Christian Financial Perspectives

By Christian Financial AdvisorsBusiness Religion & Spirituality Christianity Investing

Christian Financial Perspectives episodes

August 28, 2023 171 – Debunking Financial Doom And Gloom: A Biblical Approach
Click below to listen to Episode 171 – Debunking Financial Doom And Gloom: A Biblical Approach
Debunking Financial Doom And Gloom: A Biblical Approach

Learn about professional financial fear mongering when it comes to tactics used and discerning fact from fiction.

More episodes >>

Professional financial fear mongering is something many have seen or been affected by. Bob and Shawn address the tactics used by individuals and groups to deliberately spread fear or alarm about financial issues. Highlighting examples like claims of the stock market crashing or the need to rely on gold coins for transactions, it is important to question the credibility of such messages.
Listeners are warned to be cautious of such fear-inducing narratives, especially on platforms like social media. Instead, Bob and Shawn stress the importance of discernment, considering the motivations behind these messages, and aligning financial decisions with Christian values and wisdom.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-12
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us today. My name is Shawn Peters, and I’m joined by my co-host and father-in-law, Bob Barber. Today, we’re gonna be covering professional financial fearmongering, and if you enjoy content on financial topics, but from a Christian perspective, we’d love for you to hit subscribe and join our growing community of Christians who want to glorify God through their finances. So today I’d like to first start with a scripture, 2 Timothy 1:7, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.” It’s a good way to start it out, Bob.
Bob:
I love that scripture and I like it from the King James Version for that particular scripture. I’ve heard that my whole life and heard many sermons on this throughout the years, that God is not a Spirit of Fear.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s right. Exactly. Fearmongering today, Shawn, is everywhere, especially the professional, what I call the “professional fear mongerers”.
Shawn:
They come in many shapes and sizes and forms.
Bob:
It is, and they’re deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about a particular issue. That’s kind of the definition of what fear mongering is. Where I came about wanting to make this program is because we get these phone calls, we get the emails.
Shawn:
And the text messages and…
Bob:
Yeah. And the text messages from our clients.
Shawn:
And sometimes non-clients.
Bob:
That’s true.
Shawn:
We’ll have people just go to our website and send us a message.
Bob:
Yeah. They’re seeing the most ridiculous and reading the most ridiculous things. They’re getting emails, too. It gets forwarded, the emails get forwarded. So here’s some examples, “All the companies in the stock market are gonna crash and go outta business.” Now you think about that, folks.
Shawn:
Yeah. Just actually think about it.
Bob:
So anybody, so all the company, food, shelter, clothing, they’re all going outta business. We’re done for, I mean, that is craziness to even think that that would happen. “The entire banking system is gonna collapse as we know it. All the banks are going out business.”
Shawn:
Wow. Yeah. Good to know.
Bob:
Yeah. And they’ll come up with all of this data to try to prove that. I really like this one.
Shawn:
Bob, before we go on to number three. What is that phrase? I remember, I think you said it to me the first time that figures, figures always lie, but, or liars always figure, but figures never lie.
Bob:
“Liars figure, but figures don’t lie.”
Shawn:
Yeah. Well that also technically goes true to the figures. Because if you have liars generating the figures, they can make that graph and information look the way they want to “support” the statement that they’re making.
Bob:
Here’s one I really get tickled at, Shawn, is how we pay for things is no longer going to work. We’re gonna have to take gold coins and silver coins and gold bars.
Shawn:
Over to the grocery store. The gas station.
Bob:
Yeah. Can you see that? I’m gonna pay for my gas with some gold coins and what if the other people don’t have the gold coins and they need to get gas, or they need to get groceries?
Shawn:
So, I guess only the people with the gold coins and the gold bars and and also I’m just curious, but you…
Bob:
You got me on that.
Shawn:
The grocery store.
Bob:
Yeah, exactly. You got me on this one a while ago when we were talking.
Shawn:
What are you going to buy at the grocery store? Because if only the gold and silver coins and bars are valid currency at this point. Do you really think that the local grocery store had that in stock to pay the vendors? Do you think the farmers and the other companies that are supposed to be supplying those goods to those grocery stores are going to get paid in gold bars? Because if not, then even if you could somehow find a cashier that is capable of exchanging that gold for goods, because most of them can’t even exchange regular currency without a computer. TYhere’s not gonna be anything there in the first place to buy.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s true. I didn’t think about that one. You could, you always, you start using wisdom and you start using logic with this stuff.
Shawn:
It very quickly falls apart.
Bob:
Here’s another one I’ve heard a lot just in the last few months, “The government’s gonna take over all our IRAs and all our retirement plans, and they’re also gonna tell us what we can invest in and not invest in, in the stock market.”
Shawn:
Well, I guess we’ll be out of a job .
Bob:
Fear mongering is routinely used in what is called “psychological warfare” to influence a target population. These professional financial fear mongerers, they use a lot of sources today. Number one is definitely social media. They’re using Facebook, they’re using Twitter. You know also the algorithms play into this. So if you are going to those kind of websites or looking for that on Facebook or Instagram, it’s gonna feed more to you. The fear is creating more fear.
Shawn:
You have to be careful with any content that you’re interacting with can effectively create this echo chamber because the algorithm wants to keep you engaged and keep you on the site as long as possible. So even if you don’t like something, if you keep interacting with it, you’re bound to get more of that because you interacted with it.
Bob:
Because if you do the search, it’s gonna know now you did the search. Like YouTube videos are the same way. If you do a search for a particular kind of YouTube video now, it’s gonna come up every time you go.
Shawn:
Especially if you watch the whole video. Because that’s one of the other metrics, as you know, is it’s always trying to give you, it wants to present the right video to the right person at the right time to make sure that that person is more likely to watch another video, then watch another video.
Bob:
Yeah. Email campaigns, oh man, man, that…
Shawn:
“Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll send you all the stock tips on exactly what to buy and what to avoid and buy this gold,” and all the other nonsense.
Bob:
And then you get in this group, and they all start forwarding all these emails and you’re getting this forward and this forward. And when, if Rachael, my wife, gets on one of these things, she’s just like, stop, I’m done. I’m cutting that out. Also, this is interesting how they advertise on the financial and news websites such as CNBC, Fox News, Newsmax. If you go on your iPhone and go to one of those websites or on your computer and you scroll down to the bottom, you’re gonna see these websites. By the way, I think it’s interesting, too, is that they use pictures of really smart looking guys like me .
Shawn:
Bob, you got the gray hair, glasses.
Bob:
I got the gray hair. I got the thick glasses.
Shawn:
Little bit of wrinkles with like, Yeah. He’s seen some things. He must know what he’s talking about.
Bob:
So they use the smart, really smart looking guys with the thick glasses and or one that looks like a professor or a successful Wall Street trader. They’ll show ’em in their their fancy suit and everything. That’s their mascot. That becomes their mascot. You see the pictures of it and you think, well, this guy, he looks pretty smart. Well, so if he says the banking system’s gonna fail and I’m gonna need gold coins to go to the grocery store to buy things and so forth. Well, it must be true.
Shawn:
It’s weird, but just one thing to think about. So, there’s always this doomsayer or, and I feel like it’s a very similar vein, but you also have the people that are selling you this program or this subscription that is gonna, or an educational seminar…
Bob:
It’s gonna solve it all.
Shawn:
It’s gonna solve all your problems. Whatever it is, you’re scared of or it’s like you’re gonna make $800 a day doing ChatGPT or whatever. The reality is, if any of these were actually valuable, if any of these actually worked. Do you really think that those people would be wasting their time managing and putting together these programs and these subscriptions and all this other nonsense just to sell it to you? No. They would be either getting other people to let them manage their money or they would already have made so much money that they don’t need to ever advertise. Ever.
Bob:
That’s true. That’s true.
Shawn:
So, which kind of goes into our next section.
Bob:
And it’s funny how they’ll predict these certain dates all the time. They’ll say this date is gonna happen. When the date goes by and it didn’t happen, it’s just silence. You don’t hear from anybody.
Shawn:
I feel like we should maybe show like a short little, little clip from Parks and Recreation ’cause I remember there’s this one group that believes in this like lizard man or something that’s gonna end the world. What’s so funny is every year they have this annual picnic of the world’s gonna end. Then when it doesn’t end, they’re like, oh, I misinterpreted it. Like, what do you have next year on May 9th? Oh, that’s not free. Oh, what about May 11th? I think the world’s gonna end on May 11th. They just change. They just change it. .
Bob:
And you think about it, these are professionally paid fortune tellers, but most of the people I know, they wouldn’t go, they wouldn’t go sit across from a fortune teller where they read your hand or whatever. I don’t know.
Shawn:
That’s just the modern day version of it.
Bob:
But, you know what, yeah, it is. Because you’re paying ’em, by the way. Because their ultimate solution to all of these doomsday predictions is to buy their high commission gold and silver or to buy their subscription or their subscription based newsletter or to buy their book.
Shawn:
Or a high commissioned annuity.
Bob:
Yep, so it’s always it ultimately…
Shawn:
There’s something, what do, what do you call, what do we say, Bob? Follow the money. So, if their solution is buy their book, subscribe to their newsletter, or subscribe to their paid subscription, whatever it is, or oh, buy gold and silver from this particular vendor, or buy this high commission annuity, they’re either directly benefiting or they’re being paid by the people that they’re promoting in order for you to buy their stuff and then they keep getting paid.
Bob:
Yeah. Well, that’s another thing. I mean, there are on some very legitimate stations, some of the well-known people that predict this stuff. But then again, you look at what they’re worth and they’re just like you say, they’re professional fear mongerers. That’s how they…
Shawn:
They make money off of scaring you. They make money off you.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s right.
Shawn:
Convincing you that there’s some problem. Then they just happen to have this solution that is commissionable or recurring subscription or whatever the case may be.
Bob:
Which is a major, major what?
Shawn:
Conflict of interest.
Bob:
It’s a conflict of interest.
Shawn:
Yeah. They’re not acting as a fiduciary in that case, in your best interest.
Bob:
So when you see this now, I know a lot of people are gonna say, now Bob, they haven’t tried to get any money out of me. You keep going, keep moving in. They’re gonna eventually get, do they wanna sell you that newsletter? They wanna, go buy gold and silver is the solution, and then there’s gonna be, you can buy from this certain vendor. That’s what it is. So, what’s the solution first of all? Stop it. Okay. Stop listening to this stuff.
Shawn:
What was that old video?
Bob:
The old video by Bob Newhart. Go Google this video. It’s very funny. It’s by Bob Newhart. It’s called Stop It and you need to watch it.
Shawn:
It’s a really funny skit. .
Bob:
And the really, truly, consider the source. What are they gonna gain financially from it?
Shawn:
From creating that fear.
Bob:
Yeah. Are they working for a media company? They’re being paid by the advertisers. Is it subscription based, commission based? And the bottom line is bad things are always gonna happen, but so are good things. Okay. You know why bad things are always gonna happen and good things? Because the Bible says so. It is all in Ecclesiastes. There’s a time for everything. I’m not saying this means we stick our head in the sand.
Shawn:
Exactly. Don’t stick your head in the sand. But use wisdom. Always consider the source. Check if it is true. Do you want me to read Ecclesiastes?
Bob:
I think we need to read that one. I’m gonna read that one, one more time. Use wisdom, consider the source, and check if it’s really true. All right. So here we go. We’re towards the end today. We’ve gotten on our soapbox. This is our soapbox a little bit. Yeah, it really is. But we’re gonna read Ecclesiastes for you because we’ve read it before, but I think it’s a good time, good to understand. There’s always gonna be good times, there’s always gonna be bad times. It’s a part of normal life. By the way, these doomsday predictors, they’ll eventually be right because eventually bad things will happen.
Shawn:
Well, a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. Yeah, exactly. and a broken clock is right twice a day.
Bob:
Oh, we gotta be careful how we say that one. Alright, so Shawn, you’re my scripture reader. So go for it. For Ecclesiastes 3:1-12.
Shawn:
That’s right. “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to search and a time to give up. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good.”
Bob:
One of my favorite scriptures. I love that because when it is bad times and you’re in a dark tunnel, the light’s coming. There’s gonna be good times too. There’s a rotation and it’s been going on for years. I want to end up on this scripture.
Shawn:
Okay. 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.” Bob, I would like to say for full disclosure, We also get paid in certain ways.
Bob:
Yes, we do.
Shawn:
As a fiduciary advisor, we either get paid by the hour if we’re doing financial planning for people. We also get paid based on assets that we manage. Now, it’s a much smaller fee. We’re not getting 10% upfront. We get paid throughout the year.
Bob:
And we’re not commission based.
Shawn:
As much as 1% or less, depending on the assets. So you could say that’s where we’re coming at this from. But here’s the thing. We want this information out there. Not because we know everyone’s gonna come work with us and everyone’s gonna be our client, but it’s right and it’s true and it’s good information. Even if you’re not working with us, we’re still encouraging you to find a fiduciary advisor for this kind of information. Don’t trust these people that are selling high commission products that they are just trying to profit off of your fear. It’s not right. It’s not Biblical. Don’t fall for it.
Bob:
Amen. We’re here if you’d like us to help you. Our phone number is (830) 609-6986. You can call or text that during business hours and we’ll text you back, by the way.
Shawn:
A real person.
Bob:
But not normally on the weekend or after business hours. Or you can check us out on the website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Thank you for listening today and for watching on YouTube if you watched on YouTube.
Shawn:
That’s right. Thank you. God bless. Bye-bye.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
* Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
18 min
August 22, 2023 170 – Picking The Right Investment Choice For Your Work Retirement Plan
Click below to listen to Episode 170 – Picking The Right Investment Choice For Your Work Retirement Plan
Picking The Right Investment Choice For Your Work Retirement Plan

Short summary about the guest or topic.

More episodes >>

This episode is great for anyone who has or wants to contribute to a work retirement plan, which is most of us! Using the analogy of a dismantled car, Bob and Shawn suggest that many people feel overwhelmed when it comes to deciding how to invest their retirement funds. They highlight common types of retirement plans like 401k, 403b, and SEP, while unpacking the differences (spoiler alert – there’s really not that many!).
As always, listeners are warned about the risks of making uninformed decisions and emphasize the importance of understanding the associated risks and rewards, which is why it’s so important to have a fiduciary based financial advisor. So, listen in and discover more about investing towards your retirement funds!

