Andy Romstad
Cambridge Lutheran
There is that old line how about there are “lies, damn lies and statistics.”
Could the following statistics be lies? It would be good if they are.
Eighty-eight percent of us have debt. Seventy percent of us have “serious debt.” For 80 percent of us, money is the number one stress in our lives. It is what we lose sleep about the most. Arguments about money is the number one cause of divorce.
In 2013, one source says that more people filed for bankruptcy than graduated from college. Ninety-seven percent of us don’t have enough money saved for retirement. An older statistic says that the average baby boomer has only $25,000 saved for retirement.
The amount of credit card debt in the United States is $772 billion. Let that sink in for a moment. I’m curious how much of it is paid off each month.
What about saving for your kids college education? Or giving beyond yourselves?
If that is “normal,” shouldn’t we strive for a new normal?
I’ve been a part of churches my entire life. Churches are good at naming our consumer materialistic society and encouraging people to go down a different path, the path less traveled. However, I’m not so sure how good churches have been, historically, at equipping people to go down the path less traveled.
There are a number of churches in Cambridge attempting to help people with this including Cambridge Lutheran.
This fall, Cambridge Lutheran is offering Junior’s Adventures for our kids, teaching them generosity. Generation Change is offered for middle school and high school youth. It helps teens become better money managers. One mom told us sending her kids to Generation Change was one of the best decisions she ever made.
Abundant Aging, a bible study from Lutheran Social Service, is helping people recognize the abundance in their lives and Jesus’ invitation to live abundant lives. Abundant Aging is a vision for transforming the last third of life for Minnesotans and discovering new ways to be neighbor.
Like some other churches, we also offer Financial Peace which helps people get out of debt and handle money more wisely. Last week’s garage sale was a good start. Sell stuff and pay down debt.
Financial Peace helps with cash flow planning and the nuts and bolts of budgeting.
It teaches us abut the power of marketing to fool us into bad decisions. It discusses best practices in insurance, retirement, college planning and real estate.
Most importantly, it teaches us to live like no one else. Perhaps, that leads to the day when we can live and give like no one else. The purpose of that is the change the world for the better.
Lots of people tell me they’d love to give more to all kinds of fabulous opportunities to change lives. They don’t have the money. They spent it.
Financial Peace helps every dollar have a purpose so our dollars begin to more closely match our values. Why? So that we have a values-driven society more than a consumer-driven society.
You’ve invited to participate in any of these opportunities. Register at cambridgelutheran.org or bit.ly/CLCmo.
I hope those statistics I gave are lies. If not, I hope that we all can take steps move down the path less traveled toward a new normal.