Building Wealth for Building the Kingdom

Your Mark On The World: Could I ask you to give $17 to cure childhood cancer for Ike's sake?

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:39:21 -0400

Your Mark On The World: Could I ask you to give $17 to cure childhood cancer for Ike's sake?:

I posted this over at yourmarkontheworld.com a few weeks ago. This morning I ran 10 miles training for Ragnar, the race I’m running to support battle kids’ cancer for Ike’s sake. Ike and I would appreciate your help! Click here to donate $17 or $1 for every mile I’ll run; please choose my name from the menu of runners.

My dear friends Brian and Heidi have a three-year-old son who has been battling cancer for over two years. No family should have to go through what they’ve faced so bravely. Please join me in the fight to prevent childhood cancer.

Here is Ike’s story in Brian’s words:

In January 2011…

For the love of money is the root of all evil

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:19:41 -0400

Your Mark On The World: Booted from the homeless shelter; homeless guy's life on the streets

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:17:03 -0400

Your Mark On The World: Booted from the homeless shelter; homeless guy's life on the streets:

devindthorpe:

With my fellow Utah-based Forbes Contributors on Thursday evening I enjoyed a lavish dinner at Cucina Toscana downtown Salt Lake City, just a few blocks from my home.

As I walked past the Rose Wagner theater on Broadway, I saw a homeless guy apparently sobbing and begging as the…

Sometimes, really listening has nothing to do with understanding the words we hear

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:31:24 -0500

Recently, I was walking across the Main Street Plaza on Temple Square in Salt Lake City and observed something that stuck with me.

A jogger was out with his dog—a tiny dog—for his afternoon jog. They had settled in to a brisk walk right in front of the temple where the dog simply stopped and sat down as if to say, “This is a good place to rest.”

The jogger gave a gentle tug on the leash and the dog responded by standing and then immediately sitting again. Without a word, he communicated his message, “You can run all you want, but I’m done.”

Without argument or discussion, the jogger plucked the tiny dog up into his arms and continued on his way.

It struck me how effective their communication was. On the other hand, I often feel like our interpersonal communications are much less effective than this inter-dog-person communication was. How often do we ignore, excuse or explain away the important meanings in the communications we hear because we don’t like the message—a message that may imply we have an opportunity to serve.

Let’s be open to the real message. Let’s do some good.

Making Room for the Blessing of Heaven

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:23:03 -0500

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

If you are wise enough to pay your tithing, there are some other things you should be choosing to do to make room for more of the blessings the Lord will pour out upon you. Here are five examples:

Buy a home and live in it for a long time.
Contribute to your 401k at work.
Invest wisely.
Save for a rainy day.
Budget prudently and spend cautiously.

Bonus advice: don’t drive the Lord’s biggest blessings (or in other words, don’t put too much money into a fancy car).

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:48:13 -0500

As Christ sent his disciples to work, he gave them the admonition to “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead [and] and cast out devils.” (Matthew 10:8)

As I was writing, Your Mark On The World, I had occasion to visit with David Ostler, the executive director of Rising Star Outreach. While I didn’t profile him personally at length in the book, I certainly should have.

David walked away from his corporate career while he was still young and healthy enough to really do some good in the world. He serves as the executive director of Rising Star on a volunteer basis. His full time effort living in India is devoted to healing the sick and cleansing the lepers. Literally.

Rising Star is charitable organization that serves rural villages impacted by leprosy in India. It was founded by Becky Douglas, who is now serving with her husband John Douglas who is assigned as an LDS mission president in the Dominican Republic.

David left his position as a division President with a global health company to live in rural India where he serves the poorest of the poor in a fashion that would please Mother Teresa. With his wife, David lives and works full time at:

running the school for children impacted by leprosy (generally they are children or grand children of lepers),
managing the mobile clinics that visit the leper colonies to care for those who suffer from the effects of leprosy and
coordinating the outreach program providing micro loans to entrepreneurs approved by local community councils.

