651-337-1919

Ways to Give Back to Your Community Beyond Donating Money

ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

Ways to Give Back to Your Community Beyond Donating Money

BY BRETT ANDERSON/ST.CROIX ADVISORS, LLC
a man writing "time talent treasure" in his journal

In Bob Goff’s book Undistracted, he writes a line that really stuck out to me: “When it comes to availability, there are three main ways we can create it: our time, our talent, and our treasure.”

When it comes to giving, I think people often fall into one of two buckets. First, there are those who want to support their favorite charities and causes but don’t feel like they have enough extra money to make a difference. Then there are those who have the financial resources to give, so they write a check and move on.

But stewardship doesn’t have to be measured by the dollar amount we give. Our time and talents have value, too. And depending on where we are in life, one of those resources may be far more valuable than the others.

Bucket One: “I Don’t Have Enough Money to Make a Difference”

There’s a misconception that generosity begins once we reach a certain level of financial success. Maybe someday, when the mortgage is smaller, the kids are out of the house, the student loans are gone, or the salary is higher, there will finally be enough left over to give.

I don’t think generosity needs to wait for someday.

If $5 a month is what fits into your budget right now, start there. That’s $60 over the course of a year. By itself, $60 may not feel transformational, but think about what small gifts can accomplish when people give collectively.

A $5 monthly donation could help a local food shelf purchase staples for families in the community. It could contribute toward school supplies for a child, pet food or medical care at an animal rescue, supplies for a homeless shelter, or a nonprofit’s operating expenses. Your $5 may be joined by $5 from hundreds of other people who care about the same mission.

We sometimes convince ourselves that if we can’t solve the whole problem, our contribution doesn’t matter. But generosity was never limited to solving the whole problem ourselves. And money is not the only resource you have available.

Maybe you can’t give $100 to the food shelf, but you can spend two hours sorting donations. Maybe you can’t make a significant contribution to an organization serving children, but you can tutor a student once a week.

Perhaps you can’t financially support a nonprofit at the level you’d like, but you’re an accountant, attorney, marketer, contractor, teacher, mechanic, or business owner with skills that organization desperately needs. Maybe you can help with its bookkeeping, build a website, repair something, tutor a student, or help an organization solve a problem it would otherwise have to pay someone to solve.

That is your talent. And depending on what an organization needs, an hour of your expertise could be worth far more than the check you wish you could write.

Then there is your time. You can deliver meals, coach a youth team, visit someone who is lonely, serve at church, clean up a neighborhood, help at an event, drive someone to an appointment, or simply show up when another person needs an extra set of hands.

None of those contributions show up on a charitable-giving statement at the end of the year. That doesn’t make them less valuable.

In some seasons of life, your treasure may be the resource you have the least of. Give what you can, but don’t overlook everything else you’ve been given.

Bucket Two: “I Wrote the Check. What Else Can I Do?”

The second bucket presents almost the opposite challenge.

Perhaps you have reached a point where giving money is relatively easy. You know which organizations you support. You make your annual gifts, set up recurring donations, contribute through your church, or use a donor-advised fund. You may even have incorporated charitable giving into your financial and estate plans.

Those are meaningful acts of generosity. But they can also raise another question: Are we giving from our abundance while protecting the things that feel more scarce?

Sometimes writing a check is easier than giving away a Saturday afternoon.

It can be easier to make a donation to a youth organization than to mentor a young person for the next five years. It can be easier to support a nonprofit financially than to sit on its board and offer decades of professional experience. It can be easier to give to a ministry than to rearrange our schedule when someone in our church needs help.

And it can certainly be easier to spend money caring for aging parents than to give them what they may want most: our presence.

That doesn’t diminish financial generosity. Organizations need money to fulfill their missions. Giving financially can accomplish tremendous good.

But Goff’s framing made me wonder whether we sometimes default to giving the resource that costs us the least.

For someone early in a career with young children and a tight budget, $100 may represent a real sacrifice. For someone who has accumulated significant wealth, $100 may require almost no sacrifice at all—that may even be your typical lunch cost.

If you’ve reached a point where you have significant financial resources to give, chances are you’ve accumulated something else along the way: experience.

Maybe you’ve spent 30 years running a business, managing employees, practicing law, working in health care, teaching, selling, investing, building things, or solving complicated problems. Writing a check allows an organization to hire expertise. But what if some of the expertise it needs is already sitting in your head?

A young entrepreneur might benefit from the lessons you learned building a business. A nonprofit might need someone who understands budgets or marketing. A younger person in your profession may need a mentor who can help them avoid some of the mistakes you made along the way.

Eventually, you may reach a point where you no longer need to use those skills to make more money. That doesn’t mean those skills have reached the end of their usefulness.

Give From All Three

Goff’s words have stuck with me because they expand the definition of generosity.

  1. Time
  2. Talent
  3. Treasure

Most of us probably have more of one than another depending on our season of life. A young family may have limited treasure but valuable talents. Someone at the height of a demanding career may have financial resources but very little free time. A retiree may suddenly have more control over their calendar and decades of knowledge to share.

The goal isn’t to give equal amounts of all three. It’s to recognize that all three have been entrusted to us.

So perhaps the better question isn’t simply, How much am I giving?

Ask yourself:

  • Where do I have abundance right now?
  • What skills have I developed that could benefit someone else?
  • Who needs my presence more than they need my money?
  • Is there a cause I care about that could use both my financial support and my involvement?

There will always be another opportunity to make more money, save another dollar, or grow an account balance. Those things aren’t inherently wrong. Good stewardship includes caring wisely for the financial resources we’ve been given.

But our bank accounts aren’t the only resources we’re managing. Our calendars are, too. So are the abilities we’ve spent a lifetime developing.

You may have $5 to give. You may have $50,000. You may have an afternoon, a particular skill, or years of experience that could change the trajectory of someone else’s life.

Start with what you have because generosity isn’t only about how much money leaves your hands. Sometimes it’s about where you choose to put your hands, your attention, and your time.

 

In Bob Goff’s book Undistracted, he writes a line that really stuck out to me: “When it comes to availability, there are three main ways we can create it: our time, our talent, and our treasure.”

When it comes to giving, I think people often fall into one of two buckets. First, there are those who want to support their favorite charities and causes but don’t feel like they have enough extra money to make a difference. Then there are those who have the financial resources to give, so they write a check and move on.

But stewardship doesn’t have to be measured by the dollar amount we give. Our time and talents have value, too. And depending on where we are in life, one of those resources may be far more valuable than the others.

Bucket One: “I Don’t Have Enough Money to Make a Difference”

There’s a misconception that generosity begins once we reach a certain level of financial success. Maybe someday, when the mortgage is smaller, the kids are out of the house, the student loans are gone, or the salary is higher, there will finally be enough left over to give.

I don’t think generosity needs to wait for someday.

If $5 a month is what fits into your budget right now, start there. That’s $60 over the course of a year. By itself, $60 may not feel transformational, but think about what small gifts can accomplish when people give collectively.

A $5 monthly donation could help a local food shelf purchase staples for families in the community. It could contribute toward school supplies for a child, pet food or medical care at an animal rescue, supplies for a homeless shelter, or a nonprofit’s operating expenses. Your $5 may be joined by $5 from hundreds of other people who care about the same mission.

We sometimes convince ourselves that if we can’t solve the whole problem, our contribution doesn’t matter. But generosity was never limited to solving the whole problem ourselves. And money is not the only resource you have available.

Maybe you can’t give $100 to the food shelf, but you can spend two hours sorting donations. Maybe you can’t make a significant contribution to an organization serving children, but you can tutor a student once a week.

Perhaps you can’t financially support a nonprofit at the level you’d like, but you’re an accountant, attorney, marketer, contractor, teacher, mechanic, or business owner with skills that organization desperately needs. Maybe you can help with its bookkeeping, build a website, repair something, tutor a student, or help an organization solve a problem it would otherwise have to pay someone to solve.

That is your talent. And depending on what an organization needs, an hour of your expertise could be worth far more than the check you wish you could write.

