Wrong, Wrong (My Whole Approach Was Wrong)

My Story

I remember the first moment I became acutely aware that something was wrong in my finances. I had a decent paying job, as far as jobs go and yet I had very little to show for it. All I had to my name were clothes, shoes, some aging furniture, and a little jewelry. 

Depending on when you’d catch me, I may have had a dwindling tax refund hanging out in my savings for a few months. Other than that, I thrived on 0% interest introductory offer credit cards. Before I knew it, I had eight credit cards. I was back to relying on credit again. It happened slowly, stealthy; so smooth that I didn’t realize I had wandered off the path. 

For the third time, I dug myself out of a hole, got rid of my credit cards, paid down my consumer debt (except for the ginormous student loan), and then put myself right back in a hole.

Two things became clear to me that last time and are the reason why I have been able to finally make a permanent change. One, I realized I had a wrong view of God. Two, I realized I had an overly simplistic approach to money and finances.

A Wrong View of God

I realized that I had a misconception about God as it relates to money. I assumed it was a waste of His precious time; and that He was only concerned about spiritual things- like souls being saved. Sure, there were a few scriptures about money, but mostly it was a pretty carnal topic and our Father had much more important things to attend to. I had a wrong view of God.

Since I was born again, I have been talking about doing things for the “glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 is one of my favorite verses and I often recite it to help calibrate what I’m doing and/or why. 

In July 2017, I realized I was not glorifying God at all (in my finances) when I excluded Him from that aspect of my life. When the bible says to acknowledge God in all our ways, I was supposed to be doing that. Did I seriously think that if I didn’t pray about it or talk about, God wouldn’t know how bad things were? 

There is nothing too big and too hard for God; and nothing too small and incidental for God.  He cares about the whole of me: my highs, my lows, my strengths, my weaknesses- all of me. Likewise, with you.

A Wrong Approach to Money

No one I knew was talking about money. My parents didn’t talk about before they retired or after. I never even thought about what it meant to retire. I learned it from my new job at Social Security Administration- the same year my parents retired. I was 37 years old and clueless.

Nobody at church was talking about money, except with regarding to the 

Christian subjects: tithing, supporting minsters, and helping the needy. So, I  figured this was a subject that adults automatically knew and I was the one with the problem. 

In July 2017, I admitted I had botched it up too many times; I needed help!

Later I would realize I had a wrong approach to money. I had assumed it was about math: how to add what was coming in and subtract what was going out. Most of the time, I could do it on a post-it the morning I got paid. Pluses and minuses; that’s all. Except that wasn’t all. I got an education.

It turns out, money and finances has a lot to do with our psyche. It’s how we think about money, feel about money, what we understand about it, and assumptions we make. It’s about behaviors, influences, running on autopilot, and a whole lot more.

Have you been there?

Perhaps some of this story resonates with you. Maybe you made certain assumptions about God; but now that you’re reading this, you admit you never really talked to God about it, never really searched the scriptures to see what it says, for yourself. If you haven’t, it’s not too late.

Or maybe you felt a little silly that you were failing in your finances because even though you know math, somehow your income and outflow never really add up.

Now It’s Your Turn

The good news is, there’s a lot of help available. There are tons of people talking about money and finances, classes teaching on it, books written about it. Sometimes we don’t notice until we started looking. One YouTube channel will lead you to another and another and another. Most of it is decent information and almost all of it has probably worked well for somebody.

You have to settle on something that resonates with you and give it a go. Even though it’ not feasible to follow 3 people and apply their systems, the good thing is that many of them have the same fundamentals (savings, debt elimination, and investing). Many of them talk about mindset and money relationships, too- and that’s important.

The one thing that I always missed, was accountability and personalized support. I didn’t realize how important it was when I first set out. That’s why I’m an advocate of accountability groups- a group of goal-oriented persons working together, toward betterment. They’ll be periods when things get a bit rough and it’ll help to have support.

Start your conversation with God and see where He leads you. Start your financial education right away and grow as you go.

 

Conclusion

The things you do and say, and how you behave, communicate something about who you and Whose you are. So regardless of how wrong you got it, there are new opportunities to do better, now. Whether therefore you eat or think or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).