Stewardship is a word with a lot of connotations, especially when it comes to Biblical stewardship.
Stewardship is a word with a lot of connotations, especially when it comes to Biblical stewardship. In this episode, Brett & Josh will be discussing more specifically what financial stewardship is according to the Bible. There are many scriptures about stewardship, especially stewardship of money in the Bible. There are a lot of common words that get thrown around about giving like 'tithing' and 'offerings' and 'first fruits' and how they apply today versus in the old testament. But what does the Bible really say about giving and how can we practically apply it to our lives today?
Brett & Josh define stewardship and financial stewardship. They talk about the importance that this right mind-set brings in helping us live as God intended us to concerning finances. When we understand some basic concepts, financial stewardship can become a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable. Listen as Brett & Josh share personal testimonies, scripture on money and finances, as well as practical advice on what works for entrepreneurs that will help enable you to thrive as a good steward of God's finances.
JOSH: How can we bless as many people as possible? How can we love as many people as possible? With the resources we've been given, so that at the end of our Lives God will look at us and say "Well done my son. You have done incredible with the resources I've given you. Come into your inheritance, now." Which would be greater than you could ever imagine friends. Especially if we're faithful with what God's given us.
BRETT: What's going on? This is Brett Snodgrass with another episode of The Iron deep podcast. Got my co-host on with me today, Mr. Josh Howard. What's going on Josh? -
JOSH: What is up man? Good to be back again. -
BRETT: Yes yes. Excited for you to be here. You're getting settled in. Again, if you guys missed some of the past episodes, Josh and his family just moved from India, where he's been the last 16 years, to... Which is very very similar to Carmel Indiana. Which is pretty much the same thing. I'm just kidding... I don't know if you call it 'Car-mel.' You know, if you're... from Carmel maybe you call it 'Car-mel' Indiana, but... -
JOSH: That's the... that's like calling Target 'tar-get' you know? You just got to put a little... little flip on it and makes it sound nicer. -
BRETT: That's right. That's right. That's awesome. Well how are you guys getting settled before we kind of just start digging into the show here? -
JOSH: Yeah man, it's been great... you know. Lots of mixed emotions moving across the world, especially away from our family, and... and so that's... been difficult on everybody. But... but once we got here, my wife's family came... from the ones that live in America. Some of them came over, and they're here now with us. And so, that's been really helpful for us. Especially for my wife to have them around. And so anyway... But it's been good man. We've... we're trying to get settled get everything situated in the house, and... so it's been... it's been good, man. -
BRETT: Yeah. I just think we can learn a lot... just from just your family the background of family people in in India and just how different countries do family it's funny that I'm actually doing an iron Core Group leading and facilitating 12 other guys in this particular month we've been talking about family uh we're doing this in a summer right now whenever you listen to this but it's a summer and one of my intentionalities has always been when July comes around it's just I want it all to be about family we're home uh we're together we want to do some cool things just to togetherness and this is what we're talking about but I think you guys do family so well not just just your immediate family but bringing in extended family moms dads cousins just the the tight-knit closeness of family and I just I just encouraged by by seeing you guys do that so that's just awesome so uh we're going to be talking about that later on the podcast but today we're actually talking about stewardship so we're going to do a series on stewardship in different areas of your life and as you know mostly men are listening to this business owner men and so we're going to start off with probably the thing that we think about most with stewardship and that is stewardship of finances and what does that look like to be a good Steward of finances what's the Bible say about your stewardship of finances whether you have a little or whether you have a lot um and what does that look like for the different seasons of your life before we talk about that I just want to mention to uh make sure if you haven't read the book that I put out you know several months ago um The Secret within that that's just an amazing book have a lot of great feedback make sure you guys get on Amazon or you can go to our website Iron deep.com get the book The Secret War within and we're also having a retreat coming up that if you want more information you want to be with some other men that uh want to you know go deeper in relationship with the father and go deeper relationship with together uh with each other we're doing a men's Awakening in Northern Georgia September 22nd through the 25th of this year you can register on our website at iron deep.com make sure you guys check that out so with that being said biblical stewardship of finances Mr Josh so Josh I think that literally I think we come from two different worlds right you're just moving in from India and