Planning is Key

We have all been there in way or another. You wake up one morning and all is going well. As you go through the day the house suddenly feels colder, you throw on the blanket and think nothing of it. But then it either keeps getting colder or just does not seem to be getter warmer. You walk to the thermostat (or now a days, look at your phone) and realize the heat is on, but the house is not getting warmer. As you go to check things out you realize something is not right, so you contact the local repairman and start a service call hoping it is something minor. Only to find out that it is $5,000 for a new furnace, blower, you name it… What do you do? Freak out, pray you have enough on the credit card, or reach into your bank account and pay for it.

This is exactly what happened to our family about 3 years ago. Only the bill was $7,000, it was the end of the year and the money was not in the bank as far as I knew. Thankfully, my wife had some savings built up and we were able to pay for it, but it is safe to say the two of us had not planned for this and were not expecting to replace a 15 year old furnace. As far as we knew the furnace was good for the foreseeable future. Emergency funds and sinking funds were not in my terminology and I had never thought to set money aside for an occasion such as this. I get a sizeable bonus and we typically used this for Christmas gifts, vacations, home improvements and helping to pay the monthly credit card when we went over our non-existent budget.

A few years ago I learned what the idea of an Emergency Fund was, what a sinking fund was and why we needed to have these. Maybe for you it was not a furnace, maybe an unforeseen car repair, house issue, medical bill or whatever. Regardless these funds are critical to maintaining peace, reducing stress and knowing that you had planned for something like this.

The Bible teaches us to consider the ant.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

(Proverbs 6:6-8)

See the ant plans for the future, looks to the winter to come. We need to follow that same precept. If you own a car, live in a house, have a family, whatever it may be, you need to be planning for what may come ahead. That is what the sinking funds are there for. If you are driving a car and do not have a fund set aside for on-going maintenance and repairs, then you are setting yourself up for failure, and emergency is coming. When that emergency comes you are going to be left with 2 choices, put in on a charge card and pay it off later, or hope that you have the money set aside somewhere to handle it when it comes.

While the Bible also teaches us not to worry about the future, it does command us to be good stewards of all that God has given us, and that includes managing the money he has entrusted you with and using it to his honor and glory. Let me put it simpler for you. If you have a child and you give them $1000 to support their needs and they go off and spend it on the latest game system, new phone… Would you be happy? Well it was a gift to them, right? You gave it to them. But now fast forward a few months and their car breaks down and they come to you asking for help for their $500 repair on their car. Are you happy with them. Were they good stewards of the gift you gave them? That is what God has given to you. He provided a salary for your or a job to cover your needs, yet are we supposed to spend that frivolously and hope that when an emergency comes up he is going to suddenly just take care of all of that. I believe you know the answer to that.

Simply speaking God has provided for what you need. Our job is to be good stewards of what we are given and manage our finances. That includes planning for the future.

I posted on my Facebook feed the other day about my upcoming Financial Peace University (FPU) class (GO SIGN UP). Part of that post recognized that we are just 2 months away from Christmas. Yes, we are that close. The sad part is when I did some research on this, on average the typical consumer increases their debt by $1,000+. Add to that compound interest at 15-20% and you have quite the bills coming in January. If you don’t or cannot pay that off in time, guess what happens come next December…that’s right, you do it again. Before you know it you have $20,000+ in debt and a whole lot of happy friends and family with all those gifts that are sitting buried in a closet or in the trash somewhere.

Listen, I’m not against buying gifts I just want you to plan for them. This may be late now, but what can you cut back on between now and the end of the year to ensure you can buy those gifts you want to buy. Then as you go into next year, figure out what you want to spend in the coming year, then every paycheck, set that money aside so that you can comfortably buy those gifts in the coming year without racking up additional debt for the future.

Planning for things will keep you at peace and help prevent those “OH NO” moments in your life. You can do this, but it is going to take discipline.

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