Financial management

A summary of this weeks learning:

Free Write Wk 7
I think the best way to summarize this weeks principles of financial management are with the 5 keys brought out in Elder Wirthlins talk
First we have “Pay your tithing”. As we pay our tithing, besides the blessings of having the windows of heaven opened up to us, it also helps us keep a proper perspective of money in our lives. We are reminded of how everything is spiritual in nature even those things that may only seem to be temporal. It teaches us discipline and faith and trust in the Lord that he really will take care of our needs as we do our part even when we can’t see any way possible.
The next key is “Spend less than you earn”. In order to do that we need to have at least some sort of budget. I think budgets can be as individual as are people. The trick is finding what works for us given our financial strengths and weaknesses. On a basic level it is being aware of how much is coming in and where it is being spent and making a conscious choice to spend it where it brings most value to our lives and always being in the group of people that spend less than we earn. We all spend pretty much about what we make, some a little less and some a little more.
Key number 3 is “Learn to Save”. Just like in paying our tithing and taxes, if we take it right off the top, we don’t notice so much in our budgeting and we learn to live with the smaller amount. Some things that help are having a small emergency fund for those unexpected expenses so we aren’t constantly sabotaging our efforts by going into debt for emergencies. Another trick is by living off of last months paycheck instead of this month or the upcoming paycheck. That way we always have a little bit of cushion in the budget. Food storage and insurance also help in the area of emergencies and making sure that we are allotting in our budgets for those once a year expenses (preferably equally divided between all paychecks)
Number 4 is “Honor your financial obligations” This we do by avoiding debt, but when it becomes inevitable we do what we can to pay off all our debts. This also addresses the honor and integrity we live by in all financial obligations in our life. How we run our businesses, how we treat our family members, etc.
Finally we have “Teach your children to follow your example” I like how one class member brought up that maybe that should be changed to “ teach your children to improve upon your example”. As our children and our family members know and understand the principles of good financial management it brings more peace into our families.