Don't eat your future

By Pastor M

A couple of my readers last week stated that they enjoyed my article but didn’t like the fact that I said we should live within our means.

“Don’t you know that experts encourage use of debt to leapfrog ahead in your investments?” they asked. So today, I set the record straight.

I recognise that today, conventional wisdom is that you will never succeed in life or business unless you leverage debt. Practically every month, many of us get a phone call from a bank representative offering us school fees, car, business or home loans. Even loans to buy shares! I consider that gambling, not investing! The conventional wisdom is that you need debt to succeed.

Shortcut

The problems with this view are many! It offers us a shortcut to access money that we have not yet built up the wisdom to control. Because of debt, many Kenyans today are living in places they can’t afford, driving cars they can’t afford and eating in places they can’t afford. We’re buying things we don’t need with money we don’t have in order to impress people we don’t like! As a generation, we have been taught to eat our future today. Even those of us who are not yet in debt live very close to the margins (a salary increase automatically means a lifestyle change) and so we’re just one calamity away from debt!

Even though the Bible doesn’t call debt a sin, it points to the multiple problems debt introduces. Debt is enslaving. Proverbs 22:7 says ‘the borrower is a slave to the lender’. Many people spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how to avoid their landlord and other such creditors. And many end up borrowing in order to pay back earlier loans! Debt is also presumptuous! Proverbs: 27:1 also warns, “Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth”. Debt presumes we can control our ability to pay in the future. But many have lost a job or been affected by unexpected circumstances that have left them unable to service a debt they thought they could!

Wisen up  

I have learnt a lot from observing one of my good friends, an Asian businessman. Although wealthy, he drives a much cheaper but practical car and lives in a modest neighbourhood. He lives not just within, but below his means! His community taught him that true wealth is not built over one generation but over at least three. He is already thinking about how to start training his pre-school aged son how to work in his business! It’s no wonder to me, that immigrants of Asian origin seem to thrive in whatever culture they are planted!

 Are you relying on debt to live above your means? It’s time to wisen up!