Ep. 090 - Your Financial Finish Line: How to Know When “Enough” Is Enough

Episode Transcript

Spencer
In any race, a finish line is important. We have to know where we're going and how much energy we need to expend to get there. Much as the same in the financial discipline of our personal lives, if we don't know where we're going and we don't know the trade offs that we face, we may end up in a different spot, not exert enough effort, or exert far too much in ways that don't help.
Today we get to talk about finish lines in our spending lives.

Austin
So Spencer, I was a 300 meter hurdler in high school. It was one of the worst races that I can imagine running. And every time when I got to the finish line, I was so thankful that it was done. The if I had to run a 400 meter hurdles like they do in the collegiate races, I might have just tripped on a hurdle and fell and died.
Who knows? I just remember so many times thinking, I'm I'm done. I don't want anymore. And so when we think about financial finish lines, especially for our lifestyle expenses, I think about it in a similar way of we really need to know where we need to set our eyes, set our focus, set our gaze, and have that finish line in sight to where we can confidently say this is enough.
Because if we don't have a place to say, okay, I have enough, then we are going to get into a cycle that Rachel McDonagh talks about in one of her books of if we have no boundaries, no finish Lines, then our lifestyle will continue to expand to consume whatever resources are available. And we know as stewards that consuming as much as we can is not good for our souls.
So today we're going to talk about this idea of finish line, and we're going to continue this conversation as we talk about finish lines for our saving, for our heirs, and then how to talk about that with our family members over the next couple of episodes. This is something we've talked about before, but it's really crucial. So as we think about finish lines, you want to talk us through James one five and why that's such an important place to begin.

Spencer
Well, we have to first recognize that there is no prescriptive formula that the Bible gives us in setting a budget in Microsoft Excel or Quicken or whatever, you know, budgeting tool you might use and how to determine the amount that we use for our food or our fuel or a vehicle purchase or whatever it might be taking care of our kids or childcare or school or whatever.
You know, elements are in that budget. So the first thing that we need to do is we need to ask God for wisdom as we embark on this. So James one five says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. And that's one of the verses that we will often pray and claim coming into meetings with clients, because every situation is different.
So whether we're talking about a financial finish line and a monthly budget type of situation, or we're looking long term and we're trying to help clients grapple with maybe how much they're giving, how much they're passing on some of the trade offs that they might face, even with income streams. We have the same basic need for wisdom that we need to ask God for, because the Bible doesn't say anything about Social Security, whether you should claim at 62 or a full retirement age, or 70 or there's nothing there.
So there are principles, obviously, that we want to come back to, but we need the Holy Spirit to guide us, lead us in particular in these kinds of situations.


Austin
Right? Absolutely. Now we're going to start off and we're going to say as well, there's no one size fits all approach. There is the reality that your life is going to change over time. We are currently in a season where we've got three kids under the roof that are 9 to 11, and they are 9 to 13, and they're about to be teenagers and they're about to eat us out of house and home.
Our budget is going to change this in this next season. And then when they're out of the house, similarly, we've got folks that are in their peak retirement years and they are traveling more, but we also know that they're going to taper back. And so as we think about monthly spending and lifestyle caps, what we need to say is it's malleable in some ways.
But what we don't want to do is just say, well, my neighbor, I know just got that new car and then they're moving to this place and I want to chase that lifestyle. Setting these finish line caps is starting to say, no God, you have provided abundantly for me. I can be content with what you have given me and not chase the next whatever it may be.
And I love what Tim Keller says. He says when he's talking about this idea of greed. None of us really think of ourselves as greedy. But then he probes the question of where does your money flow effortlessly? And if I really think about it, I need to be always asking that question of myself, of am I allowing my money to flow effortlessly to things that I should not be allowing my money to flow effortlessly to?
And if I'm constantly allowing it to flow effortlessly to books so that I can show that I'm wiser than you, then maybe I have a self-perception issue that I need to really work with, with the Lord. And so there are any number of things where we can be greedy with him. But I think starting off with the presumption that we're probably greedy about something that is going to expose an idol of our hearts to say, man, Lord, how do I need to now address this idol and come back to you and maybe reframe, what do I think is enough?
How do I think about contentment? So today we're going to talk about finish lines. And we're going to get into something called the Financial Finish Line pledge and look at a calculator that they have. But before that, Spencer, why don't you walk us through when we think about how do we actually get there? What are some first foundational pieces that we need?

