Mike Tyson made $400 million and ended up $23 million in debt. A janitor named Ronald Reed made minimum wage his whole career and left $8 million to charity. The difference had nothing to do with income — and everything to do with one rule. That's where this conversation starts.

Linda and I were guests at a church for their "Money Talks" series and the questions were so good we wanted to bring this to the podcast. We walk through the John Wesley framework we based our whole book on (make all you can, save all you can, give all you can — and enjoy it), the one number that tells you whether you're moving forward or backward financially, why net worth is actually the wrong thing to track as a Christian, the "Never 100 Rule" that changed everything for us, the one-category budget that works when every other budget fails, and what happened when we started giving in a way that felt irresponsible but resulted in our mortgage being paid off in three years.

If you enjoyed this, we'd love to send you a free copy of our book — you just cover shipping. It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Grab it at seedtime.com/free.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• Why "net worth" is actually the wrong metric for Christians — and what to track instead
• The one number that tells you whether you're moving forward or backward financially right now
• The Never 100 Rule: the single rule that makes all the difference between building wealth and staying stuck
• Why Mike Tyson went broke (and what it has to do with your budget)
• The one-category budget — why it gets 80% of the results of full budgeting with 20% of the effort
• Why willpower-based budgeting always fails — and what to do instead
• The giving account that made generosity actually fun (instead of a guilt trip)
• What Bob and Linda would tell their 19-year-old selves about money
• How to handle money differently when you and your spouse are total opposites

BIBLE VERSES MENTIONED

• 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
• 2 Corinthians 8-9
• Proverbs (referenced as a daily reading practice — one chapter per day)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Simple Money, Rich Life (the book)
• Assets Under Management free resource

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

Matt Chandler has been in the room with actual billionaires on multiple occasions — and the way he describes what happens to people who have everything almost everyone else is chasing isn't what most of us would expect. He told us he won't even let some of them bless him. And after 23 years pastoring one of the most affluent suburbs in America, he's seen exactly what the chase actually does to families.

In this conversation, we get into a question Matt says nobody has asked him: what he's actually watched wealth do to people up close. We talk about the upgrade cycle most Christian families never name (and the bigger house Matt and Lauren refused to buy because of it), why the finish line always moves no matter how much you make, the diagnostic he gives for whether money is serving you or you're serving it, and what bad stewardship really does to the peace in your home.

And for more rich teaching on how to become more like Jesus check out his new book Becoming Like Jesus -

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• What Matt has watched wealth do to families over 23 years in Dallas
• The room full of billionaires moment most pastors never talk about
• The bigger house Matt and Lauren almost bought (and the math that decided it)
• "The finish line always moves" — the trap most Christians never name
• The diagnostic Matt uses to spot whether money is serving you
• What bad stewardship actually does to the peace in a home
• How Matt and Lauren built radical generosity into their budget when he made $12,000 a year
• Why budgeting is a spiritual discipline, not a numbers nerd thing

BIBLE VERSES MENTIONED

• 1 Corinthians 16:2

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Matt Chandler's Book: Becoming Like Jesus

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

We are opening up our Mission Driven Millionaire Cohort to 15 people and we are enrolling now until spots fill up. Get details and apply here: https://seedtime.com/cohort

Also, this is an episode you might just want to watch (you know, with your eyeballs lol) for it to make the most sense. And you can do that here if you want.

I have coached people pulling in 250,000 a year who are completely broke. No margin, no savings, no clue where any of it went. And I have sat with families bringing in 40,000 who quietly become millionaires. It is not income. It is not pinching pennies. There is one specific thing that decides which side of that line you end up on.

In this episode, I'm walking you through the exact system Linda and I built that helped us give away over a million dollars by my 40th birthday and pay off our mortgage in the process. We get into why most extra money disappears before you ever see it, why holding water in your hands is the picture of money without a system, the simple framework we use for budgeting, bills, and automated giving and investing, and why the system itself is what made the miracles possible.

I will show you what Joseph storing grain has to do with your 401k, why pinching pennies is what people try when they do not have a system, and what to put in place so when extra shows up it actually has somewhere to land.

