Watch out for hidden fees on website purchases

A few weeks ago, I was given a rude reminder to always be on the lookout for hidden fees, especially when making online purchases. This reminder came in the form of a monthly technical support charge that is automatically added to your bill unless you purposely opt out of it at the time of purchase.

I was on a software website to buy and download one piece of software. I went through the entire shopping cart experience and came to the final confirmation/submit page. I quickly scanned the page for the purchase information and final bill total. Everything appeared to be correct, and then it happened. As I moved the mouse to the submit button and clicked on it, right below it I saw a small box with a check mark in it. My first reaction was that they purposely opted me in to their email database which has happened to me on other websites. But then I started to read the fine print of what I was automatically subscribed to and I knew that I just screwed up by moving too quickly on my purchase. I had been forcibly subscribed to a monthly technical support charge of $9.88. Before the submit page fully loaded, I tried opting out, but it was too late. As soon as the transaction took place, I should have immediately called the company to remove that fee, but I waited instead to see if that charge would happen.

Sure enough, as I was reviewing my bank account transactions last week, I saw this fee charged to my account for the month of March. This time, I did not hesitate. I immediately called the company and cancelled this monthly service fee. I had felt violated for being forced into an upsell purchase that I didn't want. Seth Godin would definitely give this company a verbal spanking for bad business marketing practices.

So, I learned a $10.00 lesson last week: always, always, always, read and reread the final confirmation/submission page for online purchases. You never know what you are agreeing to if you hurriedly just hit the submit button.

Have you ever been duped into an upsell online or in store purchase like I was? If so, I would love to hear about your experience.

Website Update | Reorganization of Topics

Happy Monday! Today's post is just a quick note about an update on the blog.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post titled What makes the Rich Christian blog different from other Christian personal finance blogs. In that post, I mentioned that I believe there are 7 investments that believers who are rich in Christ participate in. All of my posts relate in some way to these 7 investments.

Over the weekend, I reorganized all of my post labels for the last 18 months based on these 7 investments. For those that are interested, this should make topic/label navigation much easier and cleaner to use.

For simplification, there are now only 8 labels to navigate:

1. Worship: Investment #1 - Invest in your relationship with God.
2. Generosity: Investment #2 - Invest in God's Kingdom.
3. People: Investment #3 - Invest in relationships.
4. Yourself: Investment #4 - Invest in focused thinking.
5. Money: Investment #5 - Invest in financial education.
6. Action: Investment #6 - Invest in productivity.
7. Attitude: Investment #7 - Invest in winning.
8. Background: these posts are anything that are background material to the 7 investments or about the blog in general.

I hope you find this reorganization of the site much easier to navigate.

Success is a journey, not a destination

Success.

I believe most people want to be successful in their lives, but struggle on the vision of success. They view success as a destination such as:

• a million dollar net worth
• becoming president of the company
• owning a $500,000 home with a swimming pool, jacuzzi, and a tennis court.
• building a multi-million dollar company
• owning a vacation home in Belize.
• being married to a supermodel.

And you know what? Some determined people can really pull this off. They want this stuff so bad that they work their tails off to get it. After they attain their own definition of success, though, they then start asking the question, "Is this all there really is to success?" They missed the boat. They made the mistake of defining success as a destination rather than a lifelong journey.

In The Success Journey, author John Maxwell defines success in this way:

Success is...

knowing your purpose in life,

growing to reach your maximum potential, and

sowing seeds that benefit others.

You can see by this definition why success is a journey rather than a destination. No matter how long you live or what you decide to do in life, you will never exhaust your capacity to grow toward your potential or run out of opportunities to help others. When you see success as a journey, you'll never have the problem of trying to "arrive" at an elusive final destination. And you'll never find yourself in a position where you have accomplished some final goal, only to discover that you're still unfulfilled and searching for something else to do.

Another benefit of focusing on the journey of success instead of on arriving at a destination or achieving a goal is that you have the potential to become a success today. The very moment that you make the shift to finding your purpose, growing to your potential, and helping others, successful is something you are right now, not something you vaguely hope one day to be.

