Video Transcript: How to Save Money part 3

All right, we're back to ways that we can save money together. I gave you one  through 25 now we have 26 through 50. And of course, there's way more than  what I'm giving you. Just trying to give you some ideas so you start thinking. Lot  of times, people don't save because they don't give any attention to it. They  think it's impossible. How can I save? I'm in debt. I can't do it, but you can, if you just think about these things, have an open mind and maybe apply just a few of  them. Number 26 is use the library. Now in the United States, we have libraries.  I don't know what you have in the country that you're in, but here we have  libraries. They're free. You can get books, you can get DVDs, you can get music. You can get music movies. You can sit there with your computer and you can  get on the internet, and all of it's free, so you can do you could actually do all of  your CLI courses right there at the library. Doesn't cost you anything. And this  one relates to number 27 make use of free entertainment. Doing fun things does not necessarily have to cost a lot of money. I learned that early on, when I  started dating my wife, one of my favorite dates was to take here, take her to  actually this city that CLI is in Grand Haven, beautiful channel next to the water  Lake Michigan, the beach. And I used to drive her. There was about an hour  drive, which was nice. You could talk. Then we'd get an ice cream cone for $1 so it cost me $2 we'd walk down the pier. We'd watch the sun set in the water, and  then we'd take a stroll on down the beach, and we'd there was a log that was  along the beach, and we could sit on that log and listen to the water come in,  and then we drive an hour back. It was a beautiful, incredible date, and all it cost me was the gas to get to Grand Haven and the $2 for the ice cream cone  entertainment does not have to cost money. In fact, lot of times, the more it  costs, the less interaction time that you actually have with someone number 28  keep track of your savings. If you're trying to lose weight, one of the best ways is to keep track. You know that you're making progress that you sacrificed, and  now it's paying off if you want to learn how to bowl. Here in the United States,  we have, we have this game where you have this big, heavy ball and you throw  it down the alley and you knock some pins down. The first time you do it, you  don't do so well. You throw the ball, there's a gutter, and so you don't get any of  the pins. But after a while, you start learning. And the only way that you learn is  because, you know, last time I hit five, but this time I threw it better, and I hit  seven, and the next time I threw it, I hit nine. So keeping track helps me know  where I'm at, and it empowers me and excite me. Excites me, since, if you're  playing soccer or football, and we were to take away the goals, and we're out  there just kicking the ball around. You got two teams that is kicking the ball  around soon. We would, we would, we would lose interest. And what's the  game? What are we trying to do? But we, but we put a net there, and then when our team puts it in, we get a point, and when your team puts a ball in our net,  you get a point, and now it's one to one, now it's two to one, and now there's  only five minutes to go in the game. Seeing things get really excited, exciting 

because we're keeping track. That's what you need to do with your money. The  more you keep track, the more you can see your progress. When you start  saving money, it doesn't come to very much, but after a while, little by little, it  starts growing, and you can see the things that you're doing have an effect. I  don't have this on the list, but let me give you just an example. When I was in  college, I decided to cut my own hair I had back then I had curly hair. It would  come out to here, and I'd take a mirror, and I took the scissors, and you have to  do it backwards, because the mirror makes everything backwards. But I figured  out how to do that, and because my hair was so curly, it didn't matter if I was  close or messed up or anything. So I got started doing that. Then I met my. Wife, and someone taught her how to do it, and she's been cutting my hair ever since. Now, we've been married close to 37 years, almost 40 years, she's been cutting  my hair. Now, if you get a haircut every other month, that's six haircuts a year  times $10 that's $60 a year times 10 years would be 600 times 40 is 250 $300  I've been saving. And if I had invested that money into Facebook, way back  when, it'd be worth, you know, $20,000 my point is, it's a thing that doesn't seem like much doesn't seem like anything, but over time, it adds up to something  more significant, and it's fun. When you keep track of it, you can see what you  did and where it is going. It's like a game. So keep track of your savings.  Number 29 get by with less clothes. How many clothes do you need? How many clothes does one person how many pair of shoes do you need? How many  shirts do you need? You know, if you were to go to your closet, probably half the  things in there you never wear. I mean, if you like me, I like three shirts, that's  what I wear, and four pair of pants. I just keep wearing the same things, and I  have all these clothes. Why do I have these things? Get rid of them. Get by with  less shoes. I already made that point. Get by with less toys, kids and toys, at  least in the United States. I remember one Christmas, I have four boys, and one Christmas, we decided they were little at that time, we decided to give each one  a roll of saran wrap, a roll of tin foil, a couple things of tape. stuff like that,  pencils, paper and and we still have it on video. When they open that stuff up,  they just thought that was unbelievable. Generally, when you buy something for  your kid, it comes in a nice, big box. 10 minutes after playing with the toy, they're spending an hour playing with the box. Why? Because they're being more  creative. Kids have so many toys, they don't even know which toy to play with,  less toys, less clothes, less shoes, number 32 before buying apply hay wagon  test. Now you're wondering what the world that is the hay wagon? I never heard  of the hay wagon, either, but my sister in law. My brother in law came to our  house once, and they're from Iowa, and they come from the land of all kinds of  farms, and they talked about the hay wagon and what it is in a farm situation,  let's say the two farmers end up dying. They have this big sale. They sell  everything, the machinery, animals, then all the stuff out of the house, and they  put all the little stuff on a hay wagon, the wagon that used to carry the hay they 

put all this little stuff on the hay wagon. And everything on the hay wagon cost  like $1 or $1.50 or $2 it's all stuff that nobody really needs. And so my sister in  law, my brother in law, said that's what we do before we buy something, we  always ask ourselves, ask ourselves, is this thing that we're going to buy today  going to go on the hay wagon? And if it's going to go on the hay wagon, then  maybe we don't need it. Let's not buy it in the first place. Number 33 never pay  interest on a credit card. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, if you have to have  a credit card, because that way you can, you know, rent things and you're on  vacation, you can rent a car and things like that. If you have to have a credit  card, fine, but never, ever, ever, ever, not pay off what you owe every single  month. The interest on a credit card is like phenomenally higher than anything  else. In fact, if you're thinking about investing your money, if you could invest in  something that would pay you as much as the interest on a credit card, it would  be phenomenal. Credit card interest rates are incredibly high, and if you miss a  few payments, they get so high that it's almost it's almost criminal, really, up to  30% on your money. So if you're going to use a credit card like I have, I have a  credit card, and I've had one for 20 years, and in 20 years, I have never once,  not one single time, not paid off whatever I owed. Every single month. So all  they're doing is giving me a card that is convenient for me, but not a way to  make money off. And why did credit card companies give credit cards to people? They give it to kids. They give to people that are just going to school or in high  school or in college. And why these people don't have money because they  want them to default. They want to be able to charge them 30% and then some  people never pay. But the credit card companies make so much money that they can overcome people that don't even pay at all, that they lose everything. It tells  you how much money is being generated by this you don't want to be a part of  that never pay interest on the credit card number 34 increase insurance  deductibles. If you have insurance in your house, have insurance in your car,  health insurance, all these things, there's usually a deductible. If you have a  crash and they're going to cover the fixing of the car, they're often deductible  $1,000 $500 $200 the lower the deductible, the higher your premium is going to  be. Think of insurance as as the the catastrophe backup. Insurance is just there  so that if something happens, it doesn't just wipe you out completely. It can still  hurt, it can still cost you something. I mean, it's an accident. It's not going to  happen all the time. What you want to insure is the catastrophe. I don't want to  be bankrupt because some bad thing happened, but if some bad thing happens, it's okay if I have to pay a big deductible, these things don't happen that very  often, that often. My father started many businesses, and one of the businesses  he worked at, the first businesses he worked at was insurance. My grandfather  was an insurance man, and so my dad worked for my grandfather, and  eventually took that business over and then later sold it. But my father, who sold  insurance, he sold car insurance, my father never put in car insurance, collision 

insurance, on his own cars, and he sold insurance because he realized, you  know, I'm gonna just insure myself. Insurance makes insurance companies  make money off of this. I'm going to be the insurance company to myself. So  rethink some of your insurance deductibles. Number 35 limit gift giving. Lot of  people spend a lot of money at times like Christmas and they want to buy things for their family. But what happens is, with these times of force giving, birthdays,  holidays, is you end up buying stuff people don't need, and people then have to  buy you the same stuff that you don't need. So these holidays are made up,  things that that, that, that the world has figured out, and retailers have figured  out, let's get everyone buying and selling, and we all buy stuff for each other.  And you give me a gift, I give you a gift. And who's giving anything? Nobody's  giving anybody anything, because I'm just getting back and, you know, so what's the point of the whole thing? And then we end up buying stuff we don't even  need or want it. It's not the gift, it's the thought behind it. Let's you know, some  families, instead of the gift giving thing at Christmas, they just go on a little  excursion together. Have make some memories, do something fun, not all this  money stuff, at least in our country, I think the day after Thanksgiving, you know, some retailers either make it or break it on that one day, getting people to buy  stuff, limit gift. Giving. Number 36 pass on extended warranties every time you  buy something, at least in our country, you know, people want to sell you a  warranty if this thing breaks in a year, and you know, you know, we'll fix it for  free. But the truth is, most people never claim that a warranty you buy this tool,  and if it breaks, you can turn it in and they'll fix it in that first three years. And two years later, it breaks, and you have no idea whether you put that warranty on or  didn't put that warranty on, or where that warranty is. And even if you found the  warranty thing, you send it to them, and they send it back to you three months  later. And it's a different part, and it's different. It's really not worth it. Again,  insurance is for catastrophes, not to you know, save you money. Number 37  insulate your home. Whether you live in a cold climate or a hot climate,  insulation keeps the energy bills down. You'd be surprised how much money is  going right out the door. Number 38 pay bills on time. In my home, my wife is the one who pays the bills. She's the one that keeps track of things. Some families  do not have anyone that keeps track of anything. So bills don't get paid, and  then when bills don't get paid, fines get added to the bills. And then you can't  keep track of your money. You don't know whether you have money or you don't, or where the money is out. You can't tell where you're at. This whole money  thing requires someone paying attention. It's a discipline. And once you get the  system down, it's easy, but if you don't have the system, if you're not consistent,  if you're not disciplined about it, it's nothing but one headache after another. Pay your bills on time. Number 39 put money saved towards some winning purpose.  The easiest way to save money is to have a reason to save it. So Frank over  here wants to buy a boat. That's his goal. He's over here on this camera. He got 

a big boat, a little boat, maybe a $2,000 boat, that's his goal. Well, right now he  has zero money towards his boat, but he's got one year to figure this out. Now,  it's a goal. It's sitting right out there, and with his eye on the boat, what he needs is a picture of this boat. And then every month, he needs to start doing  something towards getting this boat. But once you have something objective  that you're going after, it's a whole lot harder, easier to do it if you have a  general notion, yeah, I think I'd just like to save some money. Well, what for? I  don't know. Well, how much I don't know. Well, guess what? At the end of the  month, you won't have anything. You have to have a specific thing in mind. This  is how much it's going to cost. This is when I would like to do it divided by 12.  This is how much I have to do every single month, or it's not going to happen.  So what's your winning goal? What is this thing that you really want or really  need? And again, remember all of it's God's. How are you going to use it for  God's kingdom? Put money saved towards some winning purpose? Number 40,  write a goal you have with your saving. So actually write it down. This is what I  am trying to do with this money. I want to buy this. Well, one of the things that I  want to buy is an, is a is a new cutter. I I have a book binding business in my  garage. I bind covers to Bibles. And right now I have one cutter that I have. You  have to, by hand, crank it down, and then it cuts. Makes a nice it'll cut like things this thick. Well, I have to crank it down. I cut it, and I have to Uncrank it. And  when you do 1000 like that, it gets pretty tiring. Well, I want one that  automatically comes down. Don't have to crank it and cut it. Okay, that's a  specific goal. It costs a specific amount of money. I'm already looking. I'm going  to definitely buy it used I keep looking and looking and looking. But I have to  have, I have to have an account that that comes out of so little by little, I'm  saving for that cutter now. I've been doing this for seven years. I've been getting  by with the other one for seven years, because I'm not going to pull the I don't  need it 100% I'd like it. It's a goal, but I'm going to wait to the right moment. Be  patient with it. All right, right. Goal you have with your saving number 41 travel  cheaply. Some people, when they go on vacation, they just spend money. Hey,  we're on vacation. I'm disciplined all my life, but I'm on vacation, so I'm just  gonna spend it well. You could go on two vacations if you didn't do that. So the  number one best way to save money on a vacation is just visit relatives. They let you stay for free, or friends. And you know what? It's more fun you see some  person you haven't seen in a long time. Why not? The other way is to you know,  you can comparison shop, flights, all these things. You know, you always check,  you know, I have an idea of how much flights cost, and I know when it's cheap,  and I know when it's not. So I'm not I'm never gonna pay a full price for anything. That's a mentality that you have to have. I'm not paying full price for anything  that I buy. If I have to pay full price. I'm not buying it now. Travel cheaply. 42 DUI, do it yourself. A couple months ago, my dryer dries my clothes went out, and so  I went online, how do you fix this dryer? There were two parts. They said, If you 