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PROVERBS 15:22
Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed.
ECCLESIASTES 4:9-10
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. My name is Shawn Peters and I’m joined as always by my father-in-law, Bob Barber. And today we’re gonna be covering a topic that we hope will be very educational and helpful for those of you watching or listening. If you enjoy content on financial topics but from a Christian perspective, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button and join the community that we’re building here of Christians who wanna glorify God through their investments and finances. So today our topic is helping people with investment choices for their work retirement plans. And for most people, their retirement is saved up in their work retirement plan. It’s pretty common for a lot of people, especially earlier in their career. So, we hope that this will be beneficial and helpful to you. Now I’m gonna pass it over to Bob and he’s gonna give us a little more info on this.
Bob:
Alright. So I want us to pop this picture up. So you see this car, it’s in a bunch of different pieces and by the way, Shawn, if you gave me a car like that, I would have no idea how to put it together. Alright. I mean, I think I see the seats there, I kind of know where that would go, but I just cannot imagine. And I see the engine block and some of those parts how we put this together.
Shawn:
Recognize some of the parts.
Bob:
But without any mechanical training, I would not know how to do this. And Shawn, I’m using this word picture because I see it truly as this is what is happening with people in their retirement plans. It’s like Greek to them.
Shawn:
So effectively, Bob, what we’re saying here is looking at the picture of the car and all the components and parts that go into it. And we’re saying for many people in their work retirement plan, that’s the same situation that they’re in. And so if you are involved in a work retirement plan, there’s a lot of options for that retirement plan. But just like the picture of the car, you’re expected on your own to figure out how to put it together and do it right. And that’s a little, can be a little daunting.
Bob:
So Shawn, the scriptures I picked today, ones I like is Proverbs 15:22. You’ve heard me say that one many times. Yeah, but I like it ’cause it says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” And Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.
Shawn:
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”
Bob:
So Shawn, I’ve never met a person in my 33 years in the financial advisory business with a written investment strategy for investing in their work retirement plan. Not one.
Shawn:
Wow.
Bob:
Nearly 100% of a person’s retirement’s nest egg is often in their work retirement plans, which is supposed to generate an income once they retire for possibly 20 to 30 years. And Shawn, I call that insanity. That’s just crazy when I think about that.
Shawn:
Yeah. And it makes total sense because for most people they can put far more away per year into their work retirement plan because usually it’s just a percentage from their paycheck and you’ve got the employer match compared with your own personal IRA. There’s a limit on how much you can put in those and it’s a lot less.
Bob:
Yeah. And there’s a limit on these too, but it’s a lot. But we’re talking $50,000 limits per year. So what are work retirement plans? For many of you, if you are with a corporation that’s gonna be a 401k’s.
Shawn:
By far the most common I would say.
Bob:
Yeah. Well it is, but there’s a lot of government employees, too. So for the government employees, it’ll be a TSP. Now those are a little bit more simple ’cause they’ll just give you eight or nine choices there, where on many of the 401ks you have 50 or 60 different choices or more. And that’s where it gets mass confusion. Then we have 403b plans that are for hospitals, schools, nonprofit organizations, and then for like small businesses a lot of them will use a SEP or Simple IRA plan. With all these plans, they’re very similar as far as what you can put into them. I don’t know why the government doesn’t just come along and just say qualified retirement plan, why they call them 401ks, 403bs, TSPs, SEP, and Simple IRAs is beyond me. Basically, they’re all the same things. So if you have a work retirement plan, the rules pretty much are the same across the board.
Shawn:
Okay. Sure. There are some, maybe some slight differences. But I wouldn’t get too worked up in it. But Bob, you said something really interesting. You said, why doesn’t the government come in and just simplify it? Have we ever known the government to actually make improvements overall?
Bob:
I don’t think so.
Shawn:
I mean, maybe a few rare circumstances. But usually it’s how can we make this more complicated and less efficient? .
Bob:
Yep. Exactly. So we have the typical retirement plan investment choices. And I’ve written this down so I don’t miss anything. Because basically, just listen to this Greek to you. This is not Greek to us. We understand it, but you have specialized equity mutual funds consisting of large, mid, or small cap companies and growth value and blend style boxes or a blend of several or all of these. Did that just make sense to you?
Shawn:
So that’s the first one.
Bob:
Okay. So these are all the different choices you have. Then you have your bond funds that are from long term to short term to immediate term to high, mid, and low quality.
Shawn:
Number two, everyone following along, right?
Bob:
Yeah, sure. Exactly. Then we have our international and global funds. Then we have our sector funds like technology, healthcare, energy, consumer staples, et cetera. Then we have the assortment of ETFs, exchange traded funds. And then there’s a combination of all of the above.
Shawn:
You might have some funds…
Bob:
Depends on which way you wanna go.
Shawn:
Exactly. You might have some funds that are some combination of some or all of those.
Bob:
Shawn, this is just mass confusion. It’s like looking at that car engine all apart. And nobody really knows what to do and they’re guessing. The average person…
Shawn:
Well, Bob gets worse. Because then from from one 401k, 403b to another, even if that retirement plan is with the same custodian or the same administrator like type company, it can still be completely different choices from one company to the next or from one organization to the next. And then each of those custodians, when you’re trying to compare, they might have large cap for the S&P 500 or, or the DOW or whatever. But they’ll have that and they have a name for it, but another custodian has a different name for it. So even then it’s like, unless you know what you’re doing, you can’t say, oh, I’ll talk to my friend. ’cause he’s doing pretty good. And what did you go into? Well, it’s not the same names. So it’s a little confusing.
Bob:
I was talking to Teresa this morning about this too, and she said, yeah, I mean somebody says, oh, that’s a growth fund. Okay, well I’ll go into that growth fund. Growth sounds good. Well, okay. Do you understand the risk and reward of that? Do you know if it’s small cap growth? Is it large cap growth? How’s it gonna feel with the different markets? I mean, there’s just total confusion about what to choose for the average person. And it’s overwhelming. They really don’t understand all of these choices, the risk and reward behind it, how they’re gonna react to all the different market scenarios, bull markets, bear markets, up/down markets.
Shawn:
What kind of risk is actually, in simple number terms, what kind of risk is actually associated on the positive and negative side with these different options.
Bob:
So what do you think they end up doing?
Shawn:
Throw a dart at the wall or guess.
Bob:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s exactly what they do. They end up guessing because really there’s no one there to help them, Shawn. There is just, there’s just no guidance. I think there’s supposed to be guidance, but okay, if somebody gives you just, here’s this prospectus. They don’t know how to read that. Most people don’t know how to read that. They don’t know what to look for.
Shawn:
And, well, most of the way the administration is done on these 401ks, 403b’s, et cetera, it’s effectively, “Hey, I just wanna make sure you’re signed up. I’ll help you make sure you can log in. I’ll make sure that you’re you know how much you’re actually contributing. And here’s the ones that are available.” But when it comes to actually ascertaining what level of risk are you comfortable with? What is your long-term goal and what should you actually invest in? Good luck getting any help from HR or the plan administrator, because I mean, there might be a few exceptions, but overall the industry standard is, yeah. Good luck. You’re on your own.
Bob:
Folks. I know. I know this because I talk with you every day of the week all year long for many years. And you feel lonely when it comes to this. You really don’t know. Maybe you’re gonna ask a few friends. That’s like asking for a stock tip from somebody on the golf course. . There’s just no one who’s guiding you. There’s a total misunderstanding of all the asset classes, the risk and reward. You don’t even know how to build an investment model with this. You might as well be looking at a 20 page menu in a restaurant that’s written in Greek and you don’t understand.
Shawn:
Assuming you don’t speak Greek.
Bob:
Yeah. Assuming. Exactly. So since I’ve really never met a person with an investment strategy for their work retirement plan, they have no blueprint. There’s no target, there’s no financial analysis or how to do it. No understanding or risk or reward. You know, Shawn, I think…
Shawn:
Okay, Bob, I think everyone might be thoroughly either depressed or frustrated or feeling very triggered maybe. But like Yeah. I feel that way. I’m done. With the point, Bob, what do I do?
Bob:
I’m going to another.
Shawn:
So what do we do? What are the best choices for the majority of people?
Bob:
So I think that the best choices for the majority of people is to look inside your plan and look for a target date or lifecycle fund, if you understand the risk and reward of it.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Bob:
Okay. And they’re gonna automatically adjust the mix of investments for you as you get closer to retirement. And it’s like putting your investments on autopilot. So you have professionals putting together this complete asset allocation model. The one thing that you gotta understand is the risk and reward of that, the second word being reward. Because the farther you go out, the higher the risk. The closer the date, the lower the risk. So let’s say somebody picks a target fund, that’s a 2025. Well, here we are in 2023, that’s gonna be a very conservative portfolio.
Shawn:
Exactly. ’cause we’re talking less than two years from theoretical retirement. I think that would be a good way to look at it, too. I noticed just in the last couple weeks, we had a few clients that I was meeting with and I did take a look at their 401k because I just wanna make sure they were contributing enough, things like that. And between those, of the four, three of them had completely different names for the target date funds. Two of them were from the same custodian, which was, I couldn’t figure that one out. But the easiest way to identify it is they’ll typically have some sort of name, they might say target date, they might say lifecycle something of that nature, but they’ll have a number and it’s usually either every 10 years or every 5 years. So, like Bob mentioned a little earlier, you see one that says 2025, 2030, 2035. Just think of that as, okay, if I retired in that year…
Bob:
That’s correct.
Shawn:
That’s the one that you want to go with. And I would say probably would make sense that if you’re kind of in between the options and you’re retiring in 2030, but they only have a 2025 and a 2035, you should probably go with the 2025, Bob?
Bob:
Or until you really understand the risk and reward, correct. And then Shawn, you also have to play this into, like you say, how far are you from retirement?How does it mix with your other investments? So you have to look at this as a holistic approach, which you can’t… for many people, maybe this is it, this is all they have for retirement. So that’s easy, but which is pretty common. But for others maybe one out of three that I’ll meet with, they have a lot of other investments. So all that has to really play into where are those investments and how are they invested? Are they aggressive? Are they growth? Are they blend, are they conservative and how this is going to to play into it. So really all this, you need the help of somebody that understands how to do it. And that’s where we’re coming to you today. We talked about this yesterday when we were putting this together. There’s, like you say, there’s a lot to consider and we’re going to offer from this program today a $200 consultation in which we will give you a risk assessment through our Riskalyze program, which is very thorough. We’ll explain that to you and then we’ll look at your 401k or your 403b or your…
Shawn:
Your work retirement plan, whichever it is.
Bob:
Work retirement plan. And we’ll look at how this is gonna integrate and help you to understand what you are investing in. I think this is a very fair price to do this for. I mean.
Shawn:
It’s a small price to pay for peace mind.
Bob:
It is, I mean, I think $200 is very reasonable for that, especially if you have even over $40,000 or $50,000 in your retirement plan. It is worthwhile to do.
Shawn:
And that risk assessment, just so you know, it’s not subjective of like, well, what are you comfortable with? It’s very mathematical where we help you look at some questions and figure out what you are or aren’t comfortable with. I think the easiest way to look at it is you want to be as aggressive as possible to meet your goals, but not too aggressive where you’re gonna make the decision of, oh, I need to go more conservative when the markets are down.
Bob:
Yeah. Volatility.
Shawn:
And there’s gonna be volatility no matter what you’re in, but using an objective approach, we can help you see and visualize, okay, in a given six month window, what kind of positive/negative might you be seen in something like this?
Bob:
And can you take it?
Shawn:
Yeah. And are you comfortable with that? And then we can determine, okay, well what might be the best option for you within that plan.
Bob:
So we hope you found this useful today. I know it was, it’s kind of an interesting topic. It’s kind of hard to talk about, but we’re here to help you and you can get a ahold of us to do this risk assessment and look at your 401k by giving us a call at (830) 609-6986. You can text that as well, (830) 609-6986. Or you can go to our website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com and you can book an appointment right from our website with either Shawn or I. Any last minute things?
Shawn:
Well, we’ll have a link to our contact form in the description of either the video episode that you’re watching or if you’re listening, it’ll be in the description for the podcast, the podcast episode, either way. And you can use that to get in touch with us. I think that’s all. Thank you and God bless.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
18 min
August 14, 2023 169 – Financially Handling The Loss Of A Spouse
Click below to listen to Episode 169 – Financially Handling The Loss Of A Spouse
Financially Handling The Loss Of A Spouse

Discover a list of 10 financial items to check off after the loss of a spouse.

More episodes >>

Bob and Shawn discuss the often-difficult topic of managing finances after the loss of a spouse, either through death or divorce. With compassion, they explain the necessity of understanding your financial picture, such as incoming and outgoing monthly expenses and overall assets and liabilities. As always, they highlight the importance of working with a fiduciary financial advisor who can provide impartial advice, free from conflicts of interest.
The importance of keeping personal finances confidential to avoid potential exploitation by distant relatives or friends is also mentioned. Throughout the episode, they share relevant biblical scriptures to provide comfort and guidance.

