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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Adam Faughn, an Introduction

It is a joy to be one of the writers for Where Your Treasure Is. I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. While there are zillions of personal finance sites on the web, very few take a good look at the Biblical side of things.




My name is Adam Faughn and I work as the youth minister for the 9th Avenue church of Christ in Haleyville, Alabama. I am blessed with a great wife, Leah, and two wonderful children: Mary Carol (almost 21 months) and Turner (9 weeks). I graduated from Freed-Hardeman University with a B.A. in history in 1999 and with a Master of Ministry degree in 2003.




My wife and I hate debt...but we have some. We do not "pay the minimum;" rather, we eliminate our debt as quickly as we can. To give you some idea of how serious we are about getting out of debt, we used some refunds from insurance and the government, as well as very frugal living, to pay off just over $3000...in May! Admittedly, this was a very rare month, though; our goal for June is $1500. We still owe some money to our local bank for a loan taken out to adopt our precious daughter (worth every penny!!!). We also owe a small amount in a personal loan that helped us pay for the unexpected pregnancy of our son (also worth every penny!!!). Finally, we owe some money on a used car, and we have a mortgage.




On this blog, my responsibilities will be 3-fold.


  • First, I will be discussing debt reduction and savings strategies. Some of this responsibility will over-lap with James. To have money to pay down debt and put money in the bank, one must live on the frugal side, so I will mention that quite a bit (including the series I'll begin later today).


  • Second, I will be reviewing books about personal finance. I love to read, so I will read as much as possible. Some will be general personal finance books, while others will have a religious "foundation."


  • Finally, I will be discussing our journey out of debt. All four writers intend to be quite personal--showcasing both our victories and defeats. The goal of my family is to be out of debt (except for the mortgage) by the end of 2008. Hopefully, on this blog, you'll be able to track our progress.

I hope that I can add something to this effort that will encourage all of us to use God's blessings in His service.