Investing

From the Salvation Army, you're listening to Wonderful Words of Life. Welcome back to Wonderful Words of Life. I'm Bernie Dake. And I'm Cheryl Gillum.

Cheryl, we're really glad that you're here, and we hope that you, our listeners, are enjoying this series. As we continue this series on finance today, Bernie, you and Mike Harris talked about investing. And some people, especially if you're younger in your Bible study journey, may find it surprising that investing is actually a biblical principle. Absolutely. And the thing is, it's a very simple idea.

The Bible's clear about what you put in is what you'll get out. And at the same time, as a young person, if you can start saving right now, just a little bit over the course of several years, and perhaps your working life, you will be able to retire with a very comfortable sum that will get you through. Yeah, of course, we know that when it comes to saving for retirement, the earlier the better, right?

Exactly. Well, there was a study on CNBC that said only about 39% of those surveyed started saving in their 20s. The rest started in their 30s and 40s. And some interesting math in this article that highlights the importance of starting early to reach 1.7 million by 65. Assuming you had an 8% return, you would need to save $486 per month, starting at age 25. But if you just waited five more years, you'd have to save an additional $300 a month to achieve the same goal.

So that's the idea of starting earlier. I know it sounds like a lot of money. But if you come into employment with someone who's willing to perhaps offer some incentives to save or match, then you can probably find a way to get to that amount pretty quickly. And there's a lot of companies out there that will help you. I want to be clear when you're making an investment that's not a gamble per se, but your money is at risk. So you have to be very careful. Talk to a financial advisor that has experience in this field and someone that you can trust. Definitely get expert advice.

Yeah. And of course, you all know we're not financial experts, but we hope this series has been an encouragement to you. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. So send us an email at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org or call 1-800-229-9965.

Thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you in the next one. When through deep waters call to go, rivers of grief will not flow. For He is here, our trust to bless, to sanctify our deep distress. To sanctify our deep distress. A raging storm a mighty lord. I've got a refuge from all harm.

Oh, let your truth in they might die. Enter my cry, I need you now. Lord, I need you now.

Lord, I need you now. Welcome back everybody. I'm really grateful that I have Mike Harris here with us. Major Mike Harris, my friend, and hopefully your friend too over these last few weeks. He's been sharing with us ideas about financial freedom and stewardship and the ideas particularly related to biblical principles.

Mike, what would you have for us this week? Well again, looking at biblical principles, and as I've said in previous weeks, I think it's important we always go back to scripture. And one of the best known parables that we see in scripture is what we call the parable of the talents where the master goes away and leaves certain amounts of his resources with three servants. And as you recall in the story, we observe as the first two servants double the amount of talents that they were given because they invested it, they worked it. Whereas the third guy, you know, buries his talent in a hole in the ground so that when the master comes back and sees what the first two have done, he praises them for increasing. But it shouldn't be lost on us that it was a significant consequence for the one who did nothing.

In fact, he was expelled, he was cast out, and his talent was given to the one who had the most. Now that could be spiritualized on a number of levels, and I could probably preach that sermon ten times, ten different ways, in truth. But I think it pertains to stewardship, but it does also sort of make you think and wonder and consider how we can most wisely invest the resources that we have, and perhaps monetarily, how we can wisely invest the resources. Because I think what that scripture is telling us is that we've got to do something with it. And isn't it a great thing to take what God has given to us and to increase it? And so over the last few weeks, we've talked about the opposite, where we can get back to a starting point where we can eliminate debt. But the flip side to this is, how can we increase what we have? And there are a number of investing opportunities out there. And Bernie, I know you've, you know, partaken of some of those, and some of them are perhaps right there in your face and you don't even realize it.

Yeah. I want to be careful for our listeners to make sure you understand that neither one of us are financial experts as it relates to investing. And particularly financially when you're investing money, there are risks involved.

The stock market could crash. We don't want to point you in one direction or another. But Mike mentioned the idea of some opportunities that may exist that you may not be aware of, and they're sitting right in front of you. And I would say to you that what I have discovered as a longtime employee of a singular organization, that there are lots of retirement fund opportunities that exist. For instance, the company that I work for happens to be the Salvation Army, and they pay into a pension for me based on my years of service. And then they have set up a retirement plan in addition to that for their employees to consider investing.

And they encourage it this way. If I invest a percentage of my income, they will match a percentage up to a certain amount. At the end of the day, I've been involved for more than 25 years with the Salvation Army as an employee. And for that length of service, the Salvation Army is willing to invest or match up to, let me say, 6%.

That number could be wrong, but that's free money. Now, meaning if I decide to take a percentage of my salary and invest it in this retirement option, the Salvation Army will match that on my behalf because of my faithfulness as a longtime employee. Those retirement funds, those opportunities that exist with employment are important for you to understand, particularly if you are young, because the sooner you can get into the idea of living without a small percentage of your income and putting it away, forgetting about it, the more you will realize the opportunity that exists with compound interest. Now, if you're indebted to someone, compound interest is a terrible thing, but if you're able to put money away into savings or in a retirement type fund, what you're getting is, in the United States, a pretax opportunity to put money away that over time will begin to compound because of the interest.

And for me at 30 years, I'm not a wealthy man, but as I look to retirement, perhaps at around the age of 65, which is still 15 years away, I know that there's money there that we could try to budget a lifestyle that would be meaningful and comfortable for my wife and I. It certainly doesn't mean riches or exorbitant travel. Yeah, I don't have to fly in the face of what we said before where we lose the faith piece, but you've been faithful with your resources by doing that.

Exactly, yeah. That money comes out immediately, 10% comes out immediately for the Lord, and we don't even consider living with that. And we have experienced a comfort, a peace about our finances, I believe, because of our faithfulness to the Lord. It's a biblical principle, and we've seen it demonstrated in the lives of mentors and peers around us. You cannot outgive God. And we've been able to, as a couple, invest in ministry opportunities or in young people in a way that would be an encouragement to them. And we want them to understand the same ideas that we have learned over time so that they have maybe even a foot up or a headstart on a better life and a comfortable idea that there's a peace in a financial freedom.

We don't want to be indebted to man, but of course, with God, there's just a real peace about that. And I just use that as a single example for our listeners to consider investing in something that exists. It's in the background.

It's right there in front of you. It's almost free money from your employer. So do your best to educate yourself. We talked about last week the idea of technology. There's so many resources out there that you can learn about financial freedom and be leery about schemes.

There are so many opportunists out there that would want to steal your money and take your money, and it looks attractive. Do your best to work with people that you can trust. And I find that people who are kindred spirits, Christian people who have your best interest at hand, knowing full well that the kingdom will be even larger, more populated because of your faithfulness. Amen. Mike, I'm grateful to you. I'm sorry if I took a lot of your time.

No, I think your personal experience there was very, very helpful. We've got a few more weeks with Mike, so come on back and join us next week on Wonderful Words of Life. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we would love to hear from you. Email us at radioatuss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O.

Box 29972, Atlanta, Georgia, 30359. When you contact us, we'll send you our gift for this series. It's totally free for listeners like you, one per household while supplies last. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes or your favorite podcast store and be sure to give us a rating. Just search for Wonderful Words of Life. Follow us on social media for the latest episodes, extended interviews, and more. And if you don't have a church home, we invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worship center. They'll be glad to see you. This is Bernie Dake inviting you to join us next time for The Salvation Army's Wonderful Words of Life.