you probably have maybe a different perspective you've been a missionary uh you know a lot of your life you've had a business you've been a Seri entrepreneur but you've also raised support and maybe your stewardship of finances has looked different than my stewardship of finances but I want to start off with scripture because I think just going to the word of God is the most important uh and I'll just start off with this Proverbs 3 verse 9 and 10 honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all of your crops then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your Vats will brim o brim over with new wine and Josh I want to talk about this so let's talk about right we're always you know again Steward of finances you think that we're going to ask for money we're going to you know tithe and and that's where we start but to start off with you man giving tithing first fruits 10% thoughts on all that stuff let's just start with that yeah absolutely um so the uh my my first initial thought always when I hear the tithe and the 10% even though it's a great Baseline and a great um principle to live by um it's funny because the Old Testament and the New Testament are so drastically different when they talk through uh generosity and kind of what some of the expectations are and so when we look at you know in the Old Testament in in Judaism and how they handled things you know they had a central Temple and all of those things and so all the Israelites would give 10% of everything not just money but uh it wasn't just like them bringing gold and silver silver to the temple but it would be 10% % of their crops for example uh they'd give 10% of that away um they'd give 10% of of of any of their um you know if it was cotton or you know different uh uh animal you know sacrifices and different things like that like it was it was 10% of basically everything and then we jump into the New Testament Jesus literally only one time ever mentions the tithe and it was actually in a negative comment to the Pharisees because he was like you guys even tithe your spice racks but your heart isn't in the right place you know he's like you're oregano and you're cumin and you're and you're you know you're tithing all these things but your heart is just you know completely dark but then we get into the New Testament Church and we see people just living a radically generous life I mean it was like what is mine is yours that that kind of mentality where people were uh you know in the early church selling land and giving all of it to the church so that it could expand they were giving you know um basically sharing all of their resources with other believers so that they uh could take care of their families during famine and during uh difficult situations um and so the bar gets raised a little bit in the New Testament for what our lives need to look like now um you know that can look different for everybody I think that each one of us really do need to pray about what the holy spirit is asking us to do and how generous the Lord is is asking us to be in a particular season um but I think at the end of the day the 10% is a good Baseline to get started with because that's like that's where the Bible starts in the Old Testament and then we can ramp up from there um but what I found all throughout my life Brett is that um a lot of times I've heard people talk about like you know well once I start making a little bit more money then I'll start giving or let me get my family settled first and then I'll start giving but the truth is if we're not faithful with a little we're usually not faithful with a lot um if we're not faithful whenever God blesses us with a little bit of resources then it's really hard to start doing that later on because as as you and I both know as as salary or income increases bills increase uh financial responsibility increases as the family grows as more children come into our lives there's more you know there's more uh things that we've got to pay for and if we don't start early on man at at just being generous and and giving people you know giving our resources away um then it's really really hard later on and so I would encourage anyone listening no matter what you know state of success you feel like you may be in what would it look like to love people around you to love Kingdom purposes enough that you're willing to sacrifice um you know some of what you could get or what you could receive from the income you're getting for the sake of other people across the world and the truth is at the end of the day Brett I mean you know this as well as I do you can never outgive God man yeah um that scripture that you read basically says you know when you're when you're giving to the Lord um he's going to multiply that into your life and and we've seen that Brett over and over again man like I remember let me tell a quick story and then I'll throw it back to you I remember one time we were visiting a church it was a little church in Tennessee it's my grandparents Church my uncle's a pastor there and there was a visiting missionary from a different country that was speaking that day when we were in town visiting and so we were there and I really felt and my wife and I we were just recently married we didn't have much money at all and I really felt the Lord prompting me to give a large gift to this missionary um because we were also missionaries on the field and I just wanted to bless this guy and felt the Holy Spirit like hey you need to bless this guy and so I leaned over to my wife during the service and I'm like