Moving into a new home, what a feeling that can be.

But once those boxes are in packed, then the reality of other cost of

home ownership start to sink in things like property taxes, insurance,

and those unexpected repairs,

You start to ask, how do I budget for all of it?

So your dream doesn't become a source of financial stress.

Well, stick with me because I've got the answers for you on today's show.

Hey there.

Welcome back to your Daily, financially Confident Christian.

I'm Ralph, and it's so great that you chose to join me again as we

continue to answer that big question.

How can I become a financially confident Christian?

And we're continuing our series through dealing with the stress of money worries.

Now, yesterday we talked all about navigating the financial waters of home

buying, and the last few days we talked about how to figure out how much you

can afford and get that mortgage and all that process and closing costs.

Today we're gonna move beyond that purchase itself and we're gonna talk

about what happens after you get the keys.

Yeah.

After they hand you the keys and you ask yourself this Ralph, I bought the house.

Now how do I budget for everything else that comes with it?

Listen, I get it.

Focusing on finding a house, man, that is a fun process.

That's a tough process.

You probably felt like, oh, I thought I would never get to this.

Then you got to the mortgage process and you made your way through that

process and went through underwriting, and then went to settlement, and

you came up with the closing costs.

Then you get moved in, you get all the boxes unpacked, or hopefully

you got most of your boxes unpacked.

And then to open up the bills and, and then comes a property tax bill and that

that bill's larger than you expected or maybe larger than your escrow.

And the next thing happens, your homeowner's insurance

costs more than you expected.

And then one Saturday afternoon, you and your wife and kids are, are sitting

there enjoying some afternoon television.

All of a sudden you hear a drip, drip, drip and the roof starts

leaking or maybe the furnace breaks down or some other repairs.

You're starting to feel the stress, aren't you?

And these things can cost thousands of dollars.

It was hard enough to even get the house in the first place.

You've drained all your savings and now you're feeling that financial strain

and you're thinking about, Ralph, do I charge up my credit cards again?

'cause honestly, I've completely used up my, emergency fund.

But here's the thing I want you to understand today, and

I'm talking to you directly.

Don't forget.

Home ownership is a true blessing.

It just is.

It's a beautiful thing, but you've got to remember, it's your largest asset

that you will probably ever purchase.

and as such, it does require some ongoing stewardship.

The same as you would maintain all of your possessions.

Your car, your, your, your house is just one of those things.

The Bible speaks the importance of maintaining what you have.

I wanna share with you Proverbs chapter 24, verses three and four today.

That's what it says.

It says, by wisdom, a house is built and through understanding it is established

through knowledge, it's rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Well, you've done that part.

You filled the rooms.

You understand how the house was built.

You got through that process.

But now you've gotta prepare for the upkeep, sort of

like the walls of Jerusalem.

In the book of Nehemiah.

They had to have an ongoing effort to repair and maintain those walls.

When you own a home, it's the same kind of thing.

You've got planning, you've got budgeting, you've gotta have wise

foresight, and you gotta have diligence.

You gotta have these things because you gotta protect that investment because

this investment is gonna help ensure your financial stability for the next 30 years.

Maybe you got a 30 year mortgage, you're like, Ralph, this

thing needs to last, 30 years.

But right now, I want you to just pause for a second and think about

all you've gone through to get this house that saving, putting

aside the money, and scrimping and saving, doing all those things.

I just want you to take a second.

Just trust God for provision and trust him for wisdom.

Now let's move into what we can do.

Here's one of the things that I think you absolutely must do, and I'm gonna

encourage this today on the show.

Establish a consistent savings plan.

That way you have money set aside for future maintenance and

repairs, and it's a proactive way.

Because then it's being predictable and you get to be prepared for

those unpredictable expenses.

So here's your one item action for today.

I want you to go look at your budget.

I hope you have a budget.

If you don't have one, it's a great time to really do one.

I want you to add some budget lines to your, to your budget, some what

I call dedicated budget categories.

We definitely wanna add property taxes.

We wanna add homeowners insurance.

Hey, maybe you've got a house where you pay HOA fees and

plan for when they're due.

Put those right into your budget because oftentimes they're not just monthly.

