5 Principles of Financial Wisdom:
- God owns it all. Psalm 24:1
- Set Long Term Goals. Proverbs 16:9
- Spend less than you earn. Proverbs 13:11
- Avoid the use of debt. Proverbs 22:7
- Avoid a consumptive lifestyle. Ecclesiastes 5:10
The first rule of money is….repeat after me “Money is Emotional.”
Our culture tells us that stress and money go hand in hand. Remember, there are two types of stress: Distress which is usually negative and a lack of funds and Eustress which is usually positive and an overabundance of funds. Most of the time we are dealing with the lack side of the stress equation so let’s tackle some logical steps (Spock would be happy) to tame these Captain James T. Kirk moments.
Know the state of your flock: “Know the state of your flocks and give attention to your herds. “Proverbs 27:23
Jason…I don’t have farm animals? Well, you have little green employees called dollar bills so give each of them a job description and make sure they stick to it. This is called a spending plan…notice the word PLAN. It’s like a good murder plot…premeditated. You need to have a daily date with your dollar bills to know where they are going or have went to. This way you can begin to understand your spending patterns and adjust accordingly. You get to see how much you spend on impulse items that eventually add up to STRESSFUL events due to more month at the end of the money. It’s always nice to have more money than month right? Right.
Build your cash reserve: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, savings it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made.” 1 Corinthians 16:2
Well, time to build that sheep/Goat/Hog Pen for your cash. Once you know where your dollar bills are going you can adjust and start savings to get to one month of expenses and eventually three to six months of expenses. My experience has shown me it takes families who have a fixed salary about two to three years to get their cash reserve accounts build up to the six-month level and THAT” S OKAY that it takes more time than most would like. The key issues are creating the emotional decision that DRIVES behavior to pay yourself first after your tithe!!!
Start on these two steps above to help reduce your monthly stress in relation to money. Having a plan and sticking to the plan helps with stress as well as having an accountability partner on the above two steps. Next Month be ready for: “Can you have TOO much money :Why family wants to come to YOUR house on Thanksgiving.”
Sincerely,
Jason