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Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob Lotich

Faith And Finance / Rob West
The Truth Network Radio
October 8, 2024 3:00 am

Simple Money, Rich Life with Bob Lotich

Faith And Finance / Rob West

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October 8, 2024 3:00 am

English statesman Francis Bacon once wrote, “Money is a great servant but a bad master.”

If we don’t learn to manage money wisely to take control of it, it will soon master us. It’s one way or the other. Today, Bob Lotich tells us how to be the master and not the servant when it comes to money—and he makes it pretty clear, as well.

Bob Lotich is a high-performance financial coach and Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®) and has been named a top-20 influencer in personal finance. His wife Linda and his award-winning website, SeedTime.com, and SeedTime Money Podcast have reached over 50 million people in the past decade. He is also the author of Simple Money, Rich Life: Achieve True Financial Freedom and Design a Life of Eternal Impact. 

The Wake-Up Call: A Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough

Bob’s story, which began in 2002 when his car broke down while he was on his way to deposit a paycheck, is one that many can relate to. He described how that moment of crisis led to a deep spiritual awakening about finances and stewardship.

Unfortunately, the car breaking down prevented him from depositing his paycheck and paying rent on time. Facing the stress of a possible late fee he couldn’t afford, Bob realized that his financial life was on shaky ground. He describes this moment as a "house of cards" that collapsed.

In his frustration, Bob prayed for wisdom, and that simple prayer became the catalyst for a profound change. God responded, leading Bob to learn about biblical stewardship and practical financial management.

Biblical Wisdom: Earning, Saving, and Giving

As Bob delved into the Bible, he came across a quote from John Wesley that changed his financial perspective: "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." This idea, combined with scriptural truths, inspired him to view money not as a burden but as a tool for good.

Bob reflected on passages like:

  • Proverbs 13:11: "Gathering money little by little makes it grow."
  • 1 Timothy 6:17-19: Paul’s admonition to the rich to be generous.
  • Proverbs 22:7: The borrower is slave to the lender, which motivated Bob to eliminate debt.

These verses reinforced the idea that managing money well is not about hoarding wealth but using it for God’s purposes.

Financial Unity in Marriage

Bob also emphasized the power of financial unity in marriage. Once he and his wife Linda aligned their financial goals with biblical principles, their relationship strengthened. They not only eliminated stress but achieved impressive financial milestones, like paying off their house by the age of 31. Bob’s story reminds us that peace in one’s finances can be a unifying force in marriage, helping couples move forward faster together.

The Four Keys to Earning More

Bob shared four essential principles for increasing earnings in today’s digital age:

  1. Operate within God-given gifts and passions: Work aligned with your gifts gives you an "unfair advantage."
  2. Continue learning and developing your skills: Hone your craft to glorify God.
  3. Solve significant problems: You’re compensated in proportion to the size of the problem you solve.
  4. Work where demand is high: Identify where there’s a need and meet it.

These principles guide believers to increase their earnings while keeping their hearts focused on God’s kingdom.

The Joy of Giving

One of the most impactful parts of Bob’s message was his perspective on giving. He and his wife created a "seed account," setting aside money each month specifically for giving. By praying and waiting for opportunities, giving became not just a duty but a joyful, fun part of their lives. This practice reminds us of the joy Jesus spoke of when He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

Enjoying God's Provision

Finally, Bob encouraged believers to enjoy the financial blessings God provides. He highlighted the importance of gratitude and appreciating what we have. Whether earning, saving, or giving, we can find joy in every aspect of financial stewardship.

Bob’s journey teaches us that financial freedom isn’t about accumulating wealth for ourselves but about managing what God has entrusted to us with wisdom and generosity. We can design a life of eternal impact by earning, saving, giving, and enjoying God’s provision.

If you’re looking for more practical tips and biblical wisdom, Bob’s book Simple Money, Rich Life: Achieve True Financial Freedom and Design a Life of Eternal Impact is a great resource to guide you on this journey.

On Today’s Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions:
  • My identity was stolen over a year ago, and it was used to take out a student loan in my name. It's now showing up on my credit report as a collections item. The college says they don't do credit checks for loans. I'm still determining whether to address this now or wait to see if anything else pops up.
  • I'm interested in buying a small home. I'm 60 years old, and my husband has land, so I wanted to know if it was the best time to build a house with the current interest rates. Would it be better for me to get a modular home instead of building a new one?
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Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on the Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. Visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community and give as we expand our outreach.