Then there is your time. You can deliver meals, coach a youth team, visit someone who is lonely, serve at church, clean up a neighborhood, help at an event, drive someone to an appointment, or simply show up when another person needs an extra set of hands.

None of those contributions show up on a charitable-giving statement at the end of the year. That doesn’t make them less valuable.

In some seasons of life, your treasure may be the resource you have the least of. Give what you can, but don’t overlook everything else you’ve been given.

Bucket Two: “I Wrote the Check. What Else Can I Do?”

The second bucket presents almost the opposite challenge.

Perhaps you have reached a point where giving money is relatively easy. You know which organizations you support. You make your annual gifts, set up recurring donations, contribute through your church, or use a donor-advised fund. You may even have incorporated charitable giving into your financial and estate plans.

Those are meaningful acts of generosity. But they can also raise another question: Are we giving from our abundance while protecting the things that feel more scarce?

Sometimes writing a check is easier than giving away a Saturday afternoon.

It can be easier to make a donation to a youth organization than to mentor a young person for the next five years. It can be easier to support a nonprofit financially than to sit on its board and offer decades of professional experience. It can be easier to give to a ministry than to rearrange our schedule when someone in our church needs help.

And it can certainly be easier to spend money caring for aging parents than to give them what they may want most: our presence.

That doesn’t diminish financial generosity. Organizations need money to fulfill their missions. Giving financially can accomplish tremendous good.

But Goff’s framing made me wonder whether we sometimes default to giving the resource that costs us the least.

For someone early in a career with young children and a tight budget, $100 may represent a real sacrifice. For someone who has accumulated significant wealth, $100 may require almost no sacrifice at all—that may even be your typical lunch cost.

If you’ve reached a point where you have significant financial resources to give, chances are you’ve accumulated something else along the way: experience.

Maybe you’ve spent 30 years running a business, managing employees, practicing law, working in health care, teaching, selling, investing, building things, or solving complicated problems. Writing a check allows an organization to hire expertise. But what if some of the expertise it needs is already sitting in your head?

A young entrepreneur might benefit from the lessons you learned building a business. A nonprofit might need someone who understands budgets or marketing. A younger person in your profession may need a mentor who can help them avoid some of the mistakes you made along the way.

Eventually, you may reach a point where you no longer need to use those skills to make more money. That doesn’t mean those skills have reached the end of their usefulness.

Give From All Three

Goff’s words have stuck with me because they expand the definition of generosity.

  1. Time
  2. Talent
  3. Treasure

Most of us probably have more of one than another depending on our season of life. A young family may have limited treasure but valuable talents. Someone at the height of a demanding career may have financial resources but very little free time. A retiree may suddenly have more control over their calendar and decades of knowledge to share.

The goal isn’t to give equal amounts of all three. It’s to recognize that all three have been entrusted to us.

So perhaps the better question isn’t simply, How much am I giving?

Ask yourself:

  • Where do I have abundance right now?
  • What skills have I developed that could benefit someone else?
  • Who needs my presence more than they need my money?
  • Is there a cause I care about that could use both my financial support and my involvement?

There will always be another opportunity to make more money, save another dollar, or grow an account balance. Those things aren’t inherently wrong. Good stewardship includes caring wisely for the financial resources we’ve been given.

But our bank accounts aren’t the only resources we’re managing. Our calendars are, too. So are the abilities we’ve spent a lifetime developing.

You may have $5 to give. You may have $50,000. You may have an afternoon, a particular skill, or years of experience that could change the trajectory of someone else’s life.

Start with what you have because generosity isn’t only about how much money leaves your hands. Sometimes it’s about where you choose to put your hands, your attention, and your time.

Managing God’s Money: What Changes When We Stop Thinking Like Owners?

ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

Managing God’s Money: What Changes When We Stop Thinking Like Owners?

BY BRETT ANDERSON/ST.CROIX ADVISORS, LLC
Image of the Bible and an offering plate for Biblical concept of Christian offering, generosity, and giving tithes in church.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Psalm 24:1

Most financial planning begins with some version of the same question: What do you want your money to do for you?

It’s a reasonable question. We need money to provide for our families, prepare for retirement, weather the unexpected, enjoy life, support people and causes we care about, and eventually leave something behind. Much of my work with clients involves helping them make thoughtful decisions around those very things.

But what happens if the money you’re working with, isn’t actually yours at all? I mean, you’ve earned it. You’ve worked hard for it. But is it solely yours? After all, we came into the world with nothing and we’ll leave with nothing.

Randy Alcorn’s book Managing God’s Money: A Biblical Guide is one I’ve read multiple times. It is one of the most thorough biblical treatments of stewardship I’ve come across. These aren’t just good ideas. They’re the framework I often use to help clients think about money, legacy, and what really lasts. Focusing on what lasts has been on my mind and heart as I’ve walked through this journey of life more.

If we believe what Scripture says, the money we call ours was never entirely ours in the first place. God owns it. We have simply been entrusted with managing it for a period of time. I know at many times I’ve thought it was all mine, but when you start thinking about it deeply, you realize it’s not.

That sounds like a theological distinction until you begin applying it to actual financial decisions. Then it becomes very practical, very quickly.

From Ownership to Stewardship

Imagine you were responsible for managing the financial resources of a business you didn’t own. You would probably approach every decision differently than you would if you believed the money was yours to do with as you pleased.

You would want to know what the owner expected. You would consider whether a decision supported the owner’s goals. You would think about your responsibility to use the resources wisely, and you would expect to eventually account for what you had done with them.

That is essentially the picture of stewardship Alcorn develops throughout the book.

For Christians, this changes the question from, “What can I afford?” to something closer to, “What is the wisest and most faithful use of what has been entrusted to me?” How would Jesus direct us to use these treasures we’ve been entrusted with?

That distinction matters because affordability alone is a surprisingly low bar for making financial decisions.

A family may be able to afford the larger house, another vehicle, or a more expensive lifestyle. A retiree may have accumulated considerably more than he or she is likely to spend. Parents may be financially capable of leaving a substantial inheritance to their children. I think many times the fall back is to increase our lifestyles. I get it.

None of those things are inherently wrong. The better question is whether they reflect what we actually want our resources to accomplish.

This is one reason I believe faith belongs in the financial planning conversation for clients who want it there. A financial plan shouldn’t merely tell you what you can do. It should help you think carefully about what you believe you should do.

How Much Is Enough?

One of the more difficult questions in financial planning is also one of the simplest: How much is enough?

There is no universal dollar amount. This truly isn’t an easy answer and everyone has a different number.

For one family, a certain level of spending may represent a meaningful life built around family, hospitality, travel, and experiences they have intentionally chosen. For another, the same spending may simply reflect a lifestyle that expanded every time income did. For some, giving/tithing is placed at the front of line before anything else.

The same is true of saving. Preparing for retirement is wise. Maintaining appropriate reserves is wise. Investing for future needs is wise. Yet there is a point at which preparation for the future can quietly turn into accumulation without a defined purpose.

That distinction is important because “more” has no natural stopping point.

If our goal is simply to accumulate, there will always be another milestone. We can move from wanting $1 million to $2 million, then from $2 million to $3 million, without ever stopping to ask what the additional money is actually for.

A good financial plan should help answer that question.

Once we have identified what is needed to provide for our family, prepare for reasonable contingencies and accomplish the things we believe we are called to do, we can begin asking a much more interesting question: What could the rest accomplish?

That is where financial planning and generosity should begin to intersect.

“I’ll Give More When I Have More”

I have heard variations of this idea many times: Someday, when there is more money, there will be more room to give.
It sounds reasonable. The problem is that “someday” has a habit of moving.

As income increases, lifestyles often expand with it. A larger paycheck makes room for a nicer house, better vacations, another vehicle, or simply more convenience. None of those things necessarily represent poor stewardship, but without intentionality, additional income can be absorbed long before generosity ever gets a chance at it.

