October 25, 2025 • 15 mins
Money issues can be a real pain, but guess what? The biggest threat to our cash flow isn't the market; it's us and our emotions! Yep, a whopping 78% of folks in the U.S. are sweating bullets about investing. Today, we're diving into how fear and greed can mess with our financial decisions and lead us down a rabbit hole of regret. I’ll share some wild stories about clients who let their emotions take the wheel—one sold low out of panic, while the other bought high chasing that FOMO. So, grab your favorite beverage, kick back, and let’s figure out how to keep those pesky feelings in check so we can make smarter money moves. Understanding Behavioral Finance: Why Emotions Affect Your Investing?
Check out the full podcast episode here
The world of investing can be a wild ride, and honestly, sometimes I feel like we’re all just holding on for dear life. Today, we dive into the idea that the biggest threat to your financial well-being isn’t the stock market or some cryptic algorithm, it’s actually... you! Yep, I said it. A staggering 78% of folks are sweating bullets when it comes to investing, and it’s no wonder why. Financial anxiety is a beast—four out of five Americans are feeling the pinch, and a whopping 43% say money messes with their mental health. So, what’s the deal? We unpack emotional investing, focusing on how fear and greed can lead us down a rocky path. I share some stories—one about a client who freaked out during the 2008 crash and sold everything, locking in losses. On the flip side, another client jumped in at the highest point, driven by FOMO (fear of missing out) and got burned. It’s a classic case of emotions trumping strategy. The takeaway? Awareness and discipline are your best buddies in navigating this crazy financial world. Let’s break the cycle of panic and make wiser, calmer decisions together. We’ll wrap it up with some spiritual insights, reminding us that God’s spirit can help us rise above those pesky emotions. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this episode if you’ve ever made a money move you regretted!
Takeaways:
- The biggest threat to your money isn't the market, it's your own choices, folks.
- A whopping 78% of Americans feel uneasy about investing, which is honestly pretty wild.
- Fear and greed are like two annoying friends that ruin our financial decisions big time.
- Financial anxiety is real, with 43% of adults saying money messes with their mental health.
- To beat fear and greed, awareness and discipline are the secret sauces we all need.
- Investing isn't just about numbers; it's about keeping your cool and making wise moves.
Links referenced in this episode:
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What if I told you the biggestthreat to your money isn't the stock
market, it's you? It's aninteresting thought, isn't it? About
78% of Americans say they'reuncomfortable investing. 78%. I gotta
be honest with you, I was abit shocked at that number. How does
that strike you? Listen tothis one. Four out of five Americans
(00:25):
have anxiety about theirfinancial situation. Now that one
didn't surprise me because Idon't know about you, maybe you're
feeling it right now, that'swhy you're listening to the show.
But four out of five Americanshave anxiety about their financial
situation. And listen to thisone. And this one was really sad
when I read this. This isright from Bank Rate 2025. 43% of
(00:45):
U.S. adults say moneynegatively affects their mental health,
causing stress or worry. Igotta be honest with you, I felt
that at times. Maybe you'rethinking the same thing. Well, clearly
we have a problem withfinancial anxiety, don't we? Which
leads me to today's listenerquestion. When I got this one, I
(01:05):
said, wow, this is emotional.But this is what this listener wrote,
says, Ralph, I know I makeemotional money decisions sometimes.
And then she ends with this.Why do fear and greed affects me
so much when it comes toinvesting? What a great question.
And I pulled out those twowords because those two words are
(01:28):
so impactful. Fear and greed.It's an interesting blend of emotions,
isn't it? But the truth isthis, fear and greed are powerful
forces, we gotta admit that.And oftentimes, maybe too often,
they're behind our worstfinancial decisions. I'm going to
get back to what I said a fewminutes ago. The market isn't your
(01:49):
biggest risk, your emotionsare. And today I'm going to show
you how to finally beat thatemotion. This is Financially Confident
Christian, your daily dose ofgospel, grounded insight and faith
driven tips to help you breakthe cycle of financial shame with
confidence. Hello and welcometo the show. I'm Ralph. I'm so happy
(02:10):
you've chosen to give me alittle bit of your time. We're still
in our final week of thisinvestment series. Yesterday we talked
about financial advisors. Wetalked about how they bring knowledge
and keep you on track. But wealso said that real financial success
comes from choosing someonesmart and honest. So if you missed
yesterday's show, I'm going toencourage you go check out our show.
