SUCCEED WITH YOUR MONEY
It gives me immense satisfaction watching the successful efforts of DOGE, led by Elon Musk’s efforts to find, expose and root out waste and fraud in so many of our government agencies. It’s abundantly clear that for decades, our government has been criminally wasting, and throwing away trillions of dollars of our hard earned tax dollars. Did you know for years, our government has been robbing hundreds of billions of dollars that were supposed to be set aside, kept untouchable in the Social Security trust fund? This is money you are forced to pay every month of your working life, that was promised to be paid back to you in our golden years. But in fact, they have stolen it all, draining it dry! They currently borrow the money with interest, to pay seniors their monthly Social Security benefits, and in 9 years these benefits will be severely reduced. All because the government squandered these funds on hundreds of useless programs and foolish expenditures!
Now here’s the thing—The vast majority of Americans are just as foolish with their own money as the Federal Government is with our taxes. Certainly in much smaller amounts, but nonetheless, often just as unrestrained and wasteful on things they don’t need. Regularly overspending and indebting themselves to ruthless, predatory credit card companies in the process. Millions of people spend money on vices and indulgences that overtime devastate their own health, in turn costing them tens of thousands of dollars they don’t have on medical bill debt.
This is reality. It’s not my exaggeration. It’s the truth.
Christian, God wants you to succeed with your money. Did you know that? Do you realize how often the Book of Proverbs and the Bible speaks about money? God gives us His secret wisdom to succeed in this vital area of our lives. But we must take it seriously, swim against the currents of the culture, or we’ll be swept away in the same ruinous financial practices. The typical American way of life is designed to indebt you, enslave you, and destroy your financial independence while making others rich off your foolish indulgence, and unwise spending. That. Is. Reality!
Let me give you a powerful, true, unbelievable money fact. If at age 20, you were to put $100 every single month in an IRA mutual fund account, in 50 years at age 70, you would have $1,536,359! The average growth rate of the stock market in the last 50 years has been 12%. I used a 10% growth rate for my calculation. Now here is the mindblower! Over those 50 years, you literally only invested $60,000 of your own money to end up with $1,536,359. And it required no effort on your part. Unlike buying properties to rent, with all the upkeep, work, repairs, hassles with tenants, paper work, mortgages, etc. that you’re required to do, you simply planted these tiny money seeds in the ground of investment and they multiplied into millions at harvest!
I know many are thinking, how in the world would I find an extra $100 a month? Well believe it or not, the average American spends $300 a month dining out at restaurants in some form or another and the average married couple with kids spends $500 per month. The same people who think, “I am broke, I have no money to invest,” are regularly spending that money instead at Chipotle, on energy drinks at the gas station, and coffee at Starbucks! That’s how deceived and stupid people are in relation to money.
Think of all these expenses dining out, on coffee at Starbucks or other places. These could be easily x’d out of your spending and instead invested and look what you’d eventually have!
God’s word teaches us to invest. God tells us to plan and prepare for the future.
God’s word teaches us to plan and budget. Our government doesn’t live within their budget and most Americans don’t either. As a Christian, as a steward of the money God gives to us, it is imperative we budget/ration and use our money wisely.
When was the last time you even considered cutting out from your grocery budget things that you literally don’t need to live or sustain your life? Many people mindlessly eat things they don’t need, or drink expensive drinks they don’t need, not realizing they’re throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars they would have, had they saved and invested that same money.
Are you willing to be your own DOGE with your finances?
Here are simple things I’ve done to succeed with money that anyone else can do. All of these are based on God’s Biblical principles about money. Remember, there are amazing promises of God’s supernatural blessing connected to these principles, and God always keeps His promises! Also, bear in mind that all these years, my wife and I have lived on just one income.
I always give my 10% tithe to God’s work in various ways, every month.
I give as generously as I can to others in need.
I live as wisely and economically as I possibly can. Buying only the items we truly need. Purchasing them at the places that give me the very best value for my money.
I save as much as I can every month, increasing our emergency savings fund.
I invest as much as I am legally allowed to in an IRA every month.
I write out a budget every month in a 6 column analysis pad so I know exactly where our money needs to go.
For most of my married life, I have stayed out of debt. The exception being our mortgage, braces for a child, and a few other things that at the time were truly unavoidable. I paid each of them off as soon as possible.
As a father with a young growing family, I was not able to save much money, or invest much money during those early years. But, I did all I could, faithfully setting aside a little at a time, developing a savings and investing habit, and when the time came, I greatly increased that amount, investing every month.
I never squandered money on expensive cars, or car loans, or expensive vacations or travel, or expensive furniture or household items. Ask yourself this question. Would you rather have $40,000 in a bank account, or a $40,000 truck sitting in your garage? Would you rather have $10,000 to invest, or take photos of yourself on your trip across Europe?
I pray over our money and all that God has given to me every single day, asking God to bless it and multiply it. God answers prayers. If God can provide manna from heaven to take care of two million people in the desert for 40 years, then God can come through for me. I believe it with all my heart, and I have seen it over and over again. Are you investing great quantities of time in prayer? I have called out to God in prayer countless times, asking Him to “call into being what did not exist” and God answered and brought it about.
Always remember: In all things—Discipline brings success.
Now take a few minutes to figure out your personal net worth. This will be a valuable exercise for helping you understand where you are financially, at this moment in time. Then take time to figure out where you want to be by the time you’re 70. You calculate your net worth by adding up all of your current assets (i.e., money in checking, savings, current value of your home, car values, investments), then subtract all of your debts (such as credit cards, mortgage still owed, etc.). Your asset values minus your liabilities/debts equals your current net worth.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
