Seminar Summary
This personal finance seminar is designed to help you identify your values around money and your goals for household spending. The seminar will include:
- identifying your net worth,
- creating a spending plan,
- managing debt,
- preparing your family for various financial goals,
- preparing for retirement, and
- establishing a charitable giving plan.
Weekly Discussion Outline
| Topic | Writing Your Money Story |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F Introduction (pp. 12-20) Writing Your Money Autobiography (pp. 22-24)YMoYL Chapter 1 (pp. 1-27) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Complete the Smart About Money Life Values Quiz. (2) Write your personal money autobiography using Money & Faith pp. 22-24 as a guide. |
| Going Further | Ten Steps to Being Smart About Money Smart About Money Life Values Summary |
| Topic | Developing a Net Worth Statement |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F The Liturgy of Abundance (pp.25-30) Scarcity: The Great Lie (pp. 31-38)YMoYL Step 1: Making Peace with the Past (pp. 27-37) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Using the worksheet provided, prepare your Net Worth Statement. (2) Revise your money autobiography. |
| Tools to Use | Personal Net Worth Statement |
| Topic | Developing a Spending Plan |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F Compassion (pp. 59-65) The Call of the Rich Man (pp. 66-72)YMoYL Your Life Energy (pp. 51-56) Step 2: Being in the Present (pp. 56-73) Step 3: Monthly Tabulation (pp. 80-105) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Sketch out a spending plan, and begin filling it in. (2) Revise your money autobiography. |
| Tools to Use | Spending Plan Worksheets (choose one): |
| Topic | Managing Risks & Three Questions |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F It is Good (pp. 154-158) The Gift Must Always Move (pp. 158-163) The Ultimate Question … (pp. 164-171)YMoYL Step 4: Three Questions That Will Transform Your Life (pp. 109-136) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Based on your spending plan, calculate your emergency fund. (2) Identify your risks based on the provided worksheet. (3) Place Security Freezes on all three of your credit records. (4) Revise your money autobiography. |
| Tools to Use | Risks & Insurance Needs Assessment |
| Going Further | Complete a Home Inventory (choose one):
|
| Topic | Preparing for Retirement |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F Investing, the Poor, & Social Change (pp. 173-179) Making Trade Fair for Africa (pp. 180-185) When Women Decide to Be Unstoppable (pp. 186-194) Retirement, Money, & the Reign of God (pp. 195-197)YMoYL Financial Independence as a By-product of Doing the Steps (pp. 149-157) Ten Sure Ways to Save Money (pp. 166-177) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Run a retirement estimate / calculation using the CalcXML tool. (2) Write a summary of how you envision your retirement. (3) Revise your money autobiography. |
| Going Further | YMoYL: Saving on the Basics (pp. 177-191) |
| Topic | Managing Your Finances & Giving |
| Read Before Meeting | M&F Radical Acceptance (pp. 218-221) and All the Trees of the Field (pp. 222-224)YMoYL Step 9: Managing Your Finances (pp. 262-267) |
| Do Before Meeting | (1) Identify your own top five goals for charitable giving: three in your life and two after your death. (2) Revise your money autobiography.(3) Review the Investment Basics presentation. |
| Going Further | YMoYL: Three Pillars of Financial Independence (pp. 270-294) |
Reference Texts
In an age of great economic uncertainty when everyone is concerned about money and how they spend what they have, this new edition of the bestselling Your Money or Your Life is an essential read. With updated resources, an easy-to-use index, and anecdotes and examples particularly relevant today-it tells you how to:
- get out of debt and develop savings
- reorder material priorities and live well for less
- resolve inner conflicts between values and lifestyle
- save the planet while saving money
In Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin shows readers how to gain control of their money and finally begin to make a life, rather than just make a living.
Vicki Robin’s Biography
Vicki Robin is a prolific social innovator, writer and speaker. She is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Viking Penguin, 1992, 1998, 2008). It was an instant NY Times best seller in 1992 and steadily appeared on the Business Week Best Seller list from 1992-1997. It is available now in eleven languages.
Called by the New York Times as the “prophet of consumption downsizers,” Vicki has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America” and National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” and “Morning Edition”; she has also been featured in well over 100 magazines including People Magazine, AARP, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day, Newsweek, Utne Magazine and the New York Times.
Vicki has helped launch many sustainability initiatives including: The New Road Map Foundation, The Simplicity Forum, The Turning Tide Coalition, Sustainable Seattle, The Center for a New American Dream, Transition Whidbey and more. In the 1990’s she served on the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Task Force on Population and Consumption.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945, Vicki grew up on Long Island and graduated cum laude from Brown University in 1967. She received awards from Co-op America and Sustainable Northwest for her pioneering work on sustainable living. Vicki’s one of 61 visionaries featured in Utne Magazine’s book, Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life. A&E Entertainment’s show “Biography” honored Vicki as one of ten exceptional Seattle citizens. She currently lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound.
Talking about money in a personal way remains more of a taboo than sex or politics. This seems odd within a Christian context, since Jesus addressed topics of money, poverty, and wealth more than any other concerns. For many, money becomes an idol; we see it in our own culture as we pursue economic growth no matter the cost to the overall well-being of God’s creation. When that happens, “enough” is always more than we have right now, and scarcity becomes the lens through which we see the world.
On a personal level, this book opens up issues of scarcity and abundance, idolatry and freedom; on a societal level, it invites exploration of greater equity and sustainability. On both levels, it empowers individuals and groups to apply their faith’s values in practical ways while taking pastoral and prophetic stances. The author suggests we need to experience the nurturing companionship of a wise, compassionate pastor or spiritual guide in our relationship to money, while also needing to experience the power, strength, anger, and call to repentance of an Old Testament prophet.
People want to connect their values with everyday concerns, while discovering ways to make a positive difference. This book helps them do both.
Includes a comprehensive study guide within the book for groups and individuals.
Contributors include: Henri Nouwen, Dave Barry, Walter Brueggemann, David Boyle, Lynne Twist, Lewis Hyde, William Stringfellow,John Haughey, Ched Myers, Bill McKibben, Sallie McFague, William Greider, Leonardo Boff, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Maria Harris, Rich Lang, Wayne Muller, Sharon Parks, Rodney Clapp, Ted Nace, Lester Brown, Pete Barnes,Andy Loving, Edgar Cahn, Sarah Tarver-Wahlquist, Susan Wilkes, Jim Klobuchar
Michael Schut’s Biography
Michael Schut is a popular teacher, speaker, and Morehouse author, focusing on the nexus between faith, sustainability, economics, and justice. He is currently the economic and environmental affairs officer of the Episcopal Church, following 11 years on the staff of Earth Ministry. His latest book is titled Money & Faith: The Search for Enough (2008). Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective was originally published in 1999, and won the second best book of 2000 award by the Catholic Press Association. Schut also edited Food and Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread. He lives in Seattle.
Resources
Facilitator
Chuck Clifton, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, is the founder of Sycamore Financial Planning, LLC, a fee-only financial planning firm headquartered in Durham, NC.