Christian Financial Perspectives

Christian Financial Perspectives

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Christian Financial Perspectives episodes

  • 121 – Voting Right, Investing Left
    Click below to listen to Episode 121 – Voting Right, Investing Left
    121 – Voting Right, Investing Left

    Do your investments line up with your values?

    More episodes >>

    Do you vote for candidates that align with your Christian values? Would you vote for a candidate that aligns with your values and then gives money to their opponent’s political campaign? The answer is most likely no.

    In this episode, Bob and Shawn discuss if it makes any sense to vote with your values and then turn around and invest against your values. Literally millions of Conservative voters may be unknowingly supporting the leftest, liberal agenda by how they invest within their IRA’s, company retirement plans, government retirement plans, and brokerage accounts.

    Isn’t it time to align how you vote with how you invest?

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. This is episode 121. Bob, what do you got for us today?

    Bob:

    I have something very special today. As the time when this is gonna come out, we’re right about two months from the midterm elections. And that is really big this time. These midterm elections are more important than ever. So I have a program today. The title is gonna be interesting. Voting right, investing left, and hopefully millions of our Christian brothers and sisters will come out and vote for candidates that align with their values, align with Christian principles. Because we need that back in our country. I worry, many times, about our country. I don’t like the worry. I know scripture says not to worry, and I know God’s in ultimate control of it all. So Shawn, I want to ask you a question. Why do you vote?

    Shawn:

    That’s a good one. Well, I vote because it is both my privilege and right as a citizen. I vote because I want to elect people who align with my values as a Christian, or when that isn’t an option, because sometimes it’s not, at least someone who isn’t against my Christian values. And I wanna share quick scripture. Matthew 22:37-38. This was right after the Pharisees and whoever else was trying to trick Jesus. They asked him, “Well, Jesus, what is the most important commandment? And Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” And in verse 39, “And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Now I say that because our primary focus as Christians could be summarized from those verses as love God and love people. But I don’t think that means we should sit idly by when we have the freedom in this country to vote for elected officials in our government. Our country was founded on the principles of freedom of religion, and since I don’t want to ever see that taken away for myself, my children, or my grandchildren, I always vote according to my Christian values.

    Bob:

    Amen. I’m glad that you do that.

    Shawn:

    So yeah. Bob, question to you then. Why do you vote?

    Bob:

    Well, Shawn, I vote because I love my country. I love the Lord. And I want our country to be run by pro-life, pro family, pro-marriage candidates that have Christian values and believe in freedom. And you know how I love free enterprise. So that belief in free enterprise and limited government. I don’t believe it’s the government’s job to do everything for us.

    Shawn:

    There’s a purpose to government.

    Bob:

    There’s a purpose.

    Shawn:

    But it should be very limited.

    Bob:

    And I believe God puts in governments and I believe governments are of God because it creates order. Okay. but limited government, limited taxation. I believe taxation can be a form of thievery if it’s not done correctly, and it’s not done correctly today. I mean, you’re taxed more with the more you make at the percentages, that’s not fair. It’s not a fair gain.

    Shawn:

    And it doesn’t provide incentives for people to continue to grow either.

    Bob:

    That’s right. That one person would have to give up 40% of their income and another has to give up 5% of their income. That’s not a fair taxation.

    Shawn:

    No, it doesn’t make sense.

    Bob:

    And I wanna vote for people that that will abide by the US Constitution. I think it’s a great written document and I think they knew what they were doing when they did it. So I really vote, Shawn, because of my values and what I believe in.

    Shawn:

    So we vote because of our values and what we believe in.

    Bob:

    I do. And what’s interesting, because this is Christian Financial Perspectives, is I think voting carries over in investing, because if we vote for a pro-life, pro family candidate, yet we invest differently, what are we doing? We’re double minded, and so voting with your investments has to do with everything, in my opinion. And I always ask the question and I want to ask this and I want you to think about this question. Would it bother you to know that many of the companies that you do business with and you invest in, or own in your investment portfolio, are supporting many of the liberal agendas and causes that you vote against.

    Shawn:

    It should bother you.

    Bob:

    Think about this. Do you own companies in your investment portfolio that support things like abortion and the LGBTQIA+ – I know that keeps getting longer – that are involved in pornography and gambling tobacco and the violation of human rights. Companies use shareholder dollars to push liberal social agendas, giving money to candidates promoting these agendas along with alienating customers and investors with alternative viewpoints.

    Shawn:

    So for example, would you vote for a candidate that aligns with your values and then give money to their opponent’s political campaign? Well, the answer of course is no, you wouldn’t do that.

    Bob:

    No you wouldn’t.

    Shawn:

    So the main question of today, Bob?

    Bob:

    Does it make sense to vote with your values and invest against your values? Say that one again.

    Shawn:

    Does it make any sense to vote with your values and invest against your values?

    Bob:

    And I call that voting right and investing left. Literally, Shawn, millions of conservative voters are unknowingly supporting the leftist, liberal agenda by how they invest within their IRAs, their company, retirement plans, government retirement plans, and brokerage accounts. Remember, Shawn, I did say unknowingly. I don’t think anybody would do this knowingly unless profit is more important than principle.

    Shawn:

    Well, we run across this all the time. People who found us maybe because they were looking for a Christian financial advisor, and they find us and they’ve never heard of faith-based investing or investing with your values or like what we do here, biblically responsible investing.

    Bob:

    That’s correct.

    Shawn:

    But for the most part, when Christians are calling us and they hear about it for the first time, the typical response is, “I had no idea.”

    Bob:

    No. Exactly. I don’t believe any Christian with a biblical worldview would ever intentionally invest to support the leftist liberal agenda, Shawn. Because they vote against those causes. And so, it doesn’t make sense to be on one side and the other. Why would you vote this way and then invest this way. You’re getting nowhere when you do that. But Shawn, it takes a conscious effort to invest according to your biblical principles.

    Shawn:

    So my question to Christian voters for this program today is this. Isn’t it time to align how you vote with how you invest?

    Bob:

    Vote right. Invest right.

    Shawn:

    That’s right.

    Bob:

    I believe the time is right. I believe it’s been right for a long time, as you know. I have been supporting biblically responsible investing for years, but still Shawn, it’s still a new word. People are calling it values based investing.

    Shawn:

    Well, to clarify it, at Christian Financial Advisors, we use a type of values based investing methodology called biblically responsible investing, and biblically responsible investing helps you avoid investing in companies that give money to and support liberal causes that want to take away our basic human rights and freedoms.

    Bob:

    Companies that support destructive behaviors and lifestyles.

    Shawn:

    Companies that make money on gambling, tobacco, alcohol, pornography, and abortion.

    Bob:

    Companies that give their money to, and support, organizations like Planned Parenthood that take away human lives at their most vulnerable state and without educating the mothers on their options.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. And companies that are pushing the LGBTQ+ agenda to our youth.

    Bob:

    So biblically responsible investing wants to stay away from those companies. While at the same time, let’s find companies that have pro-life values.

    Shawn:

    And companies that want to make the world a better place.

    Bob:

    Companies that treat their employees with fair pay.

    Shawn:

    Companies that offer good insurance benefits, retirement plan, and time off for their families.

    Bob:

    Companies that will provide a safe working environment.

    Shawn:

    Companies that have good employee training programs.

    Bob:

    Companies that are compassionate towards their employees’ needs.

    Shawn:

    And finally, companies that care about God’s creation, i.e. the environment.

    Bob:

    So we call this values based investing, biblically responsible investing. It’s been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, it’s been around for about 27-28 years now, but still a lot of people have not heard of it. In the beginning, Shawn, we called it morally responsible investing. And the one that that came up with this term was from the Timothy Plan – Art Alley. He’s still alive today. I love this brother. He lost his son a couple years ago to cancer. So Art’s at the head of the Timothy Plan again. But then he changed that term a couple years later because morally responsible investing – he was starting to find morals are defined differently, unfortunately today, because truth has become relative where it’s not. And he changed that term from morally responsible investing to biblically responsible investing because God’s word doesn’t change.

    Shawn:

    And that helped kind of set it apart. Morally responsible could mean a lot of different things to different people.

    Bob:

    That’s right.

    Shawn:

    Many refer to this type of investing as values-based or faith-based investing, but be careful though, as not all values-based or faith-based investing are created equal, be sure both the negative and the positive screens involved before making the decision, like what we just mentioned earlier.

    Bob:

    You need to understand a biblically responsible investing, faith-based investing, values-based investing, is not, what do we call it?

    Shawn:

    ESG.

    Bob:

    ESG investing.

    Shawn:

    Environmental social governance.

    Bob:

    It is not that type of investing at all. This type of investing has always been about helping Christians with conservative, pro-family, pro-life values align their investments with their beliefs.

    Shawn:

    Amen. So Bob, how long have you been involved with values based investing? I know you mentioned earlier in the episode that it’s been around for 27-28 years, but what about you?

    Bob:

    For about 29 years? So it started many, many years ago with me. I can go back to the deep history, but that’s a whole other segment that we could do.

    Shawn:

    I believe we did an episode on the history of this.

    Bob:

    We did, but it really started with my beliefs many years ago when I became a financial advisor and what was I investing in before The Timothy Plan even came about. So, I’ve been there from the beginning. I can name the first four or five people that were involved in biblically responsible investing. I was one of them. But since then, it’s been really fun and encouraging to watch this movement grow from four or five of us to thousands of us now.

    Shawn:

    Well, I’m sure the choices had to be a lot more limited when you first started, right?

    Bob:

    They were limited to small cap value and a bond fund. That was it. Those two areas. And as you know in investing, there’s so many other sectors.

    Shawn:

    But yet now it’s expanded to include nearly every asset class.

    Bob:

    Every asset class there is, it’s gone from few thousand dollars to billions and billions of dollars. Many of the biblically responsible mutual funds, ETFs out there have opened up Wall Street and rung the bell. So, that’s exciting to see.

    Shawn:

    For sure. Just to see more people getting involved in that, and that means all those billions of dollars, those are dollars that are being invested in a way that align with our values, align with our values as Christians, as believers.

    Bob:

    So when you’re voting right. You can invest right, also. I’ve just watched this grow into not just the stocks, but the ETFs, the mutual funds, and it’s really fun to see this grow. And I want you to know that you can vote right and invest right at the same time. You don’t have to vote right and invest left. So there are choices. And we want you to know that we’ll help you with those choices. We have the technology today also to go in and take a look at your present portfolio. And there’s several programs that we use. We can actually show you, from your investments, how much you may be supporting the liberal agenda and not know it. It’ll surprise you.

    Shawn:

    And that’s been encouraging, too, not just the investment options that are specifically targeted towards biblically responsible investing, but like you said, the technology was so limited at first. And now the tools that we have available to actually see, like, what’s going on, like what is either positive or negative with these companies? So with all that being said, instead of voting right and investing left, you can now vote right and invest right today, easier than ever before. So, Bob, I guess really the only question left is this. What are you waiting for? To our listeners, what are you waiting for?

    Bob:

    If you wanna know how, just give us a call or text us at (830) 609-6986 , or visit us on our website christianfinancialadvisors.com.

    Shawn:

    And as always, thank you so much for joining us, whether you were listening or watching us online, and God bless 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.

    17 min
  • 120 – What Is A Certified Kingdom Advisor
    Click below to listen to Episode 120 – What Is A Certified Kingdom Advisor
    What Is A Certified Kingdom Advisor

    Learn about the Christian financial designation, “Certified Kingdom Advisor”, what goes into it, and what makes it so unique.

    More episodes >>

    Bob and Shawn discuss the importance of the Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA®) designation, its meaning, and the requirements that go into it. A CKA® is something that you may not have heard of, but is extremely important in the realm of Christian professionals. For Christians choosing an investment portfolio, many find it important to connect with a financial advisor that shares their values and faith. Thus enters Kingdom Advisors.

    Kingdom Advisors is a professional association that offers training and support to various Christian financial professionals who aim to integrate faith and finances within their business. They have taken Biblical values, along with core financial training, to create a designation that combines the two called a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA®). If you see a CKA® designation next to a financial advisor, it symbolizes that you should receive sound financial advice within a Biblical context.

    HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
    Shawn Peters
    Kingdom Advisors
    Website
    Certified Kingdom Advisor®
    Website
    Ron Blue

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Well, welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives with Bob and Shawn. And if you’re listening to this episode, Bob and I are looking better than ever. Now, if you are watching this disregard that last comment but how are you doing today, Bob?

    Bob:

    I’m doing good. Doing good. And looking forward to what we’re gonna be talking about today, which is Kingdom Advisors, which is dear to my heart, as you know I remember when Kingdom Advisors was started by Ron Blue many years ago. I even remember when Ron Blue and I went to lunch when I was president of the National Association of Christian Financial Advisors many, many years ago. He was talking about starting Kingdom Advisors, and I’ve been to so many of the conferences and there’s nothing like it for a financial advisor.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. It’s a great organization.

    Bob:

    It is. Really is.

    Shawn:

    So today our episode is gonna be what is a Certified Kingdom Advisor. So I guess Bob, you already mentioned a little bit, maybe you could tell our listeners, viewers, a little bit about who is Kingdom Advisors.

    Bob:

    Well, Kingdom Advisors is a Christian membership community, and it’s made up of financial planners, investment professionals sometimes referred to as wealth managers, insurance professionals, estate planning lawyers and attorneys, tax and accounting professionals, CPAs. And it’s made up of these people in the industry, the financial industry, that want to integrate their faith with their business.

    Shawn:

    That’s awesome.

    Bob:

    And Shawn, a lot of Christian advisors, Christian Financial Advisors, they don’t actually have a process to deliver biblical advice to their clientele. So Kingdom Advisors came along and it helps us members by offering a real step by step process of how you integrate biblical principles into your practice in helping your clients.

    Shawn:

    So just giving them something simple, step by step, to engage their clients using biblical principles.

    Bob:

    Many years ago when Kingdom Advisors was started, it wasn’t long after that, that you can be a member of Kingdom Advisors, but then there’s another step you can go into, which is a real deep, educational program. And that’s called a Certified Kingdom Advisor.

    Shawn:

    Okay. Now a Certified Kingdom Advisor, and I am using my notes a little bit here – you can step in time, Bob because he’s been a Certified Kingdom Advisor for years, but a Certified Kingdom Advisor, for those not aware, is a member of Kingdom Advisor that wants to take it to the next level with their membership.

    Bob:

    That’s right.

    Shawn:

    By going through a rigorous training certification process, which we’re gonna cover in a little bit with more details on that. And they have to hold either one of the following industry approved designations or there’s an experience component. So, if they go through this training certification process and they hold something such as CFP or their CPA.

    Bob:

    Or a Chartered Financial Life underwriter.

    Shawn:

    There’s a few. Or they have at least 10 years of experience in their particular field related to insurance, investments, accounting law, or financial planning. Now, they also have requirements for references like from their pastor and client references from a non-family member (Your family’s probably gonna say good things about you). And they also have to have been working with those clients for a minimum of two years and have worked with them in the last two years as well. So, there’s the training, there’s the experience or the certification pre requirement, and then there’s of course the references before you can become a Certified Kingdom Advisor.

    Bob:

    It’s quite a process. It really is. I mean, you think about before you even step into that, you have to have been in the business for 10 years or you have to be like a CFP – Certified Financial Planner.

    Shawn:

    The CFP is a good example. CFP, just to get that designation, for example, you have to have 6,000 hours that you can attribute towards your experience. And for those of you doing the math, that’s full time, 40 hours a week, that’s about three years. Right.

    Bob:

    That’s right. That would be three years, because 2000 hours a year, approximately. Right.

