If there’s one financial lesson from the Bible you remember and incorporate in your life, please let it be this one.

If you remember the story about Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, skip to below the dotted line.

Pharaoh had two dreams. Seven fat cows were followed by seven thin and sickly cows who ate the fat cows. Pharaoh’s second dream involved seven good ears of corn that sprouted from one stalk. Seven thin ears sprung up behind them. The thin ears swallowed up the good corn.

Nobody could interpret the dream. Pharaoh’s butler recalled that when he was in prison, Joseph accurately interpreted his dream that he’d be reinstated in Pharaoh’s court. Pharaoh sent for Joseph immediately, who said the two dreams were really one and the same: it’s what God was about to do to Pharaoh.

The seven good cows and corn represented seven years. The seven sickly cows and corn were another seven years. There would be seven years of plenty, Joseph said, followed by seven years of great famine throughout Egypt, so bad that everyone would forget the good years.

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Joseph urged Pharaoh to appoint officials to oversee the land and stockpile a fifth part of the harvest during the years of plenty. [An interesting etymological aside: in Hebrew the letters חמש make up the root for both “a fifth” and “stockpile.”]

If food was stored over the seven abundant years, Joseph said, the land of Egypt would not perish during the seven years of famine.

In short, save for a rainy day.  How many of us during our own years of plenty, when the Dow was over 11,000 saved for a less prosperous time? How many of us put aside one fifth, heck even a tenth?  How many of us demonstrated any level of moderation? On the other hand, how many of us poured the money into a bigger house, more upholstered SUV, fancier clothes, niftier gadgets?