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Many people are using the FaithFi app to help provide the wisdom, community, and money management to stay on track, financially speaking. To date, over 37,000 members are using its digital envelope system, participating in our community forums, and engaging in virtual workshops. And one of the most convenient features is the ability to keep all your accounts in one place for an easy-at-a-glance view.

You can choose from one of three options, depending on your management style, and it's available on desktop or mobile. Go to faithfi.com and click app to get started. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. We're delighted to have Bob Lotick on the program today. Bob is a financial coach along with his wife Linda.

They have over 50 million readers and listeners on their award-winning blog and podcast, Seed Time. Bob is also the author of Simple Money, Rich Life, Achieve True Financial Freedom, and Design a Life of Eternal Impact. Bob, it is an absolute treat and joy to have you with us today. Well, the pleasure is all mine, Rob. I'm so excited to be here. I'm looking forward to diving into this topic, which is on both of our hearts in such a significant way.

And we've heard, of course, some amazing testimonies over the years here on this program. But I want to start with your story. And I understand it all goes back to 2002 when your car broke down. Is that right?

Yes. I was living in a small Florida town, beach town, driving to put my paycheck into the bank that day. I'd just gotten paid.

And as I'm driving, my car breaks down, which, OK, car breaks down. That's not a good day. But the reason I had been driving is because I was going to deposit my check at the bank so I could pay my rent. That was due that day.

But if I didn't get it there, they're going to talk on a fifty dollar late fee. And I was so broke living off credit cards that I couldn't afford the fifty dollar late fee. So in that moment, I realized that my financial life was a house of cards. And then I had a bad alternator.

There was just kind of the gust of wind that knocking that house of cards down. Yeah. Boy, it's a story I know that so many, including myself, can identify with. We've all been there at various times. And yet God uses those moments to give us clarity when he wants to teach us something. So what were some of the takeaways you had?

Yeah. So out of that moment, I remember being in there, grabbing that steering wheel with hot tears coming down my eyes, asking God for wisdom. And then as I prayed that, it's amazing what happens when you pray and you ask God for wisdom.

He gives it. And so from that, I just began diving into the Bible while reading as many practical books and magazines that I could get my hands on to kind of learn about all this. And I ended up stumbling on this John Wesley quote that just really impacted me, where he said, I earn all I can and then I save all I can.

And by that, he meant reducing his expenses so that I can give all that I can. And it just so deeply impacted us because he saw his gift as an opportunity to earn more money and then to also funnel that back into the kingdom. And so we've just lived our lives by that.

Yeah. And it's at that moment that you realize that money is not bad. It was created as a good blessing from the Lord, but it has to be a tool.

And when we see it as an end and not a means to an end, well, everything goes wrong at that point. And of course, all of that finds its roots in God's word. We see that in scripture.

We talk about that all the time on this program. Share with us a bit about how God's word has inspired you on this journey. Yeah. So as I begin digging into the word, I mean, just like so many of us who have been on this journey, you know, I start reading Second Corinthians nine, you know, and so what it looks like, what giving looks like in the New Testament. And then read First Timothy six, where, you know, Paul is, you know, admonishing all those who are rich in this world of which, you know, most of us in the West are, you know.

Yes. And then reading Proverbs, like where it talks about how the borrower is slave to the lender or Proverbs 13 11, where it talks about gathering money little by little is the key to making it grow. And so anyway, so yeah, so I just began absorbing as many scriptures as I can allow that to be the thing that would define our actions that we took.

Yeah, that's powerful. And of course, we know the stats that 70% of couples say that money is a source of conflict in marriage. How did this understanding this new realization from God's word around money affect your relationship with your wife, Linda? Yeah, well, yeah, anybody who has had, who's been married and has had financial disunity, like fully understands how bad it can be. And then on the other hand, once you get in unity with your spouse, it's just, you know, it's such a powerful unifying force. And so it was the same thing for us. Like we, once we got on the same page financially and really made the word our foundation, things began. There's so much more peace in our households who are fighting less about money. But then on top of that, we began moving forward so much faster than I ever thought possible.

Oh, I can only imagine. Well, we're going to continue to unpack that as well as how you can put this into practice, these principles that Bob's talking about today and that formula earn, save, give and enjoy. Bob Laudick with us today.

We're talking simple money, rich life, and we'll be back with much more. Stay with us. Stay with us. Simply go to faithfi.com and click app to get started.

