Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey everybody, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're talking about your money. We're continuing a powerful series called Financial Fitness. Rick is opening God's Word and showing us how to manage what we've been given with wisdom, faith, and purpose. I know if you apply these biblical principles, you'll start to experience true financial freedom and lasting peace. Now here's Rick to wrap up the final part of a message called The Habits of Financial Health.

Pastor Rick Warren: Look at this next verse. Ecclesiastes 11:2 is another advice about investing and saving. Invest what you have in several different places because you don't know what disasters might happen. Now this is the principle of diversification. It says you need to diversify. You don't put all your savings in one place. You've heard the old expression, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. You know where that phrase came from? This verse right here in the Bible. The Bible says you don't put all your eggs in one basket. You put a little bit of your savings here, a little bit here, a little bit here. You spread it out. Any money manager will tell you this is a balanced portfolio to minimize risk, that you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket. You don't want to have all your investments in one place. You want to spread it out to minimize the risk factor in your investing. That's what the Bible says. You need to diversify.

Look at the next verse. Proverbs 13:11. Money that comes easily disappears quickly. Now you might write out to the side of that verse, "lotto." Money that comes easily disappears quickly, but money that is gathered little by little will grow. Circle "little by little." This is the little by little principle of adding a little bit every day. You need to start saving yesterday. You say, "Well, I'm in debt." You still need to start putting money into savings. I don't care how much it is. It's that you start the habit. Just like the habit of tithing, you start the habit of saving and you do it every single week and you put a little. It's not the amount that matters. I started saving for my retirement when I was 17 years old. I had just graduated from high school and I started putting in 50 cents a week into a retirement account at age 17. Not many teenagers are doing that. Then I raised it to a dollar, then five dollars, then ten dollars, and on and on. Over 40 years later, that adds up. That's why today I don't have to take a salary because I started saving years and years ago and that money has compounded and we live on the interest of my savings. I'm retired.

Now you're not starting that soon, but you need to start yesterday and you need to start saving a little bit every time. Pay God first, pay yourself second. That's the way God blesses. You do that over time, and financially, it will show up. It's not the amount, it's the consistency. Habit number five: the fifth habit you're going to have to develop is keep good records. This is the principle of accounting. You need to start writing down what you spend until you absolutely know where it's all going. You've got to keep track of your finances. If you don't keep track of it, money just walks away. The Bible says, "Plan carefully." Notice this verse, Proverbs 21:5. Plan carefully and you will have plenty. Look, if you don't have plenty, you're not planning carefully. The Bible says, "Plan carefully and you will have plenty." If you don't have plenty, you're not planning carefully. You have nobody to blame but yourself. You say, "But I had this emergency." Everybody has emergencies. I do, you do, everybody has emergencies. Everybody gets laid off or has difficulties. The difference between people who make it through and those who don't is some people actually plan to expect emergencies. If you don't expect them, of course you're going to be devastated by them.

Plan carefully and you will have plenty. If you act too quickly—that's called impulse buying—you will never, never have enough. So you've got to keep good records. Plan carefully. You've got to know where your money is going. You ever get to the end of the month and go, "Man, where did it all go?" If you ever say that, you're already in deep doodoo because ignorance of your financial condition plus easy credit equals disaster. You know, you've heard that phrase, "money talks." It does not. Money does not talk, it just walks away quietly. It doesn't tell you where it's going. So you have to keep a good record and know where it's going. Proverbs 27:23 and 24 is another verse about keeping good records. Riches can disappear fast. Now let me stop. How many of you agree with that part of the verse? Yeah. Anybody want to give a testimony how riches can disappear fast? Riches can disappear fast, so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds. Why does it say that? Because obviously in those days, they didn't have banks. They didn't even have money in these days. In those days, all a person's wealth was tied up in their livestock. You could tell how rich a person was just by looking at how many animals they had. If you had a lot of sheep, a lot of goats, and a lot of cattle, you were rich. If you had a few sheep, a few goats, and a few cattle, you were middle class. If you had no sheep, no goats, and no cattle, you were poor. He's saying here, "Know the condition, the state of your flocks." Today he'd say, "Know the state of your stocks." He'd say, "Know your assets, know your investments, know how much you've got, know where it's going, know how much you're earning on it." He said you need to keep good records. Know the states of your flocks and your herds. You say, "I don't know where it all goes," then that's a warning light to you. Now you need to know four things. Write these down. Here are the four things you need to keep good records of: what I own, what I owe, what I earn—you need to know that—and where it's going. What I own, what I owe, what I earn, and where it's going. If you don't know those four things, you are already in deep trouble and don't know it. You must keep good records. This is the principle of accounting. Because if you don't know where it's going, it's going to leave without telling you.

