10 Traits of Christian Millionaires

Intro: Welcome to Christian Financial Perspectives, where you’re invited to gain insight, wisdom, and knowledge about how Christians integrate their faith, life, and finances with a biblical worldview. Here’s your Christian Financial advisor’s host, Bob Barber and his co-host, Shawn Peters. Shawn: Welcome to another episode of Christian Financial Perspectives. So glad that you joined us. If you haven’t subscribed already and you like videos on financial topics, but from a Christian perspective, love for you to hit that subscribe button like this video and share with others. It helps both our channel, but also helps other people like you find this kind of content. So, today we’re going to be covering an interesting subject, the “10 Traits of Christian Millionaires.” Now, this is not a prosperity theology kind of an episode. We are not teaching you how to how to get rich. This is just more of a interesting commentary of, of what we have seen over the years, especially Bob over common traits of people who are Christian and happen to be wealthy. So Bob, why don’t you give us a little more of an introduction. Bob: There’s no doubt that this is a tough one to tackle, Shawn. I don’t subscribe to the prosperity theology mindset, but there are things that happen. You do this over the many years and you end up many times becoming a millionaire. I’m not saying this always happens. In my younger years I had a lot of good mentors and I watched them and I noticed there were traits in millionaires versus Christian millionaires, or Christian millionaires versus millionaires that made it from a secular worldview. These Christian millionaires, they really had a biblical worldview towards how they handled their finances, and following that biblical worldview. I want to be careful, I’m not saying it’s not always going to make you a millionaire, but there’s just so many common traits. You know Shawn, being that we’re Christian Financial Advisors®, we work with a lot of Christian millionaires that love the Lord. It’s not about the money with them. Which is really interesting how this happened. Very seldom did they become, they didn’t set out to be a millionaire. It just happened by using these biblical principles of giving first and in saving, investing, honesty is a really important thing with Christian millionaires, and a consistent lifestyle that’s not based on materialism. Shawn: Or consumerism. Bob: Exactly. They don’t care if they’re driving the latest, greatest, most expensive car. They don’t get their self worth from that. Shawn: It makes sense. Really it comes down to for a lot of the Christian millionaires that you’ve come across, is that consistency, that honesty, not focusing on the consumerism basically leads to a very God-honoring, frugal lifestyle. Which chances are by the time you get to retirement age is a good chance you might have been able to accumulate a pretty good amount of wealth. Bob: It happens slowly. It’s not a get rich quick. They don’t buy lottery tickets. Shawn: Which is a great segue, Bob, into our first scripture. Which is Proverbs 13:11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.” Then of course, the other one that we’re going to go over is 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Bob: We emphasize right, money is not evil in itself. The love of money. If it’s all about the almighty dollar. As my dad used to say, “Is it all about the almighty dollar?” If it’s all about that, your heart’s in the wrong spot, especially if you want to be a Christian millionaire. Shawn: So, first love God, seek him and realize he is the owner of everything, not you. Bob: That comes from Psalm 24:1. It says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Here are the 10 main traits. We’re going to list these out as we go through them that we see. First one: they love the Lord with all their heart and they are faithful to their church, to the T man. I mean, I see this over and over. They’re involved in small group bible study. They’re very faithful to their church. They love other ministries. They go on mission trips. Many of our clients they’ve been to the holy land several times. They’ve been on trips to Africa or Mexico, or even involved in missions in their own town. It’s a wonderful thing. Shawn: Again, their focus is on the Lord. In their church and how they serve. If they happen to acquire more wealth or more money, that was never the goal. That’s never the focus. The next one: they are givers and not all about themselves. I think again that’s if I remember correctly, and I’m sure so if I’m wrong, correct me in the comments, but I remember reading that really the only time that God was ever asked to be tested. Where it’s like, test God in this. Basically came back to the giving. Bob: Malachi 3:10 by the way. “Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the flood gates from heaven, you will not have room enough for it. Bring the tide into the storehouse is what