The Land of Ozz

Achieve American Dream and then Give It Back

A short note to the rich and famous.  You may soon be required to start refunding movie tickets, CD sales, MP3 royalties, book sales, and concert tickets.  The method of refund will be delivered to your faithful fans by way of the Obama success tax.

One thing that has struck me about the robin hood philosophy of Barack Obama is that it is the enemy of the core reason many people flock to this great country of opportunity.  Obama’s promise of taxing the rich means that if you actually achieve the ultimate American dream and become rich and famous then you will not get to keep all that you worked so hard to obtain for very long.  Your success will be limited to $250K or less per year to remain free from what I call the Obama success tax.

Should you be tithing if you are in a financial storm?  By financial storm I mean that you may be facing the loss of your job and/or foreclosure on your home or maybe bankruptcy.  You know, the BIG financial problems that are plaguing many families in the USA these days.  Most of our politicians who are currently trying to “relate” to us have no clue what it feels like to face such desperate circumstances.  I have been through a severe financial storm and can tell you that you must be prepared or you will be devastated by the destructive nature of these storms.  You can loose more than your job, home, and credit rating.  You could loose your life as you know it.

Our Story

My wife Sherry and I both were working when we got married. We bought two cars (on credit)¹, our first house that we could only afford on two incomes², and all the fixings that go along with being a first time home owner. The fixings were fairly big ticket items mostly purchased on credit³.  These were things like window coverings, lawn equipment, refrigerator, freezer, lawn furniture, etc, etc.

Then we had our first child and decided that Sherry should stay home with Riley. We did not fully understand back then why God had put it on our hearts to have Sherry switch from being a full-time public school teacher to being a full-time mom, but that is a story for another day.  From a financial perspective this was a very bad decision because we could not afford to live on a single income ⁴.  We initially made up for the nearly $30K per year of lost income by cashing in some 401k accounts and paying for even more stuff on credit that we could not afford^5,6. Then I took a job that paid more via the over-time that came with some required travel.  The over-time pretty much made up for the remainder of the lost income and we got into a comfort⁷ zone with our household budget that as I said “required the over-time” to stay out of the red.

To this point I have noted and marked more than a half dozen major mistakes in our financial planning that would not be fully exploited until we hit our first real financial emergency.  Never mind the fact that we had a zero balance in our savings account at that time.  This emergency would not cost us a significant amount of money out of pocket, but the emergency would shed light into the dark corner of our finances that we did not even realize existed up until that point.  The emergency caused us to fall back on my base salary for a period of nearly seven months.

So how big of a deal could it be to miss some over-time for a few months?  We were in need of approximately $500 of over-time pay per month to maintain our bills.  Our bills included more than $500 per month in minimum payments on credit card payments plus two cars that totaled another $770 per month.  To boot, we were upside down on both cars and could not sell either because we did not have the cash to pay off the balance of the loan even if we could find a buyer at a fair market price.

The emergency we faced was the care requirements of our second child Caden.  He was born with some severe medical conditions that we still battle to this day nearly four years later  As recently as last week he had another open-heart surgery.  His medical conditions did not really cost us anything directly.  The indirect related expenses we that we ate out more during his extended hospital stays and spent more on gas going to and from the hospital, but that was about it.  His genetic birth defect qualified him for Medicaid so that as a secondary insurance paid for all the deductibles and co-pays that my employer provided insurances did not cover.  This particular Medicaid program (TEFRA - Katie Beckett) was designed to help families with children who are disabled under SSI (Social Security Income) standards, but do not qualify for SSI or regular Medicaid due to assets and income.  This program helps families like ours avoid bankruptcy when the deductibles and co-pays reach well into the tens of thousands of dollars.

So far I have described the climate before the financial storm and pretty well defined the make-up of the storm.  While Caden’s birth did not cause our problems, his birth certainly exposed some VERY bad decisions we had been making in the previous four years working up to his birth.  Our total financial damage can be described by saying that it would have taken $10,000 cash just to get us current on our bills at one point.  We were 30-60 days behind on everything including our home.  Not only that, I would have needed to have the opportunity to being making the same amount of overtime again just to continue to make minimum monthly payments on our home, cars, and $60K worth of credit card debt.

What about tithing?

Tithing is a very touchy subject that I will not try to justify with a ton of scriptures.  While there are plenty of biblical references on finances, they are best digested first hand.  If you have never read the Bible and are in a financial storm, then you picked a perfect time to start.  God does some of his best work on those in need.  Sherry and I not only began reading the bible regularly within the year after Caden was born, but also went seeking advice on our finances.  We enrolled in a Crown Financial class.  We then peppered what we learned from that class with principles taught by Dave Ramsey who credits Crown founder Larry Burkett as a source of some of his principles.