I think we should give and she goes I was feeling the same thing and so we open up our wallet and we literally all all the only cash we have is we've got $200 left cash okay and uh and so my wife and I prayed and we both felt like we needed to give all the cash that we had to this guy um to bless his ministry and so we did that and prayed and felt great about it because when the Lord's leading you to do something something you don't you don't need to give with a begrudging heart or like a negative Spirit or a negative feeling the Lord even says very clearly in the New Testament don't give like that um give generously give joyfully right um and so we gave long story short um they announced Us in the service that we were also there and we were missionaries and the missionary greeted us well after the service after everything was gone uh everybody was gone we were out in the lobby and this missionary came to meet with us and talked and we shared stories back and forth and he said 'you know Josh I was really feeling the Lord put it on my heart that uh the the special offering that was given um I I really feel the Lord calling me to split it with you guys wow and uh he gave us 50% of the special offering which it was a very small church but I think we ended up leaving with I think it was four or500 wow rather rather than so like the Lord the Lord immediately like it was crazy now that doesn't always happen like within within an hour yeah but but we've always seen the Lord take care of us and provide no matter what man and uh and so I think it's always better as the scripture says to give rather than receive and and to bless um other people with what resources we've been given yeah no I definitely I definitely uh uh I definitely just uh encourage encourage that that's awesome and I want to just share it's not even financials like even you know putting on these events or you know bringing people in people receiving what the father has for them at our events and loving on people and being around and serving them and it's a lot of work right it's it's it's just a it's a lot of effort it's a lot of logistics and it's a lot of work to to get there to get people there to invite people in and and it takes a lot of resources too and money but but you know we get to receive so much of of you know God what he's given us to love you know so again what you says is it's about it's better to to give than to receive so like you know it could be money resources or just uh you know the events that we're putting on like you know we're we're we're doing it with a humble heart uh for the kingdom but we receive so much more and uh and it reminds me a couple of stories in in the Bible one uh comes out of Mark chapter 12 when it was talking about uh the poor Widow and she's giving just all that she has right she has a couple of coins couple of copper copper coins and she gives everything uh that she has and when other people were giving just a small portion of your have so really it just comes back to it's all it's all Gods uh he designed it that way and and are we surrendering everything uh that we have to him and and what what does that look like in the season that you're in so again joyfully generously uh do and I think it goes back to just to have that abundance heart and not saying oh if you're going to give $200 you're going to receive 400 every time if you give $100,000 you're going to receive $200,000 and we're not talking about that but we're talking about that it is all his and what is he prompting you to how are you listening to God in in this season of your life to give so uh so that's the first thing right uh giving joyfully generously um to to to those around you and uh to those obviously and less to impact the kingdom let's go to the different stewardship of finances and this is probably you've probably done a lot better at this part than I have I've never been great at this this is something that maybe I'm weak at uh especially is I've built up more income I loosen the Reign on my spending right that's I just loosen it up and I'm like oh we have money it doesn't put a dent into our life as much as it used to when we first started so like budgeting when it comes to budgeting I'm not the best at that I've had Seasons where I'm like all right we're going to get organized we're going to figure out and name each dollar and do the Dave Ramsey style of naming the dollars and and all that stuff uh but I've also entered many seasons of I haven't done uh the best at this but this is is all coming back to the Lord's blessed me with certain things and how am I being a good Steward and I think budgeting is a key part of that wherever you're at whether you have a couple of coins or whether you have hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars how do you be a good Steward with budgeting what does that look like in your guys's life because I I think we we sat down and you were moving over to Indiana and you talked about your budget right we've had that conversation you're like well I need to fit into my budget I think you know this is really a huge part of your guys's life and I think it should be a huge part of all of our lives but what does that look like for you and your family and budgeting yeah absolutely man yeah and that's I I think you you hit on a really good point man you know being a steward literally means that you're taking care of someone else's resources like that's what you're doing so if you look at everything is God's Not Just 10% but everything I have not and not just my money but the house