No Regrets

William Borden was heir to a fortune but gave it up to become a missionary. He contracted spinal meningitis in Egypt and died at the age of 25. In the back of his Bible were found these words: No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.

Unfortunately, many believers are burdened with financial regrets. The #1 regret is not saving for retirement, followed by not saving for emergencies, taking on too much debt, not saving for children’s education, and buying a bigger house than was affordable. Do any of these sound familiar to you? If so, don’t despair.

You can’t change what you did in the past but you can change going forward! It will require you to sacrifice now in order to reach long-term goals. Solomon said, Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. (Proverbs 21:20)

Saving is important and requires self-control. Even if you’re in debt, get into the habit of saving something every single month to build an emergency fund and break the cycle of borrowing. You may believe the amount you can save is so small that it’s meaningless. But, pennies add up to dollars!

Putting away $10 a month is just 33 cents per day. Challenge yourself to increase the amount every month and before long, you will have developed a lifelong discipline of saving.

I recommend saving while making minimum monthly payments on all your debts. Aim to build an emergency fund of at least $1,000 if you don’t already have one. Transfer money via automatic deductions from your paycheck. If you don’t see it money you’ll be less tempted to spend it. After saving $1,000, then aggressively eliminate your debt so you can reallocate the money to specific savings accounts.

It’s simply a matter of saying no for what you want today so you have what you need tomorrow.

If you need help with your finances or are looking for free resources to get started, call the Crown Helpline at 800-722-1976 or go online to crown.org/money