    Shawn:

    So definitely, if someone is able to even qualify for Certified Kingdom Advisors and have gone through that education, it is a very respectable mark, especially for someone looking for a Christian advisor of some kind.

    Bob:

    So today what we’re gonna do is I want you to really understand all the things that a Certified Kingdom Advisor has to abide by in these principles. And we’re gonna go over 10 principles that they have to abide by. And then we’re gonna go a little bit into the certification process again and get deeper. It’s not gonna be a super long episode today, but this is very serious, and I have such respect for Kingdom Advisors. I wanna make sure that I do this right, because this video is promoting Kingdom Advisors. And so, I wanna do right by that because I love the organization so much, and it is such an organization of integrity. And the man who started this, Ron Blue, is just one of my mentors. He’s just a good brother in Christ. And he used to be on Focus on the Family a lot with James Dobson, I remember years ago, and Dennis Rainey, and he’s written something like 15 or 20 books. I hope I’m quoting it right. I mean, it may be more than that.

    Shawn:

    Just say at least 20.

    Bob:

    And I’ve taught many of his Bible studies. So, he was very instrumental in putting this program together. So let’s start with those 10 principles, and we’ll go through these quickly.

    Shawn:

    So principle, number one is integrity. A commitment to absolute honesty, which is never swayed by personal gain or advantage. A commitment to integrity placed in them by their clients.

    Bob:

    That’s exactly right. Principle number two is objectivity, and a Certified Kingdom Advisor is required to provide honest and impartial advice, services, and products that are always in the best interest of the client. And at Christian financial…

    Shawn:

    What is knows as fiduciary.

    Bob:

    Yeah, exactly. Right. So at, at Christian Financial Advisors, we are fiduciary. We don’t work on a commission basis at all. That’s not to say that a Certified Kingdom Advisor does not offer commission based products.

    Shawn:

    Right. They might.

    Bob:

    I mean, we don’t here at Christian Financial Advisors, but they may, but they need to do that with honesty and impartial advice.

    Shawn:

    That’s right. Principle number three is competence. A Certified Kingdom Advisor has the skills, knowledge, and ability to sufficiently serve their clients in the field or fields in which they engage.

    Bob:

    Number four is suitability. A Certified Kingdom Advisor shall strive to ensure that the advice, the products, and services that they offer to their clients are suitable and appropriate, given each client’s goals, objectives, and current financial condition.

    Shawn:

    Principle number five, full disclosure. A certified Kingdom Advisor shall always make full disclosure to clients with respect to compensation being earned and any conflicts of interest that may exist.

    Bob:

    That is so important today, especially with some of the commission based products that have backend penalties to them, or maybe a alternative investment that’s not liquid. That really needs to be disclosed. I’m glad that this is part of the 10 principles of being a Certified Kingdom Advisor.

    Shawn:

    Because there’s nothing inherently wrong with a product or service that has, say, a commission or an upfront payment, as long as it is very clearly disclosed to a potential client.

    Bob:

    And all the fees and expenses. That’s right. Principle number six, I like this one, is confidentiality. So important. A Certified Kingdom Advisor shall not disclose confidential information ever about a client without the consent of the client. That would be like if maybe a client, sometimes I’ll talk to somebody, and they’ll say, could I speak with one of your clients? Well, I have to call the client first to make sure that’s okay.

    Shawn:

    And that doesn’t mean anytime someone asks that we can give that client information out to that person. It’s that specific time, is it okay if you talk to this person. Or, the other thing that’s very important as well is we’ll have somebody call that says they’re a CPA or they’re an attorney or some other kind of professional. And they say, ” Oh, I need client A’s information.” Well, we’ve gotta make sure, typically, it’s in writing at a minimum, but we have to have that from the client.

    Bob:

    That’s right. That’s right. I know you’ll love this one ,being that you’re Mr. Technology, that under that confidentiality is to maintain proper and prudent physical and technological safeguards to protect that information.

    Shawn:

    We take that very serious.

    Bob:

    That’s interesting that that is in one of the principles.

    Shawn:

    It’s important.

    Bob:

    So principle number seven…

    Shawn:

    Professionalism. A Certified Kingdom Advisor strives to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with a Christian financial professional, and they must conduct themselves as a committed believer. The conduct of a Certified Kingdom Advisor is also a reflection of Kingdom Advisors and directly affects the ability of Kingdom Advisors to fulfill its mission and vision.

    Bob:

    That’s a strong one It shows that when we’re saying we’re a Kingdom Advisor, we are reflecting Kingdom Advisors as well when we say we’re certified. Principle number eight is accountability. A Certified Kingdom Advisor submits to the authority of the local church and the Kingdom Advisors’ leadership team. In addition, Certified Kingdom Advisors actively maintain personal and business accountability with an accountability partner or board of directors. And we do that right here. We hold each other accountable at Christian Financial Advisors.

    Shawn:

    So principal number nine, humility. a Certified Kingdom Advisor is to maintain a servant spirit, meekness and modesty in behavior, attitude, and spirit.

    Bob:

    We talked about that last week when we talked about a Christian financial advisor.

    Shawn:

    That’s right. Also, a Certified Kingdom Advisor recognizes that God is sovereign and the fruits of their labor is a direct result of God rather than their own human efforts. Furthermore, it is a privilege and a blessing to be used by the Lord on this earth.

    Bob:

    Amen.

    Shawn:

    Don’t get too big for your britches.

    Bob:

    Right. That’s right. And the last one is principle Number 10, generosity. A certified Kingdom Advisor is to be generous with their time, talent, and treasure and show a willingness to serve any client regardless of their financial position, either directly or on a referral basis to another Christian financial professional that can serve them in their area of need. So in addition to these 10 principles, a Certified Kingdom Advisor must submit a pastoral reference. I remember doing this and going to my church.

    Shawn:

    This part of that certification. So you’ve got, say, the experience of the designation. You’ve gone through the training and you’ve agreed to the principles, but these are the things that you need in order to become a Certified Kingdom Advisor, right?

    Bob:

    Exactly, and not only the pastoral reference, but several letters of reference from clients that have been with you for several years. And like I said, they cannot be a family member. It’s gotta be somebody to that. And a Certified Kingdom Advisor goes through a strong Certified Kingdom Advisor, or we call CKA, extensive training and educational program. This is taught by Ron Blue and a faculty. And this delivered to you in partnership with Ron Blue Institute and administered through…

    Shawn:

    Indiana Wesleyan University.

    Bob:

    I started to get tongue twisted, Indiana Wesleyan University. Exactly. So upon completion of the Certified Kingdom Advisor program, and you’ll hear us referred to that as a CKA again, candidates receive a university certificate from Indiana, Indiana…

    Shawn:

    Indiana Weslyan University.

    Bob:

    And they must complete ongoing, continuing educational requirements.

    Shawn:

    Right. That’s each year that you’re going through that where you, I guess you’d call the CE, “Continuing Education”, in order to maintain that Certified Kingdom Advisor’s designation. It’s not a one time thing. It’s not, “Once you pass it, you’re good.” Nope. You gotta do it every year and make sure you’re staying on target.

    Bob:

    And you sign off on all these principles that we went through today.

    Shawn:

    Well that’s pretty much it, I think, for today, but if you’d like to learn more or know more about Kingdom Advisors or their certification program, we’d invite you to visit their website kingdomadvisors.com or you can also visit our website, ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com, because we have several Certified Kingdom Advisors on our team.

    Bob:

    I’m one of them. That’s right.

    Shawn:

    I’m working on mine, but hopefully within the next year from the recording of this, I will have it.

    Bob:

    And we can be reached during business hours by calling or texting (830) 609-6986.

    Shawn:

    Thank you so much for being here with us. God bless and have a wonderful day.

    [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
  • 119 – 5 Reasons You Need a Christian Financial Advisor
    Click below to listen to Episode 119 – 5 Reasons You Need A Christian Financial Advisor
    5 Reasons You Need A Christian Financial Advisor

    Learn why you need a Christian financial advisor vs a financial advisor that happens to be a Christian.

    More episodes >>

    Bob and Shawn present just 5 of the reasons that it is so important to work with a Christian financial advisor. A Christian financial advisor differs from a financial advisor that just happens to be a Christian. They may sound the same, but they indeed are not.

    A Christian financial advisory firm believes in Biblically responsible investing and looking at investing in companies that make a world a better place. These morals and ways of investing are integrated throughout the company and how they operate.

    A financial advisor that happens to be Christian may not be implementing these biblical guidelines into the way they invest. As a person, they are Christian, but how the company operates may not be. So, listen in as we complete our 3 part series on, “Why You Need…”

    HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
    Shawn Peters
    Kingdom Advisors
    Website

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. Whether you are watching us or listening, we’re really glad you virtually stopped by. And today, we’re gonna be continuing in our final of a three part series we’ve been doing for needing financial advice.

    Bob:

    I need financial advice, I tell you. And I think everybody does. And Shawn, I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and it never ceases to amaze me things that I learn every day.

    Shawn:

    You’re still learning stuff after 30 years?

    Bob:

    Yes, here I am 60. And I’ve been doing this for all these years. So I tell you, the last two episodes were great. If you haven’t had a chance, please go back and listen to them. I’ll tell you the first couple ones that we covered, and then we’ll tell you what we’re gonna cover today. So in part one, we covered five reasons you need a financial planner. We went a lot into detail about that. And then part two, we covered five reasons you need an investment advisor. Now a financial planner and an investment advisor should go together.

    Shawn:

    Right. They can be two separate or they could be the same.

    Bob:

    They could. Yeah. Because you could have an investment advisor that doesn’t do financial planning. And then today we’re going to cover the five reasons you need a Christian financial advisor, especially if you’re a believer and you love the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. We feel that you need a Christian advisor. So we’re gonna cover those five reasons why.

    Shawn:

    I agree. So Bob, what is reason number one that you need a Christian financial advisor.

    Bob:

    Well, I believe the first reason, Shawn, that you need a Christian financial advisor is because if you are gonna call yourself a Christian financial advisor, you better be focused and believe in biblically responsible investing. And we’ve had a lot of programs about biblically responsible investing. Another thing that is called nowadays is faith based investing or it can be called values based investing. They all point back to the same thing, but because our industry is so focused and kind of circles around your investment portfolio, I think a Christian financial advisor should focus on biblically responsible investing. Now, if you’ve not heard of that, what do I mean by that? Well, we believe that a Christian should never knowingly invest in companies that are violating biblical principles. This doesn’t mean that the company happens to be a Christian company, because there’s a lot of them on Wall Street that are not. But if the companies are involved in agendas that violate biblical principles, we think you should steer clear of them. And we think you should look for companies that have good biblical principles, like companies that care about their families, their employees and their families like that, they approve family values.

    Shawn:

    So I guess we kind of break it down into like what you were saying, Christians should not knowingly own companies that violate biblical guidelines And that key there is the ownership. So we basically have two different types of screening sides. There’s kind of a positive and there’s a negative type of a screen. I’m gonna quickly go over some things on the positive side and Bob, maybe you can address some of the negative ones. So you’re looking for biblically responsible companies. Again, they’re not necessarily Christian, but the positive side is that they have pro family values. They treat their employees well with fair pay, good health insurance, retirement plan, time off for family. They provide a safe working environment for their employees, not just minimum requirements from OSHA, you know? They have good employee training programs. They’re compassionate towards their employee’s needs. I mean, you might have a policy, but it’s like, how do people get treated?

    Bob:

    it’s just not all about the profit.

    Shawn:

    Exactly. And then the last one is cares about the environment, God’s creation.

    Bob:

    That’s exactly right.

    Shawn:

    And that’s not a worship of nature. I always like to clarify with people that. That is because God created and owns everything. When we take care of the environment or animals, things like that. It’s not because we think it’s somehow more valuable than human life. It’s because we’re doing that as an act of worship. We’re taking care of something that belongs to God as a way to honor him.

    Bob:

    I saw a bumper sticker one time that said, if you love the Creator, take care of the creation.

    Shawn:

    I love that. That’s a succinct way to say that.

    Bob:

    And the companies we try to avoid are companies that support destructive behaviors and lifestyles. And I don’t think I need to go too deep into that. Cause I think people understand that today I will say we’re referring to the LGBTQIA+.

    Shawn:

    Whatever letters they have now.

    Bob:

    They keep adding more letters to it. But many companies support those lifestyles. So we steer clear of that and we believe that as a Christian financial advisor, we should not be investing God’s money in those companies. If the company makes money on gambling, tobacco, alcohol, pornography, or abortion, like pharmaceutical companies could be getting fetal tissue research and using that. We do not wanna invest in those kind of companies. Or if they support organizations like Planned Parenthood that take away human lives in their most vulnerable state or even the liberal causes. One of the episodes we have coming up is I’m gonna be talking about voting right, but investing left. So, that’s gonna be a good one.

    Shawn:

    So Bob, what is reason number two that you need a Christian financial advisor?

    Bob:

    Because a Christian financial advisor, if you believe in the Bible and you believe in biblical values, a Christian financial advisor is gonna use biblical guidelines for finance and planning?

    Shawn:

    So using the Bible actually in how you’re doing the advice planning?

    Bob:

    Yes. That’s correct.

    Shawn:

    That’s a concept, right?

    Bob:

    And many scholars believe that Jesus, he spoke more on stewardship than he did on heaven and hell combined. You’ll get different scholars saying different amounts, but they’ll all agree that there’s at least 1500 scriptures on stewardship.

    Shawn:

    Which is not on directly money, but it does include…

    Bob:

    How we handle it.

    Shawn:

    How you handle it. I think of it as how you handle the resources that have been entrusted to you. Might be money. It might be talent. Might be your time you have on this earth and that’s something we need to be accountable for.

    Bob:

    So we believe that the Bible teaches that God is the owner and we get this from Psalms 24:1 and it says that, “The earth is the Lords and everything in it.” So God is the owner and we’re managers, not owners.

    Shawn:

    That next one is debt presumes upon an unknown future and can even jeopardize it. Proverbs 22:7 says, “A borrower is a slave to the lender.” And then the next one is that wealth is accumulated slowly, not by gambling. You can reference Proverbs 13:11.

    Bob:

    And that one says, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” So I wanna talk about the debt thing just a minute. Because the debt, we’re not saying that that debt is a sin by any means. It’s hard to buy a house with cash now. You can as you get older, cause you’ve been saving a long time, but you take somebody – and you’re in your thirties – it would be very difficult for you to go pay cash for a home. Somebody, my age sixties, and seventies, that’s pretty much what we do. We pay cash for our homes. Okay. But debt can become overwhelming, and you can become a slave to debt if you’re not careful. And that’s what that scripture says, Proverbs 22:7.

    Shawn:

    I think that scripture also goes right into sound financial planning where just because you technically qualify, say for a loan to buy a home, doesn’t mean that it’s a good decision if what you’re paying for that loan to buy that home is too high of a percentage of your income. Because you want to have some grace. You have emergency savings and if you’re at 50% of your income is just going to your housing, it’s kind of a dangerous situation to be in.

    Bob:

    So a Christian financial advisor is gonna make sure you don’t get yourself in that situation. Also Ron Blue, a very well known writer and the founder of Kingdom Advisors, which will be covering next week, a Certified Kingdom Advisor, I love what he always says, “Debt presumes upon the future.” So, we really don’t know what the future is. So we take out a lot of debt. We need to be careful cause we’re thinking like, well I know the future. No. No one knows the future. And another reason to use a Christian financial advisor and reason number two is that they talk about giving, and they understand that giving releases selfishness, and it should be part of a plan. And we get this from 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each of you should give what you’ve decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

    Shawn:

    Another one is that a person’s self worth is not tied to their net worth. Therefore, more is not always better.

