Posted by Helen on: 07.26.2006 /
My time, money and energy (physical and emotional) are limited resources which I want to invest wisely.
- How do you decide where to invest your time, money and energy?
- How often do you adjust your ‘investment portfolio’?
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36 Responses to "Making Worthwhile Investments"
Comment by: Eliza
1I’ll take a stab at answering…!
Where to spend my time and energy seem largely determined by major life choices made along the way, years ago, which luckily all seem to be working out fine but do impose certain responsibilities carrying time committments: enter workforce, marry, buy house, get dog, have child. The silver lining is that those portions of my time and energy I get to make choices about on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis are more precious. I don’t do as much for myself as I would like to, but that’s a reflection of all the factors that feed in to my decisions about how to spend time and energy, & overall seems like a happy medium.
One time/energy decision we made, years ago, is not to watch TV. It seems like such a time sink, for the most part, though I know people do get pleasure from entertainment programs and may learn new things from news and documentaries. That also feeds into money decision – we don’t pay for cable, and have exactly zero interest in getting things like flat screen TV, which I hear people talking about as highly enticing but very expensive purchases. (Also, we don’t see all those ads, the purpose of which is to encourage us to buy things, e.g. spend money.)
Money, too, ends up being committed to some large degree – mortgage payments, utilities, food, etc. On the other hand, my husband and I are both kind of tightwads in some areas, mainly trying not to give our money to companies that already have plenty of it. We try not to be exposed to ads, try to shop in locally owned stores when possible, ideally the mom-and-pop type (where those still exist). We’ve never bought a new car – we buy used, and drive the cars until there’s no more life in them. We don’t care what color they are, or how shiny they are, as long as they’re reasonably reliable and not big gas guzzlers. (A new car depreciates by thousands of dollars as soon as you sign the papers and drive it off the lot. Why spend your money like that?) The closest to new was our 2001 Prius, which we bought with 6000 miles on it, & which we thought was a good ‘green’ decision to replace our 16-year-old Subaru wagon, which had just died with the odometer at 244,000 miles & would have needed a new engine. We also pay very little toward “entertainment” – we read alot, we rent videos, but we almost never go out to the movies, and we don’t follow any sports teams (don’t go to the local stadiums other than an occasional ice hockey game, don’t watch games on TV, don’t buy their products). We do buy CDs of musical groups we like. Maybe this sounds “anti-social” or “anti-American”, but just think about how much money gets dumped into these things (new cars, entertainment, big-name sports) & how that money could be put to more directly useful purpose.
We do pay more than maybe we “should” for things that seem to help at least one person in a way that wouldn’t otherwise happen. For example, we had a nanny for 5 years, even though it was a stretch financially – but she got to bring her son (my son’s age) to our house every day, so the boys (both only children) got to essentially grow up together, and she got employment for 5 years, and the arrangement created an “extended family” contact. Her son and our son are still like brothers.
I’ve heard the saying “think globally, act locally” – but for charitable donations, I have changed my “investment strategy” quite a bit over the past 1-2 years. I’m now focusing our giving mostly on agencies that work overseas, in the areas of greatest need, in providing basic services necessary for life. There is such incredible poverty in so much of the world, and so many pitifully basic needs that aren’t being met, even for people (including children) to eke out a life. It’s not that there aren’t people who need help in the U.S., but we have such huge potential resources that I think I’ll let other people who place a priority on local/national efforts (and our government – hah!) work on that.
So – that’s my stab at this topic!
Comment by: Helen M.
2Eliza wrote:
*ahem* we recently got a flat screen TV to watch our DVDs on. It makes it a little less of a disappointment rewatching what we’ve seen at the movies.
It sounds like it was a worthwhile investment from your son’s point of view, whether it was more than you ‘should’ pay or not. How does one decide what is more than one ‘should’ pay, anyway?
Thanks for your comments, Eliza!
Comment by: Helen M.
3When I posted this I was thinking about how the basic investment principles I briefly studied over 15 years ago seem to apply to my life also.
