Kingdom Advisors equips Christian financial advisors to bring their faith into their practice with the industry-recognized Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. We bring those advisors together with other industry leaders to form a vibrant network. And through that network, we give them the resources, tools, and encouragement they need to serve clients like you, helping you align your values with your financial decisions and investments. To learn more, visit kingdomadvisors.com. Uh Are you living at your best or just barely getting by?
Maybe burnout isn't a badge of honor, but a warning light from God. Hi, I'm Rob West. When life feels out of balance, it's often a sign we're pushing past the limits God's design for our good. Today, Carrie Neuhoff joins us to share how we can find biblical rest and live with renewed purpose by managing our time and energy God's way. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7,000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Well, it's a joy to welcome Kerry Newhoff to the program. He's best-selling author, speaker, leadership expert, and founding pastor of Connexis Church in Ontario, Canada. Carrie, I've been looking forward to this. Thanks for being here. I've been looking forward to it too.
Thank you so much for having me. Gary, we're going to unpack your book today, At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy and Priorities Working in Your Favor. And I know it struck a chord with so many readers. Certainly, I'm among that group. Let's back up.
Why did you write this? Why the topic of burnout?
Well, I wrote it because I burned out.
So, about a decade into my leadership, almost 20 years ago now, I was on top of the world in many respects. Fast-growing church, new people every weekend, double-digit growth. And I remember being invited to speak at a conference in Atlanta, biggest audience to date at that time, 2,500 leaders from around the world. And I thought, does it get any better than this? And then I flew home.
My wife and kids were with me. And when we landed in Toronto, my home city. It's like I fell off a cliff. I just had worked so hard for so long. You know, I probably met all the symptoms for clinical depression, and I'm not a depressed person, but like lost my motivation, lost my passion.
And what happened was, you know, like so many leaders, success is intoxicating. We were growing at, I think, 30% a year, year after year after year. And my terrible math equation was more people equals more hours. You know, if you get a promotion, what is it, Rob? It's more hours, right?
So, and I didn't declare a finish line.
So, my body did, and it kind of went on strike. And that lasted about four or five months. Darkest period of my life. Um As I was slowly Finding health again. I can't live this way.
I got to figure out a new normal because normal got me burned out. And so that has spawned. the last two decades of not only figuring it out personally, but probably. You know, seven, eight years into recovery, I started sharing some of the principles. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute, I'm not alone on this.
This is like so many people's stories. And what I found is my recovery didn't just work for me, it started to help other people too. Mm. Let's sit in that for a second. Did it catch you by surprise or did you see it coming in any way?
No, no, actually, I wrote a book before your best called Didn't See It Coming. No, I didn't see it coming. I wasn't. Lots of people saw it coming. Here's the irony, right?
I had people probably for two or three years prior to me burning out, tapping me on the shoulder, going, Hey, if you're not careful, you're going to be burnt out. And you know what I thought? Because I was in my 30s. I was like, you know. That's for weaklings.
Weak people burn out. I don't burn out. I'm stronger than that. The rules don't apply to me. And you know what?
They did. They did apply to me. And it honestly. Was one of the biggest shocks of my life. It's like, what do you mean I'm out of gas?
What do you mean I don't want to get out of bed in the morning? What do you mean I'm this dark and this depressed and this. Like limping, barely moving on. It just, it just shocked me. And even looking back on it, I'm like, yeah, that was totally out of the blue.
So, were the signs there? Absolutely. Who is blind to them? Me. Yeah, yeah, and that's normally the case.
Uh you talk about burnout as the gap between what we're capable of and what we're carrying. Uh unpack that for us for a second. Yeah.
So, you know, the the thing is, you know, we're growing fast enough. And I mean, you know, in Canada, a large church is very large churches, a thousand people, and we're starting to create that level. And I thought it can't get any more complicated than that. And when I burned out, you know, I just thought, I can't handle any more people. I can't handle any more responsibility.
I can't handle any of that.
Well, fast forward two decades, guess what? I'm carrying a crazy amount more. Like millions of people have accessed my podcast and my resources. Yes. And I have days off and I go to bed and get eight and a half, nine hours sleep.
So, you know, burnout, if you're operating at that capacity, you get hurt. but there's a lot more if you rethink your rhythm. Hmm, that is so good.
Well, we're going to continue to unpack this after the break. What does it look like to go from burnout to biblical rest? Carrie Newhoff, pastor, speaker, and best-selling author here today. Much more to come just around the corner. Stay with us.
