A portion of the following was excerpted from The Abundance Principle: Five Keys to Extraordinary Living, (www.TheAbundancePrinciple.com). Please forward or distribute this encouraging message freely to anyone you believe would benefit from it. The question for today revolves around money. Do you manage your money? Or, does your money manage you? So often, people plan their lives around their financial condition, rather than planning their financial condition around their lives. Some people make no plans at all. In the last issue, we discussed planning our lives as we seek to find our God-given purpose for living. In this issue, well talk about planning our finances. Personal financial management is not a difficult process, but it does require a plan and the discipline to follow that plan. Unfortunately, consumer debt and the promise of a higher standard of living often lure us away from the basic financial planning required to live an abundant life. The great football coach Vince Lombardi would, on occasion hold up a football before his players and say, Gentlemen, this is a football. Coach Lombardi knew the importance of reviewing the basics on a regular basis and he regularly taught his players the fundamentals required for success in football. The basic fundamentals of football are often referred to as blocking and tackling. Using that metaphor in the financial arena, the blocking and tackling of money revolves around earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and investing. If we wish to live extraordinary lives we must recognize that debt is a tool to be used intelligently. We must learn that an extraordinary life is a financially disciplined life one in which conscious decision-making occurs with even the most trivial spending. We must fully comprehend that borrowing to purchase expendable items or rapidly depreciating assets using credit cards or bank loans is flirting with a trip to the poorhouse. That brings us to the fourth Key to Extraordinary Living: No Matter How Much You Earn, Spend Less We recognize that the manner in which this key is stated may lead you to believe that mastering your money is only about the way you manage your spending habits. That is not true. In fact, youll notice that the key itself speaks very directly to at least two components of money management earning and spending money. In addition, this Key speaks more indirectly to the other component of money mastery what you do with the money you do not spend. Earning Money Earning or having a lot of money is neither a sin, nor is it necessarily counter to Gods intention for our lives. Unfortunately, many well-meaning people cultivate an expectation that scarcity and sacrifice are required if we are to be Godly people. However, the Bible has numerous stories of Godly people having tremendous wealth. Perhaps youve heard the story of the Good Samaritan. In the story, the Samaritan didnt simply help the injured traveler up and send him on his way. He took care of him both medically and financially. He paid for lodging and he paid for all of the costs associated with his medical care. He was able to do this because he had the financial means to do so. The Good Samaritan had obviously learned how to master his money. When Jesus described the actions of this man, He told us to Go and do likewise. Unfortunately, the urge to spend money today is at an all-time high. We are constantly bombarded by outside pressures from print ads in newspapers and magazines to broadcast ads from our radios, televisions, and computer screens to buy more and more things. In fact, you may have heard the phrase, We cant save any money because all of our friends keep buying things we dont need. That quip may seem humorous on the surface, but it rings so true for many people and its effects can be devastating. If were going to live extraordinary lives, we must learn to get a handle on our spending. A few very simple practices can easily and automatically help in that regard. 1.) For the next 30 days, track every penny you spend. Take ten to fifteen seconds after each and every purchase and record that purchase by either asking for a receipt, or by recording it on a small note pad. Regardless of the method you choose, record all your expenses and identify the reason for the expenditure (i.e. food, auto fuel, clothing, etc.) You may develop your own set of categories or manner of organizing these expenses. By following through on this exercise, you will begin to develop an awareness of your current spending habits. An optional step to expand this process and to make it much easier is to use a basic money management software package to maintain your checkbook and to record all expenses. These packages usually have a Cash Flow function that allows you to look at the flow of money in and the flow of money out on a regular basis (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, etc.). We recommend a monthly review of the cash flow report with everyone who makes purchasing decisions in your household, making absolutely certain that actions are taken to bring excessive spending in certain categories under control. 