I live in is the Lord 's house like the the car that I drive is Jesus's car like if we look at it that way um I mean it then we're stewarding what he's given us right like there's a passage I can't remember where it's at in Deuteronomy but it says if you're it basically it says if you're tempted to you you will be tempted to say look at the wealth that my hands have created but you need to remember that it is I and it's the Lord talking it is I who gave you the ability to create that wealth and so like it's whatever gift you have however you've made money the Lord has given you that ability um and so everything we have man is his and so that's where budgeting comes into play is that okay how do we be the best stewards possible of what the Lord's given us and and how and it doesn't mean we can't it doesn't mean we can't do fun things and it doesn't mean we can't uh do good things for the kids and go on vacation and and buy a nice thing and and it doesn't mean that but what it does mean is you know how can we make sure that every dollar that is coming in no matter if it's little or big that we are using it to the best of our ability to take care of other people and our family around us and so for us we started really early on uh in our marriage one of the first things that we did Brett with my wife and I we learned from Dave Ramsey actually the envelope system and in India we were all cash so I mean when when we first moved to India it wasn't like you had a a card everywhere right like a debit card and things like that um and so we literally would get cash our our salary in cash every month and we from literally on the day we got our salary my wife and I would sit down with several different envelopes and we had marked out how much cash goes in each envelope and so you know it would be for groceries it would be for haircuts it would be for our phone bill it would be like literally everything had an envelope and entertainment was one of them stuff we could just do whatever we wanted with but we had a certain amount that we set aside for that and so every month let's say I needed to go uh to the grocery store to pick up groceries I would go to that envelope and take the cash out from that envelope that I needed and go to the grocery store or let's say I was getting a haircut I'd go to the the the hair we had like a haircut and uh there was one other thing along with haircuts that we had I can't remember what we put it with but we take it out of there and go get a haircut and so basically Al every dollar was accounted for before it was even spent right um I I forget the Dave Ramsey quote but he says something like tell your money where it needs to go rather than wonder where it went yeah I think that's yeah I think I think that's what it is and so basically in advance are we doing a good job of telling our money where it needs to go are we uh because at the end of the day man if if if if you really want to know where your heart is the Bible says that where your treasure is right there your heart is is as well and so a lot of times we need to look at where our money is going to see where our heart really is um like and if we're overspending in certain areas of Our Lives could there be a heart issue that's causing us to go further into that area right um and so like for me I I know it's so easy now with cards and my phone and stuff like that um it's a lot harder to do the envelope system nowadays so my wife and I have even been we just moved to America last week and so we're like okay now that we don't have cash all the time what does it look like to still do an envelope system but in an American context where we just swipe our card all the time and what does that look like and so we've even talked about like what would it look like if every month we did like for our gas for example if we literally had a a Visa gift card that we put gas money on and that card we only used for gas or what would it look like if we opened up three or four different bank accounts and one of them was specifically just for our house bills every month and we have a card specifically for that that we use for that and so nowadays you can pretty much have especially with things like Capital One and stuff like that you can almost create unlimited checking accounts or savings accounts and have a card for each one of them gift cards now I mean you can literally go up and put a hundred bucks on a gift card and and and just have that card to use for things so we've been brainstorming right now even we've not figured it all out yet Brett since we' moved to the US but we're trying to figure out how do we make sure that we're telling our money where it goes and we don't just get lost and like oh I'm going to buy this $ Five Doll app right now on my phone but then I do that 27 times over the course of a month and pretty soon I'm like wow I spent $300 on the App Store um you know or whatever it is or my kids asked five times over the month and I forgot that I said yes five time right or whatever it is and so anyway we we've really been kind of trying to brainstorm read about what how can we get creative with the envelope system in modern society and have money set aside every month so that it's budgeted properly so that we're being good stewards of what God's given us yeah no I love that and uh brings up a couple different things uh just as we're talking about budgeting I love what you said about stewardship is taking care of uh someone else's property right and uh so I think if we have that mindset that everything that we have is the Lords