5 Secrets to Financial Prosperity
Shoelaces are important.
They hold everything together. When they are tight, they keep you from falling. No one tries to walk in loose, floppy tennis shoes without good, snug laces.
YOUR FINANCES HAVE “LACES.” If they are untended, your entire life could come crashing down.
With up to half of all divorces related to finances, I highly recommend you read through this short list. Take action immediately if one of them is “loose."
What are the 5 financial issues you need to keep “tight?”
1. Savings:
Why did I not figure this out for so many years of marriage? It was Dave Ramsey (God bless him) who taught me the Golden Rule of finances: “Save three months of your salary."
It may take you many months to do this. Open a “storehouse account” and put ANY extra, unexpected income into that account (instead of spending it!). It took me a couple of years, but we keep that amount in our account at all times.
2. Insurance
A noted minister said it best: “You don’t think you’re going to die…you KNOW you’re going to die.” For those who say that having insurance is not “faith,” I ask them, “Why do you have a spare tire?
There is no need to “over-insure” (savings can handle a lot of that). Get reasonable insurance on life, health, disability, and properties. A trusted agent can guide you in what is truly sensible and what is “overkill.”
3. Retirement
I have been told that if you start working on your retirement in your late teens (with only minimal monthly investment), by your mid-twenties you don’t have to save any more. Done. Your lump sum has 40 years to compound itself and turn into millions. Literally.
If you wait too late (like many of us), you will have to put incredible amounts of monthly savings to give you enough to retire. START EARLY.
4. Generosity
Generosity is a lifestyle. It is tipping 20% for an exceptional waiter. However, it is more than that: It is making an intentional decision and plan to bless someone else with a very large gift.
John Rockefeller, whose personal fortune would be worth 600 BILLION DOLLARS today, used “10-10-80”: tithe 10%, save 10%, and live on 80%. Start there.
5. Debt
Debt crushes you. It gives you stress. It steals your peace. It is relentlessly sapping your joy in life.
Get free. Pay off your smallest bill with the highest finance charge first. Then, draw a RED LINE through that first debt. The feeling will exhilarate you, all the way until your pay off that final credit card.
Savings…insurance…retirement…generosity…and debt. Work on all five fronts simultaneously.