With Christmas coming in just a few days, I won’t be posting for the rest of the week. Be sure to come back on Monday for more free content. Have a merry Christmas, and enjoy the time with your family and friends. May God bless you as you worship Him and remember the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ!
Last month, I posted an update about how my wife and I are raising a cow for beef. This is a summary of our activity and costs for month 4. First, let’s check Bambi’s growth. Here he is at three months old:
And here he is today at 4 months old:
It’s difficult to tell from that picture, but Bambi is filling out nicely and gaining weight steadily. He’s getting big enough that it’s difficult to handle him when I try to take him from the barn to the grass.
There hasn’t been any change in the amount of time it takes to care for Bambi. It takes me about 5 minutes to feed him every day, and about forty-five minutes to an hour to clean out his stall. The only other time I spend on him is making the trip to buy his feed, but that’s only about 15-20 minutes once a month.
We spent about $30 less than last month because we didn’t need to buy any more hay or straw. Here’s what we spent this month:
And here are our total costs over the past four months:
So after four months we’ve spent a total of $223.94 and 42 hours raising a cow for beef. I doubt the total cost will increase by much over the next month, and I expect the total time to stay the same.
That’s it for this month. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. And make sure you sign up for free updates to Provident Planning if you’re interested in knowing what it takes to raise a cow for beef!
You may have noticed that most of the Bible verses I quote on this website are from the World English Bible (WEB) version. Not too many people are aware of this Bible version, so I thought I should take a couple minutes to let you know why I use it.
The World English Bible is an update of the American Standard Version of 1901, which is in the public domain. It has been edited to conform to the Greek Majority Text New Testament. The World English Bible is also in the public domain, which sets it apart from other revisions of the American Standard Version (like the New American Standard Bible, the Revised Standard Version, and the Amplified Bible) which are under copyright.
All modern translations of the Bible are currently under copyright, which means that I cannot post verses from those translations which violate the fair use requirements. Because this website has advertisements, I can’t use any of the modern translations without paying licensing fees.
I’d run into the same problem if I ever want to publish any books with Bible verses in them. The copyright restrictions would require me to pay licensing fees plus royalties to the translation publishers (like Zondervan). Those fees are quite high and would make it very expensive for me to publish anything.
The solution is to use a Bible translation that’s in the public domain, meaning there are no copyright restrictions. Generally, only older, out-dated translations are in the public domain – like the King James Version or the American Standard Version. The archaic language of these versions makes it difficult for modern readers to understand the Bible.
Thanks to the people working on the World English Bible, I can quote all the Bible verses I want from that version without any fear of violating copyright rules. The World English Bible is a modern translation that can be freely copied without written permission from a publisher or payment of royalties.
Since it’s relatively unknown, you may wonder if the World English Bible is a good translation. If you’ve read many of the Bible verses I’ve quoted, you’ll realize that they’re quite similar to any other translation you’ll read – especially those based on the American Standard Version (ASV). If you usually read the New American Standard Bible (NASB) or the Amplified Bible, you’ll find that the World English Bible is a very close translation since they’re all based on the ASV.
The American Standard Version is considered to be a literal translation, and the World English Bible follows suit. It’s not going to read like The Message or the New Living Translation, but you can rely on it for a literal interpretation of the original Bible languages.
One thing you might find strange is the fact that the World English Bible always translates the proper name of God as “Yahweh”. The KJV generally translates this as “LORD” or “GOD” in either all caps or small caps and the ASV uses “Jehovah”. Scholars generally agree that the tetragrammaton should be rendered “Yahweh” instead of “Jehovah”. Seeing “Yahweh” all the time just takes a little getting used to but it does not change the meaning of the Scriptures.
If you don’t like the WEB version, you can always click the link under any Scriptures I quote. That link will take you to another website, where you can see those verses quoted in the NIV, KJV, Amplified Bible, NLT, The Message, and the NASB versions. That should just about cover everyone’s preferences.
If you have other questions about the World English Bible, you’re best off checking out their website and frequently asked questions section. You should be able to find most of you questions there, and if not, you can e-mail those working on the project.
If your income falls in the low to middle range, you can get your tax returns prepared for free. How? By using AARP’s Tax-Aide Program.
AARP Tax-Aide is the nation’s largest, volunteer-run tax preparation and assistance program. It’s part of the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Programs. It is available to taxpayers with low and moderate incomes and gives special attention to people age 60 and older.
The IRS refers to moderate income as $50,000 or lower, but as an AARP Tax-Aide volunteer I can tell you this guideline is loosely followed. If you make $60,000/year, you’ll probably still be able to get help.
