Living Within Our Means

I gave a talk in church this Sunday, you can see it below:

At 18, I was taught the restored gospel and accepted baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the first phrases I heard as a new member was “living within your means”. I have thought long and hard about that phrase. At first glance it simply means that you should not spend more money than you have, but I think there is a much deeper meaning here.

The word “means” in the phrase has to do with our money. How do we get money? We work. So money is the value of our labor, and labor is the energy we exert to get the job done. So our “means” can be a reflection of our energy.

At first glance living within our means has to do with living within the money we have. It may sound too simple, but you cannot spend more than you make. At least it used to be that way. Our grandparents had a very different view of credit, back then it wasn’t given out as freely as it is today. If we budget our money, pay our tithing, plan out our expenses, save for what we want… it all sounds so simple, but we can and should avoid credit. If we stop and think about what money really means and what credit is, it might change our thinking a bit. As I said, money is the value of our labor, our energy to perform a task. So when we borrow money, we are borrowing against our future energy with interest added. What will happen if we borrow beyond the energy we can exert to make money? That is when we may feel overwhelmed by debt. In order to explain interest to our children we told them that it’s as if you borrow money and every day that you can’t pay it back you have to pay a little more money. Debt is like a hungry monster always growing with interest. Soon it amounts to double the original cost of the item.

“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. . . . Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” — J. Reuben Clark

I went to Ecuador on a mission for 18 months. Ecuador is a pretty diverse country. I saw people with huge mansions and people with one room dirt floors, but I never saw storage sheds or storage rental facilities. Upon coming home to Arizona, I had been gone so long and had so many different experiences that I saw the United States through a foreigner’s eye. I was amazed at how much we own. Driving home I saw one after another of places advertising to store your excess stuff. I got home and was blown away at how much stuff there was. I feel like we suffer from an over abundance of things. As I saw more and more rental storage units the phrase came into my mind, “living within your means”. I felt the Spirit whisper to me that so many people aren’t living within their own residential space. If we cannot afford a large enough house to hold all the things we want, perhaps we have too many things.

The same month I got home from Ecuador, Chris began to make frequent visits to my home and within the month we were engaged. We began our married life with little money but lots of love. Soon after our marriage, we were expecting our first son, Peter. I stayed home and Chris worked hard to provide for us and go to school to further his education. I have supported and encouraged him all the way through college. I knew that he was learning valuable skills to further his potential salary. I knew that his education would increase our means to provide for our children. Our level of education helps us learn unique things, the more unique—the more valuable. Education comes in many forms; it may be college, trade school, apprenticeships, and military training. My brother in law has worked long and hard learning about airplanes in the military and now he is one of the top people in his field. As we further our education we learn unique skills that set us apart and increase our value for work.

During those school years, I felt that I was as much in school as he was. We were both quite busy and living in a college town, the church ward was small and we were given time consuming callings. Chris was called as Elder’s Quorum President and I was called as Seminary Teacher. Our family continued growing; I had two pregnancies during those seminary years. Our time was stretched thin, but the grace of God sustained us. Time and again Chris and I felt bad that we couldn’t do more, but we honestly didn’t have any extra time. We were living within our means giving all of our time and talents to furthering Chris’ education, nurturing our children and helping the church. We can budget our time the same as way we can budget our money, planning how to spend our time. We can increase our earnings through further education. Unfortunately we cannot increase our time, there will always remain 24 hours in a day, no matter how hard we pray to the contrary. We need to learn to live within our time and use it wisely.

Brigham Young set the perfect example of balancing our time: work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours and 8 hours recreation.

Living within our means doesn’t have to be a line drawn with permanent marker, we can increase our means through education, and we can strive to spend our money more wisely, spend our time more wisely, organize and use our living space. As our lives change, our means change. Right now Chris and I have decided that he will work and I will stay home and raise our children. I feel like it’s his job to make money and my job to save money, and it’s important for both of us as well as our children to be content.