Ellen G. White on Savings

Ellen G. White on savings

The means you have earned has not been wisely and economically expended so as to leave a margin should you be sick and your family deprived of the means you bring to sustain them. Your family should have something to rely upon if you should be brought into straitened places. {Adventist Home 396.1}

You might today have had a capital of means to use in case of emergency and to aid the cause of God, if you had economized as you should. Every week a portion of your wages should be reserved and in no case touched unless suffering actual want, or to render back to the Giver in offerings to God. . . . {Adventist Home 395.3}

Brother and Sister B have not learned the lesson of economy. . . . They would use all as they pass along, were it ever so much. They would enjoy as they go and then, when affliction draws upon them, would be wholly unprepared. . . . Had Brother and Sister B been economical managers, denying themselves, they could ere this have had a home of their own and besides this have had means to draw upon in case of adversity. But they will not economize as others have done, upon whom they have sometimes been dependent. If they neglect to learn these lessons, their characters will not be found perfect in the day of God. {Adventist Home 395.1}

A sample emergency fund

An emergency fund in savings for a family of four (in Tennessee cost of living terms, as of April, 2011), which encompasses the mortgage or rent, food, energy, insurance, etc., would be about $2,500 per month:

Category	Cost (per month)
Food + toiletries	$800
Rent or mortgage	$500
Gasoline	$300
Telephone (cell phones)	$100
Utilities (electricity, water, gas)	$150
Auto insurance	$50
Health (Medi-Share) and life insurance	$500
Miscellaneous	$100
TOTAL	$2,500

A six-month emergency fund would then total to $15,000 (i.e. $2,500 times 6). At current prices this represents 10 ounces of gold or a little over 300 ounces of silver, either of which can be easily stored in a safety deposit box in a bank or some other safe location.

Ellen G. White on country property

The time has come when, as God opens the way, families should move out of the cities. The children should be taken into the country. The parents should get as suitable a place as their means will allow. Though the dwelling may be small, yet there should be land in connection with it that may be cultivated. {Adventist Home 139.4}

Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies. {Adventist Home 141.4}