Solution for Social Security

One day last week, I received my Social Security Statement.  It seems to come every year right around W-2 time.  I looked at it and checked it for accuracy.  I also realized that I will not see most of the monies that I have paid into the system since 1987.

Recently, on my limited listening of talk-radio, I kept hearing over and over again how Social Security will pay out more than it takes in now that the Baby Boomer generation is now in the retirement phase of their lives.  I noticed something that I had seen before on the statement but had not thought about much because it did not apply to me.  I have never made over $106,800.  In fact, I have never made over $40k in my lifetime!

You currently pay 6.2 percent of your salary, up $106,800, in Social Security taxes and 1.45 percent in Medicare taxes on your entire salary.  Your employer also pays 6.2 percent in Social Security taxes and 1.45 percent in Medicare taxes for you.  If you are self-employed, you pay the combined employee and employer amount of 12.4 percent on Social Security taxes and 2.9 percent in Medicare taxes on your net earnings.

I have been self-employed for a short time in my life and have paid the 15.3 % in Social Security and Medicare taxes.  I am now currently an employee and pay the 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare.  What has always stumped me is why the government stops taking the 6.2% once someone makes over $106,800?

I am a conservative.  I am not a big fan of Social Security, but we have no choice.  We cannot choose to not pay into the system, so unless something changes, we are stuck with this broken system.

My solution may be simple and unorthodox and it may get some conservatives angry, but I still think it is a possible solution.

Why not remove the $106,800 threshold for Social Security and continue to tax Social Security at 6.2% on all earnings like Medicare?  I can hear the conservatives screaming right now and calling me a liberal, socialist, etc.  I have not finished with my suggestion.  Along with the removal of the threshold, then increase the payment amount based on what the individual pays in (like they do now).  Think of all the revenue that is missing from $106,801 on up.

If we are stuck with the system, then why not attempt to fix it by finding ways to make it work.  Otherwise, why not shut it down completely and make people provide for their own retirement  (a better idea) than government sponsored retirement.

The best pizza ever!

Tonight, in the Twin Cities,  Punch Pizza was running a promotion as a result of the Vikings loss.  They were giving away pizzas if you had a coupon that they issued last night for $5.95.  I happened to hear about the promotion on Twitter last night after the game.   I let my wife know about it and we decided to give it a try tonight.  We figured that there would be a lot of people, but free pizza is free pizza.  My wife has been to Punch before, so she forewarned me that the Wayzata location is small so we might have to wait outside.  We did wait outside, but the line moved fairly quickly.

My wife ordered a Napoli pizza and I had the Margherita pizza along with the Chopped Italian Salad.  The pizza and salad were outstanding!  The salad reminded me of the the 1905 salad at the Columbia Restaurant in St. Augustine, FL.

Punch did a great job with this promotion and used Twitter to draw in some business as well as new customers like me and now as a result, I will be a returning customer (when I get some $$ of course)

I have eaten a lot of pizza in my lifetime, but this was the best and the most authentic outside of Italy.

I am now enjoying my last bit of freedom before seminary starts tomorrow at 7:30am!

Seminary Starts Tuesday — My last semester!

If you could not tell from the title, the excitement is building for me as I get ready for my last semester here at Central Seminary.  I am excited after eight long years of study, that this part of my educational journey will be complete.  I have learned a lot about the Bible, about God, and about myself during this process.  I came here single and I am married and have one son.

This will be a challenging semester because I will be taking 9 credit hours.  When I first came to Central in 2002, I started off with 9 credit hours and now I will be finishing with 9 credit hours.  This will be a challenge because 9 credit hours is a lot of work especially at the graduate and post-graduate levels.  I will also be working full-time 40-45 hrs a week along with having my family responsibilities.

The classes that I will be taking this semester are as follows:

NT 572 – New Testament Biblical Theology II – A study of the theology of the Pauline Epistles.  I took NTBT I a couple of years ago (Gospels) and this was a good elective for me.  I am especially looking forward to this class.  It is taught by Dr. Jonathan Pratt, who I have had for other NT classes.

