Money in HD: How to manage my money
Me: Share story about buying Neon, and guessing about having enough money to buy the car.
We: How many of you make decisions with your finances without really knowing if you have enough money? Or maybe you’re an impulse buyer and you purchase stuff because it’s a good deal, or is on sale. Or maybe you spend money based on how you feel. You know, maybe you had a bad day or a bad week and I deserve to treat myself because this past week really stunk. Or maybe you think because you still have checks in your checkbook, that you still have money in your account. Don’t laugh, when Jennifer worked at the bank in Dryden, NY, many people wanted to know why their checks bounced, and when told they had no money, replied in return, well, I still have checks in my checkbook. And money is a very volatile topic. I mean, most of the fights we have in marriages are over money, and is greatest cause of divorce, and stress in our lives.
So how can we learn to manage our money so we can reduce the amount of stress in our lives, and be sure to prepare for the future, pay our bills on time, and work to get out of debt? We can do that by taking a few simple steps. And step #1 is…
GET THE FACTS
Talk about buying soda, coffee, candy, eating out for lunch, owning cell phones, having digital cable, or satellite, internet, etc… and how much it costs to do that each and every day. Have you ever considered how much small purchases like that really cost you? And how much money you are spending on things that are luxuries and not necessities? That is why it is important to get the facts about your finances.
Proverbs 27:23-24 says, “Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds, for riches don’t last forever, and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.”
What the writer of proverbs is saying is, Know what’s going on in your life financially. Know where you are. Know how much you have and how much you’re spending. And know where it is you want to be. And to do that it is important to ask yourself 4 questions.
(1) How much do I own? (2) How much do I owe? This is the debt question. You can’t write out beside it, a lot. That’s not enough. You have to get the facts. (3) How much do I make? And again, you can’t say “not enough”. You have to do some research on this. Managing your money well is not about making more, it’s about managing what you already have. (4) How much I spend?
And we want to help you get the facts, so we have put together a packet for you that you received when you came in the door, and I want to encourage you to take that home and get the facts about your finances, so you can get on the road to financial stability. Step #2 is…
PLAN AHEAD
Based on what you earn and how much you have, decide where you want your money to go, and begin making plans for it. Some things you need to plan for are: your retirement, the kid’s college tuition, the purchase of your home, car maintenance and repair, dental expenses, Christmas and birthdays, and so on. None of these things are emergencies; we know they’re going to happen, but too often we wait until December 10 and suddenly say, "Yikes! I’ve only got two weeks! Where am I going to get the money to buy Christmas gifts?" Then we decide the only way we can have a good Christmas is to go deeper in debt. So we get out the trusty credit card and then spend way too much on Christmas, and regret it for the whole next year.
Take a look at Proverbs 21:5. It says, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”
So, we’ve got to develop a plan for how we will spend our money. We know Christmas, birthdays, come around every year. Car repairs happen, oil changes have to be done, clothes have to be purchased. So it only makes sense that we plan ahead instead of taking hasty shortcuts. Take a look at Proverbs 13:16. It says, “Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.”
And we can plan ahead by taking step #3 which is…
SET FINANCIAL PRIORITIES
You see the Bible teaches that you should prioritize your money and you should use it in a certain way. And one of the priorities that God tells us to have with our finances is to give, to return back to God the first 10% of our income. Now maybe you are thinking, why should I give back to God 10% of my income? I mean, why does God need my money? And maybe you are thinking, well, I would like to give back to God, but I just can’t afford it, or I will give to God when I get my finances under control. Well, let me be honest with you, if you don’t set some financial priorities, you won’t ever get your finances under control. So what is the purpose of tithing?
Take a look at Deuteronomy 14:23 in your notes. It says, “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.”
Underline that word “first”. You see, there is only room for one thing in your life to be first place. One of the reasons why many of you have finances that are out of balance, or you have lives that are going in a bad direction, is because you have the wrong thing in first place. Money makes a very bad first place element for your life. Take a look at Matthew 6:24 in your notes. It says, “You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.”
You see first place in your life is designed for God and God alone. And it’s only when you put God in first place in your life, everything begins to make sense. Not just financially, but relationally, socially and so on. So it says, the purpose of tithing is to teach you to put God first. And how do you learn to put God first in your life? Take a look at Hebrews 13:5 in your notes. It is our memory verse for this week. It says, “Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.”
Go ahead and underline the words, I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you. Riches do not last forever. That is why God says, give to me 10% of your income, to keep me first because you can trust me, I will always be there to provide for your need and to bless your life.
So with that idea of tithing as our foundation, I want to give you the 70% principle of lasting wealth. In dealing with 70%, you take your income, you look at what you make and then you give the first 10% of that as a tithe. Then you take the second 10% and you give that to one of two places, you give that second 10% to savings, put it aside for a rainy day or use it to purchase some of those luxury items you want, to go on vacation or whatever. Now, if you are not in a position to save money and you are in debt, you take that second 10% and use that to pay off the debt first. You pay off the smallest debts first and then you pay off all of your larger debts. Then the third 10% of your income, you give that to future for investments, retirement, kids college, etc...
And here’s the key. The key to having lasting wealth from a Biblical standpoint is that you learn to live on 70%--10% to God--10% to savings or debt--10% to investments. The problem in America is that we are living really well on 112%. And so we are just going deeper and deeper in debt. So if we will learn to live on 70%, we are not only going to be stress free and debt free, but we are going to be headed in the right direction and be able to get to the place we want to be financially and we are also going to be able make a difference by doing some really big things in the Kingdom of God and also be able to help people when they are in need.
Next Steps:
[ ] Memorize Hebrews 13:5.
[ ] Get the facts on my finances by taking the time to fill out financial packet.
[ ] Begin now to plan ahead for Christmas
[ ] Put God first in my life by giving 10% of my income back to Him.
