Practical ways to reduce, avoid, and eliminate your debt so it won’t slow you down.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<p>Practical ways to reduce, avoid, and eliminate your debt so it won’t slow you down.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Stewardship Seminar

Jim Slater

Preparing Yourself for Success - Part 1

Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that we don't own anything, you own it all.

It kind of relieves us from the burden and pressure, but it also gives us a responsibility factor that we want to be faithful in.

So as you have brought your servant, Jim, here to share with us, He's prepared material through the Spirit's direction.

But Father, if there's something else you want him to share, bring it to his mind.

Teach us and help us not to just get head knowledge from this, but help us to get some practical stuff that we can apply and be faithful to You.

This session is called, Managing Money for the Long Run in Iron Man's Guide to Financial Prosperity.

We're going to talk a little bit this morning about what it means to be an Iron Man.

And if you look back to the Bible, The Bible often talks about the analogy between the spiritual life and running.

Paul uses that a lot and I figured if it's good enough for Paul to use spiritually, it's probably good enough for us to understand some of the concepts financially.

What makes you successful to do some things with an Ironman triathlon, even what that is, can relate very specifically to what we're doing in finances.

So we'll be speaking about that a little bit.

How many of you here came to Michigan Camp meeting back at Grand Ledge?

All right, which is like the classic, right?

That's where we all have our great memories.

She, we came home from school and she talked to my older sister and I.

And I was only 8, so I guess I should be excited too.

And so my sister and I had a paper route.

And I still know how she did it, because the rule was you had to be 12 to actually have a paper route, because of labor laws.

My mom got us in at the ages of 8 and 10.

And so 4 days a week we were delivering newspapers and that was a source of income to my sister and I.

Eventually my younger sister got it got 1 as well.

And as all of us have kind of ebb and flow financially in our life, the same thing happened in our family.

And for a couple of years, that money that my sister and I were making, we would buy our own clothes.

If we wanted to go to summer camp, We would save up for a year and go to summer camp.

I remember my mom, when we were first getting started, she took little canning jars, put a label on them, and I had my tithe jar, and I had my savings jar, and I had my clothes jar, and I had gift, all that kind of stuff from the age of 8.

I had a paper out until I was 14 and then I started high school or Academy.

The commitment that my parents had to Adventist education, we actually lived there because it was going to be cheaper to be a village student than a dorm student, and I paid my way through academy.

When I was done with academy, I went to Andrews University.

At Andrews University, I had the benefit of my mom working for the conference, so I got somewhat of a subsidy for the tuition, but paid my way through college.

And I got done with college, I had a business major, and I kept thinking, what am I going to do?

I've been working for so many years, I don't know what I want to do with my life.

And I thought, well, you know I do a lot with money, personally, so maybe I should try a career in the area of financial planning.

And so I worked for a firm for about a year.

Took me about 3 months, and then I realized that pretty much every solution, the only solution I had to everyone's financial issues was selling them a whole life insurance policy.

And so I realized that maybe I'm not a financial planner, I'm actually a life insurance salesman.

And I went from that to working at a brokerage firm for a couple years.

And I won't go through all the details, but I've had the opportunity to work in the area of retirement plans.

The largest plan that I've been part of actually was 1 of the retirement plans for AltaCore, which is Amway.

I've worked with plans as small as just 1 person.

I served for 5 years with JPMorgan in their private bank as a fiduciary officer, which is handling trusts.

And most recently, and there's a couple other things in between there, but more recently, my current job for the last 6 years is I'm the chief investment officer for a small investment advisory firm in Grand Haven, which is the greatest career I've had in my whole life.

So when I think back, whether it's professionally or personal experience, or just as importantly, just observing what's happened in other people's lives.

We can learn from our mistakes, or we can learn from other people's mistakes.

I like learning from other people's mistakes a lot better and hopefully you do too.

But just the life experiences of watching and observing, my own personal experience and what I've done professionally, I want to bring that to us today and put that in the context of what God is asking us to do with money.

