Now you know what we are going to do with all this surplus money of God’s when we say we are going to invest it. We are going to start a business of our own or we are going to buy part of an already existing business or we are going to loan some of the money to an existing business. We will be converting God’s money into something that will hopefully generate an income and/or profit. I use the term “hopefully” here because all investments carry with them some risk of failure.
Lots of people have started their own business. A few have grown to be quite large and famous like Microsoft, Dell, Steiger Tractors, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc. You probably know some self employed people, people who own and operate their own businesses and provide a wide variety of products and services. They do it to earn an income, make a living, provide for their families. When their business prospers and their “surplus” grows they can invest it in their own already existing business to make it bigger and/or become more profitable or they can invest in someone else’s already existing business. Some of us don’t want to start our own business and we work for someone else. I have always been in this category . When our “surplus” begins to grow and we want to invest it we can buy part of an existing business or we can loan some of the surplus to an existing business.
I’m trying to think of another reason or different reasons for investing God’s surplus than the hope of a better return than we are getting on our emergency fund in a savings account at the bank. I can’t think of one. But why do we want a better return? For one thing, if you read the scripture passages I have suggested you learned that not only are saving and investing approved by God, they are more than approved. They are commended by God. Actually, they are more than approved and commended, they are demanded. To carry it one step further, not only are they approved, commended and demanded, they are rewarded by God. In fact, God even punishes those who fail to invest wisely. What more incentive do we need? Frankly I’m a little nervous after reading the Matthew passage.
There are four other reasons we might want a better return on investments than the bank can give us in our savings accounts.
- Old age. I’m not going to say retirement because it isn’t Biblical except for a select group of people called Levites and I doubt anyone reading this is a Levite. There comes a time in everyone’s life when we are for one reason or another unable to work to provide for our needs and the needs of our family. When that time comes, we must have sufficient resources available to sustain us. My wife’s dad used to put this way, “I want to have enough put aside to see me out”. You get the idea.
- College education. Is it possible for kids to attend and graduate from college these days without financial help and/or without borrowing a lot of money? Of course it is but I don’t think it is unbiblical for parents to help out a little. And it certainly won’t hurt the kids to earn some of the expenses themselves. What if it takes an extra year or so to get through; so what? They have 70-80 (maybe more) years left of their lives. I’m not sure I like the idea of borrowing a lot of money for college even though it seems to be the accepted thing to do these days.
- Inheritance. The Bible is friendly to the idea of leaving an inheritance to children but it also issues some words of caution concerning how to do it. You might want to do a little study on your own to see what God is concerned about. One very famous parable comes immediately to mind. Do you remember which one I’m talking about? See if you can find it and jot down what you learn.
- Give it away. Last but certainly not least, you could give away the earnings from your investments. Keep in mind that this isn’t your money you are giving away and it’s always more fun to give somebody else’s money away.
Having said all this about saving and investing, there is a real tension here and you probably know and can “feel” what it is. I’ve recommended this book before but it is appropriate here to recommend it again, Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn. The issue is this: how much should I save and invest (to properly provide for the NEEDS of family both now and in the future, and perhaps to help the kids a little with college expenses, and perhaps to leave a little inheritance for the kids) and how much should I give away. Remember now we are dealing with God’s “surplus”. I suspect that the tendency is to continue to save and invest with the idea that we will give away the earnings/returns from the investments if we don’t think we will need them but never touch the investments themselves (financial people call that the “principle”). It certainly would be nice of us and generous of us to give away the earnings wouldn’t it. And, God would certainly be glorified. However, the most we are going to earn on these investments of God’s surplus over the years (long term) is around 8-10% per year if we do it “right” (more about doing it “right” later). Quite a few people won’t do this well and very few will do better than 10%/year over the long haul.
Now here’s the rub. What if we started giving God’s surplus away at some point rather than investing it and continuing to hope for a high rate of return? Is God able to multiply this (His) surplus at a rate greater than 10% per year? Can we trust Him to do it? As managers of His money can we think of some places to give it that would meet with His approval and that would be glorifying to Him? I can think of several, how about you? The question is at what point does wise investing to meet NEEDS turn into personal gratification, greed, and hoarding?