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That's findacaka.com. Our financial lives stand or fall on the foundation we choose. Hi I'm Rob West. Jesus said the wise man built his house on the rock so it could stand when the storm came. The same is true of our financial lives.
John Cortinez joins us today to show us how to build a financial house on the wisdom of God's Word. And then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.
Well, we always enjoy having my friend John Cortinez on the program. John is a family office advisor with Blue Trust and a regular FaithFi contributor. He's also the co-author of both God and Money and True Riches. John, great to have you back.
So good to be with you, Rob. Thank you. John, your article in the latest issue of Faithful Steward, the magazine, is titled Building Your Financial House on God's Word. And boy, I just love this article and how it gives us such a beautiful picture of God's design for finances in our lives. And you begin with Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7.
So let's start there and share why that's such a fitting picture for how we approach money. Absolutely.
Well, you know, Rob, Jesus wanted us to understand in that parable that storms will hit everyone. And think of a job loss or swings in the market or medical bills, but the foundation we're on matters. And if Jesus calls himself the rock, that's true for all of our life. And of course, it's got to be true for our finances as well. And so, when we think of our financial life, if Christ is the base, the entire structure is going to stand firm.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
So, let's build that out and start with that foundation.
So, in your mind, John, what does it look like to make Christ, not money, the bedrock of our financial lives?
Well, Jesus said directly that we cannot serve both God and mammon or the spirit of wealth, right?
So we have to make something the ultimate bedrock of our life. And 1 Timothy 6 describes the problem with trusting in mammon. It leads to ruin and destruction.
So, first of all, we remember that everything we have comes from God and ultimately belongs to him. I think of Haggai 2:8.
So, if we belong to God and if our money is His, then that makes us a money manager for Him. And that is a very different mindset than thinking that it's all us.
So a steward's mindset says my money is here to serve his purposes and my trust and my life is in him. Yeah.
So God owns everything. Our role then, faithful steward. What is the next faithful decision? Knowing we don't own it, but we are ultimately responsible for its management.
Now let's continue to build this house. We've got the foundation in place.
Now, you described these four walls that help protect our financial house, beginning with gratitude, which is such a key idea in biblical money management.
So, John, how does gratitude guard our hearts against pride?
Well, that's right. And in this article, we talk about how these walls, they're not like the decisions we make on a daily basis. They're actually attitudes of the heart. And pride is such a threat, and a wall of gratitude in our financial house will guard against it because pride whispers to each of us. I earned this and I deserve it.
But gratitude answers, no, no, God provided it. Pride will close our heart and gratitude will open it up. And so, what gratitude does is crowd out self-centeredness and remind us that every blessing we have comes from God. And I think of Deuteronomy 8:18 is a great scripture on this. Yeah, boy, it's incredible.
And I can think in my own life, John, of seasons where I've really leaned into this idea of gratitude, others, maybe not so much. What does that look like for you to develop that rhythm of gratitude? Any thoughts? Yeah, well, you know, it is such a personal thing, but I think of how in the seasons of my life where I do start to get a little bit, yeah, proud of what I've accomplished and say, hey, look at my resume, look at what I've done. It's such an unhealthy place to be as a believer.
But when we step back and again, remember, God gave us the opportunity, He let us be born in the year we were born in. And of course, our salvation in Christ comes from Him. It just really sets us free from thinking everything comes from us and we built it ourselves. No, no, this came from God and I owe it all back to Him. Yeah, I think that's well said, John.
And certainly gratitude is one of the key ways we kind of bust down that pride that can so easily creep up in our lives.
Well, when we come back after this break, we're going to continue to unpack this and talk about a financial life built on Christ, but that is strengthened by gratitude that we just talked about, also contentment and trust and love and how those virtues really shape every decision we make as we manage the resources. resources God has entrusted to us. We're talking with John Cortinez today about building your financial house on God's word. John is a family office advisor with Blue Trust and a regular contributor here at FaithFi. And we've got much more coming just around the corner.
