[tag]Expenses rise to meet income[/tag]. This is the gist of [tag]Parkinson’s law[/tag]. This is the reason that a couple months after most people get a raise, it feels just as tight financially as it did before the raise.
We create the additional expenses when the funds are available. Not on purpose, of course, but on accident. As long as the money is in our pocket we can usually find somewhere to spend it.
We teach our kids to put the money in the bank, because we know that if they can’t get to it they will save it. This is the trick to saving money and believe it or not, it works for adults too.
Without an intentional effort, houses, desks, kitchen sinks naturally get messy and cluttered. We have to take action ON PURPOSE to keep things clean and organized. The same ON PURPOSE effort needs to be made to keep our expenses BELOW our income.
It is a profoundly simple concept, but ironically some of the simplest things in life are the most difficult.
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“Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value.”
-Albert Einstein
What a great way to live your life. After all is said and done, the people (Einstein meant ‘man or woman’) of value are the ones who leave the world better than they found it. They are the ones who were less concerned with themselves, but more about bettering society. They were the ones who are remembered a lot longer than those who were only “successful.”
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. [tag]Joshua 1:8[/tag]
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“There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.”
- Edwin Louis Cole
I remember being a dreamer and the vagueness of the dreams, because I knew that I didn’t have what it took (motivation, consistency) to make it happen. Over the last decade or so, I have worked hard to become more of a planner. The fruit that develops over years of planning is wonderful. The dreams are much clearer and you get to the point where you can start to FEEL what you are dreaming about years before you get there. This is what keeps me motivated.
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“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be
suspected of doing everything for money.”
-Benjamin Franklin
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Reading about John Rockefeller, I found that, “Rockefeller strongly believed since he was a child that his purpose in life was to make as much money as possible, and then use it wisely to improve the lot of mankind.” What an awesome purpose for living!
But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deu 8:18
Notice that the above verse says he gives us the POWER to get wealth. There is action required on our part. It would be much easier if God just handed us millions of dollars when we signed up to walk with Him, but wouldn’t that take all the fun out of it?
It goes back to the “seek and you shall find” principle. We have to seek to find it, it doesn’t just land in our laps as we sit and do nothing.
Just like the parable of the stewards in Matthew 25 we have been entrusted with gifts from God, it is our responsibility to make use of them. We have the ability to let our gifts lay dormant or we can use them to their fullest potential. Why don’t we all take what we have been given, make millions with it, and use it for God’s purposes?
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“God gives every bird its food, but He doesn’t throw it in the nest.”
-J.G. Holland
There is a fine line between waiting on God and trying to make something happen in our own strength.
Unless the LORD builds the house,They labor in vain who build it;Unless the LORD guards the city,The watchman keeps awake in vain. Psalm 127:1
So, we can do some things in our own strength, but it will not be of much value. However, if “the Lord builds the house,” he will build a nice one! It will be much better than what we could produce.
Clearly, we have a part to play. I like this J.G. Holland quote because it is just a friendly reminder that God does provide, but it comes through action on our part.
He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens which cry. Psalm 147:9
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“Well done is better than well said.”
-Benjamin Franklin
You and I can talk about personal finance until we are blue in the face, but as proverbs 14.23 says, “Mere talk only leads to poverty.”
I was a talker and an examiner, a theorizer, a planner, and just about everything else but a DOER. As Dave Ramsey says, “Personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% head knowledge.“
Figuring out what to do will really have a fairly small impact on your financial well-being. Doing it is what will produce the fruit.
A farmer can plan all he wants, but until he plants the seed he can be assured that he will not have a harvest.
One of the biggest challenges we will face in life is to DO the things that we know we should when we do not FEEL like doing them.
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“Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.”
- -Leo Rosten
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“Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value.”
-Albert Einstein
After all, the greatest in God’s kingdom is a servant of all.
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“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”
- Jonathan Swift
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt6.20-21
Money is not the root of all evil, but the LOVE of it is. It is a challenge to stay focused on God’s priorities when the world is constantly pulling in a opposite direction. It is all about balance. It is easy to be in the extremes, but difficult to stay balanced in the middle. For instance, I seem to have the ability (probably like most people) to come up with unethical ways to make money. We have to remember that just because God wants to prosper us, doesn’t mean that we can do anything to get it. Some people on the money-hungry extreme will do anything they can think of to make money. It doesn’t matter if it is God’s will, if it is moral, or even legal. This is not how God has called us to live.
The other extreme is disguised as being the “righteous path,” but that really isn’t true. This other extreme is a weak and poor excuse for a christian life, where its victims have a defeatist mentality that they can never amount to anything. They believe they are of no value and because they have no self-worth they are limiting themselves. This is the extreme that Jesus came to do away with. He came and died so that we could have HIS righteousness. Not our sin, but HIS righteousness.
This extreme is about giving up and accepting that you are always going to be middle class. It is fairly easy to maintain that lifestyle. I don’t think God is very pleased with that attitude. We are stewards of what we have been given. Whether it is a talent, a gift, or finances we have a responsibility to make the most of it. Burying it because we do not want to take any chances is not a good idea (read Matt25).
It is more of a challenge to live in the balance. I would say it is almost impossible without God’s help. The bible says that we might think our heart is right, but God is the only one who knows. So, we need to maintain a constant fellowship with Him to keep our heart in check. With God’s help we can stay in the balance and live the life He has called us to.
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