In the spirit of transparency, I decided to publish our PNG budget. After all, if you invest in a company you have a right to see their financials. What’s the difference with investing in a missionary? Of course, this is an initial budget based on reporting from missionaries currently serving in Papua New Guinea. We’re expecting our expectations to not be accurate. This is the best we can figure and prices aren’t likely to drop anytime soon. This is the reality of mission work.
Note 1: Samaritan Aviation takes a 7.5% fee of our support which is quite reasonable, especially considering that Samaritan pays for the 3% credit card fees when they process our support. That comes out to a 4.5% administration fee – quite reasonable!
Note 2: We were told to estimate our grocery bill to be 50% higher in PNG. We will be based in the lowlands of PNG where apparently it is hard to grow fresh produce, compared to the highlands. A lot of goods come from Australia and are higher priced. So we’re rolling with that recommendation. Usually we budget about $600 a month for groceries. We’re expecting to pay about $900 a month in PNG. Once we start living there we’ll know better how that actually shakes out.
Note 3: When you get a paycheck, Social Security takes about 7.5% of it. What you might not be aware of is that your employer pays the other half (another 7.5%). We are going to have to pay for the full 15% ourselves so this is our biggest “tax” expense. Since we are living outside of the states for the majority of each year, our income taxes are very low or non-existent.
Note 4: It is a bit strange to raise money just so you can give it away but I do believe God’s calling us to be as generous with others as we expect people to be with us. This is why we are tithing. So God can teach us every month to hold our money loosely. We also would like to invest in God’s work happening in other places around the world.
Here’s how we’re expecting to use our $9,000 per month goal…