Removing the Heat From Your Family Finances

This is not the first book that Lara and I will collaborate to write. Both of us collaborated to put together the other fourteen books that bear my name. in fact, Lara has always provided the fuse in my spark for each of the best sellers.
But this eleventh book is not like any other we have written in the last seven years for one reason; it is the first time a book is carrying our two names as co-authors.

The plot for this book started with Lara. It dated back to our courtship days. The first personal matter I opened up to her in our two years of courtship was the issue of finance. I was deep in debt and needed help fast. Lara was a final year Mathematics student at University of Ilorin. Silver or gold, she had none. What she had to give me was her counsel. She respectfully urged me to agree with her on three guidelines, which we will share later. I obliged. I paid off the debt the same year. We got married two years later. Over a decade has passed, our family is not owing anyone, either living or dead.
This is the first reason why we wrote this book. We are involved in the matter.

This book should have been written about ten months earlier, according to our plan. In fact, both of us went on a family retreat in February 2008 at Canaan Land, Otta, Nigeria. On our agenda for the retreat was the writing of this book "REMOVING THE HEAT FROM YOUR FAMILY FINANCE". But as God would have it - we received a divine marching order to write a different book, altogether. God instructed us to write on 100 WAYS TO INCREASE CHURCH FINANCE. The impact and enthusiasm that greeted the release of the books, six months later, showed we heard from God. The book and its earlier companion 100 WAYS TO INCREASE CHURCH ATTENDANCE, (Which sold out within 6 weeks of publication) became reference books in seminaries and Pastors' conferences. We received orders from all over Nigeria, Ghana and London. It was not until November 2008, that we received the direction to write the book you are holding in your hands. That is the second reason why we wrote the book - divine commission.

God called me (Albert) into the ministry in September 1994. He instructed, and gave me three mandates. He gave the mandate to empower the business people. Financial liberation is at the forefront of my mandate. Lara and I have carried this Financial Liberation mandate round the country. The impact has reverberated outside the shores of Nigeria. This mandate has taken us to University campuses as well as over 1,000 churches across the 120 denominations and corporate outfits.

I have been involved in Christian leadership since my teenage years on campus, dating back to 1982. But the most engaging times have been when we started pastoring in 1995. Family finance has been a recurring issue we have handled in many of our counseling sessions, particularly with young couples, in our pastorates. Pastors from other churches refer complex financial cases to us on topics like Debt Recovery, Investment, Starting Business, Writing A Will, Estate Planning, Joint Purse, Financial Planning etc.

We could not proffer solutions to all of the financial related family conflicts that came up, especially in our earlier years of ministry. This book is a partial response to some of the nagging questions on the lips of most couples. That is the fifth reason why we wrote this book.

It is true that money conflicts account for 58 percent of problems that couples face. However, from our empirical research and practical experiences as pastors, we have discovered that money problems do not stand-alone. It has associates, and kindred. Lack of communication is at the root of most money conflicts at home.