Hard Times... and Prospering By Degrees

Thoughts after participating in the Durban Stake Marrieds fireside Jan 2019 - Sister Bray (Durban Temple Construction Site Missionary)

You are free to choose financial ‘liberty’ or you will suffer ‘captivity.’   

Your finances and resource management are your personal stewardships. Take them seriously.

“You don’t want to live poor and die rich, nor do you want to live rich and retire poor.” T Hollis

Learn from the Spirit.  Learn from others.  Keep learning.  Be patient.  Read.  Listen.  Watch.  Ask. 

You can Buy Now and Cry Later J - L – 
Or you can Cry Now and Buy Later L - J.  

O be wise, what can I say more? Jacob 6:12

Every Price has a Prize, every Prize a Price.  

Every Cost has a Benefit, and every Benefit a Cost.

Learn to pay the Price in a PLAN - think, be disciplined in and for the Financial Prizes you want.

Pray about your finances.

Be grateful for your income.

Learn to be content with what you have at the moment. “… be content with your wages.” Luke 3:14

Paul said “…I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”  Phillipians 4:11

Use a budget – every month – include provision for annual, and inevitable ‘surprise’ expenses.

Save for Christmas and birthdays all year – give gifts you can afford.

Give some gifts that cost no money, or little money – your presence, time, talents, wisdom.

Ask someone who is sensible about money to help you if/when you need help.

Ask other people anyway – they might have ideas you never thought of.  

Listen.  Let the Spirit confirm what 'fits' for you, now - all along the way.

Each person needs money to purchase and account for, and pocket-money they don’t account for.

Each adult an equal amount, each child an amount appropriate to their age. 

Have financial discussions with your spouse and children.  

Require children to 'earn' some of their pocket money - chores, entrepreneurial ventures.  

Notice.  Ask around!

Let the holy Spirit guide...

Pay your tithing.  Malachi 3:10  (Every month, or week, if you are paid weekly.)  

Pay off all your debts as soon as you possibly can.  (Find out how.)  

Get debt counselling if necessary.

“No debt” – ever again – for food, commuting, clothing, garden and household furniture and goods.

Save 10% of your income for your old age/retirement – ideally from the day you earn your first Rand.

Always review… and legitimately - reduce expenditure, and increase your income, as you are able.

Be patient with your needs, wants, begging, bullying, pleas and demands; and those of others.

Be not swayed by bragging, mocking, shaming, temptation, advertising, or personalities.

Learn how to, and then live well, on an absence of expense.

Do something every day to improve yourself and where you live right now. 

Keep yourself, your space/home, possessions and vehicle orderly, clean, neat, and attractive.

Pray.  Think.  Spend a share of your labour on cleaning, mending, putting in order and beautifying.

Spend no money on 'things' when you do not have money budgeted and saved to spend.

Grow some of your own food.  
Prepare a patch in your yard, or a pot or two on your windowsill. or veranda 
Walk around your neighbourhood.
See how and what grows in your area.
See who grows successfully.
Ask your gardening neighbours who are doing well with their crops.  
Yes, the seeds, and water may cost more than buying... 
Ask for a few seeds.  Most will share three or five or more.
Start small - like with spinach, maybe beans and tomatoes.  
Gardening is therapeutic.  It will help you "be still."  Psalm 46:10 
"You are nearer God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth." - Dorothy Frances Gurney
He will comfort you, talk to you, and teach you as you work in your garden.
Teach your children how to work with the soil. 
If you ever have to live on what you can cultivate yourself, you will know how to.

Ask yourself "How did they do it  20/50/100 years ago?"
Is it wise to do as they did, for now?

Learn, read, find out the truths about finance – “prospering by degrees” has principles and laws.

Find and consult regularly with several virtual and people financial mentors. 

(Join the library.  Research on the internet.)

Read the Liahona/Ensign, New Era and Friend magazines - on line.  Frequently there are useful ideas.

Research in Gospel Library for articles, talks, devotionals on debt and financial management.

Govern your wants – until you have “sufficient for your needs, and thereafter - enough to share.”

Work towards this prosperity formula (It might prove to be useful) -

Learn to live on 60% of your income:

10% tithing

10% old-age/retirement saving

10% legitimate family and/or charity sharing (beware of enabling others to be dependent/reckless)

10% short term saving before purchasing specific large budget items

Learn to say “We will when we can afford it.  We can’t afford this now.  We will save for it.”

Learn to say “No.” to yourself and others.  “I would if I could… I am not able to.”

Never shop when you are hungry or tired.  

Shop consciously, with a rational and realistic list.

If you are compulsive or addicted to shopping/spending, get help.  

Live within your means.

Pay ‘cash’ for more and more (if you use cards or accounts, pay them off, in full, every month.)

Cut up your cards, close your accounts - if you can’t pay them off, in full, every month, without fail.

Get good "marks" in your work or studies so you qualify for training, scholarships or bursaries.   