Alcorn’s discussion of the poor widow who gave two small coins (Mark 12:41–44) and the rich man who kept building bigger barns to hold all of his crop (Luke 12:16–21) offers an uncomfortable contrast. Generosity isn’t primarily a question of the amount given. It reveals something about our willingness to loosen our grip on what we have.

That means the best time to establish generosity as part of a financial plan usually isn’t after reaching some future level of wealth. It’s now.

For someone who has never developed a regular giving practice, tithing can provide a concrete place to begin. I like Alcorn’s description of it as training wheels. Ten percent isn’t necessarily the finish line; it can be the structure that helps us develop the habit of giving intentionally rather than waiting to see what happens to be left over.

What’s interesting about the statement, I’ll give more when I have more or have built more up, is what happens when you start thinking about all the lives you could have impacted over one, five, 10, or even 30 years had you started sooner. It’s much easier to give money away upon our deaths, when we no longer have a personal use for it, but what about the impact we could make while we’re still here? Many times, I sit back and think about the people and places my family is impacting today because we chose not to wait. I’m a big believer that I can’t take clients where I haven’t gone myself.

Money Is a Tool, Not the Enemy

There is another side to this conversation that matters.

A biblical approach to money does not require us to feel guilty for earning it, saving it, investing it, or enjoying it.

Money itself isn’t the problem. What matters is the place it occupies in our lives.

I sometimes put it this way with clients: It isn’t wrong to have money. The question is whether money has you.

Financial planning can actually help create freedom here. When we understand what we have, what we need and what our resources can reasonably support, we may be better equipped to hold money loosely rather than living in constant fear of losing it.

That matters during volatile markets, too.

Diversification, appropriate asset allocation, and long-term planning are important. We should make wise financial decisions. But no investment strategy can eliminate uncertainty from life, and a portfolio was never meant to carry the full weight of our security.

For Christians, our financial security and our ultimate security are not the same thing.

Invest in What Has Lasting Value

Financial planners spend a lot of time asking people to think long term.

Don’t react to today’s market. Think about retirement. Consider where you’ll be 10, 20, or 30 years from now.

Alcorn stretches that timeline considerably further.

If we genuinely believe earthly life is temporary and eternity is not, then even a 30-year financial projection is a relatively short-term view. That perspective doesn’t make retirement planning, investing, or estate planning irrelevant. It gives them context.

It asks us to consider whether we’re putting all of our effort into building something that ultimately has an expiration date.

Homes eventually belong to someone else. Cars wear out. Investment accounts are transferred. The possessions we spent decades acquiring are eventually sold, donated, inherited, or thrown away. Earthly possessions are not really ours anyways.

That leads to one very big question: When everything we own eventually ends up broken, abandoned, or in a junkyard somewhere, what will we have done with our lives that lasts?

That’s a worthwhile estate planning question.

It’s also a worthwhile question at 40, 50 or 60, while there is still plenty of life left to live and plenty of opportunity to decide what our resources will accomplish.

A Different Definition of a Successful Financial Plan

We often measure financial success by numbers: net worth, investment returns, retirement income, tax savings, or the size of an estate.

Those measurements have their place. I want clients to make sound financial decisions, and I want the plans we build to work.

But Managing God’s Money is a reminder that, for a Christian, a technically successful financial plan can still miss the larger objective.

The ultimate goal isn’t to arrive at the end of life having accumulated the most.

It’s to have been faithful with what was entrusted to us.

That may mean providing well for a family. It may mean enjoying some of the resources God has given us with gratitude. It may mean helping children while also teaching them responsibility. It may mean supporting a church, funding ministry, helping someone through a difficult season, giving generously to organizations doing meaningful work, or deciding that we already have enough and someone else needs the next dollar more than we do.

The specifics will look different for every family.

The underlying question remains the same: Am I living as though this is my money, or am I managing it as something God has entrusted to my care?

Once that question changes, a surprising number of financial decisions begin to look different.

Perhaps that’s the real value of stewardship-based financial planning. It doesn’t simply help us accumulate resources and eventually distribute them. It helps us decide, while we still have the opportunity, what we want those resources to accomplish.

Because in the end, the measure we are seeking isn’t “well accumulated.”

It’s “well done.”

 

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Psalm 24:1

Most financial planning begins with some version of the same question: What do you want your money to do for you?

It’s a reasonable question. We need money to provide for our families, prepare for retirement, weather the unexpected, enjoy life, support people and causes we care about, and eventually leave something behind. Much of my work with clients involves helping them make thoughtful decisions around those very things.

But what happens if the money you’re working with, isn’t actually yours at all? I mean, you’ve earned it. You’ve worked hard for it. But is it solely yours? After all, we came into the world with nothing and we’ll leave with nothing.

Randy Alcorn’s book Managing God’s Money: A Biblical Guide is one I’ve read multiple times. It is one of the most thorough biblical treatments of stewardship I’ve come across. These aren’t just good ideas. They’re the framework I often use to help clients think about money, legacy, and what really lasts. Focusing on what lasts has been on my mind and heart as I’ve walked through this journey of life more.

If we believe what Scripture says, the money we call ours was never entirely ours in the first place. God owns it. We have simply been entrusted with managing it for a period of time. I know at many times I’ve thought it was all mine, but when you start thinking about it deeply, you realize it’s not.

That sounds like a theological distinction until you begin applying it to actual financial decisions. Then it becomes very practical, very quickly.

From Ownership to Stewardship

Imagine you were responsible for managing the financial resources of a business you didn’t own. You would probably approach every decision differently than you would if you believed the money was yours to do with as you pleased.

You would want to know what the owner expected. You would consider whether a decision supported the owner’s goals. You would think about your responsibility to use the resources wisely, and you would expect to eventually account for what you had done with them.

That is essentially the picture of stewardship Alcorn develops throughout the book.

For Christians, this changes the question from, “What can I afford?” to something closer to, “What is the wisest and most faithful use of what has been entrusted to me?” How would Jesus direct us to use these treasures we’ve been entrusted with?

That distinction matters because affordability alone is a surprisingly low bar for making financial decisions.

A family may be able to afford the larger house, another vehicle, or a more expensive lifestyle. A retiree may have accumulated considerably more than he or she is likely to spend. Parents may be financially capable of leaving a substantial inheritance to their children. I think many times the fall back is to increase our lifestyles. I get it.

None of those things are inherently wrong. The better question is whether they reflect what we actually want our resources to accomplish.

This is one reason I believe faith belongs in the financial planning conversation for clients who want it there. A financial plan shouldn’t merely tell you what you can do. It should help you think carefully about what you believe you should do.

How Much Is Enough?

One of the more difficult questions in financial planning is also one of the simplest: How much is enough?

There is no universal dollar amount. This truly isn’t an easy answer and everyone has a different number.

For one family, a certain level of spending may represent a meaningful life built around family, hospitality, travel, and experiences they have intentionally chosen. For another, the same spending may simply reflect a lifestyle that expanded every time income did. For some, giving/tithing is placed at the front of line before anything else.

The same is true of saving. Preparing for retirement is wise. Maintaining appropriate reserves is wise. Investing for future needs is wise. Yet there is a point at which preparation for the future can quietly turn into accumulation without a defined purpose.

That distinction is important because “more” has no natural stopping point.

If our goal is simply to accumulate, there will always be another milestone. We can move from wanting $1 million to $2 million, then from $2 million to $3 million, without ever stopping to ask what the additional money is actually for.

A good financial plan should help answer that question.

Once we have identified what is needed to provide for our family, prepare for reasonable contingencies and accomplish the things we believe we are called to do, we can begin asking a much more interesting question: What could the rest accomplish?

That is where financial planning and generosity should begin to intersect.

“I’ll Give More When I Have More”

I have heard variations of this idea many times: Someday, when there is more money, there will be more room to give.
It sounds reasonable. The problem is that “someday” has a habit of moving.

As income increases, lifestyles often expand with it. A larger paycheck makes room for a nicer house, better vacations, another vehicle, or simply more convenience. None of those things necessarily represent poor stewardship, but without intentionality, additional income can be absorbed long before generosity ever gets a chance at it.

