Christian Financial Perspectives

By Christian Financial AdvisorsBusiness Religion & Spirituality Christianity Investing

Christian Financial Perspectives episodes

November 05, 2024 212 – Voting Christian, But Investing Woke?
Click below to listen to Episode 212 – Voting Christian, But Investing Woke?
Voting Christian, But Investing Woke?

Does your investment portfolio align with the way you morally vote?

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Are you voting with your values, but unknowingly investing against them? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover the importance of aligning your financial decisions with your Christian beliefs, particularly when it comes to voting one way but maybe investing another way.
Discover how you can vote and invest in harmony with your Christian faith by choosing to invest in companies that align with your Biblical values, such as pro-life and pro-family. If you are voting this way, then shouldn’t the way you invest also align with these principles? In today’s modern financial world, it’s actually quite easy to invest in alignment with their values through Biblically Responsible 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
Bible Verses In This Episode
JAMES 1:8
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
JAMES 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
2 CORINTHIANS 6:17
Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
2 TIMOTHY 4:3
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shawn (00:00):
Are you voting with your values, but unknowingly investing against them? In today’s episode, we’ll uncover the importance of aligning your financial decisions with your Christian beliefs. Discover how you can vote and invest in harmony with your Christian faith. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad you joined us. My name is Shawn Peters. This is Bob Barber, and today we have a very special program that Bob has put together that with election day coming up tomorrow. If you are watching this on the day we published it, it’s hopefully a message that you guys will be able to benefit from and listen to the whole thing or watch the whole thing. But this is something that we hope all Christians will take a stand on election day tomorrow and vote for pro-life and pro-family candidates.
Bob (00:58):
Absolutely, Shawn and I tell you, so today’s program, we’re calling it voting, right, investing left or voting Christian and investing woke. You can look at it several different ways, but hopefully during this election, all Christians will come forward and stand for truth. Truth is becoming so relative today.
Shawn (01:24):
In today’s culture.
Bob (01:25):
We want to keep you from believing one way and investing another. We want you to believe the Christian way, believe a Biblical truth, but at the same time also invest the same way. And there’s some great scriptures I think of, I knew they were in James, James 1:8 is, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” So as you vote, I want you to think about truly if you’re an investor, are you voting one way and investing another way? And we’re going to get into that and we want to keep you from doing that because we don’t want you to be a double-minded man.
Shawn (02:04):
There’s another scripture, we didn’t list it on this one, but just came to mind about not being unequally yoked when it comes to investing, we will definitely get into that. But the scripture tells us we should not be unequally yoked with a non-believer. And I would say that that applies with whether it’s in business, you starting your own business or you’re owning a small fraction of a share of a publicly traded company, whatever it might be. You don’t want to align yourself with someone that does not have the same values as you or has very little in common with you. Another one is James 4:17.
Bob (02:40):
James 4:17. Go ahead, Shawn.
Shawn (02:41):
If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Bob (02:48):
And 2 Corinthians 6:17 says, “Come out and be separate. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you.” So today we want to make sure that when you vote, you’re not sending mixed signals.
Shawn (03:02):
As Christians, we don’t want to vote one way and invest another. That’s not a good thing. And like Bob said, it’s mixed signals.
Bob (03:10):
I put together six or seven of these things. I really looked at what are the reasons that we as Christians are voting today. And I know for myself, and I believe for many of you also, it’s because you have convictions based on Biblical guidelines and you want to vote your values. That’s so important. And also it’s a duty to our country and we want to have a voice not only in the nation, but we want to have a voice in our city, our state, and how our country are run. So it’s important that we vote for good local leadership as well. I remember a very well-known pastor, he said, when you have a messed up city, it causes a messed up county. When you have a messed up county, it causes a messed up state and so forth. So it starts at the grassroots level.
Shawn (04:00):
It’s kind of like we all get caught up in the presidential election, kind of like the Super Bowl or something. It’s like, remember, there are other games, there are other things. If you want to want to support your team, you need to make sure to get out there for more than just the final championship.
Bob (04:16):
We’re voting to protect our God-given freedoms. It’s very important, especially here in America and for economic reasons like taxes and free enterprise. Free enterprise is a wonderful thing. It enables you to go out and start. Anyone can start their own business in anything.
Shawn (04:34):
But we want to make sure to protect that right to be able to do that, to be able to have a chance to compete. Additionally, social issues. There’s a lot of different social issues. We’re not going to go into all of them, but there’s a lot. And to change the status quo because what we currently have is not working.
Bob (04:54):
It is not. It definitely is not. I think that’s the reasons we need to understand as Christians, why we are voting today. Plus there’s many others. I also think it’s important for Christians to understand that what liberals are voting for and what their agenda is. I think the number one agenda it seems to be is about abortion. Because I’ve been seeing all the advertisements. We watch Wheel of Fortune every night, and it’s just one advertisement after another, and it’s all about abortion. It doesn’t seem like anything else.
Shawn (05:28):
Not just abortion, but it’s the fact of wanting abortion for everyone regardless of the reason without any constraints. It doesn’t matter how late in the term, doesn’t matter, no questions asked.
Bob (05:38):
Right. We’re talking about abortions eight and nine months. I mean, that’s crazy. They don’t want any constraints on it. Another thing that we need to understand is that the liberals want a free reign for the LGBTQIA+.
Shawn (05:57):
LGBT+
Bob (05:58):
No, I know.
Shawn (05:58):
You can’t keep track of all the letters.
Bob (06:00):
But they want a free reign for that community to be able to indoctrinate our children and our grandchildren with their values, not Christian values. Those values really go against what we believe.
Shawn (06:11):
Those organizations, I’m not going to name any specific ones, but you all know which, there’s one big one. They basically got equal rights for the LGBT community, if you will. Like, okay, don’t discriminate based on who someone decides to love, which we’re not going to get into that, but basically they won. Okay, great. It’s a protected class. Well, you’ve got these organizations that have all this funding and all these people have jobs that, okay, well what else are we going to do now? So that’s why they keep adding all these letters. They need to keep coming up with a supposed cause to champion and fight for, even though it’s nonsense.
Bob (06:46):
And what you do is your own business. We’re not putting down, I mean whatever you want to do is your own business, but when it comes to indoctrinating our children with these values, we need to take a stand.
Shawn (06:57):
Amen.
Bob (06:58):
And also the liberal agenda is they want to put children’s rights over parental rights. And we’ve been hearing a lot about that.
Shawn (07:04):
We’re seeing that happening in California.
Bob (07:06):
With the sex change.
Shawn (07:07):
And right next door, our neighbor Canada, same thing. And now that’s kind of infecting states like California and other places where the state controls and owns our children.
Bob (07:19):
Versus
Shawn (07:19):
Not parents.
Bob (07:19):
The Parents, right. A couple more things. They want income to be equal for everyone except for them at the top, politically. The government owes everyone more entitlements. The federal government…
Shawn (07:31):
Did you see that latest Bob?
Bob (07:32):
No, I didn’t.
Shawn (07:33):
What about one fifth of the benefits or income? About one fifth of income on average for Americans comes from government benefits now. One fifth. That is up. That is doubled compared with what it was back in the seventies.
Bob (07:49):
And this is a big one with me that I don’t like this one is the liberals want federal control over local control, over state control and local control. They really want to dictate how states should run their business.
Shawn (08:06):
Well yeah, because California, New York want Texas and Florida and all these other states, they want them to fall in line with their ideals. So if they get federal control, well great, we’re going to force everybody to do the same. And we know that ain’t working over there.
Bob (08:18):
It is really interesting, too, how they want greater taxation on business. But you know what? Business is just going to pass this cost onto the consumer. And so it’s just going to cause more inflation. They want special rights for certain groups of people over equal rights for everyone, and they want minority rule over majority rule. So I think it’s important that we understand…
Shawn (08:38):
One racism that they supposedly think is in place for another version of racism.
Bob (08:43):
So I think it’s important for us to understand as Christians that the Christian conservative agenda is the polar opposite of the liberal agenda, and yet millions Christians are voting with their convictions, which is fantastic. I want you to vote that way. But they’re supporting these liberal agendas through their investment portfolios and retirement accounts.
Shawn (09:05):
That’s right.
Bob (09:06):
And they really don’t know it. I don’t know. I think it’s from a lack of knowledge.
Shawn (09:10):
Yeah.
Bob (09:10):
But it could be also conviction.
Shawn (09:12):
