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10 Biblical Investment Principles
Explore 10 powerful Biblical principles to help guide you in your financial journey.
Are you tired of feeling lost in the world of investing? Unsure of how to navigate the ups and downs of the market? In this episode, Bob and Shawn explore 10 powerful Biblical principles that will guide you towards wise, faith-based investing decisions and help you stay focused on your long-term goals.
Some of these areas include making investment decisions based on facts and math, rather than emotions or hearsay. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and should be viewed through a long term lens in order to create a well thought out financial plan.
HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
CO-HOST: Shawn Peters
Mentioned In This Episode
Christian Financial Advisors
Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®
Shawn Peters
Bible Verses In This Episode
Ecclesiastes 11:2
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
PROVERBS 7:7
I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.
PROVERBS 18:15
The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.
PROVERBS 14:15
The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.
ROMANS 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
PROVERBS 14:7-8
Stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips. The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.
PROVERBS 13:11
Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1-2
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.
1 TIMOTHY 6:9-10
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
PROVERBS 21:5
The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Shawn:
Are you tired of feeling lost in the world of investing? Unsure of how to navigate the ups and downs of the market? In this episode, we’ll explore 10 powerful Biblical principles that will guide you towards wise faith-based investing decisions, and help you stay focused on your long-term goals. Let’s get some perspective. Welcome back to Christian Financial Perspectives. We’re so glad that you joined us today. We’re going to be covering a topic that I feel like we’ve hinted at many times, Bob, but never covered this specifically or in this specific way, but 10 Biblical investment principles. Bob, why don’t you give our audience a little bit of a introduction on where this is coming from, why we’re covering this today?
Bob:
Well, I can tell you this, Shawn, that it took me a while to put this together. You’ve heard me say sometimes I can put together a program in literally 10 or 15 minutes. This one took me more like two or three days because I wanted to make sure I was getting it right and I was really thinking about how should we apply Biblical principles to investing, which, you know and I know we’ve talked about Biblically responsible investing so much, but this is going over the other aspects of it as well.
Shawn:
A little more, I guess you could say, how. So, how you might invest or create your own investment strategy, right? Okay.
Bob:
That’s correct.
Shawn:
Alright, well.
Bob:
So we have 10 of them.
Shawn:
We have 10 total we’re going to cover today. So Biblical investment principle number one, why don’t you go ahead, Bob, and I’ll handle the scripture.
Bob:
All right, well this is investing in a diversified portfolio of Biblically responsible companies that produce and distribute essential goods and services.
Shawn:
That’s right. And our scriptural reference for this is Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Invest in seven ventures, yes in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.” And one thing that we come across pretty frequently, Bob, when we say invest in BRI companies, well what that really means, for those of you listening are watching, are not only invest in Christian companies, most of the companies are not Christian, arguably most of them, I would call them neutral companies. They just focus on treating employees well, vendors well, they offer whatever their widget goods or services happen to be and they just don’t get involved in many of the contentious areas.
Bob:
That’s correct. That’s right. If they make widgets, they make widgets. They don’t get involved in all the other political jargon.
Shawn:
They’re not all Chick-fil-As and Hobby Lobby’s, for example. They’re just normal companies that don’t get involved.
Bob:
And this scriptural principle that we have in the scripture is truly diversification. Solomon’s talking to us about diversification and it’s diversifying in companies like you say, that produce and distribute essential goods and services, not “pie in the sky” kind of thinking.
Shawn:
Exactly. Exactly. Alright, so Biblical investment principle number two. Why don’t you?
Bob:
Well this is when you’re making investment decisions, make those decisions based on facts and math, not emotions or hearsay. Diversify across many sectors of the economy by company size, financial strength, and the markets that they serve, because many companies serve different markets, and avoid the day-to-day, financial media hype and the activities written by inexperienced writers and people. I mean, I’m …
Shawn:
Anybody can write an article.
Bob:
I am amazed Shawn at what I read on many of the financial websites and I go in, I dig into the writers, and the writers didn’t even major at all in finance. They majored in English, which is good. They’re writing proper English.
Shawn:
They can write really inaccurate stuff very well.
Bob:
They get the term trader and investor constantly mixed up, “Investors today are thinking…Investors the next hour are thinking…” That’s not an investor, that’s a trader, that’s not an investor. So that’s an example of it.
Shawn:
Investors deal, I would say at a minimum, on a month’s basis, not anything less than that. Anything less than that, you’re effectively day trader or weekly trader.
