"If You Had One Million Dollars, What Would You Do?"

That question messed Joe Sangl up. He went on to create the financial coaching ministry at NewSpring Church. The question for him was not just considered in terms of what awesome vacations could he take or how tricked out could he make his house, but it became a musing of what he would do if money was no object or impediment. What was he put on this earth to do?


If you had a million dollars, what would you do? What were you put on this earth to do? 


Exciting, isn't it? With money being no object or impediment, why, you could do anything! Why, you could even do exactly whatever it was you've been put on this planet to do!


Those questions have kinda messed us up, too. We're getting involved with the financial counseling ministry at our awesome church, NewSpring, and are reading Joe's book I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. And we're revisiting our budget. And we're asking ourselves these questions. 


We started out our financial journey together reading The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. It was a really good start to give us common definitions of terms to talk about our finances together, and it's a good, solid plan for healthy finances. We were both raised in families that are conservative financially, so it was a good review for us. Heehee, and we got it from the library, so we read it for free. :) Dave would be proud, right? We made a budget (David found an awesome excel sheet), and we were just living on David's stipend at the time, so I pinched pennies and started couponing! I fell in love with www.fru-gal.com, southersavers.com, and savingfreak.com. 


Then we read  Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, which was cool because it gave us a very different perspective on money, spending, and saving (it also came from the library :). Before this book, I never really thought about who owned large businesses. I guess I always figured "The Man" owned it or something. But after this book,  I realized it's people who own businesses, like real people, and it made some things seem much for achievable. Also, we started to think about possibilities for investments and passive income to get out of the "rat race," which he defines as when your passive income exceeds your living expenses. When you do that, you have more freedom to choose if you want to stay at your current job, or, if you will, allows you to do what you were put on this earth to do with money being no object or impediment. 


Then we read The Blessed Life, by Robert Morris, which we absolutely LOVED. Pastor Morris spoke at our church in May, and we were so blessed by it!! It totally changed how we looked at giving, and we've been challenged by God to give at a different level than we were before. We have seen His faithfulness through that and seen how He's knitted our hearts together to give as a couple. It's so FUN to give when God tells you to, and fun how it's just a little way to show Him how thankful we are for all that Jesus has done for us on the cross. It's not about the amount you give, it's about your heart and your obedience. 


I also read a book called Think Like a Billionaire, Become a Billionaire. It's not really my favorite book nor my favorite theology (I jokingly referred to it to David as the "God wants you to be a billionaire" book), and not even available on amazon anymore, but it did spark big dreams in me. The beginning talks about what if you could meet huge needs, needs like a million Bibles for India or if your tithe was $100,000 (cuz your paycheck was $1 million, crazy, right? :). It just sparked a desire for us to dream of giving big. We would love to send a Costa Rican pastor and his family on their first vacation in 6 years. We would love to give $1 million to start a university on LaGonave, Haiti. We would love to buy the new missions base for Jerry and Carmen in Romania (my bro and his wife, check out Project 600). 


Now we're getting trained to coach at NewSpring (I <3 my church!! such great messages and great people! we love getting involved, and you can watch sermons online). We had our first "appointment" this past Sunday, where we observed a couple with years of experience as they coached another couple with their finances. It was neat to watch the couple have their worry and angst transformed into hope and joy at the prospect of paying off 3 debts completely within 6 months and the other 2 in the next 2.8 years! All this with Christmas and vacations and fun things still planned into their budget! We're so excited to be a part of this ministry and to help people be financially free! O, and it's all FREE! :) If you live in Anderson or Greenville and you're interested, I totally urge you to go! It's also in a couple of other locations in SC through NewSpring. 


We're excited to encourage people to do exactly what they were put on this earth to do. Joe Sangl is on a crusade to help people be financially free so they can do just that. His website is I Was Broke. Now I'm Not. and has lots of free resources. 


We're excited to see what God's put us on this earth to do. :) We're still praying about it and seeking guidance for each step. We're asking God to show us how to give and how to budget. We'd really like to send that pastor on vacation, and fund those missions projects. We'd like for me to have the option of being a stay at home momma (don't get excited yet, that's a ways off in the future hopefully :). We'd love to have the option for David to work with a non-profit if that's where God leads us. We'd love to have a beach house to host missionaries and to have a revolving door policy there and invite all of you anytime. :) If we had a million dollars. If money were no object or impediment. 


If you had a million dollars, what would you do? What were you put on this earth to do?