Truth Seekers
Money, stewardship, and the law of sowing and reaping.
Money Works
The wisdom of God pointed out to a man that there are only 2 classes of things you can do with your money.
1. Spend it on consumtion. This includes food, housing, entertainment, cars. Anything that you trade for your money that becomes less valuable after you buy it.
2. Buy things that will become more valuable that you can resell for more money than you paid for it. You may think of a house but a house is rarely a good investment for value. More on that later. The most reliable things I've found that go up in value, keeping up with inflation are gold and silver.
3. Sowing into the kingdom of God.
1 and 2 are rules with dealing with the world system. Sowing into the kingdom of God is on another scale. [MORE TO COME] It requires faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit.
All 3 methods are necessary for life on Earth.
But #3 is the only one that can overcome the limitations of #1 and #2.
What about the systems of the world?
Remember the kingdom of religion, not anchored in spiritual relationship but in the laws of Moses? Have you noticed how often the message is how God will provide, so don't do anything, just sit and wait? At the same time telling how the church organization needs you to donante more money. Is there any talk about the law of sowing and reaping?
What about the Babylon system of man. Pay taxes and social security and then when you're old social security will pay you to live. But didn't they mention the inflation factor. By the time you're old and have to live on social security, the amount it pays out is no longer enough to live. So you'll see 70 year olds working your grocery or big box stores near you. Ask them if they work for the joy of it or if they have to.
What about retirement accounts? Again compare the inflation (increase 2-5% more than the year before), to the rate of return on a money market, CD or ETF stock fund (5% per year would a good year.)
How many years will it take for your money (which you can't touch while invested) to double?
So which option is best? All 3 are necessary since we are currently bound to the Earth. But wisdom is key. Using #3 is the key to overcoming the limitations of #1 and #2.
Life Plan: Wisdom, Faith and Math
Have you heard the financial advice that starts off “Where do you see yourself in 5 years.” For years, my answer was “I have absolutly no idea.” I just knew I'd like it to be better than it currently is. I didn't know where it was, how long it would take or how much money was needed to get there. Once I learned the double factor things got really clear.
The doubler factor. The first tool you'll need is the doubler factor. You've probably heard that “Time is money.” That's not very precise. But they are related.
Lab Experiment: Take a calendar and a bag of rice. Place 1 grain of rice on day 1 of any month. Then double it for the next day. Day2: 2 grains. Day3: 4 grains...
at day 30 you'll need x?
| Day | Grains | Day | Grains |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 16 | 32,768 |
| 2 | 2 | 17 | 65,536 |
| 3 | 4 | 18 | 131,072 |
| 4 | 8 | 19 | 262,144 |
| 5 | 16 | 20 | 524,288 |
| 6 | 32 | 21 | 1,048,576 |
| 7 | 64 | 22 | 2,097,152 |
| 8 | 128 | 23 | 4,194,304 |
| 9 | 256 | 24 | 8,388,608 |
| 10 | 512 | 25 | 16,777,216 |
| 11 | 1,024 | 26 | 33,554,432 |
| 12 | 2,048 | 27 | 67,108,864 |
| 13 | 4,096 | 28 | 134,217,728 |
| 14 | 8,192 | 29 | 268,435,456 |
| 15 | 16,384 | 30 | 536,870,912 |
By day 30, doubling every day, you'd need 536,870,912 grains of rice — roughly 11-12 tons. Almost nothing happens for the first two weeks, then the growth explodes in the last few days. That is the nature of compounding: slow, invisible growth followed by a sudden, massive increase.
What is a fold? Try folding a piece of paper or a blanket. When you fold it the edge now has 2 layers. Fold it again and you have 4 layers. So a fold is not a times factor (10 times, 100 times). 1 grain of rice x 100 would be 100 grains not x. So a fold is an exponential factor. A fold is the seed^2.
Time is important in prosperity and wealth. The calendar example was a daily doubling. Calculating the TIME TO DOUBLE is the best factor I've been taught for LIFE PLANNING.
When you look at anything consider how much time it will require of your life, attention or money. At 5% per year with an investment of $1000 look how long it will take to double your money.
The Double : Rule of 72
Rule of 72: Years to double ≈ 72 ÷ interest rate. At 5% per year: 72 ÷ 5 = 14.4 years to double.
| Rate | Years to Double (Rule of 72) |
|---|---|
| 1% | 72.0 |
| 2% | 36.0 |
| 3% | 24.0 |
| 5% | 14.4 |
| 7% | 10.3 |
| 10% | 7.2 |
| 15% | 4.8 |
| Year | $1000 @ 5%/yr |
|---|---|
| 0 | $1,000 |
| 5 | $1,276 |
| 10 | $1,629 |
| 14.4 | $2,000 |
| 20 | $2,653 |
| 28.8 | $4,000 |
| 30 | $4,322 |
So if it takes 30 years to turn $1,000 into $4,300, how long will it take to save up for a $200,000 house? Will you still be on Earth?
Componded Against YOU!
Mortgages and credit cards arn't using the double method. They use COMPOUND INTERST. Every day the pricipal (price) and the interest from the days before incure another increase in interest owed. The following day all that interest plus the principal unpaid are chared another amount of interest.
Now if a house costs $200,000 and your mortgage it at 5% for 30 years, how much will you actually pay for it?• CREDIT CARDS CARRY A MUCH HIGHER INTEREST RATE THAN A 5% MORTGAGE.
• CREDIT CARDS, MORTGAGES AND LOANS ONLY DO ONE THING FINANCIALLY FOR YOU:
THEY MAKE THINGS COST MORE THAN THE PRICE; WHICH YOU ALREADY CAN'T AFFORD.
So if your trust is in an hourly job to earn a full living, reread the above example. But there is good news! An hourly job does earn enough to sow. God gives seed to the sower even if you don't have a job.