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Women’s Conference
Let’s Your Hearts Rejoice
Avoiding Anxiety and Distress by Wise
Money Management
May 2, 2013
Bryan Sudweeks, Ph.D., CFA
Materials are from the BYU Marriott School of Management
Personal Finance website at
http://personalfinance.byu.edu
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Abstract
• Despite counsel to live below our means, most people
live at or above their means, regardless of income
level. How can we recognize the difference between
wants and needs? What are some practical everyday
tips in budgeting, shopping, and saving to help live
providently? Instead of having an abundance of
“things”, how can being financially responsible bring
us happiness? What role does paying an honest tithing
and fast offering play in financial security?
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Objectives
• Wise money management is as easy as your ABCDs
• Decide
• Commit
• Believe
• Achieve
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A. Decide
• Elder David A. Bednar counseled:
• Understand and love the doctrine of Christ.
Doctrine refers to the eternal, unchanging, and
simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Doctrines are never altered. They never vary. They
will always be the same. You can always count on
them. Brothers and sisters, doctrine answers the
why questions of our lives. . . In the times in which
we live, only the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has
the answers to the why questions that matter most
(“Teach them to Understand,” Ricks College
Campus Education Week Devotional, June 4, 1998,
Rexburg, Idaho).
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• 1. Personal finance can bring us to Christ
• Whatever the problem may be in a person’s life—
failure to pay tithing, breaking the Word of
Wisdom, casual church attendance, the real issue is
faith in Jesus Christ. If we can help people obtain
the gift of faith in Christ, good works will follow.
The end purpose of any law of God is to bring us to
Christ. And how well will the law work? It depends
on what we think of the Author of the law (C. Max
Caldwell, “What Think Ye of Christ?,” Ensign, Feb
1984).
Decide (continued)
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• 2. Personal finance can help us accomplish our
divine missions
• Elder Gene R. Cook said:
• I bear testimony of the fact that if you keep the
commandments, He nourishes you, strengthens
you, and provides you means for accomplishing all
things necessary to faithfully finish your divine
mission here on earth. May the Lord bless you in
your decisions at this important time in your lives
(Gene R. Cook, “Trust in the Lord”, Ensign, Mar.
1986).
Decide (continued)
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• 3. Personal finance can help us return with our
families back to Heavenly Father’s presence
• It helps us keep our priorities in order
• David O. McKay stated: “No other success can
compensate for failure in the home” (quoted
from J. E. McCulloch, Home: The Savior of
Civilization (1924), 42; in Conference Report,
Apr. 1935, 116).
• Harold B. Lee said, “The most important work
you will do will be within the walls of your own
home” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church:
Harold B. Lee [2000], 134).
Decide (continued)
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• 4. Personal finance can help us become wiser
stewards over our resources and blessings
• Our resources are a stewardship, not our
possessions. I am confident that we will literally be
called upon to make an accounting before God
concerning how we have used them to bless lives
and build the kingdom (Joe J. Christensen, “Greed,
Selfishness, and Overindulgence,” Ensign, May
1999).
Decide (continued)
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Decide (continued)
• Our perspective is simple. It is:
• Wise money management is simply living the
gospel of Jesus Christ
• It is putting Christ first in our lives (and not our
pocketbooks)
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Decide (continued)
• Elder Bednar commented:
• Principles are doctrinally based guidelines for what
we ought to do. Therefore if there is a doctrine of
the Atonement, then the first principle of the gospel
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and
sisters, doctrine answers the why questions of our
lives. Principles provide us with direction about the
what and the how (David A. Bednar “Teach them to
Understand,” Ricks College campus Education
Week Devotional, June 4, 1998, Rexburg, Idaho).
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Decide (continued)
1. Ownership: Everything we have is the Lord’s
• The Psalmist wrote:
• The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof;
the world, and they that dwell therein (Psalms
24:1)
• The Lord is the creator of the earth (Mosiah 2:21),
the supplier of our breath (2 Nephi 9:26), the giver
of our knowledge (Moses 7:32) the provider of our
life (Mosiah 2:22), and the giver of all we have and
are (Mosiah 2:21).
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Decide (continued)
2. Stewardship: We are stewards over all that the
Lord has, is, or will share with us
• The Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith stated:
• It is expedient that I, the Lord, should make
every man accountable, as a steward over earthly
blessings, which I have made and prepared for
my creatures. (D&C 104:13)
• The Lord through the Prophet Brigham Young said:
• Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou
hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward; for it is
the free gift of the Lord thy God, and thou art his
steward. (D&C 136:27) 12
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Decide (continued)
3. Agency: The gift of “choice” is man’s most
precious inheritance
• President Marion G. Romney said:
• Agency means the freedom and power to choose
and act. Next to life itself, it is man’s most
precious inheritance. (Ensign, May 1976, p.
120.)
• President David O. McKay:
• Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to
direct that life is God’s greatest gift to man.…
Freedom of choice is more to be treasured than
any possession earth can give (Conference
Report, Apr. 1950, p. 32; italics added). 13
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Decide (continued)
4. Accountability: We are accountable for every
choice we make
• The Lord through the prophet Joseph stated:
• Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged
in a good cause, and do many things of their
own free will, and bring to pass much
righteousness. For the power is in them,
wherein they are agents unto themselves. (D&C
58: 27-28)
• For it is required of the Lord, at the hand of
every steward, to render an account of his
stewardship, both in time and in eternity. (D&C
72:3)
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B. Commit
• How do you commit to what you should do after
you have “decided” what was important?
• We all know what we should do, and yet we many
times fall short of our goals. Why?
