I am sure many of you can identify with the following example from my own life. I lived for many years without a mobile phone. I did not “need” it. I was used to living without it. Once I got one though, I found I got so accustomed to the convenience that it would be hard to give it up. I found a similar experience with the speed of my home internet. Dial-up and then DSL speed were fine, in fact wonderful breakthroughs in technology for their time, until I got used to something faster and then I could not go back. The bottom line… it is easier to avoid increasing our spending then it is to reduce our spending once we get used to having what it buys. So, if you want to control spending, a good way to start is to avoid increasing your “standard of living” when you get more income. This could be income due to a raise, or income due to reduced tax burden. Either way, you have more money and you do not have to spend it frivolously.
No matter how rough you think you have it right now, most of you reading this on the internet have enough to get by with what are truly essentials of food, clothing, and shelter. We are not talking about fine dining, name brand clothing, and mansions… just the basics. Most people throughout the world would be glad to have what we in the USA refer to as a “poverty” standard of living. We have developed high expectations and a sense of judging our happiness and success by comparing the things we have to what others have. This is not God’s standard, but rather one based on coveting what others have instead of appreciating what God has already provided for us.
Too often people get excited to spend every increase in income they receive immediately for short term gratification to have fancier clothes, nicer house, more expensive food. Thus, even as they increase their income, they still remain in debt and lack any substantial savings. They just increase spending to match increases in income, or worse… with anticipation of continual rise in income they start getting deeper in debt, sure that they can pay it off sometime in the future.
If want to improve your financial situation over the long term, try this instead. Next time you get extra income from overtime, annual bonus, or a raise… pretend you didn’t. Keep your spending flat. Instead, put the increase to paying down debt or to savings, which will lead eventually to having money to invest when you are ready. If this is too hard to set aside the full amount of the raise for this purpose, then dedicate as much of the increase as you can. Maybe you can at least put aside 50% dedicated to paying down debt or saving. Maybe 75%.
One of the most effective ways to do this with today’s technology is to automate part of your paycheck routinely going to a separate account from the one you use for monthly spending. Then the extra amount never even shows up in your checking account for example. You keep spending like you did not get a raise, and all of a sudden you start paying down debt and creating a long-term stream of savings which will lead to money to invest.
Pray for God to help you be content with what you have rather than chasing what others have and trying to “keep up with the Jones'”. Identify a clear goal that the money is going toward such as working out of debt or building an emergency fund or starting an investment fund. Share your goals with a family member or trusted friend and celebrate milestones as you make progress!
Although it may be hard, this can apply also to inflation. If you can, try to keep your spending budget steady, even if prices are rising. It means you will have to cut back on what you are buying in order to “absorb” inflation. In some cases, you may have to pivot to lower cost options or brands for some items. In other cases, you can buy some things less frequently or in lower volume. If you can hold your spending budget flat in the face of inflation, then you protect any money you have budgeted for savings, paying down debt, or creating an investing fund. Short term pain helps create long term gain.
As always, seek wisdom and encouragement from God along the way and from any trusted mentor you may have. Just make sure you pick a mentor that models the behaviors and outcome you want to achieve. Not every friend is a good financial mentor.
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Remember that all you have belongs to God. Manage your money God’s way. Visit GrowGodsMoney.org .