then it puts it just puts something in in my heart and I want to kind of do this other quick story so I lend money right I give or I give people money and I give I I try to give generously but I also give people money um from a from a lending standpoint and if I were to do that and say okay you want let's just say it's $10,000 I'm going to give you $110,000 and you say I want $10,000 to invest into this house or to do whatever and let's say I give that to you and then a couple weeks later you come back and I like oh how did you use that $110,000 that that I gave you like oh I went and bought booze and cigarettes and bought some lottery tickets and that that just doesn't sit well with me right I'm like Oh I thought you might have used it for something else that could benefit your life or benefit the kingdom or something else and I think if you have that mindset that if you were to give your money and someone else is taking care of the money that you gave them how would you want them to use that particular money again you know let's say there's a family in need and you're like yo I want to help give your kids some food okay your kids aren't eating I'm going to give you this money but then they say oh again I went and did something uh silly and I didn't do what I was supposed to do with it so I think I put it all on black man put it all in black that's right so I think having that mindset really for me uh just kind of changes things uh and again we are the Lord's giving us this money to to use how are you using that the same way uh with the story that I just described so budgeting is very very important um uh scripture Luke 14 says suppose one of you wants to build a tower won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it so again if you're going to do something let's sit down let's think about it I think it's what you guys are thinking about that's the fun thing about budgeting doesn't have to be this this dry you know very um just mundane ugly thing it could be a creative thing it could be fun thing uh and and a celebratory thing so um yeah that's awesome Let's uh let's go into investing right so again saving and investing wisely uh Proverbs 21:20 says the wise store up Choice food and olive oil but fools gulp theirs down uh so the important of again we've talked about budgeting we talked about giving uh but just saving and investing wisely obviously this is something that I try to do uh I don't make make sure I don't maybe do it the best but it's funny I'm teaching my daughter and some of her friends were flipping this house together and I'm trying to teach them about investing and and Business and Entrepreneurship and how to do that do that wisely and uh for me um it really you know goes into the realm of real estate so for me like investing I've educated myself with it I've read books about it I listen to podcast about it I've had mentors about it and and I love when I invest into things I love to be able to touch it I guess to be able to feel it I love to be able to drive by and see something rather than uh just a piece of paper and uh and you know so that's why I try to invest more into something I can touch something that I can feel doesn't have to be real estate it could be something else similar to that but but instead of investing for me stocks and some of that stuff I love to do to do real estate because there's so many benefits and that's what I'm teaching these kids about uh so for example rental properties um I was doing a lesson for my daughter and her friends the other day about why I buy rental properties and and I was talking about the why I buy rental properties is number one it helps save money on taxes so like you make money in all these different ways with rental properties and I said number one you're going to pay the most money as you get a job a W2 whatever the most money is going to be in your taxes and a few years ago I remember this and I was a real estate investor for years but my CPA told me this he said Real Estate Investors should never pay taxes so let's just halt there like people really got on like Donald Trump Trump uh when he was trying to get his tax returns that he didn't want to show him their tax returns and they were all over him because he didn't pay any taxes and he said well I own a bunch of real estate and if you you change the laws if you don't like that but the laws really benefit the real estate investor is if you have multiple rental properties with depreciation I call them invisible expenses dive into all that because you can save so much money on taxes and that's one way that I buy rental properties another thing is that again the cash flow um monthly cash flow you talk about residual income you want $100 a month $200 a month three or $400 a month buy some rental properties right so so that's the second way that you can make money on them so you're saving a bunch of money on taxes you don't pay any taxes like everybody else does you're making your cash flow and then typically real estate does what it typically appreciates it typically does go up in value so if you buy it right and you get a decent deal over the years it's going to increase in value other than other things in your life right how many other things that you buy appreciate not that not that many uh so those are the three things that I try to invest in rental properties and and invest wisely uh to do that and I'm trying to teach my kids how to do that as well Josh comes to you Siri entrepreneur you've done real estate as well you're doing land you've done houses uh I don't