Bob, over 30 years and I mean, how many times do you still come across people that have just heard of how you can invest in this way or found out that it’s more accessible than ever? I mean, it’s most commonly, it’s not a matter of conviction, it’s a matter of people just don’t know it’s available.
Bob (09:30):
So we’re going to talk about that here in just a minute because does it make any sense at all for Christians to vote with their convictions yet support liberal agendas with their investment and retirement accounts? Of course it doesn’t. And the two main agendas that are on this ticket, as we know, for the liberal agenda is abortion and the LGBTQ agenda and millions of Christians are supporting these agendas, these woke agendas through their mutual funds, ETFs, and even particular stocks they own because they own companies inside of these ETFs and these mutual funds that are performing abortions or support the abortion industry, pharmaceutical companies that could use fetal tissue research from aborted babies to do their research, as well as companies that are pushing, again, the LGBTQIA agenda to minors in supporting liberal candidates. We’re here to help you today to figure out, okay, I want to vote – if I’m going to vote conservatively for Christian principles, you can align how you invest in your IRAs and your mutual funds, your brokerage accounts. You can align that with your values.
Shawn (10:50):
So one of the things that I usually use as an example to kind of wrap your head around the concept is, well, number one, everything we have in our life, our time, talent, treasure – treasure, money, all of our assets, everything we have, it comes from God first and foremost. So we don’t really own any of it. We are stewards of it. So that’s kind of like principle number one. Okay, well…
Bob (11:12):
That’s Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lords and everything in it.”
Shawn (11:14):
That’s right. So with that understanding as Christians, as believers and followers of Christ, we have a different level of responsibility. This is not just, oh, okay, are you making money? Are you increasing your assets? Are you preparing for retirement? But it’s also how are you getting to that end goal? There’s the parable where the master goes away on a trip and he comes back and the two servants with different, he gave to each according to their ability. But the first two they did well, they doubled the amount that he gave and then the last one buried it in the ground. But what I always think it would be interesting is if Jesus had added a couple more sentences to the story of what if the master then asked, “How did they gain it?” And if one of the ones that he said, “Well done”, said, “Well, I raped, pillaged, and stole and destroyed neighboring towns and took advantage of people to make this money.” I highly doubt Jesus would have said of the master in the story that, “Oh, well done thy good and faithful servant.” Like, no, no, no. That would be important, too.
(12:19):
And so, think of it like this. If you’re starting a business and you own it 100% your sole proprietor or however you set it up, and you don’t want to give money to these abortion clinics and these causes, the LGBT+ causes, an indoctrination of our children. Okay, well what about if you were 51% owner and you brought on some partners, what if you were 5%? What if you were 0.5%? At what point is the percentage for you to be an owner of a company, which is what it is when you own stocks or own stocks in mutual funds and ETFs that own those stocks underlying, it’s the same thing. It’s kind of like the whole poop in the brownie stories. If somebody offers you brownies and they say, oh, there’s a little bit of poop in there. Well, how much poop is okay in the brownies for you still eat them?
(13:03):
I Think most people would say, now that I know there’s poop in the brownies, I don’t want to eat them. So it’s kind of the same thing that stewardship aspect of it’s not about the money that’s directly benefiting these areas because you bought these shares. It’s really comes down to it’s a heart issue of if this belongs to the Lord, and I’m not supposed to be unequally yoked and I don’t want to be an owner of something that is profiting or benefiting these things that directly contradict my faith in Christ well, then why own it?
Bob (13:35):
So let’s get into the solution.
Shawn (13:36):
A little bit of a rabbit trail there, but hopefully that’s helpful.
Bob (13:38):
So the solution is Biblically Responsible Investing, which started with just a handful, five to seven financial advisors – I was one of them – about 30 years ago, and now it’s becoming a movement where conservative Christians who vote can also invest right. Okay. You get that. Instead of voting and investing woke, you can vote, right and invest right. And this is called Biblically Responsible Investing. And when I first got in the business 25, 30 years ago, gosh, there were only one or two choices. Today, there are so many choices, it’s hard to name them all. You’ve got everything from small cap value to large cap growth to international and everything in between. You’ve got lots of mutual funds to pick from, lots of ETFs to pick from. Of course, and then you have the entire stock market to pick from. And we have all the software that helps us to know what companies are up to. And so that on this day of voting that you’re voting, if you’ve never heard of this, we want to encourage you to learn more about Biblically Responsible Investing. This is the good news is that…
Shawn (14:51):
You can both vote and invest in an alignment with your values as a believer in Christ.
Bob (14:55):
And I know we have a lot of clients of Christian Financial Advisors that listen to our podcast, watch our program.
Shawn (15:01):
Hey y’all!
Bob (15:02):
Good news. Okay, good news. You’re all investing right. You’re investing with the way that you vote.
Shawn (15:09):
That’s right.
Bob (15:09):
But there’s still millions of Christians out there that are voting right and investing left or woke as we call it. That’s the big word.
Shawn (15:17):
That’s what all the kids are saying these days.
Bob (15:18):
Yeah. People, they call us, they say, now, I don’t want to invest in anything woke. I said, we haven’t invested in anything woke in 30 years. So it’s part…
Shawn (15:26):
We were avoiding that before it was a cool term.
Bob (15:30):
Exactly. Exactly. I want to ask you, if you’re listening to this today, help us get the word out about Biblically Responsible Investing. It is time for those that vote with conservative Christian principles to align their investments. And we can send a message to Wall Street and we have, I know Shawn, you went and opened up on Wall Street.
Shawn (15:54):
I was there. I wouldn’t say I opened up, but I was there for the bell ringing of the most recent Inspire ETF there, the P-T-L which is “Praised the Lord”. Robert Nestle, founder, I love all his, I don’t know how many more funds he can open. How many more creative names can he come up with?
Bob (16:12):
He’s got WWJD, which add an E to it and it’s Bible.
Shawn (16:17):
The point of that though is, and I know Robert is and Inspire are very, very outspoken with shareholder engagement, but we are seeing so many more opportunities opening up for Christians for us to be able to invest in alignment with our values. And Wall Street’s going to follow the money. If more and more of us want this type of investing, we’re seeing secular firms and broker dealers and others that are like, “Oh, well all these Christians seem to want this.” Okay, well we’ll do this because those who aren’t believers, they don’t really care that much about why we’re doing it, why we’re following the Lord in this way and what the Bible says. But if they see there’s some money to be made by doing it that way, they’re going to follow the money.
Bob (17:01):
Shawn, I just got an email yesterday from Eventide that they just opened up their new ETF.
Shawn (17:06):
That’s right.
Bob (17:06):
So…
Shawn (17:08):
Go Eventide. Finally got an ETF.
Bob (17:09):
And I want to mention Timothy Plan. They’re the founders of Biblically Responsible Investing, the Timothy Plan Mutual Funds. I’m very good friends with the founder and all of them that work over there. They’re like one big family. They all love Jesus. And in closing, we want to really encourage you to stay strong, invest for your Biblical values, along with voting for your Biblical values. Now, I want to say this in closing, because I was thinking about this. We’ve had a lot of phone calls. I had another one yesterday, and I want you to take heart in whoever wins this election if it doesn’t go the way we want, that God is still on his throne. And I also want you to take heart, also, that we’re not to live our lives based on who is President, but that many politicians…
Shawn (17:59):
Don’t live in fear regardless of who’s president or who gets elected in the different elections.
Bob (18:04):
And I’ve noticed over and over that politicians, they just tell people many times what their itching ears want to hear knowing full well they cannot deliver on all those promises. I know that many of the ones I’ve heard, I’m like, there’s no way, like capital gain taxes on unrealized gains – that’s not going to pass.
Shawn (18:24):
It would destroy our country.
Bob (18:26):
Well, the Democratic, they have a lot of investments too, so they wouldn’t do that. But in the end times, people will believe these things because 2 Timothy 4:3 tells us this,
Shawn (18:39):
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching years want to hear.”
Bob (18:49):
Kind of goes right with it, doesn’t it?
(18:51):
Yep. So if you’d like to learn more about aligning how you invest with how you vote, give us a call or text us at (830) 609-6986 or visit our website, www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Thanks as always for joining us. God bless. Go out and vote and stay true to your values.
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
October 21, 2024 Building Blocks Of Financial Planning
Are you ready to take control of your financial future with a DIY approach? In this episode, Bob and Shawn guide you through 10 essential steps to effective financial planning, all from a Biblical perspective. Don't find yourself unprepared for the future by not preparing now. Whether it's discovering which stage of retirement you might currently be in or you just need to sit down and develop clear financial goals, this episode can help you discover how to manage your finances wisely.
24 min
October 21, 2024 211 – Building Blocks Of Financial Planning
Click below to listen to Episode 211 – Building Blocks Of Financial Planning
Building Blocks Of Financial Planning