If you have rental properties, a Schedule C (not C-EZ), a complex Schedule D, a Schedule F, or an otherwise complicated tax return, then AARP Tax-Aide (or any VITA program) is not for you. You should hire an experienced tax preparer – preferably a CPA.
If you’d like to find an AARP Tax-Aide location near you, you can find one on their website starting in late January. If you can’t find an AARP Tax-Aide location near you, you can try calling 1-800-829-1040 to locate a VITA location near you.
AARP does not let just anyone volunteer for the Tax-Aide program. All volunteers are required to undergo a thorough training course mandated and created by the IRS. They are well-trained in how to handle the 1040 Form and the standard schedules.
You may also find that many of the volunteers have a background in tax preparation or finance. For example, I volunteer and I’ve had two years of professional tax preparation experience. The local coordinator for my volunteer site was a CPA before she retired, and we had at least one other CPA volunteer last year. So the help you get may be quite good.
Electronic filing with direct deposit is the fastest way to get your tax refund from the IRS. Most AARP Tax-Aide sites offer electronic filing with no charge to the taxpayer. Many more sites are gaining the capabilities to e-file every year.
AARP offers free, year-round tax assistance via the Web for 24/7 help. You can find more information at the AARP Tax-Aide website.
If you’d like to volunteer with AARP’s Tax-Aide program to help with the 2009 tax season, there’s still plenty of time. Go to their website to read more about becoming a volunteer and to fill out a volunteer form.
Last week, I finished my series on Tithing in the Bible where we looked at every single Bible verse that talks about tithing. The purpose was to see what God’s Word says about tithing and to compare that with what is taught in the church today. What we found was that men have twisted the Bible’s teaching on tithing and giving out of ignorance or ulterior motives. They’ve added to the Bible’s definition and explanation of tithing to make it fit their own ideas. This post is a summary of what we learned from the Scriptures about tithing. You can click the titles of each heading to read the entire post relating to those verses.
Conclusion: Abram’s example of tithing to Melchizedek does not set a precedent for Christians to follow.
Conclusion: Jacob’s example of tithing is not taught by tithing advocates because it was completely freewill, conditional, and would not support the idea of giving your tithe to your local church. It also does not set a tithing requirement for Christians to follow because it was Jacob’s choice – not God’s commandment.
Conclusion: These verses do not establish the tithe as an eternal statute for all who follow God merely because it was considered “holy to the Lord”. There are several other Old Testament statutes we should be keeping if that is our method of discerning eternal statutes. Also, modern tithing advocates twist the Scriptures to include money in the tithe instead of just food and to teach that the tithe should be your best 10%.
Conclusion: The tithe does not apply to Christians because it was specifically for the Israelites to support the Levitical priesthood. Christ’s death abolished that priesthood and replaced it with a priesthood of believers with Christ as the high priest. Tithing advocates do not teach that those who receive the tithe should give up inheritance and land ownership rights or that the priests should only receive 1%. Again, the tithe only contained food items and not money.
Conclusion: Tithing advocates do not teach that Christians should observe all of the statutes and ordinances of the Law – only tithing. They also don’t teach about eating your tithes or giving your tithes directly to the poor. They usually teach that you should give it directly to your local church. These are not Biblical teachings.
Conclusion: Again, those who teach tithing today twist the Scriptures to make it include money even though the Bible says it was only food.
Conclusion: Christians are not under the curse of the Law because Christ has taken away that curse. This is important to understand before reading Malachi 3:8-12. Many have misinterpreted those verses and told Christians they will be cursed if they do not tithe.
Conclusion: Teaching Christians that they will be blessed if they tithe or cursed if they don’t completely ignores Christ’s sacrifice. We are no longer under “the curse” of the Law but have been freed from death by Christ’s blood. Therefore, Christians will not be cursed if they do not tithe, and the promise of blessing in this passage does not apply to us. It was for the Israelites only.
Note: I did not include Amos 4:4-5 in this study because it barely mentions tithing and is not relevant in our study.
Conclusion: Jesus was not advocating tithing for all of His followers for all time. He was speaking to a specific group of people who were under all of the Law of Moses. He used this time to teach us that love trumps giving every time. It is foolish to think that tithing will save us or that failing to tithe will condemn us.
Conclusion: We should look at all of Jesus’ teachings about giving to determine God’s will for Christian giving. He spoke more about generous giving than tithing. Even when He talked about tithing it was not in a positive light.
Conclusion: God has created a better covenant with Christians that allows us to draw near to Him through Jesus. We shouldn’t place ourselves under the statutes of an inferior Old Covenant when God desires a deeper relationship with us through His New Covenant.
