Financial Issues - 07.30.2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Financial Issues, where we join reality with truth,
helping you make the most of your money by honoring
God with your investments. Now listen man, as we give
you the practical tools and advice you need to become
a biblically responsible investor.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning everyone, Welcome to Financial Issues. Wonderful to be
here with you today. I appreciate each of you joining us.
Sethi Dinski here with you, as well as the studio
a team including my friend Samuel case Sam ready for
some fun again, brother.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh yeah, it's National Cheesecake Day, so this is very Epsida.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
That's awesome. I was never privy to cheesecake as much.
I always thought cheese was good and cake was good.
But you put them together and it wasn't as good.
But I'm sure there are a lot of people out
there like cheese.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
I think the bigger question is it a cake or
a pie? Yeah, these are the questions we ask on
Cheesecake Day.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Exactly right. Wonderful to be here with you, folks. Thank
you all of you for joining us today. Busy show today.
Later on I'm going to have financial advisor Bob Barber.
He's going to join me to analyze the characteristics of
an ordinary excuse me, an orderly financial household. Not ordinary,
but an orderly financial household. Stay tuned, folks. Have you
got questions? We have some time at the end to
address some of those. And the last time we had

(01:18):
Bob on, we had several questions from what we had said,
So I'm leaving some time at the end to answer
any questions if you have them. Also, a whole lot
of people are still afraid of investing. We'll see why
and perhaps some of the strategies to overcome that fear.
Of course, your comments and questions throughout the show, we
want to be able to answer them as best we can. Meanwhile,
the Trump administration is doubling down on this August first

(01:40):
tariff deadline while the markets wait. Today's big ticket items.
We've got a big day to day, folks. We have
the Federal Reserve interest rate decision for July. Of course,
that's the meeting that we're all waiting with baited breath
to see what the Fed will do coming down from
Mount sign I as it were. We also get earnings
from Meta and Microsoft today, so a lot to keep
an eye on as it pertains to the markets. But

(02:02):
partners I just want to let you all know please
do act on the recent sell alert that we issued
for Tesla. We did issue that sell alert. This is
a big one, obviously, I would urge you please refer
to that sell alert and today's commentary as well for
more information on that. You know, of course, it's always
a bummer to have to sell companies like that, especially

(02:23):
one as big as that, But this, of course is
for biblically responsible reasons. So check out that sell alert
today and yeah, make sure that you do your due
diligence there. I'm sure Shannon will be talking more about
this when she's on later this week. One of the
big news items we got out this morning, folks was
GDP for quarter two, it actually grew three percent. That
was better than expected. Sam I got a huge kick

(02:44):
out of CNBC's headline this morning because we've been seeing
this constantly. But here's what they said, was.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Something well like GDP grows despite how terrible and awful
and no good Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Basically that it was basically that. Here's what they actually said.
It said, quote US economy grew at a three percent
rate in quarter two, better an expected pace, even as
Trump's tariffs hit. CNBC just can't help themselves. They're just waiting, praying, Sam,
that the tariffs would cause something bad to happen, And
every time they caused something good to happen, it's like, well,
here's another good thing. Despite those tariffs, trust us, folks,

(03:15):
they're gonna start causing bad things to happen. The lefties
are praying for any kind of bad sign Sam, and
it's delightful when they don't get it. Well, it's amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Bill Maher, the left wing comedian, the other day, he
came out and said, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna
bite the bullet here. I thought the tariffs were going
to be the end of the world. I believed all
the economists who were saying so. And to be honest,
it looks like I'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah. Absolutely, least good for you, Bill, Yeah, that's exactly right.
At least he's honest. So yeah, we did get GDP
out this morning, folks. For quarter two. Again it grew
three percent better than expected, so much to the chagrin
of the folks over at CNBC and other liberal news.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
What's amazing about CNBC is when Trump was first elected,
they loved him and that is until he started to
announce the tariffs. So how the turntables turned?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Amen, brother, Well, let's move to the markets here, folks.
Yesterday major disease retreated from the record highs on Tuesday. Investors,
they're really just awaiting these two busy days, so you know,
today and tomorrow a couple of big ones. By midday
yesterday the averages were down. The Dow Jones led the
way down. By afternoon it was much the same. They
finished moderately negative. The bleeding wasn't too bad. The Dow

(04:19):
Jones was down less than a half percent, the SB
five hundred down less than a third, and the NASDAK
down less than two fifths of a percent. Pre markets
this morning are all pretty muted right now, slightly positive.
Dow Jones is trending to open right at the flat
line SMP slightly above and then as deck slightly above
with the SMP is. So they're just waiting, waiting with

(04:40):
baited breath to see what Lord Father Jerome Powell will
have to say when he descends down Mount Federal Reserve.
I see the anticipation. Anticipation.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
The prediction is about ninety eight percent right now that
things are going to.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Be exactly the same, stay exactly the same. That's absolutely right.
So right now the markets seem somewhat calm in that
regard because perhaps they're things to say the same. But
at any rate, that breaks at two o'clock.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
If you have no expectations, you can't be disappointed. That's
exactly right, very stoic.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
That's right. It's a good way to look at the
Federal Reserve. If you just lower your expectations really low,
almost to where they're nothing, then you'll well, you could
still be disappointed, but there's a chance that you won't
be disappointed. Well, Sam, let's get to a couple of
headlines here. Howard Lutnik has been saying that these trade
deals need to get done by Friday, that August first
tariff deadline is really hard and fast. Hear, what can

