The number of unmarried couples living together rose 13 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This year, there are 7.5 million opposite-sex unmarried couples living together – up from 6.7 million in 2009, reported the bureau on Thursday. The year before had witnessed a two percent drop after a five percent rise in co-habiting couples between 2007 and 2008.

Demographers say a poor job market is likely a factor in the rise of co-habiting couples in 2010.

According to 2010 data, unmarried couples who recently began living together usually have one partner unemployed. Only 49 percent of cohabiting couples this year are ones where both partners are employed. This figure is down from 59 percent in 2008 and 52 percent in 2009.

As I try to share with people in the comments section, if you will trust God and put Christ first in your situation, I believe God will always open up another option for you. If you or your boyfriend/girlfriend are unemployed: check with family, check with friends, check with your local church, and see what living arrangements you can find. But please don’t make the mistake of moving in together before marriage. You can read more about why in the articles below.

Living Together Before Marriage Series:
    ● Statistics on Living Together Before Marriage
    ● Scriptures on Living Together Before Marriage
    ● Living Together Without Sex
    ● What If We Already Lived Together Before Marriage?

At midnight on May 15, an estimated one-fifth to one-quarter of some 1.6 million charities, trade associations and membership groups will lose their tax exemptions, thanks to a provision buried in a 2006 federal bill aimed at pension reform.

“It’s going to be an unholy mess once these organizations realize what’s happened to them,” said Diana Aviv, president of the Independent Sector, a nonprofit trade group.

The federal legislation passed in 2006 required all nonprofits to file tax forms the following year. Previously, only organizations with revenues of $25,000 or more — or the vast majority of nonprofit groups — had to file.

The new law, embedded in the 393 pages of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, also directed the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax exemptions of groups that failed to file for three consecutive years. Three years have passed, and thus the deadline looms.

Wow. This sounds huge. Does anyone know how this affects churches?

Update (4/28/2010): I just got an email from a friend (who is a CPA and church treasurer) informing me that this does not apply to churches. He referred me to the Instructions for Form 990 which states the following:

For annual tax periods beginning after 2006, the law requires most tax-exempt organizations, other than churches, to file an annual Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-PF with the IRS, or to submit a Form 990-N e-Postcard to the IRS. If an organization fails to file an annual return or notice as required for 3 consecutive years, it will automatically lose its tax-exempt status. (Instructions for Form 990, page 1; under the section What’s New: New Penalty Provisions for Nonfiling)

That’s good news. I’m glad to know this won’t be catching any churches by surprise. Now, hopefully the other nonprofits can catch up on time.

I checked my status yesterday, and the site told me that my refund would be direct deposited into my bank account today. I just checked my bank account, and sure enough, the full amount is there. Now I can pay my state taxes and my estimated quarterly taxes for January through March. Yay.

HT: Get Rich Slowly

As pastor I make it a point not to know who gives what at church, but I can still testify to the generosity of many people with lower incomes that I have known over the years. Why do you think the poor tend to be more generous with their giving?

Scripture: As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” (Luke 21:1-4)

HT: Christian Personal Finance

“I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal,” he said. “When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients.”

But finding an exit “proved difficult, and ultimately impossible,” he continued, stumbling slightly in his prepared remarks. “As the years went by I realized this day, and my arrest, would inevitably come.” (Bernie Madoff, pleading guilty to a Ponzi scheme involving billions of dollars)

This quote is a sad reminder of how yielding to sin seems like a small thing in the beginning but eventually can take over and ruin a life. It also brings to mind Proverbs 21:6: “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare,” and 1 Timothy 6:9: “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Those are some hard verses to come to terms with. My prayer is that Madoff would also come to experience the truth of these precious verses from the Psalms:

“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ — and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:1-5)

HT: Lifehacker

• If you stack up $1,000 bills, $1 trillion would need a pile that is 80 miles high.
• $ 1 trillion is more than the combined gross revenues of Wal Mart, Exxon, General Motors and Ford Motors.

With a trillion dollars:

• We could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with 23.5-karat gold leaf.
• We could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses
• We could hire 1.9 million additional teachers

Amanda Shaw notes the cost of other large items in our past:

* The Marshall Plan cost $12.7 billion ($115.3 billion, adjusted for inflation)
* The space race cost $36.4 billion ($237 billion with inflation)
* The Korean War cost $54 billion ($454 billion with inflation)
* The New Deal cost $32 billion (estimated; $500 billion with inflation)
* The invasion of Iraq cost $551 billion ($597 billion with inflation)
* The Vietnam War cost $111 billion ($698 billion with inflation)

So, the total cost of the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and the New Deal—using all figures adjusted for inflation—is less than that of the current economic stimulus package. That’s how much $1.1 trillion is.

And Mary Rose Ryback points out that $1 trillion is more than $1 million spent every day since Christ’s birth.

So, yes I know we are in a time of economic trouble, but we should think very carefully about whether and how we are going to spend a trillion dollars that we don’t even have. What do you think?

HT: In Light of the Gospel

Related post: Bailing Out the Bailout

What a Great Day This Is! This morning, as I was driving to work, I heard that the market had gone down another 500 points. It has now dropped from a high of over 14,000 to 9,000. This is not good news. It has messed with my retirement plan and made my net worth go from pride to hide. It has turned easy street into a mean street. The bottom line is that I do not have nearly as much money or assets as I had just a short while ago. Let me share with you what I also discovered this morning:

1. I was breathing and, in general, feeling pretty healthy.
2. My wife gave me a kiss and told me she loved me.
3. I was driving to WORK! I have a job.
4. All of my children have jobs and are safe and well.
5. My two grandchildren still light up my life and give wonderful hugs and sugars.
6. I am a citizen of the greatest nation on the face of the earth and I will get to vote soon on how to make it better.
7. A good friend called and wants to go out to dinner and a show. (I have a friend.)
8. I am still a United Methodist minister.
9. My home is safe, warm, secure and nearly paid for.
10. I got an e-mail that told me my new book was changing their church for the better (someone is reading it).
11. I ate breakfast and lunch and will have dinner later. (Many won’t get three meals today.)
12. I am actually sitting down in a building I own, at a desk I bought, typing on a $2,000 machine I can barely use.
13. I have a big huge bottle of wonderful fresh clean water right down the hall or I could choose to drink right from the tap all I can hold.
14. I am wearing clean clothes today, and tomorrow I will wear something different. In fact, I could wear something different every day this month if I wanted to.
15. I HAVE A SAVIOR WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE ME.

It is a shame that it took losing so much money for me to realize how rich I really am! This week may be one of the best weeks of my life.

Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

There seems to be a fairly wide spectrum in both reported income and charitable giving.

Related posts:

• Click here for Obama’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Hillary Clinton’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Britney Spears’ Budget.
• Click here for more posts on politics.

    (Click on the image for a larger picture. Click a second time to zoom in.)

The Yale economist Robert J. Shiller created an index of American housing prices going back to 1890. It is based on sale prices of standard existing houses, not new construction, to track the value of housing as an investment over time. It presents housing values in consistent terms over 116 years, factoring out the effects of inflation.

Or, if you prefer, you can view the same chart plotted on a roller coaster graph below. (HT: Between Two Worlds)

(Video length: 3:41)