    Bob:

    That’s a biblical worldview right there, for sure.

    Shawn:

    I remember you said something before, even for your own personal planning, how much is enough? And when you’re doing your planning, it’s not always about just getting more. You may get to a point and realize we have everything that we need for retirement. And if you’re still earning more assets, well maybe you should consider giving it to charity or passing it down to the grandkids. You don’t need it now..

    Bob:

    It just reminds me of the scripture about building the bigger barns. Do you really need to go build the bigger barns.

    Shawn:

    So what is reason number three that you need a Christian financial advisor?

    Bob:

    A Christian financial advisor should, and they believe, that a biblical worldview is what you should follow versus a secular worldview. And there is a huge difference between these two worldviews. The secular worldview is all about me and my stuff and selfishness, where the biblical worldview should be about others and not about me and serving others and helping others. So, one of the things we believe, too, for Christian financial advisors is they should know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior. Okay.

    Shawn:

    Kind of important for that, if they both believe and follow biblical worldview.

    Bob:

    And they should believe in the inerrancy of scripture. We’re not gonna tear this page out and tear this page out. They believe in the wholeness of the Bible and that they have a heart for teaching others. I think that’s a very important thing. And shouldn’t be offended that when somebody says, I don’t know what that means. They should not be offended. They should have a teacher’s heart.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. They have a like mindedness with fellow believers. They believe that truth is absolute, based on God’s word and not relative.

    Bob:

    And that’s a big word today.

    Shawn:

    I’ll tell you what, this is a hard one when you’re on social media, people seem to be getting more and more confused with the difference between an opinion and facts. And people seem to think that just because they have an opinion, that it’s just as valid as facts, and that’s not how the world actually works.

    Bob:

    Truth is not relative. Truth is truth. It’s the same as it was a thousand years ago as it is today and it’ll be the same a thousand years from now if we’re still here and Jesus hasn’t come back.

    Shawn:

    Amen. Another one is the Bible is the guidebook and ultimate authority for all financial decisions. Like we said earlier, there’s on the low end, at least 1500 scriptures talking about stewardship. So when it comes to money and finances, why would that not be part of our decision making? And how is this gonna honor God?

    Bob:

    I can have somebody sit in front of me and just open up to Matthew or Mark or Luke or John or Philippians, wherever. I like Matthew, because Matthew was a tax collector, as we know. So he wrote a lot about this. And you can open up literally in the book of Matthew and just go from page to page and see what Jesus is saying about stewardship. A Christian financial advisor should believe that financial decisions are spiritual decisions because it belongs to God. It’s not ours. You shouldn’t be offended that a Christian financial advisor wants to pray with you, and let’s pray about these decisions.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. That’s kind of funny. This past weekend, my pastor was specifically talking about no one is going to get mad at you. If it’s someone that you know, it’s someone you care about, of just saying, can I pray for you? Well thanks. And you know what, they might say I’m so glad you said that. I don’t know if you realize it, but I’ve been going through something. So, I mean, when you’re talking about big decisions coming, as far as finance, we definitely should be praying.

    Bob:

    You know what’s so funny. There’s that vacuum within all of us to know God. I’ve said this to people I don’t even know and some said, well, I really don’t believe, but I guess if you wanna pray, you can. Interesting, isn’t it? Yeah. So, they’re not against it. They’re like, well just maybe, in case I’m wrong.

    Shawn:

    So what is the fourth reason you need a Christian financial advisor?

    Bob:

    I believe a Christian financial advisor, number four is he or she is accountable. They’re accountable to God and the Bible and his word. They’re also accountable to the Christian community, to the church, and other fellow believers and to their spouse, if they’re married.

    Shawn:

    Right. They’re also accountable to their family. They’re accountable to the governing authorities that have been put in place. So for example, the SEC, FINRA that definitely holds us accountable.

    Bob:

    Well, as it says Romans 13, we are to follow the authorities.

    Shawn:

    That’s right. Yes. They’re also accountable to the secular community as a witness to abiding by those Christian values.

    Bob:

    You like that one?

    Shawn:

    I do.

    Bob:

    Yeah, because we are a witness to all believers and non believers in all of our actions and what we do.

    Shawn:

    We’re supposed to be in the world, but not of it. If we’re not in the world and acting differently than the rest of the world, how is the gospel gonna be shared? How are people even gonna know that there’s a different way to live?

    Bob:

    And they should see us as salt and light. So that’s gonna take us to reason number five, our final reason for today, of why you need a Christian financial advisor.

    Shawn:

    And that fifth one is a Christian financial advisor is a calling from God. It’s not just a job. It’s a ministry.

    Bob:

    I feel that every day, Shawn.

    Shawn:

    Amen. I mean, there are times we have meetings with clients that out of an hour, 5-10 minutes, maybe, is actually talking about finance and the rest of it is life and praying, praying for each other, sharing scripture, just talking through stuff.

    Bob:

    Because that ultimately all goes back into finance, too.

    Shawn:

    A Christian financial advisor has a servant mentality to serve others, not to be served.

    Bob:

    Amen. That’s what we want to be.

    Shawn:

    They say not my will, but God’s will.

    Bob:

    And a Christian financial advisor should exemplify the fruits of the Holy Spirit as found in Galatians 5:22-24. So, I’m gonna read that here. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and its passions and desires.”

    Shawn:

    That’s a good verse.

    Bob:

    Yes, it is.

    Shawn:

    A Christian financial advisor is called to be different than a secular financial advisor. As you said earlier, to be salt and light in this world. Matthew 5:13-16, “You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.”

    Bob:

    Well, there you go. There’s five reasons I think that Christians need a Christian financial advisor.

    Shawn:

    Not just a financial advisor.

    Bob:

    Exactly. And not a financial advisor that just happens to be a Christian.

    Shawn:

    There should be a difference in how they operate.

    Bob:

    They should operate from a biblical worldview, and we’ve discussed that today. If you’re looking for a Christian financial advisor, visit www.christianfinancialadvisors.com on the web or call or text us at (830) 609-6986 during business hours. And don’t miss our next episode where we’re gonna be talking about why you need a Certified Kingdom Advisor and what a Certified Kingdom Advisor is.

    Shawn:

    Thanks 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.

    20 min
  • 118 – 5 Reasons You Need An Investment Advisor
    Click below to listen to Episode 118 – 5 Reasons You Need An Investment Advisor
    118 – 5 Reasons You Need An Investment Advisor

    Short summary about the guest or topic.

    More episodes >>

    In this episode, Bob and Shawn continue our series on “5 Reasons You Need…” by discussing the reasons that you need an investment advisor. Sometimes, it seems like you can go it alone when you hear about all of the day traders out there and advertisements that make investing look easy. However, there’s a lot that goes into it, which is why you need a registered investment advisor to help you along your financial journey.

    Proverbs 15:22 states, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” A good advisor monitors your portfolio and helps you stay on track with your financial goals. We are here to help and try to take the confusion out of investing. So, listen in to see just 5 of the many reasons why you need an investment advisor!

    HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
    Shawn Peters
    Riskalyze
    Website

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Well, welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. It’s gonna be episode 118, right? Bob?

    Bob:

    We’re getting up there.

    Shawn:

    Yeah, we’re getting up there.

    Bob:

    Yeah, we are, of course the first, what, hundred of them were podcast. And now we’re getting into videos. So if you’re watching our videos, you can go back and listen to all of those audio versions of Christian Financial Perspectives.

    Shawn:

    Video has been a little different too. Gotta worry about the lighting. Gotta worry about your stage makeup.

    Bob:

    Gotta worry about making sure you’re wearing the right shirt, your hair is right.

    Shawn:

    Although we haven’t actually gotten into the stage makeup yet.

    Bob:

    Yeah, no we haven’t.

    Shawn:

    So if anyone’s watching this in 4k, hopefully we look alright. So what have we got for today, Bob?

    Bob:

    Five reasons you need an investment advisor. Now, we’re kind of in the middle of our fives. Remember we’re gonna do the triple five. So, our last episode was five reasons you need a financial planner. Today is five reasons you need an investment advisor and the next one’s gonna be five reasons you need a Christian financial advisor.

    Shawn:

    All right. Sounds good. Well kind of goes with our Christian financial advisors. That’s our name. It is.

    Bob:

    Isn’t that a good looking sign? Your wife did that logo, and I love that logo. That’s the word of God. And that has to do with Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Give your portions of seven. Yes, to eight, because you do not know what disaster become upon the land.”

    Shawn:

    You’ve got the Bible as the foundation.

    Bob:

    You got it. Now you know what our logo stands for.

    Shawn:

    It actually has some meaning.

    Bob:

    I’m sure you wanted to know, right?

    Shawn:

    Oh yeah. It was actually the top question everybody’s asking in comments. So let’s start with a scripture. Bob, you want to read Proverbs 15:22?

    Bob:

    You’ve heard me quote that one a few times.

    Shawn:

    I’ve heard a few times.

    Bob:

    I don’t even have to look at it. “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” Don’t go it alone, basically. It’s what it’s saying.

    Shawn:

    Now you said you didn’t have to look at it. How’s our audience not know you didn’t have a teleprompter.

    Bob:

    Because I don’t, but I do have my computer right here. Okay. It helps us.

    Shawn:

    Well, let’s go into number one – risk analysis.

    Bob:

    This is where an investment advisor will help. First of all, you’ve gotta understand what risk is, and there’s risk and reward. And when you’re investing, you’re gonna have a roller coaster ride. Of course, the more conservative you go, it’s gonna be more like this. The more aggressive you go, it’s gonna be more ups and downs like this, but a good investment advisor can help you understand that. And we use a program called Riskalyze that basically goes from a scale from zero to a hundred. And it’s like, if you fall right in the middle, that’s what we call a balanced investor or a moderate investor. That would be like a score of 50-55, right in there. A Score like 20 would be more conservative. Of course that’s gonna be like your ultra conservative. And so it has to do with the portfolios that we’ll talk about here in just a minute, the different portfolios and how we can invest you and how much up and down tolerance you can take, especially right now in this crazy bear market that we’re in. What’s your time horizon? And what’s your risk score? And everybody’s risk score is different. I mean, I’ve seen somebody that’s 75 have a risk score of 80-85. I’ve seen somebody that’s 30 have a risk score of 30 or 20. So, everybody’s risk score is different.

    Shawn:

    But understanding that is key on or in investing correctly because it doesn’t really matter what your age is, that risk comes into what is that individual investor household? What are they comfortable with on the downside, because you can’t have the upside without the downside risk.

    Bob:

    You can’t? You can’t have the upside without the downside?

    Shawn:

    Well that is for another topic. We’ll cover the dangers of fixed index annuities. We’ll have to cover that one.

    Bob:

    Oh, okay. But that seems to be what everybody wants. They want all the upside, but they don’t realize there’s a downside. And risk is reward. So if you want greater reward, you take greater risk.

    Shawn:

    But that again comes into it. We ascertain what is the actual risk that an investor is comfortable with? Because they have to have some risk that they’re comfortable with. And then from there we can help them figure out, all right, well, what is the best placement for investing them according to what they’re comfortable with and what their goals are? Which, I believe, goes right into number two – short and long-term investment goals.

    Bob:

    It does. So a good investment advisor. You notice I say a good investment advisor, right? Okay. they’re gonna look at what your different investment objectives are and categorize your portfolio, too, because you can have a portion of your portfolio that you’re gonna want for the next one or three years.

    Bob:

    But then there’s a portion of the portfolio that you say, well, I’m not gonna touch that for 10 plus years or even 20 to 25 years. There’s short term goals and there’s long term goals and there’s mid midterm goals. And usually, the long term goals, I mean, if somebody is 30 years old and they’re wanting to retire at 60, well, that’s a long term goal. So that money could be more aggressive if the risk tolerance can take it, but then you may have a short term goal, maybe you’re in your thirties and you have a child that’s gonna be going to college in the next 10 years. That’s a shorter term goal, or the next five years. Of course, if you’re 58 and you’re gonna retire at 60 or you’re 60 and you’re gonna retire at 62, that is short term money. So all those different investment goals go with a financial plan as well and where are you on the roadmap?

    Shawn:

    And again, it’s not just based on how old are you, therefore, this is your risk, because I know you’ve talked about that before. That used to be kind of the old school of, well, if you’re in your twenties, then this is what you should be doing. If you’re in your forties or if you’re in your sixties, like, well, this is how you should invest, but it really comes down to, like you said, what is the timeframe? Is it a short term? Is it a long term? Because you could be 60 and have a long term goal, because we have clients that are set up where they don’t need more income than what they currently have. They are older they’re in their sixties or seventies, but they have a very aggressive strategy for maybe one of their accounts because they’re intending that for their kids or their grandkids.

    Bob:

    That’s exactly what I was gonna say. You we’re thinking along the same route. I have some grandfathers and grandmas and grandparents that want to give a large sum, later, to their great grandchildren or grandchildren. That’s a 20-25 year time horizon. Okay.

    Shawn:

    So even though the client is older and you would think, oh, they shouldn’t be aggressive because they’re old. Who knows how much longer they have, but it makes sense that they have a long term goal because it’s not for them. It’s for another generation.

    Bob:

    That’s right. So the third thing is a good investment advisor is about diversification and asset allocation. Okay. I said that kind of fast. Diversification and asset allocation.

    Shawn:

    Say it five times fast. I’m just kidding.

    Bob:

    Yeah, that’ll get you. That’s a tongue twister, but this is about building a portfolio based on different goals and objectives using different asset allocation models. We build our models here. We have five models and those models are very actively traded. And we look at different sectors of the economy like technology, real estate, energy, healthcare, shipping, transportation, financial companies, utilities, and the list goes on. So you build that diversification amongst all those different sectors, as well as diversifying in companies by size, revenue, profitability, price to earning ratios, we call it the PE ratio. And we build that across many stocks and bonds and ETFs and mutual funds. So, a good investment advisor is going to look at all of that. There’s a lot to it.

    Shawn:

    A few items to look at is what you’re saying.

    Bob:

    It takes a while.

    Shawn:

    Number four, which I guess kind of goes right on track with after you’ve set your risk, you’ve got your objective – short and long term. You’ve got your diversification, we get into monitoring.

    Bob:

    How often do you hear or see me monitoring our portfolios in our markets?

    Shawn:

    How many hours are there in a day? When you’re not asleep.

    Bob:

    I was talking to Garrett today. He’s like you wake up at 2:30 in the morning? Many times I do. And I go, I can’t get to sleep until I know what are the international markets doing? So I’ll get up, look at what the international markets are doing, what the futures are doing, and then I can go back to bed. It’s crazy. And I love doing this. Shawn, if you start asking me about who’s popular in Hollywood or what music is popular, I don’t know.

    Shawn:

    That’s okay. I don’t know either.

    Bob:

    But I know what’s going on in the financial markets and I love the financial markets, and I really never wanna retire because I love the financial markets so much. It’s because my high energy. You have the high energy, too. And that monitoring. We’re monitoring the markets on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for risk and reward. We look at short term and long term investment opportunities for your portfolios in all the different sectors, too. Overweighting or underweighting different sectors. Overweighting, underweighting large cap or small cap. I mean, it just goes on and on.

    Shawn:

    But it’s not for the purposes of day trading.

    Bob:

    No, it’s not that.

    Shawn:

    What we’re looking at that is we are still looking at a longer term. We’ve got one to three years, three to five years, five to six, eight years, ten years, we have these different primary strategies that we’re monitoring. But when we’re looking at that daily, weekly, monthly, it’s more to see the overall trends on if we’re in a bear market, do we see that the trends are starting to reverse, maybe we’re getting back into a bull market or if we’re in a bull market and it looks like, is it getting overheated.