Discover how to manage your finances wisely while also setting clear, financial goals.

More episodes >>

Are you ready to take control of your financial future with a DIY approach? In this episode, Bob and Shawn guide you through 10 essential steps to effective financial planning, all from a Biblical perspective. Don’t find yourself unprepared for the future by not preparing now. Whether it’s discovering which stage of retirement you might currently be in or you just need to sit down and develop clear financial goals, this episode can help you discover how to manage your finances wisely.

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

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
LUKE 14:28-30
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.”
PROVERBS 27:23
Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;
PROVERBS 22:7
The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
PROVERBS 6:6-8
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
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.”

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

Shawn (00:00):
Are you ready to take control of your financial future with a DIY approach? In today’s episode, we’ll guide you through 10 essential steps to effective financial planning, all from a Biblical perspective, discover how to manage your finances wisely and achieve your goals. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. My name’s Shawn Peters. I’m joined as always by Bob Barber, and we’re so glad that you’re here with us today. Whatever day or night that might be when you’re watching or listening to this. Today, we’re going to be covering “10 Steps to DIY Financial Planning”. So we hope this helps you regardless of where you’re at in your financial planning journey, but this will cover how you could do your own financial planning and the 10 areas you need to make sure that you cover.
Bob (00:54):
Anytime during this you feel overwhelmed, we’re always here to help you. We want you to know that because we’re going to be covering a lot of areas that you need to cover when you want to do it yourself.
Shawn (01:04):
And it’s okay if you do feel that way because there is a reason why people like Bob and myself and the rest of the advisors on our team and this entire industry exists because it can feel overwhelming, it can feel complicated, but as always, our goal in this channel is not to just have everybody come work with us, but we want to be able to put as timeless as possible information out there to help people in the area of finance and investing in a way that glorifies God.
Bob (01:31):
And we do understand if some of you want to do it yourself, so we want to help you with that.
Shawn (01:35):
That’s right. Lots of entrepreneurs in this country, right Bob?
Bob (01:38):
Lots. Definitely. And I think a good scripture, why don’t you read the scripture we put in there and I think it’s a really good one to think about as you are doing financial planning.
Shawn (01:48):
That’s right. We are going to be reading from Luke 14:28-30, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.'” I mean, I don’t know what more perfect of a scripture there could be for talking about financial planning and planning ahead before you actually start to build. That’s a great one.
Bob (02:21):
I really think of financial planning like a blueprint and you’ve got to have a complete blueprint. And these 10 keys that we’re going to give you are parts of the blueprint that you must have. You cannot just take one of them out. You need to truly have all 10 of them. And that first one is goals. You’ve got to have goals. There’s and old saying I have, “Aim for nothing and that’s exactly what you’ll hit. You’ll hit nothing, but aim for the stars and maybe you’ll hit the moon”. You have to have a target. If you don’t have a target, there’s nothing to hit.
Shawn (02:56):
Yeah, that’s right. So first you need to write down all of your short-term and long-term financial goals. Examples could include: becoming debt-free, building up three to six months of cash reserves, investing for retirement, or something else. But again, that main thing is, and this is very helpful not just for the purposes of financial planning like we’re talking about today, but also to give you more peace of mind. So if you do have a portfolio and you’re watching what’s going on in the markets or what the news is talking about that day and the headlines, if you know what your short and long-term goals are, you can stay more aligned to those and not panic as much when, “Oh, the market’s dropped,” or, “The markets are up today,” and you don’t get carried away in that emotion.
Bob (03:41):
Yeah, those long-term goals will keep you from looking at the day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.
Shawn (03:46):
Exactly.
Bob (03:47):
If you notice, if you’ll go to a financial website, it’s always talking about what somebody’s – they’re just looking at such a small piece of time and you’ve got to look at it in a long-term perspective.
Shawn (04:00):
Over the year or more, are you actually on track for your goals?
Bob (04:04):
And it helps you get your emotions out of the way. We know emotions and finance just do not mix.
Shawn (04:09):
But it’s hard. We are made in God’s image and that means we do have emotions, but we’ve got to try to curtail those a little bit when it comes to financial decisions. And that takes us into number two, cashflow. And we have another scripture for this. Proverbs 27:23, “Be sure the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds.”
Bob (04:32):
It’s very important that you do a detailed cashflow where you look at, what we call, live, give, owe, grow. That’s the four areas that everything kind of comes into. Live, give, owe, grow because you’re always going to owe taxes, by the way. I mean you could be debt free, but you’re still always going to owe taxes. You want to grow. And a great budgeting worksheet that I’ve used for, gosh, 25 or 30 years is through Crown Ministries. You can go to www.crown.org and just look for the estimated budget worksheet, and this is a really good worksheet to help you do a detailed cashflow analysis. I would suggest also that you do it in pencil with an eraser, that you also make several copies, and then go in on the internet and start building yourself a spreadsheet. But a lot of the programs today have built in spreadsheets as well.
Shawn (05:26):
I love that budget worksheet as well. It’s literally just a one pager and it’s so helpful for people, especially if they’re just getting going with kind of figuring out what is my cashflow? It has all these different categories that people don’t think about. And so, it’s like, “Hey, well what about this? What about this? What about this?” And so they’re like, “Oh, well, how much do I spend on that?”
Bob (05:47):
Well, if you don’t know where things are going, it’s just total chaos.
Shawn (05:50):
We’ll try to put a link in description as well.
Bob (05:52):
Yeah, exactly.
Shawn (05:53):
Which takes us into number three, debt. Now this is one the things under the Owe, like we said, taxes, no matter what, you’re always going to have taxes. But for debt, we have Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.”
Bob (06:08):
I think that’s pretty big words there, too. Like you say, Proverbs never holds back.
Shawn (06:12):
Nope.
Bob (06:13):
And you do, you become slave to that lender, especially if it’s putting you in a position where you just can’t pay it all back.
Shawn (06:20):
That’s right.
Bob (06:21):
And you need to look at how you’re going to get out of debt. There’s a lot of different types of strategies and you have your mortgage debt. Some people have auto debt, they have consumer debt and then college debt, which is a really big subject today, especially politically. They talk about that, and you’re going to have to come up with a strategy for each one of these, and there’s a lot of people that can help you with these different strategies. There’s a snowball effect. Have you ever heard of that before, Shawn? Dave Ramey speaks on that.
Shawn (06:49):
I know Dave Ramsey’s probably the most popular on that.
Bob (06:51):
Which means you actually take your smallest payment first and get rid of that debt and then you snowball it. Don’t worry about the large payment right now, and eventually that will help you get debt free much quicker. Next one is number four.
Shawn (07:07):
Savings.
Bob (07:07):
Kind of say you want to get that debt free. Start the savings part.
Shawn (07:11):
Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” Now, technically they have a queen, but the queen doesn’t really operate the way normally we think of the King or Queen.
Bob (07:29):
When I was kid, I always loved watching ants and how they were constantly working. They got a little piece of food and they’re taking it back and they’re storing that up and with savings, again, there’s a lot of different types of goals. One is that you want to save it for cash reserves and that can take a while, but what are you going to do in the case of you have a medical emergency or the car breaks down or the water heater breaks or the air conditioner breaks. That’s what those cash reserves are there for and why that’s so important to have those.
Shawn (08:04):
Right. Or it could be what we call income shocks and expense shocks. So your income shock for whatever reason. Maybe you are a dual income family and one of you loses your job, you get laid off. Or what if there’s cutbacks and maybe you just get a pay cut or you get your hours cut. It could be a number of different reasons for why your income might have a shock to it and it drops. And then of course these expense shocks, just those, some of the ones we mentioned – those unexpected things that well – you got to pay for it and you don’t want to have to borrow or put it on a credit card. So having that savings is extremely important for that.
Bob (08:41):
And I think it’s good that you have different savings accounts. A lot of people don’t ever think of this, but to have the different types of savings accounts, one savings account that we do is just for gifting – Christmas times, birthdays. That can be expensive, especially when you have grandkids.
Shawn (09:00):
And I know your wife’s love language is gifts, so you’ve got to save up for that.
Bob (09:05):
So you could have those different types of savings accounts.
Shawn (09:09):
Another one for automobile replacement, that you have an account for that. So if eventually you’re going to need to replace the car, well start saving up and put that in a separate savings account so you have an actual emergency savings account. Then you have maybe something for gifts for Christmas, things like that. And then maybe have another one specifically for the automobile, so when it comes time to have to replace that, whether you’re forced to or you decide it’s time, okay, this is how much we have for that in that specific account. I would recommend that you guys go check out episode 186, which is, “Do these seven things before buying your next vehicle”. We went into more detail on the automobile.
Bob (09:48):
Well, and you think about the automobile is one of the most expensive expenditures that you have today besides your house. I mean, automobiles can easily hit that $50,000 mark.
Shawn (10:02):
That’s right.
Bob (10:02):
If you’re buying a truck, it can hit the $100,000 mark.
Shawn (10:06):
Alright, number five, giving. 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 (10:20):
I think it’s important when we think about giving that we have this as part of the financial strategy because there’s nothing that releases materialism more than giving.
Shawn (10:31):
Amen.
Bob (10:31):
And we’ve got to learn to be good givers. I think it’s just sowing into other people’s lives as well. Number one thing you can do, and we had a program on this recently, materialism.
Shawn (10:47):
That’s right.
Bob (10:48):
Spoke about that giving is the number one way to get rid of that materialistic type of thinking, which is so strong here in America.
Shawn (10:56):
That’s right. So giving strategies – how you want to give. It could be cash, which is by far the most common, but non-cash giving such as appreciated assets like stocks, real estate investments, those are ones that people can give far more than they can with cash. So it’s one of those things that definitely look into. It doesn’t mean just cash out of the savings account.
Bob (11:19):
And we’ve had entire podcasts about that. All the different types of ways of giving. So far, we’ve gone through just the first 5 of 10 ideas and keys to financial planning. So now we’re going to get into once we’ve gotten past that. We’ve got the cash flow down, we’ve got the debt down, we’ve got the giving down. Now, we’re going to step into number six, which is investing and having investment goals and strategies.
Shawn (11:46):
That’s right. So, what’s the first thing that you would do under this one, Bob?
Bob (11:48):
The very, very first thing that you want to do is have a written investment strategy.
Shawn (11:53):
That’s right.
Bob (11:55):
