Transcription
The Bible contains over 2,000 verses on money, and most of those are still extremely relevant today. It actually has specifics on how much you should save and even, in the end of this video, exactly how much to invest, even investing strategies. It's kind of crazy.
The 20% rule. So this is in a few different places, but we're going to focus on one in the story of Joseph in the Bible. He interprets a dream for the king in which there's going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. And to prepare for that, he recommends that they put away one-fifth of everything that they gain every single year for those seven years of plenty. And by doing that, they ended up having enough stored so that they could get through with the seven years of famine and actually really prosper as a nation.
So that's actually like a great savings rate, a great idea, a great way to start up an emergency fund because there are times where you're going through an amazing time in the market, and then there's times when there's economic crashes and people get into debt. So having a 20% savings rate is an amazing place to start off. It even fits into the 50/30/20 rule that we still use today, and it's super popular.
Become a minimalist. That's right. So it doesn't exactly say minimalism, but you get the idea. The Bible talks a lot about being careful about being greedy of what other people have. It also says that a person's true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be. So in a few different places, we see that how much money you have does not correlate to happiness. It doesn't give you self-worth. You can't really take it with you, although you can send it ahead.
So by not being greedy and realizing that how much money or stuff that you have doesn't really matter, we get kind of these principles of minimalism and frugal living, where you're not just trying to build up as much money as humanly possible, or as much stuff and fancy cars, and just trying to chase the promotion and more stuff. Instead, we should be content with what we have. We shouldn't constantly be caught up in this whirlwind of consumerism. Even though enjoying your life and having money is not a bad thing, investing and being rich is not a bad thing, which we'll talk about later in this video. If that's like all you care about and that's what you get your sense of self-worth in, then that's not going to lead to a happy and fulfilled life.
Another thing that can ruin your life is debt. I think we all know that debt is bad, even though there are certain circumstances where it makes sense and it can be a good thing. The Bible says that the borrower will be a slave to the lender, and that's literally what we're seeing right now. When there's high interest consumer debt, there's payday loans, people buy stuff that they can't afford, and then they have to go to work in order to pay for that stuff. That's completely like destroying their lives. Got like 30% interest going on this, and they're literally becoming a slave. They're trading their life for stuff. So we need to absolutely avoid any type of high interest consumer debt. It'll ruin your life.
It's something that won't ruin your life is this channel. Hopefully, if you're getting any value out of this and want to support me, don't forget to subscribe. We're also giving away a thousand dollars to somebody who subscribes before we hit half a million, hopefully by the end of the year. So don't forget to subscribe.
If you want money, you're going to have to work for it. "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a robber, and want like an armed man." The Bible talks a lot about being lazy, and that is not a good thing. It talks about somebody being too lazy to actually take their hand out of the dish and feed themselves. And the same applies to money.
In fact, I would say that like nobody is truly wealthy, at least financially, without putting in the workforce. Because even if you win the lottery or you inherit it, you're not going to build a lot of the principles around money, and it's not going to really feel the same or be as satisfying as when you put in the work. And you look back at your hard days working, you have something to show for it. That's how you build character by going through hard things. And being wealthy is not just monetarily; it's health, it's relationships, it's understanding how to have money work for you.
So if you want any of those things, if you want to create a business, to move up in your job, to get past this level where you are right now of maybe debt and living paycheck to paycheck, it's going to take hard work. Either learning things that will make you more money, or actually physically working harder to make more money. I think we were actually made for work. That's why a lot of people have a hard time in retirement. There's a stat that you will actually die earlier if you retire early, and that's because we lose a lot of our purpose, a lot of our sense of self, our sense of accomplishment.
So for me, I used to have this goal of retiring when I'm 30, but now I don't actually think that that will be the goal. I still want to have freedom to spend time with my family and not be working 24/7, but I always want to have something that I can work on and produce, because that's what I feel like I was made for.
Now, on that note, it also talks about hard work bringing riches, and saying that it's not actually bad to be rich. In the next couple of points, we'll talk about earning more money and different ways of investing. But I feel like a lot of people think that it's bad to be rich, or if you're rich, you just took advantage of somebody or you're cheating the system somehow. But it is not a bad thing to work hard, what we're designed for, and then reap the rewards of that hard work.
Diversify your portfolio. I know what you're thinking, "Gabe, that's not in the Bible." It is in there. I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested. "Divide your portion into seven or even eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth." For that, that seems pretty clear that it's telling you to be smart about managing your money, telling you to diversify your portfolio. Don't just have everything in real estate, don't just have everything in stock, don't just have everything in Apple.
It's important to be good stewards of your money, not be gambling on stuff trying to get rich quick. This is something that I actually need to work on. I'm mostly in real estate right now. I do have some stocks, but I am trying to balance out my portfolio a little bit because it's still true today, you don't know when there's going to be a giant housing crash, you don't know when the stock market's going to drop 50%. We don't know what the future is, and therefore, we shouldn't keep all of our eggs in one basket. It's important to diversify.
All right, so before we get into what I think is the most important one, we got a couple that kind of go together here. Don't love money. We've all heard that money is the root of all evil, but that's not actually how it goes. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. Money in itself is not a bad thing. It's currency. It's what the world has operated on since like forever. But it is the love of money. It's having it become the most important thing of your life. It's when you care about that more than spending time with your family, more than your relationships, more than your faith. If that's all that you're thinking about, that will inevitably kind of ruin your life.
You see people all over the world that have millions of dollars, and they're depressed, they're suicidal, they're overdosing. And you think that they have everything they could ever want, but it's because all they care about is money and themselves. And that is not how you have a good life. That's how you ruin your life. And we know it's not bad to have money because it also says that you should leave an inheritance for your children. And you can't leave an inheritance for your children if you have no money and you're donating everything that you have. Like it's good to donate. There's like a billion places in the Bible where it talks about giving to the poor, giving to the needy, taking care of your family, giving back because a lot of us are just so incredibly blessed.
But also says that we should be investing and then saving up so that we can give our kids some money. That's a Biblical principle. That's literally something that it says in the Bible. And it also says, "his children's children." That's generational wealth. That's saying that it is not a bad thing. It's actually a good man who builds up a company that is big enough, or a money that is big enough, that his family is set for the future.
What should you ask for? There's a story in the Bible where Solomon is dreaming. He's in this dream state, and God comes to him and asks, "What do you want? Do you want wealth? Do you want kingdoms? What do you want? Ask me, and I'll give it." But Solomon didn't do what probably most of us would do and ask for riches, ask for kingdoms, ask for a Tesla or a million dollars. He asked for wisdom. And through that wisdom, he gained kingdoms, he gained wealth. And that's what we should really be seeking. We should be seeking wisdom.
Because at least for me, the more that I have learned from these different books, even through devotions and church, as I've learned more stuff, I've learned things that have built me more wealth, it's increased my relationships, improved my family situation, improved my finances a ton. So wisdom is a lifelong journey. It's something we should all be striving for. And the wiser you are, generally, the wealthier you will become.
If that's something that you're trying to become wise in, and a very wise decision would be to subscribe to this channel because it is free and it hopefully has good information. I hope you liked this video. I thought it was really cool. Uh, so, uh, subscribe.