Click on the image above for a printable version of our “Financially Handling The Loss Of A Spouse” Checklist.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PSALM 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
PSALM 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
MATTHEW 5:4
Blessed are they that mourn: for they will be comforted.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters, and I’m joined, as always, by my esteemed co-host and father-in-law, Bob Barber. Today we’re gonna be covering a difficult topic on the financial handling of the loss of a spouse. And if you do enjoy content from a Christian perspective on finance, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button. We’re trying to help educate other Christians on how to glorify God through their finances. So today, Bob, do you think you’d give us a little bit of an introduction?
Bob:
I sure can. Shawn, this is a very hard subject to talk about, no doubt. But it needs to be talked about. It’s very, very important. One of the things is, as I was putting this together, I realized how even though some of you, many of you, have not lost your spouse, it is very important that you still listen to this program because as my pastor always says, “Death is hovering somewhere around the 100% range.” It’s gonna happen to us all. We’re also gonna speak about divorce ’cause that is the loss of a spouse. Hopefully none of none of you have gone through that, but we know the stats and it does happen, and we’ve worked with a lot of people that have divorced. And unfortunately, and I hate to see that within the Christian community, because we know in God’s word the two become one. And when they pull apart, it’s like if you glued two pieces of paper together, Shawn, and they were different colors – a red and blue, and you pull ’em apart, there’s gonna little be a little bit of the red on the blue and the blue on the red. And so this is a very, it’s hard to talk about this, but it’s very important, especially in the financial arena.
Shawn:
That’s right. And so really this is gonna be covering the financial steps that need to be covered as soon as possible after a loss. Again, whether that’s loss through death or through divorce.
Bob:
And I wanna say, those of you that have recently lost a spouse either through death or divorce, we are so sorry. And we handle this with grace and love the way that Jesus Christ would want us to handle this. So we know that your life revolves around your spouse. I mean, it does for both of us. And I mean, I’m having at least two meals, many times, three meals a day with my wife, and we’ve been married for 39 years. We’re just part of each other after this long.
Shawn:
You lose a spouse and it’s like losing a limb.
Bob:
Yeah, it is. It is. But while finances can be hard to talk about, it’s very necessary. And during that time, wise guidance and counsel is critical.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
And some of these financial things, unfortunately have to be handled immediately while others can be delayed.
Shawn:
Yeah, that’s right. Okay. So, we try to emphasize, if possible, to refrain from making any major financial decisions until life has kind of settled down from the loss, as well as keeping your finances very confidential, except possibly with maybe one very trusted family member and a trusted financial advisor. That’s something that it’s just really important because if all of a sudden you start sharing, oh, look at the life insurance payout that I got, or look at the money that you got because of the divorce. All of a sudden, you’ve got cousins and long lost friends and relatives and all these people that you know, well, they have something they really need help with, or they’re sick.
Bob:
Want to start a new business.
Shawn:
They wanna start a new business.
Bob:
Yeah. I’ve seen that a lot.
Shawn:
Then of course, then you feel guilty because if you don’t want to help them, then well, you’re not a good person. And the reality is it’s none of their business.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s right. I think we picked some really good scriptures to go with today, Shawn. I always pick on you for reading the scriptures. So if you don’t mind.
Shawn:
Because I just have such a beautiful voice, right?
Bob:
You do. It’s so great. .
Shawn:
Alright, well let’s go with the first one, Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” That’s a good one. Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” And finally, Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are they that mourn for they will be comforted.”
Bob:
From the beatitudes in Matthew, yeah. That is such a good scripture. I think these are great scriptures to focus on during a tough time like losing your spouse. So we’ve compiled a list of 10 things and we’re gonna go through these 10 things now that I’ve made from many years of experience that need to be taken care of as soon as you mentally and physically are capable of doing. Notice I said emotionally capable, too, because it’s gonna take some time to get over a loss many times and you never get over that really, you never do, but you just have to learn to live life without that spouse. But that’s very, very difficult. I’ve seen this from many years of being in the financial services business, Shawn.
I mean it’s been over 30 years and we have quite a few, and I help walk them through this with a lot of grace, understanding, and compassion that’s greatly needed in this time. So, let’s get on with the list. All right. Here’s the 10 things that you need to think about. We’re gonna share ’em, like the first two or three or four are gonna be for like, if you just lost a spouse, and then we’re gonna get into the divorce point and then we’ll come back.
Shawn:
Exactly. First get with your financial advisor if you have one and they are fiduciary based, or find a well experienced fiduciary based financial advisor along with a trusted family member, if you have one, to help you assemble all of the following things we’re gonna be covering.
Bob:
And then we might want to define what fiduciary means.
Shawn:
I was just about to ask that. So, do you mind defining that for those who maybe haven’t seen some of our other episodes?
Bob:
Sure, sure. So a fiduciary based advisor does not handle any commission based products. Okay. So they’re not motivated to try to sell you a particular product. You are the one that pays the advisor, just like if you were to pay your CPA a or an attorney.
Shawn:
You know, maybe it’s by the hour or it’s for X amount for your tax return.
Bob:
It could be a certain fee. But you pay them, they’re not paid by a product company to sell that.
Shawn:
Yeah. I think the most common example…
Bob:
Which can create a major conflict of interest.
Shawn:
Exactly. Okay. The most common example that people fall victim to, unfortunately, are things like fixed index annuities and variable annuities. And it’s not that all these different products that have a high commission don’t ever have a place. But again, when it comes down to it, if the advisor’s not a fiduciary and they’re being compensated 10%, well are they really giving you the best advice for the life insurance payout that you got that they want you to put all into a product that’s gonna pay them 10% of that value?
Bob:
Yeah.
Shawn:
Well, you already have enough going on with the loss of the spouse. Don’t add insult to injury and work with a non fiduciary advisor.
Bob:
The second thing is, and a fiduciary advisor will help you this with this or a CPA or like we say, a very, very trusted family member that’s already well off financially, preferably if you have that. Form an updated financial statement of all your assets and your liabilities to get a handle on your complete financial picture. And that may not be easy, but with the help of someone experienced, that can help you do that.
Shawn:
Yeah. And so of course part of that is gonna be, which kind of goes into number three, you wanna form a list of all the financial accounts, so bank or credit union accounts, brokerage accounts, savings, retirement accounts, along with any monthly or annual statements as well as get current balances.
Bob:
The fourth thing would be that you look at all your sources of incoming monthly income and where is it coming from? These might be sources like social security or a pension plan, like the loss of your spouse may have had a pension plan or was getting social security and that may stop now or like if they’re getting social security and yours is less, you’ll be able to get theirs, but you won’t be able to still get yours. Okay. Many of those payments are made in advance. So what I mean by that, if you lost your spouse on the 15th of the month and you’ve gotten a payment on the fourth of the month, you’ve gotten, that payment was in advance because that was for the whole month. And some of that may need to be returned. I’ve seen that. If that spouse lost was receiving Social Security benefits, you need to get to the nearest Social Security administration office and tell them they need to be contacted immediately. And you may have to give some back. You may not.
Shawn:
So the other thing is make sure you get a list of all of the outgoing monthly expenses. You wanna make sure that those are listed and totaled so that you know what it is, especially if you are the spouse that was not typically handling the expenses and the budgeting. The one thing that would be really helpful for that is get the last three to four months of bank statements, because then you can kind of look through and see, all right, what are some of the things that are recurring on each statement.
Bob:
You should see an average of what exactly is being spent each month with the last three to four months of bank statements. Because I realize, remember when we made the program called what was it? Budgeting…
Shawn:
Budgeting Without Numbers.
Bob:
Budgeting Without Numbers. Yeah.
Shawn:
In this case, you are gonna have to use numbers.
Bob:
You are gonna have to use some numbers. But I realize that the majority of you are not budgeters . That’s just life. I sit across from you every single day, so I know. Alright. Number six.
Shawn:
All debts and to whom they’re owed, along with the financial terms, need to be listed out.
Bob:
Yes, they do. Absolutely. Now the next three of these are in the event of a loss of a spouse, but not a divorce. All right. So number seven is with the loss of a spouse, is the estate planning documents, like the will, the trust, any limited partnerships, you need to get those together. You need to get ahold of a reputable attorney. Hopefully, you have one. If not, we may be able to help you with one or you can go to Kingdom Advisors. This is a great place to go and find a local Christian attorney, hopefully within your state, that can help you with the probate and estate planning if this is gonna be needed. And it is, in most cases, it’s gonna have to be probated. Alright?
Shawn:
Yep. So the next one is get at least 10 copies of death certificates for all the financial accounts and the insurance for claims that require an original or a copy for moving accounts into your name only. And the reason why we say get 10 is because like some of them, you actually have to send an original.
Bob:
Right. Some you don’t.
Shawn:
So you know, you may as well just get a bunch of copies all at once so you’ve you’ve got ’em on file for if you need ’em. And that’ll help kind of speed up the process, because that’s usually what delays it is everything’s ready to go, but you don’t have the death certificate and then you have to try to get another copy and then you’re just kind of sitting in limbo and waiting.
Bob:
And like I’ve got here in our notes, Shawn, is that some of these accounts may be locked up to until the probate processes completed. Okay. And the ninth thing, so these three that we’ve just listed, for if you lost your spouse, make a list of all your in-force life insurance policies and you need to make a claim with the insurance company for the death benefit that that’s gonna be paid out. And again, this can take some time, this might be three to five months.
Shawn:
Yeah. Make sure you make that claim ’cause it’s not like the life insurance company wants to pay . So the sooner you file the claim, the better.
Bob:
I just dealt with this with a client two days ago and it was, this was an annuity death benefit paid out. Mm-hmm. And the death benefit was higher than the contract value by quite a substantial amount. I mean by like $300,000 or $400,000. They did not wanna pay out that death benefit. And the daughter got involved in helping the mom and she said that she had to call them numerous times because they were having to come up with that money. But they finally did get it.
Shawn:
Oh, weird. It’s like the insurance companies won’t take your money, but they don’t actually wanna pay out when it’s actually owed. So the 10th one, after all the above is completed with the help of a well experienced fiduciary based financial advisor – I know we’ve hit on that a lot – and possibly a trusted family member. You can start to get all the bank and credit union and brokerage and retirement accounts and all the other assets like real estate and cars titled into your name only.
Bob:
Yeah. And there are many other items we’ve not discussed today. These are just 10.
Shawn:
Yeah. I feel like these are kind of your top level. Like if you can at least get through these, it’s gonna get you in the right direction.
Bob:
It is. And it’s gonna get you pretty far. And this is overwhelming enough as it is when you’ve lost a spouse. So like we’ve said at the beginning, I’ve helped many surviving spouses over the years, or those that have gone through a divorce, get their financial life back in order and it can take a while. So just realize that we’re gonna handle it here because because we’re Christian based with much grace, a lot of grace, compassion. We’re not gonna be throwing darts, if it’s a divorce, at the other spouse. I’m gonna tell you that right now. I mean, I’m just not gonna do that. It just needs to be handled with grace on both sides, and we’re gonna help you use wisdom and we’re gonna do this slowly. This not all has to be done immediately. A lot of these things do, but when I say slowly – over a couple month period, two or three month period.
Shawn:
Exactly. And it’s not gonna all be in one meeting, in one day.
Bob:
So, all right. So Christian Financial Advisors, we do have the experience and we have the knowledge to help you. Plus, we’re just fiduciary based. We don’t offer any commission-based products, so we’re not motivated to try to sell you something. Again, if your present financial advisor that you’re using is commission-based, I would suggest you try to find a fiduciary based advisor. If it’s not us, then another fiduciary based advisor. Look for that word “fiduciary”. That’s what’s very important. And if you would like a list, a copy of what we talked about today, these 10 things…
Shawn:
It’ll be on the podcast description. It’s also gonna be on our website. It’ll be in the, it should be in the description for the YouTube video, so it’s kind of all over. But if for whatever reason you can’t find it, you can also visit our website, www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. You can also call or text us Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (830) 609-6986, and we’d be happy to help you. I think that about wraps it up for today. Again, we know this was a hard conversation or topic to cover, but we hope that this has been helpful and that this will bless you. Or if you have someone in your life that’s going through this, maybe you can kind of help them through this. So thank you for joining us and God bless.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
18 min
August 08, 2023 168 – Unlock The Optimal Time For Claiming Social Security
Click below to listen to Episode 168 – Unlock The Optimal Time For Claiming Social Security
Unlock The Optimal Time For Claiming Social Security

Start to unravel the mystery of when to begin taking Social Security benefits.