One is that the return is generally related to the risk. If you want the possibility of high returns you have to take on some risk. The investments that are guaranteed never return as much.
I think life is like that too. By taking (calculated) risks I can open doors that playing it safe would never open.
Comment by: Eliza
4Well…of course I didn’t mean to disparage anyone else’s decisions on how to use their resources! It’s probably wonderful to watch, and I bet if we came over we would be a little bit jealous… ;) (Same, sometimes, with seeing someone’s lovely, shiny new car. Oh well!)
Comment by: Eliza
5What are some examples for you, Helen?
The idea of “risk” hadn’t come to mind for me in my response…but now that you mention it, my going to the local UU church (3 times now!) seems to me to be an explicit decision that feels like it involves some “risk” for me – for example, I’ve noticed that I’m not telling visiting family members where I’m disappearing to on Sunday mornings (last weekend my aunt and cousin, this weekend my mom). I’m just telling them I have a committment from 10:30-12 and I’ll see them after that. Feels like I want to try it out for a while, see it continues to feel like something that I want to be involved in, and then I’ll work on being open about it, and “owning” my decision to go!
Comment by: Helen M.
6Risks…leaving church was emotionally risky and so was publishing that newspaper article.
Leaving church was emotional risky because I didn’t want to socially isolate myself to an extent that wouldn’t be good. And it was a step in that direction – or so it seemed to me.
With the newspaper article, I don’t think I counted the cost as well as I could have…perhaps I was naive, but I didn’t realize some people might take it personally. I did realize it would mean I’d go around town not knowing who had read it and what they thought (unless they told me) – so I did count some of the cost.
After finding out some of the reactions I’ve stopped asking people if they read it and what they thought of it. If they want to tell me they can.
Comment by: Julie Marie
7Well now that the ice has been broken on this one…:)
I’m about to make a change in my time investment. I used to do my blogging early in the am – 5 or 6 ish, but come mid August, I am forcing myself to leave the computer off until lunchtime. I am going to sit at my work computer from 5 – 8ish every morning, doing the administrative parts of my job. The motivation for this is that we are switching my son from full day to half day daycare…my hope is to reap the benefits of enjoying 2.5 hours per day of mommy/son time where I am not focused on making dinner, folding clothes, cleaning the kitchen…all the household maintenance jobs I have to do after 5 pm. We are both really looking forward to this, and have been preparing for it for about a month now. We have worked on laying down for afternoon naps without fuss and other work- boundary- respecting behaviors like not screaming when he hears mommy answer the phone. I feel very blessed to be able to have the flexibility to do this and we are hoping to roll along like this (half day at excellent day care with friends and focused developmental learning) and half day with mommy doing some of the fun,interactive things I have wistfully watched stay- at- home moms do with their kids for 3 years now…
This will also impact our finances in a beneficial way. As will paying off the car (in Sept YEAH!) and paying off my husbands braces…we will be due, at that time, for a reassessment of the financial piece of the puzzle. We also believe in buying used cars and driving them until they are worn out. My husband worked as a mechanic while he was in school, so he has the skill (and the tools!) to do most of the maintenance himself.
One of the big “luxuries” we indulge in is paying a cleaning lady. I about had a meltdown after I went back to work full time after my son was born, trying to keep the house up to the standard of order and cleanliness we had enjoyed previously. Although not unwilling to re-divide the chores, my husband was really unable to do more, with school and work…so we decided, go ahead and pay for this service. It was one of our best decisions. We have fun as a family on the weekends, rather than clean our home. The wisdom of this decision really hit home last week, when my son asked me if it was Saturday yet. When I told him no, but I sure do like Saturdays too, he smiled a big sparkly smile and said yes! Thats mommy and daddy and cody time!
My friends tell me that this is a brief season in a childs life…where mommy and daddy are the most important and interesting people in the world to him…so many of our decisions are based on what will help us enjoy this brief but amazing time together.
Comment by: Helen M.
8Julie Marie wrote:
I’ll miss your first-thing-in-the-morning posts, Julie Marie, but I can live without them – I’m glad you’re making these changes that will be helpful to you and your family.
