- You will live below your means. That means every month you will have more money than what you need at the end of the month. Sadly, people who do not have a budget generally do the opposite and run out of money while they still have stuff they need to purchase.
- It will help you to save up for things that you want to purchase if a proper budget is set up.
- It will help ensure a comfortable retirement. That may be WAY down the road for of you or right around the corner, but it is never too late (or too early) to start. The cost of waiting even a few years has a massive impact on how much money you will have down the road.
- With a properly established budget you will have more money to give away! You can make an impact on those in need NOW.
My wife and I helped my kids set up a budget. It’s amazing how much money they already have saved up, even being young. It’s important that you reward yourself. Don’t stash away everything, as you need to enjoy life. So let’s look at a proper budget. These are not my ideas. I have learned from people wiser than myself and I’ve taken what I think are the best practices and rolled them into what works for my family. You don’t have to be a Ph.D. like me for this to make sense as it’s simple. You just need to have the determination to start it and stick to it. It’s easy to get information overload as we are constantly being barraged with stuff. The attack on our senses is relentless! So much so that it seems like our mind needs extra stimuli for stuff to stick. It seems like we can’t read or listen anymore—it’s not enough. We need someone reading to us with visual reinforcements amplifying the points so we know what’s important. And then, even that can get boring so if you are a good presenter you will have some music, videos or a group exercise to break things up a little bit and try to apply what we just heard and saw to a real life situation.
Formula for Living Free
The recipe for failure
The recipe for success
- SAVE The second 10% is SAVE. This is for stuff you want to purchase in the near to immediate future.
- INVEST The last 10% is INVEST. This is something you will never really touch until retirement.
- GIVE, LIVE, SAVE, INVEST So there you have it. 70 -10-10-10.
By doing this you are living below your means on 70% of what you make. If you can’t live on 70%, then downsize, sell some stuff to get out of debt or whatever. But, we should all be able to live on 70%. If your expenses don’t add up to 70%, then invest the difference. MAN’S SYSTEM IS BROKEN, GOD’S IS NOT It has taken 244 years to accumulate over $23 trillion in debt. With very little demand for the U.S. dollar by foreigners, the Federal Reserve is forced into printing without discretion to fund our lifestyle. Therefore, prepare for at least a $20 trillion debt by the end of 2016. How can we tell that things are spinning out of control and we are playing with borrowed time before interest rates SOAR again? In 2008 our national debt was $10 Trillion. It took America from 1776-2008 to accumulate a national debt of $10 Trillion. But, in just eight years we almost DOUBLED what took 232 years prior to accumulate. Unbelievable. Debt is spiraling out of control. Seventy-three percent of our Federal tax revenue (73%!!!!) goes towards social security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, and other social entitlements.
LESSONS FROM HISTORY
Consider the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. The Pharaoh of the time had a dream. He saw in his dream seven fat cows and seven lean cows. He called Joseph in to interpret the dream and God gave Joseph the interpretation. The meaning was this: the seven fat cows meant that they were going to have seven years of plenty, and during that time they needed to store up because there were seven lean years coming, seven years of famine. And the people that heeded that warning actually survived and prospered, just like today the people that heeding the call and listening to God’s words of wisdom, they are not just going to survive but they’re going to thrive. But what happens to the people that don’t listen to God’s warning? What happens to those that don’t follow His protection and the provision that He has for them? Back in Joseph’s day, for those people that didn’t listen, first they had to give the government their money. Then they gave their livestock. Then they gave their land. Then they gave them their bodies as servants in exchange for food. How is it any different now? They’re taking, taking, taking. The government has to take higher taxes because they’re trying to fund all the conspicuous consumption lifestyles that we have in this country. These patterns in the Bible are here for us to learn from, so we don’t make the same mistakes. But just like the Israelites back in the day, we continue to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. We’re really no different.
GOD WANTS US TO PROSPER AND BE SUCCESSFUL
God wants us to be prosperous and successful, and to do that He gives us a blueprint. It’s in His Word. If we meditate on His Word day and night then we will have good success, this is what Joshua 1:8 says. And what does His Word say? In Malachi 3:10 for example, if we tithe (10% of our income for example) then He will open up the floodgates of Heaven so much that we will not have room enough to contain it. So when we give to the church, the church will be able to do what it’s supposed to do. Right now the church can’t do what they need to do because recent surveys have shown that only 3% of evangelicals actually tithe. This is sick and this is sad. No wonder we can’t take care of widows and orphans and the government has to. If we as believers would actually tithe, the church could do what it is supposed to do and what they are called to do and the government wouldn’t have to do it. Then taxes could come down. But the other benefit of this is that when we give, the blessings of Heaven are poured out so much that we won’t even have room enough to contain it, we’ll be more and more successful. So, God’s Word is there for us to just grab on to and meditate on and act like a magnet that is just stuck to us and we think about it day and night. And when we follow His laws (their not just suggestions) then we will live a successful life. When we do that we won’t have need for all these entitlements because the church can be the church. We need to step up to plate. We need to do what we are supposed to do and love our neighbors. Christianity is all about love and all about reaching out. It’s all about having your arrows pointing outward instead of pointing inward. Stop focusing on yourself. And wow, when we start focusing on everybody else, the world is going to change. We will not have need for a huge government, because the church is able to be the church and do what they’re supposed to do, to take care of the needy.
WE CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO GIVE
God created us to be givers. WE CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO GIVE! Instill a lifestyle of giving into your kids. Talk about money. Set up a budget, live below your means. Put others’ needs above your own and with humility freely give, passionately serve, and strive for excellence in everything. Instill this in your kids. Living like that will impact not only our lives, our retirement, but future generations.