What We Cover

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• Why most extra money disappears within a month of showing up
• The one decision Linda and I made before money landed that changed everything
• How to hold water without spilling it (the analogy that finally made this click for me)
• Why income alone never fixes the problem (we have coached 250,000-a-year families who are dead broke)
• The exact flow of how money moves through our system, from paycheck to giving to investing
• Why pinching pennies is a sign you do not have a system yet
• The Joseph principle that links faith and structure, and why miracles ride on top of it
• The slow leak that drains every raise, bonus, and tax refund you have ever received

Bible Verses Mentioned

• Matthew 6:33
• 1 Corinthians 16:2

Disclaimer

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

37% of people making $250,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck right now. Which means the thing keeping most of us stuck financially has almost nothing to do with how much we make. Linda and I have coached people pulling in $250k who are dead broke. We've watched a $20,000 raise get absorbed by lifestyle inside six months and leave them exactly where they started. The problem isn't income. The problem is that most of us are working hard on the wrong math problem.

In this episode we walk through the four stages of money (surviving, stable, secure, and surplus) and the one mistake almost everybody makes when they try to jump from one stage to the next. We get into why "boring" is the actual investing strategy, why we wish we wouldn't have taken the raise, the bank-manager story that explains why the system is rigged against people in stage one, and the moment we finally figured out that the move that got us from stage one to stage two was the exact same move keeping us stuck in stage two for years.

If you enjoyed this, we'd love to send you a free copy of our book. You just cover shipping. It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Grab it at seedtime.com/free.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• The stat that proves your financial stage has almost nothing to do with your income
• The 4 stages of money and how to know which one you're actually in
• The one mistake almost everybody makes trying to jump from one stage to the next
• Why a $20k raise can leave you with the same $0 left at the end of the month
• The bank manager story that exposes how the system is rigged against people in stage one
• Why "boring" is actually the right investing strategy at stage three
• The Elon-Musk-doesn't-mow-his-own-lawn principle most people get backwards
• Why willpower-based budgeting always fails (and what to do instead)

BIBLE VERSES MENTIONED

• Matthew 14:13-21 (referenced. The five loaves and two fish. "You bring it to me and I'll multiply it.")

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Mission-Driven Millionaire cohort
• Simple Money, Rich Life (the book)
• Free book offer

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

In this episode I walk through our entire 2026 investment portfolio: every account, every position, and exactly what I'm doing with our money. That includes a full update on gold (which has nearly doubled but I genuinely don't care), where we stand with Bitcoin at $65k, why I moved Linda's Roth IRA into a fixed indexed annuity after spending my whole career skeptical of them, our real estate split between Fundrise and Roots, the Tesla concentration problem in our stock portfolio, and what happened when I ran an app that automatically copies Nancy Pelosi's trades for 8 months — including the $1,500 I put in and the 12.4% it returned.

If you enjoyed this, we'd love to send you a free copy of our book — you just cover shipping. It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Grab it at seedtime.com/free.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• The Christian fund I've held for a year that's down 3% while the S&P is up 17% — and why I'm not selling
• The app that automatically mirrors Nancy Pelosi's stock trades (Trump mentioned her record in the State of the Union)
• Why gold has nearly doubled — and why I genuinely don't care
• The Tesla concentration problem in our stock portfolio that every rebalancing strategy says to fix (but I won't)
• Why I spent my whole career skeptical of annuities — then moved Linda's Roth IRA into one
• What we're actually putting in crypto right now, and why 80% of it is in one coin
• Why I want as few US dollars as possible right now — and what I'm holding instead

BIBLE REFERENCES

• Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Sound Mind Investing (FCTE / Full Cycle Trading Fund)
• Roots
• Fundrise Innovation Fund
• Alto IRA
• OneGold
• Autopilot app
• Webull

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

Most of us have quietly convinced ourselves that busy-ness is a badge of honor.

Mark Buchanan believed the same thing — until it almost cost him his health, his marriage, and his connection with God. And what he found on the other side of that is something the modern church has almost entirely stopped talking about.

In this conversation, Linda and I sit down with Mark Buchanan — author of The Rest of God, God Walk, and his new historical fiction novel What Is Left of the Night — to talk about why busyness kills the heart, what Sabbath really means as more than a day, how walking is a deeply spiritual practice woven all through Scripture.