So there we were in a pretty big storm.  Each month, some lender was not getting paid because we were about $500 short on breaking even on our bills without overtime.  At that point in our life we were not tithing because we could not afford it.  Most would say that is exactly how they would have been viewing tithing.  It was not required to maintain life as we knew it so it should not have been in our “expenses”. Tithe was not included in our expenses then and it would never be in our expenses in the future. More on that in a minute.

It was in the middle of this storm that we finally come to the realization that what we had possession of was not really ours.  We learned from reading the bible that God made every single thing that we could detect with our senses so why were we holding so tightly to it all like it was ours?  Could we take it with us when we died?  Were we ever going to reach the “richest man alive” status and be remembered in the history books for our wealth and possessions? Even if we did, would it matter in eternity? We could not come up with answers to any of these types of questions that justified our continuing to act like we actually owned anything on this earth.  God owns it all and we are just here to take care of it, to be stewards.

In late 2005 that we decided to begin tithing.  We had heard our pastor say along with many others who said similar things, “If you want God to help you with your finances then you are going to have to get him involved in your finances.” So what does that really mean?  To us that meant tithing.  I don’t want to stir an argument, but we do make a distinction between tithing, gifts, donated time, and charity.  I realize that many people don’t see it that way, but they have a right to be wrong. That is another borrowed phrase from our pastor.  I mentioned before that our tithe is not part of our “expenses” and it never would be.  Below is an illustration of how we include tithe in our budget spreadsheet.

Income

Salary NET (Net amount of salary)
Carry-over (Add Balance from last pay period)
Deposits (Add Misc income from Internet)
Tithe (deduct tithe based on gross pay before taxes, insurance)
NOT CLEAR (deduct Checks/debits not yet cleared)
TOTAL Income

Expenses

Mortgage
Utilities
Groceries
Car payment
Car Insurance
Car Gas/Maint
Credit
Student Loan
Phone/Internet
Cell Phone
Childcare
Entertainment
Savings
Gifts
Charity

Total Out (total expenses)

Balance (Total Income - Total Out)

You will notice that tithe is a factor in our income and not our expenses.  We now treat tithing as a necessity to our budget.  We have come to a point of enjoying the tithe check as much as the pay check. We have always had tithe at the top our budget list, but up until the fall of 2005 we just treated tithe like and expense and most often like it was at the bottom of our priorities with charity and gifts.  This is a common theme I see with many Christian families that I talk to about finances.

We got to a point in late 2005 where one or more bills was not going to get paid each month to the tune of $500 per month.  If we started tithing right off the top then that would just mean one or two more bills would end up falling off the bottom of our budget.  Since we saw no way out with an almost certain foreclosure, repossession, charge offs, and/or possible bankruptcy if we could not get out from under the house and at least one car payment, what would it hurt to give God a shot at our finances?  The first few months were just like I said above.  A few more bills fell off the bottom and the mortgage got even farther behind.  It was not until we finally staked the sign in front of our house that we saw things begin to turn.  Sherry and I beleive to this day that we were still holding on to the house as “ours” even after the above change in attitude on tithing.

It was at this time that God showed up in a BIG way.  It was to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in one year.  I won’t go too deep into the details, but there is no other explanation to this day as to why things happened how and when they did to allow us to be where are today.  We are in the same house driving the same two cars (one already paid off) and we will have all our credit card, student loan, and car loan debt paid off by next fall.  That has all been done without settling on a single debt and by paying every dime we owe to our lenders.

Attitude on Tithing

It is best if you get the right attitude on tithing from the start.  My suggestions are as follows:

• Tithe as an act of worship (enjoy it)
• Tithe to your local church
• Tithe based on gross of all increase

I will add a few notes just to clarify these points. First you must not see tithing as simple a must do act but rather an enjoyable act of worship.  God does not need your money and you can not buy His love. Second you should tithe to your local church.  Don’t have a church? Then that is another problem we can address another post so just pick one to tithe to for now. Last but not least, you should not have to ask whether to tithe on gross or net income.  If you have to ask the gross/net question then you did not get the first point about enjoying tithing.

In conclusion I will just say that the answer to the title quesiton is not for me to give you, but I can at least share with you how it has works for us.  I don’t think that tithing in itself will fix your problems financial or otherwise, but if it grows your trust in letting God handle your problems then you will come out a winner in th end.