OT 701- Hebrew Reading and Exegesis – This is concentrating more on exegesis for sermon preparation.  My grades may not reflect it, but I enjoy Hebrew.  I just wish I could master it better.  I am looking forward to this course because it will force me to be a better student of the Hebrew language and of the Old Testament.  This class is taught by Dr. Roy Beacham.

ME 601 – Foundation of Missions – Like the title says, this is a foundational course in missions.  I look forward to this course because I know at some point we will be talking/discussing about mission agencies and since I was employed as an administrator of a Baptist mission agency, I look forward to contributing to the conversation as well as learning about other aspects of missions.  This is another elective that will complement the class I took in 2008 about Cross-Cultural Missions.  This class is taught by Dr. Jeff Straub.

ME 501 – Personal Evangelism – another elective course.  This course is about the study of evangelism in the life of the local church.  This course is taught by Lee Ormiston.

I also have 10 textbooks that I need to purchase soon.  I have been doing a lot of price comparisons and I will get those purchased once classes start to make sure that I have all the books I need and that the professors have not made any changes.

Please pray for God’s provision with regard to the tuition this semester.  This is by far the most expensive semester that I will have here at Central.

I am also in the process of finalizing my resume (I am waiting for the last of my references to grant me permission) and looking for potential full-time vocational ministry opportunities.  I am also waiting to see if I am accepted for post-grad studies at SBTS in Louisville, KY.  At this stage, I am not sure if I will be accepted at SBTS, but I am waiting for the official word.

All in all, this will be an exciting few months on the journey.  As a family, we will be learning about patience and the will of God during this time along with many other things that God has in store for us.  Pray that God will lead us to the right place of service for His glory.  Pray for us to be faithful to God.

BD’s Mongolian BBQ

We had the opportunity to go to dinner tonight at BD’s Mongolian BBQ in Burnsville.  This was a result of several things:

1. I read a review that Jason DeRusha of WCCO did on BD’s and thought that it might be worth a try.
2. After reading that review, I happened to pass by the location while in Burnsville just before Christmas.
3. My wife and son both had chiropractic appointments only a few mins away, so the time was right.

We found the restaurant with no problems and we arrived early before the dinner crowd.  We were seated right away and we were very impressed with the openness of the restaurant, the cleanliness, and the helpful and friendly staff.  Our server came over right away and explained the menu and took our beverage order.  Our drinks arrived quickly and we were ready to begin eating.  I tried the soup (since I have an affinity for soup – another post for another time) The soups for today were a Sweet Pepper and Beef and a Wisconsin Cheddar.  I tried the Sweet Pepper soup which was outstanding.  I would have had more, but I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of room for the main course.

They have recipe cards available for those newbies who feel that they may need some guidance, but I have eaten at enough Mongolian places to know what I want to achieve.  BD’s has a great selection of meat and seafood.  I was impressed with the quality of the NY Strip and the Sirloin, even though I do not eat much red meat, I had some tonight with my meal.  They also had a great selection of vegetables as  well as sauces and spices.

At BD’s they do something unique related to the sauces and spices.  You load your main bowl with meats and veggies, but they ask to you take a separate smaller bowl for the sauce/spice mix.  The reason for this is that the sauce and spices are added towards to end of the cooking time to obtain the maximum flavor rather than if they were added altogether and then most of them being absorbed into the grill and not the food.  I think that this makes a big difference in the quality and taste of the food.

We have eaten at Mongo’s Grill in Maple Grove many times and I have written a review on Mongo’s as well.  After tonight’s experience, BD’s has dethroned Mongos in my book.  The only disadvantages are the distance from Maple Grove to Burnsville and that BD’s is slightly more expensive than Mongo’s.

I knew that it was good when my son Joseph said, “Dad, this is better than Mongo’s”

I told our server that we would definitely return.  Thanks BD’s for a great experience and we will definitely be back.

I would love to hear from you if you have been to BD’s — either good or bad experiences… leave it in the comments.

2010 a pivotal year for our family…

2009 was a good year for us.  In spite of all the skepticism, we are thankful that we are both employed and we have a place to live and we are fortunate to attend and serve in a good local church.  What more could one ask for?  Well, I could think of a few things, but I will rest in being thankful for the things that I mentioned above.

