5 Principles of Financial Wisdom:
- God Owns it All: Psalm 24:1 “The earth and everything on it belong to the Lord. The world and its people belong to him.:
- Set Long Term Written Financial Goals: Proverbs 19:9 “We make our own plans but the Lord decides where we will go.”
- Spend Less than you earn: Proverbs 13:11 “Money wrongly gotten will disappear bit by bit. Money earned little by little with grow and grow.”
- Avoid the use of debt: Proverbs 22:7 “The poor are ruled by the rich, and those that borrow.”
- Avoid a consumptive lifestyle: Ecclesiastes 5:10 “If you love money and wealth, you will never be satisfied with what you have. This doesn’t make sense either.
What? Really? You have got to be kidding me? What CAN a Parrot teach me about my money? Let me spin you a tale of my father in law. Pop’s was not a rich man monetarily however he left behind a legacy worth far more than “stuff,”. He left behind many funny stories that we heard time and time again. He left behind a continued concern about the safety of others and our duty to help those in need. He also left behind a pug named Sparky Fat Boy and Sassy the African Grey parrot (by the way, Sassy is the one that named Sparky…Sparky Fat Boy). Sparky went home to be with Pop’s last year and this year we got to take care of Sassy for her forever home. Dog don’t live long compared to parrots, especially African Grey Parrots can live on average 60 to 75 years. Sassy is only 27, I am 43 and my wife is forever 29; so this means we need to think about who will inherit Sassy and more importantly will they be able to deal with her Sailor tongue? There is a reason she is called Sassy. We will also need to think about making sure they next person is ready to care for Sassy.
Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leave an inheritance to his children’s children; And the wealth of the sinner is is stored up for the righteous.”
We need to be thining about our wealth creation/ legacy in two camps: the physical and emotional.
The physical is about the “stuff,” we have and to be a good enough steward to assure we can give gifts to our grandkids. This also puts money and stuff in a long term perspectiveway beyond your life expectancy. Rick Warren’s words from his book “Purpose Driven Life,” come to mind…”It’s not about you.”
The emotional stuff is the “how to deal with the phycial stuff.” We always tell our clients that you never want to leave a box of money without giving instructions on how to use it and the why behind the how. Money is like alcohol; add too much and we all find out who you really are. Money is there to serve others through your actions of giving and at time sacrificially. Ouch, I know.
“Is the Next Steward Ready?”
Exercise: If you had all your needs and wants met, what would you do today to teach your kids or future grandkids to do with the money? E-mail me at teamgoodall@reagan.com and the neatest reponse gets $100 given to their favorite charity.
In His Love,
Just Jason