(05:28):
you tell us about this?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
In fact, I think he says they will be done
by Friday, and Donald Trump is saying there's going to
be no extensions. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said the trade
deals will all be wrapped up for the rest of
the world by Friday, though we did say a deal
with China in particular will take a bit longer.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
No shocker there.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Friday, of course, is the deadline before Trump's tariffs come
back online for all the countries that have not made
a deal with Trump, saying that rate is going to
be somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent, something we talked
about on the show quite a bit. What you might
not know, though, is this comes as the United States
has brought in a record one hundred and fifty billion
dollars in tariff revenue this year, including twenty eight billion

(06:10):
this month alone. We're not even done with the month,
and we've still brought in twenty eight billion dollars. Treasury
Secretary Scott Besson estimates tariff revenue could break three hundred
billion this year. That's a hefty chunk of change. But
it's not entirely peaches and cream, as Proctor and Gamble,
maker of common household products like Crest toothpaste and Charman
toilet paper, they said on Tuesday it's raising prices on

(06:33):
about a quarter of its products next month, at least
in part because of those tariffs.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
I'm sure Procter and Gamble was just delighted to be
able to put the blame on Trump once again. I
don't know if you know this, folks, but Proctor and
Gamble was pretty infamous in the last several years for
running these just really weird, woke ads. There was a
bit on the Michael Knowles Show Sam a couple of
years ago where he would watch these advertisements he'd have
to guess what company it was, and it was always

(07:00):
Procter and Gamble. They were always the woke ones, and
it just it's it's so funny that that that that
seems to happen.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
But I actually didn't know that. But then again, they
own just about everything. Yeah, so maybe that shouldn't surprise me.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Absolutely absolutely, So, you know, I'm pumped to see what
the you know what will what these trade deals will
come about as they get wrapped up on Friday, Lord
Willing and folks, just keep in mind here, you know,
the goal is American greatness on the world stage, and
I do have confidence that we will achieve that. I'm
more than okay with that. Sam. There's another headline that
I found kind of interesting here that the Senate is
introducing this tariff rebate bill. Can tell us about this one?

(07:32):
What's going on with it?

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yes, I can. Well, in light of all that money
coming in. Republican Senator Josh Holly he introduced a bill
on Monday that would send a rebate, a rebate check
directly from that tariff revenue. So they're saying, we have
so much money coming in, let's give some of it
to the American people. According to CNBC, that bill would
provide at least six hundred dollars per adult and dependent child,

(07:54):
or twenty four hundred dollars for a family of four.
That could be actually higher depending on revenue levels from
the tariffs. This comes as President Donald Trump floated the
idea on Friday. Though we said tariff revenue should ultimately
be mostly spent on paying down the national debt. Here
is Trump talking about that on Friday. We have so

(08:14):
much money coming in, we're thinking about.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
A little rebate. But the big thing we want to
do is pay down debt. So we're thinking about a rebate.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
That is a very good y.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Made a lot of news.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
We're thinking about a rebate because we have so much
money coming in from tariff that tariff that a little
rebate four people of the certain did.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Income level might be very nuts.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, there you go, Seth, Listen, I'm not going to
say no to six hundred dollars. I like six hundred dollars.
But what do you think is this a good idea?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, I'm with you, man. Look if they're forcing me
to take it, I'll take it. I was delighted to
hear President Trump say that the bulk this money is
going to be used to pay down the debt. I
was bummed that he floated the idea that some of
it might be given in rebates for that all of
it be given to float down the debt. I'll pass
up on twenty four hundred dollars or however much it'll be.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I if my math is right. I'm not sure if
it is. I'm not the best math guy, but I
think if they actually went through with this, it'd be
something like, I don't know, a quarter of the revenue
brought in from tariffs would have to go to these
rebate checks, which I just don't know if it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Absolutely, man, I completely agree, and Sam, this does bring
to mind for me. We've seen this now several times
in the last five years. First he had the COVID
stimulus checks, and then there was also the doze that
got right through. Absolutely, man, Folks, people get so excited
when the government says, hey, here we'll give you free money.

(09:41):
And you know, I totally understand this is not taxpayer
money per se. This is tariff money, my hope and prayers,
and it would replace tax payer money. But that's probably
not going to happen. But still, we have a serious
national debt problem in this country. I would love to
see the Trump administration, which has proven to be far
more fiscally responsible than the previous administration, for sure, I
would love to see all of this money being used

(10:03):
to bring that down. Right With the.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Doge rebate, the idea was like, listen, the government's wasted
some of your taxpayer money, maybe you should deserve some
of that. I kind of still disagree with that, but
at least there's an argument there. This is not really
related to taxpayer money at all. It's revenue coming in
from other countries. So I think it should be used
for the debt. But if you disagree, let us know.
We'd love to have that conversation.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
And again, look, if someone says, hey, your government is
forcing you to accept this twenty four hundred dollars check.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
All right, fine, I do it.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
I mean, my goodness, but I would rather that not
be where it goes. I'd rather it go to paying
down that national debt, which I think would really help
our nation in the long run. So anyway, we'll have
to see what goes there, folks. But a lot of
interesting stuff nonetheless, all right, coming back in this next segment,
we'll talk about the fear of investing. Chat. Let me
know your greatest fears by the way before you started
investing and how you overcame those. We'll talk about that

(10:52):
on the other side of this break. More financial issues rights.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Securities offered through ga Repel and Company, a registered broker
Dealer and Investment Advisor member FINRA and SIPC. Opinions expressed
by Shanna are hers alone and are for informational purposes
only and do not necessarily represent those of GA Repel
or the outlet on what you are listening. You should
consider how the information applies to your situation prior to
personally implementing it, and consult any financial professional you work

(11:26):
with to make sure it's applicable to your financial plan, Folks.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
To take the tariff rebate bill or not, that is
the question. Sam. We were talking in the break there
about the social media metaphor that we've been seeing making
the rounds on Twitter, especially about there being two wolves
inside of you. What are the two wolves in this situation?

