Video Transcript: How to Save Money Part 1

Hi, my name is Steve Elzinga, and we're in this class on enterprise, and we  started sort of thinking about your own personal finances. Before we start  thinking about business kinds of things, you have to be able to organize your  own life before you can start organizing other things, bigger things. Last time we talked about personal finances and budgets and how to maintain budgets. In  this next few sessions, I want to talk about saving money, how to save money.  Benjamin Franklin, one of the authors, well known personalities from American  history, once said, A penny saved is a penny earned. Actually, a penny saved is  a penny earned, plus interest, any money that you have is not just money that  you have. Jesus once told a parable of the talents. One person had one talent,  and it was a certain amount of money, and the other the other guy got five or  two, and the other one got five. And then both worked really hard, and the guy  that had five doubled it to 10, the guy who had two doubled it to four, and the  guy who had one hid it under his tent. And Jesus commended the guy that had  five, the guy that had two, but he had harsh words to say to the one who hid it  under his tent, and what he said was, you could have at least put it with the  bank and got some interest. So the way to think about any money that you have  or any money that you save, it's not just money, it's money that is growing.  Money doesn't just stay there. If you do something with your money, it grows  generally. We call that interest. Well, some Bible verses about saving money,  Proverbs 10:5, a wise youth makes hay while the sun shines. But what a shame  to see a lad who sleeps away his hour of opportunity, the farmer, in the summer,  takes advantage of the rain and the good sunshine, and he goes to the field and he cuts the hay, and then you let it dry, and then you roll it, and then you bale it,  and then you stick it in The barn. I moved to the farm when I was in ninth grade,  and so we had cows, and we did all this work in the summer, and we stored it up for the winter. We saved from the summer, we saved from our hour of  opportunity. So saving is taking advantage of what you have for later. Proverbs  6:6, Go to the ant. You sluggard and consider its ways and be wise. It has no  commander, no overseer or ruler. Yet it stores its provisions in summer and  gathers its food at harvest. So again, this idea of taking advantage of when you  get something, saving it for later. Well, why save money? Number one, expected future needs. So, you know, maybe you're a young person and you want to get  married. So there's an unexpected or an expected need marriage. Marriage  costs money. You get married, and all of a sudden you want your own place.  You're not living in your parents' place, and you may have to find rent, or maybe  you have to you want to buy a place. When you're young and you're going to  school, I used my bike. I didn't really need a car, but as I got older and I got a  job, I needed a car. So that's a future need, housing. That's a future need.  Maybe school and you want to go on to get more schooling, that's a future need, of course, if you go to CLI, this one's free, so you start saving, because right  now you have a means of making money, but in the future, you may need that 

money for something expected. Then we have all kinds of unexpected needs.  Things repairs. I've been driving a Jeep for the last several years, and last year,  the whole body rusted out, and when I took it to the shop, they said they  wouldn't repair my brakes until I got my. Whole frame fixed because it was worth nothing. And then so, but all of a sudden that was going to cost $2,000 now  that's I wasn't expecting that I was driving, and everything was fine. The brakes  weren't working, and all of a sudden, it's a huge bill. Health situations. All of a  sudden you have health problems, and that's going to have some cost. So you  have all these things in your future right now that you don't have, but who knows in the future? So you save money, number three big ticket items, things like  cars, things like your house, or, let's say you want to go to graduate school. Or,  let's say you a business opportunity comes by and you want to be able to take  advantage of that. Or finally, number four future goals, again, things like  education. Maybe you want a bigger house. You want to expand your family. You have one child, you're going to have two more, and you need more room. You  know, when I started out, I got married, I had a Volkswagen Bug, just my wife  and I, but then within five years, we had four children, and so all of a sudden we  had to get our minivan. So all these things in life cost money, but when you need the money, you don't have the money. It takes a few years to get the money. So  that's why you save oppositions to saving money. The problem with saving  money is you have a lot of present needs. You have bills that you're paying, and  a lot of times, the tendency is to spend what we have. So you're making a  certain salary, and then you take that salary, and there's all these things that you need and want, and so you tend to spend all the money that you make on your  present needs. Then your boss gives you a raise. And what happens? Some of  the things that you didn't know you needed, all of a sudden now you need. Our  needs tend to grow with our income. Someone once asked Howard Hughes one of the wealthiest men in America, at least back in that time, they asked him, you  know, you're always trying to make money, money, money, money, money. And  they asked them, well, how much is enough, and Howard Hughes said just a  little bit more. And the average person, if you ask them, Hey, do you think what  would make your life better less stressful? And almost anyone, no matter what  their income level is, they will always say, if I just had a little bit more money, the  person that makes 10,000 a year, the person who makes $50,000 a year, the  person that makes $300,000 a year, everyone is in that same boat. I need just a  little bit more to break even. So our present needs tend to swallow up the  income that we presently have. So saving, how you going to save? Everything is already taken up. And remember that we talked about this whole monthly bill  thing, or, you know, monthly charge, everything is broken down by the month.  So people take their salary, and they take their monthly charges out of that, and  well, I have a little room. I can buy this next thing. I can afford it. And eventually,  everything that they make goes towards their present needs. Number two, not 