Bob:
So we’ve got the Biblical principles behind this for two scriptures I picked.
Shawn:
Both of these are from Proverbs. First one is Proverbs 7:7, “I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.”
Bob:
That’s pretty strong, isn’t it?
Shawn:
Yeah. Well Proverbs never really holds back, does it?
Bob:
No, it doesn’t.
Shawn:
And our second one for this principle is Proverbs 18:15, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge for the ears of the wise seek it out.”
Bob:
Yes.
Shawn:
Yeah, so seek wise counsel would be another one.
Bob:
That’s right. Alright, so Biblical investment principle number three is avoid making irrational decisions that are motivated by greed.
Shawn:
Or hearsay.
Bob:
And stay focused on the long-term goals, not the day-to-day, what’s going on, but what is your long-term goals, and greed can get you in the wrong spot. You don’t want to let greed get you there. Because then you make irrational decisions.
Shawn:
That’s right. Then Proverbs 14:15, “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.”
Bob:
Kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?
Shawn:
You’re making your decisions based on that long-term plan. So, first of all, you’ve got to sit down and make that long-term plan and figure out where you’re trying to get and by when and then that helps, kind of looking through that lens, it helps you to stay focused on that instead of worrying about what something does from one day to the next. Alright. Biblical investment principle number four.
Bob:
Do not conform and give in to overly emotional markets. The markets can get very emotional. When everyone is buying, the markets may be at all time highs and when they’re up by 10 or 20%, that’s the time to consider actually selling some off when everybody else is buying.
Shawn:
That’s right. Doesn’t mean to sell everything.
Bob:
This is usually on the tail end, too. This is usually the end of a two or three year cycle when you see everybody and their cousin, aunt, and uncle wanting to get in every 17-year-old, 15 year old is wanting to get in, everybody wants to get in the market. That’s the point when the emotions are involved in that, because everyone’s following the crowd that could be about to go off a cliff at that point. And on the opposite side of that is when everyone seems to be selling and the market’s declined by 10 to 20%, and they’re in a major valley versus a peak, that’s a great time to consider buying some and while it’s low. That is a very strong principle that has worked for guys like Warren Buffet for years. That’s what he does
Shawn:
The only time he ever consistently is in the news is you’ll hear about when the markets have not been doing well or a certain sector industry is kind of in the toilet and you’ll hear about, oh, Warren Buffet, he’s buying. He just bought such and such airline, or he just bought this energy company or shares in it. Of course. And yeah, it’s because that’s the principle that he’s been operating by for many, many years now.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s right.
Shawn:
But you never hear about the stuff he’s buying or the stuff he’s selling when everything’s at all time highs. They only bring him on when it’s all doom and gloom and they want to know what’s this crazy guy doing?
Bob:
So I wanted to make sure this scripture that you’re about to read, Shawn, I want to make sure that you understand, I don’t want to take this out of context, but when I looked at this scripture, we’ve got to be careful about just following the crowd and that’s where the first part of this scripture is really strong.
Shawn:
Gotcha. Romans 12:2 is a scripture for this one, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you’ll be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good pleasing and perfect will.”
Bob:
Yeah, it’s that first part. It’s really strong. And the last part, God wants you, I mean, I’m not a prosperity theologist, but God wants you to do well. I mean Jeremiah…
Shawn:
Well, be a good steward of what he’s entrusted you with. Exactly.
Bob:
Plans for you to do well.
Shawn:
And I would say another scripture that I know it’s normally related to salvation, but when scripture talks about how broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path that leads to salvation. Well, it’s kind of similar when the crowd mentality is typically, “Oh, everything’s going up. Everybody wants to get in, everybody wants to buy.” And then when it’s dropping, everybody wants to get out, everybody wants to get out. And the reality is the smaller group that goes against that push, against that tide, that crowd mentality are the ones that over time can do better.
Bob:
Interesting how you can apply Biblical principles to everything in your life. Biblical principle number five, be cautious of professional fear mongerers selling their conspiracy theories to promote their high commission products like gold and annuities. It’s a very strong Biblical investment principle.
Shawn:
On one hand they will create this fear and create this problem or this perceived problem and then they just so happen to have either something they sell or someone who’s sponsored. It’s like, “Oh, you should buy from this particular gold company or this particular type of annuity.” Weird how they created the problem that you may or not have even been aware of and then already had the solution right there. And they carry very high commissions.
