Practicing Wise Stewardship – What Does God Have To Say About Saving and Investing?

by | Jan 26, 2012 | Beau, Blog, Everything RichLife, Featured, Radio Show

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(photo credit – Wikipedia  ~
1919 illustration of Aesop's Fables by Milo Winter)

 

Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer!
~ Proverbs 30: 24, 25
 

The Ant and The Grasshopper

A Story Originally Written by Aesop and Retold by Beau Henderson

Once upon a time there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a big beautiful meadow.

It was a gorgeous summer throughout the land. Every day, from sunrise to sunset, the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from a far away farmer's field. She hurried to the field every morning just as soon as she had enough light to see her way, and returned back to her tiny home dragging a heavy grain of wheat. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in her pantry, and then hurry back to the field to get another one. All day long she would work, without stopping to take a break or rest. She scurried back and forth from the field as long as there was light for her to see her way,  busily collecting the grains of wheat and storing them away very carefully in her winter pantry.

Every day the grasshopper would watch her and laugh. 'Why are you working so hard, sweet ant?' he would ask. 'Come, sit here with me and rest a while. Listen to me sing my song. Summer is here for all of us to enjoy, the days are long and bright. Why not take some time to bask in the sunshine, there is always plenty of time to labor and toil?'

The little ant did her best to ignore him.  She bowed her head further down and hurried to the field a little faster. This always made the grasshopper laugh even louder. 'What a silly little ant you are!' he would call after her. 'Come here little ant, come and dance with me! Forget about all of that hard work! Take some time to enjoy the sunshine!' The ant would just shake her head while she watched the grasshopper hopping across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily without a care in the world.

As it always happens, the summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sunshine was rarely seen, and the days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It was freezing cold outside, and snow began to fall.

The grasshopper didn't feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to go to get out of the snow, and he had nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer's field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be found anywhere. 'Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?' cried the grasshopper.

Suddenly he remembered the sweet little ant. 'Oh YES!! I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and shelter!' the thought made the grasshopper smile. So off he went to the ant's house and knocked at her door. 'Hello sweet ant!' he called out happily. 'Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire. And I know that you are a wonderful hostess, I can't wait to have some of the delicious food you have stored in that pantry of yours!'

Shocked, the ant looked at the grasshopper and very quietly said, 'All summer long I worked really hard while you made fun of me. You had a grand old time singing and dancing. Maybe you should have thought about how you were going to feed yourself and stay warm in the winter then! Find someplace else to sing for your dinner, grasshopper! There is no fire or food for you here!' And the little ant shut the door in the grasshopper's face.

It is wise to be thrifty today and prepare for tomorrow! In modern day terms, that means we are not going to finance our future, or our lifestyle, or our happiness today without taking care of the future first!

 

If you can't pay as you go …

You are going too fast!

SLOW DOWN!!

So what does God have to say about saving and investing?

Proverbs 21:20

The wise store up choice food and olive oil,
but fools gulp theirs down and have nothing left!
 
Are you spending less than you have coming in? Are you preparing for the future or are you making a presumption on the future as opposed to preparing for it? Are you being a good steward of your resources?
 
I have seen multi-millionaires who are broke because they are spending more than they have coming in. I have also known folks who are earning $20,000 a year and only spending $10,000. Guess what! The person earning $20,000 a year is RICHER than the multi-millionaire because he is spending LESS than he has coming in!
 
Click on the link below to download the MP3 of the fist half of the RichLife Show!
 
 
Three Simple Steps That You Can Take Right Now
To Start Saving and Investing For Your Winter!
 
1. Start saving a portion of your income each time you get paid. You have got to get into the position of where the income starts exceeding the expenses otherwise you will continue to keep digging yourself further and further into the hole. For some people that just might mean selling that really nice house and downsizing. For others, it might mean renting temporarily. Regardless of what it looks like, the focus has to be to getting to the point that there is less going out than there is coming in.

2. Pay yourself first. As a rule of thumb I always recommend that people pay 10% of their earnings to themselves first until they have a good 3 – 6 months reserve in place. This is so important because when life shows up and happens, it's not going to take them out. An alarming statistic is that most people will go under if they do not have their next paycheck come in when it is supposed to. This has got to change! We all could benefit from being more like the ant and living a simpler lifestyle. This is a good time for us to take a look backwards and glean some information that can help us move forward right now. Just because a bank would lend us money for something or a credit card company would give us credit iin the past, doesn't mean that we could afford it.
 
3. You have got to get to a place where you are preparing for the future. If you don't do this, you are making a presumption for the future and that is a dangerous place to be.
 
I really want to thank everyone for all of the great feedback that this series has received!! It has totally blown me away. Because of the response the Practicing Wise Stewardship Series has received, we will be finishing this month with more of God's money wisdom on the RichLife Show this coming Saturday.
 
I would love to hear from if you are currently working your way toward becoming totally debt-free. Share with me the things that you did to get started and give me an update on your progress! Let me know if you have been able get totally out of debt  and what kind of an impact that has had on your life! 
 
You can bless alot of other people by sharing your story and experiences. You will never know who will be inspired to take action for themselves when they hear what you are doing right now to become debt-free!! Be on the lookout tomorrow to learn all about last week's very special guest!
 

 
What BIG money question has been on your mind? Send it to me HERE at RichLife Advisors, and we’ll do our best to tackle it.
 
 
 

 

For more advice and actionable challenges on how you can apply the principal of wise stewardship to your everyday life, get a copy of Beau’s book, The RichLife, 10 Investments for True Wealth at www.richlifeadvisors.com

I have some REALLY awesome news to share with everyone! The RichLife Book is now available at Amazon.com. Here is a really special request from me to you – if you have read the book, I would really appreciate it if you would take a few minutes and write  review of the book at Amazon so that everyone can see how you have benefited from the book and what they can expect for themselves when they purchase it! I truly appreciate all of the RichLife friends and family who are helping us get the word out in such a big way!!