just your present needs. Those are the things you think you need your present  wants. There's all these things I need and I'm getting, but then there's the things  I want. I want a new car, or I want a better house, or I'd like a new new set of  clothes, or these shoes that just came out, I would like I play pickleball, and  everyone is getting this new racket, and I still have my old racket. I don't need it.  I already have a racket, but everyone else has this new one, and they're playing  a little bit better than I am, and so now I want it too. It's hard not to succumb to  what everyone else is doing around you, and there's always people around you  that have a little bit more of what you have, and so the wants tend to take up the money that you would otherwise save. And number three, opposition to saving is addiction to spending. We live, at least here in the United States, and it seems  to, you know, go all around the world. We live in a very consumer orientated  world. There's so much stuff to buy. Back when Henry Ford first started the car  business, he said. You can have any color you want a car, as long as it's black.  There was no choices. One thing you buy. But now there's so much choice in  virtually everything. A couple weeks ago, I went to the store and I was interested in getting a toothbrush, and so I just need a toothbrush. I go to the store, I look  at the aisle that has all the toothbrush and the stuff, and there isn't just one  sitting there that I can grab. There's this one that has the little curly thing, and it  bends here in the middle. But that one was $9 and then right next to it you can  get, actually, two for $8 OK, $9 I get the one, but it's nicer, but I could get two for eight. And then they had the supermodel, and then they had the electric ones,  which were 50, but some of them were 20, and some of them were 80. And it's  like, you know, I need someone to come and help me pick out the toothbrush,  because I don't know what to do. There's so much choice, so many options, so  many things that you could have and want, that it becomes an addicting kind of  thing. People, they've actually done studies of this. When you buy something  new, certain chemicals are released in your body, and they give you a high. You  feel good. You go on Amazon and you buy something, it feels good for a little  while, and then it wears off. Or you buy a pair of new shoes, and the next day  you wear them, and you think everybody's looking at your shoes, going, Wow,  cool shoes. But a week later, you don't even care about your shoes, so it sort of  wears off. The high is there, but it wears off. But your brain gets used to that  high. It wants that high again, and it remembers how it got the high. How did it  get the high? It got the high when you bought something. So we go shopping  and we buy things we don't need. My father recently died three months ago, and we had to go to his place and and, you know, sort of, sort through all this stuff,  and so much stuff. It was unbelievable. I mean, there was boxes of it. He had,  like, eight packages of toner for his his his printer alone. It was like he must  have gotten a deal on printer cartridges. He had more cartridges than he could  possibly use in three lifetimes. But there they were stuck in that he had a fax  machine still in the in the in the drawer. He had all this stuff, everything that he 

had acquired all these years, stuff, stuff, stuff, and we get addicted to it. It's a  chemical dependency, the feeling that we get from all this shopping. And so  there's no room left to save anything when we have money we want to take care of that feeling we have. We want that, that buying high so we buy something  again. So our present needs swallow up what we might otherwise save. Our  present wants swallow up what we might otherwise save. And this, this addiction to shopping swallows up what we might otherwise save. Well, how to protect  your savings? So it's like the culture is against you. Your own body is against  you. The people around your family and friends, everyone's got the new clothes  on. They got the new shoes. They got the latest thing. Of this, the latest gadget,  the latest phone, latest computer, the latest online sensation, on and on and on.  All these things are sort of going against us. So how do we, how do we protect  ourselves? How do we, how do we combat these natural things and actually  save money. Number one, the best way is to invest, invest in to something. And  an investment might be something like the stock market or the money market,  something that that gives you interest. It might be investing in someone else's  business, it might be buying a piece of property. I bought a piece of property with my son. We own nine acres in the country. We're investing. We're putting it into  something that we think may, in fact, go up. Now, I have to pay taxes. We both  have to pay taxes on that property every year. That's part of our investment. The money naturally goes towards it. I can't spend it on other things that I want. I put  away a certain amount of money in my portfolio for retirement. I just  automatically do that every single month. It comes right out of my paycheck. I  don't even have to think about it. Just goes right there in that automatic  investment. The second thing that you could do is separate your funds like  actually, when you get paid, you take your funds and you actually put them in  different categories. Some people actually take their paycheck, cash it they get  actual cash, and then they come home, and then they have envelopes. This is  for food, this is for entertainment. This is for that thing I'm trying to buy. This is  my savings. This is my gift to church, and they actually stick the money in an  envelope. And what's nice about that system is when you go to the  entertainment envelope and there's nothing in it, your entertainment for that  month is done. You spent the entertainment envelope early in the month, and  maybe you should have waited, and it teaches you the next month to manage  your money a little bit better, so separating your funds into the categories where  you really want the money to go will keep you from that addiction. I'd like to buy  this thing, but I don't have any money in the buying that thing envelope. You  know, I'm only going to buy so certain this this amount of money for my  electronic gadgets for next year, and when that envelope is empty, I'm done for  this year number three, automatic savings account. I've talked about that you  get your check and it automatically, a portion whatever you decide,  automatically. The Bank does it without talking to you, without you thinking about