    Bob:

    Is it getting overvalued?

    Shawn:

    Exactly. We might start turning down. So those are the things that we’re really looking for. Not the way you would hear, like on CNBC, they say, oh, the traders or the investors, what you mean? The day traders.

    Bob:

    I know. They call them investors and they’re traders because they’re trading every single day. We do not trade every day.

    Shawn:

    Or within the same day. That’s not how we look at it.

    Bob:

    But we do tweak our portfolios a little bit by a percent here or 3% here or so. That can be on a weekly or monthly or even a bimonthly basis. I’ve had people say, well, how often do you rebalance? We rebalance as needed. It depends on how fast the markets are moving. And then the fifth one for today, and believe me, there’s five today we’re covering, just like we covered on financial planning. When you’re looking at investment advice, there could be 50 areas. We could talk about this for two or three hours and I love talking about it, too. It make your head nearly feel like it’s gonna split open. When I talk to people, they’re like, okay, I get it, but I love this stuff. Okay What’s the number 5?

    Shawn:

    Number five is to stay on track.

    Bob:

    Oh yeah. I’m telling you, I think that our main job, Shawn, and we’re registered investment advisors, one of our main jobs is to help people keep emotions out of investing. Emotions and investing go together like oil and water.

    Shawn:

    So they don’t mix.

    Bob:

    They do not mix. You should not allow your emotions to have a part of investing. Garrett, I’d like you to put up the emotions chart. If you could do that and just let that stay up there a little bit and let people see. Because if you look at the emotions at the peak of the market, everybody wants to get in. And when it goes down, everybody wants to get out. And when everybody’s wanting to get out, that’s when the guys like Warren Buffet are just coming in and going, thank you people I’m getting to buy these stocks on sale. But for some reason, it’s the human tendency. Humans wanna buy everything on sale except stocks. And I don’t get that.

    Shawn:

    I know. I know. But that’s the way it is. Well, like cars. I know that’s been a hot topic for the last couple years.

    Bob:

    It’s always a hot topic with both of us, right? Yeah. We talk about cars a lot around here.

    Shawn:

    But the used car market has been crazy high. You can’t get a new car hardly at all. And so, if all of a sudden you went to the dealer and they said, well, not only do we have the car in stock that you wanted and it’s brand new, but I can actually give it to you for 20% off MSRP, who wouldn’t say yes please.

    Bob:

    Yeah.

    Shawn:

    But you’re right. When it comes to the markets, the emotions of investors, many times betray them and they end up doing the opposite of what they should be doing. And so when we’re having, especially a bear market, and I know you can attest to this, our main job when interacting with clients is helping them to manage their emotions in this time and realize in the grand scheme of things, are you on track? And if you’re still on track for your goals, just take a deep breath and breathe it out.

    Bob:

    Exactly. And many times it’s better not to look. Okay. I mean, you’re on a rollercoaster. We talked about this a few weeks ago. You don’t wanna jump off the rollercoaster when it’s doing this.

    Shawn:

    It’s dangerous.

    Bob:

    So those are just five of the many reasons you need a good Registered Investment Advisor. And like I said, we could take a few hours talking about this, and we want to do that with you on a one-on-one basis. Just like we said about financial planning…

    Shawn:

    Don’t go it alone.

    Bob:

    Don’t go it alone. Two are better than one. Share that scripture again that we love.

    Shawn:

    Well, as scripture says in 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.”

    Bob:

    We’re here to help you.

    Shawn:

    God bless, and thank you for joining us.

    [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
  • 117 – 5 Reasons You Need a Financial Planner
    Click below to listen to Episode 117 – 5 Reasons You Need a Financial Planner
    5 Reasons You Need a Financial Planner

    5 reasons you need a financial planner.

    More episodes >>

    There are many reasons that you might need a financial planner, but Bob and Shawn cover some of their favorite reasons in this episode. Just like you wouldn’t go on a long road trip without your maps turned on, you also don’t want to face life’s financial minefields without a map. A financial planner will help you create this map to help you navigate your financial life a little easier.

    A great financial planner can also help you create a budget for saving, spending, and investing, while aiding you in making adjustments over the years as financial situations change. Learn about all these and more as you listen to 5 reasons why you need a financial planner.

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Bob:

    Five reasons you need a financial planner. You know what? It’s interesting. We’re only gonna cover five, but I would think there’s probably about 50 reasons you need a financial planner, but for time’s sake, we’re not gonna do that.

    Shawn:

    I think we’d go a little over our time budget.

    Bob:

    Yeah, exactly. We’re gonna spend about 10 to 15 minutes on this and we could easily spend two hours talking about the reasons that someone needs a financial planner.

    Shawn:

    Yep. And then we’re gonna do another one on five reasons. You need an investment manager.

    Bob:

    That’s right. Investment advisor. And then we’re gonna do one on five reasons you need a Christian financial advisor. Okay. So we’re in the fives. This is the first one of the five. So I call it the triple five, I guess.

    Shawn:

    Well, let’s start with a scripture. So Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.”

    Bob:

    That’s the truth. Isn’t it?

    Shawn:

    I love that verse.

    Bob:

    I do not like going it alone. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go it alone.

    Shawn:

    With a lot of stuff in life. We obviously talk mostly about finances and investments. But I know at church, whether it’s in your small group or when you’re listening to the pastor they’re talking about things. You just want to ask other people, other people who maybe have gone through what you’re going through, or maybe they are a little bit older than you. So they’ve had a little more experience with that.

    Bob:

    Seek the advice of experts? You think about medical. You don’t wanna just rely on one doctor you want. He relies on a team or she, they rely on a team to help them.

    Shawn:

    Or get a second opinion.

    Bob:

    Exactly. So, so now we’re gonna get into the first reason that I believe you need a financial planner, but before I do that, I wanna give you a little bit of a hint. So Shawn, back in the old days before there was Google maps.

    Shawn:

    Wow.

    Bob:

    There were those days we took out a map. Okay.

    Shawn:

    I was born in 86. So I remember when we didn’t have a smartphone and had a real map on paper.

    Bob:

    Well I was born in 62, so that tells my age. I hit the big 60 this year. But we when we would go to Colorado, and my family went to Colorado every summer, and we would always have a map. I even remember on the map when we’d be between towns, like how much farther till we get to this next town, I’d look at the map. But I had a map for knowing where we were going. It’s the same way a blueprint is. If you’re gonna build a home, you need a blueprint. So the reasons you need a financial planner is a financial roadmap. That’s my reason number one, a financial roadmap because a good planner’s gonna help you build that roadmap with the experience they have. And there’s something you’re gonna go through in life as you’re going along the road. You’re gonna have mine fields. Things are gonna change.

    Shawn:

    So you mean life doesn’t just go perfectly according to plan? Like obstacles come up? Difficulties or challenges?

    Bob:

    That’s just life. We know that life is not perfect.

    Bob:

    And you’re gonna go through a lot of minefields and a good financial roadmap is just not set in stone either. It’s gonna change through the years as your life changes. Because life is not perfect.

    Shawn:

    So a good financial planner helps you not just with that initial roadmap, but each year as things progress and things might change, you can adjust. Adjust those goals. Adjust the objectives. When the obstacle comes up, figure out how to find a detour.

    Bob:

    Yeah, that’s right.

    Shawn:

    To go around it like your phone does now. Like, oh, there’s a crash up ahead. Well, if you take this next exit before everyone else is exiting, it’ll get you past most of it.

    Bob:

    At least you hope it does.

    Shawn:

    You hope it does.

    Bob:

    So the second reason is saving and spending and that kind of goes with that roadmap because you’ll have those times where, well, you, maybe you wanna buy that new car, you want to buy that new home, or you have a health issue.

    Shawn:

    How much of an effect does that really have? Because you can have a savings goal and your estimated spending, but if you decide, well, we’re gonna take this big trip and it’s $5,000 take the whole family. Well, depending on how far along you are in your retirement and saving and getting ready for that, is that $10,000 in lost opportunity? Is that $60,000?

    Bob:

    Probably a good 20.

    Shawn:

    Over time, if you’ve got 10 years, 20 years, 30 years left and you’re spending that money, the future value of that can be a lot higher than people realize.

    Bob:

    The big one I se,e Shawn, is that when people wanna buy a car.

    Shawn:

    We gotta have the new one.

    Bob:

    And they’ve got a conservative or moderate portfolio. It’s averaging 3, 4, or 5%. And they go take $40,000 out to go buy that new car. And now that money’s not gonna compound. So, over the next 10 years, that 40 could grow to 80. In another 10 years, it could grow to 160k. But think about in 20 years, what’s that car gonna be worth?

    Shawn:

    Maybe 50% or less of what you paid for?

    Bob:

    No, in 20 years, it’s gonna be worth maybe 5,000 dollars. So a good financial planner can show you how present saving and present spending is going to affect your future. And today, with the technology, just like the Google maps we have now, you can put this information in our system, which we use eMoney and you can put that system in it. Immediately, it will show you how it’s affecting your future. Immediately.

    Shawn:

    You can see with somewhat, it’s not perfect, obviously because you are assuming, making some assumptions on that. The spending stays the same and the savings stays the same. But if your funding is meeting your goals and you add in that decision to spend however much it is now, then we can quickly show someone, are you still going to have enough? And obviously you’re not gonna have as much, but are you still gonna have enough for the projected spending needs during retirement?

    Bob:

    Yeah. Boy, it’s amazing how much it affects it. And when people see how much that car or that kitchen remodel is because you don’t like the color of your countertops, or you want new appliances, but the present ones are working fine.

    Shawn:

    Well, it’s all about that time too. How long do you have until retirement or if you’re in retirement, average mortality rate is 90. I know some people live longer, but when your average expectation is say 90, and you’re taking out $10,000 for that kitchen for just maybe the countertops, but you’ve got 30 years left of potential life, that can still make a huge difference.

    Bob:

    That’s right. The third reason that we see, and remember these are just five reasons, right? But there’s many, many others, but one of the third main reasons you need a good financial planner is a good estate plan. A good financial planner is gonna help you organize that. The reason you need a good estate plan is a premature death or disability or a disease like cancer or heart disease or mental incapacity. That’s where you do the planning, like dementia can come on in later years, and you need to do that planning while you can. And we work with an attorney to put all that legal documentation together. And those documents are like a trust, a medical power of attorney, a durable power of attorney, financial power of attorney. So, those documents need to be there for when you need them. That’s in the case of an emergency, and there there’s always gonna be that time. You need to think about it before, not during.

    Shawn:

    And that estate plan, having the financial planner help you think about all those different areas can also be a lot more valuable in the long run because if you have the attorney to figure out all of that stuff for you. Well, they tend to bill pretty high, by the hour. So that could be one of the things that helps you. If you’re already working with a good financial planner, we can help you walk through it. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Do you have something for disability? Whether it’s mental or physical, there’s all those things to think of. Get all that organized. And then the attorney is just drawing up documents, but they’ve already got all the stuff to fill in the blanks, more or less, and that can save you a lot of money. And especially the taxes, people are like, oh, I’m gonna set all this stuff up. And they wait, they wait, and they wait, and then something happens. And now it’s too late to set up the estate, and the government will happily take 50%.

    Bob:

    If you get over a certain amount. That is correct.

    Shawn:

    So don’t pay the government any more taxes than you have to.

    Bob:

    So, let’s get into the fourth reason now. So, which one we have there?

    Shawn:

    Risk.

    Bob:

    You gotta think about risk.

    Shawn:

    Is there risk in investments and finances?

    Bob:

    Big time. And we’re gonna cover that on looking for a good registered investment advisor. We’re gonna cover the part of the five reasons for that and the risk. But here for financial planning, the reason for risk is because of an accident, hospitalization, lawsuit, and that has to do with properly structuring the assets for the most protection. That’s where financial planner will help you there. And this is all, again, done in good partnership with an attorney and a good insurance advisor.

    Shawn:

    Right. Well, as we said earlier, plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed. So the financial planner in this situation, to an extent, is really kind of helping someone with figuring all this out, where they need to go, and then helping to coordinate with the attorney, with an insurance advisor, on filling in those gaps.

    Bob:

    You should never buy insurance in isolation. I want to tell you that. It is a mistake to go out and buy an auto insurance policy and buy a completely separate policy with another advisor and another company for your home insurance and then your liability coverage. So that should all be done together in insurance. I’m gonna say this and I’m looking right at you. You should never buy insurance based on price. You should buy it based on coverage. So, be careful of all these online, silly commercials that don’t take it seriously and use an ostrich or a monkey or something like that. I mean, it’s an insult to the insurance business that they do this.

    Shawn:

    Well, insurance is all about managing your risk. So, there’s nothing wrong with price shopping, but what you wanna make sure you’re doing, which I think is what you’re alluding to, is it’s not just about getting the cheapest price. It’s about getting the best price for the right coverage. Make sure you’re properly managing the risk that you have, because that’s what insurance is for.

    Bob:

    When it comes to that need, you’re not gonna wish you had the cheapest price.

    Shawn:

    Exactly.

    Bob:

    You need the right amount to cover you. I saw this with my youngest daughter and she bought a policy from some company out in California. But anyway, I couldn’t believe the low amount. Well, if you were to hit another car, you’re not covered, but it got by the bare minimum for the liability. So we got her hooked up with a major company and made sure that she’s covered. And then the fifth and the last one for today is…

    Shawn:

    Tax savings, which I kind of started to get into a little bit earlier. But different, from the state planning side of things.

    Bob:

    I don’t think anybody. Shawn, when I meet somebody that pays just $5,000 in income tax, they don’t like it. Because to me, $5,000 is a little bit, but not much, because I work with a lot of people that pay $50,000 in income tax per year or a $100,000. But it doesn’t matter where you fall in there, a financial planner can give you many tax strategies for lowering that tax. Some of this, right off the bat, just max out your 401k. Do things like lumping your property taxes in one year. What I mean by that is at the end of the year, pay your property taxes for that year and then pay the next year in that same year and then don’t pay the next year so that your property taxes, so it’ll be a deduction for you. Because you gotta get over the exemption that you get as a single or married couple, which is around $12-13,000 or $25-26,000 for a married couple now.

    Shawn:

    So, if you’re working and say the job that you had, you had really good year. Maybe you had like a big bonus or if you’re working in sales and you had more of a good commission year, something like that, then that real estate tax could be, or your property tax, that could be one of the ways for you to kind of reduce that in that year. Just go ahead and pay both this year and next year, all at the same time.

    Bob:

    Another tax planning thing we do is like when somebody, maybe they have a lot of gains in their portfolio, but we can look at losses. Where could we take losses to offset gains, right? Or could we use a charitable remainder trust if you had a large capital gain and a big piece of property. Maybe you were selling a property for $2 million plus, and you have gains of $800,000 or $900,000. You could use a charitable remainder trust to offset those gains. Or, you can also do do pre-giving. Our audience is a Christian audience. So, they’re givers. And maybe you have a year where you have a lot of income where you can advance your giving through the use of donor advised funds. So, there’s a lot of strategies there that I can sit down as a financial planner with someone, and it’ll more than cover my fee for financial planning.

    Shawn:

    And obviously, we were just kind of scratching the surface on that for even the tax savings, because it depends on the situation. That’s why you tend to need that one-on-one for a situation like this is because not everybody is it gonna make sense for them. Oh, I’ll pay the property taxes or I’ll do whatever.

    Bob:

    They don’t understand. They don’t know all those strategies.

    Shawn:

    Yeah, exactly.