Spencer
I think the first thing that we've got to do is say, well, where am I at right now? You know, if we used to walk into the mall, you know, and you'd see the map and you say, okay, the red dot is right here, here's where I'm at. Here's a landscape of things. If we don't even know how much we're spending right now, any kind of calculator is is going to be potentially disorienting because we haven't even started to think through.
Well, if I was going to cut spending or if I was going to add some things in what are maybe the top 3 or 4 areas, again, coming back to James one five that I, I start to think through, the calculator is fantastic because it can give us a range of what's, what's going on around us. And, and as we share with brothers and sisters as well, they can help to provide some perspective to, because it may be that, you know, you're spending nothing on vacations and experiences with your family and, and maybe that's an area that you could expand, you know, your mindset a little bit there, or maybe, you know,
that's every, year or a couple times a year you're taking a blowout trip, and others around you are starting to say, you know, that's really impairing your capacity to engage in community. So once we actually have a landscape of where am I? And oftentimes that can be, again, through an app that we might download on our phone, and we can link credit card and bank statements, you know, to so that we can get a consolidated picture or maybe it's just, you know, you look at your bank statement, you know, on a month to month basis and you say, okay, well, you know, here's the overall outflow and whether it went to the credit
card or whether it went to you know, a mortgage payment or what have you in one way or another. Here's the amount that I tend to average in my spending that can at least give us some bearings of where we begin to then have this conversation about finish lines. Because for most of us, we start to see, okay, here's where I'm at right now.
And then how do I start to make some adjustments and, and allow that momentum to kind of carry forward after we get some wins, right?


Austin
Absolutely. And we come back to this again and we say we are stewards. We're not owners of these resources. And so really when we're asking these questions, it's asking, is this the way that God would want his money to be used? That's the heart of this question. As we're coming back to you as a steward, these resources are not mine.
So am I honoring the King of kings who gave these resources to me to to manage them on his behalf. If we don't start there and we put ourselves on the throne, then spending on ourselves is going to be easy. But if we put Christ back on the throne where he belongs and we say these resources are his, how can I manage them on his behalf?
It's going to illuminate more of those, hey, maybe I need to pull in this area or that other area.

Spencer
Well and, so often it's it's once we see all of what we're spending, we can start to say, wow, I didn't realize I was, you know, going out to eat four times a week. Yeah. I could do that maybe once a week, and then I could, you know, prepare my own lunch or whatever it might be. As we sit with this and we let the Holy Spirit speak.
Oftentimes there are categories that we say, oh, this in aggregate is far more than what I was realizing. And that's where repentance can happen. And change can happen too.