More episodes >>

Bob and Shawn delve into the complexities of deciding when to take Social Security. They discuss factors to consider when taking Social Security such as your current age, anticipated lifespan based on family history, potential income sources, and whether you’re still working. Bob emphasizes the importance of calculating the breakeven point for starting Social Security benefits early versus later, factoring in the time value of money.
They also touch on political implications and uncertainties surrounding the future of Social Security. As always, Bob and Shawn reference Biblical scriptures, tying financial decisions to faith-based values.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
LUKE 14:28-30
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters. I’m joined as always by my father-in-law and co-host Bob Barber. We are building a community of like-minded Christians who want to glorify God with their investments and finances. So if you enjoy that kind of content, we’d love for you to hit subscribe and know every time we post a new video. So, today we’re gonna be covering a topic on Social Security and when should you take it. I know this is something that a lot of people ask, especially if you’re in that 60 to 70 age range. So we wanna try to help answer that question for you today. Bob.
Bob:
Okay, Shawn. So, like you said, it’s one of the hottest topics out there about when you should take Social Security, especially if you’re around 60. That’s me. I just turned 61. And I got my Social Security statement and I’m thinking, all right, what should I do? Should I take it next year? And of course, based on what I know, I’m not going to, I’m not gonna take it probably till I’m 70. Cause as you know, y’all are not gonna let me retire around here. So, I have to work forever. But this is a very hot topic today amongst people in my age group. And as you know, there’s millions retiring in my age group trying to answer this question. And I think it really, for a Christian, it boils down to, too, there’s this scriptural principle that we find in Luke 14:28-30 about counting the cost. And Shawn, I always pick on you to read the scripture. So if you would read that for us.
Shawn:
Well, it’s just because I have such a melodious voice.
Bob:
There you go. Exactly.
Shawn:
It’s soothing .
Bob:
Yeah.
Shawn:
All right. Luke 14:28-30, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it, for if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.'”
Bob:
Now that really goes with retirement planning and not able to finish means you’re not able to finish life. Okay. With enough money.
Shawn:
The money runs out before life runs out.
Bob:
Exactly. So when I broke this down, and I spent a lot of time on this, I think I told you I spent about 10 or 12 hours. Normally, a lot of the programs I can do and just put together in 15 or 20 minutes. This one I spent some time on. And we’re gonna go over four areas today in the program. We’re gonna go over questions and ideas you need to think about with your Social Security. The second one is how working income affects your Social Security benefits. Questions asked before taking Social Security before your full retirement age (FRA). You’ll hear us say that again many times is FRA, that’s how Social Security refers to it, too, full retirement age, and what’s the break even point? This is a real big one. What’s the brave break even point for taking Social Security earlier or later based on math? And you know how I like math.
Shawn:
Oh, Bob, you and math. It’s almost like you want to try to make this objective and non-emotional.
Bob:
. Exactly. Yeah. So we wanna start with that first question that we talked about, the questions and ideas you need to think about before or when taking Social Security. So number one.
Shawn:
So the first one, yeah. Are you still working? And if so, what is your earned income?
Bob:
And we’ll go over that here in a minute. How long might you live? Okay, so you’ve gotta think about this is, well, I really don’t know, but think about it. What are your genetics? At what age did your parents or grandparents pass away? Your parents may still be living and like siblings, and are they all still alive to date? That has a lot to do. You can kind of figure out how long you’re gonna live. I go drive by my graveyard and I see everybody lives to 88 or 90 years old, so I’m kind of figuring on 90. Should I offset an early retirement income before Social Security for eligibility age or just take it? Because if you do, if you don’t take it, you’re gonna have to take more from your nest egg. And the fifth one we have here.
Shawn:
And then we also have, where will your income come fromt – that’s hard to say – if you’re retired or retiring soon? Is that pension, IRA, savings, Social Security, all these sources? And then the last one, of course, if I take Social Security early, it will be less. So is this wise in the long run?
Bob:
Yeah. So we’ll look at the math and see that, so this is how working income affects Social Security benefits and why it’s so important if you’re still working, in my opinion, you don’t wanna take Social Security benefits when you’re still working, but you’ll see why here. Because if you start taking that, for every $1 – and the number today is $21,240 – for every $1 that you make over that, you’re gonna have your Social Security benefits taken away from you. So it works like this. In other words, Social Security deducts $1 from your benefits for every $2 you make over the annual limit. Okay. So basically you’re getting a 50% reduction, Shawn, in your Social Security benefits if you take it before full retirement age. And for many of us, like most of us are born after 1960, my age, and that full retirement age is 67. So if I start taking Social Security at 62 and Shawn, I make more than $21,000, then half of my Social Security benefits are gonna be taken away from me.
Shawn:
You know, if you’re working and not making more than $21,000, that’s probably a different problem anyway. But yeah. But wow, that’s really low. So, if you’re watching this and you make more than $21,000 I would say yeah…
Bob:
You wanna delay. Delay off taking your Social Security.
Shawn:
Yeah, exactly.
Bob:
Also, there’s another point in here, too. If you are still working and you do reach full retirement age, which in my case would be 67 years old. If I’m going to make over $56,000, basically $56,520, that’s this year, Social Security is gonna deduct $1 in benefits for every $3 above that number. So they’re basically, instead of taking half, they’re taking a third, but they’re still taking it from you. This is why if I don’t plan on retiring till 70 and I make beyond $56,000, I’m not gonna take it.
Shawn:
But again, this only applies if you’re still working when you take Social Security.
Bob:
That’s right.
Shawn:
Gotcha. Okay.
Bob:
You got it. That’s right. Okay. But there’s a nice thing here. And do you see that point?
Shawn:
Yes. You want me to go for it?
Bob:
You go over it.
Shawn:
Okay. All right. So unearned income, like interest, investment income, stock dividends, income from a pension, retirement plan, annuity and rental income, if it’s not a full-time business, will not affect the Social Security benefits.
Bob:
Yeah. So if you’ve done really well saving and you are 62 years old now and you wanna take your benefits from your savings, which is considered unearned income, that’s not gonna affect your benefits. It’s only going to be earned income if you retire on what you’re making at the Home Depot or the Lowe’s, because I’ve always said that’s what, if I retired, that’s where I’d go work.
Shawn:
Oh yeah. Help people with all the random handyman stuff.
Bob:
And the discounts I’d get. because I’m there all the time anyway.
Shawn:
Yeah. You gotta feed your habit. .
Bob:
So the general rule is it’s best to wait to take Social Security if you’re still working full-time, because odds are like, again, you’re making above the threshold of $21,240 dollars a year. That’s before the full retirement age or after the 56, after the retirement age.
Shawn:
So next, questions to ask before taking Social Security before full retirement age. So the first one, are your parents still living in their eighties or nineties? So, age longevity is an essential factor in determining if you should take Social Security before your full retirement age, the FRA.
Bob:
That’s right. If you’re retiring early, which is better? Taking Social Security early or from your retirement nest egg. Okay, so you need $5,000 a month to live on, or $6,000. Social Security would maybe provide you $2000 of that. Well, if you’re gonna delay taking Social Security, that means you’re gonna have to take another $2000 a month from your retirement nest egg that you’ve saved for many, many years. So you gotta ask yourself, do I wanna take that from myself or do I wanna take what the government wants to give me now that I’m going to be taking those Social Security benefits, either before Full Retirement Age or after or right at.
Shawn:
Okay. So the next one, what is the general breakeven point for starting earlier versus later?
Bob:
Yeah. And we’re gonna go over the mathematical equation here for that. Okay. And the annual benefit at full retirement age, you wanna subtract the benefit at age 62. So we’re gonna go into the mathematical formula for how this works, because it’s basically like this. Let’s say that you’re going to get $20,000 a year if you started taking Social Security right now. But the other side is I’m gonna wait to 67. That’s five years, right? What’s $20,000 times five.
Shawn:
Oh, wow. Don’t, that’s simple math. It’s a million, right? Kidding. . It’s a hundred thousand.
Bob:
$100,000. So you realize that, Shawn, if you’re 62 years old and you do wanna start taking Social Security, but you’ve always heard, wait, wait, wait, wait. And you wait another five years to your full retirement age, how much less money have you gotten so far? A hundred thousand. You’ve gotta take that number of a hundred thousand. And I looked at what if you were to receive $20,000 per year at age 62, the number that you would get at age 67 would be $9,411 of extra benefit. Okay.
Shawn:
Per year?
Bob:
Per year. So what do you do? You take that 100,000, you divide that by 9,411, because that’s the additional benefit.
Shawn:
Got it. Which gives you an extra 10.62 years. So it’s almost 11, but say 10 and a half.
Bob:
So now we’ve pushed the benefit out by 10. We pushed the breakeven point by 10 years. In other words, you started taking Social Security early five years early. And by doing that, it takes another 10 years once you start taking it to catch up. Now you’re at 15 years to the breakeven point. Now, I started taking that and I said, well, what about the time value of money?
Shawn:
Right.
Bob:
You gotta add another three to four years there. So by the time that you get – if you start taking it at 62, your breakeven point is basically 18 to 19 years, or around 80 to 81.
Shawn:
By taking it early?
Bob:
By taking it early. Okay. So you gotta ask yourself when you’re 62 years old, do I know for sure I’m going to live 18 years? Or could something take me out before tomorrow? But then again, this is why it’s so important to look at how long have your parents lived? In other words, if you think you’re gonna live to 90, it would be better to wait to take…
Shawn:
Until 67.
Bob:
Right. Exactly.
Shawn:
Makes sense.
Bob:
Yeah. But here’s another thing. Politically, where is Social Security today? You know, we just had to extend the government debt by a lot.
Shawn:
That ceiling was extended again or raised whatever the proper terminology is.
Bob:
So, this is my opinion and this is an opinion only. And so it’s kind of a politically waived opinion, but I believe that those who have been responsible and have saved will be penalized later. The government’s gonna say, well, if you’ve got a couple million in your retirement nest egg, why do we need to keep giving you full Social Security benefits? So there’s a lot.
Shawn:
Even though you’ve been paying in your entire career, but now all of a sudden because you actually did what you should do, which is save, save, and invest and plan for the future. Now all of a sudden, oh, well we don’t need to pay you because we haven’t managed things properly. And now, we need to pay all these other people’s Social Security that didn’t plan ahead.
Bob:
The government always…
Shawn:
Could never see the government doing something like that.
Bob:
They always penalize people who are responsible. I don’t know why, but it just, and I’m making a statement and I know it’s a political statement.
Shawn:
I think maybe it’s jealousy, Bob, because most of your government officials don’t know how to actually budget or plan ahead.
Bob:
Shawn:
They just raised the debt ceiling and spend more money.
Bob:
So now you’re 62 years old and you’re asking yourself, should I start taking Social Security right now? Well, those are questions you have to think about. You have to think about what’s my longevity? Am I still working? What do I think is gonna happen to Social Security in the next 15 to 18 years? Will they adjust it by how much I have in my retirement plan? I think that’s going to be what’s gonna save Social Security. I do not believe Social Security’s going away. I don’t think that, if anything, it would be political suicide for any politician to start messing with Social Security to where it would, the system would break. But it will be very top heavy, and it’s getting more and more top heavy, meaning there’s more people taking out than putting in. The bottom line is there is a lot of financial planning that’s gotta be done here. You can’t just say, well, I just wanna take it early at 62. It’s gotta be put into a financial plan. And you’ve gotta look at what your benefits are. You’ve gotta look at what the break even is. You’ve gotta look at your age longevity. So, this just needs a lot of financial planning, bottom line.
Shawn:
To try to simplify it a little bit, though.
Bob:
Okay.
Shawn:
For our viewers and listeners, it really comes down to a few specific points. The first one, I think, that people need to know is your longevity. Now, obviously none of us know what time the Lord has appointed for us. We don’t know how long we’re gonna be here, but just kind like when insurance companies are looking at what to charge you for premiums.
Bob:
Well, they have the mortality tables.
Shawn:
They look at statistics. So, if your family has a history of great-granddad and granddad and dad, they all lived to 90 something. Okay. Well you should, assuming you’re staying in good health, you should probably assume on 90 for planning purposes. But if everybody, you know leaves early in late 70’s or 80, like well then, yeah, that could make a big difference on whether you should take it early or not. And then obviously the second part is what are your actual income needs? You know, if you’re able to, like Bob was just talking about a little earlier, if you’re able to weather the storm for an extra five years and you’re expected to live to 90 based on your family history, well the math says you would be a lot more better off. I said more better . You’d be better off waiting till 67.
Bob:
Shawn, like I said…
Shawn:
Just trying to keep it simple.
Bob:
You need to do a lot of financial planning with this, and put all this into the system. We have our system, we put the financials, I mean all the Social Security benefits are figured in there. You just put in income, it’s all laid out and it can show you in the form of a graph. So that’s gonna do it for today. Shawn, there’s so much here with Social Security. I could have gone another 30 minutes talking about this.
Shawn:
Well, we were trying to keep it simple and helpful and hopefully point you guys in the right direction. So yeah, it’s an interesting topic.
Bob:
And if you need some help with this, we are here. Our phone number you can text or call is (830) 609-6986. Or you can find us on the web www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Thank you for listening.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
18 min
July 31, 2023 167 – A Secular VS A Christian Worldview Of Finances
Click below to listen to Episode 167 – A Secular VS A Christian Worldview Of Finances
A Secular VS A Christian Worldview Of Finances

Which way are you viewing your money, from a secular or a Christian worldview?

More episodes >>

How do you view your finances? Is it through a secular or a Biblical lens? Find out by listening to Bob and Shawn discuss the stark differences between a secular and Christian worldview of finances. They share 14 fundamental contrasts, tackling concepts like ownership, control, contentment, decision-making, needs, generosity, fair wages, honesty, and investment choices.
Drawing from Biblical teachings, this episode challenges the self-centeredness of the worldly view, advocating instead for an outlook that recognizes God as the ultimate provider and owner of all wealth. Bob and Shawn encourage listeners to align their financial practices with their Christian values, hopefully turning wealth management into a spiritually enriching endeavor.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters, and as always, I’m joined by my father-in-law, Bob Barber. And today we have, I feel like, a pretty interesting topic that is literally, as Bob said a little earlier to me, a Christian financial perspective.
Bob:
Which that’s the name of our podcast. And our program, Christian Financial Perspectives.
Shawn:
So today’s episode, we’re gonna be comparing and contrasting the differences between a secular or worldview of finance, what the world tells you versus what we should be looking at it from the Christian perspective, what the Bible says. So, Bob, why don’t you give us a little bit of a intro on this?
Bob:
Well, Shawn, I really got into the Biblical worldview versus a secular worldview years ago. There was a series put out by Focus on the Family called The Truth Project. And I taught that over and over and over by Dr. Del Tackett. Any anybody that hasn’t seen that I would highly recommend that they go view that video series, it’s absolutely fantastic. So today, like you say, we’re gonna cover that secular worldview of finances versus the Christian worldview of finances. And there’s a lot to cover. So, here we go. You ready? Let’s take off .
Shawn:
So we’ve got, let’s see.
Bob:
14.
Shawn:
14. We’ve got 14. So, we’ll try to hit these for you and stay on time, right? So the first one we’re gonna cover, the world will tell you that you own it all, or I own it all. It’s all mine. However, what we know from God’s Word is that the Christian view is that God owns it all. He’s the Creator and the Owner of everything – ourselves, every asset, every ability that we have, it comes from the Creator.
Bob:
Amen, Shawn.
Shawn:
So God owns it all.
Bob:
Said well, brother, said well. The second behind this is the secular worldview of finances that is I’m in control of my financial destiny wherever it is. I, I, I as in I’m in control. But the Biblical worldview, the Christian worldview, is that God is in control of that. He’s in control of my financial destiny, and therefore, why am I fretful about it?
Shawn:
That’s right. And we are gonna include scriptures in the description, but there there’s a lot of scripture for these.
Bob:
That would be 28 scriptures.
Shawn:
Yeah. We wanted to keep this to under 30 minutes. So , number three, the world tells us contentment is found in how financially secure and successful I am. However, the Bible tells us that contentment is found in Christ, not the size of your bank account or investment portfolio. And what’s one of the things that we say around here is that your self-worth is never equal to your net worth. They are not tied together. And so, yeah.
Bob:
The fourth one is is that financial decisions should be centered – well, a secular view, a secular view is that financial decisions are centered around me and what makes me happy, that is truly a secular worldview. A Christian worldview is that financial decisions are spirituals decisions and they should be prayed about before they’re made so that they align with God’s Word and with what he wants for our lives.
Shawn:
That’s right. Which goes back to number one, and that God owns it all. Well, if God owns it all, if you’re making a financial decision, you should ask him, God, what do you want me to do with these resources, with these assets? Because ultimately everything we have, he gave it to us in the first place. So number five, the world tells us the secular view. I always need just a little bit more. I just, you know what, I got a million dollars in the portfolio, but if I could just get to 2 million, then I think I’d be okay.
Bob:
And then when you get there, it’s just a little bit more.
Shawn:
Exactly. And the Christian view is that I consider how much is enough. What is it that I actually need to cover my needs and how much is enough?
Bob:
The sixth one is a secular view of finances is that giving can become a burden. It can actually be a burden to give. But a Christian Biblical worldview is that giving is a privilege and it’s the blessings of God that we’re returning back. And it should be part of a long-term financial plan. And even your estate plan, we have in our estate plan a percentage of that is gonna go to the kingdom.
Shawn:
God wants you to be a cheerful giver and join in with him on his mission of generosity in this world.
Bob:
Yes. That’s right.
Shawn:
So, number seven, the world or the secular worldview says I need to make as much money as possible no matter how I have to do it, or what I have to invest in or be an owner of. However, we know that the Christian view, according to the Bible, is that how I make money on anything, including my investments, is just as important as why I make it in the first place.
Bob:
Amen. Amen.
Shawn:
And again, there’s a lot of scriptures I keep wanting to quote , too many scriptures. We gotta we gotta keep going.
Bob:
We’re number eight now, right? A secular worldview is my self self-worth is associated with my net worth. Again, my self-worth is associated with my net worth, which I say is pretty sad. Okay. That’s depressing when I think about it or what I drive, or where I live, and what I can buy. But a Christian Biblical worldview is my self worth is centered around Christ and what he did for me, not the size of my portfolio, not what I drive or where I live.
Shawn:
Amen. Amen. We can’t all live in Texas, right. .
Bob:
Hey, well, we need to be careful about that because we got people listening to us all over the world.
Shawn:
I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
Bob:
.
Shawn:
Okay. So, number nine, the secular view, the world tells us financial truth is relative, but we know from scripture that the Christian view, financial truths are based on absolutes found in the Bible.
Bob:
I love, I love it. I love that one. Even if you just look at this without the financial behind it, when truth becomes relative…
Shawn:
It’s meaningless.
Bob:
And you have one mixed up society because nobody knows what to stand for.
Shawn:
If there aren’t any absolute truths, we’re all basically making up the rules as we go. And how can you function?
Bob:
That makes chaos, which we’ve seen. We’ve seen a lot of.
Shawn:
Can you imagine going to a football game or basketball game and every player just makes up the rules as they go?
Bob:
Referee just says, well, yeah, whatever. All right. Well, to the 10th one now. A secular worldview is my wants and needs are more important than everyone else’s. Selfishness, right? Really boils it down to that, where a Biblical Christian worldview is others’ needs are just as important as my own needs.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
I wanna hang around with folks like that.
Shawn:
Well.
Bob:
I mean, I don’t wanna hang around the secular one.
Shawn:
And that’s being more like Jesus is thinking like, well, what do others need? How can I bless others? So number 11, the secular view, what the world tells us is that pay others as little as possible. Just get by with what you can. Pay ’em as little as possible. But the Christian view, according to the Bible is that we should pay others a good wage and tip abundantly.
Bob:
That’s right. I believe when Christians go out, that especially when we pray over a meal and they know that we’re a Christian, we need to be tipping well. Cause I’ve known some people that work in restaurants and said sometimes on Sundays, they’re the worst tippers. And what does that say? That doesn’t send a very good message. This is a secular worldview I’ve seen, and we’ve gotta be very careful. Everyone needs to be careful of this is trying to get paid in cash so you can hide reporting it as income. I’ve heard this.
Shawn:
So the world’s telling you well, hey, if you get cash, you can hide it.
Bob:
That’s exactly right.
Shawn:
It’d be deceitful.
Bob:
But the Biblical worldview is report all income. Remember what Jesus said, pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s. It’s his. I know it’s hard. I love what Ron Blue has said, never complain about paying taxes. You can always pay less. Just make less . And we must be honest and forthright as a Christian worldview in all of our financial dealings.
Shawn:
That’s right. There’s nothing wrong with paying as little taxes as as you legally can. I mean, you do things right. Be ethical, but pay the tax that is due.
Bob:
Yes. That’s right.
Shawn:
So number 13, our next to last one, the secular view says, my handbook for handling money is from the world’s ways and whatever everybody else is telling you to get your’s and get mine and…
Bob:
Just watch secular tv. You’ll see it over and over.
Shawn:
The Christian view, my handbook for using money is the Bible, not what man tells me.
Bob:
And there’s a lot to say about it, y’all. I mean, there’s over 2000 scriptures on good stewardship. And you can read Proverbs every day and it will tell you, I mean, I’m telling you, I’ve read it many, many times over the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. You have the 31 days, but you read 30 and 31 on day 30 when you only have 30 days in the month. But you’ll learn so much about finances through Proverbs.
Shawn:
Yeah. And then the last one, number 14, Bob.
Bob:
Number 14. It’s a big one around here, isn’t it? So the secular worldview is invest in whatever makes the most profit regardless of what the company is making, doing, or supporting. Profit is the most important thing. That’s the secular worldview. But the Christian worldview is invest in companies with good values and don’t buy ones that support harmful agendas that violate Biblical principles. Profit is never more important than Christian values.
Shawn:
That’s right. Because we’ve talked about this on other programs before. We’ve talked about it as a staff, but what some people don’t realize is that as a Christian, when you invest in a company, even if it’s a tiny fraction of a percent of the ownership, you’re now a part owner in that company. So, when you’re an owner, you are responsible for what you own, for say what that company does. And one day you will give an account to God of what that company did. So, if a company is involved with things or doing things that you wouldn’t do if you owned your own business 100% outright, well then why would you want to get in bed with those people and be unequally yoked with people who don’t share your values?
Bob:
That’s right.
Shawn:
So one of the things, we had our Bible study recently and I just thought it’d be appropriate to share for this one. But when it comes to finance, when it comes to money, there’s only one of two things you can do. You can either use it to build the kingdom of self, everything about you, everything about what you can do, what you can get, or you can build God’s kingdom. And that’s it. It has to go to one of those. So as a Christian, ask yourself not what should I do with this money, but ask God, what do you want me to do with this money, with these resources?
Bob:
There you go. There’s Christian Financial Perspectives. Right there. Thank you. It took us a long time, but here we are in episode 167 or something, and we’re finally making one on this. I hope this has blessed your heart. This can turn into a Bible study. I could see where there’s a lot of discussion around all this. And here, I know at Christian Financial Advisors, we are adamant about abiding by a Biblical worldview when it comes to finances and Biblically responsible investing and helping to build the Kingdom and making sure in your estate plan that you fund some of that Kingdom and that you’re giving with a purpose. And if you would like us to help you with that, we can be reached during business hours at (830) 609-6986, or you can text us at that same number, or we invite you to go to our website. You’ll notice right there on our website at the very beginning, right on the front page now that we’ve put that is our statement of faith, what we believe, and our purpose and why we’re here.
Shawn:
So as always, thank you for joining us. Feel free to, if you’re watching this online, comment with maybe a topic you want us to cover. And we hope to hear from you. God bless. Thank you.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
16 min
July 24, 2023 166 – Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 2
Click below to listen to Episode 165 – Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 2
Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 2

