I have found this guidance useful for my and our consideration and also serves as a reminder to many: How Do You Want To Live?
1. Live Above Your Means
Those who live above their means "buy the things they do not need with the money they do not have just to impress the people they do not know". They end up with big possessions and even bigger debts. They have lots of gadgets and little generosity.
2. Live With Your Means
If we live with our means, we spend all we have by the end of the month and eagerly wait for the next pay cheque to arrive. The philosophy is "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die". This can be a very stressful way to live!
3. Live Within Your Means
The ones who live within their means live with some degree of wisdom. They make sure that they have something left aside for a rainy day. They give thought to things like insurance and investments.
4. Live Below Your Means
People who are skilled in the spiritual discipline of simplicity come to the point where, even though they can well afford something, they choose to do without it so that they have more to share with others. They have learnt to say, "Enough is enough." They are not driven to upgrade each time a new product is introduced in the market, and they do not heel compelled to own the latest designs or the newest gadgets. They are the people who have found a place of contentment in God.
-Extract from the book 'Managing Money God's Way' by Benny Ho
So which kind of 'live' are you? I like what was written on 'Live Above Your Means' -
Buy the things they do not need
With the money they do not have
Just to impress people they do not know
I think I read it somewhere -
Buy the house where no one stays
Buy the phone where they seldom communicate (except play games)
Buy everything else except living a life!
