The best advice is; “Pay cash: instead of financing a car. Start making monthly payments of $300 into a savings account and then buy the car you can afford, when you have the money.” The response is nearly always, “Yah but we need the car now to drive to work, and we don’t have an extra $300 per month that we can save.” So in that logic, we choose to finance the car now and pay twice what it’s worth!

Most educated people accept a personal economic life at that ‘reduced by half’ disadvantage (The city of Detroit just filed for bankruptcy this week). But that’s only half the story. The last car Terry and I – well I – bought, out of the showroom, for half the list price and no fees, because I had been putting money in the bank for a new car and had the cash when the deal came up. Most Solstice drivers paid four times what we paid.

An investor friend calls it “rich people live much cheaper than poor people because they get all the good deals.” The world economic system sucks the life out of the populace by selling them credit. In my system, I can drive four new cars to everyone one my neighbor can. I don’t need four cars, well I sort of do, but that’s not my point. Terry and I live an empowered lifestyle on a gross income that has always been below Canada Revenue’s ‘poverty line’.They call it that because they want me to believe I need the help of a credit system.

So how can we do better financially?
As missionaries, a higher paid position will probably never come our way. Raising more support is a good idea but I think we all know how frustratingly out of our control that can be. So what should we do?

Practice succeeding in our own economy. Here’s the rules:

1. Pay cash, avoid credit like it’s Typhoid (you get Typhoid by ingesting an infected person’s feces).*

2. Cast vision to people who will support you as an investment into their own harvest (handouts are for winos).

3. Exercise your gift for attracting money.**

Don’t be hindered by what works for somebody else. Aua can make money selling a classic motorbike, Lee-Anne bought a $2,000 camera for Continuum by teaching English to Japanese folks in Sriracha, Sawang produces photos and video (don’t know if it’s making him money yet), my first book has netted about $20,000 so far. This is all small stuff but it exemplifies the principle. The question is, “What works for you?”

“I am the LORD your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17

*God favors the pay now buy later system so much that He’ll arrange your dream car, dream home, dream Fino, whatever, at half price, and sometimes for free!

**Disclaimer: let the love of money sneak in there and it will promptly destroy your relationships and your destiny. More money is never the answer; more integrity and strength will put you on the top!