Austin
Absolutely. All right. So we're going to dive in to this financial finish line calculator and then back up and say okay once we know and kind of have started from at baseline, we know what we're spending. Let's put that into the calculator and then let's say, okay, what do I need to do? How do I need to make adjustments?
And maybe what's a pledge that I can take. That's the financial finish line guys talk about. So caveat all online calculators are fraught. They do not know things like well, I live in an expensive city. We used to live in Denver. Expensive city. That calculator doesn't know that. They can't judge me based on that. They don't know that I do.
Cross-Fit and I need to eat six steaks every day to stay fit. It doesn't know that. Fill in whatever blank you have, okay? There's always going to be a reason not to trust these things. And we would say rather than create all the excuses up front, take some humility. Take it a little bit of time. This is not an invitation to, induce shame or guilt.
It's saying let's just bring light to what is there. So the other piece is there's not away on this calculator just has a flat dollar amount to say okay. Well this is what I'm already giving. This is what I'm already doing setting aside for savings okay. So when you log on you can input how many family members you have and then what you are spending or what's your annual income.
Now, the the way that we would encourage you to do this is take that number that you put in on that monthly budget, rather than putting in your aggregate, maybe just put in what you're actually spending for your lifestyle. So let's say you're already giving ten, 20, 30%. Don't put that in there. If you're saving 10% to your 401k.
Don't put that in there because that's not what you're spending on yourself. Really what we're trying to do is say how am I spending relative to the general population. What am I spending on my lifestyle akin to my peers? And so, for instance, a family of five with an annual income of 150,000, they would suggest that that family has about $9,725 to spend on their lifestyle on a month to month basis.
Now, if we know that that family is also giving 15, $20,000 a year, okay, we can back that down. But essentially what it's going to pop out is a percentile of where you're at relative to the population. And so that family would be based on 2024 census data in roughly the 57th percentile. And so then they've got a little slider that says, okay, if I want to be in the 50th percentile, what would that look like?
And if they said, okay, we want to be in the 50th percentile based on their family size, it would be about $8,500 of spending. And so then you can say, okay, are there ways that we can choose to spend that amount less? What I like about this is it frames it. It says, okay, if I am in the 57th percentile, that I'm spending more than 57 families out of 100, but I'm spending less than, in 43 families.
It's just it's a way to to determine where you are in relation to others.

Spencer
Right. And this is not something where, you know, 57 families are holier than you and 43 families are less holy than you. We're all stewards. We have been given different amounts and different sequences of that income, so we have to bear that in mind. But it can help, again, kind of anchor us to this idea that, well, if I'm spending, you know, $10,000 a month, and that puts me, in a place based on my family size that I'm maybe spending more than, you know, 95 out of 100 folks.
You know, maybe maybe I'm spending, you know, in ways that are, reasonable. And I'm spending a whole lot on others, and I'm investing in experiences and for other people so that I can share, you know, life and gospel with them. And I'm being actually selfless in that way. It might also be that there's an opportunity to to kind of look at that and say, okay, there there can be incredible experiences, there can be incredible ways that I can invest that maybe don't have quite the same price tag on those, because I think for most of us, particularly as parents, we start to realize, you know, my kids actually just want more of
my time. My focus, my energy, my person, rather than some kind of crazy experience. Now, of course, if they're, getting into their late teens or 20s, then, sometimes that can start to shift for a small season. But for the most part, when kids, have a level of maturity or they're just young, they just want us.
Yeah. So I think coming back to that can be really helpful to say, you know, maybe I do some things, trip wise, for instance, that are really fun every now and then. But that doesn't become the cadence of always what I do, right?

