For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.
Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food. Proverbs 12:9 (NIV)
As I was studying Proverbs the other night, this verse jumped out at me. It seems to me that it hits on the same point at the heart of The Millionaire Next Door (one of my top personal finance books of all time) -- namely that most wealthy people prefer to be low profile and grow their net worths instead of put on a financial show for family and friends and not gain financial ground.
The first step in this process, of course, is spending less than you earn (and being content in doing so.) If you can do this and two other simple steps, you can become rich. Another way to look at it -- follow what the Bible says about handling your money and you will become wealthy.
The temptation is to try and keep up with the Joneses. But by doing this, you're simply "pretending to be somebody" yet you "have no food." As for me and my house, we'll stay low key and keep watching our net worth grow!
My grandparents became quite wealthy in the '60s. While he finished his 40-year career as an accountant with the A&P, they'd purchased a 160-acre piece of land in a quiet little town. They became instrumental in the town's boom times when they developed their property into 1/3 acre lots. They built their own house first, of course. WITH CASH. The first winter they lived there (1947) they had no furnace. Just one fireplace. My grandfather always told me to never borrow money for ANY reason, including a home mortgage! (He was stricter than Dave Ramsey on this point...)
But they never looked or acted any different from "the folks" who moved into their subdivision. I will NEVER forget when K-Mart came to town. Grandma wasn't too amused, but Grandpa got the BIGGEST thrill out of being able to buy his knock-about trousers at the most expensive store, but finding like he liked the ones from K-Mart just as well. :)
Posted by: Katy McKenna | June 22, 2008 at 08:34 AM
Enjoyed your post - and got a kick out of Katy's story. Thanks to both of you for sharing.
Posted by: Mo | June 22, 2008 at 12:57 PM