    Bob:

    And you know what, a lot of times CPAs will not share those strategies with you, too. A lot of times CPAs are just at the end counting what you owe.

    Shawn:

    Well, especially depending on when you’re talking to them. So, if you work with a financial planner to then coordinate with your CPA, then you can kind of maximize those potential tax savings because – I’m sure you’ve run across this – people are talking to a CPA asking, well, how can I save money? And they’re talking to them in like March of the following year that they’re trying to advice for.

    Bob:

    Like for the last year.

    Shawn:

    If you talked to me six months ago, there might have been some stuff I could tell you.

    Bob:

    Well, you’ve heard my CPA even say, Bob, you sure you shouldn’t have been a CPA because I think so much about taxes. So, there are five of – just five – of the many reasons you need a good financial planner. I could have easily gone 20, but I’m not gonna do that for time’s sake. We could take a few hours to go over this subject. The main thing is, is don’t go it alone. You don’t need to go this alone. Two are better than one, and scripture speaks of that. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either one of them falls down, one can help the other one up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”

    Shawn:

    Amen. All right. Well, thanks for joining us today. That’s it. 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.

    19 min
  • 116 – Recessions: Actions Vs Words
    Click below to listen to Episode 116 – Recessions: Actions Vs Words
    Recessions: Actions Vs Words

    Are you asking yourself these questions during a recession?

    More episodes >>

    Check out these questions that Christian Financial Advisors recommends you ask yourself if you start panicking at all of the recession talk that is going around. You might just be surprised with your answers! Bob and Shawn really encourage you to think about what you are DOING right now during this time instead of just what people are SAYING.

    Increased costs for both gas and food staples can make it feel like the world is ending, and many doomsayers want everyone to think just that. However, if you look around and really analyze the economy, things aren’t always as bleak as they first seem (or are making you feel). Here is just a little bit of encouragement for you during these times of uncertainty.

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Bob:

    Good scripture today, Shawn.

    Shawn:

    What do you got for us, Bob.

    Bob:

    I’ll let you read it. It’s right there on the computer. Come on.

    Shawn:

    Well, I appreciate that James, 2:18, “But someone will say you have faith. I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”

    Bob:

    Now how in the world would this go with today? So I’ll tell you. It’s like when you say one thing and do another, okay.

    Shawn:

    Okay. So actions speak louder than words, typically.

    Bob:

    That’s true.

    Shawn:

    That kind of goes with the scripture, doesn’t it?

    Bob:

    That’s what we’re calling today’s episode.

    Shawn:

    Actions versus words. Is it really that bad?

    Bob:

    Is it really that bad? Well, it’s interesting because we did the survey of our clients and got a reasonable amount back.

    Shawn:

    About what you would expect.

    Bob:

    Yeah, exactly.

    Shawn:

    From the survey.

    Bob:

    But it was interesting in my questions the way I phrased the questions. You could see what I was trying to do, right? So the first question was, and this was a couple weeks ago that we did this, and I think we might be in a recession now, but do you believe we are headed into a recession?

    Shawn:

    Yeah. And the overwhelming majority of people responded said yes, that they believe we’re heading into a recession.

    Bob:

    Which means it must be pretty bad.

    Shawn:

    Well, you think so, or it’s or it’s getting bad.

    Bob:

    So that’s the first thing we asked them. And then the the second question we asked is, well, if you think we’re heading into a recession, do you know anyone personally that’s been laid off as the company’s trying to cut costs.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. We only had about 10% of people say yes. Everybody else doesn’t know anybody that’s been laid off.

    Bob:

    So they think we’re going into recession when 90% of them don’t know anybody that’s been laid off.

    Shawn:

    That seems a little weird, but we should go through the rest of the questions. So the next one we had asked, have you delayed any major vacation plans this year because of inflation?

    Bob:

    I can tell you the answer to that. You know me? I said, no.

    Shawn:

    And again, the majority of people said no. So, no one knows anyone, or almost no one, that’s lost their job. Almost no one has delayed any major vacation plans, which I’m pretty sure we could win the argument on is that considered necessary or discretionary?

    Bob:

    That’s discretionary income.

    Shawn:

    Maybe necessary for your mental health, depending on how big your family is, right?

    Bob:

    We can’t get into that.

    Shawn:

    That’s a whole other episode.

    Bob:

    We still remember the episode. We were talking about this yesterday. First time that we did a vacation – I had all daughters.

    Shawn:

    And every one of the daughters brought a boy.

    Bob:

    We ran out of food by the second or third day and Rachael and I bought for a whole week. Go figure.

    Shawn:

    And me and the guys, me and the guys were just sitting there and just dumbfounded. Like, what do you mean? We didn’t eat that much.

    Bob:

    And I came back and one of my employees that has boys who says, don’t you realize as long as you keep putting the food in front of ’em, they’re gonna keep eating.

    Shawn:

    Yeah.

    Bob:

    I didn’t realize that.

    Shawn:

    I told my mom after that trip. And she said, well, yeah, cuz I have an older brother and you’re sister. My mom was like, I don’t know what Bob was thinking. That’s how it works. Don’t put too much out.

    Bob:

    So she’s been on one of those major vacations with family. You better be ready, especially if it’s a bunch of boys, They eat a lot. It’s really interesting, we’re coming off the 4th of July weekend when we’re making this episode, and they were saying how jammed up the airports were. So, it didn’t seem like a recession. Rachael and I, we just went to Mackinac Island, a place she’s always wanted to go, up in Michigan. It was just packed everywhere. You couldn’t get in anywhere.

    Shawn:

    Traffic wasn’t too bad on Mackinac, right?

    Bob:

    Yeah. Lots of horses. Lots of horses and bicycles. There’s no cars on Mackinac. That’s what he’s talking about. Mackinac is a really, really neat place. So delaying vacation plans, the majority said no. But wait! They said we’re heading into a recession.

    Shawn:

    So the other question we asked, have you decided to delay a car purchase you were going to do? And once again, the majority of people said no.

    Bob:

    They’re still purchasing the car, even if they got one that works. I’m guilty, Okay. I ordered my Explorer. We talk about this. I ordered it back in December, and it finally came in and I love it. And they didn’t wanna give me anything for my old one. So if you want one, give me a call. Probably by the time when this comes out, I’ve already sold it. The next question. Are you cutting back on entertainment in general like going to the movie theater, eating out. That’s expensive. I haven’t been to a movie theater so long. I watch on my big screen. What does popcorn cost?

    Shawn:

    I actually don’t go very often, but it’s definitely one of those things where eating out, movie theater again, again – very discretionary. So, if you have fears about a recession or you’re needing to try to trim your expenses to be more fiscally sound in your household, what are you gonna cut? You’re gonna cut movie theater and eating out. You don’t have to eat out as often. You don’t have to go to the movie theater. But yet again, almost everyone said no. They haven’t cut back on any of that.

    Bob:

    And boy, eating out is expensive today. When we went on this weeklong vacation in Mackinac Island, I just couldn’t get over how much food costs. Rachael and I, we were splitting meals, and it was still like $60, $70. Just crazy. And the last question was…

    Shawn:

    Are your current feelings actually resulting in a change of behavior in how you spend, and I don’t know if anyone wants to guess? We’ll give you 3, 2, 1. Almost everyone said yes. Which again is weird. So the majority of people who responded said, yes, I think we’re heading into a recession. They also answered for the question for how you’re feeling, is it actually changing your behavior and how you spend? But then almost everybody said yes to that one. Oh yes. It’s resulted in a change. But all of the questions we asked about discretionary spending, large purchases you don’t necessarily need, no one’s made any changes in those. So I just thought it was interesting that the actions and the words, or the actions and the emotions, don’t really line up.

    Bob:

    It’s like when we started today, the actions versus words, is it really that bad?

    Shawn:

    I mean, yes, I would argue, we are heading into a recession.

    Bob:

    If we’re not, we’re already in it.

    Shawn:

    But a recession, also, it’s not always a bad thing. I mean, just like we’ve talked about before with any market, there’s up times and down times. I mean, it’s a natural cycle and sometimes, we need a recession to get us back to a good place.

    Bob:

    And that’s why you have to always be careful, as we’re coming to the end of the day’s episode. Be careful about thinking that everything is going to fall apart. Because you can look at the cars on the road. You can go to the restaurants. You can go to Walmart or Target or wherever you go. Buy stuff online. You can go see, are people still spending money? And the answer is yes, they are. And it’s not Armageddon. Not at all.

    Shawn:

    Like, is it as good as when we’re not in a recession? I would say no, but it’s definitely not as bad as most of your doomsayers and people who are trying to sell you some product. Sure. It’s not as bad.

    Bob:

    Look at the glass like it’s half full. It doesn’t help any looking at it like it’s half empty. Look at it like it’s half full.

    Shawn:

    Either way, 50% of it’s filled up.

    Bob:

    Mine’s about half right now.

    Shawn:

    Did you do that on purpose?

    Bob:

    No, I didn’t. It’s about half halfway, isn’t it? I always have to drink my water when I’m doing our episodes. That’s all for today. I hope we’ve helped you a little bit. I just thought this would be good to bring the survey to you. Maybe you can share this with somebody you know.

    Shawn:

    God bless and thanks for tuning in.

    [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.

    10 min
  • 115 – Roller Coasters, Emotions, And Rubber Bands
    Click below to listen to Episode 115 – Roller Coasters, Emotions, And Rubber Bands
    Roller Coasters, Emotions, And Rubber Bands

    Learn how to get a better handle on your roller coaster of emotions when it comes to the stock market.

    More episodes >>

    The stock markets can make even the best of us get emotional. It goes up; we may become happy and excited! It goes down; we might become worried and stressed. So, how can we combat this roller coaster of emotions in order to get a better handle on how we feel when it comes to the continual ups and downs of the stock market?

    One way is by getting educated on typical market trends and understanding just exactly how bear and bull markets work. In this episode, Bob and Shawn present some tips, and of course Bible verses, on getting a better perspective on the market, its checks and balances, and just taking your emotions out of the investment game, or at least as much as possible, anyways!

    HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
    Shawn Peters
    The “Cycle Of Market Emotions” Chart

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Matthew 6:27; 32-34 NIV; 27, “Can any one of you by worrying at a single hour to your life?” 32 through 34, “For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

    Bob:

    Amen. Amen. Love that scripture. That scripture helps get me through these crazy times like we’re in right now.

    Shawn:

    Yeah.

    Bob:

    Especially with what you and I do for a living. It is a rollercoaster. I heard you tell me a couple weeks ago, you said, “Bob, would it make any sense for you to ever jump off a roller coaster while it’s in motion?” And the answer is, “Of course not.”

    Shawn:

    Definitely not. Especially not if the roller coaster is not just in motion, but it’s currently going down one of the hills.

    Bob:

    A little steep one like this.

    Shawn:

    Not a good idea. Exactly. And then about to go through a loop du loop.

    Bob:

    Then it’s gonna come back up. So it’s gonna go down, but then it’s gonna come back up. So that’s what we’re experiencing in the markets right now. I mean, I was just looking at the markets today. I cannot believe the volatility. That’s a rollercoaster, and how it can play with your emotions and how you and I are gonna use this example later – a rubber band.

    Shawn:

    Yep.

    Bob:

    okay. So today’s subject is rollercoasters, emotions, and rubber bands.

    Bob:

    So, I’m gonna have Garrett put a chart up there for you. He’s gonna put a chart, and I want y’all to take a look at this, and we’re gonna go over it right here. I’ve got to find where the chart is. There it is. And this is what we call our cycles of emotions, market emotions. This has been a chart, Shawn, we’ve been using for years and years. I mean, you’ve been with me. You started with me in ’08.

    Shawn:

    Yep.

    Bob:

    And I remember we were using this chart.

    Shawn:

    It’s still true.

    Bob:

    Your wife, my daughter, has really helped put all the little faces in it. Get me out. And you’ve got the sad face and then you have the panic face. And what’s interesting is this chart can help you a lot with investing because this is the crazy ups and downs that we’re going through right now. Back in October when we took a lot off the table, everybody was like, why are you doing that? At that point, you can see what the chart says. It’s got…

    Shawn:

    Euphoria. Buy. Buy. Buy.

    Bob:

    That’s a Southern boy. I can’t say these words. Of course, you’re from South Carolina.

    Shawn:

    It’s okay, Bob, I graduated with degree in business finance, so I can do the fancy words sometimes.

    Bob:

    but at that point was the maximum financial risk and it’s. You can look at this and see the real estate markets a couple months ago was the same way. I mean, back in January, February, before rates go up. Buy. Buy. Buy. And what did I do? We had a podcast about that, but that’s the maximum financial risk.

    Shawn:

    And everybody wants in, and it can go nowhere but up from here. These successful investors recognize that this is the most potential financial risk right now because everybody thinks it’s going nowhere but up.

    Bob:

    Bring that chart back in and just take a look at this chart. You notice where I think we’ve passed the fear part.

    Shawn:

    Okay. Yes.

    Bob:

    Yes. The desperation. What should I do? We’re starting to get to the panic and I give up part. I don’t know if we’re to the hopelessness part yet.

    Shawn:

    It doesn’t seem like we’re at the very bottom of it yet. So, I would definitely say somewhere around that “panic” to “I give up”, maybe.

    Bob:

    So, it’s already on sale. Remember, you should buy when things are on sale, but for some reason, no one wants to do this in the stock market.

    Shawn:

    Well, especially for people who the most common thing about them, of course, is people have some sort of retirement plan at work. Maybe a 401k, it’s most common. I mean, I’ve already had multiple clients asking, well, hey, should we not make those deposits anymore? I’ve told every single one of them, absolutely not. If anything, if you can contribute more right now in your cash flow, do it. I mean, that means every paycheck you’re buying that much more on sale and you know what, Hey, even if it goes down another 10 to 20%, keep buying. You’re just getting more. Because unless you’re retiring in the next couple years, it doesn’t really matter if it goes down more.

    Bob:

    So let’s look because what does the chart tell us? And I’m telling you, this chart is a great chart. I followed it for years. Successful investors recognize this is the maximum financial opportunity. Now, maybe we haven’t gotten to that bottom yet, but you know what? No one can predict when the absolute bottom is.

    Shawn:

    You can only predict the absolute bottom when you’re 6 to 12 months past it.

    Bob:

    That’s a good way of seeing it.

    Shawn:

    Kind of like right now, how we say well, who would’ve predicted that for year to date, we’d be down the way we are? Well, it’s easy to look back now and see when in December, January that that happened. That was the maximum height, but you can’t know a hundred percent when you’re in it.

    Bob:

    So what’s happening right now? See, we talked about this the other day. We talked about this, and just don’t break it, because that would hurt.

    Shawn:

    I’m putting a lot of trust in you right now, Bob.

    Bob:

    But that’s where the economy was about six to eight months ago. Nine months ago. We had stretched it so far.

    Shawn:

    You’re getting that bull market.

    Bob:

    I’m not gonna go any farther, because I know that that could break , but that’s how far we had gotten. Now we we’ve gotten back probably about that far. And we could go as much as that far. But let me tell you, I’m not gonna break this. Pull against me. If we kept pulling – I don’t wanna go any farther than that. If we kept pulling any farther than that, what would happen to that rubber band?

    Shawn:

    Snap.

    Bob:

    It’d snap. So bear markets, like we talked about the benefits of bear markets a couple weeks ago, there are benefits to bear markets. The economy was getting stretched. It was way, way out there, and it needed to move back. So rubber bands, they’re like checks and balances. And that’s what we need in these markets.

