My Dad encouraged me to save when I wanted to buy an iPod mini. Back then, they were the rage: a cool piece of technology that could play more than 200 songs. It costed around $300 at the time. I stowed away some hard-earned money from shoveling and cutting grass. By the end of my eighth grade, I saved enough money to buy one off eBay. I was so happy. I jammed out to tunes on my way to school, and sometimes in the classroom. Back then, I listened to good songs from artists like Linkin Park, Green Day, Black Eyed Peas, and Beyonce. The iPod mini was fun.

This taught me the principle that we are rewarded when we save. This financial truth is also biblical. Joseph in the Old Testament was a young man who, while being sold to slavery by his own brothers, rose to power and was Pharaoh’s second-hand man. He was a dreamer. One of his dreams revealed there would be seven years plenty, followed by seven years of drought. He encouraged Pharaoh to build up the grains during the years of plenty so that when the famine came, they would have enough. In fact, this all came to be. During the drought, the whole land visited Egypt and received grain from Pharaoh. Joseph’s brothers also visited him in Egypt, where forgiveness, healing, and restoration occurred in their strained relationship.

Like Joseph the Dreamer, saving helps us prepare for what’s to come. It is a virtue that recognizes we don’t need everything today and can steward our resources prudently for tomorrow. If we are wise about saving, then we are wise about living. Of course, there are times when we experience our own droughts, where saving might not be ideal or even possible. This should not discourage us from the principle of saving when we can: get a little and save a little. We don’t know what can happen in the future, but we can prepare for it. The key consideration is that a little bit goes a long way.

For example, say we save $100. Let’s say we put that aside every two weeks for thirty years. We can invest the money into a fund that returns about 5 percent a year, on average. Well, we would be happy to hear that this initial $100 investment ends up becoming $165,000 after those thirty years.

That is enough to:

• Travel the world and back with family.
• Buy a Tesla Roadster.

For that matter, it’s also enough to:

• Buy the latest iPhone for every eighth grader at a certain middle school.
• Similarly to Joseph, purchase a farm for grain production.

Not bad! A little bit goes a long way. Dream on!