I was in ministry full time, and I was always looking for a way to integrate my faith with this new industry around money and finances. This is Mark. He is a Certified Kingdom Advisor. As a CKA, one of the best things I offer my clients is trust in knowing that they're working with a professional that understands their values. And I think, in all of the different challenges that clients go through, if we can go back to trusting in God, then He'll make the path straight.
You can find an advisor like Mark at findacka.com. Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Soundmind Investing. If you have money in an investment account, you know sometimes the stock market can seem like a roller coaster. But it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind as a do-it-yourself investor, no matter what's happening in the market. A short video webinar about that is available at soundmindinvesting.org.
Financial Wisdom for Living Well.
Soundmindinvesting.org. You find yourself at the end of your rope. Perhaps burnout is a part of this season you're in right now, and you're looking for a way out, the path to biblical rest. That's what we're talking about today with Carrie Neuhoff. Carrie is a pastor, speaker, best-selling author of the book At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor.
Carrie, before the break, you described this dark place you were at as you were at seemingly the top of your game. Everything was working, and your church and your speaking and writing. And all of a sudden, you found yourself in your own burnout. And it was a journey that you walked with the Lord and your family through. And you're, of course, now on the other side of it.
And I'm so delighted because I'm confident there are so many in our listening audience today who are in some version of that season right now. One of the key ideas you talk about is managing energy. Rather than time. Talk about that for a second. You know, the thing I started to rethink time management because the problem was I was pretty good at time management when I burned out.
Like I was getting better at it every year. And what I realized is you're managing a fixed asset. Like you get 24 hours in a day, no matter who you are, right? If you became president of the United States, guess what you get? Not a single minute more a day.
If you get promoted to CEO, guess what you get? Not a single minute more a day. And so I kind of realized that. But then I also started studying energy. And a lot's been done over the last 15 years on studying human energy.
But I realized not all 24 hours are created equal. Like they're equal in time. But like I'm a morning person.
So 8 a.m. feels very different to me than 8 p.m.
Some nights at 8 p.m. You know, I'm just like, all right, that's it. I want to go to bed. Right.
So, but at 8 a.m., I'm a writer. I'm working on a new book right now. And, you know, the ideas flow. I'm, I'm, you know, doing great.
So maybe your, your listeners can relate. Because they're morning people or they're night owls, or you know, they peak midday. A lot of people, according to the research, peak midday. But the bottom line is, I wanted to call my last book at your best. I wanted to call it the three hour workday, but it's already gone, that that concept.
But the idea is, like on a really good day, I had a writing sabbatical last week before we're going to air with this. I, you know, wrote eight hours a day, but there were only three or four really good hours in that. And then the rest was kind of review and your brain cells. You know, it's like your phone. You start at 100% or 80%, and then you just wind down.
And by four o'clock in the afternoon, there's 3%.
So I call those peak energy zones, your hours, your green zone, because you're firing on all cylinders. The opposite is your red zone. And so for me, that's four to six in the afternoon. Where you know, my battery's down to three percent, I need a double espresso or a nap, one of the two, or a run or something to keep me going. Most people can relate to that.
So, the key is, and this is what made the biggest difference in the productivity we talked about before the break, is. When I work in my green zone, I do my most important work, which for me is writing new content as an author and a speaker. If I do that in my green zone. I get exponential returns. If I wait and just fill it up with breakfast meetings and this and that and the other thing, and trips to the drive-through for coffee.
And I try to do my most important work in the afternoon or evening. Gong show, gong show.
So, what I encourage leaders to do is do what you're best at when you're at your best. That's it. When you're at your best, take your most important work. For CEOs, it could be strategy, it could be key one-on-one meetings. Do it when you're at your best because you know, if you've got that part of your to-do list done.
Guess what? Yeah.
You can go home, man. Like, if I get 3,000 good words written by 10 a.m. I don't care what the day brings. I'm fine. When I was a pastor, if I had my sermon done by Tuesday at noon, The rest of the week doesn't really matter.
If I'm still struggling for an idea Friday at five o'clock, guess who pays the price? Me, my family, my wife. I'm miserable. The sermon isn't as good.
So you got to do what you're best at when you're at your best. That is so good. And it's such a key idea, not only in life, but in leadership, to your point.
So, Carrie, with those things that you're not best at, what are some practical ideas on how you then transfer those to others? What does that look like? Delegate, delegate, delegate. I'm working on a new piece, top 10 books I've read this year. I'm just literally putting the book titles in.
Someone else can fill in all the links, all the details, et cetera. You just got to delegate. You got to learn also to say no. I think about it in terms of categorical decision making. I did it again this morning.