Shawn, I’ve mentioned this many times. I’ve never met anybody that’s doing this on their own that actually has a written investment strategy. If you don’t have a written investment strategy, your emotions are going to get the best of you. I mean, one of the things that you’ve got to have in there is do not allow emotions to dictate my decisions.
Shawn (12:14):
Yep, that’s right. That’s why it’s important to have that written down so you know what the strategy is. You know what your goals are, because otherwise you’re going to hear something on the news. You’re going to get some hot tip from somebody and you’re not going to know, “Is this really in alignment with what I’m actually trying to do?”
Bob (12:33):
If you want to go to our website to www.ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com, you can look at our investment strategy and that could be an example.
Shawn (12:40):
Feel free to build your own off that.
Bob (12:42):
And as a Christian, it’s very important also that we’re not yoaking ourselves with companies that do things that go against Christian values. And we’ve talked all about Biblically responsible investing many times here, which has to do with staying away from the evil and supporting the good.
Shawn (13:01):
In the kids’ language, right? Today, Bob, it’s woke. So you’ve been investing non woke for how many decades now?
Bob (13:10):
Three as a matter of fact. And also when you’re thinking about investing, you want to do what’s called a bucket strategy. This has been if you just again, Google “bucket strategy” to come up, but this is where with your investing, you break it down into different categories for your investments from short-term goals to midterm goals to long-term goals.
Shawn (13:31):
Yeah, so maybe like your short term of the next one to three years, and you’ve got maybe 5-8 years and then 10 years plus, just as an example.
Bob (13:40):
I was just thinking when we were doing this, now we’re about to get into our last four. If I was hearing all this and I was thinking I was going to do all this myself, I’d be starting to become overwhelmed.
Shawn (13:52):
Could be, yeah,.
Bob (13:53):
But we’re here. We’re here if you need us for any of that. So number 7 is risk. You got to think of risk in your financial plan, and you need to devise a risk management plan. And that will basically come up with two ideas here. Two things that you need to look at. One is insurance. That’s your home, your life insurance, health, disability, income replacement in case of accident, premature death, cancer, health insurance.
Shawn (14:22):
The most common one that we see where people aren’t properly covering their risk is disability for that income replacement.
Bob (14:28):
Yeah, it is.
Shawn (14:30):
Sure. Most people have some sort of life insurance, pretty much I believe at most if not almost 100% of people. I know there’s a few that have home and auto insurance as well, but that disability is statistically so much more likely that you might need it. And it could be as simple as you’re injured and just maybe you can’t work for 6 months, 6-12 months. It doesn’t mean you’re permanently disabled.
(14:53):
But that is something definitely I would encourage everyone to look at. It is more expensive than life insurance. By its very nature, it’s more likely statistically that the insurance company is going to have to pay you on it, but that’s where that emergency savings comes in. Where if you have that at least six months, the longer you delay that disability income from kicking in for that insurance, the less costly it’s going to be. And so you balance it with the savings and then only if you’re not able to work for too long do you have to dip into that insurance then.
Bob (15:24):
And it comes under risk. Also, you want to look at not just insurance, but how do you own things?
Shawn (15:30):
So your asset ownership.
Bob (15:31):
So if you have a rental home or any kind of rental property, you want to have that in a limited partnership in a different type of name and never put more than one property in a limited partnership because then you’re exposing both properties. When one thing happens to one property, they’re going to get the other property.
Shawn (15:49):
Same thing if you own your own business and you have company cars, you have trucks, or maybe you’re in service industry or something and you have some of your staff members that are driving your vehicles around. You want to make sure you don’t have that as a sole proprietorship because you’re just exposing everything you have. And if somebody gets hit by that car, runs into it, and then they try to sue you for everything.
Bob (16:11):
Shawn, we watch TV and our airways here in Texas are just all about the attorneys that are constantly, well, recently we were in Washington state and Oregon State and both states had all the same advertisements and then we went to Colorado, same advertisements. So they’re everywhere. They’re always looking to sue somebody. And that’s why risk is so important, when you think about it, in your financial plan. So now we’re down to the last three, which, well, this is a big one.
Shawn (16:38):
Number 8 is taxes. Use annual income tax strategies to lower taxes. So for example, deferring income in years you’re in a high income tax bracket is one way to help with that.
Bob (16:50):
And that means if you have a bonus, maybe you could defer that bonus if you’re going to have a lower income the following year.
Shawn (16:57):
Or maybe see if the company would pay you half the bonus in December and half the bonus in January.
Bob (17:02):
Right.
Shawn (17:02):
So another one, lumping deductions over several years like property taxes and giving to surpass the standard deduction. So that one, if I remember correctly, Bob, is the one where you go ahead and pay your taxes, say in January for the previous year, but then as soon as you get your tax bill for the next year, you pay your property taxes before the end of December.
Bob (17:22):
That’s right. So you lump them in the same year.
Shawn (17:24):
You pay in the same year.
Bob (17:24):
Because that standard deduction is, as we know, is around 25,000 – 27,000. And unless you get over that, you’re not going to get to deduct anything. Now with property taxes, the limit is $10,000, at least under the current tax laws.
Shawn (17:37):
That plus if there’s some giving and other things that you could do to surpass the standard deduction. Another one is give from appreciated assets over cash when possible.
Bob (17:45):
Always, always good idea.
Shawn (17:47):
Maxing out qualified plans like from a 401k, TSP, 403b, SEP IRA. However, this should be balanced with the consideration of tax diversification within one’s investment portfolio. While you may get a tax deduction, you are a partner with the US government on every dollar that you have in pre-tax retirement accounts. So just got to be strategic, thinking about the long term, and acknowledge that the delayed gratification tax benefits may be in one’s overall benefit for the long term. And again, it gets a little complicated, so we’re not giving you a very specific thing. We’re not a CPA in this case, but just trying to give you things to think about.
Bob (18:28):
Well, like I’ve mentioned before, many times I very seldom, if ever, have met anyone that’s in a higher tax bracket when they’re retired. So I believe in taking the maximum deduction that you can. And it’s amazing how many people do not max out their 401k, TSP plan.
Shawn (18:46):
Yep. That should be the first thing you do. Make sure you’re doing that.
Bob (18:49):
You’re right.
Shawn (18:49):
And then the final one, using the defined benefit plan if you are self-employed or you own a business. That’s definitely one of those where you can, like Bob just mentioned, try to delay that income, taking it now for later.
Bob (19:00):
And that’s on top of a 401k and we can explain that to you, but this is something if you’re DIY doing it yourself, you want to consider. The last two. Number 9 is estate planning. It’s so important. We’ve seen many times over where the estate plan was not done properly or even done at all. We’re amazed at how many people we find have not put together their will and their durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney. So, so important that you do that and that comes within the financial plan.
Shawn (19:30):
One of the things within that, a will is kind of the most basic, but also setting up a will and a trust is something that definitely would encourage you to consider and look at. You can even do things like family limited partnership. You can set up medical power of attorney. So it doesn’t mean…
Bob (19:47):
It’s all part of it.
Shawn (19:48):
Yeah, that’s all part of it, but it’s all stuff that’s important that if you can’t make medical decisions for yourself and what if your spouse is not able to make decisions for you, it’d be good to have a backup.
Bob (20:00):
And now we’re down to our last one of the day and that is retirement planning, which is now such an integral part of financial planning. And that’s coming up.
Shawn (20:10):
We’re almost done. I know we’re going a little long on this one, but stick with us for this last part.
Bob (20:15):
And this is coming up with an accumulation investment strategy, looking at should you consider using a Roth or even doing a Roth conversion. Withdrawal strategies are extremely important when you’re retired that you don’t withdraw too much from your portfolio.
Shawn (20:33):
Great example of that, Bob, would be do you take out a lump sum each year or are you taking out that same amount but spread out over 12 months? Because that timing can significantly impact your overall performance as well. If you take it out at a really bad time for the year, it can hurt.
Bob (20:52):
I suggest taking it out monthly. And one of the things that I’m helping clients do more and more, and you want to think about if you’re doing this yourself, is think about when you first retire. We call those the go-go years. That’s really the most expensive time of retirement is you’re wanting to travel and you’re wanting to maybe buy that RV. You want to go see those grandkids. Then there’s the slow go years. That’s 76 to 85 years old. That’s one of the least expensive times of retirement years. And then there’s the no-go years, 86 to 100, but the healthcare rise, cost of healthcare, gets you there, assisted living. Now there are software programs to do all of this for you and to help you with this planning.
Shawn (21:35):
These what ifs.
Bob (21:36):
Yeah, all the different what ifs. But we understand after hearing all this, I mean even myself, I’m like I do this with the help of other advisors here with my own planning so much to it, but we know a lot of people like to do it yourself, but these are the 10 keys. You don’t want to miss any of these or you’re going to have a hole in your financial plan.
Shawn (21:59):
That’s right. If it does come down to, you’re looking for someone to help you with this because it just does seem like a little bit too much, definitely consider hiring an experienced, fee only, fiduciary based, financial advisor and planner to help you put it all together. We’re not the only ones. Yes, we’d love for you to work with us, but keep in mind we’re not the only one. Just make sure it’s a fee only, fiduciary based, so that way…
Bob (22:22):
They’re not a commission based.
Shawn (22:24):
That way they’re operating in what’s your best interest in that long-term relationship, not just trying to make a quick buck off of a product.
(22:32):
And we’re going to cover Luke 14:28-30 one more time to close, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying this person began to build and wasn’t able to finish. This is what we do here at Christian Financial Advisors from a Biblical worldview day in and day out, and Bob’s been doing it day in and day out for over 30 years. So you can call or text us at 830-609-6986 or you can visit our website www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. Thanks for joining us and God bless.
——-
[CONCLUSION]
That’s all for now.
We invite you to listen to all of our past episodes covering many financial topics from a Christian Perspective. To make sure you don’t miss any of Bob’s upcoming episodes you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.
[DISCLOSURES]
* Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.
24 min
October 07, 2024 The Dangers of Fast Money
Are you tempted by the allure of quick riches? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover the dangers of fast money, while exploring why sudden wealth can lead to reckless decisions and financial ruin. They also discuss how to align your financial journey with Biblical wisdom. The Bible repeatedly warns against the pursuit of wealth through dishonest or unwise means. Instead, create a comprehensive plan focused on long-term goals rather than short-term gains. The key is to avoid the temptation of “fast money” and instead focus on faithful stewardship of one’s resources.
16 min
October 07, 2024 210 – The Dangers of Fast Money
Click below to listen to Episode 210 – The Dangers of Fast Money
The Dangers of Fast Money

