The blog and a book

The Blog

Goingtoseminary.com will be offline tomorrow afternoon as we make the final push for v2.0. For all of you who keep up with the site through feed readers, be sure to give us a real visit next week to see the new digs.

A Book

I read a great post the other day by Michael Foster titled “Much, Not Many.” For all those who aren’t taking classes over the summer, this is some profound advice.

Brothers, only other fools are impressed by your book collection. Do yourself some good and listen to C.H. Spurgeon:
Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until… read the rest

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Written by
Ryan Burns
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6 comments
  • It’s great to finally know who you are! I love your site and look forward to learning from you and your new contributors in v2.0.

    My wife and I are in motion to possibly begin seminary in the Fall. I was wondering if you or your contributors could share a specific, real, working budget. I know that could be personal but I am just looking to see what it looks like for some of you (yeah I know, where’s my faith!).

    I live in Southern California and housing seems to be the biggie for us.

    Anyway, thanks for the great site! Keep up the good work.

    Jose J.

  • Jose,

    The first thing I would say is to look at your budget now and figure out where (if necessary) you could make cuts. As for housing, my wife and I rent an apartment simply because it seems as though our time in seminary has been (and will continue to be) very dynamic.

    If you want, I could email you a copy of our budget from my computer just to show you how we do it. Keep in mind that everyone will have a different focus on what is important and how much they spend where.

    My email address is tdelaney017@yahoo.com

    God bless brother.

    Terry Delaneys last blog post..Visiting on the Lord’s Day

  • I’m not sure seeing someone else’s budget would help “too” much. The reason is that everyone is different and has different priorities. On top of that, geography plays a big role, as you mentioned.

    So, for example, if you saw my budget you’d see a LOT of money going into groceries. Well, that is because my wife is a health nut and we have to buy all kinds of crazy food. So, seeing my budget wouldn’t help you too much. Budgets are a way for you to match your money with your priorities.

    My advice is to take your past several month’s expenses and see where your money currently goes. I’ve been tracking our money for 3 years, and going to seminary, honestly, didn’t change our budget at all. The older you get, the more set in your ways you become. Changing is harder. Now, there are a few areas that we have trimmed down, but not a lot. So, if you’re used to living at a $40K level, don’t expect to be able to cut that down to $20K. You have to be realistic. I’ve been over our budget time and time again and I think, at best, I can shave $500 +/- off our budget. So, just be realistic.

    Oh, and have faith. On paper, this shouldn’t be working for us… but, so far it is…

  • Thank you guys for your valuable input.

    Terry, I agree that renting an apartment is wise given that temporary nature of seminary. I appreciate your willingness to share a bit of your personal life to help a brother. I may e-mail you to get a look at how you guys do it. However, Ryan made some great points and I fear I may have some unrealistic expectations. By the way, I appreciate reading what God is doing in your life through your diary, again, thanks for being an open vessel to be used by the Master.

    Ryan, thanks for the practical examples. I need to keep praying to see if the time is right for me to venture out to seminary.

    God bless you guys,
    Jose

Written by Ryan Burns
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