Alcorn’s discussion of the poor widow who gave two small coins (Mark 12:41–44) and the rich man who kept building bigger barns to hold all of his crop (Luke 12:16–21) offers an uncomfortable contrast. Generosity isn’t primarily a question of the amount given. It reveals something about our willingness to loosen our grip on what we have.

That means the best time to establish generosity as part of a financial plan usually isn’t after reaching some future level of wealth. It’s now.

For someone who has never developed a regular giving practice, tithing can provide a concrete place to begin. I like Alcorn’s description of it as training wheels. Ten percent isn’t necessarily the finish line; it can be the structure that helps us develop the habit of giving intentionally rather than waiting to see what happens to be left over.

What’s interesting about the statement, I’ll give more when I have more or have built more up, is what happens when you start thinking about all the lives you could have impacted over one, five, 10, or even 30 years had you started sooner. It’s much easier to give money away upon our deaths, when we no longer have a personal use for it, but what about the impact we could make while we’re still here? Many times, I sit back and think about the people and places my family is impacting today because we chose not to wait. I’m a big believer that I can’t take clients where I haven’t gone myself.

Money Is a Tool, Not the Enemy

There is another side to this conversation that matters.

A biblical approach to money does not require us to feel guilty for earning it, saving it, investing it, or enjoying it.

Money itself isn’t the problem. What matters is the place it occupies in our lives.

I sometimes put it this way with clients: It isn’t wrong to have money. The question is whether money has you.

Financial planning can actually help create freedom here. When we understand what we have, what we need and what our resources can reasonably support, we may be better equipped to hold money loosely rather than living in constant fear of losing it.

That matters during volatile markets, too.

Diversification, appropriate asset allocation, and long-term planning are important. We should make wise financial decisions. But no investment strategy can eliminate uncertainty from life, and a portfolio was never meant to carry the full weight of our security.

For Christians, our financial security and our ultimate security are not the same thing.

Invest in What Has Lasting Value

Financial planners spend a lot of time asking people to think long term.

Don’t react to today’s market. Think about retirement. Consider where you’ll be 10, 20, or 30 years from now.

Alcorn stretches that timeline considerably further.

If we genuinely believe earthly life is temporary and eternity is not, then even a 30-year financial projection is a relatively short-term view. That perspective doesn’t make retirement planning, investing, or estate planning irrelevant. It gives them context.

It asks us to consider whether we’re putting all of our effort into building something that ultimately has an expiration date.

Homes eventually belong to someone else. Cars wear out. Investment accounts are transferred. The possessions we spent decades acquiring are eventually sold, donated, inherited, or thrown away. Earthly possessions are not really ours anyways.

That leads to one very big question: When everything we own eventually ends up broken, abandoned, or in a junkyard somewhere, what will we have done with our lives that lasts?

That’s a worthwhile estate planning question.

It’s also a worthwhile question at 40, 50 or 60, while there is still plenty of life left to live and plenty of opportunity to decide what our resources will accomplish.

A Different Definition of a Successful Financial Plan

We often measure financial success by numbers: net worth, investment returns, retirement income, tax savings, or the size of an estate.

Those measurements have their place. I want clients to make sound financial decisions, and I want the plans we build to work.

But Managing God’s Money is a reminder that, for a Christian, a technically successful financial plan can still miss the larger objective.

The ultimate goal isn’t to arrive at the end of life having accumulated the most.

It’s to have been faithful with what was entrusted to us.

That may mean providing well for a family. It may mean enjoying some of the resources God has given us with gratitude. It may mean helping children while also teaching them responsibility. It may mean supporting a church, funding ministry, helping someone through a difficult season, giving generously to organizations doing meaningful work, or deciding that we already have enough and someone else needs the next dollar more than we do.

The specifics will look different for every family.

The underlying question remains the same: Am I living as though this is my money, or am I managing it as something God has entrusted to my care?

Once that question changes, a surprising number of financial decisions begin to look different.

Perhaps that’s the real value of stewardship-based financial planning. It doesn’t simply help us accumulate resources and eventually distribute them. It helps us decide, while we still have the opportunity, what we want those resources to accomplish.

Because in the end, the measure we are seeking isn’t “well accumulated.”

It’s “well done.”

Calculating Your Individual Net Worth

ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

The Financial Number We Don’t Talk About Enough: Calculating Your Individual Net Worth

BY BRETT ANDERSON/ST.CROIX ADVISORS, LLC
woman writing a list of debt on notebook calculating her expenses with calculator with many invoices , female hand doing accounting

When someone hears the phrase “net worth,” it’s easy to assume we’re talking about millionaires, investment portfolios, or people who have their financial lives completely figured out.

But net worth isn’t just for wealthy people. In fact, knowing your net worth is one of the simplest ways to understand where you stand financially today and where you may want to go from here.

The good news? You don’t need a financial degree or a complicated spreadsheet to calculate it. You just need two things: what you own and what you owe.

I can tell you personally, when I started focusing on my net worth and tracking it every six months—January and June of each year—I was completely taken aback by how much financial progress I was actually making toward reaching my goals. Sometimes we don’t even realize the small progress we’re making until we look back over an extended period of time and see how far we’ve come. And then, bam. You hit the milestones you set out to reach. It’s important to know our own individual numbers. Plus, it doesn’t take long to figure them out.

What Is Net Worth?

Your net worth is the value of everything you own minus everything you owe.

The basic formula is: Assets − Liabilities = Net Worth

  • Assets: Things that have financial value.
  • Liabilities: Debts and other financial obligations.

For example, imagine someone has:

  • $20,000 in checking and savings accounts
  • $80,000 in retirement accounts
  • $10,000 in other investments
  • A home worth $400,000
  • A vehicle worth $25,000

That’s $535,000 in total assets.

Now suppose they owe:

  • $300,000 on their mortgage
  • $15,000 on an auto loan
  • $5,000 in credit card debt

That’s $320,000 in liabilities.

Their net worth would be: $535,000 − $320,000 = $215,000

That $215,000 is their current net worth. Simple, right?

Step 1: Add Up What You Own

Start by making a list of your assets. You don’t have to get the number down to the exact dollar. A reasonable estimate is enough to give you a useful picture.

Cash

Include the money you currently have in:

  • Checking accounts
  • Savings accounts
  • Money market accounts
  • Certificates of deposit
  • Other cash accounts

Investments and Retirement Accounts

Next, look at your investment accounts.

These might include:

  • 401(k) or 403(b) accounts
  • Traditional IRAs
  • Roth IRAs
  • Brokerage accounts
  • Other investment accounts

Use the current account value, not what you originally contributed.

For example, if you’ve contributed $100,000 to your 401(k) over the years but the account is now worth $145,000, you would count $145,000.

Real Estate

If you own a home, include its estimated current market value. You don’t need to hire an appraiser just to calculate your net worth. A reasonable estimate based on recent comparable sales or other reliable information is generally sufficient. You can jump on Zillow for a quick value as a benchmark.

If you own additional property, such as a rental property or vacation home, include those as well.

Personal Property

You can also include valuable personal property, such as:

  • Vehicles
  • Boats
  • Jewelry
  • Collectibles
  • Other significant assets

This is where I’d encourage a little common sense. You probably don’t need to estimate the value of your toaster, couch, or 12-year-old collection of classic rock band T-shirts.

The goal isn’t to create an inventory of everything you own. The goal is to get a meaningful picture of your financial position.

Remember, our household items are never as valuable as we think they are!

Step 2: Add Up What You Owe

Now it’s time to look at your liabilities.

Start with the big ones.

Mortgage

If you own a home, look at your current mortgage balance. Remember, this is different from the home’s value.

If your home is worth $400,000 and you owe $300,000 on the mortgage, the $400,000 goes on the asset side and the $300,000 goes on the liability side.

The difference—$100,000—is the equity you’ve built in the home.

Other Loans

Include outstanding balances on things like:

  • Auto loans
  • Student loans
  • Personal loans
  • Home equity loans
  • Lines of credit

Credit Card Debt

Don’t forget credit cards.