You can see all of our showsright at our website, simple website
(02:33):
to remember,financiallyconfidentchristian.com. but
today we're Going to talkabout fear in Greek. It's kind of
like devices of man, right?We're going to pull how that pulls
our strings when we invest.But bigger than all that, I'm going
to show you today how to keepthem from derailing your financial
plan. Because, listen, I'veseen clients so many times lose money
(02:54):
due to emotional reactions,whether that's selling too soon or
sitting on the sidelines andbuying too late. And it's affected
me too, because I'veexperienced firsthand how awareness
and discipline, when we reallyhave that mindset of awareness and
discipline, they can protectus from costly mistakes. So let's
go back in time. Let's go backin our time machine a little bit.
(03:15):
Let's go back to 2008. Now, ifyou're from the United States, I
don't know how old you arethat you're listening, but I'm going
to set the scene for you. 2008headlines were screaming, the market's
fallen. There's going to be ahuge collapse. The markets were falling
daily. And this is a truestatement. People's retirement accounts
were down 30, 35, 40%. And ifyou watch the news, if you listen
(03:37):
to anything during that time,truth is, fear was everywhere. And
it was a contagion. It wascontagious. Everybody was feeling
this. And I didn't forget itbecause I was feeling it too. And
I had two particular clientsthat I want to share their stories
with you today. Let's call thefirst one. My panic seller client
calls me one day and he says,ralph, I just can't lose another
dime. He said, ralph, I can'tstomach more losses. I can't do this.
(04:00):
And I said to him, I gotta behonest with you, I kind of felt the
same way he was feeling. Isaid, well, think about it, pray
about it, because I thinkthat's a very important part of this.
But turns out he soldeverything. He said, I'm out of the
market. But here's the problemwith that. He locked in those losses.
He was completely on thesidelines. And that decision meant
he missed that rebound thatdid come months later. I've talked
(04:22):
about it on the show before.Generally speaking, there's always
a rebound. So what's ourlesson here? That fear, that's what
he was operating under, thatfear driven choice causes permanent
damage. And my client feltthat permanent damage. Well, let
me tell you about my otherclient. We'll call him the late buyer.
Now, this late buyer man, hewas swell. He said, I'm going to
(04:45):
get out of the market beforethere's even a problem. He beat that
rush. But here's the problem.He stayed out during that downturn.
But then as he started to seethe markets rebound, he rushed in
at record highs. He did thatwhat we'll call herd mentality. I'll
talk about that in a fewminutes. I never forget he said this
to me. He said, ralph,everyone else is making money. I
don't want to miss out. He hadthat fear of missing out. Here's
(05:05):
the problem with that. Rightafter he got into the market, the
markets corrected again. Andguess what? Boom. It hit the bottom
again. His losses were immensebecause he bought at the top of the
market. What's the otherlesson here? The first one was fear.
This one is greed. Those greeddriven choices often lead to buying
(05:25):
high and losing money. Andthat's what I want to talk about
today. Because think aboutthat. We got two completely opposite
reactions. They're soimportant in investing. One was fear
and one was greed. But what'sthe underlying thing in this? Because
this is really the keystrategy today. They were both driven
by emotions, not strategy. Andboth of them ended in regret. So
(05:52):
let me ask you right now, haveyou ever made a money move you regretted
because of fear or greed?That's a tough question, isn't it?
Because I have to ask myselfthat same question. Listen, I'm turning
the spotlight on me. So weneed to come to an agreement here.