In our study of tithing, we’ve seen that modern tithe teachers have grossly misrepresented what the Bible says about tithing. Tithing is not a requirement for Christians, and God has a better plan for Christian giving than tithing. If you want to learn more about giving under the New Covenant, check out these articles:
I’ll also be spending more time in the future looking at Jesus’ teaching on giving and what the New Testament teaches about giving. So make sure you’ve signed up for free updates to Provident Planning if you want to learn more. If you have any questions or comments about tithing in the Bible, feel free to leave them below!
If you’re the least bit interested in investing, I’m sure you’ve heard of ETFs (exchange traded funds) by now. They’re often touted as the lowest-cost option for investors who don’t want to pick individual stocks. Even my beloved Vanguard has begun pushing their ETFs much more than their index mutual funds – citing the lower expense ratios of the ETFs.
But in all the fanfare about how cheap ETFs are, we seem to lose sight of the fact that you have to pay commissions when you buy or sell ETFs on the stock market. On the other hand, there is no cost to buy or sell mutual funds directly from Vanguard. There’s also the problem of bid/ask spreads on ETFs and premiums/discounts over the NAV (net asset value) of ETFs. I don’t have the data to analyze those costs, and it’s not possible to fully know the impact of those costs (because it depends on future prices as well).
However, we can ask ourselves if the lower expense ratios on ETFs will offset the trading costs we have to pay to buy and sell them. This is a relatively easy question that just requires some math.
The more frequently you buy or sell ETFs, the more you’ll pay in trading commissions. So if you’re investing a certain dollar amount every month (also called dollar cost averaging), you’re going to pay one commission fee for each ETF in your portfolio every single month. (The same applies if you’re selling every month to generate income from your portfolio, though you probably won’t sell from every single ETF every month.)
Those trading costs can add up very quickly and easily overcome your savings on the expense ratios.
Let’s use a simple example to see why you need to carefully consider all the costs involved with ETFs. We’ll assume you’re investing in a 100% stock portfolio that duplicates the world markets. That means you’d have 40% in U.S. stocks and 60% in International stocks. You could do this using Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index and Total International Stock Index mutual funds. Or you could use Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF and FTSE All-World ex-US ETF. Your portfolio expense ratio for a 40% U.S./60% International mix would be:
That’s a difference of 0.09% – meaning that you’d save 0.09% of your portfolio value every year if you used Vanguard’s ETFs instead of their Mutual Funds. So what does that mean in dollars? It depends on how much you have to invest.
This holds true until you have $250,000 invested, because at that point you can get a lower expense ratio on the Total Stock Market Index mutual fund – bringing the total expense ratio for the mutual fund portfolio down to 0.24% and lowering your savings to 0.05%.
So you can see the cost savings isn’t quite as great as the media makes it out to be. Yes, $500 saved is $500 saved – but you need $1,000,000 to invest before you’ll realize that kind of savings every year!
Then we need to consider your trading costs for using the ETFs. The lowest commissions I’ve found are at TradeKing where they charge $4.95/trade or Zecco where they charge $4.50/trade. Here’s what your costs would look like for a 2 ETF portfolio if you’re using TradeKing (you’d save a little more by using Zecco):
So if you’re trading six or more times a year (buying or selling both ETFs in your portfolio) and you have less than $25,000 invested, you’re better off just getting the mutual funds directly from Vanguard (because you won’t have to pay trading costs). You could lower your trading costs by only buying one ETF at a time and only buying or selling once or twice a year, but that is not how most people invest.
After you have $25,000 to invest you could use Zecco and get 10 free trades every month. But that $25,000 minimum balance for free trades applies to only one account, so if you have multiple accounts (more than one IRA, or an IRA and a taxable account) you can only get the free trades on one of them. If you’ve only got one account and you’ve got more than $25,000 to invest, then using Zecco to buy Vanguard ETFs could be a good choice. But there is a $30 annual fee for IRAs at Zecco, which will still eat into your cost savings (plus another $30 IRA closing fee if you ever decide to move to another brokerage firm). If you want to open an account at Zecco, you can go to their website.
We only looked at a very basic portfolio in that cost comparison. But what if you want to invest in a more diversified portfolio or you want to add bonds? The trading costs only get higher and higher, unless, of course, you can use Zecco’s or another brokerage firm’s free trades program.
However, as I pointed out, those free trades programs are generally quite limited and may carry other costs like annual service fees. You also have to deal with the uncertainty of whether those programs will continue. Once the terms of the free trades program changes (as they have in the past), you may end up paying a lot more in commissions than just $4.95/trade.