On a personal level, I was particularly struck by David’s selfless service in the same way that a college baseball player might react to finding someone his age playing in the major leagues. I was, I suppose, a little envious of the courage and character that allowed him to make this choice to serve.

My hat is off to you, David.

Let’s do some good!

By Devin D. Thorpe

…love one another, as I have loved you…

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:43:52 -0500

…love one another, as I have loved you…

China Teachers Needed

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:08:08 -0500

For the 2011-2012 school year, Gail and I worked as teachers at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China for Brigham Young University. It was one of the greatest experiences of our lives.

BYU is now trying to fill the roster of teachers for 2013-2014. We really can’t recommend the program more heartily. The students were wonderful and the cultural experience cannot be beaten.

In addition, we got to travel all around China and Southeast Asia, seeing countries we thought we might never get a chance to visit.

We received modest wages from the Chinese University. Because they provided housing as well, we were able to save the money largely for our travel so the experience was not particularly expensive. So, even if you can’t afford a mission, you can afford to be a China Teacher.

Teachers, whether single or as couples, need to meet a few basic criteria:

Age: You must be under 65 to participate (this rule is imposed by the Chinese government, not BYU)
Education: You must have a bachelors degree or higher.
Teaching experience. You must have two years of teaching experience (often times teaching in church can be used to meet this qualification)
Health: You must be in good health (but that doesn’t mean you need to be a marathon runner)
Church: You must be an active member of the LDS Church

For more information, check this posting in the Church News.

Big v. Little

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:26:45 -0500

For every family the question of large versus small financial decisions is important. One big bad financial decision can overwhelm years of making good small decisions.

Far too much has been written about how to save money on toilet paper. While I am all for frugality, I frequently see people scrimping on food and other essentials simply so they can drive a car that costs $1,000 per month.

Life is so much easier when you’re smart about a few big decisions rather than constantly agonizing over small ones.

Here are some examples of big decisions:

If you choose to drive your car for ten years rather than four, over your lifetime you could easily save $100,000.
If you buy one home and stay in it for 30 years rather than moving every five years, you’d likely save another $150,000—or more.
If you always rent rather than purchase a home, you’ll likely miss out on $300,000 to $500,000 of value accumulation.

If you track your spending carefully and look at a report of all your expenses, this will become clear quickly. Any one of your largest three expenses are likely bigger than your ten smallest. If any of your top three expenses are discretionary, you can see the potential for improving your life.

Certainly most if not all of the ten smallest expenses for the month were discretionary, but eliminating all of them probably wouldn’t add up to the value of eliminating your largest discretionary item. Focus on the big stuff first and you probably won’t have to ration the toilet paper.

Building the Kingdom One Soul at a Time

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:21:00 -0500

When I moved into my current, inner-city ward over ten years ago, I had an interesting experience on one of the first Sundays in church. The Elders Quorum bolted from Church to go help a member (let’s call him Bill) move his stuff out of his room in a low-rent home where he was being evicted. He’d been living there with some other guys who were similarly close to homelessness.

The Bishop was convinced to put this fellow up in a cheap, weekly rate motel in the ward boundaries. He agonized over the decision every week.

Meanwhile, a service missionary took Bill under his wing. He worked with him for two years to get him the veterans and social security benefits to which he was entitled.

There were times when the Bishop was ready to cut Bill off and force him into the homeless shelter, but he always decided to go ahead for one more week.

Other good members of the ward regularly invited him into their homes to eat with them, especially on holidays.

The service missionary, who served in the ward until he died of cancer last year, got him into a residential program at the Veterans Administration Hospital here in Salt Lake where Bill spent nearly a year being treated for a variety of physical and mental health issues.

Later, with help from the service missionaries in the VA Hospital branch, he found a permanent subsidized apartment within our stake boundaries.

He soon became the ward executive secretary in his new ward.

It took a number of people who saw Bill through God’s eyes in order for him to be restored to his full capacity, where he could love and serve and help others and no longer be a burden.