Emotional investing is common,but it's costly. We got to break
(06:13):
that emotion. So you might besaying, ralph, how do we do that?
Well, the two big takeawaysfrom today, write these things down.
It's about awareness anddiscipline. Because that's the antidote
to this. When you have avirus, you. You go to the doctor,
they give you an antidote,they give you medicine. Well, if
you want to break fear andgreed, the antidote is these awareness
and discipline. But I'm goingto add a third piece of the antidote.
(06:35):
A lot of people don't talkabout this in the normal financial
channels. God's spirit.Because with God's spirit, we can
rise above that panic. Becauselet me just tell you something right
now. You're a human being,you're a fleshly person. It's natural.
I'm going to tell you thisright now because a lot of people
don't understand this and howimpactful this is. You are naturally
born greedy and you're bornwith fear. That's a normal emotion
(06:58):
of a human being. The only wayyou can break that is to understand
God's spirit and rise abovethat because wise, peaceful decisions
always outperform emotionalones. I want to say that again because
I want you to really rememberthis. Wise, peaceful decisions always
outperform emotional ones. Anda legendary investor named Benjamin
(07:20):
Graham said this. And when Iread this, I was like, man, this
is perfect for today's show.The investor's chief problem and
even his worst enemy is likelyto be himself. I started the show
with that. Today you'relooking in the mirror. Okay, so if
we know it's ourselves, if weknow it's our natural state of man,
(07:42):
it's that human feeling offear and greed, how do we ever cope
those emotions? Well, let'stalk about those emotions right now
because that's where we needto start. Let's start with fear.
I guarantee if you'relistening or watching right now,
you felt fear. You're in asituation you don't know a lot about.
That's fearful because ashuman beings, we want safety. So
(08:05):
let's apply that to ourinvestments or fear and what's going
to happen. We've worked sohard for our money, so what do we
do? We let that fear take overand we sell at the worst possible
times. That's what my clientdid. He called me and said, ralph,
I got to get out of this. Ican't stomach this anymore. That
fear overtook his good sense.That fear overtook everything that
(08:26):
was wise, that long termplanning, because he was acting out
of a fear. He wanted to not bein that terrible, unsafe position.
That's the first thing, fear.But the other one is greed and they're
equally working. Greed pushesus to chase. Think about this. You're
standing on the street, juststand there minding your own business,
and all of a sudden a crowdcomes running past you. Why are they
(08:50):
running? Well, you say, well,I better start running too, because
everybody else is running. I'mgoing to jump on herd mentality.
My cows do that. On the farm Iraised Black Angus beef. Here the
cows hang out together. Theyherd together. When one gets spooked,
they all start running. Well,greed works the same way. We chase
after those things. We chaseafter that market. Look, my client
learned. He jumped back intothe market when prices were already
(09:10):
high and then the marketcorrected and he lost it again. Because
that herd mentality convincesus that, listen, everyone else can't
be wrong. Ralph, they mustknow something I don't know. That
fear of missing out, that'sone of the new key. The fancy words
that young people use, thatfomo, that fear of Missing out. But
let me tell you somethingright now, and I believe this to
my core, crowds often makepoor choices. If you're running with
(09:34):
the crowd, you're probably notmaking the best choices. And that's
why behavioral finance is soimportant. Because this behavioral
finance discussion today showshow our emotions, they lie to us.
They trick us. They trick usinto making bad decisions using bad
timing. But what's theantidote? It's that spirit. It's
the spirit of God that givesus self discipline to rise above
(09:55):
that fear and greed. Andagain, as I've talked about time
and time again in this series,it comes down to consistency and
it comes down to embracing aplan. So I got two Bible verses for
today. The first one's fromsecond Timothy, chapter one, verse
seven. It says this. For thespirit God gave us does not make
us timid, but gives us power,love and self discipline. I don't
(10:19):
know about you when I readthat. It gives me value, it gives
me determination. I know thatthe spirit of God. If I really want
to break this feeling ofemotion and fear and greed, how do
I get that? I tap into thespirit of God. Because what does
it say? It doesn't make ustimid, it gives us power. It gives
us power to conquer theseemotions. It gives us love and it
gives us. Hey, what's the bigtakeaway here? Self discipline. Self
(10:43):
discipline is embracing thefact that as a human being, you're
going to feel emotions, you'regoing to feel fear, you're going
to feel greed. But if we reachout to the Lord, he'll give us that
self discipline. Which leadsme to Proverbs 14:16. You're probably
thinking, Ralph, wait asecond, I know that verse. Let me
read it. The wise fear theLord and shun evil. But a fool is
hot headed and yet feelssecure. I'm going to say something
(11:06):
kind of brash. Don't be afool, be wise, shun evil. Because
what does the scripture tellus? A fool, a person that only acts
out of emotion. Listen, I'vebeen there in my own life. If I look
back into the things that I'vemade, emotional decisions, what I
was as a hothead, I feltsecure in those decisions, man. But
those were completely thewrong decisions to make. The antidote
(11:30):
is that spirit of God. Whyabout we pray together right now?
Lord, we come to you right nowand we're battling these natural
human emotions, these thingsthat lead us to making bad decisions.
That idea of fear and thatidea of greed, Lord. So we just ask
you right now for selfdiscipline, self discipline in our
lives and especially selfdiscipline in our financial decisions.
(11:52):
We ask you right now to helpus to overcome fear and help us to
overcome greed, those naturalhuman emotions. But help us to really
embrace that spirit of you,Lord. And we just thank you for giving
us peace even amidst thestorms, when the markets feel uncertain,
when we see the downsidesaround us, when we hear that noise
just coming out in alldirections. Lord, help us to ground
(12:12):
ourselves, to anchor ourselvesin you. And we ask this in confidence
in the name of Jesus. Amen.All right, well, here's my action
step for today. Pretty simple.I want you to write down one emotional
money mistake you've made inthe past. Listen, if I did this,
I'd have a list of them. I'vemade a bunch of them today. I just
want you to make, just writedown one emotional mistake. But that's
(12:34):
not the key to this. Then Iwant you to pray about it. Pray for
wisdom, pray for that selfdiscipline so that you don't make
that same emotional mistakethat the next time just leave it
at the foot of the cross andsay, God, here's what I did last
time. Help me not to do that.Because emotions, fear, greed, that
herd mentality are majorinvesting pitfalls. But like I said
(12:57):
earlier, the antidote isawareness and discipline. Those are
the things that protect usfrom making those costly mistakes.
Because what did the scripturetell us? God gives us power, God
gives us love, and he gives usself discipline to overcome things,
financial anxiety. And if youwant peace, let me tell you right
now, friend, peacefuldecisions always outperform panic
driven ones. So while fear,greed and her mentality can derail
(13:22):
our investing and listen tome, if you heard nothing else I said
today, they will derail yourinvesting. But God's equipped us
with something so much better.He's equipped us with awareness and
self discipline to make wiser,more peaceful financial choices.
Now tomorrow we're going tochange it up a little bit. I'm going
to address some people whohave said to me, ralph, all you talk
(13:42):
about is greed and making moremoney. No, tomorrow we're going to
talk about investing withgenerosity and we're going to talk
about how to tie this intotithing and giving from your growth.