Bob:
And like I say, I call ’em professional fear mongerers.
Shawn:
That’s right. They profit off of it. Alright. And 2 Timothy 1:7 is our scripture for this, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Bob:
I use that scripture a lot when I hear of all the fear mongerers out there. Wait a second, God didn’t give us a spirit of fear. Now we’re supposed to be wise, but we’re not supposed to walk around fearful. Okay, Biblical principle number six, remember that nothing is free. If a return sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Get rich quick schemes usually only work for those selling them.
Shawn:
And it works for them, not because of what they’re teaching, but it works for them because they were able to trick a whole bunch of people into buying their nonsense and their training courses and whatever it is that they’re selling.
Bob:
I love it when you say that, nonsense. That’s a good word that you use.
Shawn:
Yeah, it is.
Bob:
Let’s read this scripture. It goes right with it.
Shawn:
That’s right. Proverbs 14:7-8, “Stay away from a fool for you’ll not find knowledge on their lips. The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.”
Bob:
I think it clears it up. Like you say, Proverbs never holds anything back.
Shawn:
Biblical investment principle number seven.
Bob:
Not every investment will be a winner. Investing is a long-term marathon, not a short-term sprint. Investors are not day traders, and day traders are not investors. Please hear that. I’ll say it again. Investors are not day traders, and day traders are not investors. And it’s all about the long-term with investors and it’s time, not timing, that wins.
Shawn:
If you miss one specific trading day for either buying or selling, and that breaks your portfolio and it breaks everything you’ve been working on you’re not investing, you’re gambling, also known as day traders. And for this one, Proverbs 13:11, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.” How many times do we see that in scripture where it’s talking about it’s little by little. It’s one day at a time. It’s not get rich quick. None of that makes any sense when you look at scripture.
Bob:
A good foundation is built over time.
Shawn:
That’s right. Biblical investment principle number eight.
Bob:
Bear markets, volatility, and up and down market cycles are to be expected and they’re normal.
Shawn:
And that’s for all investment options. I mean if you’re talking about the liquid markets for stocks and fixed income, equities, things like that. If you’re talking about actual, whether it’s residential, commercial, real estate, industrial, pretty much any market you look at, it’s going to go through cycles.
Bob:
If you’ve got an appraisal on a piece of real estate every single day, it would be a little bit different.
Shawn:
Even that would vary from day to day depending on the adjuster or the appraiser.
Bob:
Volatility is just something that comes with being an investor.
Shawn:
That’s right. And then our scripture for this one is Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, time to plant and a time to uproot.” I like the second part of that too. That’s for the invest or sell.
Bob:
Yeah, that’s correct. That’s correct.
Shawn:
Alright. Biblical investment principle number nine.
Bob:
Watch out for those Ponzi schemes guaranteeing unreasonable returns and always be diligent. Get rich quick schemes only work for the greedy, deceptive people that are selling them.
Shawn:
That’s right. And for this one, 1 Timothy 6:9-10, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money,” not money itself, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Bob:
Shawn, one of the programs that I watch is the CNBC American Greed Program. Kind of interesting and it’s fascinating actually. What’s interesting though is the people, they always get into these Ponzi schemes because somebody guaranteed ’em 10% or 12% every single year, and then they get very upset when they find out it was a Ponzi scheme, but it was their own greed. Because if everything else is at 3% or 5% and it’s paying 12%, it’s unreasonable.
Shawn:
It could also be, there’s fear of missing out.
Bob:
Right, well that’s a big one.
Shawn:
I don’t want to miss out on this if it’s a good deal.
Bob:
That’s so big today, the FOMO mentality.
Shawn:
Yep, I know.
Bob:
Alright, we’re down to number 10.
Shawn:
Biblical investment principle number 10.
Bob:
Investing should always focus on long-term goals from 5 to 20 years with a well thought out financial plan that’s updated annually, otherwise you can quickly get off track.
Shawn:
That’s right. And for this one, Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” And there you have it, 10 Biblical investment principles. Hopefully, this helped someone out there and maybe learned something new. We use these principles in our own management here for ourselves, for our clients.
Bob:
In my own life, I’ve used these principles for 30 years.
Shawn:
So thank you for joining us. As always, God bless and see you next time.
[DISCLOSURES]
* Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc dba Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Shawn Peters, and their guests. Bob and Shawn do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. While Christian Financial Advisors believes the information to be accurate and reliable, we do not claim or have responsibility for its completeness, accuracy, or reliability.