Uncover a few of the potential dangers of “fast money”.

More episodes >>

Are you tempted by the allure of quick riches? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover the dangers of fast money, while exploring why sudden wealth can lead to reckless decisions and financial ruin. They also discuss how to align your financial journey with Biblical wisdom.
The Bible repeatedly warns against the pursuit of wealth through dishonest or unwise means. Instead, create a comprehensive plan focused on long-term goals rather than short-term gains. The key is to avoid the temptation of “fast money” and instead focus on faithful stewardship of one’s resources.

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

Christian Financial Advisors
Website

Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
LUKE 12:15
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
LUKE 16:10
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
PROVERBS 20:21
An inheritance claimed too soon will not be blessed at the end.
1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. Gambling fosters reckless behavior and can be addictive.

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

Shawn (00:00):
Are you tempted by the allure of quick riches? In today’s episode, we’ll uncover the dangers of fast money, exploring why sudden wealth can lead to reckless decisions and financial ruin. We’ll also discuss how to align your financial journey with Biblical wisdom. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome back to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. My name’s Shawn Peters. This is Bob Barber, and today we’re going to be covering the dangers of fast money. Now, in today’s podcast, we’re going to be focusing on this concept of fast money inspired by a CNBC program that we definitely don’t like very much. We despise it, but it often promotes greed and gambling in the markets. And we’ll discuss why this mindset can be harmful. Now, the phrase “fast money” suggests that it can disappear as quickly as it arrives. Unlike slow earned wealth, fast money can lead to reckless behavior and poor financial decisions.
Bob (01:02):
And this is interesting because it is nearly, like they say, “Welcome to fast money.” That’s what they always say on the CNBC and I’ll listen to it. Gosh, it is just so much about they even say, “Play this and play that. Just play with your money.” Luke 12:15 gives us a warning of this. “Then he said, ‘Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'” And I tell you, we’ve got to be very, very careful as Christians when it comes to this type of topic and trying to get rich quick. That can be based on greed.
Shawn (01:41):
How many Proverbs verses are there that talk about, “Little by little, how money that’s gained quickly or dishonestly fades away, but money that is gained little by little lasts?”
Bob (01:54):
It’s just throughout scripture.
Shawn (01:56):
That’s one of them. But I mean there’s just tons of scriptures on that on, “It’s not about get rich quick.”
Bob (02:03):
Yeah.
Shawn (02:03):
So fast money often leads to impulsive and unwise decisions.
Bob (02:09):
It does, sure does. And some of these examples that you just think about includes lottery winners and these young athletes that get these 10 million or even 50 million dollar contracts and then you go back to them 10 years later and many times they’re worse off financially then before it ever happened.
Shawn (02:31):
That’s right.
Bob (02:32):
And that’s a major pitfall, and it can create divorces, anger,, stress. If you don’t know how to handle a little money, how are you going to know how to handle a lot.
Shawn (02:44):
Exactly. Which takes us right into our second scripture, which is Luke 16:10, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Scripture says it right there.
Bob (02:59):
You can’t manage the small stuff.
Shawn (03:02):
Why do you think you’re going to be able to handle the large amount? And what ends up happening is when you come into that sudden wealth, which is also sudden wealth syndrome, I know we’ve done at least a couple episodes on that, right?
Bob (03:10):
We have.
Shawn (03:10):
But that sudden wealth syndrome, the reason why it’s so… can be so damaging is money amplifies our strengths and weaknesses.
Bob (03:20):
It does.
Shawn (03:20):
And so if you’ve not been able to manage what you already have well and you all of a sudden get a lot of money, then you end up making the same kind of mistakes but with larger dollar amounts. For example, what’s that one show where they renovate a house, like crazy renovations on a house, and they make it super, super nice? I remember reading an article about how the vast majority of those people end up being financially ruined and they don’t even have the house later because the taxes alone on this super nice, expensive house now, the families can’t afford it.
Bob (03:53):
Yeah. We’re going to go over seven common ways that you come about fast money. Now, this is not bad at all, these first two or three, because these are things a lot, many times, beyond your control, alright? But I think what we’re talking about today, we are talking about the dangers of fast money and that first one is inheritance. I’ve seen many times going from zero to a million dollars overnight in an inheritance and, “An inheritance gained too quickly will not be blessed in the end.” And that says that in Proverbs 20:21. And parents, grandparents, you must know if those children cannot handle that money well now, what makes you think they’re going to handle that much more well?
Shawn (04:44):
And I think again, this really goes into an inheritance can either bless or curse the next generation. And one of the things that I know we’ve helped people with, but you can set up your estate planning to where you have a certain dollar amount ratio. Let’s say you set it at a one to three or a one to two.
Bob (05:07):
Percent.
Shawn (05:07):
Well not a percent, no. I mean where the inheritor has to demonstrate that they’ve at least saved and invested a certain amount. And so it’s at a one to two or one to three, you have an extra $500,000 that’s going to go to one of the people inheriting it. Well, if they have at least $100,000 put into their investment accounts, then you can kind see that as say as a one to five. Okay, well they’ve earned the inheritance, at least they’ve been faithful and wise with what they have. The other thing like you were kind of alluding to is maybe instead of the entire inheritance goes to your kids or the grandkids, but you said it as, “Alright, you can get 3% per year. Period. That’s the most that can be taken out.”
Bob (05:50):
And as you know, that’s the way we’ve set ours up because I’ve shared it with you. And if it makes 5% then that’s great because they get 3% and 2% goes back in and it just grows and grows. And that can go for multi-generations. And there’s other things that you can put around that. But we’ll mention that on a…
Shawn (06:05):
Yeah, we’ll more depth on another episode.
Bob (06:07):
We’ll have an entire other podcast, an episode for YouTube, on and inheritance and how to wisely hand that off.
Shawn (06:14):
Number two is a retirement lump sum payout.
Bob (06:17):
We see this a lot, don’t we?
Shawn (06:18):
Yeah. Where people have the option to either get a certain amount per year for the rest of their life for X number of years, or they get that big lump sum. With the right kind of planning, that lump sum can be more beneficial in the long run, but we also have seen many times where that ends up, it gets spent really fast.
Bob (06:40):
Or it gets invested in a wrong way. We had a client inherit a lump sum. We put them – not inherit – I mean they got a retirement lump sum. We put them into a very diversified portfolio. They started getting impatient, they wanted to make more of a return. They started looking at aggressive growth and what that was doing. They started coveting and they took the entire lump sum out and went and put it in one asset class. That was very, very dangerous. And this asset class has not even kept rate with inflation over the past 30 to 40 years. Number three is life insurance payout. We’ve seen this happen before many times. I mean, not a lot of times, but unfortunately this is something that’s not fun, but that’s got to be handled with wisdom and there’s dangers behind getting a life insurance payout if you don’t know how to handle it. The unfortunate thing, I’ve seen too with widows, is for some reason family members start coming out of the woodwork and needing a loan.
Shawn (07:42):
It could be kids, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, sister, whoever, all of a sudden and then they have a sob story. And if you don’t want to give them the money, then they give you the guilt trip. And it’s honestly a shame on the people that are trying to take advantage of the widow at that point.
Bob (07:59):
But we’ve had a lot of widows that we’ve helped here for the last 25, 30 years that we’ve helped them to slowly not overspend. And it’s still here today and even more so today than it was when the life insurance payout. But we’ve done another podcast on that.
Shawn (08:15):
Number four, and this is going to be the last one of the, not necessarily something wrong with it, but it is one of the most common ways. Hang on. So number four is oil and gas discovery. And then we’re going to do the last three are we would overall probably say just maybe avoid them, but oil and gas and I mean Bob, how many times did you deal with this from the Eagle Ford Shale around our area in Texas and had all these ranchers and other families that they might’ve gone from $40,000 – $50,000 a year income and all of a sudden they’re making a $100,000 or more a month. But also, over time, it started dropping pretty fast, too. And people started to get used to a lifestyle that they could spend a million dollars a year and then all of a sudden their income is a $100,000 or $150,000 a year, and they can’t maintain it.
Bob (09:06):
It’s the old 80/20 rule here. And I think I unfortunately saw about 80% of those that did get quite a oil and gas discovery on their land. They spent it all, and it’s kind of a sad thing. That was about 10 or 15 years ago when we had this huge oil strike in South Texas that was one of the largest in the world at the time. It really created boom towns in South Texas, but that’s all kind of gone away now. It’s still there, but you’ve got to understand when you get that kind of fast money, it’s got to be done with wisdom.
Shawn (09:44):
That’s right. And so then number five is gambling.
Bob (09:47):
So these are the last three are…
Shawn (09:49):
Exactly.
Bob (09:50):
Okay.
Shawn (09:50):
These are more or less, we would probably overall recommend you avoid these, but gambling, we’ve got 1 Corinthians 15;33, “Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Gambling fosters reckless behavior and can be incredibly addictive.” We’re not talking about just going to Vegas, but now there’s the stuff you can do online and on your phone. There’s the, I am sorry if I step on some toes, but the fantasy sports league, whatever football or whatever sport it is, that is gambling if you’re throwing money at it. So just be careful with it. And the old school gambling, I guess I would say, is definitely just avoid that. Period.
Bob (10:30):
And then this next one, lottery. The lottery wins are just so far and few between or the stats of that are, as you know, 1 in 500 million. I heard somebody say, well the odds of winning a lottery, or you’d have a better likelihood of getting struck by lightning if you live 37,000 lifetimes. When you do the math, it’d probably be more than that.
Shawn (10:50):
No, sorry. It’s something about the likelihood of being struck by lightning over thousands of lifetimes. So over and over and over and over. Thousands. Yeah. It’s crazy. The other way to look at it is when the odds are that high, you could say, okay, imagine trying to pick the address of a home somewhere between North America, Central America, and South America. You get one guess to guess the address. It’s basically the same thing.
Bob (11:16):
That’s like a needle in a haystack.
Shawn (11:18):
Yeah, we recommend avoiding that. The last one, lucky stock picks, which kind of goes right in with the gambling and lottery wins. Well, stocks can fall just as quickly as they rise. And many times, they typically fall at a faster rate than the actual rise. So, be careful. And what’s that phrase, Bob, that you’ve been telling me for years now?
Bob (11:40):
That’s a country boy phrase, “Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.”
Shawn (11:44):
Okay, so what does that mean when it comes to stocks?
Bob (11:48):
Well, you think about it, if a stock’s gone up by a 100% or 200%, which we’ve seen some of these AI stocks do that, I think it’s time to get out of the way and move on.
Shawn (12:01):
Maybe diversify a little bit, rebalance, take some of your profits.
Bob (12:04):
Because like you say, the pigs are just fattening up. But once they become a hog and they get to a certain size, then they get slaughtered. I think you need to be very careful with that. That is kind of a country boy saying. It’s funny.
Shawn (12:17):
Yeah. So as you can see, many times it is just from pure luck or being at the right place at the perfect time. So as Christians, Bob, should we pursue fast money?
Bob (12:27):
I think we should not. I think we should absolutely try not to. Do not pursue fast money. I think it’s dangerous and scripture repeatedly warns us about the dangers of fast money or sudden wealth. Now, when fast money comes through an inheritance, lump sum, life insurance, or an oil and gas discovery, that’s different, but it’s crucial that…
Shawn (12:50):
It’s not bad in of itself, but it’s crucial to manage it wisely.
Bob (12:54):
There is a danger in it.
Shawn (12:56):
Yeah. In conclusion, the first step would be to consult with a fee-based, fiduciary financial advisor to create a comprehensive financial plan tailored to your short and long-term goals. This is important for a number of reasons, but one, it’s to make sure that however that money came in, you want it to last longer than you do, just like a normal retirement planning. We are looking at, okay, well do you have anybody that lived past age 90 in your family? Do we need to put 100 years as the potential age range for you? Or is 90 Okay? And then make sure in the planning that it’ll last at least as long as that. And the other part with that, I think is very helpful, Bob, is when you have a plan in place, it also helps you to avoid the mistake of coveting, “Well I heard so-and-so a friend of mine or a family member that they had this good stock pick or they had this whatever, and it’s up X amount where I’m only up less than that.” Well, if you’re on track for your short and long-term goals, why does it matter? Because is the goal to just get as big of a return as possible or is the goal to meet your actual financial goals? And personally, I think it’s a lot less stressful when you look at it that way, too.
Bob (14:14):
There’s a good program we made just recently called the “Financial Fear of Missing Out”.
Shawn (14:18):
That’s right.
Bob (14:19):
Sometimes, the last thing that’s said is the most important, and we look at the 10 Commandments and it says, “Do not covet.” And we have to be very careful of that, not to covet what other people have or the returns that they’re making. Like you say, if the returns are right there in line with your financial plan and your goals, short-term goals and long-term goals, you’re fine.
Shawn (14:40):
Yeah, exactly. It doesn’t matter. So at Christian Financial Advisors, we are here to help guide you through this process. We’d love to hear from you. Whether you want some help with this or you just want to give us an idea for another podcast episode, visit us www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. You can also call or text us Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Standard Time at 830-609-6986. Thank you so much for joining us and as always, 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.
16 min
September 23, 2024 Biblical Insights for a Meaningful Retirement
What does the Bible really say about retirement? Retirement is actually mentioned only once in the Bible, where it refers to the Levites retiring from their regular service at the age of 50. However, the Bible emphasizes the importance of work around 500 times, with work being part of God's original design for humans. Retirement, as we understand it today, is a cultural concept rather than a Biblical one. In this episode, Bob and Shawn explore how to align your retirement plans with a Biblical perspective, focusing on service, purpose, and finishing life. Retirement should not be solely focused on personal interests and agendas but should be about glorifying God and serving Him.
20 min
September 23, 2024 209 – Retiring With A Biblical Perspective
Click below to listen to Episode 209 – Retiring With A Biblical Perspective
Retiring With A Biblical Perspective

Learn how to retire with a positive mindset by following these Biblical principles.

More episodes >>

What does the Bible really say about retirement? Retirement is actually mentioned only once in the Bible, where it refers to the Levites retiring from their regular service at the age of 50. However, the Bible emphasizes the importance of work around 500 times, with work being part of God’s original design for humans. Retirement, as we understand it today, is a cultural concept rather than a Biblical one.
In this episode, Bob and Shawn explore how to align your retirement plans with a Biblical perspective, focusing on service, purpose, and finishing life. Retirement should not be solely focused on personal interests and agendas but should be about glorifying God and serving Him.