I got a great listenerquestion. They asked me a really
tough question, but you got totune in tomorrow to catch it. We're
going to talk about how thisinvestment growing can actually be
tied into your giving. It'sgoing to be a great show tomorrow
(14:05):
as I'm talking about the showone of the things that you can do
for me. I give a lot to you asI do these shows every day. Do me
a favor and share this showwith a friend. Share with somebody
who has that feeling of fearor greed or that emotional money
decisions. So many people livein that fear and that greed and that
feeling. What did thestatistics say? So many people are
living with that emotion. Justsend them to our website. You can
(14:27):
send them tofinanciallyconfidentchristian.com make
sure they subscribe and nevermiss an episode. And here's another
thing you can do for me. Oneof the things that you could really
help me with is leave a reviewabout the show. Wherever you listen
to the show go, leave areview. You can go right to our website,
leave a review, talk about howthe show's helping you. Talk about
how the show's impacting you.Because listen, people see those
(14:49):
reviews and they're impactedby those. It'll lead us to more people
understanding what we do here.And one more thing I'm going to encourage
you to do because there'spower in prayer, pray for one person
you can right today, stop whatyou're doing right now and pray for
that person. Encourage them bypassing along today's message that
they don't have to live infear anymore. Because the truth is,
(15:10):
fear and greed don't have torule our money choices with God's
spirit. And I truly believethis, and I want you to believe this
now you can invest with peaceand you can invest with discipline
and you can finally live atpeace. So I encourage you today,
go out there and live as afinancially confident Christian.
Stay financially savvy. Godbless you and, and you have a great
day today and I'll see you tomorrow.
What if I told you the biggestthreat to your money isn't the stock
market, it's you? It's aninteresting thought, isn't it? About
78% of Americans say they'reuncomfortable investing. 78%. I gotta
be honest with you, I was abit shocked at that number. How does
that strike you? Listen tothis one. Four out of five Americans
(00:25):
have anxiety about theirfinancial situation. Now that one
didn't surprise me because Idon't know about you, maybe you're
feeling it right now, that'swhy you're listening to the show.
But four out of five Americanshave anxiety about their financial
situation. And listen to thisone. And this one was really sad
when I read this. This isright from Bank Rate 2025. 43% of
(00:45):
U.S. adults say moneynegatively affects their mental health,
causing stress or worry. Igotta be honest with you, I felt
that at times. Maybe you'rethinking the same thing. Well, clearly
we have a problem withfinancial anxiety, don't we? Which
leads me to today's listenerquestion. When I got this one, I
(01:05):
said, wow, this is emotional.But this is what this listener wrote,
says, Ralph, I know I makeemotional money decisions sometimes.
And then she ends with this.Why do fear and greed affects me
so much when it comes toinvesting? What a great question.
And I pulled out those twowords because those two words are
(01:28):
so impactful. Fear and greed.It's an interesting blend of emotions,
isn't it? But the truth isthis, fear and greed are powerful
forces, we gotta admit that.And oftentimes, maybe too often,
they're behind our worstfinancial decisions. I'm going to
get back to what I said a fewminutes ago. The market isn't your
(01:49):
biggest risk, your emotionsare. And today I'm going to show
you how to finally beat thatemotion. This is Financially Confident
Christian, your daily dose ofgospel, grounded insight and faith
driven tips to help you breakthe cycle of financial shame with
confidence. Hello and welcometo the show. I'm Ralph. I'm so happy
(02:10):
you've chosen to give me alittle bit of your time. We're still
in our final week of thisinvestment series. Yesterday we talked
about financial advisors. Wetalked about how they bring knowledge
and keep you on track. But wealso said that real financial success
comes from choosing someonesmart and honest. So if you missed
yesterday's show, I'm going toencourage you go check out our show.
You can see all of our showsright at our website, simple website
(02:33):
to remember,financiallyconfidentchristian.com. but
today we're Going to talkabout fear in Greek. It's kind of
like devices of man, right?We're going to pull how that pulls
our strings when we invest.But bigger than all that, I'm going
to show you today how to keepthem from derailing your financial
plan. Because, listen, I'veseen clients so many times lose money
(02:54):
due to emotional reactions,whether that's selling too soon or
sitting on the sidelines andbuying too late. And it's affected
me too, because I'veexperienced firsthand how awareness
and discipline, when we reallyhave that mindset of awareness and
discipline, they can protectus from costly mistakes. So let's
go back in time. Let's go backin our time machine a little bit.
