Christian Financial Perspectives

Christian Financial Perspectives

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Christian Financial Perspectives episodes

  • The Dangers of Large Inheritances
    If you are trying to figure out how to distribute your inheritance after your passing, then this is the episode for you! Bob and Shawn touch on key points on how a large inheritance can lead to a spending frenzy, a lack of understanding of how long it takes to build wealth, and more dangers when it is not distributed properly. Instead, a large inheritance has various steps and safeguards that can be put in place in order to have a better success rate so that it might last for several generations. The goal should be to pass on not just the wealth, but the wisdom and good money management habits that allowed the wealth to be built in the first place.
    17 min
  • Financial Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
    Have you ever been approached by someone offering financial returns so great that it must be too good to be true? Bob and Shawn discuss the patterns and tactics that these financial wolves may use to lure you and your finances into unwanted territory. Some of these tactics include the ever famous “free, luxury steak dinner” to entice you and peak your interest. However, these financial advisors can be just like “wolves in sheep’s clothing” when it comes to their manipulative tactics that they use. Many of the products they promote are rarely benefiting the consumer, and they actually benefit the advisor more than the client. When you begin to look through the minefield of promises that really sound too good to be true (because they usually are), you begin to see a pattern.
    19 min
  • 231 – Financial Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
    Click below to listen to Episode 231 – Financial Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
    Financial Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

    Check out some of the top signs to look for in predatory financial advisors aka wolves in sheep’s clothing.

    More episodes >>

    Have you ever been approached by someone offering financial returns so great that it must be too good to be true? Bob and Shawn discuss the patterns and tactics that these financial wolves may use to lure you and your finances into unwanted territory. Some of these tactics include the ever famous “free, luxury steak dinner” to entice you and peak your interest.

    However, these financial advisors can be just like “wolves in sheep’s clothing” when it comes to their manipulative tactics that they use. Many of the products they promote are rarely benefiting the consumer, and they actually benefit the advisor more than the client. When you begin to look through the minefield of promises that really sound too good to be true (because they usually are), you begin to see a pattern.

    HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
    Shawn Peters
    Bible Verses In This Episode
    GENESIS 25:30-34

    He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. ) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

    MATTHEW 7:15-20

    Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. [18] A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

    Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.

    SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
    EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

    Shawn (00:00):

    They try to get you to, “Well, don’t talk to anybody else. This is a limited time deal.” Basically everything that they can to get you to sign as quickly as possible. Because if you run it by someone who cares about you and kind of knows what they’re doing, they’re going to see through this, they, they’re going to advise you. “No, this isn’t a good idea.”

    (00:18):

    Welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. I’m Shawn Peters. I’m joined today by Bob Barber and today we are going to be covering financial wolves in sheep’s clothing. And before we really get into any scriptures or anything else, I noticed, Bob, that you brought some stuff for show and tell. And for those listening, we’ll make sure to describe what he’s got. But what you got here?

    Bob (00:48):

    Now, Shawn, I know that you like to eat a lot. So

    Shawn (00:52):

    How do you know that?

    Bob (00:52):

    Hold yourself back when I show you this. Okay?

    Shawn (00:54):

    Have you personally seen that and can testify?

    Bob (00:57):

    Y’all know Shawn is my son-in-law. So I’ll never forget the first time he came to eat at our house and he went and started in a clock position and he went all the way around and he ate everything on his plate. And then he looked up and he says, “Can I have another plate?” And we said, “Yeah, no problem.”

    Shawn (01:12):

    And you realize that’s one of the few ways to get me to stop talking is to make sure I’ve got food in front of me.

    Bob (01:18):

    So I want you to picture this if you’re listening to our podcast, but if you’re watching our YouTube channel, okay, Shawn, you see this?

    Shawn (01:25):

    Oh, come on Bob. It’s almost lunchtime. Don’t be doing that.

    Bob (01:28):

    Isn’t this just a picture of a beautiful steak? And lemme…

    Shawn (01:33):

    It’s one of those fancy steaks where you don’t get as much, but I guess it tastes better.

    Bob (01:37):

    Here’s another one.

    Shawn (01:39):

    Oh, that looks good, too.

    Bob (01:41):

    I know. I know.

    Shawn (01:41):

    It looks like maybe that was that salmon on some fried asparagus sticks. That looks good.

    Bob (01:47):

    It is really good. You’re invited to a complimentary event for retirees or soon to be retired. I get these, Shawn.

    Shawn (01:57):

    If I bring someone over 60, can I go get a free one? Would they let me in?

    Bob (02:03):

    I don’t know. When you open it up and you start seeing some things in here anyway, if you can’t see this, just picture a beautiful steak.

    Shawn (02:11):

    Think the big six by nine postcard. Maybe it opens up to a larger piece. But pretty much all you really see on it is, “Oh, look how good that entree looks.”

    Bob (02:21):

    Now Shawn, I remember the first time I met you, too, we went to the Olive Garden. You had a bunch of bowls of soup.

    Shawn (02:26):

    I had a few.

    Bob (02:27):

    Yeah, you had a few.

    Shawn (02:28):

    It was double digits.

    Bob (02:29):

    Yeah. They were betting on how much you were going to have.

    Shawn (02:32):

    Hey, I finished that last bowl so that guy would win the pool.

    Bob (02:36):

    I think about the steak and how they send you this. You get these invitations with these beautiful pictures of steak in them. Then I thought about soup and I thought about my wife can make really good stew. And this brings me to a scripture.

    Shawn (02:51):

    We actually have a scripture about stew or soup. Yeah. So Genesis is 25:30-34, “He said to Jacob, ‘Quick, let me have some of that red stew. I’m famished.’ That is why he was also called Edem. Jacob replied, ‘First, sell me your birthright.’ ‘Look, I’m about to die,’ Esau said.”… By the way, a little dramatic.

    Bob (03:11):

    Yeah, I know.

    Shawn (03:12):

    Anyway, “‘What good is the birthright to me?’ But Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So he swore an oath to him selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank and then got up and left.” So Esau despised his birthright over some food.

    Bob (03:32):

    Do you see how food can…

    Shawn (03:34):

    It’s that short term. He was so focused on his short-term needs and gratifications that he gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew and bread.

    Bob (03:45):

    That’s what they’re trying to do here, Shawn.

    Shawn (03:46):

    Yeah, exactly. It’s exactly the same thing. They’re trying to get people to come in and when you get one of these in the mail and it’s all about, look how great this food looks. Well what happens is you then go in and you have this obligation, this sense of obligation. You don’t want to be a mean rude person by taking advantage of this free meal. So you’re like, “Well, I have to hear ’em out.” And again, I mean that is one of the most fitting scriptures I feel like we’ve had in a long time for how close the parallel is to today. It’s still food and it’s still trying to get someone to basically sell their long-term success and future for a nice meal, a one-time nice meal.

    Bob (04:27):

    As I think about financial wolves in sheep’s clothing, a wolf knows the power of words and emotions to manipulate others. And they use fear to fuel insecurity. And then what do they do? They pounce. And we want to protect you from that. There’s another scripture here I’d like you to read for us, Shawn, from Matthew 7:15-20.

    Shawn (04:51):

    Yeah, I’m not going to read quite the whole thing. It is a good scripture, though. “But watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they’re ferocious wolves.” By your fruit you will recognize them.” And then I’m going to jump down to 18. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”… And there’s the important part… “Thus by their fruit, you will recognize them.”

    Bob (05:19):

    So we’re going to go over a lot of disguises that these financial wolves use because the first disguise is right here.

    Shawn (05:26):

    You could say financial wolves or predators.

    Bob (05:29):

    Yeah, they use free steak dinners. By the way, this invitation is a very nice invitation. I know because I’ve had companies approach me, we’ll send out 10,000 of these for you and you’ll get a quarter percent return and we’ll get 25 to 30 people there. That’s like, how much is that going to cost? Well, the mailers are going to cost about a dollar a piece.

    Shawn (05:52):

    And we also send mailers out. And the thing is, the more you send out the cheaper it actually is. So sending out 10,000, it’s maybe a dollar a piece. But then think about it, you get one person that does a hundred thousand dollars annuity of some kind or something like that and it’s a 10% commission. There you go. You’ve completely paid for the entire thing. And that’s with one person.