know you know other ways that you've invested wisely or talking you know with your own family but any other just comments on looking at the money and and investing wisely or put some biblical principles into it yeah absolutely man no I I think honestly over the years um we've had we've had different Investments that we've gone into um now some of them have even been because a lot of times we think of Investments like buying a house or putting into the stock market or whatever um there's been Seasons depending on what we do where we've even invested into like a lot of times we don't view these things as Investments but um for example when I first got when I first got into real estate we were looking at what could we do that could bring in some extra income for our family um and uh and kind of help set our kids up in the future and stuff like that and so um we we paid like pretty significant resources to get training and coaching in how to get into real estate for example for us that was an investment into how we can then make further income in the future right and a lot of times people don't view that as an investment because you're paying money but the truth is if really any investment that you're giving needs to have a return right and so what is the return on that investment so if I'm investing time energy and money into a training or coaching program that should have exponential outcome from me and return from me in the future um which which is what we've done multiple time so we've started very like several different businesses over the years where at the beginning we invested into training and coaching in order to get into that field of business um we've also done the stock market I know that um you know like you said there are some people who would prefer to have something brick-and mortar something in their hands um we invested several years ago um in and and I in the stock market I really try to invest in the things I personally believe or or I personally um use you know there are people out there that are just looking to invest into like the next big thing and it's like actually what do I use what do I enjoy using what is actually a really good product or service and so like we invested into Amazon several years ago um ended up we cashed out several years ago because we had a large purchase coming up and we went ahead and and use that investment but we made a lot of money uh through investing into Amazon we invested into Apple for a season because I'm a Big Mac guy I use apple all the time I've got an iPhone and and a and the laptop I'm on right now is a MacBook and and so I'm like I love Apple products and so why not invest into something I believe in that I personally use um when I was in high school I invested into Jones Soda uh which um the Jones Soda company it was it was a penny stock when I invested in it and uh it ended up growing and getting into Target and Walmart and different places like that and and uh it ended up being a very good investment yeah um but it was because I loved Jan soda like that was why I that's why I invested in it yeah there you go man um and so for in Investments when it comes to the stock market for me it's got to be something that I personally really uh I believe it's a it's a good service or good product and I want to put I want to put time and energy into it and and invest in stuff that I personally use it's just kind of the way that I've gone but then the house side of things yes we've obviously we've invested a lot of time and energy and resources into real estate which has paid off significantly as well um and so I would encourage if if people are getting started out I would definitely encourage just like you said to look into the real estate game I mean it's it's definitely going to get you the most appreciation over the years and um honestly when it comes to successful uh Investments um there are more people out there that are getting success in real estate than any other investment out there uh you know in in in modern history and so um and it can be a low bar if you join certain there there are groups even where you can invest smaller amounts of money into real estate you don't have to buy a whole thing you can own you know a percentage of a apartment or a percentage of a house or whatever so there are smaller ways that you can step into real estate that are incredibly uh beneficial yeah no definitely and if you're interested in any of that uh we you know as you guys know my background um if you've heard my story uh we're in real estate and out of Indianapolis Indiana simple quarters.com is our website we've even had people invest into simple quarters. simple quarters our company that want to just you know really instead of putting money in the stock market they've put money with us and lent money against homes and things like that so if that's something you want interested interested we got this new website simple quarters.com that we just revamped our website and make sure you check that reach out to me uh either at bread at simple quarters or bread at iron deep so Josh let's wrap this up going to uh just a couple other things uh let's talk about this I want to get your wisdom on this just about avoiding debt or living within your means and uh a lot of people uh especially when it comes um the biblical principles and as Christians this word about debt and people have very very strong opinions about this and I want to get maybe your opinion on it uh about debt and we'll kind of paint a couple of scripture verses here Romans chapter 138 