Even if you pay your cards off every month, include any balance that is currently owed if you’re calculating your net worth as of a specific date.

The important thing is to use the amount you currently owe, not your credit limit.

For Business Owners: You’ll want to include the value of your business less any liabilities of the business too. For many, this may not be a simple calculation. It may involve having your CPA help with factoring the value of your business.

Step 3: Do the Math

Once you’ve listed everything, add your assets together. Then add your liabilities together.

Finally: Total Assets − Total Liabilities = Net Worth

And there you have it.

Your net worth is essentially a snapshot of your financial balance sheet today.

What If My Net Worth Is Negative?

This is an important question, and one that can come with a lot of emotion.

If your liabilities are greater than your assets, your net worth will be negative.

That might happen early in someone’s career because of student loans. It could happen after purchasing a home. It could happen because of credit card debt or other financial circumstances.

That’s life starting out. That’s why it’s important to track it overtime.

A negative net worth doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you have a starting point.

And that’s one of the most useful things about tracking net worth: it gives you something you can measure.

Over time, you can watch what happens as you pay down debt, save more, invest, build equity, and make other financial decisions.

Your Net Worth Is a Number. Not Your Worth.

There’s another important distinction.

We can be tempted to turn financial numbers into scorecards for our lives. If our retirement account isn’t where we think it should be, we feel behind. If someone else’s house is bigger, we feel like we’re losing. If our net worth isn’t growing as quickly as we’d hoped, we assume we’re doing something wrong.

That’s not what this number is for.

Net worth is a tool.

It helps you understand where you are so you can make better decisions about where you’re going.

Why Should I Track My Net Worth?

Calculating your net worth once can be helpful. Tracking it over time can be even more valuable.

Tracking your net worth can help you:

  • See progress: Paying down a mortgage or student loan may not feel exciting month to month, but seeing your liabilities decrease over several years can make the progress much more tangible.
  • Identify opportunities: Maybe you’re carrying more cash than you need. Maybe you have significant debt that needs attention. Maybe your investment accounts have grown but aren’t aligned with your overall plan.
  • Set meaningful goals: Instead of simply saying, “I want to save more,” you can begin looking at how your assets and liabilities are changing over time.
  • Make better financial decisions: Big financial decisions—buying a home, changing careers, retiring, giving, or helping family—make more sense when you understand your overall financial picture.

Don’t Just Ask, “How Much Do I Have?”

One of the reasons I like net worth as a financial planning tool is that it encourages us to look at the whole picture.

A $1 million retirement account sounds great, but what if someone also has $900,000 of debt?

On the other hand, someone might have a relatively modest investment account but own a home outright, have little debt, and have a strong income and savings plan. I’d place them in the “rich” category, but that’s just my perspective and how I’d see their balance sheet and net worth.

The number in one account doesn’t tell the whole story.

Net worth helps us zoom out.

And that’s really what good financial planning is about: understanding how all the pieces fit together.

What Does Your Net Worth Say About Your Financial Life?

Here’s a simple exercise: calculate your net worth today.

Then save the number.

Six months or a year from now, calculate it again and continue tracking it year after year. Look at how the numbers change over time, including year-over-year percentage changes and one-, three-, and five-year trends. Over time, those numbers can tell a powerful story.

Don’t worry about whether the number is “good enough.” Instead, ask some better questions:

  • Is my net worth moving in the direction I want?
  • Which assets are growing?
  • Which debts are decreasing?
  • Are there areas where I’m unnecessarily carrying financial risk?
  • Are my financial decisions helping me move toward what matters most?

Because ultimately, the goal isn’t simply to have a bigger number. The goal is to be aware of what your money is doing and if your financial resources are adequately supporting the life you want to live, the people we care about, and the things we value most.

Calculating your net worth is a simple place to start.

 

When someone hears the phrase “net worth,” it’s easy to assume we’re talking about millionaires, investment portfolios, or people who have their financial lives completely figured out.

But net worth isn’t just for wealthy people. In fact, knowing your net worth is one of the simplest ways to understand where you stand financially today and where you may want to go from here.

The good news? You don’t need a financial degree or a complicated spreadsheet to calculate it. You just need two things: what you own and what you owe.

I can tell you personally, when I started focusing on my net worth and tracking it every six months—January and June of each year—I was completely taken aback by how much financial progress I was actually making toward reaching my goals. Sometimes we don’t even realize the small progress we’re making until we look back over an extended period of time and see how far we’ve come. And then, bam. You hit the milestones you set out to reach. It’s important to know our own individual numbers. Plus, it doesn’t take long to figure them out.

What Is Net Worth?

Your net worth is the value of everything you own minus everything you owe.

The basic formula is: Assets − Liabilities = Net Worth

  • Assets: Things that have financial value.
  • Liabilities: Debts and other financial obligations.

For example, imagine someone has:

  • $20,000 in checking and savings accounts
  • $80,000 in retirement accounts
  • $10,000 in other investments
  • A home worth $400,000
  • A vehicle worth $25,000

That’s $535,000 in total assets.

Now suppose they owe:

  • $300,000 on their mortgage
  • $15,000 on an auto loan
  • $5,000 in credit card debt

That’s $320,000 in liabilities.

Their net worth would be: $535,000 − $320,000 = $215,000

That $215,000 is their current net worth. Simple, right?

Step 1: Add Up What You Own

Start by making a list of your assets. You don’t have to get the number down to the exact dollar. A reasonable estimate is enough to give you a useful picture.

Cash

Include the money you currently have in:

  • Checking accounts
  • Savings accounts
  • Money market accounts
  • Certificates of deposit
  • Other cash accounts

Investments and Retirement Accounts

Next, look at your investment accounts.

These might include:

  • 401(k) or 403(b) accounts
  • Traditional IRAs
  • Roth IRAs
  • Brokerage accounts
  • Other investment accounts

Use the current account value, not what you originally contributed.

For example, if you’ve contributed $100,000 to your 401(k) over the years but the account is now worth $145,000, you would count $145,000.

Real Estate

If you own a home, include its estimated current market value. You don’t need to hire an appraiser just to calculate your net worth. A reasonable estimate based on recent comparable sales or other reliable information is generally sufficient. You can jump on Zillow for a quick value as a benchmark.

If you own additional property, such as a rental property or vacation home, include those as well.

Personal Property

You can also include valuable personal property, such as:

  • Vehicles
  • Boats
  • Jewelry
  • Collectibles
  • Other significant assets

This is where I’d encourage a little common sense. You probably don’t need to estimate the value of your toaster, couch, or 12-year-old collection of classic rock band T-shirts.

The goal isn’t to create an inventory of everything you own. The goal is to get a meaningful picture of your financial position.

Remember, our household items are never as valuable as we think they are!

Step 2: Add Up What You Owe

Now it’s time to look at your liabilities.

Start with the big ones.

Mortgage

If you own a home, look at your current mortgage balance. Remember, this is different from the home’s value.

If your home is worth $400,000 and you owe $300,000 on the mortgage, the $400,000 goes on the asset side and the $300,000 goes on the liability side.

The difference—$100,000—is the equity you’ve built in the home.

Other Loans

Include outstanding balances on things like:

  • Auto loans
  • Student loans
  • Personal loans
  • Home equity loans
  • Lines of credit

Credit Card Debt

Don’t forget credit cards.

Even if you pay your cards off every month, include any balance that is currently owed if you’re calculating your net worth as of a specific date.

The important thing is to use the amount you currently owe, not your credit limit.

For Business Owners: You’ll want to include the value of your business less any liabilities of the business too. For many, this may not be a simple calculation. It may involve having your CPA help with factoring the value of your business.

Step 3: Do the Math

Once you’ve listed everything, add your assets together. Then add your liabilities together.

Finally: Total Assets − Total Liabilities = Net Worth

And there you have it.

Your net worth is essentially a snapshot of your financial balance sheet today.

What If My Net Worth Is Negative?

This is an important question, and one that can come with a lot of emotion.

If your liabilities are greater than your assets, your net worth will be negative.

