Money Money Money Money

Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMM, talking and walking Christian men's ministry where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome, welcome again to Man Talk Radio, and I'm Will Hardy.

And I'm Roy Jones. And Roy, we welcome you back from your hiatus. Thank you, Will. It's good to be back. A few weeks were devoted to personal time and on vacation, and then unfortunately last week we lost my mother-in-law. I just want to just give a shout out to my lovely wife and just let her know we're thinking about her tonight. And I know it's a loss when you've lost that final parent that you can't describe to others, but thank you. It's good to be back, Will.

Shout out to Lisa Jones, and we hope you're listening. So Roy, you've been away and we've been talking about money, men and money, managing money. And I know that in future occupations or past occupations that you have in some future, that you manage millions of dollars. And so you understand the importance of managing money through the budgeting process.

Yeah, that's a good point, Will. The budget is the key to all of it, whether it's in your personal finances or in corporate finances. It's so important to understand what your expenses are and to plan for those unexpected expenses and then have a true understanding of what your income stream is. Is it a single income stream? Is it multiple income streams? Is it, like you mentioned earlier, we were talking before we started, is it variable?

Is it fixed? And how can you improve that positioning with your budget each month or each week or how you're paid? So men, if you're not budgeting, if you listen closely tonight, we're just going to talk about the four components of getting started. Roy mentioned a few of them, but the first one is you need to write down, sit down with your spouse.

Don't be afraid. Sit down, talk it out and just say, what is all of our income streams? So this would include not only your weekly or monthly salary, but it would also include garage sales that you might have and make income from, things that you might sell on eBay. So income tax, refund checks, all of this is income that you want to sit down and you want to figure out all of the amount of money that you have coming into the household.

Yeah, that's a great start, Will. And as you were describing that, something that came to mind, many, many employees these days have bonus plans or short term incentive plans. It's important that you would always call that was wish money.

So you don't count on it, but you work hard for it and hope that it comes through based on your performance and your company's performance. So then when it does come through, it's truly a bonus and it's not something that you've already spent in anticipation of receiving it. Because you know what happens if you spend in anticipation of receiving it and then you don't receive it, then you're in the red against that budget plan, right? So you didn't get the money.

So now you've got to figure out how you're going to pay for all these expenses you've incurred through the year. Exactly. And that's one of those expenses or income streams that's sort of like hidden. Because sometimes it's not even discussed among the husband or the wife. And she might mention it to him, you know, honey, what about that bonus check?

You know, you got one last year, are you going to get one this year? That type of thing. So that could easily be a means of causing a bit of conflict.

No, that's so funny that you say that. Well, just recently I had a friend that came into some money. It was a close friend of ours that it was the wife who happened to make the comment that she had had her hush money, that she kept it hush, that she had gotten it and her husband didn't know about it.

And so I just couldn't help but laugh as you were sharing that. You know, and that of course presents a whole other set of problems, right? Or opportunities if you're not being transparent with your spouse.

Because if you're not transparent with the money, then the first question is what else are you not being honest with me about? Exactly, exactly. So income streams is number one.

Number two, and see we normally put this one at the end, but number two is giving. Yes. And so we always want to ensure that we give to God what belongs to him right off the top.

Right. Sometimes I think we have this notion that we give God whatever is left over. And I know a lot of you out there that are listening, this is what you do. You know, I'm sorry God, I just can't make that tide this week or this month. And so we put God on the back burner instead of saying, God, you gave everything that I have and so now I want to give back to you what belongs to you.

Very good will. What is the only place in the Bible that God says to test him? In Malachi. On the tithing, right?

That's right. So if God's putting it out there for you to test him because he's going to return it in whatever fashion or prevent things from happening that all of a sudden the car breaks down and you didn't anticipate. I'm a firm believer that when you're trusting him for it all and you're honoring him with the first fruits, that there are certain things that he is watching after that you never know about. And then, of course, you don't give it to get a bunch back. That's not the whole point. It's about a giving and loving heart because it's honoring him because he's given it all to you to begin with. Exactly. So if you don't give it to him first, then what are you saying?

Because it's about loving him. Yes. And if we love him, we're going to give to him what belongs to him. Yes, which is off the top first fruits. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. So that's component number two after after you sat down and you've recorded your income streams and then you give to God what belongs to him. The next component is expenses.

So and again, you talked a little bit about this. And so with expenses, you could separate those out to fixed expenses or variable expenses. And some examples of fixed expenses would be maybe the mortgage or a cell phone bill or things like that.

Insurance payments. And then, of course, the variable would be stuff that your usage dictates the spend. So gas could be considered a variable. Electricity, if you want to try to manage that properly, could be somewhat of a variable. And then, of course, as we mentioned earlier, the unplanned expenses.

There needs to be a category in that budget that says unplanned or emergency fund that you need to be planning or putting away for for future things that you didn't plan for. That's right. And food. Food would be another example.

You know, whether or not an individual eats out a lot. And clothing. Do you really need that new suit or that new dress? Right. Because if you go out and you buy that and again, you don't sit down, talk to the wife about it. Now you might break the budget or at least put a dent in the budget process.