(03:15):
Let's go back to 2008. Now, ifyou're from the United States, I
don't know how old you arethat you're listening, but I'm going
to set the scene for you. 2008headlines were screaming, the market's
fallen. There's going to be ahuge collapse. The markets were falling
daily. And this is a truestatement. People's retirement accounts
were down 30, 35, 40%. And ifyou watch the news, if you listen
(03:37):
to anything during that time,truth is, fear was everywhere. And
it was a contagion. It wascontagious. Everybody was feeling
this. And I didn't forget itbecause I was feeling it too. And
I had two particular clientsthat I want to share their stories
with you today. Let's call thefirst one. My panic seller client
calls me one day and he says,ralph, I just can't lose another
dime. He said, ralph, I can'tstomach more losses. I can't do this.
(04:00):
And I said to him, I gotta behonest with you, I kind of felt the
same way he was feeling. Isaid, well, think about it, pray
about it, because I thinkthat's a very important part of this.
But turns out he soldeverything. He said, I'm out of the
market. But here's the problemwith that. He locked in those losses.
He was completely on thesidelines. And that decision meant
he missed that rebound thatdid come months later. I've talked
(04:22):
about it on the show before.Generally speaking, there's always
a rebound. So what's ourlesson here? That fear, that's what
he was operating under, thatfear driven choice causes permanent
damage. And my client feltthat permanent damage. Well, let
me tell you about my otherclient. We'll call him the late buyer.
Now, this late buyer man, hewas swell. He said, I'm going to
(04:45):
get out of the market beforethere's even a problem. He beat that
rush. But here's the problem.He stayed out during that downturn.
But then as he started to seethe markets rebound, he rushed in
at record highs. He did thatwhat we'll call herd mentality. I'll
talk about that in a fewminutes. I never forget he said this
to me. He said, ralph,everyone else is making money. I
don't want to miss out. He hadthat fear of missing out. Here's
(05:05):
the problem with that. Rightafter he got into the market, the
markets corrected again. Andguess what? Boom. It hit the bottom
again. His losses were immensebecause he bought at the top of the
market. What's the otherlesson here? The first one was fear.
This one is greed. Those greeddriven choices often lead to buying
(05:25):
high and losing money. Andthat's what I want to talk about
today. Because think aboutthat. We got two completely opposite
reactions. They're soimportant in investing. One was fear
and one was greed. But what'sthe underlying thing in this? Because
this is really the keystrategy today. They were both driven
by emotions, not strategy. Andboth of them ended in regret. So
(05:52):
let me ask you right now, haveyou ever made a money move you regretted
because of fear or greed?That's a tough question, isn't it?
Because I have to ask myselfthat same question. Listen, I'm turning
the spotlight on me. So weneed to come to an agreement here.
Emotional investing is common,but it's costly. We got to break
(06:13):
that emotion. So you might besaying, ralph, how do we do that?
Well, the two big takeawaysfrom today, write these things down.
It's about awareness anddiscipline. Because that's the antidote
to this. When you have avirus, you. You go to the doctor,
they give you an antidote,they give you medicine. Well, if
you want to break fear andgreed, the antidote is these awareness
and discipline. But I'm goingto add a third piece of the antidote.
(06:35):
A lot of people don't talkabout this in the normal financial
channels. God's spirit.Because with God's spirit, we can
rise above that panic. Becauselet me just tell you something right
now. You're a human being,you're a fleshly person. It's natural.