That might happen early in someone’s career because of student loans. It could happen after purchasing a home. It could happen because of credit card debt or other financial circumstances.

That’s life starting out. That’s why it’s important to track it overtime.

A negative net worth doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you have a starting point.

And that’s one of the most useful things about tracking net worth: it gives you something you can measure.

Over time, you can watch what happens as you pay down debt, save more, invest, build equity, and make other financial decisions.

Your Net Worth Is a Number. Not Your Worth.

There’s another important distinction.

We can be tempted to turn financial numbers into scorecards for our lives. If our retirement account isn’t where we think it should be, we feel behind. If someone else’s house is bigger, we feel like we’re losing. If our net worth isn’t growing as quickly as we’d hoped, we assume we’re doing something wrong.

That’s not what this number is for.

Net worth is a tool.

It helps you understand where you are so you can make better decisions about where you’re going.

Why Should I Track My Net Worth?

Calculating your net worth once can be helpful. Tracking it over time can be even more valuable.

Tracking your net worth can help you:

  • See progress: Paying down a mortgage or student loan may not feel exciting month to month, but seeing your liabilities decrease over several years can make the progress much more tangible.
  • Identify opportunities: Maybe you’re carrying more cash than you need. Maybe you have significant debt that needs attention. Maybe your investment accounts have grown but aren’t aligned with your overall plan.
  • Set meaningful goals: Instead of simply saying, “I want to save more,” you can begin looking at how your assets and liabilities are changing over time.
  • Make better financial decisions: Big financial decisions—buying a home, changing careers, retiring, giving, or helping family—make more sense when you understand your overall financial picture.

Don’t Just Ask, “How Much Do I Have?”

One of the reasons I like net worth as a financial planning tool is that it encourages us to look at the whole picture.

A $1 million retirement account sounds great, but what if someone also has $900,000 of debt?

On the other hand, someone might have a relatively modest investment account but own a home outright, have little debt, and have a strong income and savings plan. I’d place them in the “rich” category, but that’s just my perspective and how I’d see their balance sheet and net worth.

The number in one account doesn’t tell the whole story.

Net worth helps us zoom out.

And that’s really what good financial planning is about: understanding how all the pieces fit together.

What Does Your Net Worth Say About Your Financial Life?

Here’s a simple exercise: calculate your net worth today.

Then save the number.

Six months or a year from now, calculate it again and continue tracking it year after year. Look at how the numbers change over time, including year-over-year percentage changes and one-, three-, and five-year trends. Over time, those numbers can tell a powerful story.

Don’t worry about whether the number is “good enough.” Instead, ask some better questions:

  • Is my net worth moving in the direction I want?
  • Which assets are growing?
  • Which debts are decreasing?
  • Are there areas where I’m unnecessarily carrying financial risk?
  • Are my financial decisions helping me move toward what matters most?

Because ultimately, the goal isn’t simply to have a bigger number. The goal is to be aware of what your money is doing and if your financial resources are adequately supporting the life you want to live, the people we care about, and the things we value most.

Calculating your net worth is a simple place to start.

Love Does: Why Faith Was Never Meant to Stay in Our Heads

ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

Love Does: Why Faith Was Never Meant to Stay in Our Heads

BY BRETT ANDERSON/ST.CROIX ADVISORS, LLC

“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” — James 2:17

Most of us have accumulated more information than we know what to do with.

We have shelves full of books we’ve highlighted, podcasts we’ve saved, sermons we’ve listened to, and conferences we’ve attended. We know the right verses about generosity. We understand the importance of stewardship. We can explain why legacy matters and why our money belongs to God in the first place.

Yet knowledge has a way of creating the illusion of progress. We can become convinced that understanding an idea is the same thing as living it.

Bob Goff’s book Love Does challenges that assumption in an unforgettable way. (I’ve read it multiple times and highly recommend it!) Rather than presenting another systematic theology or step-by-step guide to Christian living, Goff tells story after story illustrating a simple truth: love is never content to remain an idea. Love is an action.

That message resonates deeply with us at St. Croix Advisors because it mirrors what we’ve observed over decades of walking alongside families. Over the years, I’ve discovered something surprising about first meetings. Many people apologize before we ever begin. They apologize for not saving enough, for carrying debt, for waiting too long, or for decisions they wish they could undo. It’s as though they believe they need to clean up their financial lives before they’re worthy of asking for help.

But that has never been the invitation. You don’t have to arrive with everything figured out. Just bring the real story. Financial planning doesn’t begin once your life is perfect; it begins with honesty about where you are today.

Stewardship Is Participation, Not Observation

One of the recurring themes throughout Love Does is that Jesus consistently invited people to participate.

He didn’t merely ask them to believe certain things. He invited fishermen to leave their nets. He called tax collectors away from comfortable careers. He asked ordinary people to feed crowds, care for strangers, forgive enemies, and follow Him into places that rarely felt predictable or safe.

Participation has always been God’s preferred classroom.

That perspective changes the way we think about stewardship.

Many Christians sincerely believe everything the Bible teaches about generosity while rarely allowing those beliefs to influence the way they spend, save, invest, or give. Stewardship quietly becomes another theological category rather than a daily practice.

Jesus never separated belief from action. He continually demonstrated that faith becomes visible through ordinary decisions made over long periods of time.

That’s why financial planning should never become merely an exercise in optimization. Tax strategies, retirement projections, investment allocations, and estate documents are valuable tools, but they remain just that—tools. Their purpose is not simply to create financial efficiency. Their greater purpose is to help position resources for Kingdom impact.

The question isn’t simply whether our financial plan is technically sound.

The deeper question is whether our financial plan is helping us become more faithful in our stewardship of the treasures we’ve been entrusted with?

We’ve all met people who sincerely want to be generous someday. They’re waiting until the mortgage is paid off, until the kids finish college, until retirement feels secure, until there is just a little more margin. Yet stewardship doesn’t begin once every circumstance is perfect. Like every other area of discipleship, it grows through participation. A written giving plan, however modest, often shapes a heart more than years of saying generosity is important. Actions speak loudly!

Success Can Become a Dangerous Goal

One of the most memorable observations in Love Does is the realization that it is far more dangerous to succeed at things that ultimately don’t matter than to fail while pursuing what does.

Our culture rarely encourages that kind of thinking.

Success is usually measured by larger homes, growing account balances, prestigious careers, and increasing influence. I used to think that way, but over the years as I’ve gained wisdom, my thinking has changed. Over time many people experience that. But none of those things are inherently wrong. In fact, many of them may be wonderful gifts from God.

Problems arise when those achievements quietly become our destination instead of our tools.

Jesus consistently redirected people’s attention away from accumulation and toward purpose. He reminded His followers that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions because possessions were never designed to answer the deepest questions of the human heart.

Financial planning often reveals this tension.

Someone may reach every retirement goal they established 20 years earlier and still discover an uncomfortable emptiness because the destination they pursued was never intended to satisfy them. Have you purchased something you were so excited about only later to be no longer enthusiastic about? Or you’ve filled your financial bucket up, now thinking, that’s not enough?

Another family may experience setbacks, unexpected detours, or financial disappointments while simultaneously developing deeper relationships, stronger faith, and a remarkable spirit of generosity.

Which life was actually more successful?

In planning meetings, we often ask a question that changes the entire conversation: “On track toward what?” It’s possible to be perfectly on schedule financially while slowly drifting away from the relationships, generosity, faith, and purpose that mattered most when you first began. Being “on track” only matters if you’re moving toward the right destination.

The World’s Math Isn’t God’s Math

One of the more intriguing ideas Goff explores is what he calls God’s “reverse economy.”

The world’s economy tells us that security comes from holding tighter, accumulating more, protecting ourselves first, and giving only after we’ve determined there is enough left over. The Bible directs us to give from our first harvest. It’s not an afterthought.

Scripture often points in another direction.

Jesus repeatedly taught that generosity produces abundance, that serving leads to greatness, and that those who seek first God’s Kingdom discover everything else placed into proper perspective.

From a purely mathematical standpoint, generosity often appears to subtract.