So, let me ask you this. How have you been defining success? Have you viewed it as a destination or a journey? Do you know your purpose, are you growing to your potential, and are you helping other people along the way?

Are you successful, today?

Investing in God's Kingdom begins with an eternal outlook

The picture on the right is an eternal clock which gives us a visual picture of time going on forever and ever. Do we as Christians really live our lives as if we believe this clock represents reality?

Unfortunately, I don't think this is the case. If we truly believed that this life is just a brief period of time before our true lives really begin, then our churches and we as Christians would look different. Our lives would be radically transformed by an eternal outlook.

I believe there would be more pastors, more missionaries, more short-term missions trips, more lay leaders, more budget giving, more missions giving, more giving to the poor, more outreach into our communities, more sacrifice, and in general, more love.

In the book Crazy Love, Pastor Francis Chan addresses this issue when he writes about the "profile of the lukewarm." Chan writes,

Lukewarm People think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven. Daily life is mostly focused on today's to-do list, this week's schedule, and next month's vacation. Rarely, if ever, do they intently consider the life to come. Regarding this, C. S. Lewis writes, "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

Lukewarm People will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give.

Lukewarm People give money to charity and to the church... as long as it doesn't impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so. After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right?

Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? Do you see evidence of God's Kingdom in your life? Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things of this world?

I don't know about you, but I fall under conviction after reading statements such as these. I am compelled to reexamine all of my motivations in my life here on earth: what I am spending money on, who I am spending my time with, and what I am expending energy on.

So, what do you need to do to have a more focused, eternal outlook?

Let's Do Lunch

Lunchtime is a great opportunity to strengthen old friendships, build new relationships, mentor others, and even be mentored, yourself.

I'm the type of person who likes to save time and money wherever I can. I typically eat a brought lunch at my desk in order to save work time and budget cash. You know, there's an old saying that "a brought lunch is better than a bought lunch."

Over the last several months, though, I have been in need of counsel, information, and wisdom in both my personal and work life. So, I have purposely sought out people who have the experience and knowledge I've needed to help me. After identifying the people in my "who network" who could assist me, I set up lunch appointments with these friends by email or phone. I always come away from these luncheons extremely thankful that I made the time to do it.

Lunch meetings are a great way to meet with others in order to learn and grow. With whom do you need to schedule a lunch appointment with this week?

Less is more

One of my favorite bloggers is Seth Godin. Seth is the king of short, witty, thoughtful posts. He seems to be able to cram an extreme literary experience into as few words as possible.

I don't know about you, but I like that. I've always been the type of person that likes to keep words, writing, and conversation quick and straight to the point.

This world needs more conscious thought at the beginning of the process, instead of a barrage of speaking or writing. People have a tendency to "free think" out loud, and it gets them in trouble. Think about it, first, then talk.

Brevity is the soul of wit - Shakespeare

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, (James 1:19, NIV).

Taking a stand for something

My favorite superhero has always been Superman. From his earliest inception, he was branded as standing for "truth, justice, and the American way."

You know, we need more people like Superman. People willing to take a stand when others shrink back in fear. People that will take a stand on sound, moral convictions in a society where everything is relative. The world claims there are no absolutes. God says that everything must be measured against His holiness and His Word.

Taking a stand when no one else will can be difficult. It's easier to just keep your mouth shut, roll over, and pretend that everything is OK. Being rich in Christ demands conviction and a response.

In the book 9 Things You Simply Must Do by Dr. Henry Cloud, one of the 9 things that Dr. Cloud believes that we should do is Principle #6: Hate Well. He explains what he means by hating well in this way:

Whether you are going to hate is not an option. You have been created in the image of God to stand up for life and stand against the things that destroy life. So when hurtful things happen, you are going to have a response. It is hardwired into you. Things that you do not like are going to happen, and you are going to experience negative feelings. The question is this: will that response be constructive or destructive?

You can respond in subjective, immature ways and destroy relationships, your career, and people you care about; or you can avoid responding at all and get yourself destroyed in the process, along with your talents, health, and many other things you value.