Sound mind. Investing dot org. Thanks for joining us on faith and finance with me today. Bob Laudick, the author of simple money, rich life, achieve true financial freedom and design a life of eternal impact. Before the break, Bob was sharing his story of how God got his attention and that directed him back to his word as he uncovered all that God has for us in this area of money as a steward. And Bob, you were sharing a bit about the impact of really turning that around and some of the things you discovered in Scripture and how that really impacted your relationship with your wife, Linda.

I'd love for you to continue to unpack that. Yeah, I mean, some of the specifics that were just mind blowing was, again, that just eliminating so much of the stress in our financial life was fantastic. But beyond that, like we began moving so much faster towards our goals. So we get one car paid off, then the next car, then the credit cards and the student loans. And we ended up paying off all of our debt, including our house by age 31. We both were standing there in awe of what God did, but it all started with us tapping into the biblical wisdom and asking God, inviting him into our financial life.

Well, I know our listeners are saying, yeah, I need more of that. So let's put these principles into practice. I want to start as we talk about your book here for a moment with what your book is not about. Yeah, because that's a good question when you're talking about a money book, specifically in the Christian world, because you never know where you're going to find. But in our case, like it's not about manipulating God. It's not about, you know, some prosperity gospel naming and claiming thing. But it is about really tapping into the biblical principles and promises that God has made. And obviously there's a lot of scripture about money and just kind of exploring that. But it's also not a theological discourse on money.

Like, I'm not Tim Keller, but I do apply the practical pieces that I find in the Bible and just kind of weave it all together. And then we're also not a big fan of the shame and guilt thing that I think a lot of people see in the financial space. And that's not our thing. And we really want you to be able to enjoy what God has blessed you with as well. So it's not all about, you know, penny pinching and depriving yourself of everything in life, you know. And so that's kind of the meat of it.

Yeah, that's really helpful. And it aligns so well with what we do here on this program, because it's about being hopeful and reverent. But also just finding those practical steps forward as we apply biblical principles. Let's do that as we unpack your formula, earn, save, give and enjoy.

Why don't we start with saving? What did you learn there? Yeah, so this whole formula is based off that John Wesley quote. We decided to build our book around this and break out each section.

And one of them is being the saving part that you're talking about. And one of the things that really stuck out to us as we were kind of exploring this and what this looked like with our money. You know, because for such a long time, I was tracking my net worth and I'm like, all right, I'm doing this.

And it's a great way to keep measure your progress and all this stuff. But I always was bothered by that term. And so, yes, because I'm like, what does Jesus say that I'm worth? It's not any number, whether it's ten million dollars or negative ten million, you know.

And so he has a different definition of my net worth. And so we just decided we're going to change that on our spreadsheet. We're going to scratch out net worth and we're going to write assets under management because we understand that everything we have, we're just managing for God. And when we actually have that constant reminder, every time we pop open that spreadsheet and see assets under management, it's like it just changes how you make financial decisions. You know, it sure does. And so much of money management is about our perspective. Is that an eternal perspective or is it really just focused on the temporal, the here and now? Let's turn to earning.

What do we need to know there? Yeah, well, you know, like you mentioned at the beginning, this whole idea that, you know, money is a terrible master, but that it is a great servant. And that's something that, you know, we work really hard, specifically in the book, to help you get the right heart posture, because obviously the New Testament has so many warnings about money and wealth. And so there is a heart posture that needs to be right if we are going to be kingdom people who are trying to earn more to advance the kingdom. You know, but on the practical side of all this, like we've identified four keys to earning more in the digital era. And so the first one is to operate within our God-given gifts and passions that he's given us, because those are unfair advantage. Because when you are working, your work is aligned with the thing that God has created you to do.

It's like you have an unfair advantage. And then the next thing there is to continue to learn and develop that craft. And so if God gave you an ability, an area, that doesn't mean that you don't ever have to do anything to develop it, but you have to keep working and honing that skill, developing that for the glory of God. And then the third key is to solve a significant problem or to make something better. And you can look at, you know, whatever job you are, you're generally compensated in proportion to the size of the problem that you're solving. And so this is why Elon Musk, tackling some of the world's greatest problems, has been compensated very well for that. And then the final key here is to operate where demand is high.

So becoming a VCR repairman right now probably isn't the strongest and best use of your time. You know, but when you identify that demand, what are the things that are in demand? And you find that intersection of all these things. It's like that's how you set yourself on a path to continue to increase your earnings in this digital era.

