“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations? When the grass is gone and the new growth appears and the vegetation of the mountains is gathered, the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field. There will be enough goats' milk for your food, for the food of your household and maintenance for your girls” – Proverbs 27:23-27
Have you ever been in a season of your life where you felt like you had more than you needed? Perhaps you received a promotion or a raise and your new salary more than took care of your needs. Perhaps you made a big sale and received a large commission. Or maybe you just finished paying off some major debts and now you have extra cash flow at the end of the month. What are you doing with that abundance during that time? In this proverb, King Solomon is telling the reader to pay attention to their flocks. The reason he is giving this advice is because there may come a time in which circumstances change and that very flock may be what ensures that the family is taken care of. If the reader is not paying attention to the condition of his flock, then when the moment comes in which some of the animals are needed for sustenance, he may be greatly disappointed. What he thought would have taken care of him and his family, is not able to.
Today, we don’t live in an agrarian society…at least not in America. But that does not mean that the principles from this proverb can’t be applied to our life. What this proverb is teaching us is to be mindful of the possessions and resources that we have. There is no problem with enjoying the fruit of our labor, but it should not be to the detriment of our future. If you have been alive for any amount of time, then you know that life happens. There may be an unexpected home repair that needs to be addressed. There may be a medical emergency that needs our focus. There may be a mass layoff that leaves you unemployed. Changes to the laws of our country could come about that could completely change how we earn money. We can’t control those unexpected events, no matter how hard we may try. The best way to ensure that those unexpected events don’t completely derail your lifestyle is by being prepared for them. As a wise man once said, “Preparation is the separation”. Everyone can live comfortably when the circumstances are pristine. However, those who prepare themselves for the rough patches will end up separating themselves from the pack and thriving when those rough patches come (and trust me, those rough patches will come).
I was in Boy Scouts as a kid; and the motto we were taught was ”Be Prepared”. That has always stuck with me. You have to be prepared for the unexpectedness of life. So, how do you prepare yourself for those unexpected financial rough patches?
First, you have to be comfortable living within your means. That means that you have to do all you can to not spend more than you earn. The advent of credit cards has made that increasingly difficult for many people to do. But the fact of the matter is that without having the discipline of living within your means, you are one emergency away from financial ruin.
Second, you have to be able to build a savings reserve. I cannot stress how vital that is. From firsthand experience I can tell you that having an emergency savings account helps keep that unexpected repair from being financially catastrophic. Everyone ought to have between three to six months of expenses in savings. That may seem like a tall order, but if you are able to discipline yourself to live within your means, then building up the savings will be easier than expected.
Third, you have to pay off whatever debt you have. It is difficult to build wealth when you owe people money. Elsewhere in Proverbs, Solomon says that the borrower is a slave to the lender. You can’t be in financial bondage and expect to build wealth like a financially free person. Many people have tried to build a large sum of wealth while still holding on to a ton of debt. That strategy may work for a time, when all the outside circumstances are ideal (low interest rates, booming economy, stable income). However, when the rough patches come, that debt that you owe will become an even greater burden on you and end up becoming the very thing that brings you down. So, the only solution to avoid that pitfall is to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible.
Last, but certainly not least, you have to invest wisely. Recently, my wife and I watched the “Big George Foreman” movie on Amazon Prime (great movie by the way). As the now retired boxer was making his millions of dollars in the ring, he had entrusted his wealth to a friend of his from his time in the Job Corp. That friend had told him that the money was being invested in good “quality” stocks. In reality, he was investing the money in highly speculative investments that had great upside but also major downside. One day, when George Foreman went to the bank with his wife to figure out why the electric bill for the youth center he opened up was never paid, he learned from the banker that he had no more money. All the money that he had was lost because of bad investments made by his friend. There are so many different types of investments out there, and you have to be wise in where you are investing your hard earned money. Not everything that makes money is an investment worth buying. That stock that doubled one year could completely go under a few years later. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what happened with a company called Enron two decades ago. From 1999 to 2000, its share price more than doubled in value and at one point had a market cap of $70 billion. But by December 2001, they were filing for bankruptcy. If you had all of your money invested with them, you would have lost it all by January 2002. So, investing wisely is absolutely paramount in financial preparedness. You don’t want all the discipline you implemented in living within your means, building up savings, and paying off debt, to be wiped away because of terrible investments.
In life, there will be financial ups and downs that we will have to endure. While we cannot avoid those downs, we can be prepared for them. If we take the advice of King Solomon and be careful to “know well the condition of your flocks” and to “give attention to your herds”, when those financial rough patches come, not only will we be prepared to deal with them, we will be able to thrive through those perilous times.