Proverbs 23:5 says this: Your money can be gone in a flash, as if it had grown wings and flown away like an eagle. That's a pretty descriptive picture. Your money, if you don't know where it's going, it's just going to fly away like an eagle. Fortunately, the United States government is kind enough to remind us by putting an eagle on every dollar bill. So when you look at that dollar bill, it goes, "This one's going to fly away unless I tell it where to go." That brings us to habit number six. Habit number six is I must plan my spending. These are one of the eight habits you must do to get out of debt and to get financially free. I must start planning my spending. Most of you do not plan your spending. You don't have a plan for spending. You just spend whatever you want to spend, whenever you want to spend it, however you want to spend it, and you do it impulsively. Now what is planned spending? A plan for spending is a budget. That's all a budget is. A budget is planned spending. Everybody needs a budget. It's a plan for how I want to spend it. A budget is telling your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went. You need a budget for your spending. Telling your money where you want it to go—this month I want this much to go here, this much to go here, this much—rather than wondering where it went. How do you spell relief? B-U-D-G-E-T. That's how you spell it, budget. Now if you want to get out of debt, you're going to have to nip it in the budget. Nip it, nip it, nip it, as they used to say on Andy Griffith. Nip it in the budget.

Proverbs 21:20 says this: Stupid people—and that's none of you—stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it. This is called impulse buying. When you see something, if you don't have a plan, you go into the grocery store. If I don't know what I'm going to get in that grocery store, I'm going to come out with eight things I didn't plan to get. "Oh, that looks good." Especially if you're hungry. "Let's pull a few of those in there. That looks good." Then there's one word that makes impulse buying impossible to resist. It is the word "sale." You're a PhD in impulse buying. You knew that. Everything in our society is designed to get you to do impulse buying, to not think about it, to spend emotionally, to not have a plan, to not have a budget. Now when it comes to impulse buying, hell is Costco. At least for me. Because I go in there, "Well, I know I don't need a hundred pounds of rice, but look at the price! I mean, what a deal. Really, what a deal. I don't really need five gallons of shampoo, but look at the price on it." Do you really need a five-gallon barrel of jalapenos? Two years later, it's still taking up space in your refrigerator. The jalapenos have turned purple, but you saved a lot on it. When somebody comes up and says, "Look what I saved, honey," no, you didn't save anything. You spent. You didn't save anything. That money could have gone in the bank, in the savings, could have been making you money, but now it's sitting in a jalapeno jar in your refrigerator. You didn't really need that many jalapenos, but you bought it because of impulse buying and sales. Have you ever bought anything you later regretted? Yes, of course you have. You do it without thinking. The Bible says "plan your spending." That's having a budget. Again, look at Proverbs 21:5. Plan carefully and you'll have plenty. If you act too quickly, you'll never have enough. Look at this next verse on your outline. Proverbs 21:5 says, "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty."

Habit number seven: the seventh habit I have to develop is set up a repayment plan. If you're in debt, you're not going to get out of debt automatically. You're not going to get out of debt by accident. You're going to have to plan to get out of debt. The only way you're going to get out of debt is by setting up a scheduled repayment plan. You didn't get into debt overnight. It took a long time to get in the mess you're in, and you're not going to get out of debt overnight either. It's going to take probably some years. I want you to get out of debt. That will not happen without some discipline, without making some tough choices. But I don't want you under the tension, as your pastor, I don't want you under the tension of financial bondage for the rest of your life. It'll take five years off your life. It'll ruin a lot of your days. It'll cause more arguments at home than you need to have and so many other things. If you could take that pressure off your back and you were financially debt-free, then God could do all kinds of things in your life that He can't do because you're in bondage right now. So you've got to set up a debt repayment plan. Look at these verses. The Bible says in Proverbs 3:27, "Don't withhold repayment of your debts." In other words, if you're in debt, you need to be paying it down. Then the Bible says in Romans 13:8, "Let no debt remain outstanding." Do you know what an outstanding debt is? It's when you're paying interest payments only. If you have an amount on your credit card and you're not paying that credit card off every month, but you're just paying the minimum, you have an outstanding debt. God says "no good" because you're paying interest on interest on interest, which is dumb. The thing you bought, you're paying for two, three, and four or five times over because you're paying interest on interest on interest. An outstanding debt is when you're not paying down the principal or you're behind in your payments and things like that. You've got to set up a repayment plan.