    Shawn:

    Just like any market, and not just the stock market, but markets in general, they all go through cycles. There are periods of growth and there are periods of decline. That’s just a natural part of it. Like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for everything. There’s a time to sew. There’s a time to reap. Well, you can’t just always reap. There’s a time where you gotta sew. If farmers, all they did was reap, well, they’d have maybe a good crop one year and then nothing but weeds the next year.

    Bob:

    I can see you’re having fun with that rubber band.

    Shawn:

    I am. Well, it just made me think, too, when you have a bull market and then you kind have a correction. Not that big, but then when you have a really big bull market…

    Bob:

    Yeah. That’s real estate right now.

    Shawn:

    It’s got more snap back, you know what I mean? Like, it gets under tension. I’m aiming this right at you.

    Bob:

    yeah.

    Shawn:

    It gets under tension and then that’s why usually, I mean, if you look back when you have a huge bull market rally, you usually have a more severe bear market bear market. Again, I use the rubber band as an example. You get that tension, and it’s gotta kind of reset almost to an extent.

    Bob:

    And remember, stovkck markets move quickly. They reset fast for real estate. It moves slower because it’s not appraised every single day. So, I hope that helps you some with the rollercoasters, emotions, and rubber bands theory that we talked about today. And I don’t believe it’s theory. I think it’s real.

    Shawn:

    Well, just look at the charts. Remember, you can’t predict when your bottom or your top is in the markets, unless you look back 6 to 12 months or further, then it’s really to see. So look back. There’s a lot of websites. You can look at it for free, but just look at the markets. If you don’t believe us, count how many times you’ve seen it go up and you go down, then you go up and then go down.

    Bob:

    So as always, we’re here for you. If you have any questions during business hours, give us a call at (830) 609-6986. You can text to that number as well, and we’re here to help educate you and get you through these crazy times.

    Shawn:

    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.

    11 min
  • 114 – Financial Sharks In Turbulent Waters
    Click below to listen to Episode 114 – Financial Sharks In Turbulent Waters
    Financial Sharks In Turbulent Waters

    Learn about some of the financial sharks you may need to be on the lookout for.

    More episodes >>

    In this episode, Bob and Shawn discuss the financial sharks that we all have to watch out for during turbulent times and how they like to disguise themselves. For example, if you hear about a great investment opportunity that sounds “too good to be true”, then it is most likely just that – too good to be true. Have you ever seen one of those big postcard invitations in the mail for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities featuring a big juicy steak on the front? Have you ever received an email from a professional doomsayer about how the country is ending but miraculously happens to have the product to protect you from the disaster they just made up?

    Most of these are meant to prey on our emotions in order to sell products to benefit the seller and not to benefit you. 1 Peter 5:8 gives this warning: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The next time you receive a free offering for a steak at a high-end restaurant, be aware of the financial shark that may be behind this so-called “opportunity”.

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Bob:

    1 Peter 5:8, “Be alert and of sober mind, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

    Shawn:

    Starting off strong, Bob.

    Bob:

    I am.

    Shawn:

    So what’s our topic today?

    Bob:

    Financial sharks in turbulent waters.

    Shawn:

    Okay.

    Bob:

    And we’re in some very turbulent waters right now in the markets. And when you have turbulent waters like that, sharks start coming around.

    Shawn:

    They take advantage of it. Makes me think of that thing they do every year on shark week. We have all the Great Whites down there by Seal Island, whatever they call it. You have all these seals, way too many seals.

    Bob:

    They’re outta room and these poor, innocent seals.

    Shawn:

    Yep. They’re just trying to get to the island, do their seal thing, and they have these sharks that if the seals stray out too far, those sharks take advantage of it.

    Bob:

    Ready to pound on them.

    Shawn:

    Yep. And when I say pound on, I mean, these things will launch themselves out of the water by swimming up really fast. It’s crazy to watch, but definitely makes me think of what the financial sharks do in times like these. There are people that, understandably, they’re scared, especially for you if you have investors that maybe they haven’t really been through that many bear markets. It gets scary sometimes.

    Bob:

    A lot of people, this is their first real bear market they’ve been through.

    Shawn:

    Like a big one.

    Bob:

    A bear market is a 20% or more drop. We had a slight bear market couple years ago during COVID, but it was a V-shaped recovery, so we came out of it so fast.

    Shawn:

    Wasn’t long enough for people to get too scared.

    Bob:

    This one’s prolonged. I mean, we’ve been in this now since January and we’re in the middle of the summer. And it could go on the rest of the year. And during times like this, there are sharks, and I’m sorry to name it that way, but they’re out there. And one of the indicators, one of the sharks that you’ll see.

    Shawn:

    So how do they disguise themselves, Bob? What’s something to look out for?

    Bob:

    A big picture of a big fat, juicy, beautiful steak.

    Shawn:

    Okay. So like on a little card or big postcard.

    Bob:

    It’s this beautiful picture. I mean, it’s like, Hey honey, I want to go out to Myron’s steakhouse tonight. Cause this looks good. I might want to go to this. You open it up, and it’s not advertising Myrons.

    Shawn:

    Oh, it’s not a special for Myrons?

    Bob:

    No, it’s advertising a workshop. Come to our workshop and we’re gonna give you this free, steak dinner.

    Shawn:

    No strings attached, right? Just out of the goodness of their heart.

    Bob:

    They’re gonna give you this free, steak dinner. And out of the goodness of their heart, they’re sending out 10,000 or more of these that cost $10,000.

    Shawn:

    I mean, if it’s only a dollar a piece.

    Bob:

    And you go to one of these steak houses, like that’s gonna cost you a $100-120, and they’re gonna get about 30 people there. So just do the numbers. You’re at $13-14,000, the person is putting on the workshop is at $13,000 or $14,000 in the hole.

    Shawn:

    Just for inviting people. And then for the people that are there…

    Bob:

    The 30 that are gonna respond to the 10,000 postcards.

    Shawn:

    Why in the world would they spend $13,000 to $14,000 to give people a free steak dinner? Is there something in it for them? How hard is it for them to make that money back?

    Bob:

    Not too hard. They can sell one or two high commission fixed indexed or fixed annuities and get it all back.

    Shawn:

    Well, surely that’s regulated though, Bob, right? Surely there’s a lot of disclosures.

    Bob:

    Oh yeah. It’s regulated by the insurance industry.

    Shawn:

    So not regulated at all.

    Bob:

    Very, very low.

    Shawn:

    Not as far as investment products are typically concerned.

    Bob:

    Shawn, we have met so many people over the years that have gone to these. They get hooked in, because once you buy into one of those…

    Shawn:

    You’re stuck for what? 10 years?

    Bob:

    8 to 10 years. And they give them bonuses up front, and they promise them the moon. They say, oh, the market goes up this amount, you’re gonna catch all the upside, but none of the downside.

    Shawn:

    Why would you not do that, Bob, if you’re gonna participate in all of the market upside, none of the downside, what’s the catch?

    Bob:

    The catch is very high expenses. There there’s like several ways that you can participate in the market ups, but that comes with either a cap rate or it’s called, I think, a participation rate, which means that you have to pay another 4% or 5% just to participate in that upside. So, very high expenses.

    Shawn:

    So what you’re telling me is it’s marketed as that you can participate in all of the upside, but the reality is that you can participate in all the upside either to a maximum amount or they effectively charge a management fee or an extra commission.

    Bob:

    That’s enormous.

    Shawn:

    If you want to go up and over a certain amount, then you pay 4% or 5% additionally. So effectively, the markets could go up 20% and you might get 4% or 5%, or in the case of you’re paying that extra commission, it goes up 20%, but in reality, you only got 15%.

    Bob:

    Yeah. Extra fee.

    Shawn:

    That’s high.

    Bob:

    That’s why they pay such a high commission.

    Shawn:

    And most fiduciary advisors charge more like 1%, right?

    Bob:

    Between half and one percent.

    Shawn:

    For the whole year. Okay.

    Bob:

    Yeah. But that’s why a lot of advisors, they don’t wanna be a fiduciary. It takes them too long. They have to be with the client for years and years and years to make it work their time.

    Shawn:

    Well, yeah. I mean, we were charging 10% commission, that’s 10 years of revenue.

    Bob:

    Right up front.

    Shawn:

    Well, I can see why it might be appealing to people.

    Bob:

    So, that’s the way one of the sharks do it, you know. Other ways are like, look out for workshops that will offer social security planning.

    Shawn:

    Another example are those educational seminar kinds of things, whether it’s social security or maybe it’s how to do your own investments. There’s a lot of those kinds of things, right? It’s like, well, they’re so successful that they wanna go ahead and teach you how to do this. I guess they can’t make a living at, but yet it’s so good that I’m sure it’s gonna help you out, right? And they’ll do it for free.

    Bob:

    Yeah. How they doing this for free? There’s nothing for free. No. Nothing.

    Shawn:

    If they say it’s free, you’re paying for it later.

    Bob:

    One way or another.

    Shawn:

    Exactly.

    Bob:

    So another way is what I call doomsday newsletters. Those are really out there right now. They’ll lure you in and then you can pay a monthly fee for this newsletter. Or, they’re gonna take you down a path that is eventually going to push you into some high commission product.

    Shawn:

    Maybe it’s precious metals or maybe it’s something where, “Oh, sign up for this thing. Do your own research. Here’s my hot stock tips.” Which again, if they are really that good, why would they be charging fees or subscriptions?

    Bob:

    It’s kinda interesting, isn’t it? Also, you wanna look out – I’ve heard some advertisements recently on the financial stations – I listen to satellite and I listen to the stations when I drive back and forth to work – of non-liquid alternatives. I’ve been seeing and I’ve been hearing art advertised.

    Shawn:

    Really? Art?

    Bob:

    Art. Precious art. And talking about the high returns in it. Now, in a recession that we’re moving into – we might already be in.

    Shawn:

    Well, and usually the markets are kind of that leading indicator. Well, if we’ve had six months of a bear market, if we weren’t in a recession before, we’re in one now. We’re getting into it.

    Bob:

    I don’t know. This is so speculative. And those kinds of investments do well when there’s a full blown, bull market and things are doing well. That’s extra money that you have to by art.

    Shawn:

    That just blows my mind. So, even if we just take away the recession part, even if it was maybe a good idea for the art, compare that with just the markets in general. For most investors, if someone is kind of adverse they’re wanting to get a little bit away from all the volatility and the craziness that’s going on in the market, why in the world would you want to consider art?

    Bob:

    I don’t know, Shawn.

    Shawn:

    Way higher risk.

    Bob:

    I don’t know, but they’re out there right now. So, I’m just telling you, right now, you gotta watch out for all these sharks that are in the waters. They’re the free steak dinners. They’re the invitations. They’re the educational workshops, giving false promises to annuities, social security planning, the subscription dues, doomsday letters, and the high commission gold sellers that are learning you in. They are out there. I just wanted to make an episode to tell my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to be aware of them. I’ll talk to you all day long about this if you want to.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. So I guess maybe to kind of summarize it, the things to look out for – those red flags, if something is being offered as, “Oh, it’s free. There’s no charge to you or there’s no risk to you.” Chances are you’re paying for that some other way. So, look at the fine print. Get some more information. There’s probably a high commission involved somewhere, or there’s gonna be something where you’re stuck for an extended period of time. That’s the way you get that benefit. If you see someone offering you free trips or the free dinners or the totally free, no commitment whatsoever educational, they all create a non-biased conflict of interest. So, these people advertising, it’s not out of the goodness of their heart. They’re just doing it to make money.

    Bob:

    It’s the old saying, and we’ll conclude on this, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

    Shawn:

    Amen.

    Bob:

    That’s all for today.

    Shawn:

    Thank you. 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.

    12 min
  • 113 – Christian Fundamentals For Investing
    Click below to listen to Episode 113 – Christian Fundamentals For Investing
    Christian Fundamentals For Investing

    Learn about 10 Christian fundamentals for investing.

    More episodes >>

    The Bible says a lot about stewardship and finances. In fact, stewardship is one of the most talked about subjects in the Bible! As a Christian, we believe that God owns everything, even our money. If we truly believe that God owns everything, then shouldn’t we be trying our best to invest and manage our money in a way that honors God?

    In this episode, Bob presents various financial fundamentals for Christians that are looking at investing their money wisely and according to Biblical principles. From involving your spouse in investment decisions to staying consistent over many years, here are 10 Christian fundamentals for investing.

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    All right, well, Bob, it’s good to be back this week with our episode 113.

    Bob:

    Thirteen’s a lucky number for me. That’s when I met Rachael. Lucky number 13. So, I don’t let these superstitions get ahold of me. All right. Well, and today is gonna be such another informative episode that’s going to educate our listeners, which is what I want to do for our listeners and our viewers now.

    Shawn:

    So what are we talking about today, Bob?

    Bob:

    We’re gonna be talking about Christian fundamentals for investing.

    Shawn:

    You think we’ll have some scripture?

    Bob:

    Just a little bit. We have scriptural reasons behind every one of these Christian fundamentals for investing, and the Bible has so much to say about stewardship. There are many scholars that will tell you there’s over 1500 scriptures on stewardship, and that Jesus spoke on stewardship more than heaven and hell combined. So, when it comes to…

    Shawn:

    You think stewardship’s important?

    Bob:

    Exactly. So, then it comes to how we’re handling money. And there’s so much that the Bible says about it. So, we have some really good scriptures today. By the way, we’re not gonna share 1500, like I’ve said.

    Shawn:

    No, we picked a few, a few hundred.

    Bob:

    Exactly.

    Shawn:

    All right. Well, let’s let’s get into the first one, Bob. Invest in the kingdom first.

    Bob:

    You like that?

    Shawn:

    I do like that one.

    Bob:

    Yeah. Before you start investing in yourself, invest in the kingdom, invest in God’s kingdom. Invest in ministries Proverbs 3:9-10, and I took this from the New Living Translation. It says, “Honor the Lord with your riches and the first of all you grow.” I love that part that says “first of all you grow” because we’re talking about investing today. So if we’re talking about investing, we want it to grow. That’s what investing is about is growing. “But honor the Lord with your riches and the first of all you grow, then,” you notice it’s got the word “then” in there. “Then your storehouses will be filled with many good things and your barrels will flow over with new wine.” Rachel probably likes that part.

    Shawn:

    Well, you don’t want the wine to be too new. It’s not gonna taste as good. Then, it’s basically just grape juice.

    Bob:

    Bring me some fresh wine, stuff made this year. Not that old stuff. Okay.

    Shawn:

    So, our next scripture, Acts 20:35, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”

    Bob:

    That’s a good one. It’s totally different than what the world would say. Isn’t it?

    Shawn:

    Yep. Cause the world is all about what I get and gotta get mine, you know? I don’t know any other fun phrases the kids say these days.

    Bob:

    So, that first fundamental was before you start investing in yourself, invest in the kingdom.

    Shawn:

    And so I guess I would cover like, your tithe and giving, and that should apply for everything that you have. It’s your time, your money, anything that God has given you.

    Bob:

    And your talents. Number two is establish a written financial plan and stick to it.

    Shawn:

    So, Bob, you put written. Why did you put written?

    Bob:

    Because I like to write things down and when you write it down, you see it. You absorb it. That’s why.

    Shawn:

    Well, I remember when we did our New Year’s episode, and when we talked about the importance of writing it down and it was just, I don’t remember all the stats off top of my head, but like the percentages of people that make goals that actually write them down and the people that stick to them and basically what the data showed is that if you don’t write your goals down, you’re not going to meet them.

    Bob:

    And those that had written them down had performed so much better than those who hadn’t.