Awesome! It’s wonderful to find out an investment has been worth making, especially when it’s our children who are benefitting.
Thanks for sharing what’s going on in your life. Have you found that ‘moving along the [spiritual] bench’ has changed the way you make decisions like this? Or not really?
Comment by: Rachel
9We’ve made the same decision, Eliza. Our charity of choice is World Vision and they put out a gift catalog of specific items (kind of like the Heifer Project). Our 10-year old daughter makes the decision each month, which gives her a real awareness of extreme poverty. My favorite items are those that continue to give, such as the microfinance program for women where the initial investment is reloaned again and again. Another one of my favorites is the brood of chickens because each family that receives chickens commits to raising a certain number of chicks and giving them to another family in the village and they to another and so on. That’s the kind of stuff that really excites me.
I get lots of mail from other groups/causes that I care about like Sierra Club, Amnesty Intl, etc, etc. and I wish I could give to all of them. But I think it is good to find what you are passionate about and focus on that. It’s easy to be overwhelmed and I find it helps to bring it down to the micro level, making a difference in one life at a time. We have a sponsored child in Haiti and last year we sent her the grand sum of $15 for her birthday. She wrote back thanking us and told us that she had bought a goat and named it Manet. It was great for our daughter to read that and put into perspective what others lives are like and what they want and need.
Comment by: Julie Marie
10my bench movement hasn’t affected the set of decisions above; what it has affected is my charity. we were regular tithers, and I still hold to the concept that its not mine anyway, so we’re looking for more direct ways of giving. This microloan stuff is very interesting to me. It is true, there are safety nets and programs and opportunities in the states that just flat out don’t exisit on a global scale. To think that a goat would make a life changing difference in someones life….wow.
Comment by: Helen M.
11Julie Marie, are you saying that you want to give as much as before but redirect it away from a local church and towards projects that help alleviate poverty?
Comment by: Rachel
12Julie Marie, are you going to the OTM conference in Seattle? At last year’s conference, I went to a great workshop about microfinance – I think they are offering the same workshop again this year.
Comment by: Rachel
13Moving along the spiritual bench from conservative Christianity to progressive Christianity, to a more radical and Jesus-centered faith, has changed the way my husband and I make decisions about our giving. We made the decision to take the money that we were giving to our church and direct it into faith-based programs addressing extreme poverty. For us personally, this seems more consistent with Jesus’ central message of helping the needy. That’s not to say that I am critical in any way of those who give money to our church or any church. But for us this seemed the best stewardship decision, especially since we go to a church that is very prosperous and considerably more conservative than we are.
Comment by: Helen M.
14Rachel – yes, they are offering the microfinance workshop again this year.
Here’s the list of workshops
Comment by: Julie Marie
15Being perfectly honest here, once we quit going to church, the tithe got reabsorbed into the general budget very quickly. Our goal is to return to that discipline but redirect the funds. If we find a church to attend regularly, we would have to make a decision on how much to give, I don’t think I’d return to a blanket 10% to the church itself without assessing the need. and I like to think that if I actually found a church that had an acceptable ROAA, and it were a fledgling church, I’d more than tithe to help it fly.
Still, my attitudes about finance are strongly shaped by my faith background: I want to be a responsible steward, so when I come across need, I have the ability to respond.
Comment by: ncxian
16Julie said:
I think one of the things that bothers me about the notion of tithing is that, when it is discussed in the Bible, it seems to refer to giving to a system that is at least partly a kind of ancient social security system. The tithe was used to help widows, orphans, etc. Nobody else was doing that. Some Roman historian wrote that the early Christians put the Roman government to shame because they took care of the non-Christian needy folks as well as there own.
Modern churches often act like they are hyper-generous if 10% of their income goes to meeting people’s needs. Something is off there.
So I would think, Julie, as you look around at churches and whether to tithe, a good question would be, how much of what goes into the church coffers goes to really help people?
Comment by: Helen M.
17It does make sense to me that if you belong to a church and like it, you would consider contributing something to the costs of running it.
