Budgeting

When it comes to personal finance, the most powerful yet often misunderstood area is the family budget.

We must take a leading role in preparing, executing, and following through with our budget to ensure our families are meeting our shared financial goals. Luke 14:28-30 gives a great example of how God wants his people to be intentional about planning their finances to reap success.

This type of thinking runs counter to our culture’s need for immediate gratification. However, families that budget together will see financial success that others can only dream of. Good budgeting habits are easy to learn and hard to follow. Start with a budgeting tool to define “buckets” and track spending. There are mobile-friendly applications that make this smooth (such as the EveryDollar App from Ramsey Solutions).

It takes approximately three months to develop your rhythm with budgeting, so be gracious and patient. Bucket allocations will ebb and flow during this time as things come into focus. If you’re married, make sure to include your wife in the planning process and come to a mutual decision about your finances before the month begins. It’s helpful to have a monthly budget meeting to review how you did as a family the previous month and to finalize plans for the upcoming month.

Marriages that are in alignment when it comes to budgeting and finances are significantly stronger, and you will find that through the budgeting process, you will begin to take control of your life. When you start telling your money what to do, you will be ready to build your tower with confidence.

Question to Consider

1. Do you budget right now, or is it if there is just money in the bank, you feel comfortable?
2. What does your vision of what building wealth look like? (Work hard, just do your best, get lucky, inherit, etc.)
3. What actions will you commit to today to be the leader God intends you to be?