His book The Rest of God is what started our practice of monthly sabbaticals 13 years ago, and this conversation took us somewhere we didn't expect.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• Why Mark nearly burned out as a pastor — and how discovering Sabbath saved his marriage and his ministry
• Why Sabbath isn't just about a day of the week — it's an attitude and a way of seeing everything
• The phrase "busyness kills the heart" and what it actually looks like in your everyday life
• How Bob and Linda's 13-year practice of monthly sabbaticals grew out of one book — and led to a full year off
• The spiritual practice of walking, and the surprising number of times it shows up in Scripture
• Mark's new historical fiction novel about a French village that protected 2,500 Jews during WWII with zero casualties
• What connects Sabbath, walking, and a village that simply refused to live by the world's rules

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Mark Buchanan's Books:

• The Rest of God
• God Walk
• What Is Left of the Night

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

You're not careless with money. You try to be intentional. But somehow at the end of the month, there's still less than there should be — and you can't quite figure out where it went.

What if the problem isn't discipline — but a type of spending leak that even the most careful budgeters almost never catch?

In this episode, I walk through the Cost vs. Frequency Matrix — a simple framework for identifying three invisible drains that quietly bleed most middle-class budgets dry.

We talk about value decay (purchases that made total sense once, but quietly stopped serving you), what the average American home's 300,000 items tells us about how we buy things, and how this all connects back to what it really means to steward what God has entrusted to you.

This is a workshop-style episode, so grab something to write with.

If you enjoyed this, we'd love to send you a free copy of our book — you just cover shipping. It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Grab it at seedtime.com/free.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• Why the average American home has 300,000 items — and what that tells us about how we actually spend money
• The three types of invisible "drains" that bleed most middle-class budgets without anyone noticing
• What "value decay" is and how to spot purchases that quietly stopped making sense in your life
• How to use the Cost vs. Frequency Matrix as a practical tool in about 10 minutes
• Why even the most disciplined budgeters often miss this category of spending
• What it means to manage money as a steward — and how that single mindset shift changes every decision
• The surprising connection between clutter, housework, and how much money is quietly walking out the door

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Real Money Method course
• Mission Driven Millionaire program

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

The day Jesus fed five thousand people from almost nothing — he was also grieving the violent death of his best friend and cousin. He'd tried to get away to be alone. The crowds followed him anyway. And instead of sending them home, the Bible says "he had compassion on them." Out of his grief. Out of his exhaustion.

In this episode, Linda and I walk through Matthew 14 and what was actually happening to Jesus during this wild 24-hour stretch — the grief, the exhaustion, the interrupted attempt at solitude, and the back-to-back miracles that came out of it. We also talk about what Linda walked through after her mom died last year, and why the moments when you feel least able are sometimes the moments God does his most visible work.

If you enjoyed this, we'd love to send you a free copy of our book — you just cover shipping. It has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon. Grab it at seedtime.com/free.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• Why the feeding of the 5,000 hits completely differently when you know what Jesus was going through that day
• What it means that Jesus "had compassion on them" right after learning his cousin was killed
• How grief and exhaustion didn't disqualify Jesus from doing miracles — they may have been the condition for them
• What Linda experienced leading and speaking through the grief of losing her mom last year
• Why your weakest moments might be the ones where God gets the most visible credit
• What it actually looks like when you show up empty and God shows up anyway
• The three o'clock in the morning detail — and why the story doesn't end after the feeding

BIBLE VERSES MENTIONED

Matthew 14:13

Matthew 14:14

Matthew 14:23

Matthew 14:25

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

She prayed for seven years for a breakthrough. The more she prayed, the worse things got. And she ended up on the bathroom floor saying she didn't want to be alive anymore. What the Holy Spirit showed her in that moment — about control, about fear disguised as faith, about the difference between begging and believing — is something I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

In this episode, Linda and I sit down with Alex Seeley — author of The Divine Counselor — for one of the most honest conversations we've had on this show.

Alex shares how a 20-year eating disorder rooted in unforgiveness, a $23 last-dollar miracle when she and her husband gave everything to move to America, and a word from a stranger about a "tissue box" that just keeps refilling shaped her understanding of what it actually means to walk with the Holy Spirit.

