Should You Change Your Financial Finish Line? with Cody Hobelmann

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” – Ecclesiastes 3:1

God has designed life to unfold in seasons, and with each one comes new challenges, opportunities, and sometimes, new finish lines. Today, Cody Hobelmann joins us to talk about why it’s not only okay to adjust your financial finish line—it’s often the wise and faithful thing to do.

Cody Hobelmann is a Certified Financial Professional (CFP®), a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA®), and a Wealth Advisor at Wealth Squared. He and his brother, Kealan, founded the Finish Line Pledge and also co-host the Finish Line Podcast, where they discuss the intersection of faith, generosity, and personal finance.

What Is a Financial Finish Line?

A financial finish line is simply an answer to the question, How much is enough? It helps us define what we need for our lifestyle so that everything beyond that can be redirected toward building God’s Kingdom.

There are two kinds of finish lines:

• Lifestyle (or Spending) Finish Line – The amount needed to fund your personal lifestyle.
• Accumulation (or Net Worth) Finish Line – The total assets needed to sustain that lifestyle for the rest of your life.

These lines aren’t rigid—they’re tools to help us hold God’s money with open hands, growing in both contentment and generosity.

However, there’s often a lot of pressure to get it exactly right, but what matters more is having a starting point. You’ll grow and refine it as your life and faith journey progress.

We recommend revisiting your finish line at least annually—or sooner if significant life changes occur, such as a new dependent, a move to a more expensive area, or a shift in health.

The Four Buckets of Money

To help clients visualize their financial decisions, Cody teaches a simple framework that divides money into four “buckets”:

1. Personal Spending – Covering day-to-day lifestyle costs.
2. Future Planning – Savings and investments for future needs.
3. Taxes – Obligations to the government.
4. Kingdom Giving – Resources designated for generosity.

A lifestyle finish line determines what belongs in the first two buckets, freeing the rest for eternal purposes.

The Net Worth Finish Line: How Much Is Enough to Save?

A net worth finish line is the amount we believe is appropriate to accumulate over a lifetime. The parable deeply informs us of the rich fool in Luke 12—the man who tore down barns to build bigger ones but failed to consider the brevity of life and the weight of eternal priorities.

To set a net worth finish line, Cody walks clients through three core considerations:

• Lifestyle Needs – How much do you need each year?
• Wealth Transfer Goals – What will you leave to heirs or ministries?
• Conservative Margin – A buffer for life’s unknowns—but not a replacement for trust in God.

What Happens When You Cross the Finish Line?

If you find yourself exceeding your finish line—accumulating more than necessary—we encourage asking yourself one essential question:

“Why am I holding on to these resources in the first place?”

God may have given you more not for personal security, but to fund the “good works He prepared in advance for you” (Ephesians 2:10). In that light, generosity becomes more than a response—it becomes a calling.

Rather than letting a higher income raise our standard of living, it becomes an opportunity to increase our standard of giving.

Not sure where to start? Try setting a fin