Invest in your Future

This morning we had a non-medical topic for our weekly roundtable discussion. We had a life insurance agent talk about financial independence by investing in the future. She opened her talk by emphasizing that more than 80% of people do not invest in their future and so they end up in financial crisis when they are in their retirement age. The message she wanted to bring across was that people, especially doctors should start planning their future NOW by investing their money in different modes: bonds, equities and others. The future will be better if one starts saving their money now. Make your money work for you instead of you working for money. By accumulating enough possessions, one will leave a happy life by simply spending from the profits of ones possessions. By storing an abundant supply of money, one will have enough to spend in the future. The agent, knowing that I still do not have an insurance policy was persuading me to secure my future by investing in her company. Her logic was sound enough for me...

But I then I remembered the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13-21. The foolish man built a barn to store up his grains so that he said to himself "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” He had so much surplus of grain that he planned to build a bigger barn to have a more secure and more financial independence future. He got caught up saving so much properties he forgot to invest in his future with God. And so the foolish man died. I remembered the succeeding verses was encouraging. Verse 22-23 said: Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes."

As I wrestled with these thoughts, I remembered John Wesley was attributed to have said " Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can." Hmmm...