Plan For Poverty

“He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” (Pr 28:22 AV)

 This verse is not necessarily saying that being hasty to accumulate wealth automatically means one will be poor in the end.  Although that can often be the case.  If one were passionate about accumulating things, he may take less than ethical means to accomplish this.  If he does, in the end, that wealth may fail.  However, I wish to consider this in another way.  I wish to think upon this as it pertains to my station in life.  Note here there is a certainty of poverty.  There is a time when the one who would be hasty to be rich will also experience years of want.  This is a principle of life that has evaded many.  Financial planning means one must plan to put away in the years of plenty for the years of less.  In the peek of our earning years, we need to understand there are years of less income.  The one who is hasty to be rich has an evil eye because he is shortsighted.  He is not keeping in mind long-term plans and goals.  The material things of this life will pass with the using.  The things he has pursued when the years are good will not sustain him when the years are not so good.

There was a game we used to play that was supposed to teach us lessons we would need.  It was called the Game of Life.  This game had good intentions.  The object of the game was to be the one who had the most money when everyone reached the end.  This game had spaces that marked milestones of life.  It had a space called marriage.  Then you would put a second little peg in your car.  This game had spaces that announced the birth of a child.  Another peg was added to your car.  Another space may have required a mortgage.  Student loans were another.  Along the way, you were able to pick your career based on the space you landed.  There were utilities to pay.  Groceries to purchase.  Medical bills or emergencies that popped up.  Sometimes a windfall may come your way.  Winning the lottery, a rebate or refinance, or inheritance might be in your future.  Raises were regular.  Sometimes, you might lose your job.  The point was well laid out.  Planning was essential.  When purchases came up, one could decline the purchase.  However, there were two major flaws in this game.  The first is to assume life is all chance.  It minimized accountability for choices.  The second is the outcome could be manipulated.  Manipulating the roll of the dice to land on a good space as opposed to a bad space, for instance.  If you lost the game, you could always play again.  Life was seen as a random chain of events that could be abandoned if you were losing and could start all over again; playing only if you are winning.

Real-life is not like that.  It goes in semi-predictable patterns.  Income is one of them.  We have the lean years of our early adult life.  We have the leaner years of raising our children.  Once they have left the nest, we have our best years of earning.  The middle-aged years when our mortgage is close to being paid completely off.  Our children do not need our resources any longer.  Then there are the twilight years.  The years wherein we no longer have the ability to work full hours for our needs.  Poverty, like our early adult lives, returns.  It is what we do with what we have during the peak of our earning years that will determine who we will live in our later years.  This is one of the warnings Solomon is trying to convey to his children.  Do not be hasty to be rich.  If you are hasty, you may accumulate things to yourself which will deteriorate and have no value when you need them later on.  Poverty will come.  Either because we have used our earnings in and irresponsible way, or because we did not save up for the coming lean years.  It is an inevitable pattern of life.  A predictable outcome.  Something that should be planned for while we can do something about it.