We also talk about why Linda used to go shopping when things got tight financially — and what the Holy Spirit revealed was really going on underneath that.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:

• The difference between praying from fear and praying from faith (they can look identical from the outside)
• How a 20-year eating disorder rooted in unforgiveness was never going to "just work itself out"
• Why there's a 24/7 counselor available to you right now who's better than any therapist you could book an appointment with
• The $23 miracle: what happened when Alex and Henry gave their last dollars before moving to America
• Linda's confession about going shopping whenever money was tight — and what the Holy Spirit revealed about why
• The difference between conviction and condemnation (this reframes a lot)
• What it looks like when your seed goes into the next season — not just into an offering bucket

BIBLE VERSES MENTIONED

Acts 1:8

Isaiah 1

John 14:16

Romans 8:28

1 Peter 5:7

Philippians 4:13

DISCLAIMER

Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.

Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

Some links are to our resources and some are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That helps keep the lights on around here, so thanks for the support.

Have you ever wondered why financial breakthrough feels so close yet so far? Bob and Linda Lotich reveal that God is constantly testing us with money—and most of us don't even realize it's happening. In this eye-opening conversation, they break down the three distinct money tests every believer faces, how to identify which one you're in right now, and what God is trying to teach you through it. What You'll Learn: The Three Tests -

• The Struggling Test - When you have less than you think you need
• The Surplus Test - When extra money comes your way
• The Stable Test - When nothing has changed for years

Key Insights:

• Why the habits you build in struggle carry you into surplus
• The George Mueller story that will transform how you pray about provision
• How to know if you're in a "rest season" or need to take action
• Why stability might be the sneakiest test of all
• The practical "50/50 rule" for handling raises and windfalls
• How to create your own "stack of stones" to remember God's faithfulness

Powerful Quotes: "The habits that we build in the struggle are the habits that carry us into the surplus time." - Bob "We've just been through this too many times." - Bob (during a financial crisis moment) "What do I need to do the job that God's asked me to do? And then the rest of it can just go." - Linda "It's an open book test and you have the teacher who wants to give you the answers." - Bob Biblical Foundations:

• Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
• The Rich Fool (Luke 12)
• George Mueller's radical faith
• Israelites and the manna
• James 1:2-5 on trials and wisdom

Action Steps:

1. Identify which test you're in right now - Are you struggling, experiencing surplus, or in a stable season?
2. Create your modern "stack of stones" - Write down a timeline of how God has provided for you in the past
3. Do a self-evaluation - How are you handling your current test?
4. Ask God for wisdom - Is this a season to rest or a season to take action?
5. Set up structures for surplus - Consider implementing the "50/50 rule" for future raises

The Bottom Line: You don't have to pass these tests perfectly—none of us do. But God is using money to teach you to trust Him more deeply, steward more faithfully, and expand your belief in what He can do. The question isn't whether you're being tested. The question is: Do you recognize the test? Scripture References:

• Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Talents)
• Luke 12 (The Rich Fool)
• James 1:2-5 (Consider it all joy)
• Proverbs (multiple references to saving and wisdom)
• Genesis 8:22 (Seedtime and harvest)

Resources Mentioned:

• Simple Money, Rich Life by Bob Lotich - seedtime.com/smrl
• George Mueller's autobiography - https://www.georgemuller.org/uploads/4/8/6/5/48652749/the-autobiography-of-george-muller.pdf
• True Financial Freedom course - seedtime.com/tff
• Mission-Driven Millionaire program - seedtime.com/mdm

Ready to grow what God's given you? Get your free copy of Simple Money, Rich Life at seedtime.com/podcast Have a question about which test you're in? Share it in the comments below or email us at [email protected]

Watch this episode on our SeedTime Money Podcast YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/sMnrFh6o2Ls)!

If you haven't checked out our best-selling book Simple Money, Rich Life (https://seedtime.com/smrl/), we think you'll love it. It was named the 2022 Book of the Year by ICFH and has over 1,000 5-star reviews on Amazon, and is best described as "a money book for people who don't read money books."

You can take it for a test drive for FREE at https://SeedTime.com/sample where you can download chapter 1 of the audiobook, grab the 1st 2 chapters of the ebook version, and even get the 5-week book study companion guide.