Why Do I Feel Unprepared for Big Life Financial Decisions?

Speaker A00:00:00

Marriage, buying a home, starting a family, changing careers. These are all big life moments that should bring you joy. Yet instead, for so many of us, feel that knot in our stomach.You start to ask yourself this question, how am I going to pay for this? Or maybe this one. What if I make the wrong choice? Or maybe how about this question? What if I ruin my future?And I'm going to tell you right now, you're not alone in this. A recent study found that 77% of Americans feel anxious when making financial decisions. And here's the truth.If you feel unprepared, you're in the majority. But what if I told you didn't have to face those moments with fear?What if I told you that with God's wisdom and a simple roadmap, you can move from panic to peace? Well, stick with me today because that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to break that down on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian.I'm Ralph and thank you for joining me every day as I help you break down the financial shame and step into true confidence. And we're continuing in our series Breaking Financial Change.We're breaking free of those things that hold back so many people when it comes to their finances. Now yesterday we talked about why giving feels risky. I broke that down. If you missed yesterday's show, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out.You can do that at our website. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com hey, all of our previous episodes are right there.But today we're going to talk about those big, big decisions in life and why we all feel so unprepared for those. Hey, listen, we've all gone through this, or maybe we're going to go through it. Marriage, buying a home, having that baby.Hey, maybe retirement's down the road a little bit, a job shift. Or maybe for you it's owning your own small business. Each of these has huge financial implications and many of us feel a ton of emotions.One of the ones that I hear too many times is you feel overwhelmed. You just feel like you've got all these choices to make. Another emotion is fear. So many of us fear we're going to make the wrong decision.We're going to make a decision that's going to impact us for the rest of our lives.And when we live in Those emotions, and this is true in my life, and it might be in your life as you're listening right now, it leads to procrastination. And so often with procrastination, we miss opportunities to really thrive and to really grow both emotionally, spiritually and financially sometimes.Or we go to the other extreme. And I've been guilty of this one myself. My wife will tell you I'm mighty impulsive, but that impulsivity and it can lead to costly mistakes.I read this stat from CNBC. It says 57% of engaged couples report money is their biggest source of stress. It's the truth.I've been working with couples for 30 years in my practice and I'm going to tell you right now, financial issues do cause so many stress points. They cause divorce, they cause breakups. And it's really a tough time.And for so many people, imagine the sleepless nights, those arguments with your spouse. For so many of us, we just second guessing every one of our decisions. But here's the thing, and I want you to hear this loud and clear.There is a strong faith connection to this. Now, modern culture says, hey, figure it out later, just follow your gut.We live in this time right now where culture tells us, just go with your gut, Ralph. You can make all the best decisions. But that's not biblical. God says something completely different.God tells us to prepare, God tells us to plan, and God tells us to seek wise counsel. Let's get right into the Good Book to talk about where God is trying to take us.As we think about pondering these big decisions, let's get right to the first verse, and that's Proverbs chapter 22, verse 3. And I've used this on the show many times, but it nails exactly what we're talking about.Again, Proverbs 22:3, the prudence, see danger and take refuge, but the simple, keep going and suffer for it. What is this really telling us? This is really telling us that preparation, being prepared, putting a plan together is biblical wisdom.We want to learn from that. Let's look at the next verse and That's Luke, chapter 14, verses 28 to 30.Now what we're talking about here is Jesus making a parable about someone building a tower. Again, this is Luke 14, 28, 30. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?And you think about this. Even Jesus himself said, wait a second. Measure twice, cut once, estimate what these things are going to cost.And the final Bible verse for today comes Back to us from the book of Proverbs. This is from Proverbs. Chapter 15, verse 22 says this plans fail for the lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.It's kind of the trifecta of what we're talking about today. Plan, estimate, and find wisely good counsel. I found this from barn of research. I found this very fascinating.About now we're talking specifically about Christians. Again, this is barn of research. Only 29% of practicing Christians say they regularly seek biblical wisdom before making financial decisions.And I was really upset by that. We live a Christian faith that is all about relying on God.And this statistic really bothered me because only 29% of practicing Christians said that they seek biblical wisdom before making financial decisions. It's one of the reasons I started the show. I'm trying to bridge that gap between faith and finances.And I want to show you each and every day how those things are so interconnected. And if you think about it in the decision points of this, think about a couple that's rushing in to buy their first house. They haven't planned.They just said, everybody's got a house, I got to go get one. They haven't sought wise counsel. And what do they do? They buy this house and it causes such financial strain. I've seen that destroy marriages.I've seen it destroy families. But on the other hand, if we seek counsel first, we