Hey there all you AWOP readers out there…Question for you. Would you ever intentionally let your car run out of gas? I know, you are thinking, “Duh, no way would I do that. What a silly question!” Letting your car run out of gas can cause issues; not the least being to call an Uber to truck your tuckus to the next gas station for a can of gas. You would also possibly do damage to your fuel pump and maybe even cause one of those scary lights on the dash board to appear. I own an AUDI and those lights stand for “Another Ugly Darn Invoice.” Or maybe, the AUDI owns me? Any who, this month’s blog attempts to present to you the importance of Cash Flow and Cash Reserve who are the king and queen of all finance (notice the little k on king..we reserve the big K for the King of Kings…Oh man my ADHD is strong today).

Just like no one wants their car to run out of gas, it’s the same concept with our finances. When that little orange light in our bank account starts flashing, the stress and emotion can create what I shall officially dub, “The snoop dog effect,” where the lyric “with my mind on my money and my money on my mind,” can overtake all other thoughts. Beyond Snoop’s 1993 hit song…what does the Bible say about cash flow and cash reserve? Below are some verses on just those topics:

“On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made.” 1 Corinthians 16:2.

Jesus even cares about you not having a collection agent today but when he returns.

“In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” Proverbs 21:20.

I wonder if Jesus is counting on anyone having some of that delicious survival food I hear on the radio all the time?

“John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11

If it’s the survival food, I might take a pass.

All kidding aside, our Lord wants us to be able to provide not only for ourselves, for others in need. We need to be good stewards so we can help fiscally as well as emotionally. If you are stressed all the time about money, where does that bind up emotional capacity for family, friends and others in need? The overall goal is the have three months and then six months of expenses in pure cash (or gold if you follow the survival food guys). How can I do that? Well, you need to daily watch what you spend and plan for it. Money needs to be categorized as CNN (Critical, Necessary and Nice). In this first month, only pay things that are critical bare bones stuff like the rent or mortgage, utilities, etc, etc. Necessary things like food and, oh yes, gas for that automobile. No Nice things this month. Once you have gone through the month you will have an idea of what you truly need to spend to live. We call that your monthly living expense and then the goal is to get at least one month of that in your bank account. More on this next month as well as a simple 5 step plan on how to order your spending.