Biblical Insights for a Meaningful Retirement

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.