Check out part 2 on our series on sudden wealth on managing money wisely and avoiding the many pitfalls surrounding sudden wealth.

More episodes >>

Welcome to part 2 of our series on Sudden Wealth, where Bob and Shawn continue their discussion on “Navigating the Minefields of Sudden Wealth”. They dive into the dangers associated with sudden wealth, and how to manage it wisely with topics like entitlement, arrogance, and becoming a target for manipulation due to newfound wealth.
While sudden wealth is a blessing, there are also many pitfalls that may surround it. Therefore, Bob and Shawn emphasize the importance of Biblical teachings in handling wealth responsibly. The episode also touches on the idea of testing inheritors with a ‘pre-inheritance’ to gauge their financial responsibility.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PROVERBS 13:11
Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, But the one who gathers by labor increases it.
LUKE 12:15
Then He said to them, ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’
PROVERBS 23:4-5
Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
ECCLESIASTES 5:10
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity.
1 TIMOTHY 6:17-19
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.
MATTHEW 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. So glad that you joined us today. My name is Shawn Peters, and as always, my esteemed co-host is with me, Bob Barber, who’s also my father-in-law. And today we’re gonna be talking about how to integrate your faith and finances together with a part 2 of “Navigating the Minefields of Sudden Wealth”. If you enjoy these kinds of topics that we’re covering, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button so you can stay up to date with all of our latest content. All right, so last week we discovered the first part of navigating the Minefields of sudden wealth, and we discussed the common sources as well as the mistakes people tend to make when having sudden wealth. So today we’re gonna be covering the dangers of sudden wealth and what to do with sudden wealth. All right, Bob, you wanna take us from there?
Bob:
You bet. So again, last week we shared the definition of sudden wealth Syndrome as as stated in Investopedia and I think that’s good to say that again today. For those that didn’t hear part one. And by the way, if you didn’t hear part one, I would emphasize you go back and listen to that after today’s episode because it is two entirely different things.
Shawn:
If you’re watching this on YouTube, we’ll have that linked on the video as well as in the description. Otherwise, I guess just go back to the most recent post before.
Bob:
So Investopedia says that sudden wealth syndrome is a type of distress that afflicts individuals who suddenly come into large sums of money. I know most of you’re thinking, Hey, I’d like to come into a large sum of money, okay, but becoming suddenly wealth, not over time, but just suddenly can cause people to make decisions they might not have otherwise made. Amen to that. That’s a good definition. So, as always, Shawn, we have the two scriptures that we like, several scriptures we like to do. These are several scriptures I know that you came up with and I would like you to share these now.
Shawn:
Sure thing. Happy to. Proverbs 23:4-5, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it is gone, for wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”
Bob:
That’s a good one for sudden wealth, isn’t it? Cause it sure can, it can fly right off as quick as it came in.
Shawn:
That’s right. And our second scripture is 1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy, instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
Bob:
The exciting things, Shawn, in working with so many Christians that we do, so many times when they do receive a large inheritance, which is more times than not, they want to tithe from that. And they want to give from that inheritance that they got. So, that scripture really speaks into that. That not letting wealth consume us, but realizing it belongs to God and it was his in the first place.
Shawn:
And I like what Proverbs said about “do not weary yourself to gain wealth” and talking about how if you’re setting your focus on gaining wealth effectively for the sake of gaining wealth, it’s gone. It’s gonna fly away quick. But if you set your eyes on God, whether or not you come into sudden wealth or not, if you set your eyes on God and you do come into sudden wealth, you’re gonna be a lot more likely to be able to handle it properly because your eyes are on God, not the money.
Bob:
Yep. That’s exactly right. So now we’re gonna get into the two areas we’re gonna talk about today which is the dangers of sudden wealth to yourself and from others because there’s danger that can come from others as well. So we’re gonna share five of these. And the first one that the danger of sudden wealth is it can make existing behavioral problems much worse. I think this is something that parents and grandparents who have saved a lot and have a few million over 30, 35 years, need to really understand as they’re passing that wealth down to the next generation. Any of those children that have behavioral problems, it’s only going to compound it and make it much, much worse. Exacerbate it for sure. It does.
Shawn:
Sure. It reminds me again, like I believe last part, part one, we talked about The Parable of the Talents, or at least we’ve talked about multiple times recently. And with your kids or whoever’s receiving the money, it’s just like that if you are able to be faithful with whatever you have been given, whether it’s a little or a lot or somewhere in between when you are gifted with more, especially a lot more, you are more likely to be able to handle that well. But if someone can’t handle the little bit they’ve been given already and they receive a lot, it’s, again, it just exacerbates whatever those issues that they have or those insecurities that they’re trying to fill that void with the money, they’ll just spend more money faster.
Bob:
I call this a pre inheritance experience, where I think it’s really good for grandparents or parents that are going to be passing down substantial wealth to give those children, give them $10,000 or $5,000 and see what they do with it over six months and come back in six months and see what they’ve done with it.
Shawn:
That’s a good point. That reminds me of the Parable of the Lost Son. If they spend all of it and blow it on parties and stuff with the friends, well maybe you need to put some language in your estate planning to help them from spending all of it right away.
Bob:
Anyway, so the second danger I see is what we call a sense of entitlement. Now that I’ve gotten that, Shawn, it’s like okay, I’m entitled to all these things now that I was never entitled to before and I can see where that’s some pent up demand there, but you gotta be careful of allowing that to grab hold of you.
Shawn:
That’s right. Again, that kind of goes back to what we’ve said many times before. Your self worth should never be tied to your net worth. And whether that’s money you’ve earned little by little on your own or it was something that was the result of sudden wealth, in either case, your self-worth is in God, not in the money that you have. So don’t be entitled.
Bob:
Experience again. And this third one is another danger. These are all kind of major dangers, and I’ve seen this one over and over, is that all of a sudden when you get this wealth, I’m smarter than everybody else. You can become arrogant, boastful, and even pretentious. I was looking for the right word and Rachael helped me with that the other day. I was like, Rachael, what is that? That word I’m looking for. She said pretentious. And I’ve seen that many times over. I don’t need anybody’s advice now. I got all this money, I know it all. Be careful of that because you’ll get in trouble with that, trust me. I’ve seen that happen.
Shawn:
So our number four is that you can become a target for theft or manipulation by others who are just wanting to get your money.
Bob:
Oh, the family members can come out of the woodwork. And all of a sudden they need something from you. And be careful of this, the persuasive and high commissioned salespeople out there that wanna sell you their products because now they know you have the wealth and you can afford it. And they’ll pressure you into it. Be careful, especially, in the financial services industry of those salesmen that try to sell that high commission annuity to you, that fixed indexed annuity that, once you get in, it’s kind like the hotel California, you can’t leave. You can check in but you can’t leave or it’s gonna take you 10 years to get out because of the high commission
Shawn:
And I think one way you can kind of spot that is, is it someone who’s trying to target you? Someone who maybe is working on a high commission? If they’re pressuring you to move right now or absolutely can’t wait until tomorrow because you’re gonna miss out on the opportunity or something like that, probably not a good sign. I know just to share a personal experience, I always try to end any kind of sales call that I have with someone with number one, I like to pray to close us out, and I pray that God would give wisdom and peace and that if our firm in particular is the right place for someone, that God would give them peace about it. And if not, that God would direct their steps. So whoever you’re talking to, if they’re expressing a desire for what’s best for you and they’re not pressuring you, it might be a good person to continue talking to.
Bob:
Don’t ever believe it when you go buy that car that they say, well this is the last one, there’s not gonna be anymore.
Shawn:
Yeah. Don’t believe that.
Bob:
Look out at the highway and see all the cars going by.
Shawn:
So those are the dangers. So the next section we’re gonna cover is what should you do with sudden wealth? And I think the rest of that might be what should you do with sudden wealth to make it last?
Bob:
Yeah.
Shawn:
And to avoid some of these dangers.
Bob:
I’m glad you added that to it. Yes, that’s right. So, number one is keep it to yourself, keep it confidential. You can tell a few people, but be extremely careful about who knows that you’ve come into this sudden wealth.
Shawn:
Okay. For example, you should definitely tell your spouse
Bob:
Oh yeah.
Shawn:
If it was one of those where you’re both still around. And I would definitely say if you have someone that, especially if they already have money and they have shown themselves to be very fiscally responsible, that would be a good person to talk to because they could maybe help point you in the right direction.
Bob:
And maybe even if you do tell somebody be careful of all the different friends and family members out there, and if you do tell somebody, why not have them sign a confidentiality agreement to not go and tell anyone else about this. And again, don’t take advice with sudden wealth from any commission based financial advisors because they could have a potential conflict of interest.
Shawn:
That’s right. Okay.
Bob:
All right.
Shawn:
Yeah. And so number four, do seek advice from someone who is a fee only fiduciary based advisor that’s paid by you. They’re not paid by a company or any particular investment product and preferably with many years of experience and a good reputation online and in the community. And the reason of course, again, that’s very important is if someone is a fee only fiduciary based advisor, what they recommend isn’t going to change any sort of short term fee that they collect. A good example…
Bob:
They’re not making money by what they recommend. Exactly.
Shawn:
Right. Good analogy is that if a client came to our firm, because we start at 1% for an annual fee, there’s a lot of commissionable products that might pay 10% upfront day one. We would have to maintain a good ongoing relationship with you as a client for 10 years, assuming no change or growth or anything, to make the same amount. So if you’re working with someone in that situation, they’re not incentivized to push you, rush you, or give you bad advice because they want you to stick around long term.
Bob:
Right. It’s all about the long term. This is a big one too. Don’t do anything financially for three to six months. And I know that may be hard to do because you’re thinking, I need to get that invested. No you don’t. Just back off relax, there’s no rush.
Shawn:
Let the emotions settle, because if you do something quickly, you’re just so much more likely to do something with it based on how you’re feeling and not based on what’s needed and what’s financially sound. So I think that would be a good way to kind of remember why you’re waiting three to six months is you just don’t wanna act out of emotions.
Bob:
And the last thing for today is look for a well-known experienced CPA and also an estate planning attorney to structure your sudden wealth for protection from others and from liabilities, because we know about here in our area the 4, 4, 4, 4 guy’s trying to sue you if you were to back your car into someone accidentally. And so, it really needs to be structured in a wise way.
Shawn:
And that’s also good advice because if you got all this sudden wealth and then something happened to you unexpectedly and you hadn’t talked to the CPA and got things worked out with the estate planning attorney, well all of a sudden there might be a whole lot of taxes that wouldn’t have been necessary. So whatever did go to your spouse or kids, you’re spending half that with the government.
Bob:
Well, like we mentioned last week, one of the first things was, in part one, was if you’re coming into sudden wealth and you know you’re coming into it, please seek some tax advice before that. Alright. So there you have it. That’s part one. Parts one and two of “Navigating the Minefields of Sudden Wealth”. If you didn’t hear that first part, we recommend listening to both of these as they go together. And if you need help navigating these minefields of sudden wealth or you know somebody that needs help with this, we would love to reach out to them and help. You can reach out to us during business hours by phone or text at (830) 609-6986. Or you can go to our website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com.
Shawn:
That’s right. And again, thank you so much for joining us and if you have any topic you’d like us to cover in the future, make sure to comment that down below. And until next time, God bless.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
15 min
July 17, 2023 165 – Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 1
Click below to listen to Episode 165 – Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 1
Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth Part 1

Learn the most common ways sudden wealth is obtained, along with shared mistakes people make when they fall into sudden wealth.