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
NUMBERS 8:23-26
The Lord said to Moses, “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. [26] They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.”
GENESIS 2:15
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
ECCLESIASTES 3:22
So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?
COLOSSIANS 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, [24] since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
PHILIPPIANS 2:3-4
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shawn (00:00):
What does the Bible really say about retirement? In today’s episode, we’ll explore how to align your retirement plans with a Biblical perspective, focusing on service purpose and finishing life. Well, let’s get some perspective.
(00:20):
Welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. My name is Shawn Peters. This is Bob Barber, and today we’re going to be covering “Retiring With A Biblical Perspective”. Now, for those of you who aren’t aware, especially those of us who live in America, modern America, retire appears only one time in the Bible. Wow. Just once, and it’s in numbers 8:23-26, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘This applies to the Levites, men 25 years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, but at the age of 50, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This then is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.'”
Bob (01:12):
Okay, so let’s…
Shawn (01:13):
Puts it in context, right?
Bob (01:15):
Let’s put this in context because first of all, it only appears one time, and when we look at how it appears in the Bible with the second part of the scripture, it talks about they’re not retiring actually from everything. They’re coming back and their mentoring, the retiring generation
Shawn (01:33):
From the primary duties, and they’re now working by mentoring the following generation.
Bob (01:39):
It’s kind of like when I need something really heavy moved now, I come to you, Shawn, alright, because I’m 62. So you think about that, it’s the heavy burden is given to the younger generation, but there’s so much wisdom in the older generation that can be passed down and that’s what is happening here. You can see, but it only appears one time. So God doesn’t really have a lot to say about retirement, but he does have a lot to say about work, doesn’t he?
Shawn (02:07):
Yeah. Exactly.
Bob (02:07):
How many times in the Bible?
Shawn (02:09):
Well, like we’ve talked about, I think we might have said this before on another episode, but depending on the translation and the scholar it varies, but I believe the consensus is at least 500 plus times.
Bob (02:21):
I know in the NIV, it’s over 550 times.
Shawn (02:24):
Yeah, so saying over 500 is the safest bet because depending on the version, it might be more or less.
Bob (02:28):
And I think these two scriptures, or actually three scriptures, that go with work really emphasized as well the importance of it. And it was before the fall as well. So I’ll let you read these scriptures.
Shawn (02:44):
Sure thing. Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” So that’s I guess one of the first mentions of work.
Bob (02:56):
And before the fall.
Shawn (02:57):
And again, this takes place before the fall, so work is not a result of sin. Work was always part of God’s original design, but sin obviously added some thorns and thistles and things that can make work harder.
Bob (03:11):
Weeds for farmers.
Shawn (03:12):
Exactly. And then Ecclesiastes 3:22, “So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work because that is their lot, for who can bring them to see what will happen after them.”
Bob (03:25):
Let’s think about that scripture and enjoying your work. After a good day of work, Shawn, it is enjoyable.
Shawn (03:31):
It feels rewarding.
Bob (03:33):
It feels rewarding. It sure does.
Shawn (03:34):
Also, Colossians 3:23_24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you’ll receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Bob (03:51):
Now, you and I were talking yesterday and you mentioned that worship.
Shawn (03:57):
Yeah, I remember it was a pastor, forget which pastor it wa I heard, but they were mentioning that I guess in the original Hebrew that there’s a word that you see throughout scripture, and work and worship are the same word. I guess it just kind of depends on the context for which one it gets translated into for English. And so just thought that was interesting that instead of the idea of just, “Oh yeah, work can be your worship.” Well apparently, depending on the language, work and worship is one and the same.
Bob (04:27):
Work is really good. And you think about, we’re talking today about is retirement Biblical, and retirement completely negates an integral aspect of God’s design. And that is we were created to work, he created us to work. And also retirement, what it does is it normalizes something that was never intended to be normal, which is not working. That’s just not normal. Now I will say, and we want to say this right up front, we’re not here to attack retirement.
Shawn (04:58):
Not at all. No, we’re just trying to challenge the modern concept of retirement and what is a more Biblical way for us as Christians to retire?
Bob (05:09):
And I think we’re going to give you, we’ve got some good notes here that we’re going to give you a Biblical view of retirement.
Shawn (05:17):
So the question is, for those of you watching or listening, what do you think God thinks about retirement since it only appears once in the Bible compared to work appearing well over 500 times?
Bob (05:28):
Well now if I were to hear that question for the first time, what do you think God thinks about retirement since it only appears once? I would just think, well, there’s really not a lot of emphasis on it.
Shawn (05:39):
Then probably not that important. And I do find it interesting that the one mention of retirement shows the first generation, you say the first generation of the priest and now the second generation is coming up and they transition from being the primary workers to the helpers and the mentors – like you talked about with lifting and the heavy stuff. I mean even our firm here, I hope that Bob never fully retires.
Bob (06:06):
Well, thank you. I don’t plan on it.
Shawn (06:09):
Completely because over time there might be more and more things that our staff is able to take over certain responsibilities. But even if it’s 10, 15 years from now, well Bob, that means you have another 10, 15 years of experience in this. So at a minimum, why would we not want to have you as a mentor and someone to provide counsel and advice to the team? I mean, as long as your mind’s still working, it doesn’t matter if you can’t lift anything heavy.
Bob (06:36):
I look at Warren Buffet, I think he’s 92 or 93 years old and he’s still going. But that’s not to say that I’m not semi-retired, which I’m starting to look at doing right now to give more time to your children, my grandchildren. For Christians, retirement can be about serving our own agenda or it can be about service to God and service to others and helping others. I would hope that all Christians want to do the latter. That it’s not going to be about ourselves, but it’s going to be about others and giving the time. And we’re going to mention some of those things. I came up with a list. So think of retirement like this. Think of retirement that you’re retiring TO something, not FROM something because that’s a different mindset. I’m retiring to something. That’s going to be meaningful and have purpose and significance.
Shawn (07:31):
Maybe your career that you’ve been working for however many years that was to take care of yourself and your family. Maybe it was something that you weren’t as passionate about as maybe something else that you were doing part-time on the side or helping with the church or something of that nature. And now that you are retiring from your career, well you could look at maybe you’re retiring to do that thing full time or maybe it’s something still within the same industry, but you want to work for free or very little money, but maybe you are a mentor within the space that you are in. So that’s what you’re retiring to do as opposed to just retiring from work in general.
Bob (08:15):
We’ve really got to get this idea of retirement because we’ve been hearing this now for about 90 years, and up until about 90 years ago, there was no such thing as retirement as we know it today. I say it was invented by a liberal president. He did it during the Great Depression to replace the older men that were in the workplace with younger men and give them a job. And then he came out with social security, which is a good thing, but it can also, it is social, so it kind of goes along the socialist movement in a way. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing.
Shawn (08:56):
It’s a government provided pension effectively.
Bob (08:58):
But before that, people worked as long as they could. My great great great grandfather here in Texas that settled Travis County, he worked, he lived to 90 years old and he was still working because he was a farmer and a rancher. As we look at this, though, it’s looking at retirement in several different ways. And the question, again, is why do people retire today? I came up with seven different reasons, and it’s not a bad thing to retire. We want to mention that very much. But many, just number one is they just get tired of working. You get tired. I mean, Shawn, about two o’clock in the afternoon, I get tired now and I need that nap. Well, I still needed it sometimes even in my thirties and forties, but not as much as I do today. I really get that afternoon, I can go take that 30 minute nap and I’m ready to go again, but you just get tired.
Shawn (10:01):
Or maybe someone wants to pursue more fun activities like golf and pickleball, fishing, hiking, whatever it might be.
Bob (10:08):
I can raise my hand there because I’m starting to love pickleball and play golf as long as it’s not too hot outside. And we love hiking. We’re going hiking in a few weeks. And number three would be travel the world. And these are things that you do with your wife and experience different cultures. And my wife and I, we went to Europe last year for a couple weeks and it was really amazing. And I did get to experience different cultures that I’ve never experienced before because I was working so hard.
Shawn (10:36):
Or number four, maybe pursue their own agenda instead of someone elses because they’ve been working in the corporate rat race. Number five, Bob.
Bob (10:45):
Just to enjoy life outside of work because you are working 40 or 50 hours a week, you don’t have a lot of time outside of that to just enjoy life. And to take on hobbies. I know so many retirees because I work with so many, and some of them are just growing incredible gardens. They bring really good fruits and vegetables into us. Some are ranching, some are even writing a book. The other day I had one of our clients give me a book she had written, which was a great book, but this is the sad one, number seven is some people their health has deteriorated.
Shawn (11:20):
Yhey can’t work.
Bob (11:21):
Yeah.
Shawn (11:23):
None of these, I guess maybe seven, which is unfortunate, but none of the other six are necessarily a bad reason to retire.
Bob (11:30):
No, not at all.
Shawn (11:31):
Let’s look now at what a Biblical worldview of retirement could look like.
Bob (11:35):
It’s going to center around this scripture.
Shawn (11:37):
That’s right. Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest, but each of you to the interest of the others.” So, Biblical perspective retirement could look like, number one…
Bob (11:56):
Being there for your grandchildren. I’m looking forward to that. That’s starting to already happen. Shawn, I was working so hard in my younger years, I wish I’d have had more time with the children and as grandparents, we many times say, “If I knew it was going to be this good, I’d have been a grandparent first.” But that’s the way life is and it can truly be a second chance at life with those grandchildren.
Shawn (12:19):
And number two, retirement could be taking on more responsibilities at a nonprofit or doing some volunteer work, kind of like I mentioned earlier.
Bob (12:27):
It could be about just giving back time to your spouse because for the many years you were working outside the home and you were away from each other. So now during those retirement years, that is very, very important. And I see this over and over and it’s a wonderful thing that you can give that time back to your spouse that you missed out.
Shawn (12:48):
Number four could be a mentor to others.
Bob (12:51):
And that could be grandchildren, but that could also be just young men that maybe don’t have a dad that need…
Shawn (12:58):
Kids in the community.
Bob (12:59):
Or young women. If you’re a retired woman, you could mentor young women. They really need, they’re lost today. I think that as retirees, we can come in and really do a great job at that.
Shawn (13:13):
Number five, to be a teacher.
Bob (13:15):
All that knowledge, think about that, about what you could teach. Number six, you could just do missions in your own town. You don’t have to go to Africa, you don’t have to go across the world to do missions. And not that that’s a bad thing, that’s a wonderful thing to do, but there’s so much mission work right in your own territory. I just think about my mom is in assisted living and the ministry that can be done there. Every time I go there, I spend time patting people on the back saying hi, talking to them and it means so much. And I could see where that’s a mission right there. Or just Habitat for Humanity or working at the senior citizen center.
Shawn (13:55):
Food bank. Helping out. Whatever it might be.
Bob (13:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Shawn (13:58):
Just helping the sick, forgotten lonely people that need help, and number seven, be productive in many ways. Bob, I know you wrote this one, so got any examples of that one?
Bob (14:10):
Of being productive in many ways? Well, on the 17 acres I’m on, I’m productive in many ways all the time, but I’m not retired yet. But like I said, I am moving to a semi-retirement. So I think there’s this list of questions as we come to the end of the day’s program that you want to think about, and this is if you’re retired right now.
Shawn (14:31):
Or are about to retire
Bob (14:32):
Or you’re about to, and just think about this question, Exactly why do you want to retire? And if you’re retired, why are you retired?
Shawn (14:41):
Number two, what will your purpose be in retirement? Or if you are retired, what is your purpose? Or maybe a better way to put that, what do you want to be your purpose, whether you’ve already retired or you are going to be retiring some point in the future, what will your purpose be?
Bob (14:57):
I think number three here is good to look at what your days look like and to actually write down, “This is the hours and what I’m going to do and the hours I’m given.” Otherwise, you can end up at the end of the day, Shawn, and you’ve accomplished nothing or done anything of significance.
Shawn (15:13):
Kind of the opposite of what we talked about when you have a good day’s work and you feel a sense of accomplishment, it’s important to have that schedule so you don’t feel like you’re just drifting aimlessly.
Bob (15:24):
And there’s nothing wrong with relaxing, but relaxing 24/7, 365 days of the year, that can put you into depression.
Shawn (15:32):
Number four, how will you serve others or how do you want to serve others if you’re retired?
Bob (15:37):
Yep. Number five, will retirement be all about your agenda or will it be about an agenda of helping others? And think about that. Even if you’re retired now, serving the Lord and helping others. It comes back to that scripture that we mentioned.
Shawn (15:53):
Which goes into number six. How can you serve and help others during retirement?
Bob (15:58):
Write that down, write some of these questions down. Go back and listen to this, put it on pause, go backwards, write some of these things down. I think by putting it in writing, it’s going to make a very, very…
Shawn (16:08):
It makes a big difference. So retiring with a Biblical perspective for a Christian is about serving and helping others with your free time as long as it’s not done solely based on works.
Bob (16:18):
Yeah, I mean it’s by grace that we’ve been saved.
Shawn (16:21):
Exactly. Yeah. Not for your own glory, but doing things to serve the Lord.
Bob (16:27):
Retirement is not a Biblical concept, but a cultural one. So if the Lord gives you every breath that you have, it’s because he still has something for you to do, and our goal should be to finish life well.
Shawn (16:40):
That’s right. Retirement is a phase in life when you can use your gifts, skills, and abilities to glorify God differently than when you were working full time. I always think of it as your career is what you do to take care of yourself and your family, but when you get into the retirement phase of your life, well now you’re doing what God’s really calling you to do regardless of the income.
Bob (17:02):
That’s exactly right. And in closing, there is a question about all this, too, when you’re retiring, can you financially afford to retire? And this is something that you really need to run by a fee-based, fiduciary based, financial advisor. We do it from a Christian Biblical worldview. We would love to help you with this. We don’t sell any commission-based products. I think it’s very important when you think about your financial retirement is steering clear of somebody that may have a conflict of interest to sell you a financial product.
Shawn (17:35):
Keep in mind, there are advisors that will say that you don’t pay them a commission. Well, a better way to look at that is are they getting paid a commission, period? Whether it’s from you, whether it’s from the company that you’re buying an investment product from, because not that there are no advisors that can be a good advisor in that case, but there does create a conflict of interest there that they’re monetarily incentivized to do what’s best for them and not necessarily what’s best for you, to answer this question.
Bob (18:02):
I think I went commission free about 12 or 14 years ago, something like that, Shawn, and I just did not want that conflict of interest any longer. It just seemed to be hovering over me all the time and I’m like, I just can’t do this anymore. I want to be fee-based only.
Shawn (18:16):
We’d love to help you if you want to talk with us. If we end up not being a good fit, we can also try to point you in the right direction. But you can visit our website, www.christianfinancialadvisors.com. You can also call or text us during business hours 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday, Central Standard time that is 830-609-6986. You should also check out some other episodes we made about Christian-based retirement. There is episode 173 “Rethinking Retirement” and then 123 and 124, “Retiring Well”. As always, thank you so much for joining us. God bless and see you next time.
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
September 19, 2024 Don't Make These Financial Mistakes
Are you making financial mistakes that could jeopardize your future? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover common pitfalls like overspending, relying on debt, and ignoring the importance of a solid financial plan. Some of these common financial mistakes can happen without a second thought, while others require more planning but can still catch the best of us off guard. Being aware of these common financial mistakes is the first step in allowing you to better avoid and plan for the future. Join us as we explore how to align your finances with Biblical wisdom and secure your financial wellbeing.
19 min
September 19, 2024 208 – Don’t Make These Financial Mistakes
Click below to listen to Episode 208 – Don’t Make These Financial Mistakes
Don’t Make These Financial Mistakes