From God’s perspective, generosity transforms.

We’ve witnessed this repeatedly in conversations with clients.

Some of the most generous people we’ve served are not those with extraordinary wealth. They are people who decided long ago that giving would become one of the defining characteristics of their lives, regardless of their income.

Likewise, we’ve met individuals whose wealth continued to increase while their anxiety did as well. More assets simply gave them more things to worry about.

Money amplifies what already exists in the heart.

If our identity rests in our possessions, more possessions usually create more fear. This is so true and I see it.

If our identity rests in Christ, greater resources simply create greater opportunities to serve. I see this and I want this even for myself.

That is why generosity isn’t merely something Christians do after becoming financially successful. Generosity is one of the primary ways God shapes us into the people He desires us to become.

God’s economy has always worked differently than Wall Street’s.

Quiet Faith Often Has the Greatest Impact

Modern culture rewards visibility.

We announce accomplishments, celebrate milestones, and share nearly every meaningful experience with an audience.

Jesus often modeled something entirely different.

Again and again, He performed remarkable acts of compassion before telling people not to make a spectacle of them.

There is something deeply freeing about quiet faithfulness.

One of my favorite ideas from Love Does is the phrase “secretly incredible people.” They don’t need recognition to stay motivated. In many ways, that’s what faithful stewardship looks like. Some of the most meaningful gifts are the ones few people ever know about. Anonymous generosity reminds us that giving is ultimately an act of worship, not reputation.

Some of the most extraordinary acts of generosity we’ve encountered have never appeared in annual reports or fundraising banquets.

Relationships Will Always Outlast Portfolios

One of the most refreshing themes throughout Love Does is the repeated reminder that people matter infinitely more than programs, systems, or accomplishments.

The same principle applies to financial planning.

A portfolio is important.

A retirement strategy is important.

An estate plan is important.

But none of those things represent the final objective.

Our hope is that wise stewardship creates more opportunities to love spouses well, invest in children and grandchildren, strengthen churches, support ministries, encourage neighbors, and serve communities.

Money is simply one of God’s many tools for accomplishing those purposes.

The relationships remain long after the financial statements have been forgotten.

Living With Open Hands

At some point every Christian must answer a deeply personal question.

What is God asking me to do with everything He has entrusted to me?

For one family, the answer may involve increasing charitable giving. One question to ask: Are we only here for consumption?

For another, it may mean helping adult children establish healthy financial habits instead of simply providing more money.

For someone else, it could involve supporting a missionary, funding a scholarship, mentoring a younger family, serving on a nonprofit board, or simply becoming more intentional about hospitality.

The specific answer is different for every person.

The invitation is the same.

God never intended stewardship to become another item on a financial checklist. He designed it as an expression of trust, worship, and participation in His work.

When we begin to view our careers as opportunities to fund Kingdom purposes, our wealth as something temporarily entrusted to us, and our financial plans as tools for serving others rather than merely protecting ourselves, something remarkable begins to happen.

We discover that faithful stewardship was never primarily about what we own.

It has always been about becoming the kind of people who reflect the heart of the One who entrusted it to us.

At St. Croix Advisors, we believe financial planning should help people do far more than prepare for retirement. It should help them live faithfully today, steward wisely tomorrow, and leave behind a legacy that reflects God’s love long after they are gone.

Because in the end, love was never meant to remain an idea.

Love does.

 

“Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” — James 2:17

Most of us have accumulated more information than we know what to do with.

We have shelves full of books we’ve highlighted, podcasts we’ve saved, sermons we’ve listened to, and conferences we’ve attended. We know the right verses about generosity. We understand the importance of stewardship. We can explain why legacy matters and why our money belongs to God in the first place.

Yet knowledge has a way of creating the illusion of progress. We can become convinced that understanding an idea is the same thing as living it.

Bob Goff’s book Love Does challenges that assumption in an unforgettable way. (I’ve read it multiple times and highly recommend it!) Rather than presenting another systematic theology or step-by-step guide to Christian living, Goff tells story after story illustrating a simple truth: love is never content to remain an idea. Love is an action.

That message resonates deeply with us at St. Croix Advisors because it mirrors what we’ve observed over decades of walking alongside families. Over the years, I’ve discovered something surprising about first meetings. Many people apologize before we ever begin. They apologize for not saving enough, for carrying debt, for waiting too long, or for decisions they wish they could undo. It’s as though they believe they need to clean up their financial lives before they’re worthy of asking for help.

But that has never been the invitation. You don’t have to arrive with everything figured out. Just bring the real story. Financial planning doesn’t begin once your life is perfect; it begins with honesty about where you are today.

Stewardship Is Participation, Not Observation

One of the recurring themes throughout Love Does is that Jesus consistently invited people to participate.

He didn’t merely ask them to believe certain things. He invited fishermen to leave their nets. He called tax collectors away from comfortable careers. He asked ordinary people to feed crowds, care for strangers, forgive enemies, and follow Him into places that rarely felt predictable or safe.

Participation has always been God’s preferred classroom.

That perspective changes the way we think about stewardship.

Many Christians sincerely believe everything the Bible teaches about generosity while rarely allowing those beliefs to influence the way they spend, save, invest, or give. Stewardship quietly becomes another theological category rather than a daily practice.

Jesus never separated belief from action. He continually demonstrated that faith becomes visible through ordinary decisions made over long periods of time.

That’s why financial planning should never become merely an exercise in optimization. Tax strategies, retirement projections, investment allocations, and estate documents are valuable tools, but they remain just that—tools. Their purpose is not simply to create financial efficiency. Their greater purpose is to help position resources for Kingdom impact.

The question isn’t simply whether our financial plan is technically sound.

The deeper question is whether our financial plan is helping us become more faithful in our stewardship of the treasures we’ve been entrusted with?

We’ve all met people who sincerely want to be generous someday. They’re waiting until the mortgage is paid off, until the kids finish college, until retirement feels secure, until there is just a little more margin. Yet stewardship doesn’t begin once every circumstance is perfect. Like every other area of discipleship, it grows through participation. A written giving plan, however modest, often shapes a heart more than years of saying generosity is important. Actions speak loudly!

Success Can Become a Dangerous Goal

One of the most memorable observations in Love Does is the realization that it is far more dangerous to succeed at things that ultimately don’t matter than to fail while pursuing what does.

Our culture rarely encourages that kind of thinking.

Success is usually measured by larger homes, growing account balances, prestigious careers, and increasing influence. I used to think that way, but over the years as I’ve gained wisdom, my thinking has changed. Over time many people experience that. But none of those things are inherently wrong. In fact, many of them may be wonderful gifts from God.

Problems arise when those achievements quietly become our destination instead of our tools.

Jesus consistently redirected people’s attention away from accumulation and toward purpose. He reminded His followers that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions because possessions were never designed to answer the deepest questions of the human heart.

Financial planning often reveals this tension.

Someone may reach every retirement goal they established 20 years earlier and still discover an uncomfortable emptiness because the destination they pursued was never intended to satisfy them. Have you purchased something you were so excited about only later to be no longer enthusiastic about? Or you’ve filled your financial bucket up, now thinking, that’s not enough?

Another family may experience setbacks, unexpected detours, or financial disappointments while simultaneously developing deeper relationships, stronger faith, and a remarkable spirit of generosity.

Which life was actually more successful?

In planning meetings, we often ask a question that changes the entire conversation: “On track toward what?” It’s possible to be perfectly on schedule financially while slowly drifting away from the relationships, generosity, faith, and purpose that mattered most when you first began. Being “on track” only matters if you’re moving toward the right destination.

The World’s Math Isn’t God’s Math

One of the more intriguing ideas Goff explores is what he calls God’s “reverse economy.”

The world’s economy tells us that security comes from holding tighter, accumulating more, protecting ourselves first, and giving only after we’ve determined there is enough left over. The Bible directs us to give from our first harvest. It’s not an afterthought.

Scripture often points in another direction.