So we're going to talk about a couple of things here.

Let me make sure I got the right 1 here, Gene.

Let's start with this, what is an Ironman?

Because that's kind of key to what we're gonna be talking about this week.

An Ironman started back in, actually it's 40 years ago.

John Collins decided to put together a event because they were trying to figure out who's the best athlete.

And out in Hawaii they had 3 races, significant races, and they said let's put those all together.

1 race, 1 day, whoever wins, they're the best athlete.

And we'll answer this question once and for all, who's the best athlete, swimmer, runner, biker.

So John Collins, who was a Navy officer, he put this together, swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, brag for the rest of your life.

And an Ironman is considered 1 of the most difficult one-day endurance events in the world.

And the reason why I want to talk about that is because I had the opportunity to do that last year, and it was an amazing experience.

And 1 of the things we're going to talk about is the fact that when I share with people, you know, that I did that, they're like, wow, that's phenomenal.

And I think later, I've talked to my wife Sarah about this, they're probably right.

And the reason is because they've already told themselves, I can't do it.

And how often do we have that same attitude with money?

And we've already set ourselves up to fail, and that's why I want to talk today specifically about what we're doing with our mind.

Because unless we get the mind right, the rest of the stuff that we talk about this week is somewhat irrelevant.

So with that, I'm just going to share with you, I'm going to play this video, which will give you Just a little flavor of what it's like to do an Ironman triathlon.

All right, so that's just a little bit what that experience is like.

And 1 of the things that you may notice is that a lot of the people that were doing that event had some form of something that was inhibiting them.

Something that they could have used as an excuse, right?

The 1 that I'm the most impressed with in all of that is the guy that was pushing his son.

I've seen that in other races where you see a dad swimming, towing a kayak with his son or daughter in there, or running at the end, or biking with the carriage behind.

Keeping Track of the Things That Matter -  Part 2

Heavenly Father, we thank you for a new day, for the opportunity to learn more about you and to learn more about the resources that you have given us and how to be good stewards of those things.

And so bless us today as we listen, bless Jim as he presents.

The title of the seminar is Managing Money for the Long Run, an Ironman's Guide to Financial Prosperity.

And the reason that I use that as a title is that I've had a unique privilege to participate last fall in an Ironman triathlon.

And I'm not going to again go through all this, but for those of you that are new, an Ironman triathlon is about a 2 and a half mile swim, followed by 112 mile bike ride.

And then you wrap it all up with a full marathon, which is 26 miles.

It's considered 1 of the toughest one-day endurance events in the world.

And the reason why it's relevant to us is that I'll talk to people and they'll be like, wow, that's so impressive.

And I hear people make the same comment when I talk about money, it's like, wow, that's really impressive, good for whoever.

And what I found is that the same mindset that lets just some average guy like me, and most people, when I did the Ironman last fall, most people that do this are folks like you and I.

I mean, there's a few really elite athletes that are out there, and by the way, you can spot them.

Most of us here in this room could be represented at an Ironman all right age gender even health all that kind of stuff And so it has more to do with a mindset than it has to do with, oh, I've got this particular skill or this gift.

And so when we're talking about money, 1 of the first things we talked about yesterday is we have to have the right mindset.

And so I'm going to just go back for a second here and kind of recap what we talked about yesterday.

It starts with the right mindset that says I can do that.

Remember we talked about, actually we'll go to the next 1, if you think you can or you think you can't, You are right.

We're going to talk a little bit this morning again about the power of the mind.

The importance of money, when we're dealing with it as Christians, is money is the most tangible expression of our current spiritual condition.

And if you remember, God doesn't have a problem with money.

God doesn't have a problem with us having money.

God is worried that money, the more wealth that we have, will cause a poverty of character.

And we see that happening over and over again.

I talked yesterday about the fact that I don't think that money changes people.

We talked about some experiences I've had where you're like, if that's what money does to people, I don't want it.

But I think what happens more often, not always, but more often is that money reveals what's happening in the character.