Speaker 3 (11:49):
You know, inside me, there are two wolves. One really
wants six hundred dollars and the other wolf, he might
be winning out right now, he really doesn't want his
grandchildren and great grandchildren to be in a national.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Crisis because of the debt.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
That one wolf also keeps growling and saying, what it
is six eighty dollars for you?

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Listen and me, I got a family of five twenty
four hundred dollars. You could get me a vacation. I
don't have grandkids. What do I care about them?

Speaker 5 (12:15):
Better?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yet that money could be invested like all that. Yeah,
you know so, Yeah, it's it's tricky stuff, folks. Lisa
saying you prefer the money, I get it totally. David
Darley and saying pay off the debt. I get that
as well. George saying, seth, how about we get all
the money confiscated by the government, pay off the debt
and take a much larger check than six hundred. That
is what we call pro gamer. So that's the third

(12:37):
wolf that over that eats the other two and that's
that's like a lion or a tiger. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Lisa also makes a good point. She says, you know,
the government would just waste all the income money, which
it might be a.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
True point, Lisa, you might. You might not be wrong there.
Can we try? Can we try? Yeah? Yeah, for sure.
I mean here, you know, here, here's the deal. In
the last we'll call it. Okay, in the last five years,
that's it. You know what, in the last ten years,
maybe even fifteen years, let's do this, let's just call
it the last thirty years. We might be in the
most fiscally responsible presidential administration that we've had since the

(13:09):
Clinton era, maybe even before that. Let's give him a chance.
Let's give him a chance and see. But again, Lisa,
you're not wrong, they might just waste it.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
We've actually been in the black I think the last
two months, right, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Which again CNBC and other outlets were so disappointed to
find out that we're in the black. But the tariffs,
they weren't supposed to do that.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
That is what Scott Besson calls I think it's tariff
derangements and the new tds.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
He says, people are actually.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
Rooting, rooting for the tariffs to ruin the economy, and
then they're disappointed when they don't.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Oh man, how foolish you have to be, folks to
root against your own country just to prove a political
point or to keep power. Amen. Crazy stuff. Well, Sam,
let's switch gears here to this topic of Conquering your
Fear of Investing? Found this? You had seen this fascinating survey? Sam,
why don't you tell us about this?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, so this comes from a group we definitely don't like,
but the stat is interesting. This is according to the
World Economic Forum in twenty twenty four, they offered a
survey where they found forty percent of people surveyed held
off on investing in the market, specifically because they were
afraid of losing their money. Now, this ultimately came from
an article in Investipedia the other day called Conquering Your

(14:16):
Fear of Investing. I found it very interesting and I
think they gave really good advice that we'll have to
augment a little bit for the BRI perspective, but it's
still really good. They quote the CEO of Elevated Accounting
who pointed out, yes, it might seem like a good
idea to hold off on investing to not lose money.
But there's also risk there too. There's risk with everything
they said, quote avoiding investing feels like protection, but it's expensive.

(14:40):
Inflation quietly eats away at savings, Growth gets delayed, and
you end up working harder just to maintain your money.
The fear is real, but so is the cost of
staying frozen. So the question now is what to do.
They recommend two things, and I want your thoughts on this,
set sure, and what maybe we should do with this
from financial issues perspective. So one, they say invest in

(15:02):
index funds. They say they're well diversified, they're better insulated
from dramatic market fluctuations as a result, so they take
away some of that fear. Plus they do a lot
of handholding. You don't have to invest in individual equities.
The problem from our perspective is they're not bris So
we might suggest in something like Timothy Plan as an
alternative there.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
The idea is still very good. Yeah, and Sam, I'll
just add to that also, you know, for those of
you folks who are looking for some more handholding, one
of our two models is entirely based on you know, funds,
so we have the fund model, we have the regular model.
If you need a little more hand holding, that fund
model is definitely gonna be the way to go for you.
So that that general point Sam is exactly right. Is
investing in those funds just making sure they're biblically responsible.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yes, exactly, But the principle is still there. If you're
kind of wigged out by the market and you're getting started,
try some ETF, some mutual funds, particularly with the Timothy
plan for whatally responsible.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Sam, I feel comfortable sharing this on the air. That's
how you and I both started, exactly, ye, how you
and I both started. And it's yeah, it's good.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Actually both of these things, not the index funds, but
investing in these these larger scale things like mutual funds
through Timothy is exactly what I did. Because it is
overwhelming at the beginning, for sure, and you're you're scared,
you don't know if you know what you're doing, But
this is how you get your feet wet and you
figure out how.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
To actually do this stuff.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
The second thing they recommend it, this is something Shannon
talks about quite a bit, is starting small, they say,
deploying small amounts of money on a regular basis, also
known as dollar cost averaging. You're getting the average of
the highs and lows. They say, this is going to
build your confidence and establish investing discipline. Also, it's less
nerve wracking, of course than just dumping all the money
you have in the market at one time.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
So what do you think of those two seth? I
think it's right on, Sam. I think it's really really good.
You know that that that first step once again with
the biblically responsible lens on it, I think it's fantastic.
And then that second one. You're talking about starting small
and deploying small amounts of money. You know, Dan us
to talk about this all the time, Sam, that there's
this this habit that you get into where even if
you if you're just doing five bucks a month, that's nothing,

