6 Week Money Challenge: For Your Personal Finances

By Steve Repak

Financial matters are mentioned in the Bible more often than prayer, healing, or mercy. With so many people living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to build their credit and worried they will be in debt the rest of their lives, we need the Bible's words of financial wisdom more than ever.
Certified Financial PlannerTM Steve Repak reveals what the Bible has to say about spending, saving, and giving in this 6-Week Money Challenge. His simple, step-by-step program is founded on biblical principles paired with a CFPTM's understanding of modern wealth-management strategies.
Steve inspires and motivates readers to change their financial lives by challenging them to commit to his biblical boot camp. In just six weeks, readers will complete practical and achievable weekly challenges designed for group or individual use.
Take the 6-week money challenge now and get fit for a healthy financial future. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Release date: Jan 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781424551163

Steve Repak

Steve Repak is a Certified Financial PlannerTM professional, army veteran, financial literacy speaker, and author. His inspiring financial literacy presentations and one-on-one financial coaching have helped many people turn their finances around. Steve has been a frequent guest on Fox and Friends, Fox Business, The 700 Club, and CNN Headline News. He has been interviewed on NPR, Bloomberg Radio, Market Watch Radio, Wall Street Journal Radio, and many other national and regional shows. Steve’s work has been featured in Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, BusinessWeek, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, and USA Today. Steve lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife and three children. 

Book preview

introduction

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

(MATTHEW 6:33)

Did you know that financial matters are mentioned in the Bible more often than prayer, healing, or mercy? Fifteen percent of everything Jesus taught was on the topic of money and possessions—more than his teachings on heaven and hell combined.

Why would the Bible give so much attention to money when Matthew 6:33 assures us that we don’t need to focus on worldly matters such as our bank balance? It says that so long as we seek the kingdom of God, we have nothing to worry about. Yet the sad truth is that most people are only one paycheck away from a financial disaster, and too many of us are consumed by money worries. If you sometimes catch yourself spending more time stressing about money than growing your relationship with God, you are not alone. Though the Bible tells us to place our trust in our eternal security, all too often our attention is focused on concerns about our temporary security.

It’s no wonder, then, that finances are mentioned so many times in the Bible. God must have thought money was important because it’s the one thing that constantly pulls us away from him. What can we do to get our finances under control and devote ourselves to the stuff that really matters, rather than money worries? First up, it’s time to get real. Take a good look at the state of your finances and tick the answers to these questions:

Are you living paycheck to paycheck? Yes No

Do you worry about how you are going to pay your bills at the end of the month? Yes No

Do you have credit card debt? Yes No

Are you struggling to build your credit or believe your credit is beyond repair? Yes No

Are you concerned that you will be in debt for the rest of your life? Yes No

Do you have less than $1,000 in savings? Yes No

Are you giving less than what you know in your heart you should be giving? Yes No

Is your retirement plan to work forever? Yes No

Rather than taking steps to protect your family from a financial disaster, is your strategy to worry about it when the time comes? Yes No

Instead of writing a will and a power of attorney, have you put your trust in the government to make the right decision about who will get your assets or who will take care of your children if you should die? Yes No

If you answered yes to one or more of those questions, you now have an idea of where you need to improve in order to become more financially sound. But above all else, the most important question you need to ask yourself is this:

Do I trust God with my finances?

If you answered yes, your financial journey will be a lot smoother. I’m not saying it will be easy though. It will take some work and discipline on your part. And keep in mind that bad things happen to good people, and God never promised that life would be fair or easy. These facts hit home for me several years ago when, as a United States Army veteran and Certified Financial Planner™ professional, I was giving a predeployment finance briefing to soldiers and family members of a National Guard unit in North Carolina. The unit was going to be deployed to Iraq, and my job was to help the soldiers and their families prepare financially. The soldiers were not in uniform, so I couldn’t tell the difference between them and their family members.

At the end, a gentleman in his sixties came up to thank me for coming to the unit and helping out the soldiers and their families. He also said that he wished there had been someone like me around to talk some sense into him when he was younger. I thanked the gentleman for his compliment and asked him if he had a child or maybe a grandchild who was about to be deployed. I remember him dropping his head and saying no. The gentleman went on to tell me that this was the third deployment he had volunteered for in the last five years. He used the extra money he made from his first two deployments to pay off his credit card debt, and he would use the extra money he was going to make from this deployment to build his savings.

