I Bought the House - Now How Do I Budget for Everything Else?

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Moving into a new home, what a feeling that can be.

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But once those boxes are in packed, then the reality of other cost of

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home ownership start to sink in things like property taxes, insurance,

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and those unexpected repairs,

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You start to ask, how do I budget for all of it?

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So your dream doesn't become a source of financial stress.

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Well, stick with me because I've got the answers for you on today's show.

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Hey there.

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Welcome back to your Daily, financially Confident Christian.

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I'm Ralph, and it's so great that you chose to join me again as we

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continue to answer that big question.

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How can I become a financially confident Christian?

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And we're continuing our series through dealing with the stress of money worries.

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Now, yesterday we talked all about navigating the financial waters of home

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buying, and the last few days we talked about how to figure out how much you

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can afford and get that mortgage and all that process and closing costs.

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Today we're gonna move beyond that purchase itself and we're gonna talk

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about what happens after you get the keys.

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Yeah.

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After they hand you the keys and you ask yourself this Ralph, I bought the house.

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Now how do I budget for everything else that comes with it?

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Listen, I get it.

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Focusing on finding a house, man, that is a fun process.

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That's a tough process.

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You probably felt like, oh, I thought I would never get to this.

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Then you got to the mortgage process and you made your way through that

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process and went through underwriting, and then went to settlement, and

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you came up with the closing costs.

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Then you get moved in, you get all the boxes unpacked, or hopefully

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you got most of your boxes unpacked.

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And then to open up the bills and, and then comes a property tax bill and that

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that bill's larger than you expected or maybe larger than your escrow.

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And the next thing happens, your homeowner's insurance

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costs more than you expected.

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And then one Saturday afternoon, you and your wife and kids are, are sitting

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there enjoying some afternoon television.

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All of a sudden you hear a drip, drip, drip and the roof starts

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leaking or maybe the furnace breaks down or some other repairs.

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You're starting to feel the stress, aren't you?

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And these things can cost thousands of dollars.

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It was hard enough to even get the house in the first place.

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You've drained all your savings and now you're feeling that financial strain

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and you're thinking about, Ralph, do I charge up my credit cards again?

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'cause honestly, I've completely used up my, emergency fund.

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But here's the thing I want you to understand today, and

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I'm talking to you directly.

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Don't forget.

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Home ownership is a true blessing.

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It just is.

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It's a beautiful thing, but you've got to remember, it's your largest asset

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that you will probably ever purchase.

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and as such, it does require some ongoing stewardship.

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The same as you would maintain all of your possessions.

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Your car, your, your, your house is just one of those things.

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The Bible speaks the importance of maintaining what you have.

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I wanna share with you Proverbs chapter 24, verses three and four today.

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That's what it says.

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It says, by wisdom, a house is built and through understanding it is established

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through knowledge, it's rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

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Well, you've done that part.

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You filled the rooms.

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You understand how the house was built.

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You got through that process.

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But now you've gotta prepare for the upkeep, sort of

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like the walls of Jerusalem.

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In the book of Nehemiah.

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They had to have an ongoing effort to repair and maintain those walls.

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When you own a home, it's the same kind of thing.

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You've got planning, you've got budgeting, you've gotta have wise

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foresight, and you gotta have diligence.

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You gotta have these things because you gotta protect that investment because

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this investment is gonna help ensure your financial stability for the next 30 years.

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Maybe you got a 30 year mortgage, you're like, Ralph, this

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thing needs to last, 30 years.

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But right now, I want you to just pause for a second and think about

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all you've gone through to get this house that saving, putting

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aside the money, and scrimping and saving, doing all those things.

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I just want you to take a second.

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Just trust God for provision and trust him for wisdom.

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Now let's move into what we can do.

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Here's one of the things that I think you absolutely must do, and I'm gonna

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encourage this today on the show.

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Establish a consistent savings plan.

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That way you have money set aside for future maintenance and

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repairs, and it's a proactive way.

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Because then it's being predictable and you get to be prepared for

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those unpredictable expenses.

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So here's your one item action for today.

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I want you to go look at your budget.

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I hope you have a budget.

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If you don't have one, it's a great time to really do one.

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I want you to add some budget lines to your, to your budget, some what

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I call dedicated budget categories.

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We definitely wanna add property taxes.

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We wanna add homeowners insurance.

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Hey, maybe you've got a house where you pay HOA fees and

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plan for when they're due.

