Money Crashers: 7 Important Financial Tips From the Bible

This new Money Crashers post is a little bit gimmicky, but it was fun to write. It's about useful financial tips you can glean from an unexpected source: the Bible. Even though it was written many centuries ago, this ancient book has some financial tips that are surprisingly relevant in the modern world.

For example, take the story of Pharaoh's dream from Genesis, chapter 41. In his dream, Pharaoh sees seven fat cattle grazing by the Nile, and seven skinny cattle come up and swallow them whole. He turns to Joseph, who has a reputation for interpreting dream omens, and gets the explanation that the seven fat cattle represent seven years of plenty, and the seven skinny ones are seven years of famine that will swallow up all the gains of the seven good years as if they'd never been. To avert this disaster, Joseph recommends setting aside a portion of the harvest during each good year to see the country through the years of famine.

Now, whether you think Joseph was divinely inspired or not, his advice definitely makes sense. It's always a good idea to save up in good years so you'll have something to get you through the lean years—because even if you haven't had a handy dream to tell you exactly when hard times will hit, it's pretty certain they will at some point. In fact, this piece of financial advice is so standard that modern financial planners have a name for it: they call it keeping an emergency fund. But modern as it sounds, it's essentially the same idea attributed to Joseph thousands of years ago.

That's just one example of how the Bible offers sound advice on money matters. For six more, check out the article: 7 Important Financial Tips From the Bible – Verses About Money