October 3, 2025 • 10 mins
Today, we're diving into the nitty-gritty of balancing risk and reward in investing. You know, it's like trying to find the sweet spot between jumping in headfirst and tiptoeing around the pool. I'm here to help you figure out how much risk is right for you, so you can invest with confidence instead of fear. We’ll chat about some real-life stories, like that young couple who learned the hard way that diving in without knowing the risks can lead to a splashy disaster. By the end, you’ll know how to approach investing wisely and find peace in your financial journey. So kick back, relax, and let’s get into it!
Check the full podcast episode here
Navigating the wild world of investing can feel like trying to tame a lion with a toothpick. Seriously, it’s a jungle out there! In this episode, we dive deep into the age-old dilemma of risk versus reward. I mean, let’s face it, every time I hear about someone making big bucks in the stock market, I can’t help but think about the other side of the coin. You know, the folks who lost their shirts because they dove headfirst into risky waters without a life vest. We chat about how to find that sweet spot where your comfort level meets your investment goals. It's all about balance, baby! Whether you're a scaredy-cat or a thrill-seeker, there’s a way to navigate this maze without losing your marbles. Plus, we sprinkle a little Biblical wisdom in there because, hey, who doesn’t want divine guidance on their financial journey?
Takeaways:
- Investing is all about balancing risk and reward, and knowing your comfort zone is key.
- A common question is how much risk is right for you when investing your money.
- Finding that sweet spot between risk and your financial goals is crucial for peace of mind.
- Financial confidence comes from understanding that your security lies in God, not just the stock market.
- No matter what, remember that risk is part of investing, but it can be managed wisely.
- The market may be wild and unpredictable, but with the right mindset, you can navigate it like a pro.
Links referenced in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Got a great question yesterdaythat I just had to answer on today's
show. Ralph, I get thatinvesting can grow money, but the
risk makes me nervous. How doI know how much risk is right for
me? What a great question.Question I hear at least once or
twice a week and it's aquestion I want to answer today because
maybe you're listening oryou're watching right now and you're
wondering that very samething. This market makes me nervous,
(00:23):
Ralph. You're talking aboutinvesting all month, but this makes
me nervous. So here's mypromise for you today. Today I'm
going to teach you why riskand reward always go hand in hand.
I'm going to show you how tobalance risk with your goals and
peace of mind. And last butnot least, I'm going to show you
how to approach investing withwisdom and not fear. It's going to
be a truly great show today.This is Financially Confident Christian,
(00:48):
your daily dose of gospel,grounded insight and faith driven
tips to help you break thecycle of financial shame with confidence.
Hi there, welcome. My name isRalph. Thank you for joining me on
another daily episode ofFinancially Confident Christian.
Now, if you missed yesterday'sepisode, we talked about how investing
is not just for the rich andyou could start with as little as
(01:09):
$25. If you have missedyesterday's show or you missed any
of our shows in this series,you can find all of our shows at
our website. That'sfinanciallyconfidentchristian.com as
an accountant and a coach,I've worked with people over 30 years
and I've walked alongside ofpeople who froze up because of fear,
especially when it comes intoinvesting. Then I've also worked
(01:30):
with people. Man, they justjumped in the pool completely recklessly.
Kind of like we talked aboutyesterday. Are they throwing that
money in a market as a gamble?And here's a brutal truth. In my
experience, neither of thoseextremes really works. It's all about
finding balance. When you canfind that balance, that's when confidence
grows. And that's really thebig takeaway from today's show. Let's
(01:51):
talk about how to find thatbalance. Because once you find that
balance, you truly can havepeace in investing. Tell you about
a young couple that I workwith. They came in and sat down with
me. They were really gettingthemselves started in life. They
had just gotten married andthey said, Ralph, we really want
to get some ideas forinvesting. And I said, that's great.
I'm so happy that you'reenergetic about that. Next thing
(02:13):
you know, the husband says tome, Ralph, I keep hearing stories
from friends at work to tellme about these things that are growing,
they're doubling overnight,Ralph. And we want to get involved
in that. This is what we wantto do. And I said, well, hold on
a second. Let's talk aboutrisk. Let's talk about reward. I'm
going to talk about that alittle bit in a second. But I sat
down with this couple and Isaid, let's talk about this. Let's.