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Put those right into your budget because oftentimes they're not just monthly.

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They may be once a year, twice a year, maybe once a quarter.

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You can create funds to handle those.

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So that's the first step.

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Add these things to your budget, these categories.

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Second thing I want you to do, I want you to create a home

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maintenance and repair fund.

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This is separate from your general emergency fund.

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This is a separate savings account, what I'll call a sinking fund.

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Now, a lot of people say to me, Ralph, how much should I be setting aside?

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You ready for this one?

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When I did research for this show, this is what I found.

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You wanna plan for about one to 2% of your home's value annually.

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So here's a simple example.

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If you've got a $200,000 home, you better be planning for 2000 to $4,000

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a year in repairs and maintenance.

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Yes, if you're doing the math, it's almost $400 a month, but create

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that fund and be prepared for that.

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Another I wanna really encourage you to do is research typical maintenance costs.

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That way you're not surprised.

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Understand the life expectancy of that HVAC system or that, or that water heater.

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'cause it's gonna do two things.

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It's gonna provide you motivation to save and it might give you some

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ideas of how to make them last longer.

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And finally, last but not least, you gotta review and adjust, especially as

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your house gets older, be prepared to adjust that you're gonna spend more.

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This may be a time, and I don't have time to talk about it on today's

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show, but consider a home warranty.

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Now you might be saying, great, Ralph, I think this is going to help.

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Well, let's talk about why it helps.

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It helps because it fights that struggle of those unexpected expenses,

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and all of us are gonna have those.

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I remember when I bought my first townhouse, I was about 21 years old.

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I was in there about two weeks, and the HVAC system blew up.

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I need to replace the whole thing.

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So it's gonna fight that struggle of the unexpected.

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It's gonna ensure you've got the money and you don't have to

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go charge up your credit cards.

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Another thing I think it does is it protects your emergency fund it

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preserves your asset, that house.

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And last, but certainly not least, it gives you peace of knowing that you are

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prepared for whatever comes your way.

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Well, let's pray together now.

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Father God, thank you for the blessing of a home.

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We're so grateful of what you've given us, Lord, and we confess that the

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ongoing cost of ownership, especially those unexpected repairs, Lord,

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they can certainly bring us stress.

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So we just ask that you would grant us wisdom, Lord, and grant us discipline

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again to budget faithfully for those property taxes and for those insurance

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and those maintenance and repair costs.

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Lord, we ask that you would help us consistently set aside funds

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in that repair account, trusting that you'll help us, Lord, you'll

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help us maintain our home wisely.

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And we just ask that you, Lord, protect our home from those

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major unexpected issues, Lord.

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But help us to be prepared financially when they do come up, Lord.

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And may our homes be a place of peace and not a source of

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overwhelming financial burden.

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And we just, ask this in confidence.

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In Jesus' name, Amen.

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So today, here's your task.

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You've got to start budgeting for all the costs of home ownership.

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It's an act of wise stewardship, it helps protect your investment, and it

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brings you greater financial peace.

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And Isn't that what we all want?

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Greater financial peace.

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Don't just budget for the mortgage, budget for the home and budget for your life.

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And I'm just gonna encourage you today to share this episode with someone else.

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You know, you may know somebody that is just bought a home, or maybe they had a

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house for a while and you think, you know what, they could really benefit from this.

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I'm gonna encourage you to share this episode and you can

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find resources and connect with the show right at our website.

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I. Financially confident christian.com.

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And while you're there, I've got a special gift for you on your journey.

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Hey, this is another homeowner's gift.

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If you go to financially confident christian.com/master, I'm gonna

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give you a free copy of my book.

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It's called Mastering Your Finances.

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It's quick.

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It's a powerful read, designed as a starting point to help you

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break that cycle of financial shame and really step into confidence.

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And again, you can go to financially confident christian.com/master

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to get you a free copy today.

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Now, tomorrow we're gonna be moving away from this whole home buying and mortgage

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process, and we're gonna be talking about how to become more proactive and

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intentional with your spending and your savings decision, and do that overall.

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And we're gonna talk about creating some personal spending rules.

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Now these aren't the restrictive kind of rules, but trust me on

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this, we're gonna reduce some stress tomorrow, so you don't wanna miss it.

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So make sure you join me now.

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Let's all go out there and be financially confident.

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Christians, you can do this.

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I have confidence in you.

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Have confidence in yourself, and I just encourage you to stay financially savvy.

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God bless you and you have a great day today.