What do I mean by, “Don’t be a statistic”. The answer is that in the U.S. today 56% of marriages end in divorce because of money problems. Also, 40% of Americans find it hard to come up with $1,000.
Do these statistics alarm you? They do me. America is one of the most prosperous nations in history. Most Americans live well above the world’s poverty level. In fact, even our poorest in America are rich when compared to the rest of the world. Almost 50% of the world’s population live on $2.50 a day. No, that is not a typo. This equates to an annual income of $912.50. Over 80% of the world’s population survive on less than $1,000 a year!
In America, 49.1% live at or below the US poverty level. The official US poverty measure is $11,139 for an individual, or $22,314 for a family of four. So why is it that most American’s who make more than 11 times than the rest of the world cannot come up with $1,000?
It is because they don’t have a plan. Their money is telling them where to go instead of them telling their money where to go. Yes, I am talking about a budget or a spending plan. When you don’t have one, you spend money you don’t have. You incur credit card or loan debt. You and your spouse fight over money or the lack thereof. Instead of sitting down together and preparing a budget, you decide to divorce. You don’t have an emergency fund that can bail you out when the car breaks, your child gets sick, or your appliances break down. What you have is not a money problem. You have a management problem. You simply do not know how to manage your money.
If you start by creating a budget, you will learn to manage your money. You will begin to save. Married couples will communicate with each other instead of fighting. Peace will achieved when it comes to money. This will lead to less divorces. The Bible has 2,350 verses on money. Read your Bible and learn to apply God’s principles to handling your finances His way. Remember He owns it all anyway and we are simply stewards of His money. Luke 14:28-30: “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.'”
I hope you take heed. Don’t be a statistic.
Download a budget from our downloads. You can also download a loan amortization schedule that will show you what happens if you add extra payments to your debt.
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