I'm going to tell you thisright now because a lot of people
don't understand this and howimpactful this is. You are naturally
born greedy and you're bornwith fear. That's a normal emotion
(06:58):
of a human being. The only wayyou can break that is to understand
God's spirit and rise abovethat because wise, peaceful decisions
always outperform emotionalones. I want to say that again because
I want you to really rememberthis. Wise, peaceful decisions always
outperform emotional ones. Anda legendary investor named Benjamin
(07:20):
Graham said this. And when Iread this, I was like, man, this
is perfect for today's show.The investor's chief problem and
even his worst enemy is likelyto be himself. I started the show
with that. Today you'relooking in the mirror. Okay, so if
we know it's ourselves, if weknow it's our natural state of man,
(07:42):
it's that human feeling offear and greed, how do we ever cope
those emotions? Well, let'stalk about those emotions right now
because that's where we needto start. Let's start with fear.
I guarantee if you'relistening or watching right now,
you felt fear. You're in asituation you don't know a lot about.
That's fearful because ashuman beings, we want safety. So
(08:05):
let's apply that to ourinvestments or fear and what's going
to happen. We've worked sohard for our money, so what do we
do? We let that fear take overand we sell at the worst possible
times. That's what my clientdid. He called me and said, ralph,
I got to get out of this. Ican't stomach this anymore. That
fear overtook his good sense.That fear overtook everything that
(08:26):
was wise, that long termplanning, because he was acting out
of a fear. He wanted to not bein that terrible, unsafe position.
That's the first thing, fear.But the other one is greed and they're
equally working. Greed pushesus to chase. Think about this. You're
standing on the street, juststand there minding your own business,
and all of a sudden a crowdcomes running past you. Why are they
(08:50):
running? Well, you say, well,I better start running too, because
everybody else is running. I'mgoing to jump on herd mentality.
My cows do that. On the farm Iraised Black Angus beef. Here the
cows hang out together. Theyherd together. When one gets spooked,
they all start running. Well,greed works the same way. We chase
after those things. We chaseafter that market. Look, my client
learned. He jumped back intothe market when prices were already
(09:10):
high and then the marketcorrected and he lost it again. Because
that herd mentality convincesus that, listen, everyone else can't
be wrong. Ralph, they mustknow something I don't know. That
fear of missing out, that'sone of the new key. The fancy words
that young people use, thatfomo, that fear of Missing out. But
let me tell you somethingright now, and I believe this to
my core, crowds often makepoor choices. If you're running with
(09:34):
the crowd, you're probably notmaking the best choices. And that's
why behavioral finance is soimportant. Because this behavioral
finance discussion today showshow our emotions, they lie to us.
They trick us. They trick usinto making bad decisions using bad
timing. But what's theantidote? It's that spirit. It's
the spirit of God that givesus self discipline to rise above
(09:55):
that fear and greed. Andagain, as I've talked about time
and time again in this series,it comes down to consistency and
it comes down to embracing aplan. So I got two Bible verses for
today. The first one's fromsecond Timothy, chapter one, verse
seven. It says this. For thespirit God gave us does not make
us timid, but gives us power,love and self discipline. I don't
(10:19):
know about you when I readthat. It gives me value, it gives
me determination. I know thatthe spirit of God. If I really want
to break this feeling ofemotion and fear and greed, how do
I get that? I tap into thespirit of God. Because what does
it say? It doesn't make ustimid, it gives us power. It gives
us power to conquer theseemotions. It gives us love and it
gives us. Hey, what's the bigtakeaway here? Self discipline. Self
(10:43):
discipline is embracing thefact that as a human being, you're
going to feel emotions, you'regoing to feel fear, you're going
to feel greed. But if we reachout to the Lord, he'll give us that
self discipline. Which leadsme to Proverbs 14:16. You're probably
thinking, Ralph, wait asecond, I know that verse. Let me
read it. The wise fear theLord and shun evil. But a fool is
hot headed and yet feelssecure. I'm going to say something
(11:06):
kind of brash. Don't be afool, be wise, shun evil. Because
what does the scripture tellus? A fool, a person that only acts
out of emotion. Listen, I'vebeen there in my own life. If I look
back into the things that I'vemade, emotional decisions, what I
was as a hothead, I feltsecure in those decisions, man. But
those were completely thewrong decisions to make. The antidote
(11:30):
is that spirit of God. Whyabout we pray together right now?
