The tithe is an indicator of obedience to all of God’s laws. He is looking for the right attitude in our giving. 

In the Old Testament book of Malachi we’re told that God wants us to direct our entire tithe into the storehouse. A storehouse in the Old Testament had four functions. It was used to feed (1) the tribe of Levi and the priests of Aaron, (2) the prophets, (3) the Hebrew widows and orphans living within the city, and (4) the widows and orphans of the Gentiles who were living in and around the Hebrew city. 

However, the equivalent of the Old Testament storehouse in the New Testament, as well as in our present day society, is the local church. God’s Word tells us to bring our tithes into the storehouse (Malachi 3:10). When we obey Him and pay our tithes to the church, God holds the leaders of the church responsible for the distribution of the tithes (Nehemiah 12:44-45, 13:5,13). If we associate the functions of the Old Testament storehouse with the New Testament and current local church, its fourfold function would be to provide for the needs of (1) the pastor and staff, (2) missionaries and evangelists, (3) widows, orphans, single parents, and invalids in the local church, and (4) the unsaved who surround the local church. 

Should we give our tithes to pay for Christian education?

The tithe belongs to God. It’s our material testimony that God owns everything in our lives. When we take a portion of our tithe and divert it to keep our children in Christian schools, it’s really a gift in self-interest. Educational costs are your normal responsibility. Therefore, if God wants your children to attend private school, He will provide the funds without your having to divert His tithe for that purpose. 

Should we give our tithes to secular humanitarian organizations? Because our tithes are given as a testimony in His name, the ministries that serve in God’s name should be the recipients of our tithes. Therefore, the tithe should not be used to support secular organizations. However, that doesn’t mean that there are not worthy organizations to which you can give. It simply means that the tithe—the first 10 percent of your gross income—should not be used to support secular organizations. 

About this Article:
This article is written by Crown Financial Ministries ® and reprinted from their website, http://www.crown.org/.  Crown Financial Ministries®, founded in 1976, is an interdenominational ministry dedicated to equipping people around the world to learn, apply, and teach biblical financial principles. Crown has taught or equipped more than 50 million people in over 80 nations with the life-transforming message of faithfully living by God’s financial principles in every area of their lives. The ministry is located in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, and Africa, and is expanding into Europe, India, Asia, and Australia. Crown relies on approximately 250 employees and over 10,000 passionate volunteers worldwide to help ignite True Financial Freedom around the globe.

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Remove Errors. 

If hard times have left your credit in tatters credit repair can insure that your credit report does not overstate the problems you have experienced. It is not unusual for legitimate derogatory information to spawn credit reporting errors. These errors can make your credit appear infinitely worse that it really is. All of these errors must be removed. 

Open New Accounts. 

You may even have emerged from your troubled times without any open accounts. Now is the right time to rebuild. Two new credit cards can be worth over 100 points on your credit score within six months of first reporting. It is to be expected that you will not qualify for regular unsecured credit cards. Credit repair offers a solution. Just apply for secured cards. You will be approved and your credit scores will be on the road to recovery. 

Get Back On Your Feet. 

Many people make the error of giving up on their credit after a period of financial stress. It is easy to understand the emotions involved, but it is absolutely urgent that a quick credit repair effort be made to restore your credit status. You will discover soon that your credit scores are more resilient than you thought. In fact, once you get a little traction you will be amazed at how quickly your credit shapes up. 

Mitigate the Damage. 

You can expect that there will be issues that you will have to live with for a number of years. Once you have established that these issues are reporting accurately you can let time do the rest. There are two credit repair factors to be aware of regarding these legitimate issues. First, their impact will fade significantly with time. And second, you can actively mitigate the damage of these items by cleaning up the balance of your report and rebuilding your credit. The more isolated these problems are the less they will influence your scores. 

There Will Be Resistance. 

You will have to confront the credit bureaus if you want to correct the errors you discover. The dispute process is an integral component of the credit repair process. And you must be prepared to encounter some resistance. The credit bureaus process disputes somewhat reluctantly and may employ a variety of tactics designed to lighten their workload. It is imperative that your stand your ground. 