Yeah, and there's more opportunity than ever. And it seems like in unique ways to really tap into how God has wired you. All right, we're doing a flyover here.

Let's continue that flyover. And the next one is giving. And this really, I think, speaks to what you said this book is not about. It's not about manipulating God. It's not about shaming or guilting us into doing something. There's a whole different idea around giving we see in God's Word, isn't there?

Yeah, yeah. And one of the things that we really try to highlight is the joy of giving. And I think a lot of people hear that and they roll their eyes. It's like, or whatever. I remember reading Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive and feeling like He doesn't get it. He's wrong.

It's not. I love receiving stuff. I've always enjoyed receiving. But as my wife and I have really began living this out and seeking the joy in it specifically. And so there's a couple of different things that we did. So one thing that we did that was a game changer for us is we, at the beginning of the month, created a category, budget and category that money came in. We put it in that category. We called it a seed account. And once it went in there, it's no longer ours. And then throughout the month, we would just pray, God, what do you have for us to do?

And He would present opportunities for us. And the money is just now sitting there waiting to be given away to these different things. And Rob, I'm telling you, it made giving more fun than it had ever been in my entire life. And so it was such a powerful, simple little hack that we did that really added so much joy to giving in our lives. And as soon as you experience that, you want more of it. And so then you start to get creative on other places you can cut back, right? So you can get more into that seed envelope. Exactly.

That's so good. All right. The final category is enjoyment. And I think this is another big one that we can miss that is also found in God's word that we should enjoy God's provision. How do we do that?

Yeah, well, I think there's a lot of different ways here. But, you know, I think I think it was Sheryl Crow or something that said something to the effect of I'm going to butcher the quote, but this idea of enjoying things is really appreciating what you have. And there's just something there when we can actually look at what we have and treasure that, because I'm telling my kids all the time, it's like you can make any moment miserable or you can make it fun. We can be on the best vacation you could ever dream and you can make it miserable.

We have that opportunity. And so we can truly be grateful for the things that we have and we can truly appreciate them. And again, remember, the Bible tells us to be grateful, to be thankful in all things. This is God's will for us. And so I think it starts with that and understanding how blessed we are.

And that just really changes your perspective. But but within that, I think we can enjoy all facets. We can enjoy the earning side. We can enjoy developing our craft and we can enjoy saving, you know, and then we can also enjoy giving. And so that's been the goal of how all these pieces tie together. Oh, that is so good. Well, we're going to have to have you back to dive into each one of these a little deeper.

But unfortunately, that's all the time we have today. Bob, thanks for stopping by. Oh, I appreciate it, Rob.

Thank you so much. That's financial coach Bob Laudick. The book is Simple Money Rich Life, achieve true financial freedom and design a life of eternal impact available wherever you get your books. Your calls are next. Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.

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That's CHMinistries.org slash faith by. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance. We're glad to take your calls and questions today.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. That is the number to call. Let's go to Ohio and welcome, Mike. Go ahead, sir. How are you today? I'm doing great. Thanks for your call.

Hey, I have a question. My identity was cherry picked from a medical records company a year and a half back. And I signed up for credit monitoring and nothing came of it until just recently.

I have a collections on my credit report now where somebody used my identity to get a loan, a student loan in Portland, Oregon. I contacted the college. The credit bureau won't do anything about it because it is my information.

Contacted the college. And I asked them why this didn't show up on my credit monitoring. And they actually said they don't do credit checks. They don't pull credit for student loans, which is a big concern. But basically, I don't know what to do about this collections.

I mean, yeah. So you say it's not showing up on your credit report. You're just getting a collections notice.

Yeah. There was there was no inquiry at all on my credit report. It went straight to collections because, of course, the people used a Portland, Oregon address and everything. So I didn't get anything in the mail.

It just showed up as a collection one day on my on my credit report. Yeah. But you require anything. Sure.

Have you reached out to the lender? Yeah. Yeah. That's that's who told me that they wanted my Social Security number to verify.

I didn't feel comfortable with that. And they said that they can't correspond with me until I open a student portal on their Web site. They can't send anything to my address because it doesn't match what they have and they can't correspond with me at all until I open a student portal on their Web site.

And then they can correspond with me. Other than that, I've talked to them on the phone. They actually told me I would probably be best off to hire an attorney to get this off of my record.

But what I'm concerned about in hiring an attorney is if this person knew that the college wouldn't check my credit and just hand them money for a student loan, then what else might be out there that will show up on my credit after I get this sorted out? I'm not sure if I should wait and see if there's more coming or try to deal with it now. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a great question. I mean, lenders generally do check your credit when you apply for a student loan. Is this a private lender that we're talking about?