    Shawn:

    And again, just writing that down doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to meet the goals, but it was crazy. It was a complete opposite. The people who didn’t write them down, basically for the most part, didn’t achieve their goals. People that wrote them down, huge portion of those people typically met most, if not all, of their goals, because it’s that writing it down so you have something that you can look back at. You can reference.

    Bob:

    Think of it as a blueprint, too. Would you build a house without a blueprint? No. Would you go on a trip? Would you go on a long trip? We’re down here in Central Texas. Would you drive from here to California or here to Michigan or New York without a map without plotting out what you’re gonna do first?

    Shawn:

    No. I mean, thankfully it’s a little easier in the traveling, cause you probably use the app maps on your phone. But can you imagine, well, I’m gonna drive from here to there and I don’t have navigation on my phone or in the car. I don’t have a map. I’m just gonna try to figure it out as we go. Like, well, how do you know you’re even gonna get to where you need to go?

    Bob:

    Can you imagine building a house like that?

    Shawn:

    Oh my goodness. No.

    Bob:

    Just figuring it out as you go.

    Shawn:

    I mean, building a house is already stressful enough. You really wanna do it with no plan? Like, oh, you know what? We forgot the plumbing for the bathrooms. Maybe we should have planned for that.

    Bob:

    So, the scriptures behind this are just so powerful. Proverbs 20:5, and then it’s 21:5. So, both of these verses, “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but he who has insight draws them out.”

    Shawn:

    That’s good.

    Bob:

    I highlighted that part, you noticed that. And, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

    Shawn:

    Those are really good for number two, establish a written financial plan and stick to it.

    Bob:

    Exactly. That is exactly right. So we had invest in the kingdom first and establish that written financial plan and stick to it.

    Shawn:

    Number three, seek wise advice.

    Bob:

    Well, you’re gonna hear some scriptures here that you’ve heard me talk about a couple of times.

    Shawn:

    How about I read a couple of them. We got Ecclesiastes 4:9, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.” See, that’s why we have two co-hosts.

    Bob:

    That’s right, exactly right. If it was just me, I’d be boring, you know? You’re providing all that great stuff that…By the way. He’s my son-in-law too. So I have to say that.

    Shawn:

    Oh, I thought you actually thought that.

    Bob:

    I do. I do think that, brother.

    Shawn:

    All right. And then the second verse, Proverbs 19:20, ‘Listen to advice and accept discipline. And at the end you will be counted among the wise.”

    Bob:

    There is nothing wrong with seeking wise advice, but for some reason, our society tries to teach that you don’t need anybody, but yourself.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. And the other thing I think of with the wise advice, especially when you’re talking about investing, but it really can be with anything. We are emotional creatures. We’re made in God’s image. And one of the things that we have is emotions. And when you’re operating in a vacuum of just on your own and trying to make a decision and you don’t seek wise advice, you are so much more likely to be caught up in the emotions and

    Bob:

    Make mistakes

    Shawn:

    And make mistakes. So, seeking wise advice, preferably from, I would say check with at least two people, two different people. And if they have different, slightly different kind of a background perspective, even better, because that’s gonna help you identify potential pitfalls or issues with whatever it is that you’re thinking about or considering, because they’re gonna have a different perspective than you, you know? And obviously, I mean, scripture backs that up.

    Bob:

    We we’re talking about these scriptures here. I would go to the third chapter of Timothy and it talks about the virtues of an elder and deacon in a church. And I would look at those virtues. Who’s the person you’re gonna seek advice from. And we’ve done an entire program on that – a good reputation in the community. They’re stable. They have a teacher’s heart. They’re patient. There’s like 17 or 18 virtues that are in that chapter. Fourth one.

    Shawn:

    Number four, take a long term perspective. Don’t start something you can’t finish. That’s a good one.

    Bob:

    Yeah. It’s good for everything in life, isn’t it?

    Shawn:

    And with that, we’re gonna wrap up the episode. Oh, you want me to read the scripture?

    Bob:

    Well, don’t start something you can’t finish. That has to do with everything in life. Especially in marriage, stick it out. Stay married. And so, yeah. Go ahead, say the scripture.

    Shawn:

    Luke 14:28, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.” We were just talking about the housing. “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?”

    Bob:

    Yeah. It’s wisdom. That’s wisdom. So stick with it. Take the long term perspective. Don’t look things in the short term. It’s not based on that. It’s not based on hour to hour, day to day, month to month. It’s based on year to year and years upon years. That’s the way you build a strong financial plan that is built on Christian principles.

    Shawn:

    It makes sense for the investing. It makes sense when you think about the real estate and things that’ve been going on with that. Just because interest rates are going up, that doesn’t mean that you can’t buy something because there may be a need for it. If your family has to move and you have a new job, like, I mean, there are obviously reasons to buy, but also at the same time, you shouldn’t make a rash decision. Like, “Oh no interest rates are about to go up. So I need to hurry up and buy.” Well, no, that doesn’t make sense. If anything, if interest rates are about to go up and you don’t have to buy, wait. Because all you’re gonna be doing is maybe locking in a slightly lower interest rate, but you’re buying a house that won’t be worth what it’s worth later.

    Bob:

    I mean, it could be, so take that long term perspective, not the short term. Don’t look at that that way. Number five is diversify across many sectors. We’ve talked about this a lot in this, but this is definitely a Christian investment principle. Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Invest in seven ventures. Yes, in eight.” You notice, I didn’t say one. It doesn’t say invest in one or two. It says invest in seven or eight because you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Disaster upon the portfolio, upon the investments.

    Shawn:

    I love that verse

    Bob:

    And there’s always gonna be something that may be doing well.

    Shawn:

    Yeah.

    Bob:

    And there’s gonna be something that may not be doing well, and by having a diversified portfolio and especially if you’re retired and you need to take an income, you take from the parts that are doing well.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. I guess, for people listening or watching, it’s the different types of asset classes, you know? So when you’re talking about with an investment management portfolio, even within equities, there’s lots of different types of equities, many different fixed income. There’s lots of different types of fixed income. That’s a way we look at it when you divide to seven or eight, and then the other thing too, of course, is if a client is closer to retirement or in retirement, they have income needs. There might be multiple accounts that they have. And so they have some of their capital that’s in a more conservative, more income focused type of a strategy. And then they have other capital that’s in something that’s focused on growth because they’re not gonna need that for 6 years or 10 years.

    Bob:

    That’s the long term perspective. So you have the short term perspective of the income needs, but then you have the long term perspective that would come under being able to take from the portfolio and you can change it around. So it’s really easy to do. Number six, stay consistent over the years. Consistency is so important. I’ve tried to really keep that in my own life. Proverbs 13:11 says, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” It’s not about getting rich quick. It’s not about getting to a million dollar portfolio quickly. It’s about over time. Build it on a solid foundation, not one that’s gonna crack.

    Shawn:

    That reminds me of the episode we did where we talked about the traits of wealthy individuals or wealthy investors, and it kind of tied directly into that was one of the things about not chasing high investment returns. You have people that, especially in a bear market, every time there’s a bear market, go to this, go to that.

    Bob:

    They chase around advisors.

    Shawn:

    Exactly. Yeah. And the problem is, if you’re doing it just for that reason, your chances of being successful are gonna be minimized, and you need to stay consistent. You need to have an advisor that you understand how they work. You understand how you’re being invested and that you realize there are gonna be good times. There are gonna be bad times, but if you don’t allow the strategy to play out in both the good times and the bad times, you’re constantly chasing that next one.

    Bob:

    You are. You’re chasing it. It’s like a dog chasing its tail.

    Shawn:

    Well, number seven, avoid investing in immoral companies.

    Bob:

    We believe in that around here. We’ve got what’s called biblically responsible investing.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. Most people, probably more recently, they hear about faith-based investing. And one of the things that we like to try to address is that yes, what we do is faith-based investing, but not all faith-based investing is equal, you know? And some people may say and I would definitely challenge you that if you’re working with someone who says they’re faith based, have them explain like, well, how is it that they’re investing differently than the rest of the world? How is it that they’re investing differently than just a secular company that doesn’t talk at all about faith based? And if they don’t have a good answer, if they can’t talk about that and explain. Like for us, there’s negative screens. There’s things that we avoid, like certain kinds of activities for companies that we avoid investing in. But then there’s also positives where we look for companies and the investment partners and like we look for people who are making positive impact and changes in their environment and their staff, their community, the products that they’re creating. That’s the plan. And for us, Bob, you’ve been doing this for a few decades, you know? It’s typically, what we call it is, biblically responsible investing. That is a type of faith-based investing, but we very clearly explain what does that mean.

    Bob:

    And on our website, if you’ll go under the investing part on our website christianfinancialadvisors.com, you’ll see the seven ways that we invest, and it talks about that in there. And so, what do we mean by that? I’m just gonna get a little bit deeper. There’s screening criteria that we look at. Here’s an example. If a company is supporting planned parenthood that is involved in abortion, or if a company is doing fetal tissue research from baby parts.

    Shawn:

    Or maybe it’s a company that’s involved in producing tobacco products or alcohol products. It’s not saying that scripture says that alcohol is immoral. It’s not that the alcohol or the tobacco in that case is necessarily wrong, but it’s a vice for many, many people. And there’s a lot of homes and families that have been destroyed by some of those things. And so for us, as believers, as Christians, it doesn’t really make sense to support that, to support making money off of companies that that’s what they do when there’s so many other options. And so just don’t get aligned with that. That’s the part that when people ask like, well, how much of an impact are you making? I only have such a tiny percentage ownership of this company. I would challenge you – biblically responsible investing and the reason we look at those screens and avoid certain negatives and we’ve looked for those positives is think of it as if it was your company. If you owned a hundred percent of the company, would you want to be doing what that company is doing? Would you stand by, would you say, in front of the Lord, I stand by what I did for the alcohol, for the tobacco, for supporting planned parenthood, and providing those services. And if the answer is, no, you wouldn’t do that. Then it’s semantics of whether it’s a fraction of a percent or a hundred percent, you’re still an owner. You still have a responsibility to answer for what that company has done.

    Bob:

    And there’s scriptural reasons I have behind it. There’s so many, but I’m gonna just use these two right now from 2 Corinthians 6:17 that says, “Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And also, we’ve mentioned this many times here on the program is Psalms 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, and all who live in it,” all that dwell on the earth. It belongs to God. When we’re talking about investing, we’re managers. We’re not owners. It belongs to God. So that’s why the avoidance of investing in immoral companies is so important.

    Shawn:

    And also, there’s another scripture that makes me think of that, too, when it comes to managers and stewards where the went away for awhile. He went on a trip and he entrusted three different servants with his assets, with their talents, depending on which version you’re talking about, and you had two of them that they did a good job. They wanted to be able to present back to their master and say look what we did with what you trusted us with. You had one of them that went and buried it, and when it comes down to it, no matter whether it’s money, investments, time, your capabilities, your talent, the point is one day, you will have to provide an account of what you did on this earth to the Lord. So everything, including the investing, you should be thinking about it like that. Would this be something that when the owner comes back from the trip, or when you’re standing before the Lord, would he say well done that good and faithful servant or not?

    Bob:

    Yeah, exactly. So number eight.

    Shawn:

    Number eight, be careful of using debt to invest.

    Bob:

    And there’s a lot of that going on in real estate. People will go borrow a lot of money to buy real estate.

    Shawn:

    I mean, just primary homes. You look at people buying and where the stats that we had talked about before was 80, 87%.

    Bob:

    National Association of Realtors have said in the last couple of years, 87% of people have borrowed money to buy.

    Shawn:

    Again, there’s not necessarily something wrong with that for your primary home, but where you can definitely get into trouble is that if you’re not talking about just your primary home, but you’re buying an investment home, or you’re trying to flip a property, or whatever it is, you need to be careful of the debt that you’re getting involved in.

    Bob:

    And remember another thing that I’ve said before, and Ron Blue has said this, who I love dearly and started Kingdom Advisors, is that when you take debt on, you’re presuming upon the future. And really, none of us know what the future is. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.”

    Shawn:

    That is strong language.

    Bob:

    The scripture doesn’t say we should not go into debt, but it sure gives a lot of warnings about being in debt.

    Shawn:

    Basically, the idea is be careful. Debt isn’t wrong, and it’s not wrong to have debt. But like you said, it’s presuming upon the future. So you need to really think about if this is a good fit.

    Bob:

    Now, you’ve heard me say this, and this is the country boy coming out of me. Just so y’all know, I’m from South Texas, six generations. An old country boy told me one time. He said, son, I ain’t never seen nobody hurt by being debt free. And he said that to me, like 25 years ago. And it struck me yeah back then. It’s not that I’m totally against the use of debt, but be careful of it because you get too much of it, you’re gonna become a slave to the lender. Number nine of our Christian fundamentals for investing is have the right motive behind it. It’s not about just getting super wealthy, and be careful of getting caught up in greed because greed will take you down a slippery slope. “Better a little with a fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoils,” Proverbs 15:16. Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil, because I have seen great wealth cause turmoil. And the wealthier you are, the more stuff and pressure is put on you.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. Well that reminds me of, it’s not a scripture, but I’ve heard you say this phrase many times, especially involved with investing, but “the pigs get fat and the hogs get slaughtered”. It’s that idea of that if you’re just focusing on like trying to get as much as I can, I’m gonna get all I can get. And if you just focus on that and you don’t have the right motive and you don’t have that plan behind it, you can get in a really bad spot.

    Bob:

    That’s my country boy saying again, wasn’t it? Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered.

    Shawn:

    My apologies to all our vegan and vegetarian listeners.

    Bob:

    Last one. Oh, this is so important. And hear us on this last one for these Christian fundamentals for investing.

    Shawn:

    Is number 10 involve your spouse in investment decisions.

    Bob:

    Exactly.

    Shawn:

    Because man, what is it? They talk about it. It’s sad, but the number one cause for divorce is financial related.

    Bob:

    Genesis 2:24 says, “This is why a man leaves his father and mother, and is united to his wife. They become one flesh.” So you should not be making large investment decisions without your spouse’s approval behind it.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. And that being said, like obviously we understand that there’s a lot of couples that one or the other tends to be the one that’s like, Hey, they’re more organized and they’re the one that’s really following the budget. They’re the one that is just usually a little more level headed or they’re the one that just handles paying the bills. Like I know like for my parents, my dad is the one who’s working, but my mom actually handles most of the paperwork and the bills, things like that. They’re a team, but the point is is that you need to be on the same page. It doesn’t mean that both spouses like need to be doing exactly the same stuff, but you just wanna make sure that you’re on the same page and you’re not making those financial decisions without the other person.

    Bob:

    Shawn, I’ve been married 38 years in November of this year. I have never made an investment decision without my wife being involved in that. Never. Not one time. And did we always agree? Come on. We’ve been married 38 years, but I always had her involved. I just would emphasize that. So, there’s your 10 principles, your Christian fundamentals for investing. I hope this has helped you a lot. We are here for you to help you move through this maze of all these fundamentals for investing.

    Shawn:

    And if you have questions, we’re happy to talk with you on the phone. You can give us a call. You can text us at (830) 609-6986. You can also check out our website for the podcast, Christianfinancialpodcast.com or just look us up, Christian Financial Perspectives. 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.

    27 min
  • 112 – Benefits Of A Bear Market
    Click below to listen to Episode 112 – Benefits of a Bear Market
    Benefits Of A Bear Market

    Check out the benefits of a bear market in this episode!

    More episodes >>

    Instead of looking at all of the cons of a bear market, Bob and Shawn discuss some of the pros of a falling market and how you might be able to take advantage of it. A bear market isn’t for the fainthearted, and it can cause most people to question if they have made all of the right choices with their money up until this point. However, without a bear market, we wouldn’t have bull markets. There must be a down to an up, an opposite driving force, if you will, that maintains balance.