that says, so go in and read it. It also says, “I’ll prevent pests from devouring your crops.” Now, maybe we don’t have crops today, but I’ll prevent pests from breaking down your car. Things like that. That’s where giving is. It’s very scriptural and biblical. Shawn: Regardless of how much you’ve been given. I mean, it makes me think of the parable of the master and the servants. Each was given a different amount, but each was given something. I think that part of testing God and how he’ll take care of you, and talks about the birds of the field, or the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. Well, obviously how much more does God care about you? Well I think that’s what it comes down to, is whether you have a little, kind of in the middle, you have a lot. It doesn’t really matter because whatever it is that God has entrusted you with, you should be giving. You should trust God. Whatever you end up with is what you end up with. Bob: You know what’s interesting? So far we’ve shared two of the 10, and neither one of them has been financial. By the way, out of these 10, there’s only three that are financial. Shawn: Directly financial. Bob: That gets you to the point of being a Christian millionaire. Isn’t that interesting? The third one is: they have deep roots in their community, they have long-term friends, and their family is around. Very family oriented. Even if they don’t have children, they still have that family at their church. They have that family in small group. That is a strong trait. Do you notice these first three traits? Like I said, nothing financial. Then we get to the fourth one, which is? Shawn: They’re careful with how they spend God’s money. Like we already said, it’s whatever God has entrusted to you. They’re careful with what they do with that money. Bob: They look at their money, God’s money, like this is your money Lord. I’m a manager of it, and I want to do a good job with it. That’s where that third, I mean that fourth trait comes in. That’s the first one that is financial. Now these next several are nonfinancial, but they are, when you think about it. They have job consistency and they’re faithful hard workers. They don’t hop around a lot. They don’t chase fantasies. I’ve noticed that with every single one of them I’ve come across. Maybe three different career changes in their 35 or 40 years, maybe three. Very seldom do I see anybody that’s four or five or six. They’re not chasing after the wind. There’s a scripture, it talks about that, chasing after the wind. Be careful of doing that. Shawn: Well it’s not a scripture, but it makes me think of the, oh, “The grass is always green on the other side.” Many times I think when things aren’t working out, it’s not so much that, oh, this is just wrong. Maybe you need to look at, well what’s your attitude when it comes to the position? What’s your mindset where you’re coming from? If there’s a problem with how you’re approaching things, moving to a different location means you’re going to have the same problems that are going to follow you. Bob: It’s going to follow you. That’s right. Work as if you’re working for the Lord no matter where you are. Work appears in the Bible over 500 times. Now, we have many single Christian millionaires as well. They’ve never been married. The trait that I’ve noticed, but the majority are married, the trait that I notice is with all of them is they have long-term marriages. I mean, they’re married 35, 40 years. Rachel and I are coming on 39 years this year. Next year we’re going to have quite a big blowout. It’s amazing we haven’t killed each other all this time. Shawn: Well, she’s a very godly woman. She’s put up with you for 39 years. Bob: We love each other, definitely. I’m telling you, the glue that held us together is Jesus Christ and the Lord. Shawn: Bob, that’s an interesting one; they have long term marriages. Because some of you may look at that and think, oh, if you haven’t been married a long time, you can’t be wealthy. It’s more than that because for one, I mean even not even looking at it from a biblical perspective, look at it from a secular. Marriages, when they end can be extremely costly financially. Bob: You start splitting the assets on. Shawn: Even taking out the spiritual and mental and emotional impact that can have on you going through a divorce. Just the actual financial impact can be extremely detrimental if you’re talking about how people are able to actually build an, an acquired wealth over their lifetime. Having that long-term marriage, that’s a good financial win because chances are what you can do together and grow is going to be a lot better than if you had to split everything in half and start over. Bob: The next two, so the next two are going to be actual financial: they are savers and they invest wisely. They do not chase after the wind. They don’t try to put it all on one stock, or one piece of real estate, or one company. They diversify and they use that biblical principle of