It was a travel day yesterday, so I'm catching up on email. There's a guy who wants to give me, you know, pretty valuable free software in exchange for a 45-minute Zoom call. I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to have to say no. I'm sorry.
I'm in monk mode right now. I gotta, I gotta write this book. And that's really hard every single time I shut the door and say no. But for too many years, particularly in my 30s when my kids were young. You know, when I said yes and I shouldn't have said yes, guess who paid the price for that?
My family. Because saying yes to this guy that was a B or C priority meant I said no to my kids on a Saturday. It's like, ugh. I don't want to live that way anymore. And, you know, so I think of it as categorical decision making.
I don't do breakfast meetings anymore. Why? Because it competes with my green zone. It's just like, okay, you know, the one-hour meeting took three hours by the time you drove to the restaurant, got back, stopped for coffee, chatted with people in the office.
So it's been a complete rewiring.
Now, you can make exceptions. One of my very best friends texted me: Hey, I'm in Nashville. You want to get together for breakfast on Friday? I can have breakfast with him, you know, but I'm just not going to do it three days a week, you know, all month long, because then my most productive time goes up in flames. You know, I love that after concluding his creation masterpiece, God rested from his work.
And, you know, when we indwell creation and that design, we work in God's way, but we also rest in God's way. And you say rest isn't a reward for finishing our work, it's a part of how God designed us to work.
So, how does that play out day to day for you?
Well, you know, we think of rest, I think, as rehab. It's like, oh, I worked so hard. I'm so tired. I got to rest. But I was talking to Rob Palinka, who's the general manager of the LA Lakers, and we were talking about managing LeBron James.
And listen, I know less about sports than all of your listeners.
Okay.
So, but I know who LeBron James is. And he says LeBron, as he's gotten older, pays so much attention prehab. Right.
So it's not just what am I doing after the game recover? What am I doing before the game to get ready? And that looks like 12 hours worth of sleep and this diet and this exercise regime, et cetera.
So. You can look at Sabbath as rehab, or you can look at it as prehab as well. And the other thing that's interesting, because you referenced the biblical reference to Sabbath, is that God delighted in his creation. He looked back, he created something amazing. And he enjoyed it.
Which is like really cool, right? Yeah, you're exactly right.
Well, and we've only unfortunately got about a minute left, but these limits are not only a part of God's rhythm, but they're a blessing to us. They're not obstacles. And this can actually relate to money as well.
So let's finish today with how this can transform our approach to both time and money. Yeah, margin on your calendar is a gift, right? If you've got a free Saturday and it just says family time on it, it's like awesome.
Okay, you've said no to everything else, so you can say yes to your family. The same goes with money. And I learned that lesson over time that margin is a gift financially. You know, if your air conditioning goes or your furnace goes. You have the money sitting in the bank.
What a gift.
So, I think the way you manage your time, the way you manage even your health, and you steward that, and also the way you manage your money, really important. Yeah.
Boy, this has been a gift today to us, Carrie. I so appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us. We're going to have you back real soon.
Okay, I'd love to. That's Kerry Newhoff, pastor, speaker, and best-selling author. You can pick up this book wherever you buy your books. It's called At Your Best. Also, check out the Carrie Newhoff Leadership Podcast.
He'll be at Redeeming Money, our conference for advisors in February. Tell your advisor to go to redeemingmoney.com. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com.
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Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. We do have some lines open.
So if you have a financial question today here on Faith and Finance, give us a call, 800-525-7000. We've got lines open, 800-525-7000. All right, Missouri is where we're headed. Keith, go ahead. Hi, thank you for your program.
Of course. I was wondering if you could tell me the pros and cons. Of taking re Social Security at sixty two versus full retirement aids. Ah, yeah, it's a great question. It comes up quite a bit.
You know, the key difference, first of all, Keith, is that. Your full retirement age, so typically 66 or 67, depending on your birth year, is when you can receive 100% of your Social Security benefit. If you claim at 62, meaning you start early, you're gonna have a permanent reduction of that benefit.
So, the pro of taking it at 62 is that you get the immediate income. You get a check sooner, and that's helpful if you've retired early, you've lost work, or you just need cash flow.
So, you're gonna, you know, in theory, get more total payments.
Well, you definitely will get more total payments because you're starting it earlier.
Now, you may or may not collect more overall because you're going to get that permanent reduction. And it's going to preserve your savings potentially.
So, a lot of people will take it early because it allows them to leave more of their investments untouched early on. And especially if the market's doing well, that can work in your favor. The downside is that permanent reduction at 62, it's going to be somewhere between 25 and 30 percent lower than waiting until full retirement age. It also is going to result in a lower survivor benefit. And you've got that earnings limit.
