Proportion your expenses to what you have, not to what you expect.

Understand the thought

Meaning in plain English

The proverb contrasts resources already available with hoped-for resources when judging a commitment. It encourages realism about an expectation’s uncertainty, without defining a financial plan or assuming that every necessary expense can be limited to what someone currently holds.

What the words are saying

The saying draws a line between what you have and what you expect. Its concern is a commitment made as though an anticipated resource had already arrived. In a broad reading, this distinction also applies to promised help, available time or equipment that has not yet been supplied. An expectation may be reasonable, but it remains different from something in hand. Some commitments involve necessary costs or circumstances that cannot be simplified into the proverb’s rule. Its useful point is to make assumptions visible and consider what would happen if they changed, rather than blame someone with limited means or prescribe a universal approach to money.

Everyday example

An exhibition team designs its first version around the display stands already available, leaving an optional section dependent on a loan that is still being discussed.

When to use it

Use it when a plan quietly treats an unconfirmed resource as already secured.

Put a useful idea into practice: try the free seven-day guide ↗

Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.