More episodes >>

In part 1 of our 2 part series on Sudden Wealth, Bob and Shawn discuss the complex issues around sudden wealth, common sources, and frequent pitfalls. Exploring this from a Biblical perspective, they emphasize stewardship and wise decision-making. Some common sudden wealth sources, including inheritances, property value increase, oil and gas discovery, and divorce settlements are discussed.
They outline common mistakes such as failure to pre-plan for taxes, misunderstanding how quickly money can be spent, and impulsively buying depreciable assets. They strongly advocate for careful planning, caution, and seeking advice to successfully navigate this tricky financial terrain.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
LUKE 16:10
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
PROVERBS 21:20
The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisors host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome everyone, to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you’ve joined us today. I’m Shawn Peters, and with me as always, is my esteemed father-in-law, Bob Barber . Today we’re gonna be covering a part one of a two-part series on “Navigating The Minefields Of Sudden Wealth”. So today, part one is gonna be common sources and mistakes of sudden wealth, and then in part two, we’re gonna be covering the dangers of and what to do with sudden wealth. So today we’ve got a couple scriptures for you, but I’m gonna go over to you, Bob. What do you got for us today?
Bob:
Well, it is about sudden wealth. I’ve dealt with this a lot in the many years I’ve been doing this in the business, which is over 30. Man, I’m starting, I’m getting old there, Shawn, but I’m just getting good now. So, I got another 20 years to go, I hope. But all these are very simple ways. I’ve seen them over and over, and so we’re gonna go over some really wise things that people need to be thinking about. If you know anybody that’s gonna be coming into sudden wealth from one of these ways, you definitely need to get ’em to to listen to this episode.
Shawn:
Thanks, Bob. So first we’re gonna cover, first scripture, Luke 16:10, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own.”
Bob:
One of my favorites, Shawn, because, it’s like, okay, if you do well with this thousand dollars I can give you, how you gonna, maybe I can give you $3000, and if you do well with 3k, then maybe I can give you 30k. So God’s really saying here to us, if you’ve been good with a little bit, you can have more.
Shawn:
Exactly. And then our second scripture is Proverbs 21:20, “The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.”
Bob:
So, Shawn, I looked up what sudden wealth syndrome, the definition of it is according to Investopedia, and this is what it says, “Sudden wealth syndrome is a type of distress that affects individuals who suddenly come into a large sum or sums of money. Becoming suddenly wealthy can cause people to make decisions they not otherwise make.” No kidding.
Shawn:
That is true. Yes. Okay. So what are 8 common ways sudden wealth can occur? The first one, which is probably the most common for those of you out there, is a large inheritance. And second one, property you own suddenly becomes very valuable. You know, maybe…
Bob:
Happens a lot here in Texas.
Shawn:
Exactly. Maybe all of a sudden that the city creek got a little bit closer to your farmland out there or your little pot of ranch land and Oh, now a developer wants to buy the whole thing. So number three, Bob.
Bob:
Oh, number three, we’ve dealt a lot with this here in Texas, Shawn, as you know. And gosh, about 10 years ago when we had the Eagle Ford Shell strike, it was really big. And that’s an oil and gas discovery.
Shawn:
Texas tea.
Bob:
Black Gold. Beverly Hillbillies. I know what you’re talking about. Okay. But the same thing happened in other areas and the northeast, there’s a lot of oil and gas up in the Northeast. Like in Pennsylvania, Pennzoil that’s one of the original companies. You’ve got in the Midwest, upper Midwest, there was a lot of oil struck, so this is a very common way as well. I mean, it’s not common for everyone. Not near as common as an inheritance, but it is still very common in our country.
Shawn:
That’s right. And another one, large divorce settlement, so kinda like large inheritance and neither of those cases, is it a very happy occurrence, but it is something that that happens.
Bob:
And we need to talk about this because we’re going to go into a little bit about how that can – you gotta be really careful because the money can go quickly, especially somebody that is divorced and is used to a very, very high income, maybe high income earner, and the one they divorce is no longer making the income.
Shawn:
Right.
Bob:
Exactly. Or they are making the income, but you’re not part of that now.
Shawn:
And I know you’ve seen that numerous times over the years.
Bob:
I have. Sure have.
Shawn:
If you know someone is divorced and let’s say we’re working with the wife, and now the ex-wife, but you know, she was not the primary income earner and her now ex-husband was the primary income earner. And all of a sudden, sure, it might have been a large settlement, but you have to be very careful that you don’t try to spend on the same level that you were maybe used to. Because otherwise that money’s not gonna last.
Bob:
So we’re gonna go over those common mistakes and talk about some of this. Number five is a large life insurance payout. And again, this is an unfortunate one. But I have seen this in my years as well.
Shawn:
That’s right. And number six, IPO of a stock you have goes big. So that’s again, we’re kind of going, I guess more or less most common to less common.
Bob:
Yeah. But it’s funny, these last two we end up on might be more common than you think. Okay.
Shawn:
A little higher on the list.
Bob:
Number seven is a large company bonus, and number eight is a large pension cash out. We see that a lot with our retirees that come from companies they’ve been with a very long time. Okay. So we’re gonna go over the common mistakes that we see when you inherit this sudden wealth like this that you just you’re not thinking about. Okay. So the first one is…
Shawn:
Not pre-planning for taxes before it happens, or in some cases soon after.
Bob:
Yeah. It’s so important if you know this is coming to get with somebody and talk with them about it. If it’s after the fact, then there’s still some things we can do. But we need to do ’em quickly, especially before the end of the year.
Shawn:
I think for the most common ones is that the inheritance or the maybe if you have that IPO or pension cash out, some of those ones.
Bob:
Pension cash outs can be very, very dangerous. You gotta do it correctly.
Shawn:
That’s right. So if you don’t have your estate planning in place, that would definitely be part of that pre-planning. Or if it’s your parents are maybe a little bit older and they don’t have their estate plan. Well that would definitely be something to look into because why do you wanna give the government more taxes than you have to ?
Bob:
So, boy, Shawn, this is a very common one. This second mistake that people make with sudden wealth is they really just, they just don’t understand how quickly it can disappear in just a matter of years.
Shawn:
That is true.
Bob:
And man, I see the parents, it took ’em 30, 35 years to save up to this million dollar portfolio or $2 million portfolio, and then it could be spent in three to five years easily. I always tell somebody with sudden wealth, how long is it gonna take you to get back to that point? And it’s gonna take just as long as the parents did. So you really have to have a good understanding with sudden wealth, how quickly it can disappear. And this third one is a big one too. I’ll let you cover that.
Shawn:
So the third one is suddenly buying a lot of depreciable assets. So there’s the sudden wealth, whatever the source was, but that common mistake is, oh, I have all this extra, all these extra assets. I have all this extra money, so I’m gonna go buy an extra car that they don’t really need and I’m gonna buy an extra boat, buy an RV, tractor or you know what, I’m wealthy now, I’m gonna go and buy a small airplane at $500,000 on the low end .
Bob:
And you know why I put these in here? Because I’ve seen ’em all. It’s happened. I’ve seen every single one of these I’ve seen. Seriously. And I just, it’s so important.
Shawn:
Well, I think back to when the Eagle Ford Shale was really hopping and you had worked with a number of people from like the same family. And during that time, Bob had one client was being very careful, being very frugal, not trying to go from, Hey, they were making $40,000, $50,000 a year. Now, they’re making $50,000 or more a month. And they tried to more or less kind of stick to a similar lifestyle, a very similar income. And eventually, when the income started to slow way down, which inevitably happens with that, they were doing okay, but then you had some of the other family members that all were basically in the same situation, but they just started spending like crazy, buying all this stuff. And then eventually, their income kind of dwindled away, and they didn’t really have anything to show for it.
Bob:
Which one of the things I saw a lot from out of the big oil boom here in Texas, we have the Hill Country and between here and the coast and some really good fishing down on the coast and some beautiful places. But some of the best fishing is the Gulf Coast. So they were like, I’m gonna go buy me a vacation home on the coast, Shawn. And they were never thinking about the taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, especially the maintenance on that salt water. And this ate their lunch financially and they had to, you saw a bunch of them being sold off a couple years later because as you know, oil and gas money, as an example, it hits big in the beginning and then it goes way down and then it levels off. But it may be a million dollars in the first year. The second year may be 500k and the third year is 200k. And it gets down to 100k and it’s clicking along there. So you cannot build a lifestyle based on, when you hit something big like that, based on that amount.
Shawn:
Those initial years of income, because it’s not gonna last at that level. So basically that was number four, suddenly buying a vacation home and not understanding the cost associated with that because you know, that million dollar home, for example, it costs a lot of money. Especially like you said, if it’s on the coast and if you don’t maintain it, then, I mean you can’t keep it.
Bob:
Big one, a big one here, Shawn, with sudden wealth that I see, too, is telling family members about it and friends, you should not do that. It should be kept very confidential, except for maybe a few, I mean, your spouse. Okay, I understand that.
Shawn:
You gotta tell your spouse.
Bob:
But you should not – but in the life insurance example, and this is a sad thing, I’ve seen where the spouse is remaining, other people know, and they find out and they’re kind of lining up, Hey, I need a business loan all of a sudden, or I need some money, could you give me some? And I guarantee you, Shawn, anybody that’s hearing this that’s come across sudden wealth will tell you, “Bob’s right on it.” Because I’ve had these conversations with people.
Shawn:
All of a sudden, Bob, there’s some cousin you didn’t know about or some friend of a cousin or friend of a sibling.
Bob:
Always giving these opportunities. Yep. Number six, of course it’s obvious with this one, but it’s taking withdrawals too frequently from your new found wealth thinking it’s just gonna last and last and last. And you know, you watch them take 20% or 30% withdrawals every year. Well, four or five years. And we’ve given warnings in this. We’ve given warnings over and over. You’re going through your wealth, you’re gonna spend it all if you’re not careful, what would take 30, 40 years to get to. This is a big warning. Be careful about this withdrawals and get with a fiduciary, not a commission based advisor. A fiduciary based advisor where you’re paying them, they’re not making money from commissions by what they sell you, because they’re out there. And you gotta be very careful of that.
Shawn:
And then of course, the last common mistake, raising your cost of living and lifestyle without understanding how it affects everything financially.
Bob:
Yes.
Shawn:
So you know, just it kind of goes back to taking too much withdrawals. I mean it’s just, it’s all about understanding the true cost of whether it’s assets or living a certain way and whether or not that’s sustainable. So, that about wraps it up for today.
Bob:
Part one. That’s a lot to take in, by the way.
Shawn:
It is, it is.
Bob:
It’s a whole lot.
Shawn:
So in part two, like we mentioned a little earlier, but part two, we’re gonna be covering, “Navigating The Minefields of Sudden Wealth”.
Bob:
Yeah. We’re gonna be talking about the dangers of sudden wealth to yourself and from others and what you should do with all that sudden wealth.
Shawn:
Oh, that’s right. I said the title of the series. So “Dangers of Sudden Wealth to Yourself and Others” and “What You Should Do With Sudden Wealth”. That’s what we’ll be covering next week.
Bob:
Next week. That’s right.
Shawn:
Alright. As always, we’re here to help. If you have questions, suggestions for podcast episodes, just wanna get in contact with us. You can visit our website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com or you can call or text us during business hours Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, at (830) 609-6986. Thank you and God bless.
——-
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
15 min
July 10, 2023 164 – 10 Bible Verses To Guide Your Investment Decisions
Click below to listen to Episode 164 – 10 Bible Verses To Guide Your Investment Decisions
10 Bible Verses To Guide Your Investment Decisions

Break down 10 Bible verses speaking on Christian stewardship and finances.

