can these dry bones live?

can these dry bones live? planning our financial goals This paper is part of a series linked to Your Money and Your Life by Keith Tondeur and Steve Pierce. Visit www.stewardship.org.uk/ymyl for further information Stewardship 1 Lamb s Passage, London EC1Y 8AB t 020 8502 8585 e education@stewardship.org.uk w www.stewardship.org.uk/money

G breathing life In his well-known vision Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones. As he spoke the word of God the bones came together, they took on sinew and flesh, had human form but there was no life. Then Ezekiel was commanded to speak to the four winds and breath came in to the bodies and they lived. Preparing a budget is the first and most important task in taking control over money but it is not a spectator sport! Few people rush home from work excited because it is budget night except perhaps the 224 accountants and 396 individuals who spent Christmas Day 2009 completing their tax returns! A budget can have its rows and columns beautifully presented with accurate numbers but, like Ezekiel s bones, be lifeless! Planning our financial goals breathes life into our budgets. A budget is there not to simply constrain spending but to serve the life that we plan carefully and prayerfully before God. We need to plan for the immediate future, the mid-term and for the long-term. Our financial goals set the destination and our budget maps how to get there. This paper outlines the importance of planning our goals and provides a simple tool to help determine those goals and share them with those with whom we love and live. choking the word Self-storage warehouses are not only a feature of our towns and cities they are also a sign of the times. There were about ten in the UK 1990. By 2008 an estimated 1 in every 170 households made use of around 680 UK self-storage facilities. That s more than in the rest of Europe combined, though still well behind the States, where it all started. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful (Mark 4:18) Now material things are a natural part of being human. We need stuff to survive and thrive. But stuff can also become a symbol of who we are and a measure of our success. Jesus warned that this is not what real life is all about (Luke 12:15). Our wealth and possessions, our homes, cars, holidays, gadgets and gizmos, also have a spiritual, gravitational pull which can get in the way of our kingdom life (Mark 4:18). Planning our financial goals is one of the ways in which we resist the temptations of material wealth and so it is a spiritual priority and a spiritual task. We need to know what we want money to do for us, how we want money to serve us. Knowing our financial goals gives us something to aim at and helps determine whether any major spending decision fits in with your priorities. Above all if we don t set your financial goals, someone else will do it for you, your friends, neighbours or the marketing experts! 2

all that is gold does not glitter In George Eliot s wonderful novel Silas Marner, the main character is a weaver, betrayed by the greed of a friend for his money and his woman and then shunned by his church. He moves to the country where working hard over many years he amasses a small fortune in gold. Marner has money but no-one to share it with; he has wealth but no purpose for that wealth and so his gold becomes an end in itself. Each night he spreads his gold on the table, lovingly counting it, running his hands through it. For twenty years, mysterious money had stood to him as the symbol of earthly good, and the immediate object of his toil. He has seemed to love it little in the years when every penny had its purpose for him; for he loved the purpose then. the love of accumulating money grows an absorbing passion in men whose imaginations, even in the very beginning of their hoard, showed them no purpose beyond it. When Marner s gold is stolen one night his life falls apart. He continues to work but with heaviness of heart until one evening he catches sight of a flash of gold on the hearth of his fire. It is not his money mysteriously returned but the golden hair of a sleeping child. Her mother has died on the road and the child finds her way first into Marner s cottage, then into his heart. All that is truly gold does not glitter. We need a purpose if money is not to control our hearts. Without purposeful financial goals we can get stuck at any point on the money chain. Earning can become obsessive, damaging families and friendships; saving can become fearful hoarding; spending can become retail therapy and our consuming can be compulsive. Living for today is not a biblical way of thinking but often we strive for things now as we talk of heaven. When we start planning and sharing our financial goals we start to make money serve our short term and long term needs. a rich, soft wanting But what kind of goals should we have? Like Joseph in his technicolour dreamcoat, will any dream do? Clearly we cannot have goals that serve only our selfish wants. Our goals will include, must include, material things but our purpose cannot simply be to accumulate more stuff and have more experiences. In a beautiful poem called Father to Son American poet Carl Sandburg writes: A tough will counts. So does desire. So does a rich soft wanting. Without rich wanting nothing arrives. Tell him too much money has killed men And left them dead years before burial: The quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs Has twisted good enough men. 3

