7 Biblical Financial Guidelines

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. We’re so glad that you joined us today or tonight, whatever time it happens to be when you’re watching this. If you’d like topics covering finance, but from a Christian perspective, then we’d love for you to hit that subscribe button. Still, we got about 80% of those watching the videos aren’t subscribed, which means you’re missing out on all the awesome updates that we’re putting out. If you like this particular video, be sure to hit that like button as well. Today we’re going to be covering seven biblical financial guidelines, and we hope this will be helpful to you. Bob, you want to give us a little intro on this? Bob: You know, what is funny, what you were saying, you can watch this any time of day of the night. I did radio for eight years in Texas. In San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Corpus Christi, and you had to be there right at that time if you wanted to hear the program. It’s before any of this ever came out. Boy, I love this technology where you can, anytime of the day you can watch this. So Shawn, today we’re going to be talking about seven biblical financial guidelines. There’s just seven and so many of these, this is a lot of common sense, but a lot of wisdom, and this is taken from God’s word. I’m excited to be bringing this to Christian Financial Perspectives. The first one is really a novel idea, especially here in America. So you ready? Let’s do it. Shawn: Spend less than you earn. Bob: Who would’ve thunk it? Shawn: So don’t spend more than you made in income. Bob: That’s exactly right. Now that’s not like our government. You can’t just raise the debt ceiling, but yes, spend less than you earn. What’s the scripture? Shawn: Proverbs 21:20, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.” Bob: That’s kind of, pretty tough there, isn’t it? “A foolish man devours all he has.” Shawn: Well, you know, Bob, our channel I think is a little different than some of the quote financial gurus out there, because most of the time you have people who are cherry picking certain stocks that they did really well on. They don’t talk about, you know, the other 90% that they did terrible on. Or they’re talking about how if you follow their advice, how wealthy you’re going to be and how many thousands of dollars per day you’re making. It’s always interesting because most of those people make money specifically on selling their courses and the idea that they actually are doing really well. What we’re talking about here with biblical financial guidelines, honestly, is probably a little less flashy, a little less boring, because these are based on scripture It’s based on truth. It’s not based on just hype. Bob: There’s no hype here. Spend less than you earn. That’s a simple one. Shawn: We’re giving you a little bit of a setup here that you know, again, these are not going to be something that makes you rich in one day. These are things that, they’re biblical financial guidelines and if you follow them, they might not be flashy, but it’ll definitely make a positive impact in your life. Bob: They will work over time. They’ve been tried and proven over thousands of years. The second one is control the use of debt. What? Yes. Control the use of debt. You know why? The Bible is very clear on this. It tells us in Proverbs 22:7 that “The rich rule over the poor, (that’s like the banks) and the borrower is slave to the lender.” When we say to control, the use of debt, I know it’s very hard like to buy a home debt free, but I’m hoping that’s the only debt that you have. No other debt at all. As you get older, there’s no reason to borrow money for a car. The cars are so expensive nowadays, but just buy a cheaper car until you can afford more. Shawn: Or save up a little bit longer and keep driving the one that you have. This kind of goes back to number one, spend been less than you earn. There’s a difference between buying a home, especially when you’re younger and you don’t have a lot of assets saved up. There’s a difference between using that debt to buy a home and using debt like a credit card to finance going out to eat too often. Just buying stuff that you don’t actually need to live, so be careful with that. Bob: Rachel laughs at me because she goes, Bob, you don’t like to spend money on anything unless you know it’s an investment and you’re going to get some money back. I’m kind of like that’s in my nature. Shawn: I think that’s a good trait when you’re a financial advisor. Bob: I do too. When you talk about the use of debt in a mortgage instance. You get the tax deduction on the interest and appreciating asset over time. Real estate’s proven to be that. Shawn: Not only that Bob, but especially if it’s for your primary residence, you’re going to pay rent or you’re going to pay a mortgage. There isn’t really any other options. Bob: My dad was a funny guy, and he said, whether you rent or whether you buy, you pay for the place you occupy. The third one. Shawn: Save consistently and build reserves. Now this scripture is 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.” Bob: When you were a little kid, did you ever like to watch the ants? They go back and forth and they’re always working. I think it’s interesting that it says, go to the ant you sluggard. I mean, my goodness. Shawn: Okay Proverbs settle down now. Bob: The fourth one is give the worthy causes because you know what it does when you give the worthy causes, it breaks the chain of selfishness. It is truly more blessed to give than receive. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you should give what you’ve decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” So smile when you’re giving. Shawn: I love that, breaking the chain of selfishness because when you give and you give not reluctantly or under compulsion, but you give joyfully. Bob: With a purpose. Shawn: It makes such an impact on the rest of your life. Not just the financial part, but it just kind of gives you this, this peace that, okay, God, I’m trusting you. You’re asking me to give, you’re asking me to help others. I’m giving out of what I’ve received. It’s like we say, I mean, it’s hard to be selfish when you’re focused on, okay, God, what do you want me to give to? You’re not holding onto that money so tight and just making that fist. Bob: When you hold all that money tight like that it causes tension. So let loose, let loose. God owns it all. Psalms 24, 1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Number five invest wisely and diversify. A scriptural principle behind this was from Solomon, who said, invest in seven ventures, yes in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Shawn: That was Ecclesiastes 11:2. Bob: Did I say a different one? Shawn: I don’t think you said the scripture. Bob: I’m sorry about that. Ecclesiastes 11:2, exactly. I just said Solomon because I knew he wrote Ecclesiastes. Solomon did not go put all of his money in just stocks. If he were here today, he wouldn’t put them all in stocks, would he? Or all in bonds or all in real estate. Boy, that’s a big one. A lot of people put all their money in real estate. They think that’s the way to go. All your money in gold. No. He diversified his funds amongst many different types of investments, and just think of that; of all the different ways that we can invest today. You know, we go back a few podcasts where we talked about all the sectors. There’s like 11 to 12 different sectors to invest in. You could still invest in stocks, but be very diversified actually in 11 to 12 sectors even. Shawn: So number six, manage risk. This is for health, disability, life, auto, home and liability insurance. That really, that’s what you got to remember on the insurance is that it’s about managing your risk. That’s really all it’s for. Bob: Another term that I’ve heard for property and casualty insurance, life insurance, all these different types of insurance is risk management. Shawn: I think the easiest one, Bob, for people to think about is your life insurance. People think of, oh, life insurance, if something happens to me, my family gets a lot of money because of it’s payout. The reason why life insurance is so important to have, especially when you’re younger; if you get term life insurance when you’re young, it’s not expensive. Bob: It’s dirt cheap. Shawn: The risk that you’re managing is that if something should happen to you when you’re younger and you haven’t been able to build up any retirement assets, it helps take care of your family. Because it’s term and it’s going to expire after a while, you need to make sure that the other part of this equation is saving and investing wisely, so over time, as the insurance is expiring, you actually have your own hard assets. Bob: At my age, I’m going to be 61 in June, life insurance is expensive. Shawn: Ooh. I wouldn’t even wanna know how much your premiums would be. Bob: It’s a lot. You know what, another thing that you need to be very aware of is managing risk with auto insurance. You’ve heard it, pay for what you need. Well, wait a second. What do you need? You need enough to cover you. To buy auto insurance or home insurance just based on price is foolish. It’s very foolish. You need to base it on coverage because when that time happens, you’re going to wish that you bought adequate coverage. I’ve seen coverage. If you’re just trying to get the coverage to get by, it is not going to cover you. You’ve got all these guys out here in our area, we got the, what we call the 444 guy. He’s an attorney, the local attorney that advertises here and you know, they’re just out suing people left and right. That’s how they’re making their money. If you don’t have a lot of insurance to cover you, they’re going to go after your other assets. Insurance is there to help you, especially liability insurance. I like liability, like an umbrella policy covering you. This brings us to the last one. Shawn: Let’s not forget our scripture though. We do need to read the scripture for managing risk. Bob: Yeah, absolutely. This goes with risk. Shawn: Proverbs 4:6, “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.” Bob: That’s saying there, I picked that because I thought, well, that is wisdom to manage risk. Shawn: Number seven, know your financial condition. Proverbs 27:23-24, “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.” Bob: That is basically saying, write down all of your assets. Write down all of your liabilities. We call it a balance sheet around here. We’ve gone through the financial planning. I’d invite you to go back and watch the one that we did, the interactive integrative financial plan. I can pull up my financial condition 24-7 with just the, you know, click, and there it is. It’s updating every single day. And I know what my financial condition is. Shawn, you’d be surprised how many people do not know their financial condition. They don’t understand their assets and their liabilities and their net worth. If you’re net worth, if your liabilities are higher than your net worth, this is where you need some help. Most definitely. As we come to the end today of the seven guidelines for biblical financial principles, we want to help make sure that you put these in order, and that you use these biblical financial guidelines. Shawn, I’ve never seen anybody hurt by using these guidelines. You’re going to be prosperous when you do. I’m not speaking prosperity theology. You will be prosperous when you follow these biblical guidelines. You’ll be successful financially. Shawn: It always makes me think of the parable of the talents. Each servant was given a different amount, but each could have been prosperous with what they had. It did not mean they’d have the same dollar amount at the end, but they could have been, maybe instead prosperous I think a better word would be successful. Be successful with what you’ve been given. Whatever that ends up being. Bob: We could have called this seven biblical financial guidelines for being successful. Shawn: There you go. Bob: We want to help you be successful and a way that you can get ahold of us, we are Christian Financial Advisors® and our phone number during regular business hours, central standard time, you can phone or text that at (830) 609-6986. Or you can go to our website to christianfinancialadvisors.com. Any last word, Shawn? Shawn: God bless you all. Thank you again for joining us. It is always weird. Is it evening? Do I say goodnight? Good morning? Bob: I know. I’m not sure. Whatever time your day it is. I hope you have a great day, a great night, a great evening. Whatever time of the day you’re listening to this. Shawn: Let’s cover all our bases. Thank you for joining us and until next time, 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.