can find peace and we can find stability and make much better decisions.So the key question for today is how can I move from being unprepared to confident? And I'm going to give you just one step today that's going to shift you from fear to clarity. And I love what Dave Ramsey said.I don't often quote Dave Ramsey on this show. Him and I have a little different opinion about stuff. But what he said here was perfect. Right on point again, this is from Dave Ramsey.You can wander into debt, but you can't wander out. Big financial decisions require a plan on paper, on purpose. And that's really what I think encapsulates what I'm talking about today.So here's your action step today to really get in better ways of making those big financial decisions. There's four steps to this. The first one I want you to do is just identify one decision you're facing right now.Just start off with here's my decision point. Maybe you're thinking about buying a home. Maybe you're thinking about trading in that car and buying a new car. Whatever that is, write it down.That's Step one, the second step, I want you to break that into one or two questions. For example, child care costs. Let's say you're thinking about having a baby.Well, one of the things you might want to think about if you're a two income wage earner family, you're going to have child care costs. So that's a question you can write down.Another question here's if you think about buying a new home, how much are you going to need for a down payment? How much you're going to need to have set aside for those repairs or those things that you aren't expecting?And maybe you're thinking about training jobs and going after a new position. One of the questions you might need to write down is are there going to be training costs? Am I going to go back to school and learn new steps?So that's the second step. Break it down into one or two questions. Third step and this is the hard part. Research just one fact. Just take 15 or 20 minutes today.Go to a reliable source, maybe an advisor, or go somewhere and research facts about that question you're talking about. Do a Google search. Use some AI tools.But bigger than those things, ask some people around you who have been down that road, hey, go listen to my back catalog. You can find all those at Financially Confident Christian. I'd be willing to bet we've covered most of the major financial decisions.But it all starts with researching that and then making an informed decision. And then the next step. And the final step is schedule your next prep.And what I'm talking about there is thinking about how you're going to build this together. If you're with a couple, sit down and talk about what this decision is going to be. Maybe you're by yourself and you want to work with a mentor.Well, go plan that mentor meeting or it's an advisor you want to meet with. Surround yourself with good people. Don't make an impulsive decision.And when you do these things, and I truly believe this, when you really do these things, you're going to reduce your overwhelm because you're going to break these things into bite sized, small, manageable pieces. You're going to build your knowledge, which is a great thing. We all can use more knowledge. It's going to help you grow your confidence. Guess what?In the end, it aligns with God's plan. God wants us to be thoughtful. God wants us to make diligent plans so that we can be wise. How about we pray together now?Father God, thank you for guiding us through life's biggest moments. And Lord, we confess that these financial crossroads often leave us afraid and they leave us unprepared and we feel overwhelmed.We just ask that you would give us wisdom to slow down, Lord, the courage to seek wise, Godly counsel. And most of all, Lord, the faith to trust you above all of our fears. Help us take even one small step today towards peace, Lord.Take us one small step towards clarity and one small step towards confidence in your will, Lord. And we ask this in true confidence in the name of Jesus. Amen. Preparation reduces stress and it builds peace.So I'm going to challenge you one more time today. Research just one fact today for your next big decision and stop fearing those things.Because when you do this, fear loses its grip when you face it with God's wisdom. And I thought this was great. This is from Howard Dayton from Compass Ministries.It says when we leave God out of our financial decisions, fear takes over. When we invite him in, peace takes over.And while we're talking about that, if you know someone staring down a wedding or maybe they're thinking about having that baby or a career change, don't let them carry that burden alone. I'm going to encourage you to share this episode with them. This may very well be the encouragement they need today.You can point them right to our website. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com and hey, while you're there, while they're there, you get a copy of my free book.It's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. It was really a passion project of mine and I just released that just a couple weeks ago. And I'm giving it to you absolutely free.All you've got to do is go to this website and it's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com/becoming again. That's FinanciallyConfidentChristian.com/becoming.And get your free downloadable copy of my new book, how to Become a Financially Confident Christian. I'm going to tell you right now it will be profitable for you.On tomorrow's show, we're going to talk about why does financial progress never seem to stick?This is probably one of the chief complaints I hear when people send me emails and people ask about the show or Ralph, why do financial progress never seem to stick with me? Well, I've got the answer on tomorrow's show, so I'm going to encourage you to join us tomorrow.And remember this as I close go out there and be a financially confident Christian. You can do this. I believe in you. And more importantly than that God believes in. You stay financially savvy, God bless you, and you have a great day.