Render Unto Caesar

Every once in a while, you go to church or you're reading your Bible and you run into something that makes you say "wow!" Today was one of those days.

Most people that have any sort of rudimentary Christian background have probably heard the phrase "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's." And lots of people know that Jesus was talking to some of the religious people about whether they should pay tribute, or taxes, to the government. There are some people out there that like to argue that you shouldn't pay taxes, but they tend to be on the fringe and a lot of them are in jail.

What reason does Jesus give for knowing that the coins belong to Caesar's? Whose image is on the coins? Caesar's. Because Caesar's image is on the coins, we are to render them unto Caesar.

But what if you put that into context Genesis 1:27?

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

~ Genesis 1:27

Whose image are we in? God's. So doesn't that mean that we should listen to him... or render unto God's the things which are God's?

Just something interesting that I saw today.

Why Does Our Government Encourage Stupidity?

My Excite News today said that our lovely president wants to give everybody tax rebates. The hope is that we'll take the $800-$1600 that they want to give us and go hit the mall.

As much as I'd really like to have a wii and some new clothes, that's the last thing I'm going to be doing with my money right now.

My husband lost his job 3 times last year. Not because he was goofing off or anything, but he just happened to get hired into jobs that didn't have their contracts removed or had to make cutbacks. With all indications of America's economic bubble bursting at some point, we don't expect things to get better soon. If we get the money, we're saving it. Maybe we'll invest it in gold or some other precious metal.

A couple of days ago, my husband suggested to me something that I never would have imagined that he'd say "let's live like misers." He loves to spend. However, he wants to be prepared in case he loses his job. So our goal is to save up $5000 in case he loses his job again.

It seems as if America has lost all touch with common sense. If you get into debt or spend money that you don't have, eventually you're going to have to pay it back. Visiting my family over Christmas really showed me the effect of being smart with money, and living within one's means, or being stupid. The people that got into debt when I was younger sure had fun then, but they're not exactly that well off any more.

Dave Ramsey is a pretty smart guy when it comes to money. He has a lot of common sense. He has a few baby steps that he suggests that people use when they are trying to work their way to financial independence:

Step 1: save up a baby emergency fund
He suggests that you save up $1000 as a baby emergency fund, in case the car breaks down, the refrigerator stops working, or something unexpected like that comes up. $1000 isn't going to help a whole lot, however, if you lose your job. We're trying to save up $5000 right now... actually we're trying to save up $6000, $5000 in case of a job loss, $1000 in case the car breaks down.

Step 2: pay off all debts except the house
We have a student loan and a car loan that we need to pay off. Oh, and some medical bills when we had to go to the ER last summer (3 times) when dh didn't have a job. So that's what we have to pay off after we save up our emergency/job loss fund. You pay interest on all of your debts, so it's a good idea to get them paid off. Once you have no debt, you have more free money every month. Yay!

Step 4: save up 3-6 months of expenses
This is where Dave suggests that you save up in case of a job loss. We're doing more of step 4 in step 1, primarily because the threat of a job loss seems a little more looming than even the refrigerator breaking down. But we'll probably add to our savings here.

I think that step 5 is pay off the house, but it could be save up for retirement or save for your kid's college funds. If I ever get to these steps I'd be all over it ;).

I don't see anywhere in here the instruction to "go out and waste money at the mall." That might postpone the inevitable downturn in the economy, but it's going to happen. You can borrow and live beyond your means forever, even if you are a government. We can try to put our head in the sand and pretend that when our economy grows enough, we will pay off the national debt, but that's just like somebody who goes out and charges up their credit cards saying to themselves "I'll pay it off when I get a raise." When that raise comes, they just want to spend more money on other things.

If we get these tax rebates, I'm saving mine. I'm going to need it whenever the bubble finally bursts. And if everybody else rushing off to the mall or going on vacation ends up prolonging the inevitable, then I guess that gives me a little bit longer to prepare.

Education in America: Value For Your Money?

I suppose that schools haven't been in the news much lately... school is out for the summer here in Arizona, everybody else is graduating, getting ready for prom, or just excited for the end of the school year. This year I haven't heard any stories about valedictorians not being able to give their speeches because they want to mention God, gay proms, or male prom queens. It's been slow in that department recently.

This is also the time of year that homeschoolers often start looking for bargains on next year's curriculum, and are perhaps getting rid of last year's curriculum to make room for more books and pay for the next year. Since I have a baby that will eventually need an education, I'm holding onto all of the ones that I can reuse.

On Saturday, I got a great deal on some books. $15 for a brand new Bible curriculum set that was brand new (retails for $60), in the shrink wrap even. $15 for a second grade math Teacher's manual, that also retails for $60. I got a book for my future toddler for $5, and next year's science student edition for $2 (I got the teacher's edition earlier this year at Half-Priced Books for $5).

So far, I've spent $152.95 on books for next year. I have a few more books to buy, and if I buy everything new, I'll have to spend about another $180. So it costs about $330 for me to educate a child for one year. My baby will cost less when he gets older because there will be fewer books needed to buy for him.

How do our public schools do? About $600 of my property tax money went to schools alone last year... I don't even live in a fancy house or anything... I'm guessing that about 1/2 of the homeowners in this school district pay more than me. Every year, I pay the public schools enough to educate my daughter for almost 2 years. Only, I'm only contributing enough to educate someone else's child for 1 year.

The NEA web site says that it costs an average of $7552 to educate a child for a year NEA link. That's not even including additional costs for special education students... which I would expect would cost more. Wow, that's probably twice what I will have to spend on books for my daughter's entire education!

How does this compare to other schools? Our church has a private school that operates separately from the church. Those students pay less than $2000 a year in tuition. The Kindercare that I used to work at had an accredited, all day Kindergarten... if parents sent their kids there for 40 weeks, it would cost them $7040... less than what the public schools cost. And Kindercare will take your Kindergartener from 6 AM to 6 PM, PLUS provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks! They also provide supplies and workbooks.

Public school supply lists are getting out of hand as well. I've seen some of the lists... they have the basics like crayons, pencils, erasers... although sometimes they ask you to bring an outrageous amount of one supply, like 10 boxes of crayons or something. But they also want you to bring tissues, copy paper, dry erase markers, and I think I saw toilet paper once. PLUS the teachers always seem to be going out and buying supplies for their classrooms. Just what are the public schools paying for?

I do realize that they have to pay for some things that I as a homeschooler do not have to pay for. They have to pay the teachers (which I think should be given a fair salary), buildings, overhead, busses (although some districts charge for that, especially with increased gas costs). But if Kindercare can provide more services for less money, shouldn't our public schools be able to do better than they do?

I think that we often pay our taxes out without really thinking where all the money is going to. It becomes a collective pot of money that sometimes the government does really stupid things with, like teapot museums or berry research in Alaska. Not that education is stupid, but we should get more value for our money.