Are you making financial mistakes that could jeopardize your future?

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Are you making financial mistakes that could jeopardize your future? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover common pitfalls like overspending, relying on debt, and ignoring the importance of a solid financial plan. Some of these common financial mistakes can happen without a second thought, while others require more planning but can still catch the best of us off guard.
Being aware of these common financial mistakes is the first step in allowing you to better avoid and plan for the future. Join us as we explore how to align your finances with Biblical wisdom and secure your financial wellbeing.

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
HOSEA 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
PROVERBS 21:20
The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shawn (00:00):
Are you making financial mistakes that could jeopardize your future? In today’s episode, we’ll uncover common pitfalls like overspending, relying on debt, and ignoring the importance of a solid financial plan. Join us as we explore how to align your finances with biblical wisdom and secure your financial wellbeing. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome to Christian Financial Perspectives. I’m Shawn Peters and I’m joined by Bob Barber. And today, we’re going to be covering financial mistakes that we have seen many, many times and we hope that by hearing these today or watching/hearing these that you will be able to avoid some of these if not all of them.
Bob (00:48):
Well Shawn, I’ve made some of these myself. I’ve got this gray hair for a reason. I think that all of us have made some of these mistakes. There’s going to be actually 15 of them that we go over. And I thought of the scripture, Hosea 4:6 that I’ve heard mentioned many times, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” We are Christian Financial Perspectives and we want to help our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ not be destroyed because of lack of knowledge, and that’s what we’re going to be doing today. We’re going to be giving you a lot of knowledge and I think you’ll find a lot of wisdom in what we’re going to share today.
Shawn (01:25):
And on the note of the Christian and financial aspect of it, we also have Proverbs 21:20, “The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.”
Bob (01:36):
Kind of lays it out. Like you always say, Proverbs is pretty direct, isn’t it?
Shawn (01:39):
That’s right. And I know you’ve done this a few more years than I have, Bob, at this point. But the interesting thing is I think a lot of people look at those who are wealthy and make some assumptions that they see people that have money and think, “Oh yeah, well they just inherited a bunch of money.” And the reality is most people who have wealth, it was gained little by little over time. It goes from being diligent, they didn’t get inheritance. Yeah, sure there is some of that. But the Bible makes it clear, I think in this scripture that it’s not that those who have wealth and luxury are just blessed, but the wise have wealth and luxury and there’s a reason for that.
Bob (02:19):
That’s right. Wisdom goes in there. Well, we got a lot of these to share. Let’s get to it. These first three or four kind of go together. But that first one is frequently buying depreciating items. And I see this a lot, a whole lot.
Shawn (02:32):
So for example, cars, trucks, RVs, boats, probably not as often for people listening, but airplanes.
Bob (02:39):
And they all depreciate going the opposite direction of what an investment should do. So don’t ever think of any of these as an investment, a car or an RV – that’s not an investment. RVs, oh my goodness, I think they lose like 30% value in the first year or two.
Shawn (02:58):
And the fuel economy is not so great either.
Bob (03:01):
That is a big financial mistake. And I know a lot of people have made that mistake. We’ve had our own clients go out and they want to travel the world or travel the United States. They go buy the RV, they find out after about a year, this is killing my gas mileage, it’s costing me more. I could have gone and stayed in Ritz Carlton’s every day or JW Marriotts versus what it’s costing to stay in the RV. And it is a very costly thing. It’s a very big financial mistake.
Shawn (03:27):
So easy rule of thumb, car or truck, it’s a necessary thing for pretty much all of this country that you’ve got to have a vehicle to get around. The other things, you’ve got to look at them as it’s not an investment, but if it’s something you end up buying, just know you’re not going to get your money back.
Bob (03:44):
You’re going the opposite direction. Just think of an investment may lose 30% or 20% every year.
Shawn (03:49):
That’s right. So number two, we got to hit all these – is right along the heels of this. So using debt to purchase depreciating items, don’t do it.
Bob (03:59):
You’re going double. You’re paying the interest and you’re depreciating.
Shawn (04:03):
Right. Number three, spending more than you earn and not sticking to a budget.
Bob (04:09):
That’s nearly kind of a duh moment.
Shawn (04:13):
Well, except for our government. I wish we could get our government to actually do that.
Bob (04:19):
Folks, our government doesn’t have a earning problem. I mean from taxes, they have trillions and trillions coming in a year. It’s a spending problem. It’s always that.
Shawn (04:27):
So number four, which again, hey kind of the government analogy, they’re basically doing this. Number four, carrying a balance on a credit card typically because of not sticking to the budget. See number three.
Bob (04:38):
And you can see how all these first three or four go together. This fifth one actually goes with it, too.
Shawn (04:44):
Number five is not having an adequate emergency fund. 4 to 12 months of whatever your monthly expenses are is recommended to have in that emergency fund to make sure that if something happens, whether maybe you get hurt or injured or there’s an accident or for some reason you can’t work, you lose your job for a while. Having that 4 to 12 months means you’re not having to dip into using a credit card or debt or anything else to keep things going.
Bob (05:10):
And let me mention this is expenses. This is not necessarily income. Okay. I mean if your income is a $100,000 a year or say $10,000 a month, it’s not necessarily that you need $90,000 in reserves because you got to pay tax and you might be contributing to a 401k, but just your raw expenses is what you need. 3 to 6, I like to see up to 9 to 12 months.
Shawn (05:32):
So number six, waiting for the perfect time to save and invest.
Bob (05:37):
Now we’re getting to the saving and investing part.
Shawn (05:38):
And we’ll give you a free hint today. There’s never a perfect time. Other than now.
Bob (05:46):
I mean..
Shawn (05:47):
Or yesterday.
Bob (05:47):
I’ve seen this over and over and I’m waiting for that perfect time. And that cost you so much because of compound interest. What compound interest is, it means that if you’re making a stated rate of return, it’s going to double. You can use what’s called the rule 72’s. So if you’re making 6% every 12 years, it’s going to double. If you’re making 12% every 6 years, it’s going to double. And that’s costing you way down the line by not starting now.
Shawn (06:14):
Right. So the perfect time to invest is now.
Bob (06:18):
It is. Right now. Even if it’s just $10 a month, and just quit buying those expensive coffees. We were in the airport the other day coming back.
Shawn (06:25):
Oh well that’s even worse, Bob, you’re in the airport.
Bob (06:28):
People are paying $7 for a cup of coffee or $8? That’s crazy.
Shawn (06:31):
That’s why you bring your own snacks and you bring a reusable water bottle you can fill up for free at the filtered water area. Problem solved.
Bob (06:38):
Everybody could tell Rachael and I are the older crowd because we’re pulling out our cheese and crackers and stuff. We’ve got everything there.
Shawn (06:44):
Actually, free tip. Don’t buy food and drink at the airport. Many times, it’s actually less expensive to get it on the plane, which is crazy.
Bob (06:53):
I didn’t know that.
Shawn (06:54):
When you look at the prices, the average price on the plane, if you really need a snack, get one on the plane. It’s actually cheaper many times.
Bob (07:00):
Alright, we’re going to get to number seven now. And that is buying on impulse without comparing the cost and making these decisions based on emotions. Don’t use your emotions to buy, give it 24 to 48 hours or even a month to not buy.
Shawn (07:17):
That’s right. Hey, we’re made in God’s image, so we do have emotions. They do serve a purpose, but we have to be very careful to prevent our emotions from making the financial decision.
Bob (07:29):
So now we’re going to get into the investing part because once we get past that first part and we’ve got the cash reserves saved, now we’re going to talk about a big financial mistake I see on the investment side over and over. And this is our 8th one of the 15 that’s chasing investment returns and switching strategies too often and not sticking to a long-term objective. That hurts. I mean, and as an example, this year, small cap stocks are way down. I mean they’re not down, but they’re just kind of flat.
Shawn (08:03):
They’re kind of flat, especially compared to the S&P 500 cap weighted, not equal weighted.
Bob (08:10):
Right. When you look at that, no one wants to go into small cap right now, but it’s the time to go in it. Because if you look at history, it’s usually the following years where it rebounds dramatically.
Shawn (08:21):
Well not only that Bob, but just basic asset diversification. You don’t move into, say, the S&P 500 now that it’s gone up so much, you move into something that hasn’t already gone up because you have so much greater chance that the thing that went up so much, well, it might have a pullback.
Bob (08:40):
