German_LDS

I know this topic is quite old but it still carries important thoughts. So I like to add my ¢2: I'm not familiar with the term "near beer". But I do know non-alcoholic beer. This is beer, that was traditionally brewed but the alcohol was either removed or the brewing was process stopped before alcohol could be produced. The product will contain traces of alcohol. In Germany where I live (yes, land of the beer, I know) non-alcoholic beer must not contain more than .5 % alcohol. This amount is the upper limit and most non-alcoholic beers will contain much less alcohol. The trace amount cannot be reduced to zero out of technical limitations. Many fruit juices and fermented milk products can easily contain more than .5 % alcohol naturally. Eat ripe fruits and your body will produce alcohol by itself up to a certain amount. I know LDS members who like to drink non-alcoholic beer from time to time. For them its a beverage just like soda. They drink it because they like the refreshing taste and don't have to worry about consuming alcohol. They don't drink because they would like to impress non-LDS friends or something like that. You certainly cannot impress anybody by drinking beer without alcohol. Not were I live at least.

Danke! :)

As I mentioned before I live in a large city (1 million people living here including the suburbs). The public transport system is very good but it often takes you a lot of time to get from A to B. Yes, you're absolutely right, I can survive without a car. I wouldn't starve, I wouldn't die. So of course it's not a question that will define life or death. But that's true for many things. You will survive without a home. Homeless people survive too, so would I. So would it be right to get a mortgage? I'm not judging here. I'm not telling anybody that the decision I made to take out a small loan to get a used car was the absolutely right thing to do and everybody should do the same. No, certainly not. As I wrote I could have made it without that loan but had to use all of my emergency money. So yes, I weighted things, what would be better, what be worse... I hope and pray I did the right thing in my situation. If not, I hope and pray our Father will forgive me and help me through. I will do everything possible to pay that loan back early. In about a week I will get a check about a few thousand bucks from my second job and I will use all of that money (minus tithing of course) to make an extra payment to the loan. That will reduce the amount owned to the bank by about one third. So all things considered I hope I do the right thing. But anyway, thank you for your thoughts and input. I appreciate it.

Hi everybody, first of all: Thank you so much for all of your valuable input!!!! I have thought and prayed about this issue and have finally made a decision. Today I bought a used 2006 Volkswagen Rabbit Mk5 (also known as Golf V). It has been driven around 60,000 miles. But that's not much for a good car. My new car is a compact car and not a sedan type car like my old Mazda 6 used to be. After doing all the finances I would have been able to afford it using all of my savings. But that would have left me with no emergency fund money left. So it was not an easy decision for me to make. But I decided to use a bank loan. The car will cost me about $11,100 - which is a good price considering the market price of similar cars (cars in Germany tend to be at least twice as expensive as cars in the U.S.). I regularly get some extra money from my second job and will be able to make additional payments to that loan which will reduce the amount of money I owe to the bank quickly. I can afford the monthly payments and will also be able to make additional payments and I will still keep my emergency funds. So all things considered I think this will be the best way for me to go. I hope it is at least. Good thing is interest rates for car loans are extremely low right now (below 5 % annually). I found a good transmission mechanic but he is still trying to find out whether or not he will be able to help with the Mazda transmission. Even if he will be able to help it's going to cost me at least $4,000-$4,500 (remember: I live in Germany, things are priced differently here). Granted $4k are still considerably less than $11,000. But chances are that the engine of my Mazda still has some more damage from the overheating - at least it looks like it has - which is probably going to cost me again some 4 or 5 grands. With the used Volkswagen I bought today I'll get a one year guarantee that can be extended to even two years. It will cover all major repairs. So that should protect me from expensive repairs for the next two years. I would have been able to get a much higher loan. But that's certainly not what I wanted. I went for a smaller car although I liked my Mazda 6 so much. And a Volkswagen Rabbit is smaller than a Mazda 6 - that's for sure. I hope for the Volkswagen to last longer. I still believe in the good quality of German made cars. Well, we'll see hot that will work out. :) So I don't feel really good about this car loan. I will do everything I can to pay it off ASAP. I'm confident that I'll be able to pay it off much faster than planned. I'm a convert. And I still remember how a few years ago I never would have thought about taking out a loan. It was the usual thing to to do if I hadn't had the money I wanted at hand. I was always able to pay back all loans without problems and much faster than planned. But that is not the important point. Part of me is glad that this time I spent so much time in thinking everything through and especially that I still feel that taking out a loan is the least desirable option. BTW: There was an argument about prices of used cars in Germany. Used cars are of course less expensive than new cars (except for historic cars that you can't by new anymore). And you can sell your used car in Germany without any hassle. If the buyer wants to drive that car, he needs to get a license plate of course. And he will only get one if the car passes a safety test. This safety test is something every car in Germany hast to go through every other year. My old Mazda passed that safety test just in January of this year. If I sell the Mazda next week the buyer won't need to have it tested again. The next test - even if I sell it next week - is due 2015. Obviously my Mazda won't go far anymore. In this case there are a lot of people who do some export business and will buy your old junk car for a few hundred bucks and sell it to African countries. In those countries even your junk car is still of some use. In my case my Volkswagen dealer showed some interest in buying the Mazda from me. I don't expect him to pay me more than a few hundred bucks anyway. But that's still better than nothing. There are some regulations if someone sells cars commercially - like any car dealer does. In this case the seller have to offer a one year guarantee by federal law. This is exactly what the Volkswagen dealer does for the Rabbit I bought. Since that guarantee is somewhat limited by law, most dealers will offer you an extended or care-free guarantee for about a hundred bucks. But basically it's not really any problem to sell your used car, especially not if you sell it as a private person and not as a dealer. Privately sold cars are not required to come with a guarantee - it's "sold as seen". So thanks again everybody for your input!