Lord, we come to you right nowand we're battling these natural
human emotions, these thingsthat lead us to making bad decisions.
That idea of fear and thatidea of greed, Lord. So we just ask
you right now for selfdiscipline, self discipline in our
lives and especially selfdiscipline in our financial decisions.
(11:52):
We ask you right now to helpus to overcome fear and help us to
overcome greed, those naturalhuman emotions. But help us to really
embrace that spirit of you,Lord. And we just thank you for giving
us peace even amidst thestorms, when the markets feel uncertain,
when we see the downsidesaround us, when we hear that noise
just coming out in alldirections. Lord, help us to ground
(12:12):
ourselves, to anchor ourselvesin you. And we ask this in confidence
in the name of Jesus. Amen.All right, well, here's my action
step for today. Pretty simple.I want you to write down one emotional
money mistake you've made inthe past. Listen, if I did this,
I'd have a list of them. I'vemade a bunch of them today. I just
want you to make, just writedown one emotional mistake. But that's
(12:34):
not the key to this. Then Iwant you to pray about it. Pray for
wisdom, pray for that selfdiscipline so that you don't make
that same emotional mistakethat the next time just leave it
at the foot of the cross andsay, God, here's what I did last
time. Help me not to do that.Because emotions, fear, greed, that
herd mentality are majorinvesting pitfalls. But like I said
(12:57):
earlier, the antidote isawareness and discipline. Those are
the things that protect usfrom making those costly mistakes.
Because what did the scripturetell us? God gives us power, God
gives us love, and he gives usself discipline to overcome things,
financial anxiety. And if youwant peace, let me tell you right
now, friend, peacefuldecisions always outperform panic
driven ones. So while fear,greed and her mentality can derail
(13:22):
our investing and listen tome, if you heard nothing else I said
today, they will derail yourinvesting. But God's equipped us
with something so much better.He's equipped us with awareness and
self discipline to make wiser,more peaceful financial choices.
Now tomorrow we're going tochange it up a little bit. I'm going
to address some people whohave said to me, ralph, all you talk
(13:42):
about is greed and making moremoney. No, tomorrow we're going to
talk about investing withgenerosity and we're going to talk
about how to tie this intotithing and giving from your growth.
I got a great listenerquestion. They asked me a really
tough question, but you got totune in tomorrow to catch it. We're
going to talk about how thisinvestment growing can actually be
tied into your giving. It'sgoing to be a great show tomorrow
(14:05):
as I'm talking about the showone of the things that you can do
for me. I give a lot to you asI do these shows every day. Do me
a favor and share this showwith a friend. Share with somebody
who has that feeling of fearor greed or that emotional money
decisions. So many people livein that fear and that greed and that
feeling. What did thestatistics say? So many people are
living with that emotion. Justsend them to our website. You can
(14:27):
send them tofinanciallyconfidentchristian.com make
sure they subscribe and nevermiss an episode. And here's another
thing you can do for me. Oneof the things that you could really
help me with is leave a reviewabout the show. Wherever you listen
to the show go, leave areview. You can go right to our website,
leave a review, talk about howthe show's helping you. Talk about
how the show's impacting you.Because listen, people see those
(14:49):
reviews and they're impactedby those. It'll lead us to more people
understanding what we do here.And one more thing I'm going to encourage
you to do because there'spower in prayer, pray for one person
you can right today, stop whatyou're doing right now and pray for
that person. Encourage them bypassing along today's message that
they don't have to live infear anymore. Because the truth is,
(15:10):
fear and greed don't have torule our money choices with God's
spirit. And I truly believethis, and I want you to believe this
now you can invest with peaceand you can invest with discipline
and you can finally live atpeace. So I encourage you today,
go out there and live as afinancially confident Christian.
Stay financially savvy. Godbless you and, and you have a great
day today and I'll see you tomorrow.
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