The truly wealthy give abundantly to spread the gospel throughout the earth, consistently keep their expenses below their income, and invest excess cash over long periods of time, in things in which they hold equity participation in order to receive greatly increased value, growth, and return (i.e., businesses and real estate via stock or ownership). They understand that wealth will not be built by those that have a “spend, spend, spend” mentality nor by those who regularly borrow money in order to get the many depreciating assets they continually desire (clothes, jewelry, cars, houses, etc.). First and foremost, their true wealth is in Christ and the increasing intimacy they seek with Him. This then leads their focus away from constant spending to get unnecessary items to impress themselves and the world around them. The love of the LORD reigning in their hearts encourages the mindset give first, save next, and spend last.
They would much rather give abundantly to see people introduced to Christ and become believers and disciples than they would to receive the myriad of material things produced to tickle people’s fancy. This mindset and pattern of living then produces an earthly situation for them (via increased income earning opportunities and investment growth even while continuing to abundantly give) whereby they are able to have many fine and increasingly expensive material things throughout their lives, because of the deferred gratification they displayed as a normal part of their behavior after putting on the mind of Christ. They wind up being able to enjoy things they get because they are obtained without debt and thus worldly economic forces, such as depressions and recessions, cannot snatch them out of their hands via repossession and foreclosure. Their obedience to Christ and simple financial plan based on biblical principles allows them to have sizeable savings and investment to get them through the short financially turbulent periods that occur once every decade or so.
They are not hooked on such material things emotionally or sentimentally or any other way and could at any time necessary give away or sell these things if they felt like ownership or maintenance of them could negatively affect their situation regarding cutbacks necessary due to a decrease in income or the ability to continually and abundantly give, save, and invest.
Purchasing a house can be a good thing for many people when done the right way. Great benefits could be peace from noisy or rowdy apartment dwellers, more space, and a mortgage payment (including principle, interest, home insurance, and property taxes) that normally would not rise to the level that rent increases would rise over the next decades of your life. However, irresponsible home purchasers, those who impulsively get houses they truly cannot handle on current income, those misinformed about the costs of maintenance and repair and who do not have a huge savings and investment cushion to handle them, those who impulsively move to higher cost homes when their incomes cannot handle that level of extra expense are generally no more wealthy than the average renter in their same income bracket. Beware, our nation would not be experiencing so much predatory lending and home foreclosures if it is automatically true that purchasing a home and getting a tax deduction for it will make you wealthier than those who do not purchase a home. Do not get a home when you do not have at least 20% of the purchase price saved for down-payment and closing costs, when you do not have a reasonable fund for maintenance and repairs that may occur, when the monthly mortgage payment would be greater than 25% of your take home pay, and when you have not drafted a plan and budget to eliminate the home mortgage within 7 years from the purchase date.
Unfortunately, many people are told that wealth is built by the 15-36% tax deduction they get for every $1 in interest they pay on home mortgages. If this seems right to you, how about for every $1,000 you give me I will give you $150 to $360 back next year? While I would grow more wealthy over time, do you still think that exchange would make you wealthy over time? Other people are told they can leverage debt to the hilt to start a business or buy real estate and become as wealthy as they want to be. Of the hundreds of friends and thousands of people we know we have not met any who became wealthy by getting home mortgage tax deductions and we have not personally known any that became wealthy by leveraging debt for real estate or business. Generally, less than one percent of all people who try these methods become economically wealthy, which leaves ninety-nine percent who do not. Urban mythology is how you should label most stories you hear about people maxing out credit cards and taking on substantial debt to become wealthy via borrowed capital. Stay as far away from such methods as you possibly can. Learn to give abundantly, live debt-free, and makes sure you set aside reasonable savings and money for proven long-term equity investment because this is the pathway that will economically bless you now and much more as you move throughout your future.
Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!
Genesis 14:20, Proverbs 22:7, Proverbs 27:23-24, Romans 13:8, Hebrews 7:8
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