Hi everybody, as usual I would like to ask you for your advice on something. My car broke down and it looks like I will need to get a new one. Maybe it can be repaired (transmission is gone) but chances are it's gone for good. I don't have the money to by a new used car. If I had to buy one I would need to ask my bank for a small loan. We're advised to get out of debt whenever possible. There are a few exceptions like home and student loans. Just recently our bishop read a letter from the First Presidency about business scams and it was mentioned again to remain (consumer) debt free whenever possible. I'm living in a big city with a good public transport system. I don't need a car in order to get to work. I can ride the sub. However it's very difficult to do my weekly groceries without having a car. The next temple is two and a half hour drive away. Without a car I will have to ask ward members for a ride every time I want to go to the Lord's House. In short: I would survive without a car but things would get very complicated. So what would you do in such a situation or what have you done in the past in a similar situation? Would it be wrong or against the recommendation of prophets and apostles to get a loan in order to buy a new used car? I know I will have to decide for myself. But I value your input because it often let me see things from a different perspective.

Yes, there is some staff present at the gym. Thank you for your thoughts. I think what you mentioned is very true and very relevant for my own decision (to not go on Sundays).

Thank you so much for all your opinions about this subject. They will definitely help me making my own decision. Being responsible for keeping the gym open on a Sunday and forcing other people to work there on a Sabbath is certainly the strongest argument against going there. Thanks again for your thoughts! If anybody else wants to share something - don't hesitate.

Hi there, I'm looking for some answers about how other church members spend the Sabbath day when it comes to personal activity, namely taking care of the temple that is your body. I never went to the gym on a Sunday, at least not since I have been baptized a few years ago. I'm familiar with the general recommendations of the scriptures and the prophets about keeping the Lord's Day. However I'm asking myself whether or not it would be an appropriate activity to go to the gym on a Sunday (after church of course). Surely it would not be spiritually uplifting but rather physically uplifting. However taking good care of our body is a command from God. We cleanse our bodies on a Sunday, we eat and drink, prepare meals and so on - all things that are aimed to sustain and maintain our body and health. Surely we shouldn't' work on a Sunday. We shouldn't focus too much on worldly things on a Sunday but rather reflect on godly things. So do you think it would be inappropriate to go to the gym to work out? Of course i know that is ultimately something that I will have to decide for myself and it is something between my Heavenly Father and me. But I appreciate your thoughts about this issue.

Thanks so far to all of you for your opinions and thoughts. All of you seem to share - more or less of course - my opinion about this issue. I don't work for the church or any LDS organization. The authors of the material that I translate don't believe in LDS doctrines. But, as I mentioned before, the material is very spiritual in nature and is designed to focus the minds and hearts of the readers on our Heavenly Father, His scriptures and commandments. I sincerely think the material I translate is a good Sunday read and turns the hearts of the reader to God. And of course I hope that such hearts will be more open and receiving when some day they hear about the true gospel from some missionaries. Thank you for your input. I'm thinking about speaking to my Elders Quorum President about this issue as well.