Money is the most tangible expression of our current spiritual condition.

And then we talked very specifically, there was a lot of, I don't wanna call it theory, but we use some specific practical application.

The Bible talks to us about guard your own palace to keep your goods in peace.

And so we talked about cybersecurity and how to make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep the strong man from breaking in and taking our goods.

For those of you that were not here yesterday, Len and Karen, I know you guys weren't, if you guys just take these and find, you know, around the room, if anyone doesn't have 1 of those, raise your hand.

That's a couple pages with some very practical things to try to protect our assets, the money, the means that God has given us.

It is wise, it is biblical for us to protect that and keep it safe.

And so those are some practical things because the entire, I shouldn't say entire world, but around the world there are efforts going on to try to separate us from our assets.

We talked a little bit again about the mind.

I'm going to wrap up yesterday with this text.

Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The idea being that over time our mind can be renewed.

We can have those right thoughts, we can have the right attitudes, and from that we can be successful.

Yesterday starts with the right attitude, confirming truths, debunking myths about money.

Today we're going to talk about keeping track of the things that count, the real reason to budget and how to do it right.

And I left yesterday with the comment, when we, how many think about budgets as really, really positive?

How many of you feel like budgets are a way to keep your money in jail?

And you it only can get out once a year for good behavior.

So we're going to talk, I have budget because we know what that means.

We're going to talk about it in the context of a spending plan.

All right, Doesn't that sound more positive?

I have a spending plan where I choose how my money is spent.

For those of you that were not here yesterday, there's a couple of other, 1 more handout.

Again, if you guys can take a couple of these, make sure that everyone gets 1.

I'm not going to go through probably half of it intentionally.

This, by the way, is something that I found on a website with Crown Ministries.

How many of you here have ever heard the name Larry Burkett?

Okay, I think he's just kind of like the pillar of Christian financial concepts.

My understanding is I think Dave Ramsey studied, either studied under him or learned from him.

I just happened to find that for today's or this week's seminar that Crown had some really good practical information that we could use and it seemed a little less commercialized.

The 1 thing I will mention, if you go to the very back, it says ideas list.

I'm hoping that there's just a ton of information that you guys will get through the course of this week and if that's the case a lot of times it's easy to get overwhelmed and we've talked about a lot of stuff yesterday and there was probably a dozen things that we could do.

We do not have to accomplish everything in our life this week.

10 years ago this week, for the very first time in my life, I ran a 5k.

That was a big deal to me because a few years before that I couldn't run from my front door to the end of the road.

So we have to recognize that in this process of moving forward financially we don't have to go from nothing to everything overnight.

And so when you start feeling overwhelmed don't worry that everything we talked about is something that you have to incorporate today, or this week, or this month.

But I want you to write down some ideas, and when we're all done, I will consider it a success if you leave saying, I had 3 or 4 really key takeaways that I think I can implement.

If there was 1 from yesterday and some people came in they were like oh yeah hey I changed my passwords last night.

After everything that we talked about that was probably the most valuable thing you could do yesterday for cybersecurity is make your passwords more secure.

So what I want you to do is write down the ideas, don't feel overwhelmed, but just think to yourself at the end of the week, can I take away something each day?

Is there 1 idea that stood out that you say, I can do that?

Because if you can do that, you can build on that, and a year from now be doing more.

And so I always tell people it's better to do something than nothing.

So take that first step and start moving forward.

All right, so If you turn and open, it should be either the first page, the back of the first page or the front of the second page.

We're going to talk about the spending plan.

But before we do that, I want to just, I'm going to throw out a couple of thoughts as we start thinking about budgeting or spending plan.

Number 1, this goes back to the beginning of my career.

Going Further on Less Effort - Part 4

Heavenly Father, thank You that we have another day which we can learn some more valuable lessons on how to be faithful stewards of all that You've placed in our hands.

Thank You for Your servant who's been sharing with us.

And I pray that you would help Jim to have the clarity of thought, to share those things that we need to hear, and then that you would give us, through the Holy Spirit's power, the strength to apply those things to our lives.