This post was inspired partially by JD over at Get Rich Slowly.  His post titled Could Tithing Lead Some Americans to Lose Their Homes? has some great comments that validate my claims on the attitudes of many Chrisitians on this subject.  Sherry and I enjoy sharing our testimony on finances and have been planning on writing this post for some time now.  I will share some specifics on our financial blessings in the future.

A story released today by The Time and Democrat shows that the SC State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex (D) is baking the public school SAT scores and using private and home school success as the yeast in his recipe.  The story titled Honest is foundation of improvement by Randy Page states that Jim Rex fails to mention that the reported two point improvement in 2008 SC SAT scores over 2007 is based on private and independent scores shoring up the average.  The public school scores in SC actually dropped by three points when you look at public schools only.   Here is how the score stacked up in SC for 2008:

2008 SAT scores in South Carolina

Type School       AVG Score*

Public School          980

Private School       1043

Home School         1088

*These scores do not include the new writing section of the SAT.

One observation I took away from this article is that SC is already spending over $11k per student which is more money per student than any of its neighbor states, yet SC is trailing in results. The home schooler are barely mentioned in this article, but at least they shine as the class act with the highest SAT scores mentioned in the article.  I have more to say on education as a whole as it relates to the upcoming election, but I will save that for a separate post on another day.

The President and CEO of Nelson Publishers Michael Hyatt has posted some observations on the lack of modesty in the world today.  Mrs Ozz and I took Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo’s Reflections of Moral Innocence class a few years ago that helped us gain a perspective on how to lead our children down a pure path.  And yes we have all boys and they need to be taught about modesty too.  Now we teach the Reflections of Moral Innocence classes in our home as a follow on to Growing Kids God’s Way so we can help educate other parents on modesty and sex education.

What are the benefits of teaching parents about modesty and sex education?

• No one can do the job better than properly trained parents, for they are the only ones who have the right to determine what value system is placed into the hearts of their children.
• By training parents it puts the responsibility for this education back where it belongs.
• It reduces moral intrusion into the family structure since the value system of the family is not violated by a secular interest.
• It avoids forcing the institutional morality on family and child such as is represented in various public pro-homosexual curriculums.
• It can be done under the best conditions since parents pick the time and place for its implementation, rather than resorting to a group classroom setting.
• It is more cost effective. As pointed out by Josh McDowell in The Myth of Sex Education, the more money spent per capita on sex education of children the higher the percentage of sexual activity. Expensive public programs are not effective.

Thanks to Shawn Wood for leading me to this post by M. Hyatt.

I have not said much yet about Palin, but I did write a comment on a liberal blog that was bashing Governor Palin.  Here is what I wrote:

“Palin is a the political picture of the “change” that Obama has yet to prove he can deliver.

Obama talks a good game about changing, but his record is filled with pandering to the suspect Chicago heavyweights like Mayor Daley.

Clinging to my Bible and my guns,
TheOzz”

Most private pilots in this country, or at least the AOPA members are familiar with Mayor Daley of Chicago.  He is the guy who ordered that holes be dug in the middle of the runway of the Meigs Field in the middle of the night.  The controversy section of his wikipedia page tells that story pretty well.

I am very pleased that Senator McCain did not choose a running mate in favor of abortion that might better appeal to Hilary hold outs or swing voters.  I believe that many hard line conservatives might have stayed home on election day if he did.

Palin seems to have presidential potential.  She has got to her position as governor using hard work and action based on solid values.  In my opinion that is what it will take to launch a woman or black person into the White House for the first time in this country.  I think the first woman and/or black president will also have to come out of the republican or at least a conservative party.  Conservatives are not shadowed by the sense of entitlement that breads in liberal organizations that traditionally support democrats like the ACLU and NAACP.

Personally I can relate to Palin in many ways.  She has a child that was diagnosed with a gentic defect before birth.  I am sure that she was given the “you have choices” speach by her local doctors when the diagnosis was made.  We faced this “choice” talk when my wife was pregnant with our second son Caden.

My big boy Caden was hospitalized yesterday.  He was admitted for a “fever of unknown origin”.  The 104 degree fever popped up while Caden was already on a pretty strong antibiotic for a sinus infection.  A major concern is that this illness could jeopardize the scheduled heart surgery that could take place as early as 9/22.  I am keeping my twitter pretty current if you want to follow more real-time progress.  I will be also be updating Caden’s Page with major changes.