But people chase those returns.
Shawn (08:41):
I know.
Bob (08:42):
I think of it also like switching lanes. I’ll be in a traffic jam and I see these people switching lanes constantly and they’re not getting anywhere any faster or especially those that exit the interstate and they get stuck at all these lights trying to get back on and I just kind of wave going by. I’m the turtle, I’m not the sprinter. But we get there at the same time or faster.
Shawn (09:06):
So stick to your long-term objective and plan. Don’t switch too often. Don’t chase the stuff that’s already overpriced, arguably. So number nine, believing financial conspiracy theories without verifying facts and listening to commission-based salespeople who are pitching you the perfect solution. Many times they’re pitching you the perfect solution to the problem they just created and told you about.
Bob (09:33):
Such a big financial mistake.
Shawn (09:35):
A little bit of a conflict of interest there, I think.
Bob (09:36):
I’ve seen this so many times, believing those financial conspiracy theories and they’re not verifying any of the facts behind it.
Shawn (09:44):
And I would say what, 99.99% of the time, the people who are pitching the financial conspiracy theories, not just the people who are listening to it or believing it, but the ones who are pitching it either are sponsored by someone who’s promoting a solution or they’re the people that are actually offering the solution to the problem they just created for you to be worried about. Not a good match.
Bob (10:12):
And they’re commission based. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fiduciary based advisor pushing those financial conspiracy theories.
Shawn (10:19):
No, because they don’t make $10,000 on a $100,000 amount somebody was able to convince them to spend anyway. So number 10, taking financial advice from unqualified individuals such as friends, family, or neighbors.
Bob (10:37):
You mean if I hear a stock tip on the golf course, I’m not supposed to go buy it now?
Shawn (10:41):
Well, you should at least go do some investigation and research into it. But I say unqualified, we don’t mean all of your friends and family and neighbors are unqualified. But you can look at scripture. There’s a lot of scriptures about the whys, and you look at the elder and deacon qualifications. Okay, well if the person you’re taking financial advice from, you can tell that they have their financial house in order that they have shown to be very wise in their dealings… Okay, well maybe there’s someone you could take financial advice from. So just something to keep in mind. Number 11, making large financial decisions based on an unknown future without seeking God’s guidance and discernment through prayer.
Bob (11:24):
Amen. I tell you, allow that Holy Spirit – get quiet and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you about financial decisions. As we say around here, it’s God’s money. It belongs to him. Psalms 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.”
Shawn (11:39):
Everything in it.
Bob (11:40):
Everything. That means that means everything. That means your car. That means the one you’re going to buy, that means your house. Everything belongs to the Lord.
Shawn (11:48):
Not everything in your life and your wallet is somehow not part of that.
Bob (11:51):
You know I’m Baptist, and we go all the way under, but I’ve heard some, they take their wallet out and hold it up when they’re under.
Shawn (11:58):
They dunk everything except the wallet.
Bob (12:01):
Yeah. Don’t dunk the wallet. But those decisions need to be made with prayer and in scripture and you can get that advice from a elder or a deacon.
Shawn (12:11):
Exactly. So number 12, investing everything in one financial sector and misunderstanding investment risk and volatility, which leads to premature selling.
Bob (12:21):
There’s two or three things in here, as we mentioned this, because one is investing in just that one sector. And that’s been happening a lot, especially this year and the technology and especially in one main company, I’m not going to mention, but I think everybody knows who I’m talking about. Artificial intelligence is what they’re involved in. I won’t say anymore, but it’s one financial sector and really not understanding the risks that comes with that. And that again, people get in on the top and then they start selling or being in a long-term investment and premature selling. So, this all goes together. There’s two or three things in this one financial mistake.
Shawn (13:07):
Number 13, not sticking to a holistic financial plan annually and consistently withdrawing too much from retirement savings.
Bob (13:16):
Boy, we see that around here, don’t we? We really do. We come up with a financial plan. It’s got to be updated at least annually. Every time there’s a major purchase or even the thought of a major purchase, it needs to go into the financial plan. And see how is this going to affect me over time? And we have, many times, seen withdrawing too much. We’ve got an example of that, but that’s actually that comes into kind of…
Shawn (13:45):
Coming in into number 13, we have number 14, which is annually withdrawing more than a portfolio can sustain, leading to total depletion. So Bob, why don’t you go over the example we have.
Bob (13:57):
Go over the example I had? Well, the example I’m using is somebody like with a $500,000 portfolio all the way up to a $2 million portfolio. And we will see this around here where maybe that’s a lump sum they’ve gotten and they don’t realize that that’s not that much today. And they think…
Shawn (14:15):
If you’re wanting that to produce an income stream for the next 30 years.
Bob (14:19):
And based on long-term goals and long-term mathematical calculations, if you’re under 65, you should never pull more than 4% from a portfolio. So a $500,000 portfolio. Yeah, it sounds big, but really, you should not take more than $20,000 a year from that. Even a $2 million portfolio at a 4% withdrawal is $80,000 a year. We’ve gotten these people – clients that think that $2 million is much more than it is and they’ll start withdrawing $200,000 a year. And what happens is, is you’re withdrawing that principle down as you’re doing that because…
Shawn (14:59):
The problem is it’s a compounding effect, but not in a good way, not compounding returns or something like that. But when you withdraw more than that 4%, then what happens is over time, not only does the portfolio have less in there after you make that withdrawal, but now the issue is, is how much it can actually continue to produce each year has also gone down significantly. So then the next time you take out $100,000 or $200,000 instead of the $80,000, well that’s even bigger of an impact and made it even worse.
Bob (15:33):
Bottom line is don’t make the mistake of thinking that your portfolio can sustain more than it actually can. And you need a good fiduciary, not commission based, but a good fiduciary financial advisor planner to help you with that.
Shawn (15:50):
Meaning they are not financially compensated based on how much they get you to invest, because otherwise it’s going to be a conflict of interest. But you want someone that is vested with you on the better you do, the better they do.
Bob (16:07):
And this takes us to our last point today of the financial mistakes, which is number 15, self investing.
Shawn (16:14):
Without proper knowledge, experience, or written strategy.
Bob (16:18):
Shawn is amazing to me how many people want to do investing on their own and they don’t have a written strategy. And I’ve asked this question over and over, what’s your written strategy? And they kind of look at you like a deer-in-the-headlights-look, like what do you mean written strategy? And the second thing that they do that kind of goes with this is they end up following the crowd.
Shawn (16:42):
Well, because if you don’t have a written strategy, you’re going to be way more susceptible to following the crowd because you don’t have a plan.
Bob (16:52):
But that crowd, you could take 10 people out of that crowd, right? And they’re all going to have different goals. They’re different ages, they have different goals.
Shawn (16:59):
They have different risk tolerance, like what they’re actually comfortable with.
Bob (17:03):
And how they can handle that. They have different time horizons, because you pull 10 people out, one of them might be 20. Well one of them might be 60.
Shawn (17:11):
Yeah, that’s right. So don’t invest on your own without a written strategy, without proper knowledge. If possible, get some experience or learn from somebody else, and don’t follow the crowd because you don’t know if the person you’re following is even remotely close to the same goals, objectives, and risk and time horizon as you.
Bob (17:34):
So there we go. There’s 15 financial mistakes we don’t want you to make. I’ve made several of these, especially up in the car buying territory when I was in my younger years, and I hope that this really helps you a lot. Pass this on to somebody, maybe it could help them.
Shawn (17:51):
And we’d love to hear from you. If there’s ever any topics you want to have us cover, comment. If you’re on YouTube, call us, text us at (830) 609-6986 or visit our website www.ChristianFinancialAdvisors.com. Thanks for joining 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.
19 min
August 27, 2024 The Benefits And Risks Of Annuities
Are you curious about the real story behind those free steak dinner invitations for annuity seminars? In this episode, Bob and Shawn uncover the benefits and risk of annuities and why you should be cautious when attending those enticing events. After comparing both sides - the risks and benefits of annuities - listeners will be better prepared to make an informed decision concerning annuities as an investment option. As always, it is important that listeners do their own research, while also being cautious of deceptive annuities' sales practices.
21 min

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