    Bob (06:14):

    Yeah. It’s not just the cost of these, but just even the kind of steak places that they’re advertising. Those are $70 plates and you have a couple, so they’ve got a lot of money invested in you before they even talk to you about what you’re going to do with the financial.

    Shawn (06:33):

    They send out these free steak dinner invitations or salmon, whatever, but it’s a nice steakhouse kind of a deal just to lure you in. And then they say you will pay nothing for their services, which is such a lie.

    Bob (06:46):

    That is just so interesting how they say that. And the reason they say that is say, you’re not paying anything for our services. The company that we place you with is paying us. But yet, if you want to get your money back, so if you put say a hundred thousand dollars in, you want to get your a hundred thousand dollars back. Oh no. Well, we could only give you back 90,000 of that. Why is it you can only give me back 90?

    Shawn (07:08):

    Well, because we paid the guy who sold it to you 10 grand. So effectively it’s that surrender fee is going to be based on the surrender time period and what the commission was. So for example, if there’s a 10 year surrender period and you’re trying to get the money back a year later and they say they’ll only give you 91,000, well that was because – that’s how you know it was a 10% commission because that’s when they paid out.

    Bob (07:35):

    9 to 10 right in there. And the company’s going to make this back too because once they get you in, they’ll promise you these rates. And then we’ve seen, I’ve had, I don’t know how many, I can’t even count how many have come to us after this has happened. And they’re like, the next year I’m making 2% or 3% they’re not making at all. And I said, that’s the company’s keeping the other.

    Shawn (08:02):

    There’s a lot of hidden fees. There’s the, which we will get into it.

    Bob (08:06):

    This is the third point I want to point out is that these financial wolves represent companies that they’ll put fictitious values on paper. So you’ll open up the paper and you’ll say, ah, it says it’s worth 110,000. I put in 100,000.

    Shawn (08:23):

    I just barely started six months ago.

    Bob (08:26):

    Or they’ll say a 10% bonus. But then again, if you want to liquidate that, they’re not going to send you that. So, that’s a fictitious value. That’s not a real value that can be liquidated.

    Shawn (08:37):

    So you can look at it as at 110,000 in this case value a year later if you want to withdraw it, well guess what? You’re going to get 91.

    Bob (08:43):

    Or 92 or something like that.

    Shawn (08:45):

    Yeah, 92, they’re not going to give you the full 10,000 bonus. They’re going to take out 8-9% for your surrender penalty. And so yeah, it’s just a fictitious number. I believe the other word for that is a lie. It’s false.

    Bob (08:58):

    These companies, they pay very high commissions. And so there’s a real incentive for these financial wolves to sell these types of products.

    Shawn (09:07):

    They’ve only got to sell a few to make good money.

    Bob (09:08):

    We just mentioned about the upfront bonus.

    Shawn (09:11):

    Again, they’re fictitious. It’s just a draw in.

    Bob (09:14):

    It’s only as good as the paper it’s written on, though.

    Shawn (09:16):

    When we were recording this, at least we are shortly coming off of Memorial Day and I saw these advertisements for the prices for, I’m not going to name the place, but it was this type of resort that said like, “Oh, it’s 30% off. They’re doing memorial day sale.” And then when you look at the final price, everybody’s commenting on the post because, especially all the locals, that’s the same price you’ve had for the last year and a half. The prices that you just raised the price and then said it’s a discount of 30%. So it’s kind of like the same idea. It’s nonsense.

    Bob (09:52):

    I know it really is. Another one is they’ll promise you an interest rate. And this is what I’ve seen a lot, too. And they don’t really disclose this and you got to think about this. They’ll say, well, you’re making a 7% return on your money, but not really because what they’re doing is they’re promoting it as an interest rate, but it’s just a return of your own money.

    Shawn (10:19):

    So a return of your principal.

    Bob (10:21):

    Return of principle. So if you look at it deep, let’s say they’re going to give me back 6% a year, that’s what they’ll say. They’re going to give me back 6%.

    Shawn (10:28):

    So on 100,000 you should be getting 6,000 in income.

    Bob (10:31):

    Right.

    Shawn (10:31):

    Right.

    Bob (10:31):

    That’s your own money. They’re giving you back your own money. Isn’t that nice of ’em? So be careful of that. They’re just giving you back your own money and they disguise it like it’s an interest rate. Another thing that you really want to be careful of is how they’ll promote these unreasonable fixed returns.

    Shawn (10:54):

    So they’ll disclose something that looks more like a normal interest rate of some kind and let’s say they do the 6%, but yet you look at interest rates of what’s actually comparable and paying. And you can look that up for free. I mean just Google interest rates so you can kind see what the market looks like. Well, if they’re promising you 6% and you’re looking at rates and they’re between 3-3.5%, okay, well something’s up. That’s way too big of of a gap. Obviously there is some sort of string attached.

    Bob (11:25):

    You’ve got to be careful of letting your own greed get in there. I remember Bernie Madoff and people were making 10% or 12% year after year after year no matter what the market was. And then they found out it was the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.

    Shawn (11:38):

    Well, it’s one of those where it’s so good and then people get caught up in the – effectively you stick your head in the sand and it’s so good that I don’t want to look too closely at it. Even if in the back of your mind you’re like, something’s off, something’s wrong this, but you’re like, but I don’t want to rock the boat. I don’t want to look too close and then I don’t get to enjoy this return. And I think that’s what happens. It’s like that psychological effect.

    Bob (12:04):

    You’ve got to be careful. Another thing that they’ll do is they’ll promote that you’re going to get stock market like returns, but then when you look at the fine print.

    Shawn (12:12):

    Without risk. Stock market like returns without risk.

    Bob (12:15):

    But then when you look at the fine print, they put a cap on it. And we’ve seen this many times, too. So the stock market in good years, our aggressive growth fund, we’ve had a year where it went up 18, 20, 25%.

    Shawn (12:29):

    Yeah, just in one year.

    Bob (12:29):

    In one year. Now it doesn’t do that every year, but.

    Shawn (12:31):

    No. And some years it might be down quite a bit.

    Bob (12:35):

    Well, it’s going to go up and down, but here’s what they’ll do. They’ll promote it and they’ll say, well, you’re never going to have a down year. You’re only going to have an up year. But then the up year is capped.

    Shawn (12:44):

    At say, 5% .

    Bob (12:46):

    No. If you’re lucky.

    Shawn (12:48):

    Yeah, I mean it could be 2%.

    Bob (12:51):

    And they have different ways of doing this point to point or monthly average. And they do all these different formulas. And when I look at these, what I’m seeing is about a 2% or 3% return overall seems to be the average. Some of ’em may be 5%, but if the market’s making 10% or 12% and they tell you we’re investing in the market and they’re giving you 5%, where’s the other 7% going?

    Shawn (13:15):

    To them.

    Bob (13:16):

    That’s high expenses.

    Shawn (13:17):

    See, the thing is when you’re looking at these returns and you’re looking at the cap that you hit on this product you’ve invested in, the issue is that they know that if they lock you into say that minimum of five years or that minimum of 10 years without incurring massive penalties, they know that by capping an investor at 2% to 5%, even though they have to bear the full downside in a down year, they know that over a longer period of time, especially 10 years, they’re going to make out like a bandit on average. So the little 2% to 5% they had to pay you and you didn’t participate in the downside, they’ve more than made up for it. Not to mention all the other fees.

    Bob (14:02):

    I would invite anybody to go back and look at the past podcasts we made one several weeks ago, or maybe it was about a month ago. We talked about the history of the markets and what are the history of the markets as a common theme? It always goes on to newer highs. It recovers and goes on to newer highs. And then I say this last one, it’s just be very, very cautious of all the manipulative sales tactics that these financial wolves use. They use a lot of them. They’re taught them. And also…

    Shawn (14:31):

    They try to get you to not leave without signing. Especially at that dinner. They try to get to not get, yeah, or get an appointment. They try to get you to, “Well, don’t talk to anybody else. This is a limited time deal.” Basically everything that they can to get you to sign as quickly as possible. Because if you run it by someone who cares you and kind of knows what they’re doing, they’re going to see through this, they’re going to advise you, “No, this isn’t a good idea.”