(17:02):
that's like pennies. But you're building the habit of putting
something away, and then you can start to grow that
you realize, okay, you know what, I didn't really miss
that I could do ten bucks a month, I can
do twenty, I can do thirty, I can do fifty.
Then that starts to become okay, now you're seriously getting
into it. That's how you start. It's like with any
type of habit, you start small, you learn small, and
you start to grow it. I think that's fantastic. So

(17:24):
what I'd love to do here, Sam, is actually here
from both you and the chat. I'd asked this at
the top of the at the bottom of that last
segment there, what were some of your greatest fears before
you started investing, your fears of investing, and how did
you overcome those?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Sam?

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Why don't you go first? I would, I'd love to
hear yours.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, I don't know if I had a explicit fear
of losing my money. I knew how the stock market
work that if you stay in long term, you're pretty
sure you're going to get some gains there, so I
wasn't really concerned about that. I was more concerned about
the technical element of actually going in and setting up
an account and figuring out how it worked and getting
that muscle memory in there of doing I was afraid

(18:02):
it would become, you know, too overwhelming for me, and
I would just bottom out forget to do it, and
it would just be a big waste of time, and
maybe I wouldn't get out at the right time because
of that and I just waste my money and then
I guess lose all my money in the process. So
I think it was way more. It just seemed too
complicated for me. The way I fixed that was by
following these two things through the financial issues model. I

(18:24):
started with things like the Timothy funds because they're very
easy to invest in. I know they're doing a lot
of the work, and that taught me how to do it,
how to use a brokerage account and things like that
to get that groove going. And then I slowly diversified
out into individual equities and now I'm off to the
races and it all seems very easy to do, which

(18:45):
is why I recommend people just start small, because then
they learned that they can do it absolutely.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
And folks, you know, you don't have to start with
you know, like you can jump right into investing yourself,
not using mutual funds. But we're just putting Matt forth
as that's our experience, and that was a great way
to kind of get it started too. But you know,
it's really up to you, Sam, I would agree with you.
Yours are pretty much the same as mine. I think
the fear of losing money was probably a little bit
more prominent for me, just because I didn't really even

(19:11):
think much about investing seriously until I already had a
wife and kids, and so at that point I'm thinking, Okay,
I need to provide for them. I want all my
income to be able to provide for them. But when
I started to think, wait a second, I need to
not just provide for them in the present, in the future. Also,
that's really what kind of got me over that hump too.
And I think what you said as well, the fear
of doing it wrong, that's a big fear. That's a

(19:33):
really big fear. And so that was a tough one
for me, But it was just getting over it was
just saying, you know what, I'm gonna try this. I'm
not an expert at it. I'm gonna give it a shot.
I'm gonna see what happens. And it really, it really
has brought tremendous, tremendous comfort to do it with the
financial issues model. It's just been amazing.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
If you'd be amazed how quickly once you just try it,
absolutely you get that proove And you know, I've been
doing it for years now and I feel pretty confident
in what I'm doing, and I'm confident in the strategy
itself because I've seen how it works and I've seen
that it actually does wield.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Results exactly exactly. Yeah, so chat share with us some
of those fears you had before you started and how
you overcame those, and later on the program we'll get
to those. Let me give you some thoughts, folks, for
those of you who are on the sidelines, and I
get much of our audience is not much of you
are already in, but there are some who are on
the sidelines. I just want you to consider. As you're
considering the risk of investing, please consider also the risk
of not investing. That article mentioned inflation. Inflation is a slow,

(20:24):
silent killer. If you've got money parked away, even if
it's in a fireproof box under your mattress as safe
as can possibly be, there's still somewhat of a risk there.
There's the risk of fire and theft, but there's also
the inflation risk that you are slowly losing the purchasing
power of that money. It's not going to happen quickly,
but it's slowly happening over time. And speaking of time,
that's another one. Also. You know the sooner you start,

(20:46):
the better chance you have to be able to grow
your money. The sooner the better. The more you wait,
the tougher it's going to be. I'm not saying it's impossible.
We've had people, you know, ask on this show. You know,
I've never invested before. I'm in my forties or fifties
or sixties. You can still do it. You can still
do a great You have to work harder, you have
to put more away. I also keep thinking as well
about my own children. You know, I just want so
badly to be able to have something to give them

(21:08):
when they get to my age, some way to help
them if I can. You know, if I just hoard
what I have right now, the money that I save
for them twenty five years from now and I have
to pay for Eloise's wedding, or I want to be
able to give, you know, Eloise Josiah Knox a down
payment on a house or something like that, money for that,
be able to bless them with that. Those are just ideas.
I'm not sure if we're going to do that or not,
but things that I'd love to do, I probably won't

(21:30):
have the money that I could potentially have if I'm
putting it to work now, and so that's so important, folks.
And for those of you who are fearful, it's just
time to take the chance. You know, if you need
some handholding, we have that fund model, but don't forget
that there's an opportunity for you to try it yourself
with the regular model. Also, it's great, it's built so
that normal everyday Joe's like you and me can do it,

(21:50):
and can do it well, you can actually do it.
And I think the last thing that I just encourage
you all to consider here is one of the most
important parables from our Lord's lip. This comes from Matthew
twenty five. This is kind of one of those i'd
call it a bedrock verse for our ministry. Here, Matthew
twenty five is the parable of the talents. And if
you remember, there's three servants that are mentioned in this.