There is another way, the sixth of the Nine Things you simply must do. You can learn the way of deja vu people, the pattern of hating well. That means that you will be one of those people who objectively choose what they will hate, and you will objectively decide how you will deal with those things when they present themselves. In the process, you will preserve most of the good things in your life, eliminate most of the destructive things, and experience much more success in both love and life.

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers (Proverbs 6:16-19, NIV).

So, where do you need to take a stand, today? In order to be successful, can you learn to "hate well" in order to preserve the good and repel the destructive?

Busy doesn't always equal important

Many people have a belief that if I'm busy, then what I am busy with must be important.

Wrong.

A lot of the stuff we become entangled in each day is either:

1. work from someone over us that they deem as important. Unfortunately, many of us get trapped into other people's last minute projects with tight deadlines that cause us to drop what we are doing that could be important to our own workload.
2. emergencies that are urgent and important. Unfortunately, things happen that cause us to take our attention off of our long-term important actions.
3. some frivolous communication such as email, phone calls, and social networking. Not all of this, of course, is unimportant, but I do think that we have a tendency to use this as a distraction or a crutch to avoid truly important intellectual labor.
4. busywork that is neither urgent and important. This could be anything from reading mail, sorting papers, cleaning off your desk, or reorganizing your files. While all of these things need to get done at some point, we all have a tendency to fall back on these tasks while we procrastinate on what truly matters.

Whenever you feel distracted by this style of busy work, stop and reevaluate your priorities during your workday. Take the time to focus on 2 or 3 tasks that really matter to your long-term success in your job, your business, your calling, or your family. Perhaps you need to schedule a lunch with a mentor that can expand your thinking, or attend a conference where you will be inspired to reach greater heights. Maybe you need to spend some valuable time just researching and thinking through a difficult decision you need to make.

Whatever the more important tasks might be, don't settle for just being busy. A hamster on a wheel is really busy, but getting nowhere.

Priming the pump

Have you ever had to prime an old fashioned water pump? You know the kind that has a manual handle? In order to get water out of the well, you have to pour some water into the spout and start pumping like crazy.

Life can be a lot like that old manual water well. For example, if you want to be loved, you must give love. If you want well-behaved, disciplined children, then you must be disciplined yourself and willing to discipline your kids. If you need or desire more money to flow into your life, you need to "prime the pump" and give money away.

This is one of those oxymoron-ish laws of the universe that God has established. From a human standpoint, it makes no sense. How does giving away more of yourself, your life, and your stuff bring more to you? Our human nature tells us to "get all you can, and can all you get!" With this approach, though, you will end up losing everything. Selfishness doesn't work.

Give more of yourself and you will get more, and then plan on giving away even more!

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38, NIV).

So, Christian, let me ask you this. In what area(s) do you need to give more away in order to "prime your pump?"

Worship is the foundation for the rich Christian life

Over the last several days, I have had multiple reminders of what the most important role of the believer is, that of worshiper. In Matthew 22:35-38 we read Jesus' own words in which he quoted Moses from the book of Deuteronomy,

One of them [the Pharisees], an expert in the law, tested him with the question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment" (Matthew 22:35 - 38, NIV).

Loving God with all that we are and all that we have is the foundation of the rich Christian life. In this passage, our worship comes as a command, but in reality it should be our chief passion and highest desire.

When our love for God becomes all consuming, all other aspects of our lives will fall into their proper place. Our love for others, whether it's our families, friends, neighbors, the poor, or even our enemies will become our second highest priority.

If our worship is in line with God's desires, we will also live a generous life. We will understand the joy of giving back to the Lord through our churches and to the poor because we desire to become more like Him. God the Father gave us His Son as the ultimate sacrifice for our salvation. The Son willingly gave His life for us in obedience to the will of His Father. The least we can do is give back to Him, because He first gave everything for us.

So, how about you, Christian? How's your worship? Are you spending daily time in the Word and talking to the Lord throughout the day? Are you consistent in your corporate worship each week through your church attendance? Are you giving your time, talent, and money away for the sake of the Kingdom because you love God with everything you've got?