Let's kind of hash this out alittle bit. Well, this guy did not
(02:34):
want to hear what I had tosay. He said, Ralph, listen, I can't
afford not to take this risk.This is a sure thing. Made me think
of going to the racetrack.This horse is a sure bet. Well, fast
forward a little bit, becausethen the market dropped. And I remember
the wife called me. She wascompletely in panic. She says, my
husband just sold all thestock and they lost more than they
(02:56):
ever would have imagined. Theylost more even if they had just stayed
in the market and they learneda valuable lesson. And I want to
share that lesson with youtoday. It wasn't about the market.
See, the market will come andgo. The market will ebb and flow.
That's not what the issue waswith this young couple. That may
not be the issue that you'veexperienced if you've tried investing.
So. So many people have tappedtheir toe into the water and they
(03:18):
felt that water's pretty cold,Ralph. I'm not going there again.
But it's all about knowingyour comfort level. And friend, as
I said before, knowing yourbalance is really everything. So
here's the thing I want tostart off. First thing you've got
to understand, risk and rewardare always connected. That is just
the truism of investments. Ifthere's low risk, there's going to
(03:40):
be low reward. Think ofsavings accounts. There is absolutely
zero risk. Now, of course,there's the risk that your bank could
go under if you got more thana certain amount of money. But generally
there's no risk. Same thingwith government bonds. Most people
think that the United Statesis going to continue on. So government
bonds have low risk, but theproblem with that is they also have
low reward. Well, the oppositeis true as well. If you want to take
(04:03):
high risk, sure, there's apotential, and I use the word potential
because we got to be carefulabout this. When you take that high
risk, there is a potential forhigher rewards. And think stocks.
Think real estate, speculativereal estate investments or business
ventures. But here's thebrutal truth we got to start with,
you can't separate the two.There are no low risk, great reward
(04:26):
or high risk, low rewardthings. They just don't exist. So
you got to start off with thatbasic understanding. Those two go
hand in hand. Low risk, lowreward, high risk, high reward. You
may be saying, okay, how do Imake a decision? Well, here's the
thing I want to tell you rightnow. So many people think, well,
I'm going to go listen to thisfinancial guru because he's going
to have the right answer.Well, guess what? I've been doing
(04:48):
this for 30 years and I wish Icould tell you this, but there is
no one right answer. Theanswer depends on your particular
timeline. It depends on yourgoals. And ultimately it depends
on your comfort level. See,what's risky for one person might
be completely manageable andacceptable for somebody else. One
of the things that I workwith, a financial advisor, the first
(05:10):
thing he does whenever hemeets with one of the clients, I
refer to him as he says, Iwant to assess their level of comfort.
I want to understand theirmarket risk. I need to understand
their timelines, I need tounderstand their goals and ultimately
build an investment plan thatmeets those three things. And what's
good for one person might notbe great for another. I've got clients
(05:32):
that only invest incertificates of deposit. The bank,
they don't want to take anyrisk. I have other clients. If I
said to them, go buy a CD tobe like Ralph, are you crazy? There's
no return in that. And theyare in the stock market. But here's
the thing I want you to alsounderstand truly finding wisdom,
that wisdom that the Bibletalks about. I'm going to talk about
a book of Scripture here in asecond. But finding wisdom means
(05:54):
you find that balance. Youfind what works for you, what works
for your timeline, your goals,and your comfort level. Let's look
at the Book of Proverbs,chapter 22, verse 3, the prudence,
see danger and take refuge.But the simple keep going and pay
the penalty. See, investingdoesn't mean avoiding all the risk.
If you're going to invest,there is going to be some risk. I'm
(06:15):
going to be very clear aboutthat right now. When you put money
into the market, it is notinsured. There is risk, but it means
knowing yourself. It meansknowing what you can tolerate. Hey,
if you're one of these folksthat can't tolerate risk at all,
then you probably are betteroff investing in CDs or government
bonds. But know yourself andchoose the path that brings you Peace.
(06:37):
Because you don't want to livesomeone else's life. You don't want
to live in somebody else'sinvestment belief system. Now, there
are practical steps to helpyou find that balance. One of the
things you've got to askyourself, and it's one of the big
things I ask clients as I workwith them. Now, listen, I've said
this on the show a couple daysago. I don't actually buy investments,
but what I do is I coachclients on how to get involved in
(06:59):
the market and how much toallocate for that, what the tax implications
are, that. But the first thingyou've got to ask yourself is, when
do I need this money? If youneed this money short term, hey,
you've got to take low risk onthat thing. You don't have the opportunity
for this money to grow andrecover. Now, if you're saying to
me, Ralph, look, I'm puttingmoney into the long term, you can
(07:19):
take more risk. But testyourself with this. Ask yourself
if a 10% drop would keep youup at night. If that 10% drop in
the market is going to keepyou up at night, you need a safer
mix. That is a veryconservative approach. Then start
small and build thatconfidence as you go. But ask yourself,
when do I need the money andwhat is my risk tolerance? And then
(07:41):
really, really ask yourself,if I saw this market drop, would
I feel safe with this? Here'sanother thing you got to remember,
and this goes beyond all theinvestment, and this is really the
assurance of today's show. Yougot to remember who holds your future.