(22:13):
There's the first two who take the master's money what
he gives them, and they use it well and they
make more money and the masters please. There's the third
servant who is afraid and he hides it. And here's
what the Master says to him. He says, you wicked
and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I've sown,
and gather where I've not scattered seeds. So you auto
have deposited my money in the bankers, and at my

(22:34):
coming I would have received it back my own with interest.
So take the talent from him and give it to
him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has
more will be given, and he will have abundance. But
from him who does not have even what he has
will be taken away and cast the unprofitable servant into
outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I don't want us to be like the wicked and
lazy servant. Keep in mind, he was cast into hell, okay,

(22:56):
was cast into outer darkness. Now, he was not cast
into hell because he didn't invest well. He was cast
into hell in this parable because he didn't love his master.
What he did with the master's money, or what he
didn't do really was indicative or evidence of the fact
that he actually had no love in his heart for
the master. His heart did not belong to his master.

(23:18):
That's why he was sent into outer darkness. Let's love
our master, folks, Let's make much of what he's given
to us. Let's put it to work and trust that
if we do it faithfully and most importantly obediently keeping
it out of the hands of wicked companies, that God's
gonna bless us with that, and He's going to remember
that this is not to earn salvation, folks. This is
an outworking of the fact that we have been saved

(23:39):
and we want to make much of what God has
given to us. I hope that can be helpful for you, folks.
We have this Bob Barber segment coming up next year.
I got to sit down with Bob and talk a
little bit about an orderly financial household. At the end
of it, I'll come back in and we'll wrap up
the show together. You know, folks, it's always a treat

(24:05):
for me to be able to welcome on voices who
are truly experts in their field to the show and
had them to be able to share their wisdom and
insight with you. And I've got one of those with
me now, my friend, Bob Barber. Bob is a financial expert.
He's a godly Christian man more than thirty years of
helping individuals and businesses invest well, doing it all for

(24:26):
the glory of God. Bob, Welcome back, brother. I'm thrilled
to have you today.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
Those are such kind words that I feel undeserving of,
but thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yes, sir, it's a delight to get to have you,
and Bob, I'm excited for today's topic. We're going to
look at an important one, some of the defining characteristics
of an orderly financial household. Now, an orderly household in
general is obviously a very good thing. It's a gift
of God. I do believe that that is the calling
of every man. And you know, of course every married

(24:57):
couple to be able to order their household well. And
part of that is having an orderly financial household. So
it's something that you've talked about before the importance of
having one of these. Let me ask you this to start, Bob,
what are some key differences between a household that's financially
in order and one that's in financial chaos?

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (25:16):
Wow, there's a lot of There's a lot of things there,
but I'll try to highlight on on three or four
of them. Sure, one is is uh, knowing where your
money is going and on on a daily and a
weekly basis.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
I'm probably a fanatic at this.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
I go online every single day to see where everything
is being spent. But you know this is this is
not my money. I'm a manager, I'm a steward of it.
It belongs to God, so I want to make sure
that it's being spent in a way that is wise
and not wasteful.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
When you know where your money is going and you
have some some some margin in there, you know, emergency
cast reserves. It's so important. I've seen so many families
hurt by not having emergency cash reserves. So when that
water heater breaks, or there's a health issue that comes along,

(26:12):
or a job is lost, and you know, there's different
philosophies on this about how many months of cash reserves
should you have, and I believe it's between somewhere between
three and nine months of cash reserves.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
I've seen this in my own life.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
It's been eight years now this year that when my
wife got cancer and I wanted to spend every moment
with her while she was going through that therapy. I
will say this, we're seven years past and she's cancer.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Free, so we're really excited.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
You know, we were very fortunate to be one of
the fortunate ones that everything worked and she's still with
me today, my wife, and she's we've been married twenty
one years this year. But emergency cast reserve, thank you,
thank you. Those emergency cast reserves served us so well
when we had that that it wasn't a stressful time

(27:09):
because you know, with cancer it was so stressful in
the first place.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
I mean we were at M. D.

Speaker 5 (27:14):
Anderson in Houston, and that was a very, very stressful time,
but I didn't have that financial stress behind that. Another
area I see is is not having high interest consumer
debt on depreciating assets assets like you know, consumer debt.
I'm not I'm not totally against wise debt, and I know.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
We'll cover that later.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Yeah, but having debt on depreciating assets, you've got the
interest plus it's depreciated at the same time, like a
vehicle or any you know, debt on furniture or anything else.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
You just think about it.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
You're going backwards twice, it's depreciating and you're having to
pay interest on it.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Those that's so simple. I'm so glad that you mentioned
those those things there. Really, what it kind of summarizes
for me in my mind is, you know, you know
where your money's going, meaning you're using common sense. You
said it exactly right. This is not actually our money.
It's God's money, which means that should be all the
more reason why we should know where it's going. If

(28:20):
it was just my money, that's important enough. But it's
God's money that he's entrusted to us. That means we
really have to know where it's going. And we're talking
every single sin and then having that emergency cash reserves
and also not having the high interest consumer debt on
depreciating assets. What that brings to mind for me, brother,
simply is being able to live within your means and

(28:42):
to purchase things when you have the money to purchase them.
And I totally agree with you that there's a way
to use and utilize debt well, which we'll get to
in you know, like a little bit, but it really
starts with that mindset of spending what you have on
what you can afford. Am I am I correcting that.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
You're absolutely correcting that.

