The Story Behind Redefining Family Wealth
Over the years, I’ve realized there are a lot of misconceptions about wealth building – especially among Christians. This is part of the reason I became a financial planner and built the wealth management firm WorthyNest®.
I also started writing in 2016, and I’ve been blessed with being able to regularly contribute to Kiplinger’s Building Wealth channel among other publications.
But after a few years, I realized I could only help so many people through my articles and business.
So, I wrote a book.
Redefining Family Wealth was written to transform the way you think about wealth. This labor of love was born out of my one-on-one work with clients through WorthyNest®. I started observing similar pain points across the many clients I worked with.
I especially noticed that my clients had bought into more than a few common misconceptions about money and wealth.
Have you ever heard one of the following statements?
You can’t change. Your financial mistakes will follow you forever.
Build an emergency fund equal to 3 to 12 months of living expenses.
Investing in alignment with your values isn’t possible.
Insurance takes all your financial worries away.
Estate planning is reserved for the rich.
You only need to look out for yourself.
Don’t worry about saving for college. You’ll have plenty of cash to pay for it.
Financial advisors are helpful only if you have at least a million dollars.
Retirement at age 65 is the only option.
Budgets are restrictive and take the fun out of life.
All debt is bad.
And the big one: money is the root of all evil.
I have to tell you… all of these are lies. Yes, many well-intentioned people believe these things and pass them on. And indeed they are widespread beliefs.
That does not make them TRUE.
The fact is that these faulty beliefs are stumbling blocks preventing you from reaching your financial goals. I would even say that they can and do prevent people from going after the dreams that God has put in their hearts.
Having heard all of these misconceptions and seeing the consequences, I decided to say something. In Redefining Family Wealth, I turn some of the most common money myths upside down and offer an alternative.
I want to give you a taste of what you’ll find in the book. In this post, I’ll be debunking the three biggest myths about money that are tripping up Christian families.
Let’s start with retirement.
Traditional Retirement vs. Financial Independence
I’ll put this out there first of all…
It is no longer a viable option to work until 65 without an investment plan and depend on Social Security retirement benefits. Here’s why.
The average monthly retirement benefit as of April 2022 was $1,666.49. For many people, especially those in urban areas, that is not nearly enough to cover the cost of living.
Social Security also keeps increasing the age at which retirement benefits are paid out. Furthermore, unless Congress makes some changes, Social Security’s excess reserves will run out by 2034. This means retirees may receive almost a 25% cut in their Social Security benefits.
Again, retirement at age 65 with no plan and dependency on Social Security benefits is not a viable option.
More and more people are changing their mindset around retirement. Rather than focusing on making it to a certain age, they’re focused on FIRE.
“Deb, what the heck is FIRE?”
Four words, one impactful concept: Financial Independence, Retire Early.
The easiest way to define FIRE is working toward your purpose, rather than working toward a certain age.
Canadian-born Peter Adney, now known as Mr. Money Mustache, and his wife worked in the tech industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They saved aggressively in passive index funds and real estate investments, achieving an early retirement in 2005 to start their family.
Adney became increasingly frustrated with friends and coworkers living ridiculously expensive lifestyles and sacrificing long-term financial freedom. So he started the Mr. Money Mustache blog in 2011 to share his secrets of financial independence.
His is still one of the most popular FIRE blogs on the Internet. Honestly, he has a lot of sound advice. Most of it is focused (surprise, surprise!) on frugality and saving. He emphasizes living a life of purpose and true happiness rather than a life focused on convenience and luxury.
That’s really the crux of the FIRE movement: living with purpose and pursuing real happiness… rather than upholding the status quo.
I truly believe that age is just a number. You may say you are too old or too young to live in alignment with your life’s purpose.
Here’s the truth: age does not matter one bit.
Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at age 75.
Sister Madonna Buder, a Roman Catholic nun, completed the Ironman at age 76.
John Glenn traveled into space at age 77.
At 91, Frank Lloyd Wright finished his work at the Guggenheim Museum.
For many Millennials and Gen Xers, financial independence is not about retiring at age 40 or 45.
Rather, it is about achieving financial independence early and opening the door for volunteerism or career fields that may not pay well but provide greater purpose and meaning!
What financial independence looks like for you and your family may be different than for someone else. There is no hard and fast timeline for achieving financial independence and retiring early.
But starting the journey toward financial independence means moving in the direction where you can use your God-given gifts to serve others.
You were made for more. Don’t let the myth of traditional retirement hold you back from living your purpose.