let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another for whoever loves one another has fulfilled the law or the the quote from Proverbs or the scripture from Proverbs 22:7 this gets most of the recognition when it comes to the Borrowers slave to the lender let's talk about avoiding debt for you how do you do you what do you guys pertain to that and um and I'll tell you my my side as well yeah so that's actually historically throughout my life um especially when I was younger uh was was a was an area that I did not do well in um and so I I moved out of the house when I was 17 years old I was on my own pretty early on and and um they'll give they'll give credit cards to pretty much any 18y olds uh and um and that it it ended up very early on being an issue for me because I I basically you know I got student loans to get me through school and then I I in order to try to uh take care of certain uh Financial Obligations I had in college I would put some stuff on credit cards and things like that and that ended up um getting pretty out of hand with student loans and with with credit card debt and so I'm definitely a a good example of um the negative impact that debt can have 100% And so um now I do believe my my current opinion though is that I'm not all Dave Ramsey where you should never have any debt whatsoever I do think there are good types of debt I mean in the real estate worlds um there are ways that you can leverage debt for the sake of passive income and there ways that you can leverage debt for the sake of future income and things like that so I'm I'm not my personal opinion now there will be people out there that disagree with me and that's completely fine but my personal opinion is that there is good debt and bad debt and there are ways you can leverage debt for the sake of of uh uh income and then there is really bad debt like if you're living outside your means and constantly putting uh personal desires on credit cards I mean that's obviously bad debt and you don't want to do that that's where budgeting comes into play that's where all those other things come into play um but if it's for larger Investments um like apartments or homes and different things like that when it comes to real estate I do think there are ways that you can use it for future good um and so I'm not fully anti- debt but I've definitely been burned by it um pretty significantly and so I I I if if you if you're wondering what to do I would lean away from it as much as you can yeah um yeah it's funny yeah I think it it reminds me of yeah I mean I think I signed up for four or five credit cards in college and uh don't know what I did with them but I know I racked up to the to the limits and uh and and walked out and I remember I was actually sitting in a bankruptcy office when I was maybe 23 years old and I had racked up I think my four credit cards to the Limit and I was getting all these late fees and I was all stressed out and I was making like 10,000 a year and I think I literally was in like $144,000 in debt and I'm sitting in bankruptcy office at 23 and that I I did not do that I talked to my dad who I had he co-signed A lender and paid him off anyways but it wasn't a great that was bad bad debt I but I agree with you I think debt can be a a snake that can really come and bite you if you're not careful for me like I don't have a lot of personal debt I have my home uh that I do have a mortgage on it's not an overextended mortgage by any means is probably 50% of the value something of that nature and the reason why I keep it I think it's because at a it's at a 4% interest rate or less and you know in my mind which you know is right or wrong I'm like oh I could probably instead of paying that off I could probably take that money and make more than 4% right I that's just because I think I'm you know talented in in that area as far as I could take that money and make 10% at least or 20% so that that's one thing but when it comes to business um I don't even know if I call it debt as much again most of my houses have a loan on them for more private investors and that's where I love to partner with private investors so instead of being a lender they're more of a partner with us that they're making a return on their particular money uh so I'm helping them it's a win-win we make a return they make a return um instead of having that that lender uh mind said but again the loan to value is typically small try not to overextend so if the house is worth 100,000 I might have a 7,000 loan or 60,000 loan right so uh so there's a lot of our own our own cash into that game so uh I would again avoid debt personally uh as much as you can um but uh as far as the investing world I'm more of Rich Dad Poor Dad style I'd say Robert kosaki so that's a book uh that I've that I'm actually teaching some of the teens as well so um Josh we're about out of time on this particular episode but I want to just wrap this up we're talking about stewardship and stewarding our finances well uh from a Biblical perspective and I think it just goes back to the beginning and I'll just wrap it up with uh where's your trust lie and and where does your security lie is your security wrapped into the money uh and and that you're trying to obtain and Achieve and and hoard and you're storing up into your barns right and and you know you don't want to give any of that away and you're you're real stingy with it um does your trust lie in that particular security or uh where's your heart at and let's just take it back to the beginning where's your heart posture at or