What can Credit Buy you that Cash Can’t

What can Credit Buy you that Cash Can’t?

January 25, 2016

Back in the Day

Before I was doing all this financial coaching stuff, I was never really concerned with what my credit score was. I didn’t care what was on it, good or bad. If I tried to get a loan of some kind and it was denied, it was no big deal. I’d just figure out another way of doing what I wanted to do.

But I have borrowed money plenty of times in my early years. I’ve had a mortgage, I’ve had a couple of credit cards, and a couple of car loans. I even financed a 50 foot section of chain link fence, a gate, and gutters on my house from Sears once. So don’t think I’m that guy who has never had debt or loans and keeps telling you that credit is bad, never borrow money, because I’ve been there, and done that.

Credit vs Cash

So it was towards the end of last month I was thinking, what can credit buy you that cash can’t? Now you would think that this would be an easy thought process, but it really wasn’t. I mean, if you really think about it, when you are talking about material things (cars, homes, toys, etc…) and possibly trips, like vacations. Cash can buy all that, just as well as credit can. Can we always get what you want, when we want it with cash? No, not always. Depending on what we want and how much it cost, it may take awhile to save for it.

So what can Credit Buy that Cash Can’t?

After thinking about it for awhile, I came up with four things that credit can buy you that cash can’t, and it's probably not what you’d ever think of.

1) Credit buys you a FICO score: There is no way to get a FICO (credit) score unless you use credit to get it. When we use cash, that doesn’t get reported to the credit bureaus.

2) Credit buys you Instant Gratification: As mentioned above, we can’t always get what we want, when we want it when we use cash. Sometimes we have to be patient when using cash. But if you look up the meaning of the root word ‘gratify’, it means, to afford pleasure to. And it is my belief that if you can afford it without payments, you have no need for credit, but I’ll give this one to credit anyway.

3) Credit buys you Risk: When we buy something on credit, we open the door to risk. We have the chance of something greater happening to us that normally wouldn’t when we use credit. Example: when you lose your job, how are you going to make the car payments, etc… When you use cash to buy things and you lose your job, you don’t have to worry about creditors coming to get your stuff.

4) Credit buys you Stress: Or should I say, more stress. As mentioned above, we have added stress when we are worried about someone coming to take away our stuff when life came along and smacked us. When we use cash, that stress never comes around. Yes, there is some stress when there is a job loss or something like that, but not as much when you know for a fact that your stuff is yours and not someone else’s.

Well, those are the things that I came up with that credit can buy you that cash can’t. If you can think of some other things, I’d sure love to read them. So let me know what you came up with.

Why Playing the Lottery is Not Worth It

Why Playing the Lottery is Not Worth It

January 18, 2016

The reason I think it's not worth playing is because if it is worth spending $1 for a chance at a half a billion dollars or more, then it's worth spending $5, $10, $20 or more, right? And people do spend that all the time. In fact, it wasn't too long ago that I saw a lady buy $90 worth of scratch offs, which were just for 3 tickets. And its all for just a "chance" to win. But what they are really doing is robbing themselves of their own futures. Let me explain...

Let's say the people who play the lottery, spend on average $10 per week. That's $40 per month. If they were to take that same amount and invested it, getting a 10% rate of return from age 18 to 65, they would have $502,738 by the time they retired. And if they did that in a Roth IRA, that would be a half a million dollars! TAX FREE!! This happens every time! Not in 1 in 259 million tries!! 

And we know that people do this. These numbers are not that far off. We see people do this all the time, especially during the huge jackpots like what was going on last week. This is why I think playing the lottery is a waste of money and is not worth playing.

Now, if you play the lottery, and even continue to play it after reading this, that's fine. It's your money and we can still be friends. But just be aware that you are only hurting yourself, and perhaps your family by playing. Check out this article from Yahoo Finance.

Are You a Team Player?

Are You a Team Player?

January 11, 2016

The Game

Imagine this; you’re at a football game featuring your favorite team and their biggest rival. You have awesome seats that cost you a fortune. The two teams go out in the center of the field for the coin toss. Your team wins the toss and decides to be on offence. Both teams go back to the sidelines and the coaches start to strategize about the plays that will be done during the kickoff. The rival team starts out onto the field, and begins to set up for the kickoff. Your team begins to move out onto the field towards the end where they will receive to ball. It’s then you notice something odd. Your team only has 6 players out onto the field. You start to think, the others will be out soon, but no one else runs out. Now you’re thinking, this isn’t right, what are they doing?


Now we all know that this will never happen. No team from any kind of sport would send out half their players to play the game. The chances of that team winning the game would be almost zero. Well that is exactly what happens in your marriage when you and your spouse are not on the same page when it comes to your money. The chances of you winning financially are almost zero.


Proverbs 31:10–11 says, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain.” This can be said the other way too “Who can find a virtuous husband…” Both ways are right. If one of you does the budget, pays and mails out the bills, while the other spouse hands over their paycheck and takes no part in the household budget, but then later on gets mad when something goes wrong or wants to buy something and there is no money, that puts tremendous amounts of stress on the spouse trying to do the right thing. Believe me; I’ve done that to my wife. I had no idea how much stress I was putting on her until something went wrong and she just broke down crying. That was when we talked about money, that’s when I got involved and that was wrong on my part.


Now, Julie writes out the budget, we both sit down and go over it. I will ask questions if I have any, if not and I agree to what she has written down and if something goes wrong, I have no right to get into her case about it because I agreed to the plan too. We both made the decision to do it. Now if one of us changes the plan after agreeing on it and doesn’t talk about the changes with the other and something goes wrong, well now we have something to gripe about and we have a right to get in each other’s case. Because it turned an ‘our plan’ into a ‘my plan’, which can cause not only stress, but sometimes resentment as well.


Look, the number one cause of divorce in this country is due to money fights and money problems. If that’s the number one cause, what do you think will happen if you got that part of your marriage under control? And once you start communicating about that, you’ll start to communicate about other things and that will be the beginning of a more fulfilled marriage. I’m telling you from experience, if you go running out on that financial field as a whole team and not half of your players; you’re on your way to winning the game of money and marriage.


“Family is a connection to life… a tie to the past… a road to the future.” – Unknown –

Welcome!

Welcome!

January 8, 2016

Hi Everyone

Welcome to our new blog. This blog is so that my wife Julie and I can share some financial tidbits we have learned in about 10 years with all of you who may need some financial advice.

A Little More About Us

About 10 years ago, we were really struggling with our finances. We would have the endless calls from creditor wondering when they were going to get their money, and rightly so. After having our "I'VE HAD IT!" moment, we decided to do something about our finances. Julie heard of this crazy guy on the radio, who was giving financial advice. You may have heard of him, his name is Dave Ramsey.

To make a long story short, we have paid off over $70,000 in debt, have money saved for emergencies, and only one more debt left to pay. It's a big one, but we are dedicated to finishing this journey we have started so many years ago.

We have also coordinated about a dozen Financial Peace University classes (the class that helped us) as well as a handful of the Legacy Journey classes. It has been very satisfying helping people with their own struggles and helping them see a light at the end of the tunnel.

You Can Do It!  

The one thing we want you to take away from this blog is that if you are struggling with your finances, things can get better. Your life is not a snapshot, it is a movie! meaning, things are always changing, and it is our hope that you learn from the pain and victories we've had over the years. We are here to help you in anyway we can. If you have a question, please feel free ask. Our email address is bunncapitalchoice@gmail.com. we'd also be honored if you'd join us on Facebook as well