    Bob (14:58):

    And the last thing I want to mention today, besides these high commissions that these companies offer these financial wolves to represent their products, they have top producer conferences, they have vacations.

    Shawn (15:11):

    If uou sold a certain amount.

    Bob (15:13):

    Four star resorts, they get big year end bonuses if they sell a certain amount of their product. They give them expensive gifts like a set of golf clubs. And the list just goes on and on. Man, we’ve got to be careful how we walk around after this. We’ve really exposed today. I mean, hopefully there’s not one waiting out at the door for us to hit us, but you just got to be so careful of all these manipulative sales tactics that they use. And next time you get one of these free steak dinner seminars, throw it in the trash.

    Shawn (15:51):

    Or recycling if you’re a recycling.

    Bob (15:52):

    Yeah, exactly.

    Shawn (15:54):

    It depends on where you’re located.

    Bob (15:56):

    That’s where it belongs. And don’t get sucked in to their manipulative ways.

    Shawn (16:04):

    Yeah. Don’t try to capitalize on the $1 they spent to send you that postcard and throw away your future because of it.

    Bob (16:12):

    I hope this has been helpful for you today. We’re a fiduciary fee-based advisor. No one pays us but you. We’re paid by you. Everything’s disclosed upfront.

    Shawn (16:22):

    And we’re only paid for what we do. So any client that if one of you listening now are not a client and you decide to become a client and two and a half months later you’re like, this isn’t for me. Well then you get refunded that last half of the month for the quarter. We only get paid a quarter of the year.

    Bob (16:39):

    Whatever the value is that you see, that’s the value you get. There’s no games here. We play straight. It’s right up front. If you’d like to learn more about our services, you can give us a call at 830-609-6986 or you can text that number and we would invite you also to go to our website to www.ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com. Whatever you do, look for a fiduciary fee-based advisor. Stay away from commission-based. That can create a huge conflict of interest. That’s all for today.

    Shawn (17:10):

    And one final thing, if anybody is trying to convince you to do something and they don’t want you to talk to someone that you trust or to get advice, second opinion, if you will – run, don’t walk, run. Because anyone that is actually being a fiduciary, anyone that’s acting in your best interest, but obviously maybe they’re still in business, but they’re not trying to take advantage of you, they’re not going to be scared for you to talk to somebody else or to get advice from someone else. So, thank you as always for joining us and God bless.

    * 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
  • Are YOU an Emotional Investor?
    Many have succumbed to the common pitfalls of emotional investing. In this episode, Shawn and Matthew provide some quick, Biblical guidance for avoiding making emotional decisions when it comes to your finances. Unfortunately, emotional investing can lead to poor financial decisions, which in turn can lead to trouble sleeping and being OCD about constantly checking market values. Instead of letting emotions guide our decision making, especially when it comes to the ups and downs of the market, it can be important to take a step back and take a long-term, disciplined approach to investing.
    12 min
  • 230 – Are YOU An Emotional Investor?
    Click below to listen to Episode 230 – Are YOU An Emotional Investor?
    Are YOU An Emotional Investor?

    Learn about the potential downfalls when it comes to using your emotions to make investment decisions.

    More episodes >>

    Many have succumbed to the common pitfalls of emotional investing. In this episode, Shawn and Matthew provide some quick, Biblical guidance for avoiding making emotional decisions when it comes to your finances. Unfortunately, emotional investing can lead to poor financial decisions, which in turn can lead to trouble sleeping and being OCD about constantly checking market values.

    Instead of letting emotions guide our decision making, especially when it comes to the ups and downs of the market, it can be important to take a step back and take a long-term, disciplined approach to investing.

    HOSTS: Shawn Peters and Matthew Barrovecchio

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Matthew Barrovecchio
    Shawn Peters, Operations Director
    Bible Verses In This Episode
    PROVERBS 3:5-6

    Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

    PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7

    Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

    ROMANS 12:2

    Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

    EPHESIANS 4:19

    Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

    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

    Matthew (00:00):

    You also don’t want to accumulate cash over the course of months and years just waiting for this opportunity to buy the dip, right?

    Shawn (00:18):

    Welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. My name is Shawn Peters. I’m joined today by Matthew Barrovecchio, and today we’re presenting this episode which was written by Bob Barber, “Emotional Investing: Are you an emotional investor?” Well, you may be susceptible to emotional investing if you do any of the following or can identify with the following. The first one can’t sleep well when markets are down.

    Matthew (00:42):

    Yep. That’s not a good one. Second one would be checking account values during times when the market is very volatile, which if you’re doing that, please stop.

    Shawn (00:52):

    Day traders do that. But if you’re a long-term investor, you shouldn’t be doing that.

    Matthew (00:56):

    Bingo.

    Shawn (00:57):

    Number three, fear of losing everything despite being diversified properly.

    Matthew (01:01):

    And then fourth, getting caught up in the media financial hype.

    Shawn (01:04):

    Yep. By the way, those media sites, when they’re talking about that stuff, their goal is to get you to keep reading more articles, to keep watching more of the videos. It’s just a whole thing. Effectively, it’s a financial media entertainment.

    Matthew (01:18):

    Emotion evokes action and that’s what they want.

    Shawn (01:20):

    Exactly.

    Matthew (01:21):

    But that’s not what we want.

    Shawn (01:21):

    Before we go any further, then we’re going to start with two scriptures for our foundation for today. Matthew, you want to go with the first one?

    Matthew (01:28):

    I’ll read both of them actually. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths in them.” And then the second one is one of my favorites, Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and petition and thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

    Shawn (01:55):

    Understanding financial emotions. First we’re going to hit you with definition of emotions.

    Matthew (02:00):

    From Webster.

    Shawn (02:00):

    Exactly. “Instinctive or intuitive feelings as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge.”

    Matthew (02:07):

    Finances and emotions. They don’t go together. It’s like oil and water. They don’t mix well

    Shawn (02:11):

    Nope. If you do shake them really hard, they’ll kind of sort of mix for just a bit and then separate.

    Matthew (02:17):

    So over the long term, they are separated. We have a quote here by Charlie Munger, the late and great Charlie Munger, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” And so the idea here, first off, is I don’t want you to be greedy nor fearful.

    Shawn (02:34):

    In the traditional sense. We’re not saying greedy.

    Matthew (02:36):

    Correct. Right. But the idea, and this is something we’ll talk about over the next minute or so, is don’t feel like you have to run with the crowd. Don’t run with the herd. Right. There is this idea or this concept or this temptation to look at what everyone else is doing and follow. When reality, we should not be doing that. We should be sticking with whatever our objective plan is.

    Shawn (03:01):

    That’s right. That’s right. It kind of reminds me of Warren Buffet every time he’s in the news, it’s pretty much never about how much money he’s made. It’s almost always Warren Buffet is buying such and such stock in whatever industry, and it’s down 20%. It’s down. They talk about how down it is and he’s buying it. I mean, he’s been doing this for longer than I’ve been alive, and yet every time he does the same thing. Yeah. When the assets are down, he’s buying. When everybody else is running for the hills, he’s moving assets and the stuff that’s on sale.

    Matthew (03:35):

    Right. Contrarian.

    Shawn (03:35):

    So that’s kind of that idea, I guess, of when everybody’s being greedy. He’s one of those people that’s backing away. And when everybody is running away, well, he’s going to jump in. Yep.

    Matthew (03:44):

    Absolutely.

    Shawn (03:45):

    The financial media emotion game. So the media, all right. And there’s a lot of different forms of it.

    Matthew (03:56):

    I love the word game here. That’s really what it is.

    Shawn (04:00):

    So the media, number one, loves chaos and uses scare tactics.

    Matthew (04:04):

    And so they do that. And we have to remind ourselves, especially as Christians, we don’t serve a God of chaos. We survey God of order.

    Shawn (04:12):

    That’s right. And number two, the media creates political instability. It doesn’t matter which side of political aisle you’re on, but they definitely do that. Most of the news organizations at this point, it’s like their legal name has entertainment typically in it.