• Perhaps it is because:
• Focus: We don’t really want the goal we set—it
is another’s goal and not our own
• Habits: We have not learned the habits to
discipline ourselves—we lack discipline
• Motivation: We have not convinced ourselves
the future benefits are worth the current costs 15
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1. Set Personal and Family Goals
• Decide on what is important to you and write it
down
• Work with your spouse to determine what is
important to you, to determine individual and
family goals
• Set short, medium, and long-term goals to help
you attain what is important
• Review your goals often, and work toward them
• Write them down, as a goal not written down is
only a wish
• Develop your own Personal Financial Plan 16
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2. Share Your Goals with
your Children and Friends • Want additional incentive to accomplish your
goals?
• Share them with your children and friends
• Let your children know what goals you are
working on
• Enlist their help in accomplishing you to
accomplish your goals
• Let them know and help you as you strive to
accomplish what you desire
• Children and friends can give additional
incentive and help to attain our personal
and family goals
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3. Change Your Perspective
• You can take a long-term perspective on your
choices
• Life is all about the choices we make
• Make them with our top goals in mind
• Say you want to buy a new car on payments, but
you know it will keep you from saving for
retirement and your children’s education
• Think of it as:
• “I am spending my children’s education
money” or
• “I am disobeying the prophet’s counsel to
stay out of debt” 18
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4. Understand Doctrine and Seek the
Lord’s Help • In Relief Society, priesthood, Young Men's, and
Young Women's we sometimes have lessons on topics
such as self-esteem, self-worth, and goal setting. Such
instruction indeed can be good and valuable. But you
can get the same information at the Rotary Club.
However, at the Rotary Club you cannot get the pure,
simple doctrine of the Atonement of Christ. And self-
esteem and the ability to effectively set and accomplish
goals ultimately comes from understanding doctrine,
not just the mechanics of application (David A. Bednar
“Teach them to Understand,” Ricks College campus
Education Week Devotional, June 4, 1998, Rexburg,
Idaho).
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C. Believe
• We now must believe we can accomplish what
we have set our goals to do
• Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and
believe, it can achieve (anonymous)
• Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are
right (anonymous)
• For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs
23:7)
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Believe (continued)
• Be as Nephi of old who said:
• I will go and do the things which the Lord has
commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no
commandment unto the children of men save he
shall prepare a way for them that they may
accomplish the things which he commandeth them
(1 Nephi 3:7).
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D. Achieve
• Elder Robert C. Gay said:
• This is the exchange the Savior is asking of us: we
are to give up all our sins, big or small, for the
Father’s reward of eternal life. We are to forget
self-justifying stories, excuses, rationalizations,
defense mechanisms, procrastinations, appearances,
personal pride, judgmental thoughts, and doing
things our way. We are to separate ourselves from
all worldliness and take upon us the image of God
in our countenances (Robert C. Gay, “What Shall a
Man Give in Exchange for His Soul?”, Ensign,
Nov. 2012).
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Achieve (continued)
• Focus: Make sure your goals are the true
goals you want to accomplish. Seek the Lord’s
help as you set your goals, and then seek His
help to attain them.
• Be serious about your goals
• Share them with your children and friends, and with
the Lord in your prayers
• Let nothing get in the way of your achieving your
goals
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Achieve (continued)
• Habits: Work on the habits that will help you
achieve your goals
• Plan your habits carefully and pray for the Lord’s
help in establishing good habits so you can
accomplish your goals
• Take that lunch to work, eat out only once per
month, develop that menu for your family that is
healthy and cost-effective. Make it a game to save
money
• Know when you are weakest and likely to slip in
accomplishing your goals—plan beforehand what
you will do in those situations so you can
accomplish your goals
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Achieve (continued)
• Motivation: Visualize and truly believe that
your future goal is worth the sacrifices
• Visualize your interview with your Savior and your
reporting on your stewardship on how you have
used your financial resources to bless others
• Realize that Heavenly Father wants you to be
financially self-reliant and will help you if you will
humbly seek His help
• Visualize yourself on your mission with your
spouse, and visualize your children going on
missions, raising righteous families, graduating
from college, or accomplishing other personal and
family goals.
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Summary
• Financial preparedness is simply four areas:
• Education
• Choice
• Faith
• Work
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• The MSM website includes (all free):
• 9 different personal finance manuals, including the
611 page personal finance book used in the
undergraduate and MBA classes
• PowerPoint presentations from the advanced class
• Videos from the advanced personal finance class
include each of the 28 classes (of 75 minutes each)
• Learning tools to help you as you put your Personal
Financial Plan together, which includes your
Emergency Fund, Investment Plan, Retirement
Plan, etc.
• See me at the Sharing Station later today on
Money Management
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Summary (continued)
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• Elder Boyd K. Packer commented:
• True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and
behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel
will improve behavior quicker than a study of
behavior will improve behavior (“Little Children,”
Ensign, Nov. 1986, 16).
Summary (continued)
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Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com wrote:
• Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life—the life you author from scratch
on your own—begins. How will you use your gifts? What choices will
you make? Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you
wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions? Will you bluff it
out when you're wrong, or will you apologize? Will you guard your heart
against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love? When it's tough,
will you give up, or will you be relentless? Will you be a cynic, or will you
be a builder? Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be
kind? I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet
moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version
of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful
will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our
choices. Build yourself a great story (Jeff Bezos,, “Notable and Quotable”,
Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2013, p. ).
Summary (continued)
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• Though times may be tough, for those of faith, we
believe a prophet who said:
• I testify to you that our promised blessings are
beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may
gather, though the rains may pour down upon us,
our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our
Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort
and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we
walk uprightly and keep the commandments.
There will be nothing in this world that can
defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear
not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as
your faith (italics added, Thomas S. Monson,
“Be of Good Cheer,” Ensign, May 2009, 92). 32
Summary (continued)
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• For verily, I say unto you, that great things
await you (D&C 45:62).
For great things truly do!
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Summary (continued)