Just like we might give to NPR if we like listening to it.
Comment by: Helen M.
18By the way, there are a couple of active discussions on ChurchRater at the moment about giving money to church:
The Funny Thing About Money
But Seriously: Where IS My Money Going?
Comment by: Julie Marie
19my old church teaches the 10-10-80 plan for individual households (10% to God, 10% to savings, live on 80%) and they apply that principle to church finances too (10% to local needs, 10% to global evangelism, 80% towards running the church). In principle that sounded good to me, but actually, looking at it, when a church gets as large and successful as my old church, perhaps that 80% figure is high. My husband was not happy when he saw the new large screen plasma TV hanging up in the foyer. At the time, I didn’t have a problem with it…they were within the 10-10-80 parameters. But looking back…examples like that will impact the amount of money I give, going forward. I’d rather buy 70 families a cow than a plasma TV for a megachurch.
And I apply the same standard to myself. We bought the house we live in now just before a tremendous run up in value here. When we sell in a few years, we will have enough profit to almost have our new home paid for (we already own the land it will be built on). With no mortgage, and two professional incomes…I would feel like a conspicous consumer living on 80% of our income. We should, and will, find ways to pass the blessings along.
Comment by: Helen M.
20Julie Marie wrote:
It might be problematic anyway…but if a church uses money from families who don’t spend their own money on plasma TVs to buy a plasma TV, that seems particuarly problematic to me.
Comment by: Julie Marie
21yes. I found a direct and affordable flight out of Charlotte :)
I saw the microloan writeup, that is one seminar that is most definitely on my list. I love the thought that my excess will help someone else pull themselves out of the poverty spiral. I like that thought very very much.
Comment by: Rachel
22Amen to that!
Comment by: Julie Marie
23as I look a the sentance I wrote, I recall a discussion Helen and I had back when we all still called her Ir. It was about boundaries and authority and giving away power. Look how subtly the boundaries are blurred in my statement.
10% to God is equivalent to 10% to the church.
Wow. Maybe I’m just having an episode of seeing the obvious – but I’m really struck by that.
Comment by: Rachel
24Excellent point, Julie Marie! And that is exactly the premise I have come to question.
As NCxian said, in OT times part of the tithe was used to provide for orphans and widows, ie. those in society without means of support. The OT lists three specific purposes for the 10% offering – 1) provision for the needy, 2) support of the Levites (temple workers) who could not own land or receive an inheritance, and 3) meat, wine and beer for religious celebrations (Deut. 15:25-26).
In the NT, the specific amount of 10% is never mentioned. Believers are told to give cheerfully and sacrificially. Again the offering money is used to meet the needs of the poor. My friend who is a seminarian tells me that early church records show that the poorest believers were not expected to give anything at all! Those who had the means to give did so and it was distributed among the needy.
Comment by: Eliza
25“From each according to his ability [or means], to each according to his needs.”
How ironic that the person who popularized this phrase is demonized as an (awful) atheist!
Comment by: Helen M.
26Julie Marie, you’re coming to the conference? Awesome! I’m so glad you can make it.
Comment by: Julie Marie
27I guess, right now, I’m thinking the 10-10-80 plan sounds good but is not biblical at all. If 80% of our income goes way beyond standard needs (and honestly, I don’t want to be the one to determine where the line is for anyone but myself) yet I sit comfortably with that, secure in the knowledge that I am within the parameters defined as appropriate…
how far is this from Jesus teaching?
And similarly, if 80% of my income leaves me having to chose between food and medications…to lay the burden of supporting a church on me is pretty far from Jesus teaching as well.
ARRRRGGGGHHHH
Comment by: ncxian
28http://www.jeremiahproject.com/culture/view_marxist.html
Well, according to this insightful website, liberal Christianity IS Marxism!
But seriously, there is a thick thread of socialism and “communalism” running throughout Christian history. You can find entries for both “Christian Socialism” and “Christian Communism” at wikipedia. The person who comes to my mind is Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Party. Of course, the part of Marxism that she rejected was “the opiate of the masses” stuff. When I googled Christian communism, I found several places where the history of communism was said to have begun in religious thought and then moved to the secular (but I can’t find either of them again right now. I’ll keep looking).
