Being Financially Prepared

My Visiting Teacher asked me to help her for a few minutes in her lesson last Sunday. Her lesson was on Temporal and Spiritual Welfare. This is one thing that I have not written about yet on this blog. I have never considered it a strength of mine, in fact it served as a reminder that I needed. The topic that she gave me to share my thought on was section # 4 “The Peace and Contentment that comes when we save a portion of our earnings and avoid unnecessary debt.”  Helping with this lesson solidified these things in my mind and has proven to be perfect timing for me for two reason; first, my husband’s new job and second, Christmas Shopping.

I only had a few minutes, so I didn’t say all of this, but this is the full version of what I compiled before the lesson and I promised to post it here…

My grandfather was so great at saving money and staying out of debt. He counseled us to pay tithing and fast offerings first and then 10% to personal savings, but I am certain that he exceeded that counsel. I think he paid his tithing, paid his bills and saved the rest. With his savings in addition to insurance, he was able to take care of his family long after he passed away; my grandmothers’ 24 hour home health care and hospital bills before she passed away, my aunts’ home healthcare before she passed away and my father’s health care and living expenses (at the age of 75)! That is being prepared and leaving his family protected against financial storms.

I just want to highlight a few points that were made in this section of the lesson that spoke to me and talk about why and how this topic supports yet another way for us to be prepared for the unexpected…

The first thing that I quoted was; “The Lord desires his Saints to be free and independent in the critical days ahead. But no man is truly free who is in financial bondage.”

Pointing to myself I said; “This is what financial bondage looks like…” And then I said; “I’m sure I could be much worse.” But the truth is I could be better too. We don’t have any money saved right now. We live month to month, paycheck to paycheck. If we have anything extra after we pay our bills, we buy things that we want. Among those bills is one credit card that I use for emergencies and payments on our “new” fridge that we bought a year ago. We also have debt with the IRS, because of my husband’s self-employment job and unfortunate circumstances that were created by our CPA. 

If we had been able to make a few sacrifices and had money in savings, instead of buying what we wanted, we would have $200 extra each month right now to put into savings. Our fridge would have been bought with cash and our emergency expenses would have been covered. But instead we are in bondage, paying for things that we needed in the past in addition to interest and sometimes late fees.

Another quote from the lesson is this; “More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare.”

Economic self-reliance…  Preparing for the Unexpected… The Brethren said it. That’s enough for me.

“In the long run, it is easier to live within our income and resist borrowing from future reserves except in cases of necessity – never for luxuries. It is not fair to ourselves or our communities to be so improvident in our spending that the day our income stops we must turn to relief agencies or the Church for financial aid.”

“Do not, I solemnly urge you, tie yourselves to payment of carrying charges that are often exorbitant. Save now and buy later, and you will be much further ahead. You will spare yourselves high interest and other payments, and the money you save may provide opportunity for you to buy later at substantial cash discounts.”

“Brothers and Sisters, peace and contentment come into our hearts when we live within our means. God grant us the wisdom and faith to heed the inspired counsel of the Priesthood to get out of debt, to live within our means, and to pay as we go – in short, to “pay thy debt, and live.”

My husband and I talked about this yesterday. He started a new j.o.b. that will bring us consistent income. He has been self-employed our entire marriage. This new job will provide security and consistency, allowing us to create and live within a budget. We will pay tithing and fast offerings before we pay anything else and after bills, pay off our debts. 

Eventually, hopefully sooner than later, we will be able to save the money that we have been putting into debt payments. For awhile we will be tight, living within our means and paying all excess debt that we have. Christmas is coming up. We will be simple in our gift giving and receiving this year (we came up with that plan in our discussion about this lesson). I know that the Lord will bless us as we follow this counsel. And in the long run it will all be worth it; the sense of peace and contentment and security will be worth it all.