At the end of the day, yoursecurity isn't in the stock market.
(08:01):
Your security is not in thoseinvestments. It's not in those certificates
of deposits. It's not in howmuch you've got deposited at the
bank. And I want you to hearthis, and I want you to hear this
loud and clear. It's in God'shands. That is truly the thing that
should make you feel reassuredin all of this. I'm not saying don't
make wise decisions. I knowGod wants us to make wise decisions.
So when you invest withwisdom, when you invest with faith,
(08:25):
when you do those things, youcan walk with peace even when the
markets shake. And guess what?The markets will shake. But where
is your peace? What is youranchor in that? Let's pray together.
How does that sound? Lord, wejust thank you for teaching us that
risk isn't something to fear.It's something that we can manage
with your wisdom. Lord, sohelp us to see clearly what risk
(08:47):
we should take and which oneswe should avoid. Lord, give us peace
when we make those investmentdecisions. Help us to be clear in
our decisions and faith inwhat you hold for our future, knowing
that our true future, our truewealth is found in you and found
in you alone. And we askedthis in complete confidence in Jesus
(09:07):
name, Amen. Now I sure hopeyou join me tomorrow. We're going
to take this even a little bitfurther. We're going to delve into
a little deeper. What's yourinvestment horizon? We'll talk about
short term and long term goalsand then I'm going to talk about
how you can shake yourtimeline and shape the way you want
to invest. Because that'sgoing to be a really important point
once you've made thatdecision, hey, I'm going to get in
(09:27):
the market. I realize it's notjust for rich people. I'm going to
put my toe in the water. Butthen we really need to get into that
short term versus long termgoal. So make sure you don't miss
tomorrow's show. And if riskis keeping you frozen, I would love
to give you a copy of my freebook. It's called How to Become a
Financially ConfidentChristian. I wrote this book, it
was a passion of mine. I, Itook 30 years of working with people
(09:50):
just like you and seeing thatfear, seeing that financial shame
they lived in and helping thembuild confidence. And I would sure
like to give you a free copy,a downloadable copy. You can go right
to my website and get that.That's at financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming
go there and put your emailaddress in and download a copy of
the book. Again, that's atfinanciallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming it's
(10:13):
my gift to you because here'sthe truth. Confidence comes from
truth and the truth will setyou free. So go today and be that
financially confidentChristian that I know you can be.
I truly believe in you.Believe in yourself. And more importantly
than any of those things, Godbelieves in you. Stay financially
savvy, God bless you and youhave a great day. It.
Got a great question yesterdaythat I just had to answer on today's
show. Ralph, I get thatinvesting can grow money, but the
risk makes me nervous. How doI know how much risk is right for
me? What a great question.Question I hear at least once or
twice a week and it's aquestion I want to answer today because
maybe you're listening oryou're watching right now and you're
wondering that very samething. This market makes me nervous,
(00:23):
Ralph. You're talking aboutinvesting all month, but this makes
me nervous. So here's mypromise for you today. Today I'm
going to teach you why riskand reward always go hand in hand.
I'm going to show you how tobalance risk with your goals and
peace of mind. And last butnot least, I'm going to show you
how to approach investing withwisdom and not fear. It's going to
be a truly great show today.This is Financially Confident Christian,
(00:48):
your daily dose of gospel,grounded insight and faith driven
tips to help you break thecycle of financial shame with confidence.
Hi there, welcome. My name isRalph. Thank you for joining me on
another daily episode ofFinancially Confident Christian.
Now, if you missed yesterday'sepisode, we talked about how investing
is not just for the rich andyou could start with as little as
(01:09):
$25. If you have missedyesterday's show or you missed any
of our shows in this series,you can find all of our shows at
our website. That'sfinanciallyconfidentchristian.com as
an accountant and a coach,I've worked with people over 30 years
and I've walked alongside ofpeople who froze up because of fear,
especially when it comes intoinvesting. Then I've also worked
(01:30):
with people. Man, they justjumped in the pool completely recklessly.