More episodes >>

In this episode of Christian Financial Perspectives, hosts Bob Barber and Shawn Peters discuss the integration of Christian values into financial strategies by exploring ten Bible verses that have to do with finances and stewardship. They highlight the importance of Biblically responsible investing and avoiding companies involved in unethical practices.
The episode emphasizes slow and methodical wealth-building, the significance of diversification, and the perils of borrowing to invest. It also encourages seeking wise counsel in financial matters and making prayerful choices, because for a Christian, financial decisions should also be spiritual decisions.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PROVERBS 13:11
Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labor increases it.
MATTHEW 25:14-30
The Parable Of The Talents
ECCLESIASTES 11:2
Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.
2 CORINTHIANS 6:17
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.
LUKE 14:28
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
PROVERBS 22:3
The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it.
PROVERBS 22:7
The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.
I TIMOTHY 6:9-10
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
ECCLESIASTES 4:9
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome everyone to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters, and as always, I’m joined by my esteemed father-in-law, Bob Barber and co-host. We are here today to help you navigate the world of finance, but through a Christian worldview. So if you enjoy our unique faith-driven approach, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button so you can stay up to date with all of our latest content.
Bob:
You know, Shawn, with all the first time listeners we’re getting today, I just realized a lot of people may not even know where we are, so.
Shawn:
Yeah. Or what this logo means.
Bob:
Exactly. So we’re located in New Braunfels, Texas, in between Austin and San Antonio, and our firm is Christian Financial Advisors, and we love bringing information to you from a Christian perspective. That’s why we’re called Christian Financial Perspectives.
Shawn:
That’s right. And what’s our topic for today, Bob?
Bob:
Well, our topic for today is “10 Scriptures For Investing”. We’re gonna go over 10 different scriptures that have to do with investing and Biblical guidelines for it. And most people don’t realize, Shawn, that that there’s a lot in the Bible about investing.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
As a matter of fact, there’s a lot about stewardship, like over 1500 to 2000 scriptures.
Shawn:
That’s right, Bob. So that’s one of the things that also sets us apart with how we integrate our Christian values into the advice and strategies that we use for clients. And this allows us not just to address your financial needs, but also help with your spiritual wellbeing and help you along with your faith journey. Which is perfect for what we’re covering in today’s episode, in that we’re gonna be exploring 10 different Bible verses that should help guide your investment strategies.
Bob:
People never even really think about that, Shawn, especially even Christians. They don’t think that the Bible has so much to say about investing and it’s about integrating your faith and your finance. That’s what we’re really talking about and those decisions aligning with Biblical principles.
Shawn:
That’s right. As our name implies those financial decisions lining up with Biblical principles. So, all right, Bob, well, let’s jump right into our first verse. Okay. I’ll go ahead and read Proverbs 13:11, which says, “Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, but the one who gathers by labor increases it.” I really like this verse.
Bob:
Yeah, I do too.
Shawn:
Because it flies in the face of I’m sure if you’ve been online for more than 10 minutes, you’ve seen some sort of “get rich quick” or some sort of thing. It’s up 430% or 1000%. And that doesn’t work. And every time, if you give it a little bit of time, there’s some sort of, “Oh, guess what? That was a scam. It wasn’t right.” The Bible says and encourages us to build wealth slowly and methodically. If you make hasty, impulsive financial decisions, especially if you’re trying to get ahead quick, it often leads to losses. Building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint.
Bob:
Shawn, we talked last week a lot about emotions and investing, and actually you don’t want to use emotions, but you can use other people’s emotions. So I would encourage somebody to go back and listen to that. So our second scripture from today is from Matthew 25:14-30. And we’ve mentioned this many times in the past. It’s all about the “Parable of the Talents”. We’re not gonna go through that entire scripture because it’d take us the rest of the program to read it.
Shawn:
. It’s a lot of verses
Bob:
It’ll take a good 5 to 10 minutes to read that. But it really emphasizes the importance of long-term investing. People don’t realize when you read the parable of the talents, that it never gives us a timeline. So the Lord is not, the Bible does not preach about and does not speak into gambling being a way to make money, but slowly. So we believe when it’s talking about the parable of the talents, that this was probably a 5 to 10 year period that the master gave them the money, Shawn, and then came back and said, what did you do with it? And we know that the guy that got one didn’t do anything. The one that got three and five both went and doubled it. So I’m thinking of rule of 72s, maybe that was a 7 to 10 year period.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
But at the end of the scripture, it talks about how upset the master was. And it says, throw that worthless servant out of here. And I mean, it’s some harsh words there about why didn’t you do something with what I gave you?
Shawn:
Yeah. Because those resources are ultimately God’s and he may have stuck it in, buried it in the ground, but effectively he buried his head in the ground.
Bob:
Yeah, he did.
Shawn:
When it comes to that. All right. Well, next we’re gonna cover Ecclesiastes 11:2, which says, “Divide your portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.” And this first reminds us of the importance of diversification in your investments. It mitigates the risk by helping to spread it across the various sectors and not just have it in one area. So, good way to…
Bob:
And I wanna speak into that, too. If you take that scripture, “Give your portions a seven or eight,” and you divide that into a hundred, you come out between 12% and about 14.6%, I think is the actual number. I don’t have it right in front of me, but that’s the actual number of what you should not put more into one sector. And I always say, especially if you’re listening to us for the first time today, that means Yes, don’t put more than 15-20% in real estate because there’s such an emphasis in HGTV today saying, “Buy real estate. Buy real estate.” Real estate’s a good investment, but it’s only one sector of many sectors.
Shawn:
Exactly. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. So, our next verse is 2 Corinthians 6:17, “‘Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you.'”
Bob:
Well, there’s a lot to speak into this, and this is really about Biblically responsible investing. This shows us as Christians, we should be called out to be different. And to not invest in those companies that are morally hurting America. And if those companies are involved in pornography or gambling or tobacco or the LGBTQIA+ plus or woke type companies, you need to steer clear of ’em. That’s what we feel, and this is what this scripture’s saying, come out and separate from that, while at the same time looking for companies to invest in that are doing good in our society and that are treating God’s creation good. And that are treating their employees well or have a pro-family type of process that they work by.
Shawn:
So we’re gonna go with number five, which is Luke 14:28, which advises for, “Which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it.” Now, this helps us consider the volatility, risk and reward potential before investing, which is very important.
Bob:
Yes.
Shawn:
And it’s crucial to have a written investment strategy that you understand and can entrust.
Bob:
Shawn, I don’t think I’ve met, so far in my 30 years, I don’t think I’ve ever met an individual that had a written investment strategy.
Shawn:
That correct.
Bob:
So they don’t really have a plan. They don’t have a blueprint. They’ve not thought about the cost of that.
Shawn:
Yeah. I have not been doing this as long as you, but I also have not met anyone that has a written investment investment plan policy.
Bob:
You haven’t been able to find anybody either, huh?
Shawn:
Unless it was one of our clients. If you’re watching this right, you know that we give all of our clients an investment policy statement that is written down.
Bob:
We follow ours to the T and it’s seven different strategies. And by the way, you can find that on our website at www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. That’s right under, I think it’s “About Us”. And you go under the investment part of it. But if you can’t find it, just give us a text at (830) 609-6986, we’ll mention that again here at the end of the program.
Shawn:
So Proverbs 22:3 is our next verse.
Bob:
Is this number six, by the way?
Shawn:
This is number six. Okay. So Proverbs 22:3, “The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on and are punished for it.”
Bob:
You wanna speak into that one?
Shawn:
No, I’ll let you talk on that one.
Bob:
Okay. Well, that, again, that has a lot to do with Biblically responsible investing and how we don’t wanna align ourselves with companies that are doing evil.
Shawn:
That’s right. All right. Our seventh verse is Proverbs 22:7. It warns the following, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” So this, I think, is a good recommendation on avoid borrowing money to invest in anything when possible. Now, I know a lot of times for real estate, you almost have to.
Bob:
Well, I at least try not to.
Shawn:
For your primary, at least for your primary home.
Bob:
Especially with rates back up today, Shawn, last year or a couple years ago when rates were at 2% and 3%, 3.5%, but now with rates at 6.5%, 7.5%. I saw 8% the other day.
Shawn:
Yeah, if you’re borrowing to invest, it doesn’t matter what you’re investing in. It could be real estate, it could be markets, stock markets. If you borrow, it’s going to add a lot of unnecessary stress and burden. So just don’t do it. , I mean, I think would be a good way to look at that.
Bob:
Our next scripture. Is this the ninth one?
Shawn:
This is the eighth one.
Bob:
This is the eighth one. So we’re doing 10, right?
Shawn:
That’s right. Our eighth scripture is 1 Timothy6:9-10, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Bob:
This really speaks into day trading and gambling
Shawn:
And gambling. It’s kind of one in the same.
Bob:
It does. And it reinforces the importance of Christian values over desire for that quick wealth that we see that people try to do by day trading. Cause that’s really what day trading is about, is getting something for nothing, by the way.
Shawn:
Well, here we are at our ninth verse. So as we come to near the end of our list, Ecclesiastes 4:9 comes into focus. It says, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.” Now, this one is a great verse to encourage us to seek wisdom and advice and counsel when it comes to our investments. Engaging with experienced financial advisors can help you get very valuable insights, whether that is just financial planning or investment advice, or working directly with an advisor that does investment management on a discretionary basis for you. Either one of those could be very, very useful for this verse. And our last verse, I’ll let Bob cover this one. But our last verse is Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Bob:
Shawn, the reason I had this one for the last one, which is one of the most important ones, is that for a Christian, financial decisions should be considered spiritual decisions as well. So I think it’s very important that as Christians, we pray about all financial decisions. We realize this is God’s money. We’ve talked about this many times about Psalms 24:1, “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” It belongs to him. He owns it. We’re managers. And this really speaks into that, I think.
Shawn:
Amen to that, Bob. Well, so there you have it, folks. That is 10 verses to help shape your investment strategies. Remember, our decisions should not just be about what’s good for our wallets or the financial, but it should be what’s good for our soul, what’s good for our spiritual walk with Christ.
Bob:
Amen to that, Shawn. And really, a great job. I know you helped me with this a lot. I was able to come up with the scriptures, but you were able to help me put, I guess, the meat on the bones, and I appreciate that. I hope this has really helped you. I bet you didn’t know the Bible had this much to say about investing, but it does. And there’s a whole lot more, many, many scriptures. We at Christian Financial Advisors wanna do it God’s way and really invite you to go to our website. We’re doing some updating there. Go under our statement of faith and see what we’re about, because we truly are about aligning your faith and your finances together. Okay.
Shawn:
And that’s what makes us unique, Bob we’re here not just to help you grow your wealth, but we want to help you on your journey of faith.
Bob:
And be a good steward.
Shawn:
Exactly. And if you want, reach out to us and we’d love to help you take that next step on your financial, spiritual journey.
Bob:
I’ll tell you how to get ahold of us. That’s at www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Or you can text us during business hours or give us a call. We’d love to hear and speak with you at (830) 609-6986.
Shawn:
Thank you so much for spending time with us today. We’d invite you to comment or maybe send in an email of any kind of a topic you might want us to cover. And if you do enjoy this financial perspective, but from a Christian worldview, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button so you can stay up to date with all of our latest content and we can continue to help you on your spiritual journey. We love all of you, and thank you so much for being with us. God bless you all.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
16 min
July 03, 2023 163 – Declaring Your Own Financial Independence Day
Click below to listen to Episode 163 – Declaring Your Own Financial Independence Day
Declaring Your Own Financial Independence Day

It’s time to declare financial independence and freedom from debt.

More episodes >>

On July 4, 1776, our American forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence to officially declare the United States’ intentions of being independent from Great Britain. In this episode, hosts Bob Barber and Shawn Peters discuss the concept of ‘Financial Independence’ and explore this theme in light of Independence Day, drawing a connection between the holiday’s historical roots and one’s financial liberation.
The conversation is framed within the context of biblical teachings, particularly Philippians 4:11-13. They present two sides of financial independence: the spiritual aspect, emphasizing contentment and independence from materialism and social influence, and the physical aspect, which includes saving, becoming debt-free, and downsizing.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. So glad that you joined us. As always, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button if you enjoy content from on financial topics, but from a Christian perspective. Bob, we still got about 80% of our viewers and listeners haven’t subscribed.
Bob:
I hear you say that a lot.
Shawn:
I know. It hurts my feelings a little bit. But anyway, so today first of all, Happy July 4th.
Bob:
Exactly. 4th of July. I was talking with Rachael, and I was like, Rachael, what do we talk about on the 4th of July? She says, why don’t you talk about financial independence? I said, that’s a great subject.
Shawn:
So today is about declaring your own financial independence day. I just have to say I love that we do fireworks for July 4th. I know we’re not the only country that uses fireworks. But it does crack me up that, how do we celebrate our independence? ‘Merica. Blow something up. Lots of colors and blow things up.
Bob:
We’re gonna start the scripture off today, and I want to end up on this scripture as well. Okay? Because I think it’s a very good scripture when we talk about financial independence. I think Paul had financial independence in the Bible. And from Philippians 4:11-13. So you’re our scripture reader. So go for it, Shawn.
Shawn:
All right. Philippians 4:11-13 is from the New Living Translation. “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”
Bob:
You know, Shawn, we all know the 4th of July is about financial independence. I think from that scripture, Paul…
Shawn:
Well, just about independence.
Bob:
Yeah. Paul. Well, yeah. It is about the independence, but it’s also about financial independence I think Paul had independence financially because he was content in whatever his circumstances were. And that’s true financial independence. But we know the 4th of July. Yes, we know it’s about Independence Day, but it’s also about financial independence. Remember the Tea Party? You know, there was that rebellion and we’re not gonna pay your taxes anymore, Great Britain. We’re done with that. And so, as we celebrate the 4th of July, I do want you to think about financial independence for yourself and how do you get there? First, there’s a definition I found in Wikipedia. You know, they come up with everything on Wikipedia, because it’s always changing, but what is considered financial independence today? Go for it.
Shawn:
So the Wikipedia definition, which of course is always cited by plenty of sources, right?
Bob:
Oh yeah, exactly.
Shawn:
But anyway, definition is, “Financial independence is the status of having enough income or wealth sufficient to pay one’s living expenses for the rest of one’s life without having to be employed or dependent on others.”
Bob:
So Shawn, I think that financial independence can mean many different things to different people. That’s the definition of it, but I’m not necess–, I don’t really think that is financial independence, just having a gigantic portfolio.
Shawn:
Yeah, it is a good definition. It’s a good starting point, I think for today. But the other thing too, Bob, is what one person’s income that’s sufficient to pay for living expenses is not necessarily another person’s, because it depends a lot on your, well, what’s your standard of living that you’re trying to adhere to?
Bob:
That’s exactly right.
Shawn:
So if you can live on a lot less, then obviously from this definition, you don’t need near as much to be financially independent.
Bob:
So I wanted to break down financial independence into two areas. One would be spiritual and the other would be physical.
Shawn:
That’s a good point.
Bob:
So in looking at physical, I mean the spiritual side first, I believe it’s truly finding contentment in the things and income you already have and what you already make, not focusing what you don’t have. But focus on what you do have. Look at the glass like it’s half full, not half empty. I think that’s a spiritual side of that.
Shawn:
That’s right. A second one for that on the spiritual financial independence, it could be declaring independence from social media and outside influences for making any financial decisions.
Bob:
You could talk into that one, couldn’t you?
Shawn:
Little bit.
Bob:
Most definitely. Because the world’s always thinking you need more. You need this, you need this material thing, and then you can be happy.
Shawn:
How much is enough?
Bob:
Yeah.
Shawn:
Never.
Bob:
There’s never enough. It’s always a little bit more, and thinking of spiritually is that declaring that independence from the grip of materialism because materialism and America especially is all about grabbing you, putting handcuffs around you, thinking that you need that.
Shawn:
We’re a very consumer focused economy.
Bob:
So, and another one…
Shawn:
Declaring from debt.
Bob:
I mean, I know this is physical. Yeah. Declaring from debt. I know it’s physical, but at the same time I think it’s spiritual because you’re not, like Proverbs says, “You’re a slave to that lender.”
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
So by declaring independence from that debt, you’re no longer slave to that lender. And then one of the last things was, is even declaring independence from coveting what others have, Shawn. You know, that’s the last of the 10 Commandments. And sometimes, the last is the most important and there’s a real tendency for us to covet what others have. And we need to be very careful with that. So much so, there’s only 10 commandments, just 10, and that is in the 10 commandments about coveting.
Shawn:
So the next part we want to cover is physical financial independence. So the few ways to think of that or what it could look like, number one, arriving at financial independence number or at a financial independence number by saving over many years that could now generate your annual living expenses from the dividends and interest.
Bob:
And remember when we went over that a few weeks ago, like, what’s your number? And it was like 25x what you wanna live on. 20 – 25x what you wanna live on, or it could be becoming completely debt free. And there’s a real funny thing to that.
Shawn:
Including your home mortgage.
Bob:
Exactly. I don’t know. I’ve had people say, oh, we’re debt free, and then they say, well, we owe money on our home mortgage. No, you’re not debt free till you’re debt free. And that means that you don’t owe anything to anybody in the form of debt. So if you still have a mortgage…
Shawn:
It’s still a good thing. It’s still a good thing if the only thing you have is the mortgage.
Bob:
It is. It is a good thing.
Shawn:
But it could be, it could be very different than actually being debt free, because if your mortgage is the only debt you have and it’s still 30 to 40% of your monthly income. Well, it’s not as good as it sounds .
Bob:
Yeah.
Shawn:
And then the third one, selling unneeded assets and or repositioning by downsizing to a more simple lifestyle.
Bob:
How about that one? I just met with a couple yesterday and they’re saying, we’re thinking about doing that. We don’t need the big house anymore. We’re thinking about selling that. You know, we don’t need the bigger car now. We don’t need the, like you’ve got now, you’ve gotta handle your kids, but a smaller car, smaller home and downsizing and making things more simple. That’s definitely a physical thing, but it’s also, I think that can be your spiritual thing, as well.
Shawn:
And one thing to consider is on that number three, on selling unneeded assets. If you’re considering getting a storage unit, you have too much stuff.
Bob:
I…
Shawn:
I mean the amounr of self storage in this country is ridiculous at this point. So I’m sorry if you own self storage, but to be perfectly honest, we have got to stop holding onto so much stuff, just as people.
Bob:
It is crazy.
Shawn:
Especially if you’re trying to be physically, financially independent. You don’t need a storage unit. You need to get rid of some stuff.
Bob:
I agree. It’s amazing how we’ve seen that here in New Braunfels, all the places build more and more storage units, it’s time to downsize and get rid of the, get rid of the stuff like you said. But the point of today’s program as we come to the end is, is that financial independence can mean different things to different people.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
And we want you to be financially independent and not have that handcuff around you and I think today being the 4th of July that this is coming out is a great day to think about this. And now, this may not happen all today. It may take several years for that to happen, to be financially independent of what you want, that goal you want to get to and get free from that grip of materialism. But I will say this, that we are here to help you to get to that goal. It comes down with drawing those goals up. So we’re gonna end, like I said, we started off on the scripture. I want to end up this scripture. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying this scripture twice today, because truly, this is financial independence in my opinion.
Shawn:
Before we do that scripture, just remember that, like Bob said, it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna be financially independent today, but today can be your financial Declaration of Independence that you’re deciding to make some changes and to focus on moving towards that goal, both spiritual and physically financially independent, and moving that direction. And like Bob also said, we’re here. We’d love to talk to you on the phone, text, send us an email, check out our website, but start today. So, let’s end with this scripture. Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation. Whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”
Bob:
Amen. Need help with declaring your financial independence? We’re here. Our phone number or text is (830) 609-6986 during business hours. Or you can reach us on the web www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Have a good 4th of July. That’s all for today.
——-
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
12 min
June 27, 2023 162 – Using Emotions As An Investment Strategy
Click below to listen to Episode 162 – Using Emotions As An Investment Strategy
162 – Using Emotions As An Investment Strategy

Learn why it’s important to understand emotions when it comes to making investment decisions.