2.) Invoke a cooling off period prior to making impulse purchases of $100 or more. The cooling off period in the Standridge household is a minimum of 24 hours. If we find something that we impulsively wish to purchase and it costs more than $100, well invoke the 24 Hour Rule in order to determine if its really something we want or need. If the desire to purchase is as strong after the full-day wait, then well consider purchasing it. Its not a foregone conclusion well buy it at that point, but we will more deeply consider the merits of doing so. The amount is not as critical as the process. Depending on your level of income, $100 may be way too much. You might want to reduce it to $50 or even $25. Thats okay. However, we would suggest you NOT increase that amount beyond $100. That figure is a good psychological marker regardless of your income level. This concept of the cooling off period has kept us from making a number of rather frivolous purchases in the past. 3.) A Third, more invasive strategy for effectively managing your spending requires that you establish six major categories of expenditures and allocate money to these categories each pay-day. This is best executed by establishing separate bank accounts and moving the money automatically before it ever reaches our hands. However, with the right level of tenacity and discipline, it may also be carried out using a cash & envelope system. While most people only give and save from whats left over after everything else has been paid, this strategy advocates paying God and yourself first. The idea is to proactively manage a spending plan each month in order to exercise more discipline and financial control. There are a number of categories that can be used to effectively manage spending; however, the following categories and allocations are recommended: 10% - Giving Account (Used for paying tithes and other charitable giving.) 10% - Net Worth Account (Used to eliminate consumer debt first and then purchase securities and other passive income-producing assets such as stocks, mutual funds, real estate, etc.) 10% - Short-term Savings Account (This is the savings account for emergencies. It should contain a minimum of 3-6 months worth of expenses to rely on during unplanned drops in income.) 10% - Education Account (For your personal education as well as the education of your children, if you have or plan to have children). 10% - Entertainment Account (Used for recreation, vacations, and etc.) 50% - Necessities Account (This is for all required living expenses.) It may be difficult or even impossible to begin with these specific allocation percentages, but this should be the desired state. In order to effectively execute this strategy each category should be established and a regular amount of money must be placed in the account every pay-day, regardless of the amount. Rather than immediately starting at the ideal state, it may be that the different amounts look more like this: 10% - Giving Account 7% - Net Worth Account 5% - Short-term Savings Account 3% - Education Account 5% - Entertainment Account 70% - Necessities Account Thats perfectly okay. Establishing the process and diligently placing funds in each account systematically every single pay-day is most important much more important, quite frankly, than the actual proportion allocated to each account. Slowly, as expenses are reduced relative to income, adjustments can be made to your distribution of funds in order to move toward the desired allocations. The important thing is to start the process and to develop a discipline of funding these accounts automatically, every single month. Desperately in Debt One of the problems with spending excessively is that our working income seldom provides enough cash to purchase outright some of the do-dads we want. As a result, we choose to incur debt, using credit cards, lines of credit, and bank loans to purchase these things. We think in terms of the monthly payment rather than thinking in terms of value or total cost. As a result, the entire American economy is deeply rooted in and driven by consumer debt. In addition, individuals and families across the country are burdened so much financially, they can hardly see anything but a life of despair. Not long ago a news release reported that consumer debt is rising twice as rapidly as salaries and that the average household spends 20 percent of its disposable household income on debt payments. Many people regularly deposit money into bank savings accounts paying 1.5% annual interest, while at the same time paying 10% - 20% in credit card interest. There are a number of methods, techniques, and software programs designed to accelerate the reduction of outstanding consumer debt. You may download a free copy of The Rapid Debt Reduction Planner under the Free Downloads at www.AbundantLifeProject.com. Mastering your Money One of the best ways to master your money is to learn the discipline of contentment. The Apostle Paul spoke of this discipline in his letter to the Philippians, telling them he knew what it meant to be in need and he knew what it meant to have plenty. Regardless of the circumstances, Paul had learned to be contented in all situations (Philippians 4:12). He went on to say, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (v. 13) When we recognize that all we have comes from our Creator, we tend to live (and spend) a little differently. Its been said that God can do more with ten percent than we can do with the remaining ninety percent. How true that is. When we pursue extraordinary living, we make a conscious decision that earning, spending, saving, or borrowing money will never rule our lives. Instead, we decide to master our money so that we never have to risk being mastered by it. No matter how much we earn, we spend less and we funnel that unspent money in wise directions. |