However, 2010 could be described as a year of change for our family:

• After almost 8 long years, I will finally finish my seminary work here at Central.  I will graduate in May 2010 with my MDiv.  I will have an M.A. in Theology and an MDiv.
• We are currently praying and searching for opportunities to serve the Lord in full time vocational ministry.  I am working on finalizing my resume and looking at the possibilities of creating a website for this purpose.
• I have submitted my application for postgraduate studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I am waiting to see if I get accepted.  If I get accepted, it would be nice to find a place of service in Louisville that would work well with PhD studies.
• We realize that there are no guarantees, and we could easily remain here because of no open opportunities, or not getting accepted to SBTS.

Please pray with us for the following:

• Last semester of seminary will involve a class load of 9 credit hours along with the tuition expense. I am trying to work as much overtime as possible in order to pay down as much as I can before the semester starts at the end of January.  This will be an expensive tuition bill.  We are praying for God’s provision in this area.
• The Lord’s clear leading in where and how He would have us to serve after graduation.
• The ability to reduce our debt and to be debt-free very soon.

Looking and praying for the will of God.

Weak, anemic response from Wells Fargo

I did not expect much from Wells Fargo… here are the responses that I received from them on Twitter.  Not sure why they have a Twitter feed, unless they are trying to get practice at dodging customers concerns.

We understand your frustration and do appreciate your feedback and will share it internally.

We understand ur concerns. Pricing change impacts virtually all custs as current biz environmnt has made it necssry 4 increase.

The second response amazes me because the “business environment” as they said makes it necessary for an increase.  I could see an increase from 4 to 9 or 10 percent, which I would term a reasonable increase of 5-6 percentage points, but they are not far from what they would term a default interest rate.  I call it greed at the expense of the US Taxpayer!

I guess they are not big on customer retention… The same people who pledged the $$ to bail them out to the tune of $25 billion are the same people they will insult and offend by their predatory tactics.

I am still in the process of looking for another bank or credit union.

Wells Fargo hates consumers!

I have been a Wells Fargo customer for over 7 years now.  I have several accounts with them (checking, savings, etc).  I have been fairly satisfied with them until today.  I recently received a letter from them telling me that the interest rate on my credit card was going from 4% to 20%!   This is appalling.  I have never been late on a payment in 7 years. My credit is great.

WF took bailout money from the government, see here.  The agent that I spoke told me emphatically that WF did not take bailout money from the government.   I guess when the taxpayer helps you out, you reward them by giving them default like interest rates to good customers who pay their bills on time.  This agent told me that there was nothing that could be done.  I had no choice but to close the account.  I had moved some other high interest debt on this card in an effort to pay it down because WF was giving me a great interest rate and they were fair.   Now, we have a lying agent who argued with me regarding WF taking bailout money and she did absolutely nothing to help.  All she could say was “I’m sorry”.  That is customer-no- service!

I will be looking for another bank, I have never been so disgusted in my life.  I used to recommend people to WF because they were a good and fair bank.  Now they have turned ugly.

Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard are right about Wells and other big banks…

If they had raised it from 4 to 8,9, or 10 % this would have been reasonable and I could have lived with it, but 20%! Unbelievable!  They are on-par with the payday lenders!

If anyone from Wells Fargo reads this, I challenge you to make this right…. I do not think that you will.

ETS – Is it worth it?

This week marks the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in New Orleans, LA.  My introduction to ETS was a few years ago during the Clark Pinnock/Open Theism controversy.  I decided to join as a student member later on but then let my membership lapse for two reasons:  1) I never really thought that I could participate in any meaningful way  2) The Francis Beckwith situation was discouraging to say the least.

I know of at least three professors from the seminary that I attend will be there this week.  I know at least one of the three is presenting a paper.

I was wondering if ETS would be a place where a student could be mentored or if it would be the equivalent of throwing him into a pack of hungry lions?  I ask the question because I know of three of our professors that are at ETS, but I am not aware (I may be wrong) of any of our students who either went with them or on their own to ETS.   At the same time, I have also been reading Dr. Russell Moore’s Twitter and Facebook updates and he has with him two doctoral students from SBTS that he is giving the grand tour of New Orleans, but I believe one of them is also presenting a paper at ETS.  I can imagine that there is a lot of informal teaching and mentoring that will take place during the time at ETS.  Which brings me back to my question and asks another one…. Why do Independent Baptists really fall short when it comes to a real mentoring type relationship?  We may be big on the teaching, dialogue and lecture, but fall woefully short when it comes to actually letting the mentee do something!  Are we afraid that the mentee will embarrass us or make us look bad?  Is the mentee not qualified enough?