    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

    [INTRODUCTION]

    Welcome to “Christian Financial Perspectives”, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life and finances with a Biblical Worldview. Here’s your host Christian Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, and Coach, Bob Barber.

    [EPISODE]

    Shawn:

    Welcome to our 112th episode or our fourth video episode of the podcast. And today we have a pretty interesting topic. Bob, you want to give us a little bit of an intro for that?

    Bob:

    Well, before I do, I gotta say that sometimes people will accuse me of like, do you always look at the glass like it’s half full, and yes I do.

    Shawn:

    I confirm that he does.

    Bob:

    You gotta look at everything from a positive viewpoint, in my opinion, even when we’re in a bear market. Yep. So what did I do? I made the title of today’s program

    Shawn:

    “Benefits of a Bear Market”.

    Bob:

    Who would do that? Well, what kind of person would do that?

    Shawn:

    A perpetual optimist.

    Bob:

    Yeah. So there are benefits of a bear market. Believe it or not. And in this bear market series, we did the bear market newsletter special edition. The last few programs that we’ve made have been questions asked in a bear market, how Christians should respond in a bear market. So today, we’re gonna talk about the benefits of a bear market. So instead of looking at things negatively when the markets are way down, look at them positively, cause there’s some great opportunities out there.

    Shawn:

    Definitely. So start with the definition. A bear market is when securities prices fall 20% or more from recent highs, amid widespread pessimism and negative investor sentiment.

    Bob:

    We’re there. There’s a lot of stocks that are down 25, 30% some even down 50, 60% right now.

    Shawn:

    Not necessarily the market as a whole, but like individuals.

    Bob:

    They’re on sale.

    Shawn:

    Yeah, they’re on sale. So another interesting fact, not definition. The average bear market can last around a year while the average bull market, when prices are increasing, last over four years.

    Bob:

    But people remember those years, they do. They remember the months in those years.

    Shawn:

    And those four years have an interesting effect on people. Four years ends up being about long enough for people to forget that we are gonna have a bear market again.

    Bob:

    Exactly. Yeah.

    Shawn:

    And they also forget that the four years of plenty after a bear market.

    Bob:

    I love my pastor and we’ve been going to Oakwood here in town for years and years. And he always says during the good times, enjoy them, cause there’s gonna be the bad times. And during the bad times, look at the light at the end of the tunnel, cause there’s gonna be the good times.

    Shawn:

    Ecclesiastes. There’s a time for everything.

    Bob:

    Our pastor’s kind of the same way. He’s a positive person. And so number one, the number one benefit that I love about bear markets is they really create buying opportunities. Companies are on sale during bear markets and these are buying opportunities that you would normally not have in a bull market.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. Things are really overvalued. That’s very true. So you should be looking at buying, not selling.

    Bob:

    Yeah. Adding to your positions. What does the famous Warren Buffet do? He’s always buying when the market’s down.

    Shawn:

    The only time they talk about him in the news and other media places is when we’ve been in a bear market and all of a sudden you have someone talking about how Warren Buffet’s buying X, Y, Z company stock or whatever. Like what is he doing?

    Bob:

    He’s buying. He’s buying because everybody else is selling, and they’re not thinking about the long term.

    Shawn:

    So number two, bear markets create balance.

    Bob:

    That’s right.

    Shawn:

    It’s healthy. It keeps values from overextending. If we never had bear markets, then values would never be in check. And a bear market brings balance back into the markets.

    Bob:

    Think of a seesaw. If you’re on the top part, you’d never get to get off. The seesaw has to come back. Yeah. Things need to balance. Think about a balloon. If you blow too much air into that balloon, what’s that balloon gonna do?

    Shawn:

    Explode.

    Bob:

    Explode. It’s gonna pop. Yeah. So it’s good. I’d rather have more bear markets than not because a bear market brings balance back into it. Lets the air back outta that balloon. So you don’t want to have a prolonged bull market because the longer that bull market goes on – and by the way you realize this last bull market has only been two years.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. We didn’t actually have 4 years.

    Bob:

    We were in COVID. And then, believe it or not, it was in 18. We had a little bit of a bear market too. So, it’s about every two years and that’s a good thing. You don’t wanna go four or five years or six years. Everything’s gonna get overvalued to the point it’s just ridiculous to buy.

    Shawn:

    If you think about it too, having it where if we start averaging where we have a shorter bear market and we have a shorter bull market of say around two years, it also creates more opportunities, especially for newer investors or people who they’re not in retirement, but they’re actually a little earlier on in their planning and they’re investing. Because then, you’re not having to worry as much about trying to figure out, like when you need to start buying. Like, well, okay, it’s a bear market. So if you’ve been kind of sitting on the sidelines, now’s the time to start moving in.

    Bob:

    And even if you are retired and you have a balanced portfolio, you can rebalance it because what will happen in a bear market is the stock portion is gonna go down. That’s going to give you a higher exposure on your fixed income side and you can rebalance and buy more when you’re down. Does that make sense?

    Shawn:

    Yeah. So when you rebalance, you’re actually selling off the parts of your portfolio that have gone up in overall value and buying more of the positions like the stocks when you’re in the bear market that have gone down in value. And so, your long term net effect is a lot better.

    Bob:

    Boy, this, this third one is a favorite of mine. Bear markets remove inexperienced day traders. I call ’em day traders and gamblers. They get a really hard lesson in gambling stocks.

    Shawn:

    Well, that makes me think of something, Bob. How many day traders have you met that are still successful and it’s been more than five years?

    Bob:

    Well, personally, Shawn, I’ve never met one. Seriously, I’ve never met one.

    Shawn:

    There may be some out there.

    Bob:

    They’ll be successful for a couple years and they’ll be successful in a bull market.

    Shawn:

    It is weird, right? It almost seems like you hear about how successful these day traders are during a bull market. But yet I never really hear about how great they’re doing in a bear market.

    Bob:

    You know the old 80/20 rule? 20% gonna do well at it. But the day traders, that might be 1%. And what happens is it just pushes them away. It gets them away. They learn their lessons. I saw this back in the early two thousands with the internet bubble.

    Shawn:

    Again, you could literally throw a dart at a stock and do well.

    Bob:

    Yeah. Well they had a monkey go to a Rolodex in the nineties, and he just picked stuff out and he did better than some.

    Shawn:

    I don’t remember that. But I remember you telling me that story once.

    Bob:

    Yeah. It was funny. But day traders get these hard lessons in these bear markets, and they go away and day traders are not good for the markets. The markets are not about gambling. The markets are supposed to be about investing. But they make it a gambling casino. So, what happens is when you get rid of these day traders and boy, they came on strong in the last couple years because of COVID, and we had these apps, like the Robinhood app where everybody could just go trade all that you wanted to.

    Shawn:

    Which on paper, it kind of makes sense, the idea of giving more people the ability to be able to invest and manage. But the problem though is the way most of those things are promoted and used. It’s not about sound investing. It’s exactly what you’re talking about. It’s day trading. It’s oh, what’s the newest stock tip to go into and it’s not investing. And yet on our media outlets, they’ll talk about what the investors are doing today. In reality, it’s well, no, they’re not investors. It’s day traders. It’s speculators. It’s not investors. That’s almost unfair to lump investors and people like the day traders into the same group.

    Bob:

    I heard an advertisement, I guess, six months ago, and it’s kind of going away now. Paper press machine, call me, and I’ll give you this trading platform. The money press machine. I’m like, oh, you’re kidding me. This is sad. So, day traders create a lot more volatility in the market. And as it weeds them out, the volatility will go away.

    Shawn:

    They lose their capital.

    Bob:

    They’re always gonna return. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it over and over. When it’s a bull market, again, market’s been up a couple years, all the day traders start to return again. It’s just like, there’s a time for everything. It just repeats itself and repeats itself.

    Shawn:

    Well, let’s go on to number four then. Bear markets prune out weak companies. So, this can result in a much healthier market because we have stronger companies that are still around after we’ve gone through that bear market.

    Bob:

    Exactly. And the price to earning ratios get back down there to where they should be. You shouldn’t be trading at a PE ratio of 200 times earnings.

    Shawn:

    I don’t remember the exact stats, but I remember it was Rivian, right?

    Bob:

    You gotta be careful about mentioning particular companies.

    Shawn:

    I think it’s okay. It’s all over the news at this point. Rivian hadn’t even produced any vehicles yet, and I guess I think it was Ford. I don’t know who it was, but there were multiple companies, like large companies that had started to back them again, before they even produced anything. It’s just basically the idea of what they might produce, and their price earning ratios were crazy.

    Bob:

    I mean the price earning ratios were a thousand times earnings or something like that.

    Shawn:

    But that’s an example of one of those things, and now they’re not gonna be the next dominant electric vehicle manufacturer. All of a sudden, all the wind came out of the sail.

    Bob:

    And we’re not making a recommendation to buy our sell here.

    Shawn:

    Not, we’re not, but that’s just a more recent example of you get all this hype around something. Like Rivian was the stock tip, and it goes way up and then it cratered.

    Bob:

    That’s so, so much day trading there, again, and it prunes out those weak companies. Number five is bear markets push away short term investors – or short term traders I call them. I don’t like to call ’em investors because I think of an investor. Investing involves risk, and it’s not for those that can’t handle the short term volatility. Yeah.

    Shawn:

    Investing is not for months at a time. It’s for years at a time.

    Bob:

    Many years at a time. Not even one year at a time, but it’s for many years, and if you have an aggressive portfolio that needs to be for a 10 plus year horizon, you have a moderate that needs to be for at least four, five year plus horizon. Conservative even a two year horizon. So, you gotta think of it that way, and there’s all the different investment objectives that you have and each one of those has different time horizons. Okay. Number six.

    Shawn:

    Number six. Bear markets allow companies to buy back their own stock at bargain basement prices.

    Bob:

    I’ve been seeing this a lot, Shawn. You’ll see it’s called insider trading. It’s those that are working for the company and they’re coming back and they’re buying their own stock.

    Shawn:

    Yeah, but legal insider trading, not the insider trading as in they’re using non public information.

    Bob:

    You can see it on the charge. Yeah.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. So what is the benefit, I guess, or purpose of that, Bob? We’re buying at these very low prices, relative to where they’re trading.

    Bob:

    The company can take back more control of its own company. Because sometimes when a company starts to become publicly traded, they lose control of the company. It’s all about just who owns all the traders, stock traders now, or investors versus what the company wants. So, another thing I like too, is during a bear market, it allows companies to buy weaker companies that maybe are in the same business. So, the consolidation takes place and helps them to be even more competitive in the future.

    Shawn:

    Right. Makes sense.

    Bob:

    So, it creates synergy and a stronger company, the strong by the weak.

    Shawn:

    So all that being said, Bob, what would you say are the two main things causing the present bear market we’re in now?

    Bob:

    Well, that’s a good one because it’s changing quickly.

    Shawn:

    At the time of this recording

    Bob:

    And we know inflation has taken a big bite out of it, but we’ve also had news in just the past couple weeks that they way over shot in the large companies, like the Walmarts and the Targets, on their inventory. So, they have more inventory, they have record numbers of inventory now, that really the markets didn’t understand that they had that until a couple weeks ago. And just this morning, inflation numbers came out that they’re lower this last month than they were the month before, but definitely inflation is hurting things in the supply side.

    Shawn:

    So basically, you kind of have those leading and lagging indicators and we’ve been experiencing inflation from supply side issues that kind of been just hanging around because of the pandemic and when it started. Even though we’re starting to see a lot of those areas that are kind of resolving themselves where we actually have more than enough supply, but it’s kinda one those things where it takes a little while for things to kind of catch up.

    Bob:

    Things don’t just happen overnight, and COVID lasted a couple years. We’ve gotta work our way through that. The Ukraine Russian war. There’s so many different opinions on this. I don’t know if this thing is gonna turn into like the Vietnam war and just go for years and years or months. I hope it doesn’t, but maybe it could.

    Shawn:

    It could be resolved quickly or it could just kind of drag on and the thing that’s interesting about that on causing oil prices to go up. Well, it’s not so much because we’re in the United States. It’s not that we don’t have enough oil. It’s not that we’re just selling everything overseas, but it’s just one of those where if you have a major area being affected by that commodity pricing, it will affect the prices in other markets, even if they’re not directly affected because of like a supply chain issue. But then, I think we were just talking about this a couple of days ago, you were talking about all of the pipelines coming back on and the new drilling and all the wells, because you’re talking about private land. Well, there’s no issue with the private land.

    Bob:

    We live very close to what’s called the Eagle Ford Shell. And for those of you that don’t know, we live in between San Antonio and Austin. That’s where we’re making this. And we’re basically 45 minutes from what’s called the Eagle Ford Shell. It’s a big oil area. I know that today from talking to clients that live in the Eagle Ford Shell, and even talking to some clients that work for the oil companies, there’s not a single piece of equipment that’s even available. Everything is out there drilling

    Shawn:

    Everything available is being used.

    Bob:

    So, what happened with oil was that the prices dictated what’s happening today a couple years ago. Because the prices were so low, they turned off the wells, they quit drilling. It wasn’t profitable to drill. Well now with prices back.

    Shawn:

    And they’re trying to turn those things back on, but again, the problem is it’s not like a light switch when you just flip it on and, “Oh, great. We have more!” It takes awhile again. It’s that leading lagging kind of an indicator. It takes a while for us to get back to where, okay, we’re now producing enough to start to have the prices actually start coming back down.

    Bob:

    And it’s happened over and over. If you look at history, the oil companies, too much supply and prices go back down. Prices go back down, they turn the wells off or they quit drilling.

    Shawn:

    Or they end up turning like too many wells off and the prices start going back up again.

    Bob:

    Yeah, exactly, because then you don’t have enough enough supplies. The artificially low interest rates that we had during COVID, that’s gonna take awhile. I mean, they’re saying they’re gonna continue to raise rates. I think they need to slow down and see what they’ve done so far, how that’s going to affect the future. Higher rates are really starting to hit real estate. I would not go out and buy any real estate right now. Do not. I just wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t, because…

    Shawn:

    It’s just math.

    Bob:

    It’s just math. Well, yeah. We had a whole podcast on that. So real estate is going to reset. Sometimes, people in our area, they’ll say, yeah, but we’re in a bubble here. That can’t happen.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. It’s different.

    Bob:

    No, we’re not.

    Shawn:

    Somehow, we magically have buyers coming from places that I guess aren’t affected by any of this.

    Bob:

    Exactly. Yeah. So we’re not an island in our area. By the way Austin, San Antonio area is one of the hottest growth places in the United States, but it’s because of people coming from other areas, and we’ve become so expensive now that we’re just the size they are.

    Shawn:

    I’ve never seen the stats where it was like Chicago and Austin being compared. And obviously, Austin’s a pretty popular place when people are moving to Texas. When Chicago and Austin are getting to a price equilibrium, where’s the incentive to move? You don’t have the same incentive that you had. Like I remember a number of years ago when you had a lot of people that would come from places like California where they could buy two houses here for the same price as their’s after the price of their home already dropped. Well, when all of a sudden that incentive goes away because there’s not as much of a difference, well then you’re not gonna have so many people moving, which means you won’t have as many buyers.

    Bob:

    Well, hopefully this has helped you today as we’ve talked about the benefits of a bear market. Take advantage. Take advantage of these low prices right now.

    Shawn:

    Yeah. Check out our episodes that are available on audio, video. You can go to our, our website, christianfinancialpodcast.com. If you want to find us online, you look for Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re also available to call or text 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.

    21 min

About Christian Financial Perspectives

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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…

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