Austin
Absolutely. So I think, you know, as we as we think about this kind of from a holistic picture, it's, it's helpful to know where we are. What we don't want to do is always try to justify why we are where we are. Right. And I think that's where sometimes it's like well okay I'm in the 50th percentile.
That's fine. But again to your point, if it's all satisfying my own desires, of either whether it's my appearance or my wisdom or whatever, I'm spending it on, if it's all for myself, then that's where we have to say, well, the calculator doesn't really matter if it's all for myself, just like what you were saying. And so there's a malleability, but I think if we were to take the next step in this and say, okay, now we've got an awareness, what does it look like to maybe take a step of faith, take a step of boldness.
And this is where the financial pledge comes into place. And they say, okay, what you want to do now is now that you have an awareness, maybe set a target for the next three months. It's a 90 day pledge. And you say, okay, I've got my target. I know that this is enough. Anything that is on top of that, we're just going to slide into another savings account, a bank account that is completely separate from your own.
Maybe you do banking at a local institution. You open an online savings account. You say, hey, we're going to try to spend $7,000 a month. That other three that we've historically spent on ourselves. We're going to take it and just pop it into this outside savings account. Do that for three months. And then at the end of the 90 days, you look and see, okay, we've got now $9,000.
Let's invest this in Kingdom causes. Let's give it away to other places. And so it's essentially it's saying, okay, how can I set that strong finish line of okay, enough is enough, $7,000 of monthly expense covers all that I need and maybe more. And then I can now get into a rhythm where every month, hey, I've got an additional $3,000 that we can give away to Kingdom causes.
So it's really just a way to to spark. What could that finish line be? And maybe once, you know okay, now that 7000 let's say that for your family size that puts you in the 60th percentile of all families. Well, maybe then in ten years you can say, well, now my kids are out of the roof. What is a two person finish line at 60 percentile.
And so it allows you to continue to come back to those markers to say, okay, my finish line was set then, how do I continue to maintain that when the world around me is changing? And I think that just it allows us a little bit of flexibility, but it also allows us to continue to come back to the Lord and say, am I...
Am I still within the frame of enough with what you have put before me? And if not, do I need to cut even more or do I need to cut even more? How do I live with you? With wisdom, Lord, in all of this?

Spencer
Well, because it's so easy with the level of wealth that many of us have accumulated, or the level of income that we have to lose sight of, you know, really the gifts that God has given us, the capacity that we do have to give, and, and really see ourselves as stewards, if, you know, we're doing really well professionally.
And like Rachel talks about, that level of spending just continues to increase. Then a couple things usually happen. First. The level of entitlement, you know, within us grows such that it's really hard to enjoy some of the simpler things. You know, it's hard to go and visit a friend and not stay in a nicer place. It's hard to go on a missions trip, for instance, and stay in in that more, you know, rural area, you know, potentially because we haven't had to rough it, you know, in, in different ways.
There's all kinds of things that if we allow our spending to increase without reflection, we're preparing ourselves to live at that lifestyle, really, in perpetuity. And that's oftentimes antithetical to real spiritual growth, which I think all of us as we age, what we want to do is we want to be closer to the Lord. We want to be less self-focused.
We want to be actually more flexible, you know, in terms of how we engage with people such that if things don't turn out well, it's okay. Yeah. You know, we can we can pivot. Yeah. Whereas I think, it's so easy to be on a different path where as income expands, we feel more and more entitled and kind of our life creeps towards luxury, and then we're not able to be as flexible.
You know, when when that demand for flexibility or that demand for a change happens, we kind of, push back really hard because that's not we're not prepared to do that.

Austin
Right.

Spencer
Whereas if we, set some finish lines, maybe it's a different a different approach.

Austin
Absolutely. Well, then, for parents and grandparents, I think this is really, a critical thing to wrestle with this idea of how much am I spending because it's not just going to affect you, it's going to affect your children, your grandchildren, if they are constantly seeing a life of luxury, then they are essentially becoming accustomed to a life of luxury, and you're setting them up to think that that life of luxury is what they deserve.
And so it's really imperative for us as as stewards, to think, how am I stewarding these resources primarily for the King, but also how am I teaching my kids how to steward resources on behalf of the King? And so this is where we come back to again. James one five we have to submit ourselves to the Lord. We have to live within his boundaries.
We have to ask for his guidance, his wisdom, and to to take ourselves out of the the throne, take ourselves off the throne and kind of avoid that you only live once approach to life. It is true. But eternity is going to be far better. Right. And we want to send ahead. We want to invest in kingdom causes for a beautiful eternity that awaits us to be able to participate with the Lord in an abundance, both now and in eternity.
So clients, if you have questions about setting financial finish lines, what does it mean to pursue the Lord? And thus we would love to have that conversation with you. Until next time, take care. If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss the next episode.

Disclosures
This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We're in Knoxville, Tennessee, and you can visit our website at www.SecondHalfStewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.