order this part, it fixed it 60% of the time. If you order this part, it fixed it 25% of  the time. So I bought both parts. I replaced both parts, and the dryer works. I  don't know which one was broke, but I thought, You know what? For $45 I'm  doing it. And boom. So I fixed it myself. Now. That doesn't always work. I've got  laptops that I tried to fix, and then I end up throwing them in the trash. But  there's a lot of things that you can do. Do it yourself. Do it cheaply. Number 43  buy something only when you can pay for it. This is probably the number one  thing in saving money that I can think of buy when you can pay. Buy when you  actually have the money. Don't buy when you don't. 44 grocery shop by list and  by sales. Okay, this is interesting. I put down these little statistics, and this is sort of a separate thing. It says Canada, zero, Germany, 9.8 Italy, 10, Japan, 17.9  UK, five, United States negative, 2.2 and I don't know exactly what this statistic  was about. I found it on the internet, but it had something to do with units of  saving. So in other words, Canadians, on average, save zero, but in  comparison, Germans save 9.8 whatever it is, whatever they're using to  compare. In Italy, they save 10. In Japan, they save 17.9 the UK, they say five.  In the United States, we save negative point 2.52, in other words, we don't save  money. Every year that goes by, we go into debt. So there's a mentality that we  have here in the United States at least, about not saving. So that's why number  45 be a saver. Make that a thing. You know, people have made a game out of  buying. They get a little high when they buy. Well, you know, you can get a little  high when you save, especially if he's if you keep track of it, hey, I'm making  progress. I'm getting closer to my goal, 46 stop comparing yourself to others.  We like to buy because someone else bought? Someone comes in with the new shoes, and you go, hey, wow. Those are cool. I need those too. Where'd you get there? Or a new shirt, our new hat, our new car, whatever it is, and we compare  ourselves with others. We start thinking we're less than others, and then we're  going to catch up. We can be ourselves. We don't have to be like others. In fact,  it's better to be who you are and to be someone else. Number 47 set up a  saving plan. Do not relate. Rely on daily motivation. The problem with trying to  save by motivation or daily motivation is, you know, I start out in the morning,  and I go past the coffee shop and I have no trouble saying no, because my  willpower is high. I can do this, but later on, in the afternoon, after I've said no to  a lot of things, my willpower has been used up. I don't have any more willpower,  and so all of a sudden I end up buying stuff that I don't need. So if you're going  to rely on your willpower, your willpower is only good for so long then it wears  out and then you cave in. That's why most people fail to lose weight. They can't  lose weight because they start out strong, but at some point they lose all their  willpower, and they get cave in, and it's done. Don't rely on willpower if, if my  wife didn't buy all the junk food at my house, I wouldn't eat it. I don't have to. I  don't have to say no to anything because it's not there in the house. And so  that's what we need to do with our finances. We have to make our finance set 

up our finances in such a way that I don't have to constantly say no, if I was  doing the Cash System and I just don't have any money in my wallet, then I  don't have to say no. I just I can't do it. I don't have the money and I don't have a credit card that can make me do it, if you make it so that you don't have to say  no, that things just happen automatically. You'll be surprised at what you can do  and how much you can save. Number 48 realize that the money you save you  will get to eventually spend. Okay, it's not like you're losing the money that  you're saving. You're just delaying its use. 49 get whole family on board. You  know, when I try to lose weight, if my wife is not on board, and when we had the  kids were home, if they weren't on board, then I couldn't do it. My wife is gonna  buy ice cream, stick it in the fridge, but I can't have any. No, she's gonna bake  cookies, but it's for my kids, but not for me. No, everyone has to get on board  with this, or I'm not going to solve this. You can't have one person in the  marriage trying to save money and the other person in the marriage spending it,  both have to be on the same page. Number 50 seek out friends that have the  same financial goals. Hang around people that think like you. Now I don't have  number 51 but if I were To add number 51 let me add this. If you're taking  classes here at CLI, you're already, you're already saving money right there,  because it's free. For example, I went to Calvin College for four years. It cost a  lot of money. I could have gone to CLI for four years and then went on to Calvin  seminary, and all that tuition that I paid in those days I wouldn't have to pay. So  good job. Number one, just taking classes. And if you want your degree and  there's little extra money that you have to pay, it's still a small little percentage,  learning is probably the number one way to save on anything. It's the knowledge that you have that will help you. Rather than trying to motivate yourself to save  money, it's knowing what. Again, it's having that big picture. What's this all for?  It's all God. He's got me on this planet for a short period of time. What does he  want me to do? What does he want me to do with my time. What does he want  me to do with the money that I make from what I do with my time? You know,  really, all we have is our time, and what we do when we work is we exchange  our time for some money. Now, if I'm going to give my time, which is limited to  something to get some money, what good thing am I going to do with this  money? Money is not money. Money is your time, and time is your life. Jesus  died on the cross to pay for my life, both in this life and in the life to come. And I  want my life to count, and I'm sure you do too. The time that you're on this  planet is precious. And God put you on this planet for a reason. He wants you to be a blessing to those around you, to be a part of the kingdom that he is  building, and your work and your money and all these things are just part of that.