5 Tips for Financial Breakthrough

practical financial tips

5 Tips for Financial Breakthrough

Are you struggling with your finances?  Do you have more month that money?  There are some practical things you can do to help turn your finances around.  Here are 5 practical Biblical tips that will help you get the breakthrough you need.

1.  Have a Budget.  You have to have a budget! It doesn’t matter if you’re living paycheck to paycheck or earning six-figures a year, you need to know where your money is going if you want to have a handle on your finances. Budgeting lies at the foundation of every financial plan. Proverbs 21:5 tells us, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”  Budgeting is being diligent in our financial planning.

 

The way you create a personal budget, is  by listing all of your monthly expenses;  tithe, taxes, savings, house, food, utilities, insurance, auto, clothes, etc. and total them up and compare them to the total income you make each month.  Then begin to regulate your spending in line with your income and your future financial goals and needs.  The first time a family goes through this process they are often shocked by how much they are spending.  Many discover they are spending more than they are making .  If that is the case, your first step is to begin making changes in what you’re spending so that  you spend less than you make. If you don’t have a budget, do it now.  It is the first step to financial breakthrough.

2. Live below your means.  We live in a world and age of consumerism. There are influences and pressure coming at us from every direction to buy more and more and more – trying to  “Keep up with the Jones’s”  Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have,” and Proverbs 21:20 says, “[There is] treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up..  ” If you want to achieve financial stability you don’t want to just live within your means, you want  to take it a step further and live beneath your means.

Here’s what I mean by that, just because you can afford a certain lifestyle  doesn’t mean you have to live it.  Just because you can afford $1,500 a month on housing doesn’t mean you have to.  How about spending $1,100 or $1,200 a month? You could put what you save into a high-yield savings account, which puts you closer to your goals.  They way to get ahead financially is to “live below your means”!

3. Get out of debt.   “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”  (Romans 13:8)  Getting out of debt requires three steps:  1) Stop aquiring new debt.  Stop using credit. Don’t finance anything.  You may need to cut up your credit cards 2) Start to aggressively pay off every debt.  Put together a written plan to begin paying off your debts. 3) Start NOW.  Do not put it off.  Don’t make excuses, start today.  

To stop using credit takes self discipline, and getting rid of debt will require some sacrifices. Some people skip annual vacations to generate extra cash for debt repayment, others look for extra jobs or other ways to earn extra money. Getting out of debt will help you reach financial stability.

4.  Save and invest.  Deuteronomy 28:8 says, “The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses...” .  There is a biblical principle called the “storehouse”.   Part of our responsibility of stewardship includes prudent saving – building storehouses.

We should set aside part of our income into our storehouses.   To begin with you should accumulate an emergency fund of at least six months of living expense.   Creating an emergency fund is vital. Once you have your emergency fund, begin investing every month and building up your storehouses.   You should be saving a minimum of 10% of your income.  When you have “storehouses”, God will command the blessing on them!.

5. Give tithes and offerings.  I would have put this as number one, but if I did some of you would have  stopped reading.   Giving is such a huge part of God’s plan for financial stability and prosperity.  Giving is a principle in the kingdom of God that works when you apply it.   Proverbs 11:24 puts it this way, “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”   It is a paradox.  You may feel like you can’t afford to give.  However,  you can’t afford not to give.  

Jesus said, “Where your treasurer is, there will your heart be“.  (Matthew 6:21)  Where you spend your money is evidence of what is really important to you.   God created us to be givers and when we do, it sets us up for increase.  It is called – giving and receiving, sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting.  When we give we are sowing a seed, and that seed will bring a harvest into our life.   For example, if you sow a smile, you will get a smile back.

Everyone can give.  It is not how much you give, it is giving what you have.  God never expects us to give something we don’t have.  However, He expects us to give what we do have. Get into the rhythm of giving and receiving and it will accelerate your financial stability.

You may be in a very difficult place financially.   Financial stability may seem impossible, or so far off that  you feel hopeless. However, if you just start taking one small step at a time  with an effective plan and the right amount of effort, you can reach all of your financial goals and more. 

Put these five tips to work in your financial plan and watch how God can help!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.