s you can. In your case, I’d recommend leaning toward the six month side. Second, you guys need to have no life for the next year or two, and get very serious about paying off as much debt as possible after you get your emergency fund in place. I’m talking about following a very strict budget, and living on rice and beans. Bottom line? The less debt you have, the better off you’ll be. Wouldn’t you love to be debt-free and have six months of expenses in the bank before they perform this operation? You can do it, if it becomes important enough to make it priority one! -Dave   Dear Dave, I attend a small church with about 100 members. There is a $97,000 mortgage at 8.75% on the building, and the note was signed only by the pastor. In the event of default, are the members of the congregation liable? -Charlene Dear Charlene, Unless you signed the note, you are not liable. If the pastor signed the note personally, or on behalf of the congregation, it would actually depend on the wording in the note as to who is liable in case of default. But this whole situation is kind of silly, and I’ll tell you why. If everyone in the congregation gave an extra $83 a month in their tithe – that’s only about $20 more every Sunday – you could have this mortgage knocked out in a year! There’s absolutely no reason for your church to be in debt 12 months from now. This is a prime example of what happens when a church adopts the same mentality as the rest of the world. The Bible itself warns us that the borrower is slave to the lender! -Dave Dear Dave, I’ve always been intrigued by the restaurant business and wanted to open one of my own. Recently, the opportunity presented itself to open a McDonald’s franchise. I really want to do this, but it would take years for me to save up the money. Is it okay to borrow money to start a business? Jim Dear Jim, It will take