Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Lenten Thoughts On Money
The farms of a certain rich man produced a fantastic harvest and his factories made a large profit for the year. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops”. Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my storage facilities and warehouses and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my commodities and all my merchandise. I will take all the money I made and put it in long-term deposits. And I will say to myself, “You have made a fortune and you never have to work again or at least for many, many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
But suddenly a divine voice spoke to him and said, “You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
We know the answer to that question. Before the wake began, wife Number One had a friendly RTC judge issue a TRO to evict wife Number Two from the Makati condo she was living in. The youngest son had guards placed around the office of his eldest sister and she was barred from the factory. The older brother withdrew the money from all the bank accounts he could find.
But that is not the real message of the story of the “rich fool” that Jesus of Nazareth told to a group he was teaching. The purpose of the story was to enlighten us on how to become wealthy.
There is an old saying that no one ever got rich by working for a living. That is partially true. No one ever became “wealthy” by earning a salary. However, even salary earners can rise to the heights of financial stardom if they know what to do with the money they make. Few people know the secret and Jesus tries to show them the way.
You have seen as well as I a person who enjoys a very large income from his occupation be it professional such as doctor or lawyer, or the owner of even a small business who also lives a ‘large’ lifestyle. The good times roll and the brand new cars and the bigger condominiums seem to flow like water. Every time you see him, he is talking about that fancy, expensive restaurant where he is a favored customer. The wife is constantly showing off the pasalubong from her last trip abroad. But when his business turns, sometimes by even a small amount, to the downside, his financial ‘empire’ collapses and the next time you see him, he is trying to borrow money from you.
Stupid behavior with money is not limited to the elite and the amount of money involved. You see workers who receive their weekly wages Friday or Saturday after work, and that night they live like millionaires. They buy drinks for the house and fill the table over and over again with food. By Monday when they come back to work, there is nothing left of last week’s salary. All they have to show for their week’s work and weekend of ‘wealth’ are empty pockets and a big hangover headache. Then they start the same useless and foolhardy cycle over once more. People that behave this impractical way cannot see any need to use their salary and their harvest as an investment in their future. They just see it as a short-term provision, made to last for the moment until their next harvest. They live from paycheck to paycheck because their thinking is that this week’s paycheck is intended only to last until next week’s paycheck and amazingly, that is all the longer their money lasts.
OCW remittances are a classic example of using income for lifestyle and not the future. The billions and billions of OCW money that has flowed into the Philippines in the last twenty years has done nothing to alleviate poverty for the country. Actually it has done little even for the individual OCWs. Most of their remittances goes for “lifestyle” and not the future. The OCW wife buys the latest, expensive cell phone when it could have been used to start a business. Of course, this is not true in all cases but sadly for far too many.
You cannot consider that your harvest is your provision for your day-to-day lifestyle. Past opportunities should become our war chest to make the most of upcoming bigger opportunities to build more prosperity in our lives. A foolish greedy person spends everything that he has to increase his lifestyle. The vast majority of big winners in all the national lotteries around the world have nothing left 24 months after hitting their jackpot. These fools might even deceive themselves that they are wise by devouring all of the abundance, but doing it more slowly. The fool raises his standard of living with no thought of using the money to invest and prepare for the next planting. A judicious person spends during the lean times and saves during the good times.
Lent is more than eating a fish sandwich instead of spaghetti for lunch. Godly financial management is more than being thankful for what we receive. It is what we do with our blessings.
But suddenly a divine voice spoke to him and said, “You fool! This very night your life will be taken from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
We know the answer to that question. Before the wake began, wife Number One had a friendly RTC judge issue a TRO to evict wife Number Two from the Makati condo she was living in. The youngest son had guards placed around the office of his eldest sister and she was barred from the factory. The older brother withdrew the money from all the bank accounts he could find.
But that is not the real message of the story of the “rich fool” that Jesus of Nazareth told to a group he was teaching. The purpose of the story was to enlighten us on how to become wealthy.
There is an old saying that no one ever got rich by working for a living. That is partially true. No one ever became “wealthy” by earning a salary. However, even salary earners can rise to the heights of financial stardom if they know what to do with the money they make. Few people know the secret and Jesus tries to show them the way.
You have seen as well as I a person who enjoys a very large income from his occupation be it professional such as doctor or lawyer, or the owner of even a small business who also lives a ‘large’ lifestyle. The good times roll and the brand new cars and the bigger condominiums seem to flow like water. Every time you see him, he is talking about that fancy, expensive restaurant where he is a favored customer. The wife is constantly showing off the pasalubong from her last trip abroad. But when his business turns, sometimes by even a small amount, to the downside, his financial ‘empire’ collapses and the next time you see him, he is trying to borrow money from you.
Stupid behavior with money is not limited to the elite and the amount of money involved. You see workers who receive their weekly wages Friday or Saturday after work, and that night they live like millionaires. They buy drinks for the house and fill the table over and over again with food. By Monday when they come back to work, there is nothing left of last week’s salary. All they have to show for their week’s work and weekend of ‘wealth’ are empty pockets and a big hangover headache. Then they start the same useless and foolhardy cycle over once more. People that behave this impractical way cannot see any need to use their salary and their harvest as an investment in their future. They just see it as a short-term provision, made to last for the moment until their next harvest. They live from paycheck to paycheck because their thinking is that this week’s paycheck is intended only to last until next week’s paycheck and amazingly, that is all the longer their money lasts.
OCW remittances are a classic example of using income for lifestyle and not the future. The billions and billions of OCW money that has flowed into the Philippines in the last twenty years has done nothing to alleviate poverty for the country. Actually it has done little even for the individual OCWs. Most of their remittances goes for “lifestyle” and not the future. The OCW wife buys the latest, expensive cell phone when it could have been used to start a business. Of course, this is not true in all cases but sadly for far too many.
You cannot consider that your harvest is your provision for your day-to-day lifestyle. Past opportunities should become our war chest to make the most of upcoming bigger opportunities to build more prosperity in our lives. A foolish greedy person spends everything that he has to increase his lifestyle. The vast majority of big winners in all the national lotteries around the world have nothing left 24 months after hitting their jackpot. These fools might even deceive themselves that they are wise by devouring all of the abundance, but doing it more slowly. The fool raises his standard of living with no thought of using the money to invest and prepare for the next planting. A judicious person spends during the lean times and saves during the good times.
Lent is more than eating a fish sandwich instead of spaghetti for lunch. Godly financial management is more than being thankful for what we receive. It is what we do with our blessings.
// posted by john mangun @ Wednesday, March 16, 2005 