diversification. They look at their investments and their savings differently. Just like what we were talking about yesterday here at, at the office. You have your spending checking account, then you should have your savings account, and then you should have your investment account. Shawn: Your investment account should always be focused on long-term. Not, oh, I’ve got money in there, I’ll just pull it out. It’s like, well, no, no, you have to have those different buckets for emergency, or things that, maybe you’re saving up for the new car you need to buy at some point, whatever it is. Then your investments should be for, really typically for most people, your investments accounts are going to be to supply you income in your retirement years. Bob: You’re supposed to let that principle grow. Don’t touch that principle ever. Let the principle, increase your interest dividends and long-term gains. Shawn: Number eight. Bob: Another financial one, and then that would be it for, and then we have two more after that. This is the only other one that’s financial. Shawn: They are debt free except for maybe a mortgage. Bob: Most, by the time they’re my age, which I’m 60 now, they don’t have that mortgage anymore. Or it’s very, very small if they do, so they use that. Like you’ve heard me say here, an old country boy told me many years ago. You know I’m a country boy too, but it’s so funny how he said it. He said, “Son, I ain’t never seen nobody hurt by being debt free.” In the way he said it with that twang, which I already have a twang, but the way he said it was even more of a twang. That stuck me, that really stuck to me. This was a Christian millionaire that said it. Shawn: So number nine: They don’t wear themselves out to get rich. Bob: They don’t. Shawn: That’s an interesting one, Bob. What do you mean by that one? Bob: Well, they have their families. They have their church, they’re involved. They’re not working 15 hour days, and they’re not working all through the weekends. Shawn: You mean they’re not doing that because it’s not all about the money. Bob: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Shawn: They’re actually valuing their family and their church, and their time with God. Bob: I want to say this 10th one because this is really one that I think is so strong. They exemplify good values, very good values, like honesty. Honest to the core, Shawn, I mean integrity and faithfulness. They live by a biblical worldview based on absolute truth, not relativism. Which is so different than today. Truth to them and to me is the same way, because I have a biblical truth that was the same a thousand years ago. It’s the same today. It will be the same in a thousand years. It keeps you from being mixed up. When you start making truth relative versus absolute, you get mixed up. They’re not mixed up. Shawn: It’s hard to be honest. Have honesty and integrity if truth and how you’re going to respond to a situation is, “Well it depends.” It’s relative. Well it shouldn’t be. It should never be relative. We have a few more scriptures. Bob: That’s the 10, and I think these 10 are very, very good. Shawn: We’re going to cover 1 Timothy 6:10. I know we said that one earlier. That’s such a good one. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” First love God, seek him and realize he’s the owner, not you. Then Psalms 24:1, Bob: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, and all who live in it.” I’ve said that one over and over, so do a good job with what you have and what God’s given you. This scripture emphasizes about doing a good job with the little things first from Luke 16:10. One of my favorites, “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.” The whole point I want today to be is that that Christian millionaires, they don’t associate their net worth with their self worth, but it’s an association with their relationship with Christ. It just happens by following these biblical principles. Shawn: It’s a very different mindset than the way of the world. The point of this program, Bob, then, or to summarize what you were saying, is we’re not presenting these traits as this is a way for you to get rich. For one, if you live this way, it’s definitely a lot more rewarding way to live whether you become a millionaire or not. Again, I think it’s just very interesting to see the common traits of Christians who have been able to gain a lot of wealth. Become come millionaires. Bob: Like I said, they’re large givers. They’re very large givers. Well, I hope this has helped you today. If you would like to give us a call here at Christian Financial Advisors® to help give you Christian advice about how to handle the funds that God has given to you. Give us a call or text us at (830) 609-6986, or you can find us on the web at christianfinancialadvisors.com. Any last words, Shawn? Shawn: No, I think that’s it. Thank you so much for joining us and God bless. [CONCLUSION] 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.