It is a community college in Portland, Oregon. OK. But the student loan is coming from a private lender?

Who is the lender on this? The college itself. OK. Interesting.

Yeah. So what I would do is, I mean, I think you can be confident in giving the college your information, whatever is necessary for them to be able to provide you the documentation since you didn't take this out. I mean, I would definitely start working toward getting all of the documentation from this university that says you have a balance that you never took out.

They are going to need to defend this collection that they say is outstanding. And that is, of course, going to require that you give them some of your information. I wouldn't do that if somebody calls you, but if you're contacting them directly and talking to the financial services or student aid office, whoever is handling this, to be able to say, listen, I want you to provide me the documentation that initiated this loan and then start working through it there and see if you can do it without the assistance of an attorney. Any time there's a private loan, there's going to be a hard credit inquiry on your credit. And so that would make sure that as long as your credit is frozen and you put a fraud alert on there, that's going to catch those. Federal student loans don't have a minimum credit score requirement and most don't require a hard inquiry on your credit. And so the only federal student loan that has the hard inquiry is what's called the direct plus loan, which are available to graduate and professional students and parents of undergraduate students.

But I think in this case, it's probably a fairly isolated situation. I would just work directly with the community college to get this nailed down. And obviously, when they provide the information, since you didn't take it out, you're going to be able to dispute it and say that it was done fraudulently.

You may need to get an attorney involved in this and hopefully you can do it without that. You know, beyond that, I would, you know, if you haven't frozen your credit yet, put the fraud alert on there. I would certainly do that. I'd monitor your credit accounts. You know, that's going to stop the vast majority of these and obviously you've hit on something that kind of can happen outside of the credit report, which is obviously concerning. But, you know, I think there are steps you can take to dispute this and hopefully get it resolved. So, hey, keep us updated on this, Mike.

I hate to hear you're going through this. I know this is concerning, but we'd love to know more along the way as you continue to work through this. Thanks for being on the program today. Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand is the number to call quickly to Longview, Texas. Teresa, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Thank you.

Thank you for taking my call. I'm new to your program, so I just kind of started listening and I am interested in buying a home. I'm 60, just turned 60, interested in buying a small home.

My husband has land, so I did not know it wasn't the best time to build a home as far as interest rates are concerned. So is it better to build a home or to get a modular home would be my question. Yeah, and I think you're going to want to spend a good bit of time just kind of looking at the pros and cons of that in terms of the dwelling itself. I wouldn't be able to necessarily weigh in on the pros and cons of modular versus building single family. I think, you know, with regard to the financial side of it, I mean, clearly you want to make sure you have a good understanding of what the total costs are.

Great. It's great that you own the land. But what are the construction costs going to be? We did have, because of supply chain constraints, some some real inflation going on in the construction area with the building costs.

That has subsided a bit. This year has certainly been a better year for building costs than the prior two years. But overall, it's still expensive to build.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't. I think the key is just to count the cost. Figure out what what are you building? Find your if in the case of a new construction, find your general contractor after interviewing several. Get a real, you know, not to exceed bid that you understand and what kind of overages are possible. And when are they going to lock in the cost of the raw materials and can that number move around?

So you really know, you know, exactly what you're obligating yourself to. And then make sure you're financially ready to do that in terms of do you have enough capital to put down on it? How much are you borrowing? And then to your your point about the interest rates with interest rates high, that just affects the overall cost of borrowing. And so the carrying costs are higher. So you just have to factor that in. And typically, as a rule of thumb, the loan that you end up with after construction, maybe a construction to permanent loan, which would typically be what someone would use. You just need to make sure that that fits well within your budget.

And as a guideline, I would say no more than 25 percent of your take home pay just so it doesn't create a hardship on you. So I think those would be the things to think through and consider. I'm so delighted you're listening to the broadcast and I hope that helps. We can help you further. Don't hesitate to call back, folks.

That's going to do it for us. So thankful for the folks that make this possible every day. Sandy and Devon and grateful for Jim Henry as well. And everybody here at Faith. I hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. By the way, if you'd like to support Faith by the faith and finance broadcast, you can do that online quickly and securely at faith. By.com. Just click give. Lord bless you. Bye bye. Faith and finance is provided by Faith by and listeners like you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-08 04:11:08 / 2024-10-08 04:21:35 / 10

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