Control Your Expenditures

       Well here we are dealing with the next or second step to financial stewardship.  I want to have some type of order in terms of principles, but in my reading and observations I forgot a very important step that may be needed to be added to the first step, and that is while you are paying yourself first, you need to have a bank account or some means of saving.  As I stated before most of these principles will be coming for The Richest Man In Babylon, and his timeless principles took place in ancient times, some hundred or more years ago, so his terminology or vocabulary was a little different.  The richest man in Babylon said this, ” you need a purse or bag to put what you save into.  In other words, open up a bank account or some kind of storehouse that is not associated with your everyday cash flow or budget, that way you can keep up with how your money is beginning to grow without any hinderance. Dont get me wrong, I know the bank is not the best way to grow your money, but right now it is the best way to save your money.  Later on we will talk about some vehicles to grow your money. 

       Now that we have that out the way, on to the second step, and that is control your expenditures.  As Arkad, the richest man in Babylon was talking to his students he said something very profound, and it went like this, “what each of us calls our ‘necessary expenses’ will always grow to equal our income unless we protest to the contrary”.  In other words, he was saying  done confuse your necessary expenses with your desires.  Often times we have  more desires than our earnings can gratify.  As Arkad continued to talk to his hungry students he then says, study thoughtfully thy accustomed habits of living.  This is where I want to end this blog, we must carefully look at our spending and see where we are spending unnecessarily and reduce or eliminate that expenditure