Sometimes, people need a lot more than just a smile. Sometimes we have to “bear one another’s burdens” for a long time (Mosiah 18:8). I’m grateful to all the people who loved Bill enough to help him experience his full potential.

Prospering in the Lord's Way

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:20:40 -0500

Over the years since I first began to make my way in the world, I have been interested in the repeated references in the Book of Mormon to prospering. Some form of the word prosper occurs 89 times in the Book of Mormon, most commonly in the context of the oft repeated promise, a form of which first appears in 1 Nephi 2:20,

“And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; year, even a land of promise…”

Prosperity in the Book of Mormon often led to pride, which would lead in turn to wickedness and being cut off from the Lord’s presence. Often, war would ensue with great and terrible losses. The humbled people would then repent and keep the commandments. The people would then prosper and the cycle would continue. The full cycle typically seems to take about a generous to develop, but at times it takes only a few years.

Today, we are at the same risk of being cut off when we as Latter-day Saints fail to live up to our covenants.

Alma summarized the obligations associated with baptism as follows (Mosiah 18:8-9):

“…and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places that ye may be in, even until death…”

It is interesting to note that the enumeration of our duties is primarily to help, love and serve one another and to stand as a witness.

If we connect the ideas of prosperity to our baptismal covenant it seems to suggest that our obligation is to use our resources to care for the needy.

Of course, Jacob makes this point clear in his popular statement:

But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ, ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

Jacob leaves little doubt about what we are to do with our promised prosperity. Giving directly to the poor and needy is no substitute for our tithes and offerings to the Church—many of which serve to feed the hungry and clothe the naked—but Jacob seems to leave little doubt that our obligation to give to the poor exceeds (but does not supersede) our obligations to the Church. In other words, it is not enough to pay our tithes and offerings, we must in addition seek out the hungry and cold and administer relief to the sick and afflicted.

Self Reliance Presentation

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:28:51 -0500

Can you imagine giving a talk on self reliance to a group of homeless people and millionaires?

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to give a presentation in the 4th Ward of the Salt Lake Liberty Stake (the ward was among the original 29 wards organized in Salt Lake in 1849).

The ward is interesting because it includes such a wide range of people. The Road Home homeless shelter is in the ward boundaries and as a result, there were about a dozen people living in the shelter in attendance as were a number of seniors in the ward who retired quite comfortably in urban condos located within walking distance of the Salt Lake Temple.

Despite the challenge of speaking to such a diverse group, I felt I was able to connect with the combined priesthood and relief society group that totaled about 80 people.

After class, I had the opportunity to visit with some of the homeless men who had attended. They were enthused and gushed about their plans to become financially independent.

Afterward, several of the wealthy members also praised the class, noting (of course) that it would have been better if more of the younger members had been in attendance.

The Bishop of the ward encouraged the priesthood and relief society leaders to continue the discussion of financial self reliance again this week.

Below you can review the slide presentation I used for the class.

121230 4th ward-financial_management from Devin Thorpe

What do you think? What should I have covered that I didn’t?

How do I find a trustworthy financial advisor?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:08:30 -0500

Finding someone you can trust in any field can be a challenge. Think about the person who does your hair; how long have you been going to the same person? What would happen if she suddenly left town? You want to have an even higher level of trust and confidence in a financial advisor.

Here are some tips to help you find someone you trust:

There are lots of different types of financial advisors—you’ll need more than one. You may already have an insurance agent for property and casualty, a separate agent for life insurance, an accountant who prepares your tax return, a stock broker who helps with your investments.
Check for self-interested responses. Ask all of your financial advisors a basic question, like, how much should I be saving every month for retirement.

This article was first published at FamilyHow.com; to read the entire article, click here. It is also included in my latest book 925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the Worldavailable for free at Smashwords or for $0.99 at Amazon.

I just got a 10% raise; What should I do with the money?