Tenacity and Determination. 

If you receive a response from one of the credit bureaus denying your request or verifying the questioned information, send your credit repair dispute letter again. Do not be afraid to complain. It is your right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to have the credit bureaus request that a creditor research the dubious information. Tenacity and determination definitely payoff when it comes to credit repair. 

Ask For Help if Necessary. 

If you know that your credit report needs work, and you have all of the best intentions, but just cannot find the time to get the job done, you should consider hiring a professional credit repair service. They will make sure that everything possible is being done to get you back on your credit feet. Do it yourself, or hire a professional, but take action now. Good luck! 

About the Author:
Jim Kemish is the president and founder of Sky Blue Credit Repair, a leading credit repair service. Sky Blue Credit has been dedicated to providing intelligent customized credit solutions since 1989. Visit http://www.skybluecredit.com. Copyright  © 2009 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

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The Ultimate Loan Modification Guidebook.
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#1 Get Your Books in Order 

Do you view your bookkeeping as a necessary evil?  As something you have to do so you can file your tax return? If you do, you are not alone! I see bookkeeping a little differently.  I see bookkeeping as a tool to boost tax deductions. 

Bookkeeping is one of the keys to bringing a tax strategy full circle.  It’s one thing to know what’s deductible and how to maximize your deductions, but unless that gets reflected in your bookkeeping, it’s as if the tax planning never happened at all. 

Here are a few tips on what to look for to make sure your books are in order: 

Make sure your bookkeeping is current. Ideally, this means your bookkeeping is up-to-date through the end of last month, or last quarter.  As time goes by, so does the likelihood of capturing deductions that have been missed. This is why keeping your bookkeeping current is so important to your tax savings! 

Verify accounts are reconciled. This simply means making sure the balances that show for your bank accounts, credit cards, receivables and liabilities are accurate. Reconciling your asset and liability accounts is the first step to making sure your bookkeeping is accurate and deductions are not missed. 

Look for what’s missing. It is very common to pay for business or investment expenses personally.   This can result in missing these expenses in the bookkeeping for your business or investment which means missing potential tax deductions.  Be sure to reimburse yourself for these expenses — the reimbursement puts the deductions on the books. 

#2 Document Your Travel, Meals and Entertainment 

Travel, meals and entertainment are perfectly legitimate tax deductions as long as specific rules are met. One of the rules for deducting travel, meals and entertainment is to keep proper documentation.  In fact, if you are audited, you can count on a request for documentation that supports these deductions. 

Proper documentation includes: 

• Amount of expense 
• Description of expense 
• Location of expense 
• Date of expense 
• Business purpose of expense 
• Names and business relationship of the people involved 

Don’t take your documentation lightly!  There are plenty of tax cases where travel, meals and entertainment expenses were disallowed specifically because of improper documentation.  This means that even if a travel, meal or entertainment expense is perfectly legitimate, it can be disallowed if the documentation is not proper! 

About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2009 Tom Wheelwright. Do you view your bookkeeping as a necessary evil?  As something you have to do so you can file your tax return? If you do, you are not alone! http://www.ProVisionWealth.com.

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Not being able to admit you’re broke is avoidance of the real situation and until you face the problem you will just go right ahead and continue overspending. 

While the frugal wait for cash to come in, some spend money that is on the way. By the time the money arrives, it’s usually used to pay for debt. Immediate gratification is the culprit here and it is also the culprit in using plastic. 

Maintaining a certain kind of lifestyle even if in the face of a financial problem is another reason for overspending. When you are out of cash your lifestyle can be seriously threatened. Getting out of this cycle won’t be easy if spending is your way of proving your self-worth. 

Are you tired of having to borrow money again just to support yourself and your family? Here are a few tips to put a stop to overspending: 

Honesty 

As the saying goes “Honesty is the best policy”. Put an end to hiding from creditors and slacking off from paying credit card bills by being honest with yourself. Admitting that you are going through a financial problem is the first step. 

Ask For Help 

Binge buying is a hard-to-cure disease and letting someone you can trust to hide your credit cards from you would be of great help. 