Sure. And we as Americans are so spoiled to just get whatever we want rather than what we need. I think if we would discipline and speak to myself looking in the mirror, if we would do a better job of just buying what we need versus what we've been stimulated to buy through a in the cap display or a sales ad or an Amazon banner that flies across our smartphone. I think we would all be much better and think about how much more we could give for the kingdom. And, you know, that's called impulse buying.

Yes. So, yeah, if we buy off of impulse, we don't consider what that costs us in the budget process long term. And so while we're talking about that now, let's mention what Jesus said in Luke chapter 14 verses 28 to 30. He said, For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. You know, there's a real example of that sitting over in Stokesdale on the edge of Stokesdale. There's a house there that's about two and a half million dollars on the market unfinished and not knowing what all has happened through the journey.

But it just brings that whole illustration to mind. There's a home that was going to be this massive home for everyone to see. But yet it's not completed. And this very thing is happening. People are mocking or at least commenting on what a crazy journey this has been for this builder.

Not knowing all the backdrop, but it's now on the market as an unfinished property with, I think, twenty three thousand capable square feet if it's all finished. Wow. And you see that, again, that is a perfect example because I think what it shows is it shows whoever started the project and what other circumstances that may have hindered the project or caused it to either be delayed or unfinished because of some financial reason. The same thing can happen within that household on a small scale. So an individual have a secret stash somewhere or you have a secret credit card and they're going out and they're making all these purchases and they're putting dents and damage into the budget process.

You know that, Will, truly a God moment that you just said that. I'll speak to another friend many, many years ago that encountered a P.O. box that the spouse had.

And the P.O. box is where the credit card statements were going. And the spouse was just making minimum payments. And I think the first round was up to eight or ten thousand dollars of debt. And when he found that first time it was exposed that he had a there was an integrity problem within the marriage that created its own problems. And then then it happened again a few years later after he settled all that up.

It happened again within three years. Wow. So to your point, that does happen out there, even though people may be laughing at us as we're saying this. But what's so important, if you're if you are married, that you're doing this as a partnership with your spouse, that this whole journey is done together. Like we've been talking about leading, loving, caring, doing all this together. Exactly. Directing and guiding. And that's that's the function of the man. So as we get ready for the break, when we come back on the other side of the break, we're going to continue finishing up the budgeting process. And then we want to talk about those put those finishing touches on the budgeting process with respect to how do one get started. Yeah. Great, great, great drop off for us, Will. And as you're listening to this, it doesn't matter if you're making, you know, two thousand dollars a month, you're making ten thousand dollars a month.

All these principles are applicable to you and all of us can improve what we're doing and how we're utilizing God's gifts to us. That's right. It's not it's not difficult.

It is not rocket science. Men will be back after the break. Robbie Dilmore here. And, you know, I've developed a real soft spot for my pillow. And if you've been waiting for the lowest price ever offered on my pillow, it's arrived with their patented interlock fill system, American made, guaranteed not to go flat. And I believe me, I've had mine for over five years now and it hasn't fully machine washable six day money back guarantee and a simple four question filling process. Right now, get a two pack of my pillow premiums for only sixty nine dollars ninety nine cents.

That's right. Only thirty four ninety nine per pillow, which is the lowest price ever offered on radio or TV. Dial one eight hundred nine four two nine six one three or use the promo code get truth at my pillow dot com. You too could have a soft spot for my pillow at only thirty four dollars ninety nine cents a pillow.

Sixty nine ninety eight for two call eight hundred nine four two nine six one three or go to my pillow dot com. And don't forget, use that promo code, get truth. TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month. They have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town. The meeting location is at their gracious host church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville. They have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free.

Join your host, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. And we're back with the man talk radio and Roy on when we went to the break, we had gone through three of the four components to budgeting. And of course, the last component we talked about the income we talked about giving God what belongs to him. We talked about the expenses and the final component of that is saving and investments. So how important would that be to a family, just say a family of four? You know, if you if you get all the way to the end after writing down your income, giving to God what belongs to him, you're expensive and you have nothing left over.

Well, that's a good question, Will. We've all been there, right? You know, you get there in your zero budget and zero balance and you still got another few days till payday or another week. I think that's where you just got to turn to God and say, well, you know what my needs are. You know what my income is. You know that I'm working on the discipline of getting all these things straightened out and it never fails.

God will provide a way. And we talked earlier that before the show started that sometimes if you've overloaded yourself, it may require a little bit of sacrifice, either selling some stuff or taking a second job or looking for alternate streams of income. Maybe there's some other opportunities to do that, but it's it's workable. You know, and Dave Ramsey talks about I think you should try to develop a three to six month savings for in the event of a lost income.

So whatever your income is, you should try to have three to six months of income put away. And then the savings on top of that and then investments after all those things are are solid. Exactly. Because invariably what's going to happen is there will be some type of an emergency that comes up.

Sure. You know, washing machine breaks, dryer breaks, car goes down. You've only got one car in the family or both of you have to have a car and one goes down. How do you manage that? So it's going to happen.