I used the Redefine Retirement framework in Redefining Family Wealth to help you start dreaming about what financial independence can make possible. It’s a tool I use with my clients that helps them to clarify their life goals.
You may find it beneficial to use the Redefine Retirement framework on your own. However, you may also wish to seek out a financial advisor to help you outline your financial independence plan. My advice is to pray and reflect on your goals. The Holy Spirit will guide you.
Now, let’s turn to the often dreaded tool that is so necessary to achieving financial independence: the budget.
Do Budgets Take the Fun Out of Life? Here’s The Real Deal.
OK, I need you to be honest for a moment. When you hear the word budget, what comes to mind?
Maybe restrictive? Boring? Stressful?
Does the idea of a budget make you feel anxious? Guilty? Filled with dread?
Many people think of a budget as a means to control their spending. The focus entails reducing expenses and finding ways to spend less.
I invite you instead to entertain a different perspective.
A budget is not a tool to control spending so much as it’s a tool to clarify priorities.
There are a few different reasons to have a budget. You can use it to get a clear idea of…
Your cash flow, so you can reach financial goals;
Your bills, which can help you with cutting costs where possible; and
The amount of income you need for retirement.
Rather than being restrictive, a budget can actually give you more freedom! It is an essential tool for achieving financial independence and, if you so choose, retiring early.
I’ve written about an approach to help you budget better as well as two different systems of budgeting.
The envelope budget is perfect for those starting on a path to good money management. It is the foundational budget often suggested for new college graduates. But it can also be helpful if you do not have a good idea of where your money is going each month.
For those of you who find the envelope budget too simple, take a look at my post on the Detailed Personal Budget instead. You can also find this information in Redefining Family Wealth.
The Biggest Lie: “Money is EVIL. Jesus Said So!”
So, now the big question:
Is it sinful to build wealth as a Christian?
There is a longstanding belief that if you’re a good Christian, you can’t earn any significant amount of money.
This stumbling block comes from a misunderstanding of Luke 16:13:
“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Mammon is often translated as “wealth” or “money,” but it loses its dimension with those translations. Jesuit Fr. John C. Haughey, author of The Holy Use of Money, states:
“Mammon is not simply a neutral term in Luke. It is not simply money. It connotes disorder. . . . Mammon becomes then a source of disorder because people allow it to make a claim on them that only God can make.”
Mammon is the idolization of wealth. It is turning away from the love of God and others toward the pursuit of that which in itself can never fulfill you.
Money itself is neutral. It’s just a tool. It is the love of money–at the expense of a relationship with the Lord–that is sinful. The disorder comes from your relationship with wealth, not from the dollar amount in your bank account.
There are essentially two paths when it comes to spending money.
The first path is wide, tread by many, and often leads to destruction. It is the way of consumerism, constant debt, overspending, and not stewarding financial resources. It is the way of greed and envy, of fear and scarcity. This is the way of bondage to money as an idol.
The second path is the narrow way of love, the road less traveled but the path that brings you in alignment with Christ. It is the choice for abundant generosity with the gifts that God has bestowed on you.
You use your wealth for the glory of God and His good purposes. Money donated to charities that feed, shelter, and provide assistance to the poor is given from an outpouring of love for your neighbor. This is the way that reflects God the giver of all that is good.
There are many successful Christian parents who are using their wealth as a means to help others. They show it is possible to do something other than storing up possessions that will be left behind in the next life. They work instead for a better, more loving world where the least of their brethren are cared for.
In Redefining Family Wealth, I talk more about ways to walk the path of generosity, from tips on charitable giving to building up community rather than relying on total self-sufficiency.
Start Your Personal Financial Planning Journey Today
Now my question to you is…
Are you ready to live abundantly?
Are you willing to toss out preconceived notions of wealth and boldly move into uncharted territory as a family?
We are all shaped by our money behaviors, attitudes, and history. As a financial planner, the first step I have my clients take is to get oriented with their true values.
In Redefining Family Wealth, I challenge you to do the same. You’ll dig deep and uncover your core vision, values, and goals surrounding wealth.
This book is a how-to guide for achieving success in a way that aligns with your values. Not the values that television and social media dictate. Not the values of those who lack vision. Not the values of the status quo.
You can build wealth in a way that is authentic, purposeful, and leads to a life of generosity. Buy Redefining Family Wealth on Amazon today.
And if you’re wondering what makes me qualified to speak about wealth building, you can read my story here – from how I became a CPA to how I started WorthyNest®.