Game Plan: Prioritize 

Pay off utility bills first so that you keep your bills from mounting. Prioritize what is needed to be paid and then call your creditors to make a payment arrangement. 

Store Screening 

Go to places that sell necessities only. Avoid going to malls and other places that may make you buy things you do not actually need. 

Money Management 

Use budgeting or money management tools to help you cut down on unwise expenditures. There are a lot of free management tools you can download online. 

Get the Cheaper Alternative 

Most generic products are as good as the expensive ones so if you are shopping for groceries, think of what difference it makes if you buy expensive bottled water or the cheaper ones. If you’ve thought that one out, the right answer is “it doesn’t make any difference at all.” 

Look Back 

Look at all the things you have purchased in the past. Give it a moment to sink in and whether you like it or not, you will come to realize that most of the things you bought are just stored away somewhere. That’s a shame really but, hey, it will knock some sense into you. Many of the items you bought out of impulse are generally useless. 

A Daily Dose of Reality Check 

Write down all your expenses. Do you remember your basic accounting? If you are spending more than you are earning you are on your way to bankruptcy. End your overspending habits and start doing some budgeting. Jot down everything you spend on so you can review your expenditures at the end of the day. 

About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2009 Sherry Tingley. Learn to manage your personal finances better at http://www.coolchecks.net/blog. You can help yourself by following a budget and organizing your life. You can order your personal checks at http://www.coolchecks.net and save yourself some money.

There are many things that you can do to help avoid being a victim of this crime. In this article we will describe things that you can do to help protect yourself as well as what to do if you become the victim of identity theft. 

1. Purchase a shredder and tear up all unneeded financial papers. Shred all of the credit card offers you receive in the mail and do not want. Thieves often will go through your garbage, and all they must to do to obtain the card is sign your name.
    
2. Do not use simple passwords when banking or conducting any financial transactions online. The best passwords are long ones, or passwords that contain a combination of numbers and letters. 
    
3. Don’t furnish your Social Security number, credit card number, or any financial information to anyone over the phone. Banks won’t  ask for this information over the phone since they already
   have it.
    
4. Don’t carry your Social Security card or any seldom-used credit cards in your wallet. If you don’t use them, don’t carry them.
    
5. Whenever you order personal checks, have as little personal information as possible printed on them. You should never put your phone number or social security number on your personal check. 

If you do suspect that you have become the victim of identity theft there are some things that should do immediately.

1. Call the fraud units of the three major credit bureaus and request a fraud alert be placed on your credit file.
    
2. Report the suspected crime to your local police department. Make sure that you obtain a copy of police reports because creditors will often require confirmation that there was an alleged crime before they will conduct investigations.
    
3. Request copies of your credit report from the credit bureaus to see if any fraudulent accounts were opened without your knowledge.
    
4. Call all creditors with whom your identity or identifying data may have been fraudulently used.
    
5. Contact all financial institutions wherever you have accounts that an identity thief has acquired your account or where an account has been opened in your name without your knowledge. You may also place stop payment orders on any outstanding checks that have not cleared, as well as change your ATM card, account, and PIN.
    
6. Document the names and phone numbers of anyone with whom you discussed your case and keep all original reports and supporting documents.
    
7. Contact The Federal Trade Commission. This is the federal clearinghouse for identity theft protection and identity theft prevention. The many complaints about identity theft that the Commission receives assist it, and many other law enforcement agencies, track down, investigate and prosecute identity thieves. You can file a complaint with the FTC by contacting the Consumer Response Center by phone. 

If you determine that you are the victim of identity theft do not panic, but remember some of the guidelines mentioned in this article.

About the Author:
Tony Evans is the owner of Truth Investigations in Birmingham, Alabama. For more information visit http://www.alabamaprivateinvestigator.net/ or you may also visit http://www.truthinvestigators.com/

Sales can affect your buying decisions and sometimes lead you to ignore your budgeting plans. We also have a tendency to buy things. A lot of purchases that we make are really for things that aren’t really needed. 