I won’t even attempt to answer these last questions…. I have answers but I will wait to see what comments are posted in response to posing them in the first place.

Graduation is coming soon… then what???

Well as the title says… Graduation is coming soon.  For me it will be the culmination of a long academic career which has had two parts over a span of years (1988-1992) and then (2002-2010).  College was relatively easy, so to speak. I took anywhere between 12-16 credit hours and worked almost full-time along with ministry and other pursuits.  I was not an honors student, but I enjoyed college and what I learned.  I managed to put four years into four years and some summer school.

I took a ten year hiatus from academics and worked secularly and in vocational ministry from 1992-2002.  In 2002, I moved to MN to attend seminary and that journey started in 2002 and will culminate Lord willing in May 2010 with my graduation from seminary with my MDiv.  When I graduate in May of 2010, I will have earned my MDiv after eight long years of study.  What has taken me eight years to accomplish, some have done in three or four, but their circumstances were far different than mine.  During these last eight years, I got married (2004),  broke my left foot severely requiring surgery (2005), lost my mother and one infant son, Jonathan David (2006), saw the birth of my other son, Joseph (2006).  I was ready to quit after losing my son and mother, but I was glad for the encouragement that I received along the way from family, friends, and the local church who really ministered to us during these crisis points in our lives.  I am glad that others were there to help me not to quit and to finish the task that I have started.  Along the way, I have made some lifelong friends and have learned some things about myself !  I have had some tremendous opportunities of service in our local church.  I have also seen one pastor retire and a new one come on board during the last few years.

Well, what is next…. honestly I do not know, but the best part is that I am not worried about it.

I have completed and submitted my application for possible post-graduate work at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. I still have to take the GRE.  I am not sure what my chances are in getting accepted.  That is in the Lord’s hands.

I am wondering what the next steps will be for our family, whether it is continuing in education or going off into ministry somewhere.

Will I pastor, serve as an assistant somewhere, go into teaching at the college or seminary level?  I am not exactly sure.  All I know for now is that I have some classes to finish up, get my resume tuned up and ready to submit.  Right now, it hardly seems possible that I will be graduating in approximately seven months, but the time will fly by and before I know it the day will be here.

I have already begun to pray about what the Lord would have us to do as a family and where we will serve.  Yes, I have a short list of “preferred places”, etc.  I had one those in college and none of those ever materialized either.

I am truly happy living where I am (geographically) and I truly love serving in our local church.  But I have trained for full-time vocational ministry and I am not sure if it will be possible to remain here to fulfill God’s call on my life in that regard.   I really like MN except for winter, but I always manage to survive, even though I am not fond of snow or ice.

I am reminded of the passage in Job which tells us, “…stand still and consider the wondrous works of God”

 

Things to think about… mind download

I have been swamped with seminary classwork/homework lately along with my work schedule.  I am hoping to get back on a regular posting schedule soon.

In the meantime, here are some things to think about.  These are things that I have either read or heard.  Forgive me in advance for not including the source, some of these are things I wrote down in my moleskine.

If we truly believe in congregational polity, then why are matters brought to the congregation last?

The Christian life is not to be lived out in isolation, but rather in the community of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ – R. Albert Mohler, Jr. – 8/5/2009

Where has God placed you where you can be an influence for the gospel?

If local church membership is not central to your spiritual life, then you are slowly shriveling and becoming loveless without even knowing it – Thabiti Anyabwile

Do I really know what I believe in light of 1 Peter 3:15?

In referring to the early church in comparison today, “They really knew each other, so they knew who had needs.  Community is meaningful, not just casual conversation in the back of the church.”

Whatever I love preeminently will become my one true god – Dr. Dale Burke

Do people who excel at foreign languages do so because they have a great command of the English language?  I am asking this rhetorically of those who speak English as their native language

 

Again, nothing heavy here, just some things to think about…