View from the Summit

My, these are strange times we live in. I’m glad you stopped by today, though. We’re talking about another awkward subject: earning money.

You know makes talking about it difficult? The way we’re encouraged to think by pop culture. Money itself isn’t all that hard to understand. But we don’t live in a world that explains it properly. So we approach financial education as a simple, mathematical equation. I’m sorry if I’m the first one to tell you … that’s as nearsighted as you can get. For the months of March and April, we decided to tackle this head-on in our online mastermind groups.

Discussing finances as a mere calculation “robs” us of what money represents. I agree that someone with $1 million has more choices than someone with a hundred dollars. But culture is content to assign each of these people a morally relative value based on dollars and cents.

Lower Learning

If you have $1 million, here’s how tabloid culture looks at you. Regardless of what you did to earn it in the first place, you’re considered “lucky” at best. Spoiled and over-indulged. You’re also thought of as “greedy” because you “don’t share.” (Whether or not you are charitable is beside the point). Even more damaging, if you’re in leadership at a large corporation, they think you’re a legitimized thief.

By contrast, they automatically confer virtue on the man who only has $100 to his name, regardless of why. Does he have a gambling or drug problem? Does he lack the maturity to budget, save and live within his means? Does he serve others poorly? “It doesn’t matter,” the culture says. “It’s not his fault.” They defend him as an innocent victim. Even if, in desperation, he turns to crimes like robbery or burglary to force the world around him to give him money.

I would argue this is the dominant mindset among our most impoverished citizens. Most of it comes from how they’re raised - or not raised, to be blunt. This attitude remains mostly “closed off” to the principles of money. They live very far from learning or understanding them.

This may sound like a tough description of reality. But I believe we can’t have a true understanding, unless we admit we have a false one. The truth is more like my friend Dave Ramsey says. There are good and bad people in every class and income bracket.

Middle Learning

A step up from financial illiteracy is where the majority of people think, when it comes to money. They’re less likely to be completely broke. They usually earn their income fair and square. They probably have a certain amount of household debt. Mortgages, car payments, credit cards and so forth.

These people know you have to work to earn money. They cooperate with reality. Many of them work hard and cheerfully at their jobs. They may even be successful, get promoted and earn higher levels of income. But their net worth tends to be quite low. Little of what they “own” actually belongs to them. They aren’t saving and investing for the future. They might faithfully tithe at church … but they don’t understand how or why wealth is created. Their calculations are made based on getting paid every two weeks, and monthly payments with interest.

What Money Represents

My friend Rabbi Daniel Lapin explains money very well. He noted that you don’t see other creatures on earth “trading” with each other. It’s a unique human activity. This is because human beings are unique. No two of us have exactly the same needs, all the time. So we’ve created a system of “certificates of value,” which substitutes for things we need in the moment. This is what makes money a very spiritual thing.

And how about recessions? If this coronavirus business keeps up, we’re headed for one. But Rabbi Lapin points out, there’s never been a recession because a bunch of politicians started a big bonfire and dumped billions of dollars in currency into it. No, recessions are caused by human beings freaking out over circumstances they can’t control.

Anyway, the more of these “certificates” you have, the more value that you’ve provided to other human beings. This is part of what economist Adam Smith called “The Invisible Hand” of the marketplace. Money seems to “flow” toward people like Dave Ramsey and Rabbi Lapin. This is because they’re obsessed with providing value to others.

Here’s the good news. Even if you come from the first or second groups I mentioned, you can learn the principles of money. You can adapt and change the way you think about it. This is easier to say than do. But it’s certainly possible. We’ve seen several men come into our mastermind groups online and evolve their thinking. As a Christian life coach, I almost never take on clients that have the issue fully worked out. This includes successful, wealthy clients. Money’s spiritual essence means we always have more to learn about it than we currently understand.

Higher Learning

The remaining group in financial literacy includes people who know some (or all) the principles of money. They can be at various stages, but they’re committed to understanding how money works. These people can be found paying off debt, saving and investing, building profitable businesses or sowing seeds for future generations.

Change can be just as difficult, even at this level of literacy. If you’ve made it past treading water and learned to swim in the financial “deep end,” you can be tempted to “hoard” your money. Jesus taught us a parable in the Gospel of Luke to point this out. He said that the person who lays up treasure for themselves and isn’t “rich toward God” is a fool. Amassing a fortune can bring as much anxiety and destructive habits as living on skid row. You’d be wise to find a coach or mentor to help you no matter where you are.

Generosity, however, can light up the stars. Rabbi Lapin says that while you should not live beyond your means, you can certainly give beyond them.

We, unfortunately, had to cancel our spring live event for our men’s mastermind due to the concerns over the coronavirus. But we are building toward a thorough treatment of this in our individual groups as we go.  I encourage you to apply for one of our masterminds online for Iron Sharpens Iron, our ISI Women’s Mastermind and ISI Emerging Men.