Hi there, since this is the advice board I ask for your advice about a specific issue. I translate books and other material for a living. I usually work on texts and manuscripts regarding scripture, christian life and other edifying spiritual topics. Though these materials are not from an author who is a member of our church and also do not reflect our church doctrines, at least not specifically, they are encouraging and God-centered. They help people to connect with Heavenly Father and encourage them to read the scriptures. In the past I never really thought about it when working on these thing on a Sabbath day. I still feel since this work is of a spiritual nature (though i get payed for it) it can appropriately be done on a Sabbath day. What's your opinion about it? On a Sabbath day we should especially be focused on the Lord. There is time for our family, to do uplifting, cheerful and spiritual things. Doing the work I do - do you think that is something that falls under these categories? I do think so but I'd like to hear your opinions about it. Thanks.

Very good answer. Thank you!

Yeah. that's FIFO But what you do in this case is to tithe on losses. The amount of gold you have won't increase or decrease in value very much. But what decrease is the value of the Dollar. You get more dollars for the same amount of gold because the dollars has lost some value. The buying power is supposedly the same (measured in gold). You just need more of dollar bills to pay for the same goods and services. So what you do - and you are totally free to do it - is to tithe n losses. But we are to tithe our increase. Increase is what you now have more compared to what you had before. You bow have more dollar bills but they will buy about the same. Is this increase?

Sure, you know the price of the sold stocks, bonds and anything. You can calculate your gains. If you have many stocks or whatever else in your portfolio which have been bought at different times for different prices and now sell only a few percent of them, you won't be able to tell the gains because you don't know the initial price back when you bought it. Let's make an example. You buy stocks from one company repeatedly for a year: Jan 10 stocks at $5 Feb 117 stocks at $4.87 Mar 15 stocks at $5.09 Apr 83 stocks at $4.21 May 10 stocks at $4.58 Jun 15 stocks at $4.65 Jul 125 stocks at $5.01 Aug 80 stocks at $5.02 Sep 110 stocks at $5.10 Oct 10 stocks at $5.14 Nov 5 stocks at $5.31 Dec 84 stocks at $5.08 In February next year you sell 199 stocks at $5.51. What is your gain? And this tiny example is relatively easy. Just imagine having a real portfolio with a lot of buying and selling going on.

OK, let me be more clearly: If you buy anything (it doesn't matter what it is) on a regular basis, it becomes very difficult to actually know, what your gains are. Let assume you buy something on a monthly basis and invest $100. Every month the price of that good varies. So every month you'll get more or less of that good. You continue do boy that something every month for 40 years. After 40 years you begin to sell small quantities of your investment. How could you possibly calculate what your gain is? You sell parts of your investment that you once bought at different times for different prices. So what is you gain?

First of all: Thank you all for your replies. Most of you say to follow one's conscious when making the decision on how to tithe. That's of course absolutely right. So please don't get me wrong. I don't want anybody to tell me how to tithe in such a situation. I just want your advice and your opinion. Of course everybody will have to decide for his or her own about such a matter. That's the reasons why I'd like to know, what you would do. Very good idea. But let me tell you, why this could be very difficult here in Germany. In Germany any gain from a gold investment is tax free after one year. So if you keep your gold or any other precious metal (or almost all other physical goods) for more than one year after you bought it, the increase in its value compared to the base currency (i.e. Euro in Germany) is tax free. That's the reason why its often not easy to find out what somebody gained from selling some of his gold. Usually your bank will keep track when you buy and sell stock or bonds. They'll calculate your gains and losses based on the (in Germany) FIFO method - first in first out. If buy and store gold at any kind of financial institution nobody keeps track because it's not necessary for gold held longer than one year. If you buy and/or sell regularly it's almost impossible to keep track for yourself. At least I'm not aware of any feasible way to do it. If you have advice for me about that please tell me. So actually I would prefer to tithe on the gains of the investment compared to the base currency. But I'm not really sure how to do it an a not to difficult way.