The doctors are trying to identify the source of the fever so they can treat it.  We also have to consider potential evacuations with Hurricane Hanna if we do not get discharged before the storm arrives here in chucktown.  The latest predictions have it headed this way (Charleston is in the center of the five day forecast track). Apple pick’n in NC is looking better by the minute.  I just hope we can blow this Popsicle stand in time to beat this storm to the county line.

The good news is that Caden has O2 sats of 96-100.  The bad news is that it is taking 10 liters of blow-by oxygen to get the sats up.  Please keep Caden in your prayers.

One of the teaching pastors (Geoff Surratt) at Seacoast Church was pictured on the cover of a recent issue of WORLD Magazine. I follow Geoff and other pastors on Twitter and saw a note from him alerting us twits of some reactions to his picture being on the cover of WORLD.

Before I go any further I would like to say that Geoff and I are not very close and this response should not be taken as me coming to his defense even though it will probably sound like it when I am done. I have not always agreed with everything Geoff has said and done, but then again I do not agree with everything I have said and done either. Geoff and his wife have been a blessing to our family in so many ways. Geoff and Sherry have been a huge support to the GrowingKids parenting ministry and have served as class leaders for Secoast. Seeing a teaching pastor working along side of you in ministering for families in a church as large as Seacoast is inspiring. Geoff’s wife Sherry (also a pastor at Seacoast) was at the hospital with our family the morning Caden was born. Do you know how many babies are born each year at Seacaost? I don’t either, but I don’t think there are enough pastors to go around to all the births. Okay, we all knew that Caden was going to face some fairly unique medical challenges when he was born and the Surratts recognized the need to be there that day. Geoff and Sherry have joined the rest of Seacoast in loving our family through some really tough times in recent years and I am very thankful for that.

Now as for this picture on the cover WORLD Magazine, Geoff doesn’t need anyone to defend him because his response on his own blog does a great job of answering his lameness. I heard about the magazine cover story about a month ago while serving breakfast at a local homeless shelter with some fellow Secoasters. I have been serving breakfast at this shelter monthly for about two years straight. This kind of service is a very small example of the fruits coming out of Seacoast as a result of the leadership of folks like Geoff Surratt. The pastors at Seacoast challenge members to serve and love people where they are at. So while Geoff may look lame to some, the results of how God is using him and the rest of Seacoast is showing up in our community and in our families. I think the picture of Geoff on the cover of the magazine is a fairly accurate representation of who he really is based on my personal interactions with him. In my (not always) humble opinion, you can not pretend to be something you are not if you are going to stand up in front of people and try to help them grow in their relationships with Jesus Christ. In addition to being Biblically accurate, you have to be real, and you have to be believable. Seacoast pastors are all of these and they don’t all dress as lame as Pastor Geoff.

Our little munchkin is one year old today.  Oh how time flies.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

You can read more about what’s happening in the Ozz camp over at Caden’s Page.

Today is my birthday.  This is the second year in a row that I have spent my birthday away from Mrs. Ozz and my boys.  Last year I attended the GFI National Conference in Chicago on my 40th.  The flight home was canceled and I spent a night in a very nice full service Marriott compliments of AirTran Airlines.  I was able to share that evening with the Youngs since they were booked on the same flight home from Chicago last year.

This year I am in Washington D.C. due to work and I am fortunate enough to land a couple of nights in the J.W. Marriott at 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Yes that is just a couple of blocks from the White House and it is a great hotel.  The front desk left a bucket of beer in my room today with a bowl of nuts and a Birthday card.  That was a nice gesture, but I just wish they had left a bucket of Coke Classic.

I was on my way to D.C. last night when I ran into an old co-worker and friend.  He is working for a three letter agency in D.C. like me and is staying a few blocks away in a different hotel.  He asked me what I was doing for dinner tonight and asked if I would be interested in joining him a some others for dinner. I love food and had no idea they would actually choose a a Tex-Mex restaurant.  One of the men that I met during dinner was named Reuben.  He and I started taking about our families and really hit it off.  We soon realized how great of priority we both put on serving Jesus Christ.  I shared some stories and he shared some.  Then he shared a story about his daughter.  If you are a fan of the TV show called “America’s Got Talent” then you probably know about Reuben’s daughter Kaitlyn.  Kaitlyn Maher is one of the youngest contestants to advance to Las Vegas on America’s Got Talent.

My birthday ended great.  I had a good dinner and made a new friend.  I hope you enjoy the video.