Speaker 5 (29:02):
And you know, I made a program it's really an
interesting title.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Many I don't know.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
It was about a year year and a half ago
and it was a pretty popular program we made on
our podcast called Budgeting without numbers, and you're like, okay, yeah,
how do you do that? Because some people just hate numbers.
If I want to get in an argument with my wife,
I start getting into the numbers.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
You know, they're married forty one years. But if I
want to argue about anything.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
So what we do is we live on the same
amount every month, every week, and we have a certain
amount that comes into our account and if that, if
that's gone within three days, there's no more spending. You
have to wait another four days before you can spend anymore.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Bob, that's great stuff there. Let's let's shift years now
to I think one of the most important things that
a financially orderly household does, which is tithing. Why is
tithing so foundational for a Christian orderly financial household.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
Well, as we know in Malachi three ten, three eleven,
it's the one place in the Bible where God says
you can test him.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Did you realize that it's pretty fascinating?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Yeah, you know it. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house. Tests me
in this, says the Lord God Almighty.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
And see if I will not throw open the floodgates
of heaven and pour out so much blessing there would
not be enough room for it. And then the second
part of this is really important. I will prevent pest
from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields
will not drop their fruit before it is right.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Take that to today.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
I've seen examples of people tithing over and over. Their
vehicles don't break down as much, the water heater keeps,
continues to go farther, their conditioning doesn't break down as much.
It is amazing to see that foundation of when you're tithing,
God's true to his word, and you can test them

(31:01):
because it says you can. It's the only place in
the Bible it says we can test them. Go read
it find for yourselves. And then when you start tithing,
watch what happens.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
You'll be amazed at.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
How you more and more have the ability to give
more and more and more. And some people said, we'll say, well,
I don't have anything right now, don't have any extra.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Just start with a little bit.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
Start with twenty dollars a week, and then that turns
into eighty dollars a month, and then twenty five a
week turns into one hundred. Before you know it, you'll
be amazed at how much. You know, if you make
one hundred thousand dollars a year, you're giving away ten thousand.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
That's just the base.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
And you're getting up to where you're giving away maybe
fifteen or twenty thousand, and you're like, how did this happen?
Because you started small, you trusted God, and you went
into it and you're showing more and more your faith.
And that is such the basis or a good financial healthhold.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Well said brother. And you know it's not the prosperity gospel, folks,
it's really not. It's there's a simple law at play here, Bob,
which is that if we are faithful, God will bless us.
And you know, sometimes the blessings financial, sometimes it's spiritual.
Sometimes it's it's both of those things. Oftentimes it's going
to just be an eternity. Sometimes it'll be here as well.
Though it's up to God to do that. He's the
one who gives it to us. I love that reminder

(32:22):
that you gave us, though. That's the one place we
can test the Lord. And it's so fascinating. So many
Christians don't. So many Christians are afraid to test the
Lord in that area, even though he tells us to
do so, and then to just watch that those blessings
pour out. Just are so appreciative of that brother. So,
in addition to tithing, what else should Christians prioritize if
they want to honor God with their finances and build

(32:44):
stability for their families.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
What should a Christian prioritize to honor with their finances?

Speaker 4 (32:50):
That was your question?

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, right, yep, okay, all right.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
Well, besides the tithing, and you know there have you
ever heard the term?

Speaker 4 (32:58):
There's tithing and then there's giving, yes, sir.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
And so beyond the tithe to your church becomes giving
to different ministries. And I think it's very important that
your children see you giving. By the way, I think
churches need to bring back to offering plate to their church.
So I go to a church and I just send it.
I just send an email into my pastor. We need

(33:22):
to bring the offering plate back. Don't take away that blessing.
And beyond that tithing, it becomes a realization that God
owns it all and that we're stewards and managers of it,
and we need to be careful about holding on too tightly.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
We got to hold on loosely.

Speaker 5 (33:39):
You know, if I put my hand up here and
you can see my knuckles get real white. If I
put my hand together really really tight. But when I
open up and say, God, you own it, it belongs
to you, then God can start using that and all
of our finances become glorifying to Him versus going fine
to ourselves.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
It's great stuff there, brother. We're at that point right
now in this segment where we might need to transition
for just a moment because we're coming to the end
of it here, Bob. But you know, I really do
love what you have. You know, said there, brother, and folks,
I can't encourage you enough that section that Bob was
referring to Malachi chapter three, verses ten through eleven. Give

(34:21):
that a try. You know, so many of us are
are fearful, myself included, Bob. I've had seasons of my
life where I've been afraid to tithe because I'm afraid
of losing the money. Maybe the checking accounts a little
bit low for that month, and I'm like, okay, here
goes nothing. I'm not sure what I'll have left here,
and I can attest exactly what you said the more

(34:42):
I tithe, the more it seems like God blesses us
and again, whether it's financial or otherwise, I begin to
feel and notice those blessings. And that's just the truth
of Malachi three ten playing out in my own life.
So yeah, I cannot encourage you folks enough. Please consider
doing that. Bob coming back on the other side of
this break, we'll continue this conversation, folks. I hope you'll
stick with us. There. We've got more financial issues coming

(35:04):
up here. Bob Barber's going to share some more of
his wisdom with us. I'm looking forward to it. We'll
be right back after this break.