I can’t tell you how bad I felt for him. He loved his country, but he wasn’t volunteering to put his life on the line at his age because he believed his calling was to serve his country. He was putting himself in harm’s way because his finances were a real mess. It broke my heart. I thought to myself how hard it must be for someone in his sixties to have to make this type of sacrifice. I wondered how he faced not only the mental and emotional challenges of being away from his loved ones but the physical challenges too. Though I felt bad for him, I was also reassured that God put him in my life for a purpose.

I have no idea how that gentleman got into the financial predicament he was in. Perhaps he made poor financial decisions. You don’t have to look far to find a neighbor, a friend, or a family member who has made some poor financial decisions and now their credit is wrecked and they have to work two jobs just to get by. Or maybe he just had bad luck, like a couple I knew who were in their twenties, had a newborn, and were just starting out in life. The husband had a job working at the bank, in the mortgage department, and Mom chose to stay home taking care of their new baby. Life was great, and they didn’t have a worry in the world because the husband was making good money. But in the blink of an eye, the housing bubble burst, the husband lost his job, and they had to figure out how they were going to make their house payment and car payment and pay for food and diapers.

Many people were not prepared for the great recession of 2008 and 2009, and nobody can predict the future. But here’s a friendly reminder: history often repeats itself. It would probably behoove you to get prepared now before you become a statistic.

THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS BOOK

Have you ever noticed that throughout the Bible God used common people, or people you wouldn’t expect, to do his work? The disciple Matthew is one that comes to mind. There he was, a tax collector, and we know that back in the day they were notoriously corrupt. Despite Matthew’s sinful past, Jesus picked him to be one of his closest followers. It is awesome that God can use anyone to help him in his work, no matter their appearance, background, or past.

To prove how true this is—and also show why I think God has a sense of humor—I want to share a little bit about me. Growing up, there was always a roof over my head and I don’t ever remember going hungry, but I just didn’t have that much. I lived in a trailer park, and kids made fun of the clothes I wore. When I was in high school, I worked evenings and weekends to have a little spending money. Neither of my parents had a college degree, so education wasn’t much of a priority. Once I graduated high school, I decided to join the army.

When I completed basic training, it was the first time I saw real money. I took home about $700 every two weeks. The ironic part is that while my clothes, housing, and food were paid for by the military, I would always find myself with no money in the bank. I thought that buying a bunch of stuff would make up for all the things I had to go without when I was a child. After about a year in the army, I got my first credit card. I don’t think the ink was even dry on the back of the card when I already had it maxed out.

I was promoted to Private First Class. A higher rank meant a higher salary, and that higher salary afforded me the opportunity to get another credit card. Soon after, I had that credit card maxed out. You might be thinking to yourself that I would eventually catch on, but the cycle continued to repeat. I would get promoted, make more money, get another credit card, and max it out. As long as I could make the minimum payments, I thought I had a handle on my credit card debt. I told myself that the next time I got promoted I would have enough money to pay off my credit cards. I’m sorry to say that when I left the army after twelve years, financially all I had to show for it was $32,000 of credit card debt.

I had thought that buying things would make me happy, and I had tried to buy a whole bunch of happiness for myself. To tell you the truth, I was not happy, because I hated living paycheck to paycheck, having nothing in savings, having a poor credit score and a mountain of debt, and always feeling like I had very little hope.

Now comes the best part! God opened a door for me in finance. I hadn’t planned on a finance career, but one of the contacts I had made in the army saw a talent in me that I hadn’t yet discovered. Through that contact, I became an investment representative for a national broker-dealer in El Paso, Texas. There I was, fresh out of the Army, $32,000 in credit card debt, with nothing in savings or put away for retirement, and my job was to help other people with their finances. This is why I know God has a sense of humor and that he can use anyone!

My bad money choices had left me in a financial predicament, which I learned from greatly. Biblical and godly principles helped me to get out of that predicament and get my finances in good shape. Now I feel God leading me to help others by sharing the lessons I learned. There are a ton of personal finance books out there. What makes this book different is that, unlike other financial experts, I know what it’s like to struggle to pay the bills each month and to have a ton of debt and little hope. And when it came to fixing my finances, I turned to the Word of God.

In this book I will provide you with some simple steps to securing a solid financial future God’s way. I will share with you what you really need to know in order to get a handle on your finances, or at least give you some reassurance