You won’t run into those problems if you’re buying and selling mutual funds directly from Vanguard. And in many cases, you’re better off going that route anyway. Especially considering that the cost savings on ETFs don’t really amount to much even if you have a large portfolio. Add in those unknown costs of the bid-ask spread (probably negligible) and NAV premium/discount (could be a problem depending on when you buy/sell) and you have another variable in the equation.
The point of all this is not to say that you should never use ETFs. The point is that you should carefully weigh the costs of using ETFs against the savings. That’s the only way you’ll know for sure if ETFs are actually a good choice for you.
Or you can just ignore the math, listen to all the financial “experts” on the TV, and do what they say. It’s up to you.
Chapter 7 of Hebrews is the last example of tithing in the Bible that we are going to examine in this series, and it’s also the only mention of tithing that occurs in the Bible after Jesus’ death. For this reason, we should pay close attention to what is said here since it applies specifically to Christians.
Hebrews is a book of better things. It talks about how Jesus and the New Covenant surpass Moses, the Law, the priesthood, and the Old Covenant. Chapter 7 in particular discusses how the high-priesthood of Jesus has replaced the Levitical priesthood. It also makes it clear that a change of the priesthood requires a change of law (from the Law of Moses to the Law of Christ). Since tithing was commanded to the Israelites as part of the Mosaic Law, it has been replaced by the Law of Christ which requires generous giving to anyone in need.
The author of Hebrews begins chapter 7 by explaining how the high-priesthood of Jesus surpasses and replaces the Levitical priesthood. Since God declared Jesus to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, the author of Hebrews uses the example of Abraham giving a tenth of his spoils of war to Melchizedek to highlight the reasons why Jesus’ priesthood is higher and better than the Levitical priesthood. You can read Hebrews 7:1-10 for the actual text, but here are the main points:
All of these facts indicate that a priest after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus, is higher than the Levitical priesthood. After His death, Jesus replaced the entire Levitical priesthood and became the high priest of all those who choose to follow Him. His sacrifice replaces all the sacrifices the Levitical priests made, and it is through Him that we draw near to God (where previously only the Levitical priests could draw near to God).
This change of the priesthood necessitates a change in law, because the Law of Moses is what established the Levitical priesthood and tithing is how the Levitical priesthood was supported. If the Levitical priesthood has been abolished and replaced, then the statutes and ordinances surrounding that priesthood have also been abolished and replaced.
11 Now if there were perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change made also in the law.
Hebrews 7:11-12 (WEB)
The Law made no one perfect. If it had, then Jesus would not have needed to die on the cross for our sins. We could have simply followed the Law of Moses and received our salvation that way. But we all have sinned and no one but Jesus has kept the Law perfectly. Therefore, God chose to replace the Old Covenant with a new and better covenant through His Son. Since we now have Jesus as our high priest and we are the priesthood of believers, the Old Covenant and its rules about the Levitical priesthood (including tithing) no longer apply to us as Christians.
We no longer have high priests who are weak and just as unable as we are to avoid sin. Instead, we have Jesus as our high priest forever. And it is through Him and the hope that He brings that we can draw near to God.
18 For there is an annulling of a foregoing commandment because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
Hebrews 7:18-19 (WEB)
By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant.
Hebrews 7:22 (WEB)
We no longer seek righteousness through the Law but through Jesus. We claim redemption of our sins through the blood of Jesus (an eternal sacrifice) and not through animal sacrifices. These are ways the New Covenant is better than the Old.
In the same way, we no longer determine our giving based on the Old Covenant statute of tithing. We are to be led by the Spirit to be generous, cheerful, and sacrificial givers to the poor and needy. How is Spirit-led giving better than tithing? Because we must draw near to God through Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to know His will for our giving. You can’t figure out how much you should give by using a simple calculation. New Covenant Giving requires a close relationship with God, constant prayer, and careful discernment in order to glorify Him. Giving becomes a continual act of worship – we seek God’s will through prayer, we give according to His will, and then we repeat. This is a process that draws us nearer to God and helps us become more like Jesus.
Now that we have a New, Better Covenant, why would we choose to go back to the Old? When you choose to limit how you give by the Law of Moses you are rejecting the guidance of the Holy Spirit and God’s desire for New Covenant Giving. Allow God’s Word to teach you how He wants you to give according to the teaching of Jesus and the examples we have in the New Testament. Here are a few articles that outline New Covenant Giving principles for Christians:
Seek the guidance of His Spirit before deciding how much you should give. His will for you may be to give much more than just 10% or it may be to give less or nothing at all depending on your circumstances. Let God determine how much you should give instead of leaving it up to arbitrary percentages.
