Monday, August 17, 2009

Financial Freedom Seminar


If you've been following my blog, you may remember this post where I talk about reading 20 & Counting - a book about the Duggar family, who have 18 children.

Well, the fact that they have so many children and have been able to build this enormous home, have these huge vehicles, feed and clothe all these kids and still be able to stay completely out of debt intrigued me. How do they do it? Well, they say in the book that the main thing that helped them from the beginning was the Jim Sammons Financial Freedom Seminar from the Institute of Basic Life Principles. I thought about it & prayed about it & we went ahead & spent the $110 for the 10-disc, 20-hour seminar, including the manual which I highly recommend.

Jason & I watched the last chapter last night & we both agreed that it was probably the best $110 we've ever spent.

Why?

Well, where do I start? It goes over 20 principles of financial freedom and they are all based on biblical principles. I admit I was a bit skeptical at first - how can they base this all on scripture? But they truly did. Some of it was reiteration of what our prophets have been telling us forever, some of it was kind of surprising.

Here are the topics that Jim Sammons goes over (I put an asterisk by the ones that REALLY were eye-opening to me):

Disc 1:
Learn what it really means to be financially free.
*Know God’s four purposes for money.

Disc 2:
Identify and reject false financial concepts.
*Recognize God’s reproofs for the wrong ways to riches.

Disc 3:
*Choose to serve God rather than money.
Establish the tithe as a “weekly reminder.”

Disc 4:
*Purpose to keep out of debt. (this is including a mortgage & business debt)
Learn to live within your income.

Disc 5:
Develop sales resistance.
Flee from the hidden traps of swindlers.

Disc 6:
Learn how to get the best buy.
Be committed to an effective accounting system.

Disc 7:
*Never lend to friends or co-sign for a loan.
*Develop the full potential of your home.

Disc 8:
*Choose a good name, whatever the cost.
Learn the principles of praying for money.

Disc 9:
*Avoid business partnerships.
Identify and conquer slothfulness.

Disc 10:
*Listen to the cautions of your wife.
*Prepare now for a lasting heritage.

I will say it took us a long time to get through all these chapters, but EVERY TIME we finished a chapter, we felt closer to each other and closer to God.

I will also say that it took a bit of getting used to - he prays at the beginning and end of each session and some of the terms are not what we're used to as Latter-Day Saints, but I truly did feel the Holy Ghost and was constantly inspired by the stories and principles that were taught.
I will say as well that it took me a little while to get used to Jim Sammons' style, but I soon learned to love this good man and he has an enormous wealth of experiences that illustrate the principles that are taught - and in addition, he has great story-telling abilities.
Of course I'm not pushing this on anyone, but when you find something like this, we both of course want to share this with everyone we know. This is great financial advice that will benefit EVERYone, regardless of your current financial situation, but it's SO MUCH MORE. I feel it's helped me learn to be a better person and a better Christian.
If you have more questions, go to this link. There's even clips from the seminar.
Or e-mail me!

4 comments:

Lena Baron said...

This looks like something right down our ally. Thanks Heidi!! Curious: What does he say about education money, loans, etc? I'll talk to Leif about it right now. I'm thinking of sending to my bishop and asking if he wants to buy it for our ward...

Hopewell said...

Interesting. I've wondered about this. I have done the Dave Ramsey classes and they are a huge help. I wonder how they differ from this one.

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