Wise Like Ants: Manage Money with the Right Strategy

“Payday is still far away, but my savings are already running low. How am I supposed to get through the days ahead?”

Have you ever experienced this? Or perhaps moments like this come back to haunt you every month?

How can we manage our money so that we avoid a cash drought, and what does the Bible say about planning for the future?

Come on, let’s learn and put these tips into practice!

1. Plan Your Budget

For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see whether he has enough to finish it? – Luke 14:28   Do you evaluate your spending every month? How much money do you use, what do you use it to pay for, and how much will you save?   If not, try asking yourself, “Am I living only for today or for the future?”   If you answer, “I live for the future,” then you should carefully prepare a monthly budget.   Set and plan your finances as early as possible. For example, you are single and you dream of getting married, having children, buying a house, and so on. How can you make those dreams come true if you do not manage your financial flow? Is it possible for you to achieve all that if you run out of money every month?   For a financial strategy to work well, the first thing you must plant in yourself is … (continue to point 2).

2. First Thing First

Priority! This is how you save yourself from a cash drought in the wilderness of life. Have financial priorities. Pay what you need to pay first, then spend the rest on other things, not the other way around. Apply these simple methods to manage your monthly budget:

• Write down how much money you receive each month (salary, allowance, commission, business profit, spending money, and so on)
• Add up all routine monthly expenses (tithes, monthly support for parents, household shopping, insurance premiums, internet, electricity, water, phone, tuition fees, home installments, children’s education, and so on)
• Pay the routine expenses above as soon as possible
• Decide how much money you must save each month. Separate it from the money you are free to use, and hold firmly to this commitment.
• Calculate how much free money you have and divide it by 31 (assume a month has 31 days). That is your daily budget. Even better if you can save some of it so that the budget can be allocated for other needs.

Consider Your Lifestyle Besides poor financial management, the reason people run out of money every month is hungry eyes and lifestyle demands.   How much money have you wasted because you were tempted by discounts or for the sake of prestige? You might be surprised when you see the total. A popular saying goes that what is expensive is not the cost of living, but the lifestyle.   Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen to Me, and you will eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest food. – Isaiah 55:2    Believe it, no matter how much money you have, it will never be enough to satisfy a consumptive lifestyle and impulsive spending. No matter how good your priorities are or how sophisticated your financial strategy is, without fixing your lifestyle, your finances will still suffer.

3. Save More

Saving is important and is not something you should neglect. Even if your income is still small right now, make every effort to keep saving. Why?   Life is full of unexpected things. Your wife plans to give birth normally, but because of one thing or another, she has to have a C-section. Things like theft or damage to your motorcycle / cellphone / laptop can happen at any time. You or someone close to you may suddenly fall sick and need a large amount of money in a short time.   In moments like these, your savings will become a hero that does not arrive too late. Whether it takes the form of savings, investments, or insurance, you will thank yourself for the small effort you made every day, every month, consistently: saving.   Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: though she has no commander, overseer, or ruler, she prepares her food in summer and gathers her provisions at harvest. – Proverbs 6:6-8   Ants know there will be times when they cannot get food easily. That is why they save, so that when the lean season comes, their needs are still met. Well then, if ants can save, surely we can too, right?

4. Do Your Part

What if you have already done all four things above, but your expenses are still far greater than your income?   Evaluate your sources of income up to this point. Maybe it is time for you to change jobs or find a side job that can bring in more income. Or could it be that you have not been working well enough, so your income is only that much, or worse, you are not working at all?   In this situation, it is not impossible for us to think, “Ah, God is not blessing me!” Is that really true?   In the Bible, there are many figures who were very rich, such as Abraham, Job, David, and Jacob. God promised to bless them so abundantly, and indeed, what they received could stir up envy.  

However, if we read the Word carefully, we know they did not become rich overnight. God blessed the efforts of these figures after they worked hard and did what was their part.

These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have never miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.    What was torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I bore the loss of it myself. Whatever was stolen, whether by day or by night, you demanded it from me.    By day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your household; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.    If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment. – Genesis 31:38-42   Did the Lord’s blessing come to Jacob like riches falling from the sky? No, he worked hard to gain his wealth. Jacob did his part wholeheartedly, and God did not turn a blind eye to all his effort.

The same is true in your life: work, do your part wholeheartedly, and God will complete the rest. If you do not know where to start, pray and ask Him for wisdom.

Regardless of all the guidance above, remember always to put God first. He has already promised that He will bless us if we place Him above everything else.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33

Come on, plan your finances well and say goodbye to a cash drought!

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