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Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We're talking today about building your financial house on God's Word. Joining me today, my friend John Cortinez. He's a family office advisor with Blue Trust and a regular contributor here at Faith Vi. And his article in our latest edition of Faithful Steward is titled Building Your Financial House on God's Word.
Before the break, John was talking to us about our foundation built on Christ. We understand we can't serve God and mammon, so God needs to be our ultimate treasure, money, a tool to accomplish God's purposes. And then, as we think about this house that's being erected, these four walls, really the heart postures, first, one of gratitude that guards our heart against pride. John, I know the second wall is that of contentment, one of God's big ideas that we see in scripture around money management. Talk to us about contentment and how it protects our hearts from coveting.
comparing ourselves to others. Yeah, well, coveting is just a restless appetite for more. And it's such a big deal that it makes it into the 10 commandments. It is the 10th commandment, not to covet. And in Proverbs it says that envy makes the bones rot.
But biblical contentment brings peace in plenty or in lean times as well. You know, I think of Philippians 4:12 and 13. And when Paul famously said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, He wasn't talking about accomplishing something, you know, like a hard goal he had set. No, he was talking about being content in challenging economic circumstances. And so when we lean on Christ, that lets us be satisfied no matter what the balance sheet says.
And if we're content with where God has placed us, that will protect us from coveting what others have. John, you and I have a friend, Jeff Mannion, from Ada Bible Church. I think he has such a fabulous book on this topic of contentment called Satisfied. And I love when he talks about, you know, we get so focused on there and then, thinking that when we get there and we have that, then we'll be content. And he says, no, we need to focus on the here and now and be fully present and be grateful for what God has provided in this season.
Have you experienced that in your life? How have you seen that play out? You know, it's so true. And one of the greatest conversations, I remember somebody challenged a group to think back on.
Some of the happiest times in your life early on, and how much did you have back then? And so often, and all of our stories are different, but for many of us, we think back. to early in our life, times where we had so much joy and peace and realized, wow, I had so much less financially back then.
So clearly, the money is not the driver of peace or joy. It's relationships and peace in Christ. Yeah, that is so true and well said. All right, John, we're continuing to construct this house here. The third wall is trust.
Talk to us about how trusting God helps quiet the financial anxiety that so many listening today are experiencing about the future.
Well, anxiety grows when we think that our provision rests on us alone. And many people who are savers out there, like me, will know what I mean by this. You know, maybe you toss and turn at night. Am I saving enough? Am I going to be okay?
What if this happens? What if that happens? Jesus reminds us in Luke 12 that the Father already knows our needs. And I would encourage anybody wrestling with that to go read that chapter, Luke chapter 12. If we have a posture of trust, it frees us to chase his kingdom first.
And there's two levels to that. First of all, we trust that he knows what we need and he'll be our provider. But our even greater level of trust is in our eternal salvation. And so, Rob, even if you or I die today, we each trust in Christ. We know death has been defeated and we're going straight into eternity with him.
And so if we remember that, that gives us a peaceful heart free from financial worry in our day-to-day. Mm, that's right. The fourth wall, John, is of course love. And this is not something we think about often as it relates to money.
So how should love shape the way we view and even use money? I love this topic here, and I would argue that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. And it's so easy as we're managing money and living our lives to just kind of think about our own little world and be not concerned at all with what others need or with how God may be inviting us to partner in his purposes. But as we all know as believers, God is inviting us to a higher calling and to a life of love. This starts when we remember what Christ has done for us.
We can look at 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 on this, two amazing chapters on money. But Christ is the one who became poor and poured Himself out of His love for us, and our joyful response is true love for others. And we can truly grow as disciples to the point where we want desperately to share our lives, share our money, share our abilities to build up the church. and that is fully living. In our financial lives, in alignment with His purposes, is when we want to use it all for His glory in love for others.
What an exciting vision for our handling of money and the opportunity we have to participate in God's redemptive work in the world.
Now, resting on those four walls, John, is of course the roof. And you call that our financial identity. And we've talked a moment ago about our role being that of a steward.
So, what changes when we see ourselves not as owners, but as stewards of what God has entrusted to us? That's right.