More episodes >>

When we hear descriptions from news outlets about the stock market, newscasters love using big words that play on our emotions. Words such as skyrocketing and plummeting are often in their vocabulary. However, instead of playing on the emotions that words like this evoke, what if we used that information to help understand the stock market better?
Bob and Shawn discuss our much talked about “Cycle Of Market Emotions” chart. By understanding the rollercoaster cycle of emotions when it comes to the stock market, only then can we better anticipate and control our decisions because they are based on information gathered instead of emotions felt.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
COLOSSIANS 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
PROVERBS 25:28
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
PROVERBS 15:14
A discerning mind seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
PROVERBS 1:5
A wise man will listen and increase his learning, and a discerning man will obtain guidance.
PROVERBS 5:1-2
My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel. Then you will show discernment, and your lips will express what you’ve learned.
PROVERBS 8:12
I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.
PROVERBS 10:13
Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of the one who lacks sense.
PROVERBS 14:33
Wisdom resides in the heart of the discerning; she is known even among fools.
PROVERBS 15:14
A discerning mind seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.
PROVERBS 16:21
Anyone with a wise heart is called discerning, and pleasant speech increases learning.
PROVERBS 17:28
Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent, discerning when he seals his lips.
PROVERBS 18:15
The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it.

Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Intro:
Welcome to the Christian Financial Perspectives Podcast, where you will learn what the Bible says about stewardship and finance. Here you will gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge of how to integrate your Christian faith with your finances. Here’s your Christian Financial Advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters.
Shawn:
Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you decided to join us today, tonight, whatever time it happens to be, and whether you’re watching or listening, we appreciate it. If you haven’t subscribed yet and you enjoy content related to financial topics from a Christian perspective, we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button as well as maybe like and share this video. Today, we’re kind of excited to bring you an interesting topic.
Bob:
That’s the truth.
Shawn:
On using emotions as an investment strategy. Or, more succinctly, don’t use emotions in your investment strategy. So, Bob, do you wanna give us a little intro?
Bob:
Yeah. It’s kind of an interesting title, isn’t it, Shawn? Using emotions as an investment strategy. My goodness. You’re not supposed to do that. Well, I think we wanna start off with a scripture first of all.
Shawn:
Absolutely.
Bob:
Because I love this one from Colossians 2:8. Shawn, you’re always a good scripture reader. So I put the scripture in there. I want you to read that one for us.
Shawn:
Yeah, you do that. You do that to me, Bob. And then I make a mistake on a word and I feel like it lets you down.
Bob:
Well, see. That’s cause I fumble up many times with my southern, twang I have here.
Shawn:
Well, if you want, I can put my southern twang.
Bob:
You can. You being from South Carolina, you could, couldn’t you?
Shawn:
All right. So Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the word – of the world – and not according to Christ.”
Bob:
Got you there, huh?
Shawn:
Yeah. You got me.
Bob:
Well, I know I got, I got you fumbled.
Shawn:
You got in my head.
Bob:
It’s okay. You know what? It shows people we’re real, we’re real here. You know what? But isn’t that a great scripture? You’re gonna see where this is going to apply so much today in what we’re gonna talk about and how using emotions as an investment strategy can be an actual strategy to use.
Shawn:
Yeah. It’s like on the news when they have all the, everything’s going bad and they have all the negative.
Bob:
Wait, we’re gonna get to all that.
Shawn:
Yeah, exactly.
Bob:
Okay. So another one, Proverbs 25:28.
Shawn:
“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”
Bob:
That’s a pretty powerful one, too. Did you come up with? I don’t think I came up with that one. Did you come up with that one?
Shawn:
Maybe. I don’t know. We lose track sometimes.
Bob:
So, but the main thing is that we’re going over here, Shawn, is that how many times markets are driven by emotions, it’s amazing. And even the algorithm programs, look at what words are being said on CNBC or any of these financial websites. And they trade off those words.
Shawn:
Well, and then there’s the…
Bob:
Artificial intelligence. Huh? The AI.
Shawn:
Then there’s the investor sentiment, which is measuring how people are feeling about the markets. So yeah, it definitely, it can be driven by that.
Bob:
And you know why?
Shawn:
Because emotion sells.
Bob:
Exactly. And you got that from my outline, right. Because emotions, they do. Emotions sell, and these financial headlines are meant to regularly stir our emotions. I mean, I see this over and over and we hear these statements every day. Markets are…
Shawn:
Tumbling.
Bob:
Then a few days later, markets are…
Shawn:
Skyrocketing.
Bob:
And then, the third one, investors waiting for the next shoe to drop? And then you’ll hear this, and this one’s this one that always makes you feel like, oh man, I really missed out. The markets are up 10% this week. Where were you? Okay, wait a second. Last week it was down 12%.
Shawn:
So you’re still not even back.
Bob:
Yeah. You know, or markets are sliding fast. Markets are soaring and you’re just, it’s just going all back and forth with all these emotional things. Another one I hear a lot is markets are collapsing and, or.
Shawn:
Bob, it almost, I mean, just hear me out here, I may be Conspiracy Theory here.
Bob:
I know
Shawn:
It’s almost as if a lot of the news segments are meant to like grab your attention. It’s kind of like the old, “Learn about this one weird trick right after this break.”
Bob:
Yep, yep.
Shawn:
You know, it’s just to get you to come back. It’s not real information so many times.
Bob:
Oh. And it can drive you crazy. You know, again, you hear things like the NASDAQ is plummeting, the S&P 500 is plummeting, stocks are rising in record numbers, and you just, you go back and forth, back and forth. But you know what, this is mass media, Shawn. And it’s really relying on sensationalism. And that actually is an editorial tactic that these media avenues use for you. And, we’re really warned in Proverbs 15:14 about this and that it tells us.
Shawn:
“A discerning mind seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.”
Bob:
So we gotta be very careful about allowing our emotions to get involved. But you know what other people’s emotions are getting involved, and we’re gonna show you how you can trade on these, well, I shouldn’t say trade, how you could invest. Invest, right. I don’t like that trading part, but how you can invest on, on these emotions, because all these events and topics in the news, they’re selected and the wording is selected to just excite the greatest number of viewers and readers. And they, they encourage, biased based on emotionally loaded impressions of events rather than being neutral. They don’t want That’s right. They don’t want, they don’t wanna be neutral because they actually, they can cause manipulation to the truth of the story and they can move you back and forth.
Shawn:
Well, I think it’d be a fair comparison, Bob. You could say typically Fox News is considered more conservative and CNN is considered more liberal.
Bob:
Yeah, exactly.
Shawn:
If you happen to see a news report from both of those networks on the same story, it’s totally different. You’d almost think it was two different events, many times.
Bob:
Yep.
Shawn:
So, and that applies to the markets as well.
Bob:
All right. So we’re gonna talk to you about how you can benefit from all this media sensationalism by having a good understanding of how the markets, and that’s where we’re gonna actually spend the last half of our episode on today and what drives traders and short term investors, they’re using all these emotions to go back and forth.
Shawn:
Having this…
Bob:
We’re gonna get this chart. Go ahead.
Shawn:
I was gonna say, so having a good understanding of, sorry, go back. So having a good understanding of how emotions over the short and long-term period drive those traders and short-term investors, that’s how you can potentially take advantage of this. Because again, when we say investing, we’re talking about the long-term. We’re not talking about the day traders, or what did the markets do this week? We’re talking about investing, which is the long term. Anything that’s not long term, it’s not investing. It’s just trading.
Bob:
Well, and actually when we look at this chart that we’re gonna show you, it is not based on day to day.
Shawn:
Correct.
Bob:
Because we even looked at this chart a couple years ago and I could see where around the end of 2021, we were being driven and this chart was a good indicator of how things were getting way overvalued. So we’re gonna put the chart up now. We’re gonna go over this chart and explain it to you. So if you look at this chart, it’s called the “Cycle of Market Emotions”. And I’ve been using this chart, Shawn knows, gosh, 10 plus years or maybe even longer. But this chart shows you, and I love all the little cute things that – this was Jenna, my daughter that works in the business with us, she helped put this chart together and you see the little smiley faces and the person frowning and all that. But you’ll notice this is the cycle that people go through where you’ve got optimism, excitement.
Shawn:
Starting from the left side. The very first part is optimism. And then you move to the excitement, it’s going up. And then the thrill and then the euphoria of everybody, “Buy! Buy! Buy! Buy!” You need to get into this, it’s gone up 70%. You need to jump in.
Bob:
That’s always the time. I remember last year, Shawn, when oil was at $120 a barrel. And I was watching again, CNBC, I watch that a lot. And everybody’s coming on saying, oh, you need to buy, man, it’s going to $200. I’m like, you guys are crazy. This has gone, oil’s gone from $20 or $30 a barrel a couple of years ago and even $50, and now it’s at $120 and you’re saying it’s gonna go to $200? So I look at that and I look at this chart, and that was the maximum financial risk is when everybody is saying, buy, buy, buy. And that was back in 2021 when that happened. And you’ll notice that’s when successful investors say, man, this is time to move some off the table. And then when you get into that low part where you can see everybody selling off. This was last June in the markets in 2022. Everyone was, I’m giving up. It’s hopeless.
Shawn:
Yep. Hopeless. I give up, get me out.
Bob:
Back in October, the same way.
Shawn:
Sell, sell, sell. I’m depressed.
Bob:
Yep. and what does a successful investor do according to this chart?
Shawn:
That’s when you have the best potential opportunity.
Bob:
That’s right.
Shawn:
It doesn’t mean that the markets won’t continue to go down anymore. Obviously, you never know when the actual bottom is, but using the emotional chart that says to the successful investor, okay, it’s time to at least move some of the capital back into play.
Bob:
That’s right. You got it.
Shawn:
And then it goes back up, and then you get back to optimism, and then it just, the whole thing repeats again.
Bob:
The whole thing repeats. Now, this doesn’t happen just every day, though. It happens over time that you really see the thing is getting way overstretched, and I was seeing it.
Shawn:
Could be over 18 months, it could be over a three year period, that going back up and the optimism could last quite a bit longer. I mean, as we’ve shared before in some previous episodes, the average bull market where the market’s going up is about four years. And the average bear market, where it’s going down is about a year. So, the cycle isn’t perfect on the timing on either side.
Bob:
So, the main thing is too, from this today is seeing how emotions play into things, but also getting a hold of your own emotions. And I think some good, some really good scriptures I saw as I was going through God’s Word about this were like 2 Timothy 1:7.
Shawn:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Bob:
“Of a sound mind.” So, we can see how emotions can help us invest and how we shouldn’t allow them to dictate to us.
Shawn:
So we have a few more scriptures as well.
Bob:
Let’s go and I’ll do one and you do one, and we’ll go back and forth. Go ahead.
Shawn:
So Proverbs 1:5, “A wise man will listen and increase his learning, and a discerning man will obtain guidance.”
Bob:
Proverbs 5:1-2, “Pay attention to wisdom. Listen carefully to my wise counsel. Then you will show discernment and your lips will express what you’ve learned.”
Shawn:
Proverbs 8:12, “I, Wisdom, live together with Good Judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.”
Bob:
And then as we come down to the very last one of Proverbs 10:13, “Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is the back of one who lacks sense.” And we even have some more scriptures. But I don’t think we’re gonna have time do them.
Shawn:
We’re running low on time, but just to mention ’em, there’s some other ones if you wanna check ’em out. Proverbs 14:33, Proverbs 15:14, Proverbs 16:21, Proverbs 17:28 and 18:15. A lot of Proverbs.
Bob:
There’s a lot of Proverbs.
Shawn:
We’ll just put ’em in the description.
Bob:
That’s because Proverbs talks about wisdom. And I really think from over the years in reading Proverbs many times over and over, cause you know, there’s 31 chapters. And so those months that have 31 days, the ones that have 30 days, you can just read an extra chapter. Read a chapter day. And there’s so much in there about being wise and not allowing emotions to dictate to you.
Shawn:
That’s right.
Bob:
And so today, well hopefully we’ve showed you how you can take advantage of that.
Shawn:
Exactly. As a long-term investor. And remember, emotions are a good thing, but just like…
Bob:
They are.
Shawn:
But just like in Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for everything. And what you have to be careful of is allowing your emotions to dictate your financial decisions and how you invest. And instead, turn it on its head. Use those emotions to know when you should or should not be in the markets and when you should invest.
Bob:
That’s right.
Shawn:
So, hopefully this was helpful for those of you out there today. We will make sure we have a link to the chart in the description.
Bob:
And if you don’t wanna have to deal with all this, then we can help you at Christian Financial Advisors.
Shawn:
So you can reach us Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM call or text, (830) 609-6986. You can also check us out on our website 24/7 www.ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com. Bob, you have any closing thoughts?
Bob:
I don’t think so. I think this has been really good and informative and it’s a subject not many people talk about.
Shawn:
Well, thank you for joining us. God bless.
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
4 min

About Christian Financial Perspectives

From the publisher's feed

Biblical wisdom for financial decisions and goals. Conversations about managing money according to Christian principles, featuring expert insights on budgeting, investing, giving, and building wealth…