    Matthew (04:28):

    It’s true.

    Shawn (04:28):

    It’s not so much the news. It’s the financial entertainment news.

    Matthew (04:33):

    This third one, using dramatic language is something that they often do. Markets are falling off a cliff. If you look at the top of some of these financial websites, the headlines, the quick snippets, what they know you’re going to see first, it is always language that is either one extreme or the other. Right. And when you look under the hood, it’s usually not as dramatic as they make it seem.

    Shawn (04:56):

    Yeah. The headlines tend to be click bait. They effectively want you to click through to look at the article, except the fact that the statistics show that most people aren’t going to click through. So number four promotes FOMO – Fear of Missing Out.

    Matthew (05:12):

    I feel like we’ve heard about this one before.

    Shawn (05:13):

    Oh, yeah.

    Matthew (05:14):

    Yeah.

    Shawn (05:14):

    We’ve covered this one before, right.

    Matthew (05:15):

    Exactly. Yep. Number five, quotes returns from market bottoms and tops and never the long term. So again, it kind of goes back to one of the ones we just spoke about a moment ago when it’s talking about numbers and where we are. Again, it’s highlighting the extremes, again, to invoke emotion.

    Shawn (05:34):

    Yeah. They’ll talk about, oh, it’s 20% off the high, but when you look at it on the last couple years or something, it’s still like, oh, we’re still up 30%.

    Matthew (05:45):

    Well, and that’s… bingo. So we can look at where we’ve been so far this year up to this date, and you look at, yeah, we’re coming off of all time highs early this year in January, but when you zoom out and look at longer term, let’s just say since the year 2000, you realize coming off of the all time highs or being down from the all time highs, for the investor that’s been investing for the long term, you’re still very much positive, right.

    Shawn (06:15):

    Exactly.

    (06:16):

    And number six, the media creates a constant game of comparing returns.

    Matthew (06:21):

    And so we just did a podcast.

    Shawn (06:23):

    Yes, a previous episode.

    Matthew (06:24):

    A podcast episode on comparing with your neighbor. And so this is just another highlight of don’t do that. But it’s difficult because in this day and age, we are surrounded in this world with constant comparison. And that transcends the…

    Shawn (06:40):

    I mean it like it’s sometimes hard to resist doing that because we are just inundated with information.

    Matthew (06:48):

    Bingo.

    Shawn (06:48):

    From so many different sources.

    Matthew (06:49):

    Correct. Yeah. It transcends the financial topic.

    Shawn (06:53):

    On combating all these various information sources that we’re hit with all the time. A biblical response comes from Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So some practical wisdom, why don’t you hit us with the first one, Matthew.

    Matthew (07:09):

    Yeah. The more emotional that the market is, the more you should consider buying versus selling. And now I think that there’s certainly some truth to this. Of course, you want to buy low and sell high when stocks are on sale. You want to put yourself in a position where you’re taking advantage of that. But there’s also a discipline component to this as well, which is I’m going to talk about here with number two and three as well. So staying disciplined towards your long-term risk tolerance. And then the third thing here, don’t accumulate excess cash just to time the market.

    Shawn (07:44):

    You’re never going to time the market perfectly. Even if you are going off of this emotions or you’re trying to buy low and you’re trying to sell high, well, you’re never going to quite hit the top of your bottom.

    Matthew (07:55):

    And so that’s the key, right? So while certainly in a volatile market, you want to put yourself in a position where if you’re making a move, right? You’re putting yourself in a position where you’re buying stocks on sale, but at the same part, you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you are doing that and extending your risk tolerance way higher than it should be

    (08:20):

    Because that’s not what you should be doing long-term either. You also don’t want to accumulate cash over the course of months and years just waiting for this opportunity to buy the dip, right? Because as you said a moment ago, you don’t want to market time. Well in that kind of situation, you have to market time successfully at least twice. You have to know when do I stop investing monthly with the disciplined approach and start holding on the cash, and then I’ve accumulated this cash, when’s the right time for me to say, “Oh, this is as low it’s going to get,” it’s impossible to do. And so individuals will often be better off if they just stick with their discipline plan and invest along the way

    Shawn (09:06):

    Be diversified properly, and be fully invested in whatever that diversification is, whatever that strategy is. Because remember, it’s not about timing the market. It’s time in the market. That’s what makes people the most successful.

    Matthew (09:20):

    Bingo.

    Shawn (09:20):

    So in conclusion. What’s that first one?

    Matthew (09:24):

    Yeah, declare war on emotional investing. I think this can be very much a spiritual battle as well. So that scripture, Romans 12:2 for y’all that are watching, and this might be something that you struggle with. I feel like that’s a really good scripture to memorize, meditate on, pray about.

    Shawn (09:47):

    Think like a buyer, not a seller, so be looking more for those buying opportunities and not constantly worried about, “Oh, I need to make sure to sell at the right time.” Because again, if you’re not talking about short term within the year, you’re talking longer term. You don’t need to be thinking like a seller right away. And you shouldn’t be selling your entire portfolio anyway, even when you get into retirement and you’re getting further along.

    Matthew (10:11):

    Good investors put their emotions aside and really just focus on the long-term. So again, it’s not about timing the market, it’s about time in the market. Combat the temptation to have a trader’s mentality with everything that you’ve been inundated with in the world, especially in the media. And just don’t pay attention to what your neighbors are doing. Focus on the disciplined approach and what’s right for you over the long term.

    Shawn (10:33):

    And also avoid the herd mentality when everyone is buying at high prices.

    Matthew (10:37):

    Right, exactly.

    Shawn (10:38):

    It can go nowhere but up.

    Matthew (10:40):

    Right.

    Shawn (10:41):

    It can go either way.

    Matthew (10:42):

    Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of times that’s predicated upon greed, and that’s not something that we want to subscribe to either.

    Shawn (10:51):

    We’ll close today with Ephesians 4:19, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they’re full of greed.”

    Matthew (11:01):

    There we go.

    Shawn (11:04):

    Thanks as always for joining us. God bless and hope to see you next time.

    [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
  • The Flaws of Comparing Investment Returns
    “The grass is always greener on the other side” is a famous phrase that far too many people succumb to, especially when it comes to comparing their financial situations and investment returns to others. Shawn and Matthew highlight the importance of not comparing your investment returns to others since every financial situation is unique based on household, expenditures, goals, and more! They cover why each investment portfolio is unique, and why investors should focus on the importance of understanding one’s financial goals and meeting those. Some key questions to consider after listening are: “Who owns it?”, “How much is enough?”, and “Are your next stewards chosen and prepared?”
    11 min
  • 229 – The Flaws of Comparing Investment Returns
    Click below to listen to Episode 229 – The Flaws of Comparing Investment Returns
    The Flaws of Comparing Investment Returns

    Stop comparing investment returns to others and start doing this instead.

    More episodes >>

    “The grass is always greener on the other side” is a famous phrase that far too many people succumb to, especially when it comes to comparing their financial situations and investment returns to others. Shawn and Matthew highlight the importance of not comparing your investment returns to others since every financial situation is unique based on household, expenditures, goals, and more!

    They cover why each investment portfolio is unique, and why investors should focus on the importance of understanding one’s financial goals and meeting those. Some key questions to consider after listening are: “Who owns it?”, “How much is enough?”, and “Are your next stewards chosen and prepared?”

    HOSTED BY: Matthew Barrovecchio

    CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

    Mentioned In This Episode
    Christian Financial Advisors
    Website
    Shawn Peters
    Matthew Barrovecchio
    Bible Verses In This Episode
    EXODUS 20:17

    You shall not covet your neighbor’s house… or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

    HEBREWS 13:5

    Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

    I Timothy 6:10

    For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

    MATTHEW 6:19-21

    Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. [20] But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.

    SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
    EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

    Shawn (00:18):

    Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. My name is Shawn Peters. I’m joined today by Matthew Barovecchio. Today we’re going to be covering the flaws of comparing investment returns. This was written by Bob Barber, who cannot be here with us today, but we are stepping in together in his stead. And we’re going to start with a couple opening scriptures. I’m going to start with Exodus 20:17, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

    Matthew (00:45):

    Fantastic. And then another one we have here, Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,” -=which is obviously very important. And when we’re talking about comparing,

    Shawn (00:58):

    Exactly, comparing investment returns, that’s it. Probably a good one there. So our core message today, comparing investment returns with others is fundamentally flawed. Doesn’t matter who you’re comparing to because everyone’s financial situation is unique and we’re going to give you some reasons why. So key differences between investors. Why don’t you take the first one?

    Matthew (01:20):

    Yeah, different financial foundations. So when we talk about all that goes into one’s situation, we’ve got different time horizons, they have different net worths, they have different debt levels and goals with that debt, different cashflow needs, like expenses. So, all of those things are influences amongst investment returns.

    Shawn (01:41):

    Alright? So it’s kind of your financial foundations, if you will. Number two, different personal circumstances. So age, health conditions, family size, and specific family needs. So obviously whether you’re in your twenties or fifties or seventies, obviously that’s going to change a little bit on your personal circumstances, your health conditions, you could both be in your seventies, but if one person has minor health conditions versus more expensive ongoing chronic conditions, that’s going to make a big difference if you have a son or daughter or grandkid maybe that you’re helping with. But if you’ve got someone that’s special needs, whether that be mental, physical, they’re obviously going to change what you might need to consider from one investor to another.

    Matthew (02:27):

    So all very different. Third one here is different goals and values. So this covers investment objectives, giving goals, tithes/offerings, and giving, like that different moral beliefs and estate plans and the investment objectives. I think of those is really the key one that we need to focus on because amongst that, you can talk about risk tolerance and the result of how you have your portfolio set up, which when you’re looking to compare investment returns, you want to make sure that you’re doing it apples to apples, which again, everyone’s is different. So don’t compare.

    Shawn (03:04):

    Exactly. Number four, different asset allocations. So real estate, business interest, and risk tolerance levels within that allocation, because the allocation’s going to be different from one investor to another. If someone is capable of handling a 20% drop and their response, if anything, is, “Stay the course,” or, “Hey, I have some extra cash, I want to go and invest now.” Okay, they’re going to have potential higher long-term returns because they’re able to handle a higher level of risk versus someone who, hey, if it drops more than 5% in a six month time period, they’re freaking out.

    Matthew (03:40):

    Right, exactly.

    Shawn (03:41):

    And again, there’s nothing wrong with either investor, but that is definitely part of that. And what goes into the asset allocation.

    Matthew (03:49):

    Right. Yep. Last one here, different portfolio types. So conservative versus moderate versus aggressive. Comparing these makes zero sense. They’re not the same. They’re not the same. Someone who is more conservative oriented should not be in an up market looking at the S and P 500, as an example.

    Shawn (04:11):

    That’s not what they’re invested in.

    Matthew (04:12):

    Not what they’re invested in. Precisely. Yep.

    Shawn (04:14):

    Exactly. So the real question with all this then is how much is enough?

    Matthew (04:20):

    That’s right. Yep. So there’s three critical questions that as Christian investors we should be focused on. First off, who owns it?

    Shawn (04:29):

    God owns it all.

    Matthew (04:30):

    God owns it all. In 2 Chronicles 29, it tells us how much is enough, and then are the next stewards chosen and prepared? So this concept of how much is enough is something I want to spend a moment on.

    Shawn (04:43):

    But before we do, can you answer real quick, are the next stewards chosen and prepared? Just for those watching this?

    Matthew (04:48):

    What does that mean?

    Shawn (04:49):

    Yeah, just real quick, what that means.

    Matthew (04:50):

    Yeah. So the summary here is looking at multi-generational perspective. So individuals who are in a position where their investment portfolio is going to outlive them, they have more than they need in order to live the remainder of their lives. And so, where are those assets going? Who’s going to inherit those assets? And are those individuals who will be receiving them prepared? Now, that can oftentimes be family members, children, grandchildren. Sometimes it’s a charitable organization, a Christian organization. You may assume that your local church or some other Christian organization has the wherewithal to accept a large donation. But you probably want to check and make sure first.

    Shawn (05:41):

    Just because if you’re intending on donating.

    Matthew (05:43):

    Yeah, exactly.

    Shawn (05:45):

    Okay, great. So how much is enough?

    Matthew (05:46):

    Enough? Yeah, how much is enough? This is a real critical question because it’s not about investment returns only, it’s not about how much are you making in your portfolio, because that’s just one of several components. The real question is, are you on track to meet your investment goals? What’s your probability of success? How much is enough from an earthly perspective, very much focused on will you have enough assets to last you the remainder of your life. From an eternal perspective, it has the focus of capping what you need and then maximizing your generosity above and beyond that. But it really brings to light all of the different things that go into one’s true measure of success, which is will you meet your goals? So investment returns is just a part of that. The other side of the coin can be expenses.

    Shawn (06:40):

    Right.

    Matthew (06:41):

    So if we’re going to talk…

    Shawn (06:42):

    Because to answer that question of are you going to be successful? What’s the probability of success in meeting your goals? Well, yeah, you got to know what are the expenses now? What are the expenses you expect in retirement? And so if you’re comparing returns, which we’re saying you probably shouldn’t be, that’s kind of the point here. But if you are, well, why not also compare monthly expenses and budget to whoever you’re comparing to with your neighbor?

    (07:06):

    Because if your expenses and your budget are significantly lower than your neighbor, well then again, does it really matter if they may or may not be getting better returns? Yeah, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. And another one would be charitable giving. What’s the difference between, are they giving a lot more than you? Are you giving a lot more than them?

    Matthew (07:28):

    And it sounds silly, like, oh, why would I go to my neighbor and talk about how much I’m giving, right?

    Shawn (07:34):

    That’s right. But then why would you also compare to how much they’re making?

    Matthew (07:36):

    Bingo. Exactly.

    Shawn (07:37):

    They’re two sides of the same coin.

    Matthew (07:38):

    Exactly. That’s exactly it.

    Shawn (07:39):

    So do you have some examples of this from you’re over 20 years in working with clients?

    Matthew (07:44):

    Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve seen clients who have say $400,000 in their investment portfolio, and they are fine. They’re not stressed out because their expenses are such that they’re barely drawing from their portfolio and their assets that they’ve accumulated are going to outlive them. So this, how much is enough topic is very real.

    (08:07):

    Are the next stewards chosen and prepared is very much a question that we dive into. On the flip side, I’ve known individuals who have over $2 million in their investment portfolio, and they’re stressed to the max because their expenses are such that they probably aren’t even going to make it to age 80 before they run out of money. And so, this idea of chasing investment returns and comparing it to others is one, not even the question; two, it’s not even the full picture. It’s one of multiple things. So it really comes back to the heart issue behind it and making sure that we are not coveting, making sure that we’re not allowing the earth that we are surrounded by to influence us to align with the American culture, which is very much focused on greed and fear and wealth, wealth, wealth.

    Shawn (09:00):

    Right? Yeah. So in conclusion, stop comparing and coveting.

    Matthew (09:05):

    Stop it. Just stop it.

    Shawn (09:07):

    Focus on your unique probability of success rather than how you measure against others. I know when we’re doing financial planning with clients that you put in good data, you get good reports out, and we can run all the fancy things, the Monte Carlo analysis, and like, oh, there’s a 20% probability of you falling here. Oh. And it’s like you kind of look at those different scenarios and say, Hey, what’s your probability of success?

    Matthew (09:29):

    Bingo.

    Shawn (09:29):

    And so, okay, you did the work, so stop comparing and coveting. And in closing, just to draw from two different scriptures, one Timothy 6:10 where it talks about, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” And then in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” Now, that’s not the full scripture for each of these, but just those are the two I think we should close with.

    Matthew (09:53):

    Sounds great.

    Shawn (09:53):

    Any final words?

    Matthew (09:54):

    No, I think it’s fantastic.

    Shawn (09:56):

    Yep. Alright. Thanks so much. Well as always, thanks for joining us and God bless.

    Matthew (09:58):

    Yep. God bless.

