Money
God talks about money a lot in the Bible. I think about money too, mostly because it's something I use a lot of in the maintenance of a family of six.
Here's a couple nuggets:
Dishonest money dwindles away,
but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.
and
A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children,
but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.
(Proverbs 13:11,22)
This got me to thinking: What if I stopped focusing on how much I need now, and started thinking about meeting needs that don't even exist yet?
I've heard the idea of a 100 year plan before - where do we see the Church after we're gone? How will our actions today set the stage for the next advances of the Kingdom on earth? I think one facet of our preparation needs to be in the financial arena. How many good ministries today are less effective than they should be because they are under-funded? Will that get better in the future if we don't have a vision of the future today?
The great thing about 100 years in the future is it's a long time away :-) That means there's a lot of leverage for the magic of compound interest to work. Answer a quick question for me: If I wanted to have a million dollars in a hundred years, how much would I have to invest now to get it?
drumroll...
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...
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...
Of course, it depends on the rate of return, which varies constantly and between investments. However the historical average rate of return for the S&P 500, a prominent U.S. market index, has been about 10% over the last 80 years. If we can assume a similar well-chosen investment vehicle over the next 100 years, the magic number we need to attain a million is a present-day investment of $75. That's right; not $10,000, or $1000 -- only 75 bucks.
Well gee -- if it's only that much, I could probably save that more than once. What if I saved $75 a year -- could that mean that in the future someone could have at their disposal $1,000,000 a year, for every year I made the $75 investment?
What if -- let me dream here -- what if I invested $75 a month? Could the beneficiary reap a million dollars a month?
Assuming a lot of things and the Lord's protection and wisdom in guarding it... the answers are 'Yes!'
Right now about half of U.S. workers are living paycheck to paycheck -- totally controlled by the money they need to make, one step ahead of disaster. I'm there -- families are expensive -- and it's no way to live. Guess what -- my parents never had much, and their parents didn't either. Someone has to break the cycle.
It's not enough to hand down money, of course. The world's rich have often either (a) bequeathed large sums to the detriment of their children, or (b) given away their money to protect their children from its effects. But what if we raised our children to master money in the fear of God? What if our children continued to invest their extra wisely, and taught their children the same? We have a window of God's blessing on this nation, where there is relative prosperity everywhere. (When was the last time one of your friends died in a famine?)
Do we have the vision to lay up treasures for the godly people who will inhabit the earth after we leave, so they don't spend their lives wishing they were free to pursue God's purposes fully?
The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
(Deuteronomy 28:8)
