Introduction

I'm going to make this introduction short, because I have a lot of writing to do and I don't want to waste too much on a couple paragraphs that will likely be rewritten by the time this is all done. I'll make this short and sweet.

I'm a personal finance junkie, and it mostly started with a guy on the radio named Clark Howard. He has a radio program out of Atlanta, Georgia and also has a television program on HLN. He wasn't available in my area, so I started listening to his free podcast instead. After a weeks of listening, I had learned more about personal finance than I had in my entire life. Clark Howard is quite different from other radio personalities -- he spends a great deal of time sharing new information with his listeners instead of spouting a series of tired catchphrases (like a certain "beans and rice" personal finance blowhard I could mention). He gives out quite a bit of his program's content for free via his website, ClarkHoward.com, and his goal in business seems to be more about sharing information than making money. There's something I like about that.

There are far too many personal finance "gurus" out there whose purpose is to sell books, sell audio CDs, sell tickets to seminars, and sell pretty much everything under the guise of having some "secret" to building personal wealth and it can all be yours for the right price (usually in "Easy payments"). I'd like to put an end to that.

OK, I said this was going to be short. I guess I lied. Here's my own backstory. My small church wanted to offer a class in personal finance to our church members. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a book or program designed with this in mind save for one. This particular one cost upwards of $300 per church and $100 per individual. Our church couldn't afford that, and neither could our church members. I decided to try something different and picked a book on personal finance written by the same author who had this more expensive "system," and we went through it instead. In the process, I wound up discovering how few options there are out there for personal finance groups for Christians, and I decided to create my own.

Here it is.