    [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
  • Lessons Learned from the History of the Stock Market
    One quote you may have heard before is that, “History is doomed to repeat itself.” Bob and Shawn take this quote to heart as they discuss the various times in history that the stock market has plummeted and then come back, thus repeating itself over and over again. They look at some of the most famous “crashes” of the last 50 years, break down their causes, and then discuss the after effects of the market. Some of these famous events include: 1973-1974 oil embargo, Black Monday in 1987, And the market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite significant market drops during these events, the past markets have consistently recovered and gone on to reach new highs in the following years or months. Bob and Shawn caution against panicking during market downturns and highlight the importance of staying invested through market cycles.
    22 min
  • 228 – Lessons Learned from the History of the Stock Market
    Click below to listen to Episode 228 – Lessons Learned from the History of the Stock Market
    Lessons Learned from the History of the Stock Market

    Learn about the repetitive cycle of past market crashes and recoveries over the past 50 years.

    More episodes >>

    One quote you may have heard before is that, “History is doomed to repeat itself.” Bob and Shawn take this quote to heart as they discuss the various times in history that the stock market has plummeted and then come back, thus repeating itself over and over again. They look at some of the most famous “crashes” of the last 50 years, break down their causes, and then discuss the after effects of the market.

    Some of these famous events include:

    • 1973-1974 oil embargo
    • Black Monday in 1987
    • And the market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic

      •  

      Despite significant market drops during these events, the past markets have consistently recovered and gone on to reach new highs in the following years or months. Bob and Shawn caution against panicking during market downturns and highlight the importance of staying invested through market cycles.

      HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

      CO-HOST: Shawn Peters

      Mentioned In This Episode
      Christian Financial Advisors
      Website
      Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
      Shawn Peters
      Bible Verses In This Episode
      ECCLESIASTES 1:9

      What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

      ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8

      There is a time for everything,

      and a season for every activity under the heavens:
      a time to be born and a time to die,
      a time to plant and a time to uproot,
      a time to kill and a time to heal,
      a time to tear down and a time to build,
      a time to weep and a time to laugh,
      a time to mourn and a time to dance,
      a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
      a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
      a time to search and a time to give up,
      a time to keep and a time to throw away,
      a time to tear and a time to mend,
      a time to be silent and a time to speak,
      a time to love and a time to hate,
      a time for war and a time for peace.

      Want to ask a question about your specific situation? Schedule a complimentary 15 minute phone call.

      SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENTDid you enjoy this episode? Sign up for email updates and never miss an episode.
      EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

      Shawn (00:00):

      So Bob, here’s a question for people who are following along with this on the markets. How much do the markets typically drop if nobody’s selling?

      Bob (00:08):

      I think that would be zero.

      Shawn (00:11):

      Oh, so really it only starts dropping if you have a bunch of people panicking and selling?

      Bob (00:18):

      That creates panic.

      Shawn (00:18):

      Yeah. Welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. My name is Shawn Peters. This is Bob Barber, and today we’re going to be doing history lessons of the markets. And in Ecclesiastes 1:9 it says, “What has been will be again and what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” And Bob, I know you had something you wanted to say on this.

      Bob (00:48):

      Well, I’ll tell you what, when you’re thinking about history lessons of the markets, it’s kind of like the weather.

      Shawn (00:52):

      Okay, what do you mean by that?

      Bob (00:54):

      It’s beautiful and sunny one day in the markets or the weather’s beautiful and sunny one day, then the next day you have a big storm, and then the next day it’s beautiful and sunny again.

      Shawn (01:04):

      Sometimes on the same day.

      Bob (01:06):

      People ask me, nowadays, you could definitely tell I’m the older guy doing this. They go, “What’s the stock markets going to do?” I say, “Well, what’s the weather going to do?” And they go, “Well, yeah, I hadn’t thought about that.” Because stock markets act about like the weather do.

      Shawn (01:21):

      There’s instruments you can look at, there’s things you can kind of see if you can get an idea of what it might do, but it’ll still surprise you.

      Bob (01:29):

      And how often is the weatherman correct?

      Shawn (01:31):

      I think, what is it like 50% of the time?

      Bob (01:33):

      Yeah, exactly. So how often are economists correct? Back in ’22 when they were raising interest rates seven times they kept saying recession, recession, recession. It never came. But everybody just, and now we’ve had the tariffs and saying the same thing. No one knows until it’s happened. It hasn’t happened until it’s happened.

      Shawn (01:52):

      The only economist I know that are right a hundred percent of the time are the ones that document the history of the economy.

      Bob (01:58):

      Yeah, that is true. That’s exactly true.

      Shawn (02:00):

      Just 2020 hindsight, right?

      Bob (02:01):

      Investors should always consider financial history during market downturns because that’s where you start to think, oh no, it’s bad weather today. It’s a bad market today, and the markets, the media loves it, Shawn.The media just goes into a frenzy over it.

      Shawn (02:20):

      It’s all part of normal market cycles.

      Bob (02:23):

      Exactly.

      Shawn (02:23):

      We’ll say it one more time for emphasis, but Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.”

      Bob (02:33):

      So I thought today what we would do is we’re going to take a quick look back at the last 50 years. Shawn, I’m 63 now in June, and I can remember all of these things that we’re going to talk about. There’s so many more besides these four or five we’re going to talk about. But everyone…

      Shawn (02:56):

      We don’t necessarily record our episodes like Joe Rogan for three to four hours. I mean, feel free to let us know in the comments if you’d like us to talk longer, but we don’t usually go that long. So you had to narrow it down a little bit.

      Bob (03:09):

      This first one, we’re going to go back 50 years and we know what we’re going to do is we’re going to bring it up to some of the latest events, but there’s going to be a common theme that you’re going to see through every single one of these events. Alright? First, we’re going to start with the 1973-1974 oil embargo. And Shawn read what happened then? Okay.

      Shawn (03:30):

      Well, as you know Bob, I was totally around. Well, I wasn’t even born yet on that one. So the 1973 oil embargo led by Arab members of OPEC was primarily caused by the United States support for Israel during the Yom Kippur war.

      Bob (03:47):

      I was going to see, that’s why I had you read that. I wanted to see if you said that right.

      Shawn (03:50):

      I believe I said that right.

      Bob (03:52):

      Yeah, I think you said it.

      Shawn (03:52):

      Yeah. The US decision to resupply the Israeli military after the conflict began triggered the embargo as a form of retaliation and political leverage.

      Bob (04:01):

      Now everyone my age, Shawn, remembers this and the reason we remember this is because we couldn’t get gasoline for our cars.

      Shawn (04:10):

      Is that when you see the pictures of everybody lined up down the street up to the gas stations? And it was ration of how much you could get.

      Bob (04:18):

      My dad’s office was right behind the gas station and he knew the gas station owner very well. So the gas station owner would say, you come down at this certain time, I’m going to make sure that y’all get your cars filled with gas. I mean, it was a crazy, crazy time. And because of that, it triggered a major market downturn. Stocks dropped during this time as much as 45%.

      Shawn (04:43):

      From their previous highs?

      Bob (04:44):

      Yes.

      Shawn (04:44):

      Wow.

      Bob (04:45):

      Yeah, that’s a lot, Shawn.

      Shawn (04:46):

      Yeah, that’s a big drop.

      Bob (04:46):

      That’s a whole lot. I mean, it was a very radical time. I was 11 to 12 years old.

      Shawn (04:54):

      The markets never recovered from there, right? Sarcasm for anyone who didn’t pick that one up. No, they recovered. They completely went on to new highs.

      Bob (05:04):

      They completely recovered and went on to new highs. Okay.

      Shawn (05:08):

      Yeah.

      Bob (05:09):

      So we’re going to fast forward. There was a lot of things that happened during the 70’s, but we’re going to fast forward, what is this, about 12 or 13 years?

      Shawn (05:15):

      It’s Black Monday.

      Bob (05:17):

      Black Monday is very well known. I’d been in the business then for three years. I remember this very much so.

      Shawn (05:26):

      I was almost one. I hadn’t quite hit my first birthday.

      Bob (05:29):

      So you probably don’t remember it, but I bet your dad does.