Apply for learnerships and PEF. (Perpetual Education Fund)

Only owe money for affordable education, affordable housing, and affordable transport.

Move closer to work, or work closer to home whenever possible.
Remember - each move you make costs money.  Consider the costs ... now, and over time.

Holiday from home.  Take day trips you can afford.  Borrow or rent a movie.  Play games together.

Walk around the block, in a park or at the beach.  
Have an ice cream cone rather than a meal out.
If you can't afford an ice-cream cone, don't suggest it.  

(More can come later as you can afford more – paid with interest you earn on your investments.)

Many things don’t cost money or cost little money – learn to notice them and enjoy them. 

If you don’t have money, don’t spend money.  

Take a packed lunch.  

Eat more economical meals – at home.

Consider wise second hand purchases – buy more used ‘things’ – car, furniture, clothes, household goods.

Don’t compare yourself to others – you have no idea what’s behind their outward appearance.

Focus on learning how, and making your money work for you.

“Eat out” less.  “Go out” less.  “Take away/Entertain in/picnic” more often than “sit down/go out.”

Resist sales.  If you don’t need it (for now), it is not a bargain.

Build up your food, clothing, fuel and other “storage” gradually – build up to one year’s supply.

Save one month’s income, then save another, until you have about eight months’ emergency saving.

If you have two incomes, work towards living on one.  Save as much of the other income as possible.

Check – a second full-time income may not be worth the expense, time and talent lost in the home.

Consider the cost of travel, child-care, housekeeper, gardening, clothes, wear and tear, fast-foods, appeals, temptation, time.

Perhaps part time or self-employment will yield better time at home and net disposable income.

Save money in separate accounts in the name of each person/partner.

(If you are married Ante Nuptial Contract and one leaves//dies, the other has money to use while arrangements are made.)

Learn to do more home-making and comfortable-living things yourself – be more self-reliant.

This is also an opportunity to learn and teach children valuable life-lessons.

Saved money by ‘doing it yourself’ is money that does not have to be taxed, and can be saved.

Save coins and notes.  “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  Bank them.

Ask your wise friends, family and associates for the best places to save your money.

Joseph’s dream – the time of ‘plenty’ is the time to save/store for the inevitable times of ‘scarcity.’

 “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” Romans 13:1

“Pay the debt thou hast contracted… release thyself from bondage.”  D&C 19:35

“…the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10
“Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1

 “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9

“Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.” Deuteronomy 4:23

“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.” Joshua 24:14

“…if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” D&C 38:30

Listen to the still small voice, let the Holy Spirit guide you, learn to say “Thy will, not mine, be done.”

Laws are irrevocably decreed in heaven upon which all blessings are predicated.  D&C 130:10

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.” Pioneer maxim quoted by Boyd K Packer“

“It is a rule .. . in all the world that interest is to be paid on borrowed money. … 
Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; 
it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels . . . 
it has no love, no sympathy; it is as hard and soulless as a granite cliff. 
Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; 
you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; 
it yields neither to entreaties, demands nor orders; 
and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.”  
― J. Reuben Clark Jr. General Conference 1938

 “Those who understand interest earn it, those who don’t, pay it.” Albert Einstein

“We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”

“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” 

“Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge.

  What to do isn’t the problem; doing it is.  

  Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it.

  If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich.”  - Dave Ramsey

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought [shillings] and six [pence], result misery." Charles Dickens – author of “David Copperfield”

Dickens's vivid description could easily be applied to the dangers of payday loans today.

“This pleasant grandfather, …was a horny-skinned, two-legged, money-getting species of spider who spun webs to catch unwary flies… until they were entrapped. The name of this old pagan's god was Compound Interest."  Charles Dickens, author of “Bleak House” (Make Compound Interest work FOR you!)

Most great fortunes are built slowly. They are based on the principle of compound interest, what Albert Einstein called, "The greatest power in the universe." - Brian Tracy

 “My father’s father died when he was 11 and his mother when he was 17.  He was able to inherit an old valve radio from his parents.  I inherited R3000 from my mother when she died (I was in my forties) and R300,000 from my father when he died (I was in my fifties.)  Our children will inherit a lot more from us when we die (We are in our seventies.)”  - Victoria Payne

You can ‘eat’ your money, ‘live’ in it, ‘drive’ in it, ‘wear’ it, ‘travel’ it, 'squander' it, ‘share’ it.  

Few can do all of these.

“Correlate, Reduce, Simplify.”  

“Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, Refuse.”
Compost your compostable kitchen waste.

There are useful books and on-line resources to learn sound money principles, debt and saving.

Ask wise ones around you for names of books and sites they recommend. Most are glad to share.

God bless you as you “increase in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52

God bless you as you resist being “lifted up in pride… and (wearing) costly apparel.”  4 Nephi 1:24,25

God bless you to “Awake… put on thy strength…” Isaiah 52:1

God bless you as you “prosper by degrees.” Mosiah 21:16

“But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them;

and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry,

and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.” Jacob 2:18,19