Well, there's two extremes we could go to. You know, as you said, one is ownership, and it's mine. This financial house is mine. I'll do what I want with it. The other end of the spectrum would be a victim mentality that says, I have no control.
You know, life just happens. I can't get ahead. But a steward's mindset says, again, all of this is God's, and I manage what He's provided for His glory. And if we see ourselves as a manager, That starts to steer our decisions towards his purposes, but it's also freeing for us. Because we know that he is actually a generous and good master.
If money is our master, if we're the owner, if we're the driver, that's going to leave us all spun up. But he is a good master for us to serve. And changing that identity mindset is a big deal. Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
Now, as we continue to build this house, you tell us in the article that we furnish the house with wise financial choices.
So let's talk about those everyday practices that Scripture encourages us to put in place. What would you highlight? Yeah, well, these are the like you said, the internal furnishings of our financial house. The attitudes come first, the biblical mindset. But this is the biblical wisdom that listeners hear you teach on every single day.
And so, no surprises here. But as we work diligently, as we spend with purpose, as we're careful with debt and even try to have none. Save steadily for long-term goals, invest patiently with diversification. That's even a biblical idea to diversify our investments. To practice eager and joyful generosity and hospitality.
All of this is rooted in God's Word. It's all throughout Scripture, and it represents a life of financial peace.
So once we get the attitudes right, then we start making these daily decisions faithfully that lead us to God's plans for our money. Yeah, I think that's right. And I think we can try to jump to those decisions because, you know, those decisions are the ones staring us in the face that we're making day in and day out. But I want to circle back just as we begin to wrap up here today. Why is it so important to be sure the walls of our financial house are secure and really dealing with those inner foundations first?
Sure.
Well, I think we can trick ourselves into a decision very easily. You know, we're so good at self-deception or justifying what we really want to do. But personally, I love to use these four checks, these four walls on my financial motivations. Let's say I have a big purchase coming up, and I want to ask: is this something God has for me? First of all, I'm going to pray about it.
But I'm also going to ask, am I approaching this from pride or from gratitude? from coveting or from contentment. from anxiety or from trust, and from indifference or from love. And I think that is a huge mindset check of how am I approaching a decision or a major money move. And I've had that test guide me away from some things I thought I should do and actually give a green light for other things that I felt God's peace in.
Wow, this is so good. Folks, a financial life built on Christ is strengthened by gratitude, contentment, trust, and love. This is a game changer. John, thanks. Great to be with you, Rob.
Thank you. That's John Cortinez with Blue Trust. Back with your questions after this. Stick around. What we do is very special and it's very unique.
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What has God called you to? And then how can we give it away? How can we be more generous? You can find an advisor like Bethany at findacaka.com. Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Eventide Investments, a faith-based asset manager pursuing investing that makes the world rejoice.
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Let's turn the corner. We're going to open it up to any financial question today at 800-525-7000. Let's begin in Chicagoland, WNBI, Joshua. Go ahead. I'm interested in your opinion about These advertisements that are on social media, right?
But they're Enticing people with loans with our homes with you know I've got a three percent APR on three hundred thousand Um, and the value of the home is probably double that or so. Um. But they're saying that we should convert to simple interest loans. And so whether that's something that we could do with our current loan or when we move in a few years. Should we explore a simple interest loan as opposed to an APR?
I'm kind of in the dark, and I'm looking on your approval or disapproval about such things. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a great question. The advertising can be misleading. I mean, simple interest mortgages do exist, but they're not a magic way to save money. The math is different, but the real question is whether you'll actually pay less over time after considering the interest rate and the fees.
So here's how the math works: a traditional fixed-rate mortgage, the interest is calculated as a part of the monthly amortization schedule. Early payments are mostly interest, early in the total term of the loan, are mostly interest because the loan balance is the highest. And then, as principal declines, more of each payment goes toward principal. With a simple interest mortgage, interest accrues daily on the outstanding balance.
So each day your charge is principal times interest rate divided by 365. And then, when you make a payment, it first covers the interest that has accrued since your last payment, and then the rest reduces the principal.