And see, managing money through the budget process, man, is a necessity. This is something that you just need to do. If you're not doing it, you need to start like right now. Yeah. And don't don't wait.

Like we were talking about on the last program. Don't wait until the first of January. No, no. You really need to do it. You can do it right away. And you need to initiate it immediately. Even if you're in the mid cycle, the month or pay that way, you can start laying all the numbers out.

Right. You can start putting the budget together and inevitably you're going to find something that you forgot as you're walking through the month. You get an expense that you just didn't think about that maybe hits you quarterly or every six months. The life insurance or something like that you didn't think about.

Now all of a sudden you've got an opportunity to add that to the list. So it's a working document, right? It is. You know, in the corporate environment, we go through four or five reviews, maybe even a few more. So we call it, we start out with an original estimate than the latest estimate, which goes by the end of each quarter to make sure if there's any changes. So hence it's even a working document in the corporate environment because inevitably things happen that you can't plan for. And things that just projects have got to be done that weren't on the books before you started your budget. So don't, don't delay, man.

Don't try to rationalize it in your head. Just go out and let God bless you to do it. Last time we talked about there's all kind of budgeting tools that's available. This is not a difficult process. You don't need to be highly educated or spend all kinds of money going to some type of financial advisor on how to start budget and things like this.

Budgeting is as simple as, again, the four components that we listed out. Because everything that God gives you, you're going to have to give an account to him in reference to that. So in Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30, and this is very familiar passage that we read. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.

See, I like that. So the man, he had knowledge in reference to each of the workers. That's right. And what their capabilities were. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went, dug in the ground, and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled account with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little.

I will set you over much. Enter ye into the joy of your master. And he who also had two talents came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here I have made two talents more. His master said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of the Lord. He who had received the one talent. Now we come to the sad part of this parable. Came forward saying, Master, I know you to be a hard man reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered any seed.

So I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master said to him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gathered where I scattered no seed.

Then you ought to invest my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into outer darkness in the place where there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know, most times when we hear that parable, it's referencing money. Right.

And rewards to money. But as you were saying that in the slothful, as he described the last servant with the one, when he said slothful, I couldn't help but think about the number, and I'll speak to men because this is what our program is about, is the number of men that are sitting on the sidelines like we've talked about. So if you're listening today, it could be applicable to your finances that you're not giving back.

That's right. That you're not giving first fruits. Second, it could be to the talents he's given you, no matter how small or large.

If you're sitting on the sidelines and not using them for the kingdom, the same applies here. Exactly. Exactly. It is what God has given in whatever form is a talent. Yes. And I think back to the earlier comment, I believe we oftentimes refer to it as money.

But it is exactly. It's whatever he's given to. Whether it's finances or talents or inheritances or whatever it is, you know, property or those types of things can all be used for the kingdom if applied properly. And God will again open up the windows of heaven. He will start pouring out blessings that we will not have room enough to receive it. We talked about that, too, where a person who really has a desire to do the will of God.

And when they do have that desire to do the will of God, there will be no second guessing as to what God is capable of doing once we be faithful. Right. We've talked about that before.

You do everything that you can do. That being you, being us, we, me, you, everybody that is listening in the natural with God's support and the supernatural and all things are possible. And, you know, man, this is why we're doing this program. We're doing this program for you.

Yes. And we we have a heart for men. Roy, God bless him. I love this brother like a natural brother. And, you know, when we come together and his love for the brothering and starting the talking and walking Christian men's ministry.

It's all about man, man. If you really understood the amount of love that this ministry has for men. Come on out to one of the breakfasts. Come on out to some of the events God bless us to have. And you will see the love of God just spreading heart to heart and breast to breast.

Will, thank you for the kind words. And, you know, I love you too. As much as I could a regular brother, a natural brother. And as we often say, brothers from different mothers. That's right.

You know, you're right. It's and I think that was that's one of those characteristics that's deeply embedded in men is the desire to fellowship with other men. And when God woke my heart up, it was because I was a man speaking from experience, not a man with an opinion. No man with experience doesn't have an argument with a man and opinion with an opinion.

He already knows. And that's where I'm coming from, as I was one of those guys. So I'm not sitting here talking to you men as as a guy with an opinion.

I'm talking from experience. God woke my heart up that it's time to get to doing something for the men. And our heart is bringing men of different colors, different walks of life together in all building the kingdom of God. So if you're listening and you haven't asked Lord into your heart today, it's a real simple process. Just acknowledge being a sinner, acknowledge that Christ died for you and that he rose again and you were covered by the blood. And ask God to forgive you and to start living for him.

Ask him into your heart and move forward. That's right, man. You know, we at Talking and Walking Christian men's ministry, we want to do everything that we can do. And again, that's why we're doing what we're doing is because we love you and we're going to reach out to you. So reach out to us, you know, go to the website and and let God bless you to drop us a line, drop us a note and we'll get back with you.

Yes. God bless all of you. We love you. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM Talking and Walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk.