January's I can't afford it award

Wow where did this month go. I have been crazy busy lately so trying to do any blogging has been put off.

It still surprises me how anyone can buy a BRAND NEW car and not realize at the time of purchase that they truly can not afford it but here we are in 2016 and here we go again.

Here is January 2016 winner of the "I can't afford it award"

Of course I had to look up this persons Facebook account. It's surprising to me that a person can afford a trip to Hawaii and Mexico include a trip to Amsterdam and not be able two afford this car. This couple is just recently married. Was all those trips put on credit I know we as humans like to get a few things off our bucket list before we have children but seriously are willing to go thousands and thousands of dollars into debt to do that until we finally realized we have to sell possessions we don't even own!! To please our lenders our masters of our financial future. It's not smart. A little fun on credit is ok. Emphasize on a LITTLE.
I speek from experience. My original car loan was 23000. My payments were 380 a month! My insurance was 214 for 8 months a year my total contribution to a car that did very little in return was 6272 dollars the first year (not including gas) and I probably paid not much more than 2 grand off the loan. I could easily have gotten a decent car for that price.

Another rant on the past.

Yes it's true I do need to let the past go. I just wanted to share something I found today. Earlier I let you know about a recent interview I had with my bishop about me not paying tithing. During that interview my bishop told me that there's a difference between tithing and fast offerings. Tithing is for building temples and church maintenance while fast offerings is part of the church's charity mission. To provide for the poor and needy. Which is true. However back in 2009 when droves of people were relying on the church's welfare system it created a shortage of donations. In fact there were unverified hints that I had discovered that places such as Sandy Utah were in the red while countries that were in the black were subsidizing their fast offerings.

Again this is all the info I have as to that accusation. This shortage and higher demand of charity probably did create alot of wards and stakes to go in to the red. So what did the church decide to do. Use tithing funds. So yes the church has used tithing funds for mortgage payments.

Later on this writer finds a note on her door and once again her mortgage is paid.

I guess my main point is this. The reason I struggled to pay tithing was because of these above examples. Facts are families who just months prior to asking for help WERE taking extravagant trips. They DID live in nice 400,000 dollar homes. In one instance I can point out a family of 7 while having their mortgage paid and shopping at the bishops storehouse did fly from California to Alabama and went to Disneyland. Some examples I saw had their husbands out of work for a year. The only reason he could not find work was because A. He had help from his church and B. He did not want to lower his standards to find work.

I'll end my rant there. 

While I was finishing this up I found this blog post.

http://www.thebettermom.com/blog/2013/09/25/unemployment-how-the-lord-provided-when-my-husband-lost-his-job

A perfect example of taking initiative and not relying on others or their church.

A discussion on tithing

I finally got caught. Yep the bishop finally got ahold of me to talk about why my donations are down. To tell you the truth I was a little relieved that I got called into his office. I could finally tell him my story of how and why I lost my testimony of tithing and I did. I told him how we struggled when we first moved to Utah. How I never asked for help when so many "struggling" families did. I asked questions such as how can a family who is paying on a half a million dollar house with two new cars in the driveway justify asking their bishop for help with food or a mortgage payment when the Husband loses his job. I also talked about my frustrations with the members accepting government assistance while attending college. Why do they get a pass on baby expenses and I don't. It was a good meeting unfortunately my testimony didn't grow as soon as I walked out the door. That will take some time but I truly hope it does. I miss having a strong testimony of tithing and blessings that come from that princable. I have had blessings from tithing but lately have the hardest time seeing them.
Anyways, I've started to pay tithing and it got me thinking. Is there such a thing as negative income or tithing exempt income? The church explanation of tithing is "To tithe is to give freely one/tenth of one's income annually to the church

or as I've heard it before 10% of your annual interest earned. Here's the question? What is that? Well my dad (who I recently found out had 2 of my brothers paid for on the government's dime) Says you should pay on your gross pay. "You have an obligation to pay taxes therefore your income is your gross income" he says. My wife disagrees. My wife says because you don't know how much you truly have to pay in taxes you should pay on net income. If you get a tax return then pay on your tax return. I think the answer lies a little deeper than that. Let me explain with a few scenarios.
Before I begin let me say this. This is not a petition for change. If you feel like you need to pay off your gross pay do it. If you feel like you need to pay off your net, do it. This is not an argument that we are doing it wrong Just a discussion with questions about doing it right.
First question or discussion for those who are gross payers. Within my paycheck I have pre tax items. Dental, vision, medical, 401k and hsa. After those have been deducted then I get taxed. They take out state federal and social security. The social security is future income. The faith is (even though everyone knows it's dying) you will have that someday as income. Because it's impossible to determine how much you will withdraw why are you paying tithing on it right now? Wouldn't it make more sense to pay for it later if you make it to retirement? Or if it's still around. The other deduction after gross pay is your 401k. Same questions why are you paying tithing on that right now. That is future income. It makes more sense to me when I withdraw retirement to pay tithing then. Unless you believe you won't have to pay it later. Both of those pay you more than what you paid plus who knows how much you will be able to withdraw vs what you paid.

Second scenario is my favorite argument so far. Say a person owns a painting buisness. On a particular day this person goes out to his driveway starts his personal/company van and heads to his job sight. On his way he puts gas in his van and buys painting supplies. When he's done with the job his employer/customer who hires him pays him 500 dollars for the job and the painter goes home.
Here's the question. What does he pay tithing on? He got paid 500 dollars so his 10% cut to the church is 50 dollars right?
No. His income is not based on what his customer/employer paid him. In order to get the job done he needed gas for his van and painting supplies. Both are required and included in his estimate. His bottom line. Income, and prophets are calculated after his expenses. It's from that he would declare his income and pay his tithing off of. That brings me to my argument. Should the gas you buy to go to work be includes as tithable income? The example above does not because he owns his own
business but consider these points. If in order to make money you need to spend money, wouldn't the money you spent be considered negative income? A painter needs painting supplies and gas to complete his job. Both negatively impact his bottom line. Gas or as I call it work gas used to go to and from work negatively impact my weeks pay thus I argue that gas from a REASONABLE good mileage car that is bought to "make money" would be a tithing exempt item. I say reasonable because I don't agree with this if it's abused. A person who purposely buys a deisel truck to work at a factory job should reconsider their stance on this argument. Their are so many less inexpensive choices that could be made but if that was your only vehicle you had plans to change it and you had no other choice I would agree that your fuel money should be tithing exempt.

My last and final argument and open Question is this. There are so many things we buy that we NEED that include interest. Unfortunately for most of us owning a house with no mortgage payment will be hard to accomplish. In order for most of us to own a place to live we have to pay a sizeable amount of interest to the mortgage company plus PMI plus taxes that negatively affect our income. If each and every house was interest and PMI free some of us would have an extra 600 dollars in our pocket every month but because we didn't inherit enough money to buy a house we need to take out loans to buy a place to live. We lose money every month on that BUISNESS  investment. Should that not be considered lost income? Taxes say it is. What about credit cards? I just put our hospital bill on a credit card in good faith that I would save money. Not only did I not save any money I probably will end up paying interest on that credit card. I lost money on my decision. Should that not be considered lost income. I could go on and on but will end with this last scenario. I know of at least one couple briefly mentioned in my first post who had their house paid off by their parents. Eventually they made the decision to move to new york to be closer to a specialist because their son has a medical condition which means they sold their house. They sold it for a reasonable prophet. So since they got it for free as a gift did they A. Put all the money including prophets into a bank account to pay for their new house claiming it was a gift and they don't need to pay tithing on a gift. B. Pay tithing on the prophets or C. Pay tithing on the entire house? I honestly don't know but it does bring up a few more questions. Technically it seems to me that a person can make an argument that they will pay tithing on a house after they sell it. They can say that it's an investment and that all payments toward the house are an investment for future interest or prophets. After the house is either paid off or sold then will tithing be paid. An investment  into a future paycheck.
 In closing my argument let me say this. I like how the church makes the rule of tithing vague. There's no rule that says you pay off gross or net pay. If that's what your comfortable with then pay that. I'm just bringing up some thoughts and opinions for an individual with unique circumstances. I have already  decided what is my positive income and what negative incomes affect my positive income creating a annual interest earned that I am comfortable declaring a full tithing paid.

2015 Grand prize winner of CPA'S I CAN'T AFFORD IT AWARD

Alright. One week from when im starting to write this we will have a new year. 2015 will die off and 2016 will be born. This does not give me a whole lot of room to write my last thoughts of 2015. So without procrastinating any longer let's start with 2015's grand winner of the CPA'S (Car Payments Anonymous group)

"I Can't Afford It Award"
In January we had the expectant father who was graduating from a no responsibility fun and adventure don't care where my money flows guy to a sudden family life. After finding out he was expecting twins he finally figured out (what he should of along time ago) that he can't actually afford to finance something as expensive as his truck

So he tries to sell it. When things start to look grim his wife also puts her 2013 hyundai  up for sale.
This is exactly the scenario I talked about here....
http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-few-more-frustrations-with-bishops.html?m=1
And that was before I started seeing these adds.
Enough said.
I must have missed February.
For March we had The the college kid who thought one day "hey I'd look pretty awesome in a BMW."

I'm not clear if he got married before or after this purchase but I'm posative  his wife had a say in selling it.
Again please don't lease a vehicle this guy lost close to 7 grand in only a few months. Again I emphasize he only had it TWO months before realizing he could not afford it.
Next year's goal is to have 12 winners because again for April no winner.

May was an interesting month. I had 3 good canidates and almost chose the owner of a 2015 suburban but instead found another college married couple who just had a baby (my guess on medicaid) went to an all inclusive resort in Mexico and for their anniversary the young husband buys his wife her FIRST diamond ring. To top it all off they bought their first house while they were trYing to sell this car. So their add doesn't make sense to me.

Your tax dollars at work right here America because you have so generously paid your taxes this couple has enjoyed a nice vaca to mexico a diamond ring and a 12000 dollar car until "their" own money ran out. Just some FYI. this add did stay up for 4-5  months and they eventually lowered the price to around 11000.

For July we had the young family who purchased a brand new 2015 Honda Odyssey  (my dream family vehicle) 

I wish I knew what happened with this. When and how did they realize they could not afford it?? 

I'm running out of time! Need to speed this up!

For August we had another Leaser. This time It's A Lexus 

525 bucks a month that gets you no true value in return? Are you kidding me? Oh and look at that,  unexpected family issues.

Moving on

For September we had the Schnorkie.

Even had a second longer add.

For October we had this guy...

http://viscarjones.blogspot.com/2015/10/financial-integrity-within-yourself.html?m=1

Unfortunately I'm not going to make it to the end. My phone is dying and my time is nearly up. 

The grand winner 

of 2015 CPA'S  

"I CAN'T AFFORD IT AWARD" 

goes to...

October's. (Link is right above)

Second place.

July Honda Odyssey 

And 3rd 

March's BMW 

more to come next year.

Happy new year!!

December's "I can't afford it award"

There is a plethora of canidates this month. I've broaden my search area beyond Utah to North Dakota. I was curious to see with the current economic down turn they are having up there what I could find. So without showing every single add I found I have narrowed them down to 3.

The 3rd place winner for Decembers "I can't afford it award" goes to....
This craigslist add in North Dakota.

I think I've made it very clear my thoughts on responsibly owning a dog. Too many people let their feelings get in the way of responsible pet owning. I sound like an animal rights person trust me I am far from that. I think dogs in particular have too many rights but that doesn't mean I don't care. You need to realize before you purchase or adopt an animal to make sure you can afford it. Having an extra couple hundred bucks one month does not justify being able to afford a dog. Look at your financial foundation debt vs income and make sure you look at the whole picture before you make that decision.

The second place winner is the owner of this escalade

I don't know if it's just me but Escalade have lost popularity over the years. I used to want one 10 years ago but unfortunately since then all I see driving them are semi wealthy people or Latinos who think they are wealthy. Again this proving my point you can't have what you don't own. The bank owns this vehicle. He doesn't. Unfortunately it takes a reality check of losing a job to realize that. He's being selfish towards himself and in the end when there should of been savings there's nothing and his family has to suffer. 

The winner of December's CPA's "I can't afford it award" goes to the owner of this truck add...

There is one particular reason I chose this person. He took a photo from a different view and it pointed out something to me.

Do you see the cars in the background? Now I'm just guessing that his wife drives the Toyota to the left. He paid 41000 dollars for this truck back in July. He has lost 7000 + dollars in value in less than 6 months!! And he has his wife drive a car that's worth a quarter of what maybe even an eighth of what his truck was bought for? Are those cars in the back still being financed? He's being a selfish jerk to his wife showing her no respect with his expectations.  That truck probably has a 600 plus payment on it (plus insurance!) that's if he has the loan for 6-7 years. You realy thought you could pay 600 dollars a month for 7 years!? Why would you want to do that?

Remember this equation when it comes to taking a car loan out. A typical car loan is 5 years or 60 months. Per thousand dollars borrowed, with NO interest, your cost is 16.67. Most loans will be between 17-20 dollars per thousand borrowed.  If this truck had no interest and had he financed it for 41000 dollars his payment would be. 683.47 at 5 years. He's only made it 6 months before he realized he couldn't afford it! Stop losing money when you don't have money to lose. I have no problem with a person having cash to pay the truck off. If thats your decision fine. That person could sell the truck in a difficult time and still have something to show for it. This person has a negative 7000 dollars to show.

I'm ending my rant there MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

next post will be the 2015 grand prize winner of the I can't afford it award.

Celebrating the winter solstice.

Today and tomorrow is the winter solstce.

The shortest day of the year.

The darkest nights of the year.

Take the time to celebrate.

The days becoming longer

By letting go

Of your dark and negative events thoughts or things in your life.

Drop them off here

On the the shortest days of the year

And let the brighter days

Bring positive thoughts

And a happy new year.

So celibrate the winter solstice

As a day to let go and forget

The negativity in your life.

Had to shorten this one up. Only 4 days till Christmas and less than two weeks till new years. Alot to do. Merry Christmas! And happy winter solstice.

My Christmas Rant

So real quick. I have alot of topics to talk about but not enough time to write them so I'm going to just pick a few and be done.

Number 1. I have decided to get the V thing done. Yep no more kids for me. I could write a long post about it but every time I have tried doesn't quite put my feelings into words so here is the short version. A. I think my family is complete B. I'm a little selfish and don't think I've had enough alone time with the wife or enough fun time with the kids.C It's not fair that the government gives one group of people a free pass on baby bills (college couples or young people who CHOSE not to work so they can qualify for medicaid WIC and have their babies paid for.(( *cough byu *cough* Idaho)) while the rest of us pay thousands of dollars plus interest to pay for our babies. D. I don't want to pay any more into the system. Babies are expensive and unfortunately diapers and formula companies are making way too much on me. E It takes my wife around a year and a half to over 2 years from day one of conception to be her normal self again which leaves a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. And ending with F. I'm ready just to turn the page and not have a newborn or baby strapping us down. I've paid around 60 thousand dollars on medical bills diapers and formula and I am done! On to bigger and better adventures hopefully soon achieving my main goal of being an independent and debt free family.
The procedure? Uncomfortable and pretty painless. I would however make sure I had more time off at work. They do say you can be back to work the next day but that's for office jobs. Your better off staying home for up to 5 days if you can.

The next subject is once again Christmas charities. If you haven't read my blog before I have said it over and over be careful who you donate to. There are so many good charities out there but unfortunately alot of freebie grabbing people who take advantage of those programs who through life choices are relying on food banks to keep possessions that could be sold to pay for food such as rifles ATV Boats toys even cars. Then there are those who chose not to work. They too have to milk the system to survive. It's hard to think about donating to charities that those people rely on when you yourself are just barely getting by. Trust me there are days when I feel heartbroken from stories I hear of families struggling but then not a day later I find out that a "struggling" family was just at Disneyland or on a cruise just months ago and NOW they need your help when you are smartly saving and scrimp in so all of your bills are paid. What I am mainly saying is this. 1. There is nothing wrong with having a poor Christmas. Some of my favorite Christmases were when we didn't have alot. I just enjoyed the company of my family. One that sticks out to me was the year my mom worked at the DI thrift store. I had alot of gifts from that thrift store that i thought were awesone. The alarm clock i got didn't even have a snooze button but i still used it until i moved away to college. My wife also has a good story on this subject. When she was younger her dad was discharged (honorably) from the air force. After moving to a different state and into an appt shared with their aunt money was tight. Her dad did not get paid till Christmas Eve that year. They woke up Christmas morning only to be sent back to bed because Santa had not come yet. When they came back to there stockings about an hour later they were filled with donuts drinks and toys obviously bought at the only place open that Christmas morning the seven 11. She loved it. The magic of Christmas was still alive and well.
2. If you are going to ask for help at least TRY to clean up your financial life. I find it funny and alarming when a person will ask for help only to find out they recently purchased a car or a dog but won't get rid of those to help themselves become independent. They rely on you for your charity. I would include examples but would like to shorten this up. If your hardships are backed up with pictures of you on vacation in Hawaii just months earlier it's hard to prove you really need help or your just trying to get help digging you out of a hole that you created.
Hardships help people grow (or become angry like me) if a person doesn't experience loneliness in times of need how are they going to grow their inner strength and become a stronger person?
In the end if it feels right to donate, donate. If it doesn't don't
Have a merry Christmas everyone.

Coming up
Why the winter solace is like new years to me
And
December's winner of the I can't afford it award
PLUS
2015 grand prize winner of The I can't afford it award.