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:01:59 -0500

Knowing what to do with a raise may determine whether or not it even mattered. If all you do with a raise is to spend more money on eating out and entertainment, it won’t matter much to your family in the long run that you even got the raise. Being strategic with the money can have a big impact on your family’s lifestyle in the long run.

Consider which of these circumstances best describes your situation and follow the guidance to get the most out of your raise.

Awash in debt: if you can barely make ends meet each month because you’re over extended, with credit card debt, car loans and maybe even a payday loan or two that are eating away at every penny you bring home. Put the money from the raise toward the smallest debts—probably the payday loans—to quickly reduce the monthly outflow for debt payments.

Newlyweds: 9 early decisions that will affect your financial future

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:01:20 -0500

Ideally, even before you get married you and your (future) spouse will sit down and talk about your vision of the future together. A centerpiece of that vision of the future should be related to financial things. Even things you may not consider “financial” have deep financial implications. Use this article as a guide to help you harmonize your view of the future now to keep your relationship strong over the next 50 years.

Will you own a home?Take time to describe the type of home you’d like to have. Discuss the city and even the neighborhood where you’d like it to be. Talk about how much you’ll spend on your home.
How many children will you have?This decision may have been made already, but be sure to confirm with each other what you plan to do. Don’t let financial considerations determine how many children you have: let the number of children you plan to have guide your financial planning. There is always a way.

This article was first published at FamilyHow.com; to read the entire article, click here. It is also included in my latest book, 925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the World, available for free at Smashwords.

Should we buy a home or keep renting?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:00:46 -0500

After the real estate collapse of 2008-2010, it would be easy to conclude that owning a home is a risk not worth taking. That may be the wrong lesson to take away from the Great Recession.

A home is not a great investment. It won’t make you rich. If you hate yard work as much as I do, you’ll curse your home on the weekend. But, over the long haul, owning a home provides some key advantages over renting that are not entirely financial in nature.

1. Stability Some homeowners may move around frequently, but statistics show that approximately 33 percent of renters move every year compared with about 9 percent of homeowners. So, renters move almost four times as often as homeowners.

Balancing Entrepreneurship and Family; 9 Tips for Success

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:49:21 -0500

In America, we revere successful entrepreneurs (entrepreneurs are respected elsewhere but not quite like they are in America). We Latter-day Saints, who believe fiercely in self-reliance, sometimes inappropriately add another level of admiration for entrepreneurs, believing that their success may be evidence of worthiness.

Those cultural influences, together with a passion for a technology or other business idea often lead people to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are responsible for much of the economic growth in the world. Thank heaven for those who are willing to take the risks required to do so.

There are some challenges with entrepreneurship that we who believe family is sacred should remember. Consider the following a checklist to help you think about entrepreneurship—ideally before you start your business:

Talk to your spouse. The first thing to do when you want to launch a business is to talk to your spouse about all of the painful realities of it—not just the piles of money you hope to make if you’re successful. Be sure your spouse understands the risk of failure (be sure you do, too—more on that below). Be sure your spouse is prepared to take up the slack as your focus shifts increasingly to your work. Talk openly and frankly about how you’ll manage money. Many successful entrepreneurs have noted that the most valuable thing their spouse did to support them was to work so they didn’t have to take (as much) money out of the business in the early days.
Measure the risk. Most businesses fail. Your business will probably fail. The reason it may make sense to pursue it anyway is that if it succeeds, it may provide multiples of what you could otherwise earn. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that your business idea is guaranteed to succeed. I can’t think of a successful entrepreneur who couldn’t attribute much of his or her success to luck.

This article was published originally at Meridian Magazine; to read the rest of the article, click here.

925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the World

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:17:00 -0500

925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire So You Can Leave Your Mark on the World from the author of the highly acclaimed book, Your Mark on the World, is a collection of articles about family financial planning that originally appeared at FamilyHow.com.