      Shawn (05:31):

      No, I don’t remember it other than from studying it in history.

      Bob (05:34):

      So by the way, these first two, anybody that’s younger and listening, just go ask your parents. Okay, they’ll tell you. But the markets dropped 20% in one day and that became known as Black Monday. And it wasn’t caused by just a single event when that happened, but it was a combination of factors.

      Shawn (05:53):

      Okay. Alright. He wants me to read through it from my experience of going through it.

      Bob (06:00):

      Right, exactly.

      Shawn (06:00):

      Exactly. Yeah. So the crash was not caused, as Bob said, by a single event, but by a combination of factors including rising global interest rates, a US trade deficit, a declining dollar and inflation concerns.

      Bob (06:13):

      Does that sound like today?

      Shawn (06:15):

      I hear a few of those sound like maybe we’ve gone through this before.

      Bob (06:20):

      Yep, yep, yep.

      Shawn (06:23):

      Okay. Almost like history repeat itself.

      Bob (06:26):

      Scripture is saying.

      Shawn (06:26):

      Like Ecclesiastes said.

      Bob (06:27):

      The weather get sunny and then it gets stormy and it comes back again.

      Shawn (06:31):

      And what has happened will happen again.

      Bob (06:33):

      Okay.

      Shawn (06:34):

      So Black Monday was a perfect storm of economic pressures, market structural issues and psychological factors that combined to create catastrophic market crash.

      Bob (06:43):

      Don’t you love that. Psychological factors. And boy, the media back then, we didn’t have the internet.

      Shawn (06:49):

      So Bob, here’s a question for people who are follow along with this on the markets. How much do the markets typically drop if nobody’s selling?

      Bob (06:59):

      I think that would be zero.

      Shawn (07:01):

      Oh, so really it only starts dropping if you have a bunch of people panicking and selling.

      Bob (07:06):

      That creates panic.

      Shawn (07:07):

      Yeah. So…

      Bob (07:09):

      So, what happened after Black Monday, like it did with the oil embargo?

      Shawn (07:12):

      As you all know, we don’t invest in the stock markets anymore. Sorry. It went on to new highs in the following years after it recovered.

      Bob (07:21):

      Completely recovered and went on to new highs so far.

      Shawn (07:25):

      And so far, that’s two separate times that if you didn’t sell in either these situations, would you have more or less money now than you did before?

      Bob (07:34):

      More.

      Shawn (07:34):

      Right.

      Bob (07:35):

      Yeah. Each time it recovered.

      Shawn (07:36):

      It’s not a real loss until you sell it.

      Bob (07:38):

      So, so far we’re two out of two, aren’t we?

      Shawn (07:40):

      Yep.

      Bob (07:40):

      Yeah. So now we’re going to get up to the early 90’s. We’re going to push forward five or six years. So we had the recession of the early 1990s. Most people don’t even remember this, but I do because I was in the business and we saw this recession peak out in about 1992, and it was caused, again, by a combination of factors. It was a weak economy, loss of consumer and business confidence, psychological, again, due to the oil price shock of 1990, that was triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Now I remember this very well.

      Shawn (08:14):

      Me too, I just turned four and I was following this along really close. My dad had to keep taking the paper back from me because I wouldn’t let him read it.

      Bob (08:23):

      Now the markets didn’t drop 45 or 20% this time.

      Shawn (08:27):

      But still, I mean it was still a significant…18% is not nothing.

      Bob (08:32):

      Yeah. Dropped 18% from July of 1990 to October of 1990. Okay. But…

      Shawn (08:39):

      In the following years, the markets recovered and went onto new highs.

      Bob (08:42):

      New highs. We can nearly say this repeat and repeat and repeat. These are history lessons, right?

      Shawn (08:48):

      That’s right.

      Bob (08:48):

      Okay. So fast forward, we come to 2000, 2002.

      Shawn (08:52):

      Yep. Stock market, internet bubble.

      Bob (08:54):

      The internet had been invented. Who by?

      Shawn (08:56):

      It was Al Gore, right?

      Bob (08:57):

      Yeah. Right.

      Shawn (08:58):

      He also invented pants, if I remember correctly.

      Bob (09:00):

      So the internet had been invented and we had all these new companies coming out. I remember America Online and there was a Commodore computer, and then there was Apple was just, I remember the little bitty Apple about this big.

      Shawn (09:13):

      Yeah, AOL was my first exposure to logging in as well.

      Bob (09:17):

      Google hadn’t even come along yet. I mean, they were just barely coming along.

      Shawn (09:21):

      It was like “Ask Jeeves” was one of them, too.

      Bob (09:23):

      Yeah.

      Shawn (09:24):

      The old school search engine.

      Bob (09:25):

      We had, what was it? I remember another one was Lycos was another one. So anyway, we had.

      Shawn (09:31):

      It was like Netscape two or something like that. Anyway…But then also it was the World Trade Center bombings, 9/11.

      Bob (09:37):

      During that time. So between 2000, 2002 was a chaotic time.

      Shawn (09:41):

      A lot going on.

      Bob (09:42):

      And we had this dotcom bubble crash, which was very big. I mean, the NASDAQ fell over 75% during that time.

      Shawn (09:54):

      Well, it was a combination of factors. So including overvaluation of technology, stocks, the failure of many dotcom businesses to generate substantial revenue or profits, even profits, and a shift in investor confidence.

      Bob (10:07):

      People were investing in these businesses that hadn’t made a single dime and they were just pushing them up, up, up.

      Shawn (10:11):

      Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. The value of a lot of those companies was just the idea of what they might be worth. And it wasn’t based in any fundamentals, not making revenue or not anywhere close to making a profit. I mean, that’s not sustainable.

      Bob (10:25):

      So the NASDAQ dropped over 75%, Shawn.

      Shawn (10:31):

      During that time. Yeah.

      Bob (10:31):

      So you were about 14 at this point? 14,15?

      Shawn (10:35):

      Let’s see. Somewhere around there. Yeah.

      Bob (10:37):

      Yeah. I don’t know if you were paying attention to this or not.

      Shawn (10:40):

      Oh, of course. Yeah.

      Bob (10:40):

      Hey, you were just about a couple years away from going to college. You wanted to major in finance. So…

      Shawn (10:48):

      Well, at the time, I dunno if I had made that decision, but originally I wanted to go into maybe something with being an attorney. So I wasn’t quite to finance yet. So I think I missed being able to eagerly watch this.

      Bob (11:00):

      I’m glad I saw the light. Otherwise, you’d be on TV saying, “Call me if this happens.” Okay. So it dropped, NASDAQ dropped over 75%. S&P was down, I think over 50%.

      Shawn (11:11):

      And the Dow dropped 25%.

      Bob (11:12):

      Remember the Dow’s only 30 companies and they’re the biggest ones. But what happened again?

      Shawn (11:18):

      Well, once again, in the following years, the markets recovered and went on to new highs.

      Bob (11:22):

      It recovered all that 75%, every single bit of it. So far, we’ve talked about four out of four, I believe. Is this the fourth one?

      Shawn (11:33):

      I wasn’t counting. I think it was 4.

      Bob (11:34):

      I think it’s four out of four so far.\

      Shawn (11:35):

      So far 100%.

      Bob (11:37):

      100% it’s recovered.

      Shawn (11:38):

      So next one.

      Bob (11:40):

      Now it is. We’re getting up there where everyone remembers this. This is when you started working. Yeah. You were working.

      Shawn (11:44):

      Yeah, I started working with you in 2008. So it was a great time to join your industry.

      Bob (11:50):

      I remember you were the green kid on the block. You were just joining us and we’re watching watching the whole market crash.

      Shawn (11:57):

      Yeah. I’m thinking, is this normal? Is what you deal with on a regular basis? No, every once in a while.

      Bob (12:03):

      Like Lehman Brothers crash. I mean, it was crazy.

      Shawn (12:08):

      2007-2009 real estate bubble mortgage crisis. And so 2008 stock market crash. So this is the first one that I legit was following now that I’m working in the industry. Part of the Great Recession was primarily driven by the bursting of the US housing bubble fueled by lax lending practices.

