What to Do with Your Next $100: Save It, Spend it or Give it Away

Congratulations! You just found a $100 bill on the sidewalk, or got it in the mail. Surprise money, unexpected, and un-budgeted. Now what are you going to do with it? Go out for a great dinner? Pay a bill? Buy something you desperately need? Hide it? Give it away? What you would do indicates your Financial Mentality, and maybe even your financial future.

Do you have a Subtraction Mentality when it comes to managing your money?

If you're into basic financial subtraction, you probably just subtract your bills from your income until they're both down to zero. Then you get to do it all over next month, starting from zero again. Or maybe you'll be starting from zero-minus, because you didn't come out even and went into debt. Hey, you'll survive this way, as long as you can keep bringing in the money and don't borrow so much that your debt buries you.

So, what will you do with an extra $100 if you have a Subtraction Mentality of money management? Since you're always starting from zero or zero-minus, that $100 will probably have to go for food or an emergency.

Do you have an Addition Mentality when managing your money?

The Addition Mentality means your bills are on one mental list, your income on another one, and your Keep-away Money is separate. Before you start subtracting every month, you put some money in a Keep-Away Stack so you'll keep away from it, whether it's in the bank, under your mattress, or in a hole in the ground. Your Keep-Away Money (savings) keeps adding up, a little at a time. That's the Addition Mentality of money management. It seems excruciatingly slow, because it is.

What will you do with an extra $100 if you have an Addition Mentality of money management? You'll probably take that unexpected money and hide it away, or maybe split it between your Keep-Away Savings and a needed purchase. Of course, you could invest your savings wisely; then, it will not only add up but multiply.

Do you have a Multiplication Mentality of money management?

This is a principle that applies not only to money, but to your time, and even your love and kindness to others. The way to multiply any of those exponentially, is to give it away, invest it or both. This is an old supernatural truth, a biblical principle, and a reciprocal miracle. Give and it will be given unto you. Cast your bread upon the waters, and it will return to you. Invest love and training in a child, and when he grows old he will not depart from it. As you sow so shall you reap.

How can the Multiplication Mentality manifest in our lives?

It starts with giving and gratitude. Whatever you have, no matter how little, be thankful. Be generous. Thank God for it, then give some of it away. The good it does can go on and on. And, you will see your gift multiply exponentially in your own life too; eventually, there will be more to give, to use, to sell, to invest. This is a theory that is very easy to test. Determine that the next income, gift, windfall or dividend you receive will be given away in whole or in part with no thought of recompense or reward.

What will you do with that extra $100 if you have a Multiplication Mentality of money management? You'll give it away. To the homeless shelter, to your church, to the orphanage in Haiti, to the couple who lost their home. Think of it as a seed to plant in the most worthwhile garden you know of. Because as you know, no good farmer eats his seed; not if he wants it to multiply.

Addition and Subtraction are finite. Multiplication is infinite.

When it comes to money management, subtraction brings you back to zero. Addition gives you a slight increase. Multiplication goes on and on making wider and wider ripples, like the ones in the lake when the fish jumps.

Sources:
From the Bible:
Luke 6:38
Matthew 25
Proverbs 22:6
Ecclesiastes 1:11

Inspired by a message given by Robert Heidler,
Glory of Zion International Ministries