925 Ideas… is an easy and readable guide to help your family find financial peace. Author Devin D. Thorpe explains:

1) how you and your spouse can find agreement on money matters,

2) how to teach your kids about money,

3) how to pay for your children’s college education,

4) how to live like a millionaire

5) how to come up with $25,000 in a crisis

6) how to make ends meet on one income

7) how to get out of debt and stay out of debt

8) why home ownership should be your family’s top financial priority

9) how to ask your boss for a raise

10) how to use your finances to do more good in the world.

And much more!

The book is available for FREE at Smwashwords.

The Empowerment of Self Reliance

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:59:35 -0500

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President, offered this counsel in January 2010, “We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being.”

Service to others:

By becoming self-reliant, we put ourselves in a much stronger position to serve others. While being able to provide substantial financial support when called upon would be nice, and those who have the financial means to do so certainly should, self-reliance empowers people to give generously of their time. Those whose work requires 80 hours or more per week will certainly struggle to offer the same level of service in the church, in the community and even to their family as someone with only a forty-hour work week.

Putting yourself in a position to serve a mission in retirement is a challenge for many members. It is financially difficult. If your home still has a mortgage as you transition to retirement, even if you and your family members are healthy, serving a mission will be more financially challenging. By liberating yourself from debt completely before retirement, you enable yourself to serve more effectively.

Agency:

As a Latter-day Saint, you understand the plan of salvation offers us all the agency to make decisions for ourselves. Agency is as central to the gospel plan as the atonement, which is only necessary because we have agency. Anything that limits our agency impairs our ability to prepare to return to our heavenly father. We certainly see that concept in the Word of Wisdom, which discourages the use of habit forming substances from fatty foods to tobacco and alcohol.

Debt provides the same kind of limitation on our agency that tobacco does. Once we are in debt, it can take many years to extract ourselves from it. Dutiful payments made each month are often largely absorbed by the incessant encroach of interest, leaving pitiful progress in our effort to free ourselves from debt.

Debt alters our decisions in large and small ways. Once in debt, saving becomes more difficult and additional debt ironically becomes more tempting, ultimately becoming habitual and overwhelming. Almost all of us know a close friend or family member who has been through the cycle of accumulating debt to the point of bankruptcy more than once. The effects on the family are tragic. In the hour of experiencing the consequences of having too much debt, a family’s options are painfully limited—agency is restricted severely by the earlier exercise of agency.

Consider a hypothetical example. Imagine two families, one of which is deeply in debt, though with adequate income to support it and the other with no debt at all—even the mortgage has been repaid. How might their responses to an Apostle differ if called upon to serve as mission presidents? Though they might be equally righteous in every measure, the debt laden family might well have to decline the opportunity to serve while the other would have the flexibility to accept the call.

Keys to self-reliance:

Following Sister Beck’s outline, the following are some keys for becoming self-reliant:

This article first appeared in Meridian Magazine. Click here to read the entire article.

Stock Picking For Fun

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:41:00 -0500

Stock Picking For Fun:

For some, stock picking is a fun way to stay connected to their long term financial goals; for others a chore.

Stock picking can be fun for those who have an interest in it. To others it sounds like the worse possible homework assignment. This article is really for those who think it sounds fun.

Skip it if you like: For those that find stock picking a painful or fearful idea, the good news is that you have no need to do it. By investing in mutual funds or ETF’s you can give the assignment to someone who likes it, is good at it and as far you’re concerned, works cheap. Everyone should have some exposure to stocks or equities, as they’re sometimes called, simply because they tend to generate higher returns than other financial investments. Perhaps the most efficient way to get broad exposure to stocks is by buying one of the broad market index funds that track the major indexes, like the Dow Industrial Average or the S&P 500. These funds usually have low expenses and few funds beat them consistently.

Now, for those who are interested in stock picking, a word or two of caution: Realistically, you cannot beat the market by choosing stocks well. You are only likely to beat the market consistently if you take more risk than the general market (which individual investors are prone to do, if only by accident). Many individual investors manage to lose money in upward trending markets and do no better when the markets turn down.

This article originally appeared in Meridian Magazine. You can read the full article here.