The Bible gives alot of practical wisdom about money. It offers us a Plan “A” to get on the right track as well as Plan “B” and “C” to make his way back from the bumpy mistakes we may have made.
The dreaded “B” word for many of us in “Budget.” It seems that there are only a few people who like Budgets. People like Rain man picking up his 237… yes 237 tooth picks or die hard CPA’s who have nothing better to do than “run the numbers” one more time -just for fun- on a Friday night. The truth is that Everyone has a budget. You might be thinking, “Not me, I’m at least one person without one. Chad is wrong on this one.” A budget is the estimated plan for how much money comes in, how much goes out, and where it should go. A budget is a vision of where you want your money to go. So, if everyone has a budget, then how do you find it.
Simple. Look at your bank accounts. Check your checking account ledger. See where you are currently spending your money. If you are spending 20% of your income on going out to eat, and 25% on visa bills for purchases made years ago, and 32% on your home (plus utilities), plus 20% on medical, and 18% on clothes, insurance, and car payments… And another 12% on gas and another 5% on vacations, and another 1% on charitable giving, and another 10% on movies and shows…. Well, when you add up all those percentages, you’ll find that you are spending more than 100% of your money. That is your budget. Your checking account shows you your budget. It will tell you your priorities. It will tell you that giving is an important percentage or not. It will tell you that you are “pretending to be rich” or not. It will tell you if you “Owe no one anything” or not. Your spending is your current plan and your current budget.
Step 1 is Figure out your current budget by tracking your monthly spending.
Proverbs 27:23 “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to your herds; “
The Bible challenges us to “know” the state of our flocks. Flocks were currency in those days. A good business person, husband or wife needed to know the state of the flocks. Were they doing well, sick, or hurt? How about your spending? Is it healthy? Your savings? Are they sick? The Bible challenges us to “attend” to our herds. Attending will require a constant check up. You don’t “check” on your animals once a year. You don’t even check on them once a month. The same is true with your budget. It is a daily feeding. A Daily checking. A daily corralling of our dollar herds to aim them in the right direction and keep them from wandering off a cliff.
We’ll look at step 2 tomorrow, but all future steps are irrellevant if you don’t begin by knowing where you are. As we look at the news today, we see that our States and Nation struggle as much with this concept as we do. No one wants to sheer the sheep and reveal their presumptive overspending, but if we don’t check it out, we will be caught in a stampede. Here are some news clips from last week of politicians all over the world trying to find their budgets and prose better ones.
GREENSPAN: Little Impact From Fed’s Massive Stimulus Program…
KICK: Dems Weigh Short-Term Debt Limit Increase…
For more information, check out www.godonomics.com
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