Speaker 6 (35:09):
Stick with us.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
The opinions and recommendations expressed on this program do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the station or any of
the program sponsors. Additionally, all products or services offered by
the program sponsors may not be known by the program folks.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
I'm really enjoying my conversation with Bob Barber here. I
hope you are as well. Again, Bob a great Christian brother,
financial expert in decades of helping individuals and businesses invest well,
and it's an honor to have him with me on
the show. Bob when we started this inner in the
last segment you had mentioned really kind of three keys
of a household that's in order versus one that is not.

(36:08):
Can you remind our listeners what these three financial keys are?

Speaker 5 (36:12):
Sure thing, it's emergency cast reserves and I think that
needs to be about three to six months.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Knowing where your money is going, and we're going to.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
Talk about that and then no high interest consumer debt
on depreciating assets.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah, so let's jump off of that second one there,
knowing where your money is going. This is that wonderful
b word that so many people don't like. Budgeting. It's
a topic people either love it or they avoid it. Bob.
From what you said, it sounds like you're someone who
probably enjoys budgeting. I was not always that way, but
as I started working here at financial issues and started

(36:46):
paying attention a little more to my money, I found
that I actually really started to enjoy it a lot too,
which is pretty interesting. Can someone really succeed financially without
a budget? And how important is having a budget and
sticking to it.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
That's a really good question.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
And like I've mentioned in that first segment, you know,
opposite its attract and if I want.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
To get in trouble.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
I start mentioning the budgeting word to my wife. But
we've learned from being married for forty one years that
we've got a budget. But the way that it works
for her versus for me. I'm the detailed guy. I
want to see where everything is going. But what works
so much better for her, And the way that we

(37:31):
set up our budget is at the beginning of the month,
we pay our centrals, you know, our food, shelter and
clothing and utilities we set up for these centrals, and
that's the main bills of the month, and then what's
we realize the next three weeks. We've got a certain
amount that we're going to spend per week, so it

(37:53):
doesn't matter what we make.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
By the way, we've.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
Lived on the same amount for nearly fifteen years. Per year, nothing, nothing,
It doesn't.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
Matter what I make.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
If I earn much more, we still live on the
same amount.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Talk about in your means, brother, I mean, that's that's
really that's really good. That's really good.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (38:14):
So week two, week three, week four, we put a
certain amount in our account and that you know, that
may be for some people that may be one thousand
a week, that may be two thousand a week. It
depends on what you're making on a on an annual
basis and a monthly and a weekly basis. But when
you put that amount in your account and you only
use debit cards, credit card companies want you to be

(38:36):
in debt and they're always going to raise the limit.
But a debit card is coming right out of your account,
and then you can go monitor that. If you don't
like budgeting with numbers or budgeting without numbers per se,
all you got to do is go into the app.
And most banks and credit unions have an app. And
that's exactly what what.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
My wife does.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
And we're going on to our app every day in
looking at that and we know if we if we
spend it all in day three, we've got to wait
four more days because that transfer is not going to
take place for another four days. So we separate our
money savings and in our spending account.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
M HM and and Bob for for folks like us
who might get a little more excited about the specific numbers. UH,
you had mentioned the opposites attract. How do UH maybe
the savers interact well with their spender spouse and vice versa.
How do we show grace to each other? I know
it's getting a little bit into the topic of marriage,
but finances are so important when it comes to a

(39:35):
healthy marriage.

Speaker 5 (39:36):
Well, what you say to that, There's there's four personality types.
There's the giver, the spender, the saver, the investor. And
you can probably guess which one I am.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
I'm the investor.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
But but and and my wife is the giver. And
and she'll she'll spend.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
She doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
I mean, she wants to give to everyone, and she can.
She can now spend too much giving.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
I don't. I mean you can't. I don't think you
can do do that. But I'm like, you spend that much?

Speaker 5 (40:02):
And and because I want to invest, and when I
do give, I like to see that it's spent well
with what oreever organization I give to.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
And of course then there's my church.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
I don't know if I covered your question though I
got off on that. I went kind of off on
a rabbit.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Question again, just just more how do how do youacho
those different categories relate well with each other? So, for example,
you more the investor, how do you show grace and
come alongside and work with your giver wife, And the
same thing for the givers, to the investors, or for
the you know, the savers, to the you know spenders.
How do they how do they work well together?

Speaker 5 (40:40):
Look at the Body of Christ. Where's it in Ephesians
that talks about how we have all the different members.
You know, not all of us are teachers, not and
and so you've got it. There's going to be the
pastor up at the front. There's going to be somebody
in the back that's handing out the bulletins. There's gonna
be somebody setting up the chairs. It's going to be
somebody in the kitchen cooking. All of us have different

(41:00):
gifts and we have to understand that those those gifts.
So I don't put down my wife for not liking
to budget and that, because God's given her that heart forgiving.
And I think we just got to work with each other.
And that's got to be in prayer, and it's got
to you got to look to scripture and how there's
different we have different strengths than weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Love that. Bob. Let's move now to a topic that
we've mentioned that, you know, credit debt, all that stuff.
There a lot of people say and avoid it completely.
A lot of others say it can be a tool.
Where do you land on Christians utilizing debt? Well, should
we just avoid it, barrow, we're slaved to the lender.
Are there some areas of debt that we can use? Well,

(41:41):
how would you answer that?