it, without you having to push buttons, sign things, do things, it just automatically happens. Number four, cash only rule. That's that whole envelope thing where  you decide you're only going to use cash. By the way, for most people, this is  the only one that works. For most people that struggle with saving. They can't  seem to save no matter what they've tried this. You've tried that the Cash  System is the one that works. And it works partly because if you have the cash  in an envelope and there's nothing in the envelope, then you can't spend it. And  secondly, it works because cash is heavier than credit a credit card is very light.  And whether you spend $1,000 or $5 or $10 or $100 the credit card, it's just as  easy. You just give it to the person. They give it back. You sign something. And  you can do that for $1,000 you can do it for $5 it's the same effort. But if you had to buy a $5,000 car with cash and you went to the bank and got $20 bills, it'd be  a stack this high. Now, walking to the car place and handing over a stack of $20  bills this high hurts. So this is a lot of money, whereas a piece of plastic doesn't  always say this is a lot of money. So psychologically, just the idea of handing  over money, I mean, even if you're in a restaurant and the bill comes to $30  when you reach into your wallet and you pull out the cash and give it to them, it  seems like more money than just signing your name, and it teaches your brain  not to spend. Teaches your brain to save. And the same thing is true with your  saving. When you save it and you're putting in those $20 bills, and that thing is  getting fat. It's like, Hey, we're actually getting somewhere, whereas if you just  saving in the bank, it's just a number, and the number is just changing. All right,  godly attitude towards saving. Number one, all your money belongs to God. I  made this point in an earlier video, all your money belongs to God. Not just 10%  that was the Old Testament tithe. At least 10% belongs to God, but all of it really  belongs to God. Once you understand that every dime you have belongs to  God, it'll be a whole lot easier to save some and why am I saving it? I'm saving it for myself, for the personal needs that I have, for unexpected needs that  happen, for my personal goals. But I'm also saving it, because the godly  opportunities that are going to come my way, I want to be ready for my brother  and sister in law couldn't have children, and so they looked into this whole  adoption thing and and they had an opportunity, and it was going to cost them  money. Well, I had some money I could give them. Because I had some  savings, and because I had some savings, I could respond to the need that was  current right then, and they could take advantage of the opportunity that they  had. So understand, first of all, that all your money belongs to God, and so I  don't want to be a part of an addiction thing, you know, the shopping addiction.  This is God's money, and I'm using God's money to satisfy some addiction that I  have. Number two, you have to understand that you'll be held accountable for  every dollar you get. I said in the earlier video that my father died a few months  ago, and my father was a businessman. He started probably 18 different  businesses in his lifetime, and he has money and but I told him the last 10 

years, I said, Dad, you know, you have this money and don't, don't think, don't  have this mentality. I'm going to have all this money, and I'm going to leave it to  all you kids. I said, I don't know if I want you to leave me this money, because if I get this money one day, I have to stand before God, and God is going to say,  what did you do with the money that your dad left you? I would rather have God  say that to you. You earned it. You made this thing happen. And it's not just  about making money, it's about doing something good with the money that God  enabled you to make. So what good thing do you want to do with this money?  So 10 years ago, he started his own sort of a trust thing that he could give to  charities. And, you know, I still have, I have control of that now, but it was like he put some of the things that he had done into a thing that could only give money  away. That's a good thing, because now he stands before God, and he has to  answer for all the money that God allowed him to make. So you'll be held  accountable for every dollar you get. And finally, number three, your money has  a purpose. Remember, in the, I think in the first couple of videos, we talked  about what money is. Money is just the common denominator that we take and  we take everyone's work and we reduce it to something we can all understand  otherwise, you know, I would have to, you know, if I'm a mechanic, I have to fix  your car, but you are a doctor, and so you take my kidney out, or whatever  problem that I have, and we don't know how to figure this out. So we've reduced everything that everyone does to money. It's just a common denominator for  work and time. Well, what's the purpose of work and time? What's the purpose  of our being on this planet doing the things that we do? God has the purpose of  us on this planet doing all the things that we do so that more and more people  can hear about his Son, Jesus. That's it. The only reason why this earth keeps  doing and going on is because God has not reached all the people that he  wants to reach. It's ministry, ultimately, all of life, all of business, all of money,  making everything that we do, family, cars, buying cars, houses, fun vacations,  all of it. The purpose of all of it is to reach people that God wants reached. So  once you understand that you're freed from, you know, competing with other  people, you know, in terms of houses and cars, you're freed from this addiction  of shopping. There's nothing that you can take with you. There's no u haul  behind the hearse. No one takes a thing with them. So the purpose of all of it,  the purpose of all that we have, the money that we have, the time that we do, all the work that we do, it's for His glory. Once you understand that it becomes  easier to save. You're not just saving money, you're saving. Potential, thank you.