Kind of like we talked aboutyesterday. Are they throwing that
money in a market as a gamble?And here's a brutal truth. In my
experience, neither of thoseextremes really works. It's all about
finding balance. When you canfind that balance, that's when confidence
grows. And that's really thebig takeaway from today's show. Let's
(01:51):
talk about how to find thatbalance. Because once you find that
balance, you truly can havepeace in investing. Tell you about
a young couple that I workwith. They came in and sat down with
me. They were really gettingthemselves started in life. They
had just gotten married andthey said, Ralph, we really want
to get some ideas forinvesting. And I said, that's great.
I'm so happy that you'reenergetic about that. Next thing
(02:13):
you know, the husband says tome, Ralph, I keep hearing stories
from friends at work to tellme about these things that are growing,
they're doubling overnight,Ralph. And we want to get involved
in that. This is what we wantto do. And I said, well, hold on
a second. Let's talk aboutrisk. Let's talk about reward. I'm
going to talk about that alittle bit in a second. But I sat
down with this couple and Isaid, let's talk about this. Let's.
Let's kind of hash this out alittle bit. Well, this guy did not
(02:34):
want to hear what I had tosay. He said, Ralph, listen, I can't
afford not to take this risk.This is a sure thing. Made me think
of going to the racetrack.This horse is a sure bet. Well, fast
forward a little bit, becausethen the market dropped. And I remember
the wife called me. She wascompletely in panic. She says, my
husband just sold all thestock and they lost more than they
(02:56):
ever would have imagined. Theylost more even if they had just stayed
in the market and they learneda valuable lesson. And I want to
share that lesson with youtoday. It wasn't about the market.
See, the market will come andgo. The market will ebb and flow.
That's not what the issue waswith this young couple. That may
not be the issue that you'veexperienced if you've tried investing.
So. So many people have tappedtheir toe into the water and they
(03:18):
felt that water's pretty cold,Ralph. I'm not going there again.
But it's all about knowingyour comfort level. And friend, as
I said before, knowing yourbalance is really everything. So
here's the thing I want tostart off. First thing you've got
to understand, risk and rewardare always connected. That is just
the truism of investments. Ifthere's low risk, there's going to
(03:40):
be low reward. Think ofsavings accounts. There is absolutely
zero risk. Now, of course,there's the risk that your bank could
go under if you got more thana certain amount of money. But generally
there's no risk. Same thingwith government bonds. Most people
think that the United Statesis going to continue on. So government
bonds have low risk, but theproblem with that is they also have
low reward. Well, the oppositeis true as well. If you want to take
(04:03):
high risk, sure, there's apotential, and I use the word potential
because we got to be carefulabout this. When you take that high
risk, there is a potential forhigher rewards. And think stocks.
Think real estate, speculativereal estate investments or business
ventures. But here's thebrutal truth we got to start with,
you can't separate the two.There are no low risk, great reward
(04:26):
or high risk, low rewardthings. They just don't exist. So
you got to start off with thatbasic understanding. Those two go
hand in hand. Low risk, lowreward, high risk, high reward. You
may be saying, okay, how do Imake a decision? Well, here's the
thing I want to tell you rightnow. So many people think, well,
I'm going to go listen to thisfinancial guru because he's going
to have the right answer.Well, guess what? I've been doing
(04:48):
this for 30 years and I wish Icould tell you this, but there is
no one right answer. Theanswer depends on your particular
timeline. It depends on yourgoals. And ultimately it depends
on your comfort level. See,what's risky for one person might
be completely manageable andacceptable for somebody else. One
of the things that I workwith, a financial advisor, the first
(05:10):
thing he does whenever hemeets with one of the clients, I
refer to him as he says, Iwant to assess their level of comfort.
I want to understand theirmarket risk. I need to understand
their timelines, I need tounderstand their goals and ultimately
build an investment plan thatmeets those three things. And what's
good for one person might notbe great for another. I've got clients
(05:32):
that only invest incertificates of deposit. The bank,
they don't want to take anyrisk. I have other clients. If I
said to them, go buy a CD tobe like Ralph, are you crazy? There's
no return in that. And theyare in the stock market. But here's
the thing I want you to alsounderstand truly finding wisdom,
that wisdom that the Bibletalks about. I'm going to talk about
a book of Scripture here in asecond. But finding wisdom means
(05:54):
you find that balance. Youfind what works for you, what works
for your timeline, your goals,and your comfort level. Let's look
at the Book of Proverbs,chapter 22, verse 3, the prudence,
see danger and take refuge.But the simple keep going and pay
the penalty. See, investingdoesn't mean avoiding all the risk.