They may be once a year, twice a year, maybe once a quarter.

You can create funds to handle those.

So that's the first step.

Add these things to your budget, these categories.

Second thing I want you to do, I want you to create a home

maintenance and repair fund.

This is separate from your general emergency fund.

This is a separate savings account, what I'll call a sinking fund.

Now, a lot of people say to me, Ralph, how much should I be setting aside?

You ready for this one?

When I did research for this show, this is what I found.

You wanna plan for about one to 2% of your home's value annually.

So here's a simple example.

If you've got a $200,000 home, you better be planning for 2000 to $4,000

a year in repairs and maintenance.

Yes, if you're doing the math, it's almost $400 a month, but create

that fund and be prepared for that.

Another I wanna really encourage you to do is research typical maintenance costs.

That way you're not surprised.

Understand the life expectancy of that HVAC system or that, or that water heater.

'cause it's gonna do two things.

It's gonna provide you motivation to save and it might give you some

ideas of how to make them last longer.

And finally, last but not least, you gotta review and adjust, especially as

your house gets older, be prepared to adjust that you're gonna spend more.

This may be a time, and I don't have time to talk about it on today's

show, but consider a home warranty.

Now you might be saying, great, Ralph, I think this is going to help.

Well, let's talk about why it helps.

It helps because it fights that struggle of those unexpected expenses,

and all of us are gonna have those.

I remember when I bought my first townhouse, I was about 21 years old.

I was in there about two weeks, and the HVAC system blew up.

I need to replace the whole thing.

So it's gonna fight that struggle of the unexpected.

It's gonna ensure you've got the money and you don't have to

go charge up your credit cards.

Another thing I think it does is it protects your emergency fund it

preserves your asset, that house.

And last, but certainly not least, it gives you peace of knowing that you are

prepared for whatever comes your way.

Well, let's pray together now.

Father God, thank you for the blessing of a home.

We're so grateful of what you've given us, Lord, and we confess that the

ongoing cost of ownership, especially those unexpected repairs, Lord,

they can certainly bring us stress.

So we just ask that you would grant us wisdom, Lord, and grant us discipline

again to budget faithfully for those property taxes and for those insurance

and those maintenance and repair costs.

Lord, we ask that you would help us consistently set aside funds

in that repair account, trusting that you'll help us, Lord, you'll

help us maintain our home wisely.

And we just ask that you, Lord, protect our home from those

major unexpected issues, Lord.

But help us to be prepared financially when they do come up, Lord.

And may our homes be a place of peace and not a source of

overwhelming financial burden.

And we just, ask this in confidence.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

So today, here's your task.

You've got to start budgeting for all the costs of home ownership.

It's an act of wise stewardship, it helps protect your investment, and it

brings you greater financial peace.

And Isn't that what we all want?

Greater financial peace.

Don't just budget for the mortgage, budget for the home and budget for your life.

And I'm just gonna encourage you today to share this episode with someone else.

You know, you may know somebody that is just bought a home, or maybe they had a

house for a while and you think, you know what, they could really benefit from this.

I'm gonna encourage you to share this episode and you can

find resources and connect with the show right at our website.

I. Financially confident christian.com.

And while you're there, I've got a special gift for you on your journey.

Hey, this is another homeowner's gift.

If you go to financially confident christian.com/master, I'm gonna

give you a free copy of my book.

It's called Mastering Your Finances.

It's quick.

It's a powerful read, designed as a starting point to help you

break that cycle of financial shame and really step into confidence.

And again, you can go to financially confident christian.com/master

to get you a free copy today.

Now, tomorrow we're gonna be moving away from this whole home buying and mortgage

process, and we're gonna be talking about how to become more proactive and

intentional with your spending and your savings decision, and do that overall.

And we're gonna talk about creating some personal spending rules.

Now these aren't the restrictive kind of rules, but trust me on

this, we're gonna reduce some stress tomorrow, so you don't wanna miss it.

So make sure you join me now.

Let's all go out there and be financially confident.

Christians, you can do this.

I have confidence in you.

Have confidence in yourself, and I just encourage you to stay financially savvy.

God bless you and you have a great day today.