G We need to have before God a rich, soft wanting. We have to want for the right things, those things that will enrich our lives and those around us. The problem with chasing our hard wants for wealth, possessions, status, success is that we miss out on those things that really matter to us. Your rich soft wanting might be the joy of learning by going to college; spending time out of work with young children or aiming to retire early and give some of your best years to God. A rich soft wanting may be to become debt free, to give more generously, to travel the world in a gap year, to put a child through college or save up for that special 25 th wedding anniversary. It may simply be to decorate the living room or buy a car. A rich soft wanting is not driven by the desire to own and possess and consume. practical tips Consider goals. An these editable general word points: version of the goals planner is also available to download from the website. 1 Use the financial goals planner at the end of this document as a guideline for planning your own The goals planner is about aspirations and intentions. You won t necessarily be able to cover every area especially if you are on a low income. No one should feel anxious if at the moment some things seem completely out of reach. This is not a one-off exercise. You are mapping out the first part of a journey as best you know the terrain. As you travel other things will become more clear and more possible. The sections on the first page are priorities: practical priorities to protect us from a debt cycle and give us cover against short-term emergencies and a spiritual priority to practice generosity. A financial goals planner is a tool that serves our plans but it is also a relational and a spiritual tool that helps us communicate and exercise our stewardship responsibility before God. Sharing goals matters: If you are engaged or married complete your individual goals sheets and then compare them. This may feel like lighting the blue touch paper and standing well back! You may have some talking to do before you can produce a shared financial goals sheet. But sharing goals is important if we are to be transparent and trusting around money. Share you goals with other close relationships. This may be friends living in a flat together. It may be with our brothers and sisters or our parents. You may also want to share with your closest friends, especially if your plans will impact up on them or if you need their emotional and practical support to achieve them. At the right time we will also want to share our goals with any children to communicate our values and intentions and to avoid future misunderstanding. Because financial planning is a spiritual discipline you may want to also share your goals with a pastor, a spiritual director or mentor. And, of course, our goals should always be planned prayerfully. 4

A financial goals planner starts with the immediate concerns and then anticipates what will happen in the future, those things set in stone such as anniversary dates and those things you would like to achieve. List your financial goals for the coming year. Be realistic in doing this. It is far better to attain three goals than to become frustrated trying to achieve ten unattainable ones. Some things may not seem very exciting, such as clearing credit card debt. But dealing with this stuff now will give you freedom to be and do more in the future. Set some mid term goals, maybe over five years. You can anticipate a child going to college or getting married, a special anniversary or a retirement, the need to replace a car. Set a maximum goal. Long term planning is tied up with pension provision and you should ensure that this is well planned as far as possible. You should have a goal of how much you want to accumulate or this ball will just keep rolling. Think in terms of provision rather than protection. Set some challenging giving goals because our real life is in heaven not on this earth and we need to invest in God s kingdom. Giving does not just happen; we can and must plan to be generous. Prioritize your goals. There will always need to be tradeoffs so ask yourselves which are the most important. After all, you do not have to accomplish all your goals at once. Your budget may, for example, not allow you to make additional savings for retirement until children have left home. what tomorrow will bring Planning our financial goals is a tool to enable us to live and to serve our God s purpose for our lives. The epistle of James says, Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:13-15) Pray for guidance in planning and for confirmation of your goals. Present circumstances make some goals look unlikely but do not dismiss them or the very idea of planning. Many of your goals may in fact be faith goals that you trust God to provide within his timing in the future. Planning your goals is a key step in taking control of money, building honesty and openness and exercising faithful stewardship. 5

my/our financial goals Name(s): Date: priorities 12 month goals GIVING I/we would like to give % of our income or I/we would like to give every week/month. I/we would like to give. to:- e.g. supporting a mission partner, a charity or sponsoring a child DEBT REPAYMENT I/we would like to reduce/pay off the following priority debts: e.g. arrears of rent/mortgage/council tax/utilities As priority debts these must be dealt with. If in any doubt ring debt charity CCCS: 0800 027 4995 or contact your local CAB or debt centre for free, impartial advice. I/we would like to reduce/pay off the following unsecured debts: e.g. credit card/overdraft/personal loans SAVING FOR EMERGENCIES I/we would like to have an emergency fund of... for emergencies ( 400-700 is a reasonable guideline for emergencies to cover unexpected bills; replacement of appliances etc, - if this is possible) I/we commit to continue to seek God s guidance and provision for these priorities [signed]. 6

my/our financial goals continued... GIVING 12 MONTH GOAL 2-5 YEARS (specify when) LONG TERM GOAL (specify when) I/we would like to give % of our income or. every week/month. I/we would like to give to:- DEBT REPAYMENT I/we would like to reduce/pay off the following debts, totalling. SAVINGS I/we would like to save p/w or pcm Aim to build up reserve of three months income. (On low incomes this may just not be possible; never feel guilty) INVESTMENTS I/we would like to make the following longer term investments e.g. pension CHANGES TO INCOME I/we would like to increase our income e.g. extra overtime or a second household income to enable debt repayment (or even pay cut to improve life/work balance) ONE-OFF SPENDING ITEMS I/we would like to make the following purchases e.g. home improvements, repairs, holidays, wedding EDUCATION/ OTHER I/we would like to set aside. for our/our child s education or WILLS AND LEGACIES I/we intend to make/review our will I/we intend to leave a legacy/legacies 7