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Well, yeah, you're right. What you just mentioned.

Speaker 5 (41:46):
You mentioned from Proverbs twenty two to seven, which is
is the ritual of the.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
Poor and the bar is servant to the lender.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
And there's a second part of that to twenty six
through twenty seven. Do not one who strikes hands and pledge,
because if you don't have the means to pay, your
very bed will be snatched out from under you.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
So I'm not against the use of debt.

Speaker 5 (42:10):
As an example, in buying a home, most people, especially
those in their thirties, and homes here in Texas can
easily run four and five hundred thousand, probably the same
thing up there, or maybe more. I mean there's parts
in California where to run a million or so and
you just don't have that much money saved up, and
barring to buy that may be okay. But if you're

(42:34):
and I think it barring money for an appreciating assets,
which real estate appreciates over time, is okay as long
as you're going into it with lots of equity as well,
so that you're not up right up against the wall
if something goes wrong and you have emergency reserves. So
before you go in and barn a lot of money,
you need to have savings and emergency reserves. And I really,

(42:58):
like I said, I'm totally giints borring for anything that's
a depreciating asset, because now you're paying interest on it,
plus it's depreciating at the same time. It's like a
double whammy, as the Osayan would go.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Well, folks, hope you enjoyed that conversation with Bob. Always
a pleasure to have him on. Hey, Sam, let's get
back to what we were talking about in the first
part of the show and get to some of these
chat comments here as people are sharing some of their
experiences about, you know, how they had those fears of investing,
how they overcame them. This first one from Bert is
really good, Sam. Why don't you read Burt's for us?
Bert from South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Hang, I don't have Burt up at just the moment.
If you could read it, just first time.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Absolutely Burt in South Carolina saying, my father scared the
daylights out of me. He loves to invest in stocks
and did make some money. He invested in Apple, made
some great money, but he lost as much in other stocks.
It was just worrying about the market that drove me
into mutual funds. Thanks for helping us, Bert, I appreciate
you sharing that, man, and that's I feel sad for

(43:58):
you that you had that example from your dad, but
also so grateful that that really kind of formulated your
investing model there. I mean, you were able to find
a home in mutual funds, and so obviously if you're
following the FISM strategy, that means you're investing in those
Timothy funds, which I'm in those as well, and I
just can't say enough about them. I'm so grateful to
be able to be in those. But man, that is

(44:20):
just such a good reminder and a lesson, first of all,
folks of this idea of emotional investing. Exactly what I
was going to say.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
It sounds like if he's really worrying about the market
and that's what's causing him to make some of these decisions.
The other question is what's his strategy? Did he have
one or was that also based on emotion, which it
sounds like it might be.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Absolutely And then secondly too, this is so important. We
talk about this a lot on the show. How are
you stewarding the next generation? Are you instilling them with fear,
which Bird, it sounds like what you shared here is
kind of what you got from your dad. Or are
you instilling them with courage? Are you telling them listen, son, daughter,
you have been given the spirit of God to be
able to do this. Well, you can do it. You

(45:01):
can be part of the generation that turns this stuff around.
And that includes your money. That also includes every other
area of life as well, though, folks, I can't. This
is something we've been talking about a lot on Bible Study.
Is I'm so fed up and frustrated with across a
lot of evangelical Christianity. Not everybody, but a lot of
people have a very pessimistic, negative view of the future

(45:21):
where they're just kind of waiting. They're waiting for the rapture,
they're hiding in the corner. If you read the New Testament,
you realize that is not what God called us to do.
He called us to take the kingdom. He called us
to conquer, to move forward, to make a difference. That's
why we do biblically responsible investing. If we're just sitting
around waiting, we're wasting our time doing bri We're wasting
our time supporting preborn, We're wasting our time given to church.

(45:45):
We need to believe that things can get better, that
the Kingdom of God is growing and it's moving, and
that's so important when we talk about our investments. Bert
I apologize for getting on that rant there, but I
really appreciate you sharing that with us, and again, so
grateful for you.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
But it's so true as God calls us to hope
and hope into the future. So it's one of the
first things that he commands Adam to do. He says,
be fruitful and multiply. That is a look into the future,
to do something, to look at something beyond what's happening
right now and imagine something even better than what's currently happening.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
So important, and folks, a way that you can do
that so well is with your money. It's it's you know,
setting up your errors to be able to continue on,
to be able to you know, do that well. So yeah,
Sorry for getting on that tangent there, but I think
it's so important. Nelson's saying, took me six years to
migrate by four oh one k to the IRA and
build the Bri portfolio. Made quite a few mistakes along

(46:39):
the way, Nelson. I appreciate you sharing that with us, brother,
but it sounds like Nelson is the best. I bet
he made very few, absolutely absolutely, and you've learned from
them and you've overcome the man. That's awesome. And George's
been doing this for over twenty five years with Dan,
now with Shanna, twelve to fifteen years ago with us. Man,
that's so cool, George, thanks for sharing that well, folks,
it's been a great time together. God willing, we'll do
it again tomorrow. Until then, remember it's all his. Let's

(47:01):
be found good and faithful stewards with what God has
given to us.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Seeing if we ever forget that we're one nation under God,
then we will