Today's meeting looked a little different; instead of a "live" speaker, we watched a speaker/presentation on DVD. The speaker was Dave Ramsey, who is known as a financial author, radio host, television personality, and motivational speaker. The DVD we watched is part of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace series and the session we covered was titled "Buyer Beware".
Dave started out talking about "the enemy of your Financial Peace" (companies/marketing) and the 4 Major Ways companies market to you. He shared that we live in the most marketed to culture in the history of the world and that companies use every angle to aggressively compete for your money. Some interesting statistics include: adults see 3,000-4,000 advertisements/day, kids born today will see over 1 million ads in their lifetime, companies will spend $15 billion this year alone on ads geared towards children, and that watching 1 hour of TV/week will equal an extra $200/year spent on products.
The Four Major Ways companies market to us:
1. Personal Selling
2. Financing as a marketing tool (no interest until 2012, 0% interest loans, no money down, etc)
3. TV, Radio, Internet, and other media
4. Product Positioning (brand recognition, color, shelf position, and packaging)
Dave then shared some tips about significant purchases and what to do before making them. A "significant purchase" is normally anything over $300. Our bodies actually go through physiological changes when making a significant purchase.
He also shared that we all have a spoiled, red-faced, tantrum-throwing kid living inside of us.....and his name is "immaturity". If this kid runs your buying decisions all of your life, you will be broke. Children do what feels good, but adults devise a plan and follow it.
What To Do When Making a Significant Purchase:
Because you can always spend more than you make, you must develop a power over purchase by:
1. Waiting Overnight before making a purchase.
2. Carefully considering your buying motives. NO amount of STUFF equals contentment or fulfillment.
3. Never buying anything you do not understand (such as certain types of insurance coverage or investments)
4. Considering the "opportunity cost" of your money.
5. Seeking the counsel of your spouse or accountability partner.
"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." Proverbs 31:10-11 (NKJV)
Some good tips to follow especially as we hit the stores for our Black Friday/Christmas shopping :)
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and please join us for our Christmas Brunch on Tuesday, December 6th!!
This blog is dedicated to the Moms of Influence group at Northbrook Church in Richfield, WI.
Nov. 1: Faith: Hope in Marriage
Pat and Pam Quinn shared with us their experiences and insights regarding strategies for working through the ups and downs of married life. Their message focused on how to go about working through tough times when: 1. Our husband is hurting. 2. We are hurting. 3. We both are hurting.
When HE is hurting:
1. Realize you can't solve the problem for him.
2. When he's sitting there watching tv, surfing the Internet and looking like he's doing nothing, realize he actually is using that time to work through his problem.
3. You telling friends and family about his problem, doesn't help him solve the problem and actually makes him hurt and feel emasculated.
What SHE can do while he is hurting:
1. Listen.
2. Give him time to work on things.
3. Be supportive.
4. Show confidence in him that you know he can work the problem out.
When SHE is hurting:
1. Women need to process things by talking through the problem.
2. Women need to be validated.
3. Women need to know that we are normal and we are not alone.
What HE can do while she is hurting:
1. Don't try to solve her problem but, instead, listen to her.
2. Realize men are bad at needs identification (knowing what they can do to help) but do want to be helpful and supportive. Tell them what they can do to help you (dishes, bedtime, laundry) while you work through the problem.
When you BOTH are hurting:
1. Practice fair fighting rules. Examples:
- Realize just because mom did things this way, doesn't mean it's the right/only way to do things.
- Make "I" statements rather than "You" statements.
- Recognize you and your spouse may have different fighting styles.
- Don't use words like "never" and "always".
- Do explain how you are feeling in response to what they are saying.
- Remember, in those moments, that you still love your spouse.
2. Carve out times to talk (both in good times and in bad).
3. Remember the purpose of discussion is not to win, but to solve the problem.
4. If you reach a point when you need to talk to someone about your marriage, be very careful who you choose because that person could ultimately influence the outcome of your marriage.
Our discussion topic for the Nov. 15th mtg. will be "Resourcefulness: Saving". We hope to see you there!
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