Take care, and be on your guard
against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of
his possessions.
Jesus of Nazareth
Luke 12:15
Almost everybody knows what a budget is but few like the sound of one.
A budget (just in case you do not know) is a plan of where money comes from and
where it goes. A budget sounds like a lot of trouble, something difficult to do
and keep up and an annoying restraint on our lifestyle.
But even more daunting than this, a budget is a mirror on our
lives. Identifying what we spend our money on exposes our priorities,
weaknesses and addictions; it shows the gap between who we think we are and who
we really are. And that self-knowledge is often unwelcome!
But there comes a time in every financial capability session where
the subject of budgets cannot be avoided any longer. There is no substitute for
people who want to control their money, especially if they have fallen into
debt or are teetering on the edge of it, and no euphemism to make the task
sound more palatable. My hope, however, is that people quickly come to see budgets
as beneficial.
Last year, I took part in a series of personal finance evenings
for a group meeting in London’s East End. During the first evening, the group’s
leader explained that when she married she did not like the idea of her husband
carefully budgeting their money. She thought that it would be restrictive and
keep them from enjoying themselves but, in the event, it bought peace of mind
and no less joy.
It seems to me that many people could get many more of the things
they want in life if they would only submit to the discipline of a budget. By
cutting out of their lives the things that are not priorities for them, they
can begin to save up for or take out a loan to buy what is important. (In a
later Reflection I will offer some criteria for deciding whether it is better
to save or borrow.)
Moreover, most people, whatever their religion of philosophy,
would agree that the world would be a better place if people were more content,
honest, alert to other people and generous. Again, a budget is a stepping stone
to achieving that, even if just one person at a time.
Although the necessary analysis and the perception of curbed freedom are powerful disincentives, the reality
is that money should not be a force to dictate what we can and cannot do in
life but a tool to be used for living successfully.
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Handling
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