Let me give you an example of what I mean (outside of finance). At this church, we believe in the Power of God, correct? We believe in God’s power to: Deliver, Save, Heal, Restore, and Redeem all things? Would you rather pray for someone, for a miracle; or would you rather see them prevent the need for the miracle?
Now I’m all for miracles - sometimes people face things that they did not deserve; they did not set up; they did not make decisions to sow into; and those are the people that we want to believe God to touch.
And we really want to believe for God to touch all people, regardless of if it was their fault or not; but to smoke 3 packs of cigarettes for 30 years, and then make prayer for lung cancer, that’s a little bit more preventable – are you with me?
Do we want to see God heal lung cancer, yes! But we would rather see you give up smoking at 22; so at 52, you’re not in that situation. So in other words: do all you could do… wisdom!
Let me just give you a couple of points that they have: they work hard; they stay out of debt. They don’t borrow money; and they particularly don’t borrow money on things going down in value.
If you’re paying 8% interest on something that’s losing 20% of its value a year, that’s a real problem. A car is a good example of that. There are some case where getting a new car is ok, but in 90% of cases, a new car is going to lose 50% of its value in the first 3 years.
If you buy something for $40,000, and in 3 years you know it’s going to be worth $20,000, you have to know that’s not the best choice.
If I said: I have a business proposition for you. I want you to give me $40,000; and in 3 years I promise I will give you twenty back - are you going to do that? Of course not right? Anyone want to play? Of course you would never do that; but what if I said: you give me forty, and in 3 years I will give you twenty; but in the meantime, I’ll let you drive a really nice car. Um, ok.
Now I’m all for nice cars, I have a nice car; but what I’m not all for, is: borrowing money going on something going down in value; or putting too much assets in the things going down in value.
The combined total of your toys, what I mean by toys is: anything with wheels; or has to get where it’s going with wheels. If the combined total value of all of those things is more than half of your income, then even if you own it, you can’t really afford it. Even if you don’t owe money on it, there’s too much of your liquid ability in something going down in value.
We have to have wisdom. Don’t borrow money; if you can’t afford it, save. If you can afford it, make a commitment that: I’m going to save until I can afford it; and in the time that it takes you to save, you’ll realize: you don’t need it; and it will save you a lot of heart-ache!
So #1 for Wisdom: Get out of Debt!
#2, Save! It was biblically mandated, a biblical command, to save 10% of your income. They saved 10% of their income, their whole life.
Let me show you how smart God is. If you’re over 55: if you had saved 10% of your income your whole life, how much money would you have now?
Financial people tell me: if someone saves from 18-30 and then stops, they’ll have more money; than someone that starts at 30, and saves until 60; because of compounding interest, and the rule of 72 (your money will roughly double every 6 years).
So those first 12 years get you two extra doubles at the end, which makes up from anything earned. It’s not a matter of amount, it’s a matter of time, a long period of it. It was a biblical mandate to save money, 10% of your income.
I thank my God in heaven, on a regular basis, for my mother. My mother made me save 10% of my income, from the time I was 4.
When I was 4 years old, she opened a bank account for me; mom would drive me to the circle-K, we would go in; and mum would ask for 10 dimes. Out of those 10 dimes, I had to put 10c in the offering plate; and I had to take 10c to the bank.