Of course, we don't know what else is in store, but it's good to have a goal.
We also were reminded of Romans 13:8, interpreted variously as "owe no man" and "let no debt remain outstanding". Good advice. So instead of continuing paying on our same as cash financing deals, we simply paid them off. Even though we were able to pay, and did pay each month, the reward for doing so just wasn't there. And it feels good to have the bill off our backs.
Another interesting point is on the use of credit cards. We haven't had a credit card in years that wasn't paid off at the end of the month, but just because you pay the bill at the end of the month doesn't mean you're a good user of credit. I know I find myself whipping out the plastic more often than I would a wad of cash, were I to carry cash along.
So while we'll likely never use a strict budget, we did take a look at some of our expenditures, and decided to give ourselves a sort of allowance, so that we know what we'll be spending in certain areas - notably eating out and the like. We'll see how it goes.
Comments (1)
I'm an active stock trader and many people ask me where's a good place to put one's money. My response these days is, PAY OFF YOUR DEBTS. If you look at the interst rate on all debt it easily exceeds any return you can make on any investment. That means if you pay off a debt that has an 7% interest rate, it just like getting a 7% return on your money.
Posted by Ted | June 5, 2005 9:22 AM