Now, here's why people say you save money: if you pay early each month or make extra principal payments, then the principal balance drops sooner. And because interest is calculated daily, you pay slightly less interest going forward. But here's the important point: you can achieve much of the same benefit with a traditional mortgage by making extra payments, and that's why I'm skeptical of the marketing. When can it make sense?
Well, if someone gets paid weekly or bi-weekly and makes frequent payments. Or regularly pays extra toward the principal, and you have a competitive interest rate and low fees, possibly. When it doesn't make sense, is when you're refinancing from a 3% mortgage to a 6% simple interest, you'll almost certainly lose money despite the quote simple interest label.
Now, in your case, we're talking about buying a new home, is that right? That's the potential. In a few years, we're thinking maybe about hopping across the border into Wisconsin where things are cheaper and cost of living is lower.
So, when we make that move, if we make that move with a simple interest loan, would that make sense for us? Yeah, so then you're not giving up an existing low-rate mortgage. If it's a brand new one, it's reasonable to compare it, but I still wouldn't choose one simply because it's called simple interest. I'd choose the one with the lowest overall cost. And with the 30-year fixed, your monthly payment is fixed.
The loan is amortized over 30 years. With the simple interest, again, it accrues daily. If you pay on time every month, the difference in total interest compared with a comparable conventional loan is often modest.
So again, it's really going to come down to: are you going to pay bi-weekly? Are you going to make extra principal payments regularly? Those are the cases where it could make sense, but I would still ask what's the interest rate, what's the APR, are there higher fees and closing costs? And make sure you get to the bottom of what it's actually going to benefit you. I hope that helps.
Let's see. We've got yeah, time for one more call. Let's go to Georgia Anna. How can I help? My husband and I are about to give up my full salary so that I can be a full-time nursing student for one year.
And because of the way that we have lived, we just haven't spent. And so we've managed. Over the course of our marriage on salaries of about thirty thousand. to save up. And so we are looking towards this coming year because I got into my dream school.
Um It will be an accelerated program and we will be paying full tuition because it's out of state and living off of our savings. for the year. All right. Is your husband working? No.
Well, we we homestead.
So basically what we do is he works our land.
So that we can live off of our dairy, meat, and garden and not.
So his job is kind of eliminating our expenses. Yeah.
Uh and then how are you going to handle the the schooling being out of state? Um well, it's it's the only reason it's out of state is because it's uh we're kind of on the border, so we don't have another one close to us. I see.
So I it's not like far away. Yeah, very good.
Well, I love this. I mean, congratulations. You got into your dream school. Your husband obviously is a hard worker, wants you to be able to pursue your dream. That's amazing.
And I love that you're thinking about this now before you, you know, just kind of go headfirst into this new opportunity. It can be a wonderful investment in your future, but you want to make sure you're not. creating a financial crisis in the process.
So, you know, really it comes down to what will it cost to live for the next year. And I love the fact that your expenses are minimal because of what your husband is doing to produce, you know, for you all to live off of the land there that you have. The second would be how much cash do you have available? And then ultimately, you know, what is your backup plan if school takes longer or an unexpected expense comes up, things like that.
So just given what you know about your lifestyle and your expenses and your savings, kind of where would that leave you after you finish? School, would you have exhausted your savings? Would you be able to still have some emergency savings, or where would you be? We think that we will still have savings. It'll be about 38,000.
And from what we're looking at now, we haven't used we've saved each year that I've worked.
So we don't seem to be using up My full $28,000 salary each year. And so we would probably still have approximately Uh $40,000.
Okay, so once you graduate, you'd still have $40,000 in the bank based on your calculations? The best I can just off the cuff.
Okay. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I think that's the key. As long as you run the numbers, you know what it's going to cost you, both for your lifestyle spending plus your college tuition to get the degree. And you know, any other costs, and as long as you just don't squeeze yourself too much financially, I'm on board with this. What a gift and a blessing that you and your husband can do this together. Hey, Anna, thanks for your call.
Unfortunately, amount of time today. Folks, that's going to do it for us.
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