Habit number eight, and this is the bookend, is commit it all to God. I must commit it all to God. Remember, the first habit is I must realize it all comes from God, and the eighth habit is I must commit it all back to God. I say, "God, my life, my time, my relationships, my money, my future, my job, it's all yours. I'll do it your way from now on. Not my way, I'm going to do it your way." Proverbs 16:3. Here's a promise. Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed. Circle the word "succeed." I want you to succeed in life. I don't want you to be a failure in life. I want you to succeed spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and I want you to succeed financially. Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed. Your biggest problem is not debt. Debt is a symptom of a deeper problem. It is a symptom of dissatisfaction and a lack of contentment. I have to have more to be more happy. I have to have more to be more secure. I have to have more to be more liked. I have to have more to be more valued. None of that is true.

The older I get, the more mature I get, the wiser I get, the more I realize how little it takes to make you happy. It doesn't take a lot. When I was young, I used to think it takes this, this, this, and this in order for me to be happy. If I can get all that, then I'll be happy. No, you're as happy as you choose to be. Happiness is a choice. If you're not happy now, you're not going to be happy in 10 years, in 15 years, in 20. Happiness is a choice. I could show you people in places like Sudan who have nothing at all and are happy. Happiness is a choice. You don't need it all. I would suggest you go home and make a list of all the things that make you happy that cost nothing, like watching a sunrise, and enjoy those things. Playing with your children or grandchildren, whatever.

The problem is not debt. The problem is unmanaged finances, and unmanaged finances are symptoms of an unmanaged life. Your life is out of control. Your life lacks discipline. As a result, you are drifting and you're being driven by forces, including economic forces, instead of being directed and purpose-driven and knowing where you're going. One of the major problems we have today is that people go out and buy things they don't need with money they don't have. Then they spend all their time hustling to make the payments on stuff they didn't need with money they didn't have. They spend so much time trying to pay their debts off, they don't enjoy what they've got. They don't enjoy it at all. Look at what this verse says. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5 that God created it all for our enjoyment. If God gives us wealth and property and He lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have. We should enjoy what we've worked for. It is the gift from God. Look up here. Here's the way most people use their money. They do the same five things over and over. First thing they do as soon as they get money, they get a check, they go out and spend it without any planning. Then they worry about the fact that they don't have enough money. Then they try to repay their bills, do a repayment. Then if there was any leftover—and there isn't—they save it. Then after that, if there's any leftover, they give some. That's not the plan God blesses. God says, "No, first you recognize that I'm your source and I'm your security. Then you work honestly for a living. You give the first part back to me and you give the second part to yourself. You pay me first, you pay yourself second, and then you live on the rest." You say, "I can't live on the rest." Then you're living beyond your means. You're living beyond your means and you need to make some tough choices.

Guest (Male): What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. Daily Hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Pastor Rick Warren: Friends, it always encourages me to hear how God is using Daily Hope to help you. Thanks for your letters. I want to read one to you today from a woman named Judith. She said, "Dear Pastor Rick, after college, I met and married a man that God did not intend for me, but I became pregnant with triplets and the marriage was tumultuous and I endured more pain and more loneliness and more sadness than I could have ever imagined. But God still showed me His grace and love and He sustained and He comforted me. But as I was left to work and care for three babies, I clung on to God and I listened to your daily podcast every day and sometimes it was as if God was speaking directly to me. I read your Daily Hope devotionals and I read the Bible and I prayed. It was tough, but I survived and I'm still surviving because of God. After your series on tithing, I felt convicted and started tithing even though mathematically it was literally impossible for me to tithe. But I trusted God with what I had and God has covered the tithing and blessed me with even more. I'm now starting your series on prayer and I can't wait to grow closer to God and walk in His purposes for my life instead of my own purposes. Thank you, Pastor Rick, for doing God's work." Well Judith, I want to thank you. Thank you that you wrapped your arms tightly around God during such an incredibly hard season in your life. You've been through some really challenging times and I'm blessed to see that Daily Hope has played a part in deepening your trust in God. You're seeing God's faithfulness and you're seeing His provision. That's increasing your trust and that makes me smile. God bless you, Judith.

Guest (Male): Pastor Rick would love to hear how this broadcast has blessed you. Please send him an email at Rick@PastorRick.com. That's Rick@PastorRick.com. It's a simple way to encourage and bless Pastor Rick and the whole Daily Hope team. We hope you'll join us next time as we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.