Just to pick up with what Elder Nephew was talking about, again, there's a lot of information.

Some of the stuff is going to be relevant and valuable to some of you.

Other information is going to be relevant and valuable to others.

The handout that we keep giving you, which is, I've got the color copy here, this financial planning workbook.

Again, if you turn it over on the back side, the last page, is where it says ideas.

What I want you guys to do is not worry that you're taking back and trying to incorporate every single idea that was talked about here.

But what I do want you to think about is there 1 or 2 things each day that are relevant to you that you think you can incorporate, and especially as you get back home, take a look at that list and say, okay, what are the top 2 or 3 things that I can start doing right now?

You're not going to get back, and you're not going to do everything Sunday morning.

But you do need to start thinking about what were the most important things to your own particular situation.

For those of you that are new here today, and also for the benefit of the folks that are going to be listening to this on CD or DVD, whatever it might be.

Just a kind of a quick explanation again about the basis of the seminar.

You see it up on the screen, Managing Money for the Long Run, an Ironman's Guide to Financial Prosperity.

We've talked a little bit about this, an Ironman is considered by many people to be the most difficult one-day endurance event in the world.

It's a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and when you're all done with that, the only thing between you and the finish line is a 26.2 mile run or a full marathon.

The average is 13 hours and I was on the north end of that.

So now I am doing it this fall and my goal is to be under 13 hours.

The record, the fastest is I think just over 8 hours.

Okay, so imagine what's he I imagine swimming and then biking and then running a marathon in like 2 hours and 45 minutes.

So there's a lot of people that go and they're not done at 17.

But the average is probably right around 13 hours.

And of course I handicap myself I say all right I'm you know 20 years older than the average person therefore I get an extra 20% time right so that that way I you know I can still justify but no I hope to be I hope to be a little bit faster this year.

But the idea for all of this is the things, I'm just a normal everyday guy.

There's nothing unique or special about me any more than anyone else, especially here in the room.

What you find when you do an Ironman, there's a lot of these elite athletes that can do really amazing things.

But most of them, a lot of the people out there are people just like you and I who have said, hey, I want to do this.

And the things that got us, meaning them and myself, to the starting line and to the finish line are the same principles that we're applying here.

And it starts again, as Elder Nephew was saying, it starts with a mindset that says, you know what, I can do this.

Because the greatest detriment to our financial success and the greatest detriment that keeps people from trying something like this is that I can't do that.

So I'm gonna talk for a couple minutes and just recap what we've been learning here so far this week.

Number 1, we started on Monday talking about it's the right mindset.

If you think you can or you think you can't, you are right.

So we can't go into financial management with this idea, I can't do that, I'm not good at that.

Maybe we're not going to be Rockefellers, multi-billionaires, that's not the goal, but we can all be financially successful.

We also talked about the fact that money is the most tangible expression of our current spiritual condition.

In other words, if we want to know where we're at spiritually, take a look at what we're doing with our money.

That's the most tangible expression of our relationship with God.

And then we spent quite a bit of time, guard your own palace to keep your goods in peace.

We talked about cybersecurity, the importance of guarding the assets and the wealth that God has given to us.

On Tuesday we talked about spending plan or budgeting.

The concept of if you fail to plan, plan to fail.

But the process of budgeting or creating a spending plan is more than just putting numbers on a piece of paper and feeling like our money is in jail.

The idea is that by doing that process, we've planted into our subconscious the seeds for success.

And so whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will 1 day become reality.

Let's put the right stuff in our subconscious brain.

The right budget or spending plan gives you freedom to spend.

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Series

Stewardship Seminar

Laying Aside the Extra Weight - Part 3

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Preparing Yourself for Success - Part 1

1h 1m

Keeping Track of the Things That Matter - Part 2

1h 12m

Going Further on Less Effort - Part 4

1h 5m

Leaving It All on the Field - Part 5

1h 7m

Laying Aside the Extra Weight - Part 3

1h 9m

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