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iQuestions Faculty, Ron Blue 
 
 
Question: 
 
How do I live in light of economic uncertainty? 
 
Answer: 
 
One of the things that is absolutely certain is that our economic 
situation is uncertain. I don’t know what is going to happen. We could 
have inflation or deflation, or a lot of adverse things could go on in our 
economy—like a 9/11 or a Y2K or things that we can’t even anticipate 
today. So, the question is “How do I live?”  
 
I was testifying before a congressional subcommittee a number of 
years ago, and the senator who was asking the question, he said, “Mr. 
Blue, what would you tell the American family about their finances?”  
 
And I thought to myself, “When I tell him what I’m going to tell him, 
he’s going to laugh, because the only thing I could tell him were some 
basic financial principles that I knew.”  
 
So, I said, “Senator, I would tell the American family four things. 
Number one, spend less than you earn. Live within your income. 
Number two, avoid the use of debt. Debt’s not wrong, but avoid the 
use of debt, so that you don’t obligate the future.” And, I said, 
“Thirdly, build some flexibility or liquidity or opportunity into your 
financial situation by having reserves set aside, so that when the 
unexpected occurs, which it always will, you have prepared for that.” 
And then I said, “Fourthly, what I would do is to set long term goals, 
so that I would have targets to shoot at. I knew the direction I was 
headed. I knew what my priorities were. I was spending today less 
than what I needed in order to save for the future.” 
 
 
 
Very interesting response from the senator, because he looked at me 
and he said, “Mr. Blue.” He said, “That seems to me that would work 
at any income level.” I thought for a minute, and I started to laugh. 
And I said, “You’re right, senator, including the United States 
Government.” And we had good laugh over that.  
 
But here’s the point. Those are four basic principles of managing your 
money, and they’ll work, whether you have a lot of money, a little bit 
of money, whether you live in Africa, or whether you live in America—
wherever it is you live, these are four basic, Biblical principles of 
managing your money, and they’ll work at any time, under any set of 
circumstances, no matter what job you have, no matter whether 
you’re single, married, or retired.  
 
Those are four basic principles of managing you money, and there 
really aren’t any others.  
 
Blue -2- 
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