Wealth Management

      There are all kinds of New Year resolutions made every year.  Most deal with either diet or money.   I think, aside from a closer relationship with God, those should be at the top of our lists.
     As I get older, my health becomes a major concern, and it is effected a great deal by my eating habits.
     Then in my retirement years, I can look back and see how much wealthier I would have been had I had better spending habits. 
     There is much said, scripturally, about finances and the need to be good financial managers.   Proverbs 21:20 (NLT) "The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get."  To be honest, as I opened my closet this morning, this verse hit home with me.  I have hangers of clothes in my closet, some of which I have not worn in quite some time.  Then I have some which are like brand new.  I usually end up grabbing the same outfits every week because they are the ones I really like to wear.  The others hang there in the hope that I might chose to wear them once or twice a year.  Just look at the money I could have saved had I not hit that sell rack  as I was "floating the mall!"
     Then Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the  lender." (KJV)  Nothing could be more true!  Those credit card bills and bank loans come around much too quickly.  I am sure when we open our mail and see those bills, we are wishing we had not bought that gadget taking up shelf space or that we had not gone out for that expensive meal last month, or even spent quite so much money this past Christmas.   What happened to budgets!
     For those who struggle with poor spending habits, remember Hebrews 13:5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
     It is not too late to begin, now, to curtail bad spending habits.  It gets harder the higher those credit card balances become.  I, for one, have never been an advocate of credit cards.  As a banker, I believe they are one of the worse culprits to our worldly debt.  I am, however, a great proponent to savings accounts.  I can never express enough the need, no matter your debt situation, to start some kind of savings even if it is the smallest amount.  Whatever you have to do - skip a lunch, skip that case of cokes, skip that shopping trip.   Put that extra tidbit of money into your savings account.  
     I like the quote, "Out of sight, out of mind."   Have a percentage of your paycheck direct deposited to your savings account.  If you don't see it, you won't spend it.  Then leave it there!  Add to it weekly, monthly, yearly.  Watch it grow.  You will be encouraged to add more. 
     Never forget, ask God to help you.