Let's Get Financially Fit!

By Joyce Pranion

Sitting at my computer one day about a couple of years into my unemployment, I couldn’t help but feel thankful to God for giving me the financial knowledge I had in the past which set us up to survive during that time. I realized that we made it with little difficulties because of the way we managed our finances.

I began writing this book which spells out the tools that anyone can use to take control of their personal finances. The words flew out of me faster than I could type. The book covers the following topics like how to take a personal property inventory for insurance. There’s a chapter that shows the steps to lowering your mortgage payments and lowering all your debt. It also explains how to make a budget and stick to it by focusing on spending habits. It even shows an easy way to balance your checkbook. There are tricks in saving without realizing you’re doing it. It also has a little wisdom from above.

I was very proud of my guide and wanted to share it with others but I found employment again and filed the words away on my hard drive almost forgetting about them for another year.

Ironically, I lost that job too. It was like God was giving me a wake up call. I remembered my draft and now am compelled by an authority higher than all of us to share it with you. May the words help you when you put them to use as they have proven helpful to me. God bless.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joyce Pranion
• Release date: Jan 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465775511

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Let’s Get Financially Fit

A Guide For Those Who Believe

Written by: Joyce Pranion

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LET’S GET FINANCIALLY FIT

Joyce Pranion

Copyright 2012 by Joyce Pranion

Smashwords Edition.

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CHAPTER 1: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I just wanted to write a few acknowledgments to those of you who have touched my life enough to give me the courage to write this book. I have to start with God who has carried me through the years even when I thought we were never going to make it. My husband who stuck by me even though I drove him crazy the last few years. My son who is my inspiration always. My sister for reminding me Jesus loves me. My in-laws who always made me feel that I could accomplish anything I wanted. My parents for teaching me how to stretch a buck. For everyone else in my life who I have not mentioned, you are always in my heart and I love you all for being in my life.

All scriptures were taken from one of the following Bibles; The New King James Version, The Amplified Version, and The New Living Translation. My thanks to biblegateway.com for your wonderful website.

I’d like to dedicate this book to my Yiayia who I know watches over me every time I smell a jasmine flower when I’m taking my walks.

CHAPTER 2: PREFACE

When I was a little girl, my father owned a small diner down the street from a major league baseball park. On game days the place would be hopping with customers. Dad always had the AM transistor radio going so we could hear the game. His favorite was baseball. I remember the whole place would light up after a home run. Dad would prop the door open so we could hear the fans at the stadium too. The diner was the original old time greasy spoon. The street out front was made of brick pavers instead of cement. The place was a long narrow block building which nestle between two other attached stores. The front was all glass so you could look in and see my dad cooking over the grill. The bell would ring with every entering customer. The left wall had the grill and a back counter that held the coffee pots. The clean plates were hidden behind the sliding doors of the upper metal cabinets. Facing the grill was the long counter where most of the customers ate siting on the red vinyl stools with their shiny chrome legs. Along the opposite wall were four red vinyl booths that set back to back. I remember using them to take naps on or eat the cherry pies my dad always had. I must have been between three and four years old because it was before I even started school.

On some days my dad would take me to the diner during the week while my mom worked. It was the mid 1960’s before electronic devises robbed us of our imaginations. I loved going there to play waitress even though I was probably more in the way than helping. I would take a Styrofoam coffee cup with the top on, flip it over on its lid, poke a slit in the bottom with a knife, write the word TIPS on it, and set it on the counter. Dad kept me behind the counter where he could keep an eye on me. He’d give me a rag to wipe the counter with. I remember talking to the regulars who came in for breakfast. I would ask the customers if they needed anything else. I wanted to show them how hard I was working to earn my tips. Whenever I could, I would take my hand made tip-bank in the back where the sinks were and look inside. The sound of the coins clanking together when I shook it reinforced my belief that I was working for my money and was being rewarded for a job well done. It never amounted to much but it didn’t matter. I was hooked on the idea of making money.

Years later my dad sold the diner and purchased a party store. By now I was an adolescent and understood the value of money. I would work at the store on the weekends. I only made $5.00 but I was already calculating the number of weekends I would have to work to make $100. I quickly realized that I had to do something else to increase my savings. It didn’t take long before I landed my first job. I have been working ever since until I was laid off due to the