      Bob (12:28):

      Exactly. Because you remember, you could just get a house, could go get a mortgage

      Shawn (12:33):

      As long as you’re breathing.

      Bob (12:33):

      As long as you’re breathing, you could say, well, I think I worked there. And they’d give you a mortgage.

      Shawn (12:38):

      And then also there was very predatory mortgage practices, people getting into mortgages that they shouldn’t, like the one, the adjustable rate, someone thinking, oh, I can afford this. And then a year later, a couple years later, it just would pop up so much and then they’d have to foreclose on the house. And a lack of regulatory oversight. This, in turn, led to a crisis of confidence in financial institutions. It’s almost like a very consistent. It’s always something that causes a loss of confidence. That’s almost always the reason for these starting.

      Bob (13:10):

      Do you think we ever learn by our mistakes? What has will be again.

      Shawn (13:13):

      I mean as a group, as a public, I feel like we don’t, but there are people that I think learn from the lessons, just not a general public, unfortunately.

      Bob (13:23):

      So you realize those, the people in their twenties, Shawn, I mean you’re going to be 40 here in a year or so…

      Shawn (13:30):

      I dunno what you’re talking about.

      Bob (13:32):

      But they don’t remember this necessarily. And the S&P, the Dow, NASDAQ, they all dropped over 50%.

      Shawn (13:40):

      Yep.

      Bob (13:42):

      Oh my goodness. Once again…

      Shawn (13:44):

      In the following years, the market’s recovered to go on to new highs.

      Bob (13:48):

      We’re learning a lot about history.

      Shawn (13:49):

      I know it’s repetitive, but hopefully we’re getting the point across.

      Bob (13:53):

      Every single time. These are such good history lessons.

      Shawn (13:57):

      I believe the only thing that changes…there’s two things that change each time. Alright. The thing that’s new, the exact percentage of how much it drops, and then the overall combination of causes, whether it’s one major one or multiple things that all kind of lead to people losing confidence and people start selling off.

      Bob (14:19):

      Look at the last couple of them.

      Shawn (14:21):

      Okay. In 2020, COVID-19 pandemic.

      Bob (14:23):

      Everybody remembers this one.

      Shawn (14:24):

      I mean, as the pandemic began to spread in March of 2020, government officials around the world shut down economic activity, panic triggered by the economic consequences and uncertainty led to a stock market crash that included the three worst point drops in US history to that date.

      Bob (14:38):

      I remember some of those days. I mean, my goodness, the market was down 10 or 12 one day and up 10 or 12 the next. It was crazy. This is what the crazy one was. And you remember we went in and we bought energy, crude prices even went below a dollar a barrel in the Spring of 2020. How insane is that?That’s just insane. I mean, this is not, you know it’s not going to last.

      Shawn (15:06):

      No.

      Bob (15:07):

      And so we’re just like, let’s go in and buy energy. Buy, buy, buy. And we did and we had a very big return.

      Shawn (15:14):

      What’s so crazy to me in looking back at this one is yes, it dropped really quickly, but also how fast it actually came back to at the levels it was before the drop and then continued to went on to hit new highs, period. New highs, not just highs for the year, but a new high, period, by the end of the year.

      Bob (15:36):

      No, this one was super fast. I mean the S&P 500 dropped over 30%, down 26%. Bam. It came back. So again, the common theme.

      Shawn (15:45):

      Just coming back to the levels before the drop was over maybe a few months.

      Bob (15:49):

      So we don’t need to say in the following years here. It recovered in months. The market went on and recovered to new highs.

      Shawn (15:55):

      In the following months , it went on to recover.

      Bob (15:56):

      And then another very recent one, just a couple of years, I noticed these are kind of getting tighter, is that there’s a lot you’ve had to put up with a lot in the last four or five years. You’ve got the COVID-19, then we had 2022, which I call the interest rate crisis, and there was all this fear of recession that never happened.

      Shawn (16:18):

      The fear of what where we might have a recession.

      Bob (16:21):

      Just like we’ve had with the tariffs. So the Fed raised interest rates seven times that year. And I mean we were at 0% interest.

      Shawn (16:33):

      They were trying to fight inflation.

      Bob (16:35):

      Yeah. They were trying to stop it. So it was soaring inflation they were trying to combat. Exactly. And those interest rate hikes, concern of a global recession. We had the invasion of the Ukraine during that point too, which disrupted some of the global supply chains. And NASDAQ dropped over 32%. Dow dropped over 20%. Even bonds were down that year. But that was because interest rates had never gone up that much in one year. When you go from 1% to 2% and you’ve raised interest rates 100%. But again, just within months and the following years, the markets did what?

      Shawn (17:14):

      Completely recovered and went on to new highs.

      Bob (17:16):

      I really see in a pattern here. This year…

      Shawn (17:19):

      What pattern?

      Bob (17:20):

      Markets always go on to new highs. They recover and go on to new highs. And so all the day traders are just driving themselves crazy and they just need to stick around.

      Shawn (17:31):

      This year, as of the recording of this, unless you’re watching this in, I don’t know, 2026 and beyond, but this year the tariffs, so NASDAQ dropped over 20% in just a few months, the S&P 500 went into correction territory. Will the markets once again recover and reach new highs?

      Bob (17:47):

      You know what, Shawn? By the time we’ve made this, I mean not by the time we made it, we’re making it right now.

      Shawn (17:51):

      By the time this is published.

      Bob (17:52):

      By the time this is published, it might’ve already recovered. But even if it hasn’t, it’s a great history lesson to learn because the common theme for all of this is that the markets always recover. Now we always have to make the compliance statement that…

      Shawn (18:09):

      Sure, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Yeah, okay.

      Bob (18:12):

      But the question you always have to ask yourself, is it really different this time?

      Shawn (18:17):

      Yeah. Now obviously what we can’t say is, like I said before, how much is it going to drop over what period of time? And then how long is it? Months? Is it a year, two years? How long before it comes at least back to where it was before the drop. That’s what we don’t know.

      Bob (18:35):

      Well, one thing we do know is we know that God’s word never changes.

      Shawn (18:40):

      That’s right.

      Bob (18:41):

      It’s always the same. And we do know we’re going to end up on this scripture. So, go for it, Shawn.

      Shawn (18:47):

      All right. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, A time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”

      Bob (19:30):

      No matter what, during the good times, you always have to be understanding that the bad times will come. And during the bad times, you’ve got to be understanding that the good times will come back. They always do. Do you need a Christian based financial advisory firm to guide you through all these crazy landmines and ups and downs? We at Christian Financial Advisors are here to help you do that. We focus on long-term biblical principles and biblically responsible investing. And we can be reached by phone or text during business hours at 830-609-6986. Or you can reach us through our website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. We’ve helped hundreds of Christian families in their financial stewardship journey for over 30 years.

      Shawn (20:13):

      That’s right. And we love to be able to help you because we know that, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.” And so don’t fret. Don’t be anxious about what the markets are doing today or tomorrow. Trust in the Lord and plan for the future. It makes me think of Joseph. God gave him the vision. He saved not just Egypt, but the entire surrounding area by planning ahead and knowing that, “Hey, we do right in the good times and plan for when times aren’t as good, we’ll be prepared.”

      Bob (20:46):

      That’s right.

      Shawn (20:47):

      So contact us. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, suggestions. You can comment, you can text us, you can email us. And as always, God bless.

      [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.

      22 min
    • Christian Stewardship and Investing
      One of the biggest stressors as humans probably has to do with our finances. Almost everything requires a payment, and treating finances in a way that glorifies God is just another add-on that Christians may have, something Christian Financial Advisors calls “Christian Stewardship”. Bob and Shawn discuss Christian stewardship and its relevance in today's society. Christian stewardship is the belief that everything we have, including our time, talents, and resources, is a gift from God to be used responsibly and for His glory rather than only for personal gain. We are his managers of the money, gifts, and blessings that have been bestowed upon us. So how exactly does a Christian honor God with their finances? Biblically responsible investing is one way of showing Christian stewardship. Christians can invest in companies that demonstrate Christian values and avoid companies that violate those values, regardless of investment returns.
      22 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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