Incidentally, I read in one of those entries that the guy who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance was a Baptist minister named Bellamy who was a Christian socialist. And there was, of course, no “under God” in it. (But please, I don’t intend to reopen that can of worms in this thread. I just thought he was an interesting example of Christian socialism)
Comment by: Julie Marie
29my church made it very clear that the tithe was to go to the local church and that charitable giving elsewhere did not count.
As I read Deut 14:22-28, (and I confess, my eyes glaze over at Deuteronomy so I haven’t scrupulously read it befire) it actually appears that the tithes set aside for the Levites were the tithes from every third year. and even then it was not just for the Levites but also for the aliens, fatherless, and widows in the towns.
The tithes in the other years appear to be for a group feast of thankfulness in the presence of the Lord. You enjoyed the fruits of your labors, and were cautioned to remember the Levites during this festival.
Not exactly 10% off the gross every year to the local church, is it?
Comment by: ncxian
30Maybe the big plasma screen tv is the modern day equivalent? :)
Comment by: Julie Marie
31ruh ruoh. if my husband starts thinking this way…..;)
the problem I have with the big plasma TV in church is that it isn’t the fruits of their labors…its the fruits of the parishoners labors!
Comment by: Rachel
32I think that is exactly why the NT never gives us an percentage or a formula, but rather speaks to motivation and intention – give with a cheerful heart, give generously, give of time, talents and love, not just money. The few times Jesus tells individuals specifically how much to give, he tells them to give everything! ie. Zaccheus & the rich young ruler. Both of these individuals were prosperous because of their involvement in a system of power and privilege. And of course, they are not told to give their money to the temple; they are told to give it to the poor.
After preaching a fiery sermon, John the Baptist is asked by the crowd what they must do to escape God’s judgment. He replies, “If you have two coats, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry” (Luke 3:11). Again the giving is based upon ability to give and is directed to the poor and needy, not the religious establishment. And giving to the poor is an sgin of repentance and righteousness.
People often bring up the widow’s mite as an example of sacrificial giving to the church. And certainly Jesus meant to honor this desperately poor women for giving all she had to the temple. But I think there was more to why Jesus pointed her out. In Luke 20, Jesus has just finished blasting the religious leaders for acting arrogant and self-righteous, while “shamelessly cheating widows out of their property.” It is right after that where Jesus points out this widow and praises her. (Notice that he also criticizes the wealthy by pointing out that their gifts were only “a tiny part of their surplus.”)
But the larger question is this – If the temple offerings were to be used to care for widows, why was this woman desperately poor? Why does she have only two copper coins to her name (coins equivalent to 5 minutes labor at the minimum wage)? Why is she putting her last into the offering box at the temple, when the temple is supposed to be a place of support and protection for her? The religious leaders who were supposed to see that widows were cared for were actually the stealing widows’ property! No wonder Jesus was angry!
Comment by: Julie Marie
33Helen said:
Thanks! Me too; I can’t wait to me y’all!
Comment by: Julie Marie
34sobering, Rachel. Thanks for that perspective.
Comment by: Eliza
35Awesome discussion, you guys! Interesting and useful comments – new ideas – I will look into microfinance (maybe at the conference). A few thoughts:
NCxian, thanks for the information on Christian Socialists and Communists (though I have to say, I found the writings of the guy who posts The Jeremiah Project website kind of odd…).
Rachel, your commentary on the poor widow above was really eye-opening and thought-provoking. Thank you.
Julie Marie, I’m so glad that you’re planning to come to the conference! It will be great to meet you.
Helen, thanks for posting this, and for your links to discussions on money and church at Churchrater – I enjoyed reading those. And, as a long-time supporter of public radio, may I just say: Nice plug for NPR! :)
Comment by: NCxian
36Oh, absolutely! I just thought you would find that amusing, as I did. I just stumbled across him when I typed in Christianity and Marxism. He looks completely wacko to me.