are you trusting in the one who has given you all of these resources who has given you all of uh all of the wealth and all of the money are't you trusting in that are't you joyful with it are you thankful for it are you grateful for it and are you generously giving it out and uh I remember there's a gentleman who wrote the book half time and I kind of followed that book for a while uh it's a very very great book about he he was a very successful businessman and for the first half of his life up until his 40s he had tried to achieve success and had sacrificed a lot but then the second half of his life again so halftime the second half he uh was more about significance and he said I probably I hope that my last check that I ever write before I die bounces he just wanted to give all of all of it away and I kind of have that mentality is like you know it's all his and I hope that I Steward it well and that I give it where he's called me to give it instead of hoarding it it's just let's just give it all and hope my my last check bounc maybe unless it's like tomorrow then my family hopefully they I'll leave them something but anyways Josh why don't you wrap it up with this as we kind of just wrap up this stewardship on finances yeah I would just encourage everybody listening I let let me let me give you um a a couple ideas here on how we could potentially live radically generous and and have our last check bounc like what Brett's talking about um and and I want to give you three quick examples um so that way you could potenti pray through this and see as we talked about at the very beginning 10% is kind of a baseline but what are some other people throughout history and and life that have lived differently okay number one John Wesley okay the way John Wesley lived guys was that he set a cap on his income which basically said this is all I need to live and I'm never going to need anything more than that anything above that amount I'm giving away for the kingdom and so he set a limit on what he was going to personally take in and it was a limit it was enough money that he could take care of everything he ever needed to take care of but he said God if you bless me with more of that more than that then I'm going to give it all away that's one idea you could pray through number two I've got a a guy that I've listened to and read many times who he said if the Lord says I need to love my neighbor like I love myself then I need to give away 50% of all that I have because that's the only way I can love other people the way that I love myself so he decided he's not going to do 10% he's gonna live on half of his resources now I will say he is a very successful gentleman and so it's not like he's making 20 grand and giving away 10 he he's making quite a bit of money but he said we're gonna give away half because that's how I'm gonna love my neighbor like I love myself or the extreme version is a guy like Rick Warren who planted Saddleback Church became incredibly successful with the purpose-driven life he did a reverse tithe because he was being so successful he said I'm going to live on 10% of my income and give away 90% he paid back every dollar the church ever paid him over 30 years of ministry and basically said I did all my Ministry for free because he paid back the church for every salary they gave for the first 20 or 30 years and uh and that's being radically generous guys so depending on what level of success you're at could you potentially put a cap on what what how much income you really need could you potentially give away half of what you're making so that way you could bless the kingdom could you potentially even be crazy radical and do a reverse tithe where you're giving all that away but whatever it is guys what I want to encourage you at the end of the day is like Brett and I have been talking this whole time we are stewards of God's resources everything is his and so how can we be the best stewards possible with the resources that God's given us for the sake of his kingdom across the world how can we bless as many people as possible how can we love as many people as possible with the resources we've been given so that at the end of our Lives God will look at us and say Well done my son you have done incredible with the resources I've given you come into your inheritance now which would be greater than you could ever imagine friends especially if we're faithful with what God's given us that's awesome and that's an amazing wrap uh thank you so much Josh for being on the podcast today hope you guys enjoyed this particular podcast you know we are on a mission iron deep is on a mission uh to basically Empower and equip risk-taking male entrepreneurs to rise up in their full god-given potential to fulfill their true identity their mission and their last Legacy through Christ like that is our mission that's what we're trying to do uh so if you guys love this particular show or you want more content like this we'd love to hear from you go check out again our website at iron deep.com we got a retreat coming up that if you want to get personal we call it belly to belly if you want to get personal with other guys that are entrepreneurs business guys Business Leaders in the mountains of Helen Georgia September the 22nd through 25th check that out also get the book The Secret War within I spent two years of my life for really pouring in and praying through that so love for you guys to get your feedback on that as well so this is a wrap with the iron deep podcast thank you guys so much we'll see you next time
