to be a better steward

recently, i've been self-educating to prepare myself for whatever's to come in the future.. reading a lot of books, becoming more knowledgeable in small businesses, different industries, different countries and cultures, and the bible. it's been pretty interesting, seeing all these different things come together into my own melting pot of interests, and even drawing the link of how they relate to one another in my world and also in others'.

from my reading, there is one thing i recently feel strongly convicted to do: live on 50% of my income for the next 6 months. living on the amount of reduced income is definitely do-able, and for some people easily done, but i know it will be a challenge to me since my jobs and personal savings since 8th grade have always allowed me to save up enough in the bank to do whatever i want without my parents' support (to the extent of living comfortably without worrying about counting the beans down to the dollars). if it came down to convenience and saving a few dollars, i'd probably choose convenience. probably not fiscally wise or as responsible i should be, but it is what it is. so, now is the time we change this.

there are a couple reasons i'm doing this, and it wasn't just one aspect of my interests that fueled this desire: first, i've always had a heart for the nations. it started with geography bee in 5th grade, when i won the city-wide K-8 geography bee (nerdy, i know). but the different regions, cultures, landscapes, foods, peoples, really interested me, and i had a natural liking towards memorizing what every capital was, each country's natural resources, and their local environment. as i grew older, one of my life goals is to travel to every country. though i'm not sure that this will happen in this fashion of vacationing in every country (just because financially speaking, this is not a very smart way to spend my money), if the opportunity arises, i would like to experience different cultures to better understand the human race, perhaps spending a summer, a few months, or even a couple years or longer in another country doing missions and building relationships.

second, i've always taken an interest in the local ann arbor community and the small businesses in the area. talking to local entrepreneurs, i've identified some needs of the community that i would like to take part in providing someday. though i never thought i'd use my BBA education for the corporate world, i can definitely see it be utilized one day in this area to reach the community through my own business. with the current business plan i'm working on, it will require a decent capital outlay in the initial years if i do choose to implement this plan. before i take full ownership in implementing this "project", i want to experience what it will be like to have to operate under a tight budget to simulate the circumstances in a startup.

while i'm still unclear on what the near future will bring, these are the two areas of my life i've most recently felt inclined to explore further. i don't want to completely rely on stability and planning, but i would like to be a good steward so i can act in faith but according to a direction and plan. with my current job working as a financial analyst, i've been learning to be more responsible counting the beans down to the exact cent, even if it's a cent out of a million dollars. as a corporate job, it doesn't fall in line with either of the two points i mentioned above, but yet my time here has been a very valuable time of learning how to manage a large business and the associated costs of operating one. i'm learning to be faithful with the current opportunity, and work on developing a skill set that can easily be transferred to do either of the above.

i'm confident this personal "budget crunch" is leading to something big... i can feel it. though i don't know exactly yet, i'm excited to discover it this year, and know this conviction is part of the process i will need to go through and want to go through to discover the end goal. it will teach me more lessons than i can imagine, as i'll have to eat in more often, pass on certain purchases, and think twice before making certain decisions. i expect there will be times when i'll have to sacrifice convenience to save those few extra dollars to stay under my new tighter budget. however, at the same time, i think it'll be a fun and educational six months of preparing for whatever may come in the future. perhaps it will give me a new lifestyle and i'll want to extend six months to a year or indefinitely. perhaps it may even give me more clarity to what i need to be ready to do and which direction to head in next with this money! in the meantime, i'll just continue to trust and have faith, working, reading, and learning as much as i can.