If you're going to invest,there is going to be some risk. I'm
(06:15):
going to be very clear aboutthat right now. When you put money
into the market, it is notinsured. There is risk, but it means
knowing yourself. It meansknowing what you can tolerate. Hey,
if you're one of these folksthat can't tolerate risk at all,
then you probably are betteroff investing in CDs or government
bonds. But know yourself andchoose the path that brings you Peace.
(06:37):
Because you don't want to livesomeone else's life. You don't want
to live in somebody else'sinvestment belief system. Now, there
are practical steps to helpyou find that balance. One of the
things you've got to askyourself, and it's one of the big
things I ask clients as I workwith them. Now, listen, I've said
this on the show a couple daysago. I don't actually buy investments,
but what I do is I coachclients on how to get involved in
(06:59):
the market and how much toallocate for that, what the tax implications
are, that. But the first thingyou've got to ask yourself is, when
do I need this money? If youneed this money short term, hey,
you've got to take low risk onthat thing. You don't have the opportunity
for this money to grow andrecover. Now, if you're saying to
me, Ralph, look, I'm puttingmoney into the long term, you can
(07:19):
take more risk. But testyourself with this. Ask yourself
if a 10% drop would keep youup at night. If that 10% drop in
the market is going to keepyou up at night, you need a safer
mix. That is a veryconservative approach. Then start
small and build thatconfidence as you go. But ask yourself,
when do I need the money andwhat is my risk tolerance? And then
(07:41):
really, really ask yourself,if I saw this market drop, would
I feel safe with this? Here'sanother thing you got to remember,
and this goes beyond all theinvestment, and this is really the
assurance of today's show. Yougot to remember who holds your future.
At the end of the day, yoursecurity isn't in the stock market.
(08:01):
Your security is not in thoseinvestments. It's not in those certificates
of deposits. It's not in howmuch you've got deposited at the
bank. And I want you to hearthis, and I want you to hear this
loud and clear. It's in God'shands. That is truly the thing that
should make you feel reassuredin all of this. I'm not saying don't
make wise decisions. I knowGod wants us to make wise decisions.
So when you invest withwisdom, when you invest with faith,
(08:25):
when you do those things, youcan walk with peace even when the
markets shake. And guess what?The markets will shake. But where
is your peace? What is youranchor in that? Let's pray together.
How does that sound? Lord, wejust thank you for teaching us that
risk isn't something to fear.It's something that we can manage
with your wisdom. Lord, sohelp us to see clearly what risk
(08:47):
we should take and which oneswe should avoid. Lord, give us peace
when we make those investmentdecisions. Help us to be clear in
our decisions and faith inwhat you hold for our future, knowing
that our true future, our truewealth is found in you and found
in you alone. And we askedthis in complete confidence in Jesus
(09:07):
name, Amen. Now I sure hopeyou join me tomorrow. We're going
to take this even a little bitfurther. We're going to delve into
a little deeper. What's yourinvestment horizon? We'll talk about
short term and long term goalsand then I'm going to talk about
how you can shake yourtimeline and shape the way you want
to invest. Because that'sgoing to be a really important point
once you've made thatdecision, hey, I'm going to get in
(09:27):
the market. I realize it's notjust for rich people. I'm going to
put my toe in the water. Butthen we really need to get into that
short term versus long termgoal. So make sure you don't miss
tomorrow's show. And if riskis keeping you frozen, I would love
to give you a copy of my freebook. It's called How to Become a
Financially ConfidentChristian. I wrote this book, it
was a passion of mine. I, Itook 30 years of working with people
(09:50):
just like you and seeing thatfear, seeing that financial shame
they lived in and helping thembuild confidence. And I would sure
like to give you a free copy,a downloadable copy. You can go right
to my website and get that.That's at financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming
go there and put your emailaddress in and download a copy of
the book. Again, that's atfinanciallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming it's
(10:13):
my gift to you because here'sthe truth. Confidence comes from
truth and the truth will setyou free. So go today and be that
financially confidentChristian that I know you can be.
I truly believe in you.Believe in yourself. And more importantly
than any of those things, Godbelieves in you. Stay financially
savvy, God bless you and youhave a great day. It.
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