So if you take it before full retirement age, you've got that earnings limit where if you go over that, they're going to reduce your benefit.
Now Whereas the penalty for taking it early that is permanent. The reduction because you work and earn over the limit is temporary.
So that will reduce your benefit by $1 for every $2 you go above the limit. But you'll eventually get that back in the form of a higher check once you reach full retirement age. But the permanent reduction for taking it early, you're never going to get it back. And I think maybe the other downside is the there's less inflation protection because since the cost of living adjustments are applied to a smaller base, Your lifetime benefit growth is going to be lower.
So, you know, that's why I say: listen, especially if you're continuing to work. And you have health and longevity in your family, and therefore you expect a long retirement, even though none of us know the day or the hour the Lord will call us home, then I would say it's typically better to wait because that guaranteed increase you're going to receive is not something you can get anywhere else. But give me your questions on that.
Well My thing is by the time I'm sixty two, I'll be debt free other than a small amount on my house. My wife will still be young enough. She'll be continuing to work, which will. get her into, you know, paying the rest of the house off in that amount of time. And I don't have a lot of longevity in my family.
My dad. died a couple of years after his full retirement. And my mom didn't need to make it that long. That's where that's That's the question I I mean, that's why I was wondering. It's uh it would be better to take one that have a better quality of life.
and just, you know, work as much as possible without getting a big deduction. And you know, enj maybe enjoy it a little bit longer. Yeah, it's a great question. And obviously, there's no way to know which is going to come out better for you. It's all dependent upon how long you live.
And that's the one question only the Lord can answer. But, you know, I think you have to put all the factors together. You have to put your longevity, your health status, your need for income, you know, your current health and energy level to your point where you could enjoy it and put that all together with the fact that you could live a whole lot longer. You know, I mean, this money may need to last three decades or more. And as a result, you may be really glad that you had a higher check 20 years from now.
So, you know, I think ultimately that's what it's going to come down to. But I think you understand the factors here.
So I just pray through it and maybe you split the difference. You know, maybe instead of taking it at 62, you know, you take it at 65, two years early instead of four or five.
So, anyway, I hope that helps, Keith. We appreciate your call, sir. God bless you. Let's go to Indianapolis and round out the broadcast today. Sue, thanks for calling.
Go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Sure. I want to know When is it appropriate to? It's time to redo my will.
I'm 58. Still working. My house and car are paid for. I don't have debt, thankfully. I've got a decent amount.
stocked away in my 401k. But when is it if I redo my will, is it time to do a trust? Or when is that the wise thing to do? It's definitely more expensive, and I wasn't sure how to approach that. You know, you don't really need a trust necessarily.
I mean, where a trust would come in is if either you want to avoid probate because either you just don't want, you know, to go through the time and the expense of running through the probate court, even though that would be overall probably less expense than you'd have in setting up the trust.
Some people want to avoid it. Other people want to avoid probate because they want their estates anonymous. Whereas when you have a will and go through probate, it's a part of the public record. The other reason you would have a trust is if you want a trustee to be able to step in if you were incapacitated, or even if you wanted the assets from your estate to stay in the trust beyond your life and only be distributed to beneficiaries at certain triggering events. Maybe you had minor children and you said, okay, I want them to get X amount when they graduate college and I want them to get Y amount when they turn 25 or whatever that is.
But apart from that, a basic will is going to really cover what you need. And it's going to make sure that whatever accounts you have and personal assets and property will get to whoever you want it to go to.
So I just say if you have an up-to-date will, that's probably enough, unless one of those other reasons applies with regard to a trust. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Can I say something real quick?
Yeah, please. Sure. It was about 30 years ago that I took one of those Crown ministry small group studies. Yeah, great. And it completely changed the trajectory of just how I looked at finances and just stewardship in general.
So that's really what got me on course to be in the position I am today that I'm so grateful for.
So thanks for all the sound advice and options you give people that call in because it makes such a huge difference.
Well, thank you, Sue. That means a lot. I'm very grateful. Our ministry here goes all the way back to not only Howard Dayton, who was the founder of Crown, but Larry Briquette and Christian Financial Concepts and the original program, Money Matters, that's now Faith and Finance today.
So I sit in a legacy of incredible men of God who just wanted to serve God's people and revered scripture and wanted to encourage and equip the body of Christ to be wise stewards. words. And so I appreciate you affirming that today. Thanks for being on the program. By the way, make sure your beneficiaries are up to date on that 401k and any other accounts.
That's going to do it for us today, folks. Big thanks to my team today. Jim, Amy, Dan, and Anthony. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you next time.
Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