Apart from binge spending what else stops us from saving money? Here are a few things why we fail to save enough money: 

1. Just Not Having Enough. 

This is the most common reason for many people but not having enough money to save is not the real issue. We usually do not have enough because we spend too much money. To let your savings account grow means that you will have to leave it in the bank and not spend it. One thing all of us should remember though is that it is doable. 

2. Not Starting Early. 

Saving money should be part of a person’s values even at an early age because the earlier we all start saving, the more money is saved in our bank accounts. Children should learn how to save money at an early age so they can be educated about finances. Financial literacy is sadly not taught in all schools even if it is vital for day to day activities. Teaching children to save money will help them develop lifelong money management skills. 

3. Not Prioritizing. 

After getting our paychecks, we usually spend on a few things that we don’t actually need. Prioritizing what needs to be paid first would definitely stop us from spending on unnecessary things. Prioritizing would also keep the bills from piling up. This is something that most of us want to avoid. Paying three or even five months worth of telephone bills or cable bills is hard. A bill that should have been affordable can become a huge bill if you ignore it. 

4. Not Budgeting. 

Not doing our monthly budget is one culprit of overspending which leads us to not saving a dime. Budgeting provides a plan where you can easily see what needs to be paid first and what will be left to spend on other things. By budgeting you sometimes come to the realization that there were quite a few things bought last month or last payday that aren’t actually needed. 

5. Not Paying Up. 

A person who has a lot of debt and is not keeping current with their payments gets more interest fees and owes more than they did in the first place. Having to pay on credit cards for a very long time makes saving money barely possible. Put an end to this vicious cycle by making payment arrangements with creditors. 

About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2009 Sherry Tingley. Manage your personal finances on a daily basis. Track your spending with check registers or debit card registers that can be ordered online at http://www.checksmall.com.

A mortgage calculator is an automated tool to aid you in doing this before negotiating a mortgage transaction. You will quickly learn what you need to pay each month to keep your real estate investment.

When you are shopping for a house you want to own or rent, you first want to think about all aspects regarding the house and the cost before making a decision. Using a mortgage calculator in the privacy of your home is more convenient than doing so in the presence of a mortgage lender.

If you are just starting to have a family and you are not yet earning much, renting is a good option for now. Furthermore, whether you are a first time buyer or an experienced buyer, a mortgage calculator is always the best thing to use for estimating the mortgage costs.

Your income, loans, debts, and available interest rates will determine how much you are allowed to borrow. Although most people know their monthly expenses, their idea of how to compute the monthly mortgage payment is another story. The mortgage calculator is the answer to know what you can afford by comparing the interest rates, loan terms, and down payment. Mortgage calculators estimate your monthly payments. It is a relief to have this type of calculator in determining the mortgage that is most beneficial to you from the different options available.

The calculator is a handy tool to use before asking your lender for advice and making a new purchase. It will keep you on the right track. Take time with the numbers to see what you can afford and your financial situation can improve. Using a spreadsheet will help you summarize your figures and be able to have an intelligent discussion with your lender.

Calculating mortgage payments is such a complicated task. Instead of acquiring the services of an agent to make you understand the figures, why not use a cost-free mortgage calculator which has been tested and proven to be authentic. For any real estate purchase, a mortgage calculator is invaluable. Before these calculators, buyers had to use interest rate tables to compute the variables of the mortgage. It is common knowledge that complex mathematical computations are very hard to comprehend.

Bankrate.com has an amortization, interest, mortgage calculator for you to use without charge. You need to enter a few figures in their form to have the calculator determine your monthly payments. The calculator will tell you the amount of your monthly payments. It can also show

you how many years you can shorten your mortgage payment time based on whatever additional payments you think you may be able to make. Using a mortgage payment calculator can be crucial to helping you make on of the most important buying decisions of your lifetime.

About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2009 Sherry Tingley.
Order your personal checks, business checks, organizers, deposit slips and much more at http://www.coolchecks.net. Keep track of your finances with our registers and bookkeeping supplies. You’ll get great prices, secure ordering and fast delivery.