Jesus repeatedly taught that generosity produces abundance, that serving leads to greatness, and that those who seek first God’s Kingdom discover everything else placed into proper perspective.

From a purely mathematical standpoint, generosity often appears to subtract.

From God’s perspective, generosity transforms.

We’ve witnessed this repeatedly in conversations with clients.

Some of the most generous people we’ve served are not those with extraordinary wealth. They are people who decided long ago that giving would become one of the defining characteristics of their lives, regardless of their income.

Likewise, we’ve met individuals whose wealth continued to increase while their anxiety did as well. More assets simply gave them more things to worry about.

Money amplifies what already exists in the heart.

If our identity rests in our possessions, more possessions usually create more fear. This is so true and I see it.

If our identity rests in Christ, greater resources simply create greater opportunities to serve. I see this and I want this even for myself.

That is why generosity isn’t merely something Christians do after becoming financially successful. Generosity is one of the primary ways God shapes us into the people He desires us to become.

God’s economy has always worked differently than Wall Street’s.

Quiet Faith Often Has the Greatest Impact

Modern culture rewards visibility.

We announce accomplishments, celebrate milestones, and share nearly every meaningful experience with an audience.

Jesus often modeled something entirely different.

Again and again, He performed remarkable acts of compassion before telling people not to make a spectacle of them.

There is something deeply freeing about quiet faithfulness.

One of my favorite ideas from Love Does is the phrase “secretly incredible people.” They don’t need recognition to stay motivated. In many ways, that’s what faithful stewardship looks like. Some of the most meaningful gifts are the ones few people ever know about. Anonymous generosity reminds us that giving is ultimately an act of worship, not reputation.

Some of the most extraordinary acts of generosity we’ve encountered have never appeared in annual reports or fundraising banquets.

Relationships Will Always Outlast Portfolios

One of the most refreshing themes throughout Love Does is the repeated reminder that people matter infinitely more than programs, systems, or accomplishments.

The same principle applies to financial planning.

A portfolio is important.

A retirement strategy is important.

An estate plan is important.

But none of those things represent the final objective.

Our hope is that wise stewardship creates more opportunities to love spouses well, invest in children and grandchildren, strengthen churches, support ministries, encourage neighbors, and serve communities.

Money is simply one of God’s many tools for accomplishing those purposes.

The relationships remain long after the financial statements have been forgotten.

Living With Open Hands

At some point every Christian must answer a deeply personal question.

What is God asking me to do with everything He has entrusted to me?

For one family, the answer may involve increasing charitable giving. One question to ask: Are we only here for consumption?

For another, it may mean helping adult children establish healthy financial habits instead of simply providing more money.

For someone else, it could involve supporting a missionary, funding a scholarship, mentoring a younger family, serving on a nonprofit board, or simply becoming more intentional about hospitality.

The specific answer is different for every person.

The invitation is the same.

God never intended stewardship to become another item on a financial checklist. He designed it as an expression of trust, worship, and participation in His work.

When we begin to view our careers as opportunities to fund Kingdom purposes, our wealth as something temporarily entrusted to us, and our financial plans as tools for serving others rather than merely protecting ourselves, something remarkable begins to happen.

We discover that faithful stewardship was never primarily about what we own.

It has always been about becoming the kind of people who reflect the heart of the One who entrusted it to us.

At St. Croix Advisors, we believe financial planning should help people do far more than prepare for retirement. It should help them live faithfully today, steward wisely tomorrow, and leave behind a legacy that reflects God’s love long after they are gone.

Because in the end, love was never meant to remain an idea.

Love does.

Your Family Is Part of Your Legacy

ST. CROIX INSIGHTS

Your Family Is Part of Your Legacy

BY BRETT ANDERSON/ST.CROIX ADVISORS, LLC
Happy multi-generation family enjoying during breakfast time in dining room. Focus is on grandfather and grandson.

When people think about leaving a legacy, the conversation usually starts with money.

How much will my children inherit? Will there be enough? Have I built enough wealth to provide opportunities for future generations?

Those are important questions. Wise financial planning matters and scripture affirms the value of diligent stewardship and preparing for future generations. But financial wealth isn’t the primary measure of success, we need to also ask: Who is my family becoming because of the way I’m living today?

Wealth Is a Tool, Not the Goal

For many successful families, it’s easy to assume that building financial security is the finish line. Years of hard work, disciplined saving, wise investing, and thoughtful planning have created abundance. Those are blessings worth celebrating.

But money has limitations. It cannot teach humility, create strong marriages, or repair broken relationships. It cannot pass along wisdom, and certainly cannot produce faith.

Financial wealth is an incredible gift, but it is a terrible substitute for intentional leadership.

In fact, wealth tends to magnify what is already there. If a family is united around shared values, wealth can multiply generosity and opportunity. If a family lacks trust, purpose, or healthy communication, wealth often amplifies those challenges instead. Money is an accelerator, not a foundation.

The Legacy That Lasts

Throughout scripture, we see that God is far more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the size of our portfolios. Money and possessions are only temporary.

Parents are instructed to teach God’s commands diligently to their children, not just during formal moments, but in everyday life (Deuteronomy 6). Jesus reminds us that where our treasure is, our hearts will follow (Matthew 6:21).

In other words, our financial decisions are never just financial. They are deeply spiritual.

Every family is passing down something. The question is whether we’re passing down wisdom or anxiety, generosity or entitlement, faith or self-reliance, and purpose or comfort.

Those lessons aren’t primarily taught through estate documents. They’re modeled around dinner tables, demonstrated through generosity, reinforced during difficult seasons, and lived out over decades.

Character Before Capital

One of the greatest gifts parents and grandparents can pass on isn’t an investment account or a vacation home—it’s character. The values you model today shape the decisions your children and grandchildren will make long after you’re gone. Those decisions influence the way they treat people, navigate adversity, approach work, and handle money.

That’s why financial wealth should never be viewed as the starting point of a family’s legacy. Wealth is most effective when it rests on a foundation of wisdom, healthy relationships, and faithful stewardship. Without those things, money can just as easily create conflict as opportunity. But when they’re already present, financial resources become a powerful tool for generosity, service, and lasting impact.

Leading While You’re Still Here

Many estate plans are designed to answer the question, “What happens after I’m gone?”

That’s an important conversation, but perhaps an equally important question is: “What kind of people am I helping my family become today?” I think for too long, we’ve started with the wrong question, and I’d include myself in that.

That might look like inviting your children into conversations about generosity rather than shielding them from every financial decision. It might mean sharing your testimony about God’s faithfulness instead of simply discussing investment performance. It could involve serving together, giving together, praying together, or having honest conversations about what success really means.

These moments rarely make headlines, yet they often become the stories future generations remember most.

A Different Kind of Return

At St. Croix Advisors, we often talk about pursuing more than financial returns. Many times, deep down we have a desire to help others, have a desire to have these types of conversations and are not sure where to start. This is where—with us.

We want your resources to support the life God has called you to live, because true wealth is measured by more than net worth.

Financial planning certainly includes investment strategies, tax planning, retirement income, estate planning, and risk management. Those are valuable tools.

But ultimately, those tools exist to support something much greater.

They help create the freedom to live faithfully, love generously, and leave a legacy that cannot be measured on a balance sheet.

Because years from now, your family probably won’t remember your account balances. They’ll remember your example, and that may be the most valuable inheritance you ever give.

 

When people think about leaving a legacy, the conversation usually starts with money.

How much will my children inherit? Will there be enough? Have I built enough wealth to provide opportunities for future generations?

Those are important questions. Wise financial planning matters and scripture affirms the value of diligent stewardship and preparing for future generations. But financial wealth isn’t the primary measure of success, we need to also ask: Who is my family becoming because of the way I’m living today?

Wealth Is a Tool, Not the Goal

For many successful families, it’s easy to assume that building financial security is the finish line. Years of hard work, disciplined saving, wise investing, and thoughtful planning have created abundance. Those are blessings worth celebrating.

But money has limitations. It cannot teach humility, create strong marriages, or repair broken relationships. It cannot pass along wisdom, and certainly cannot produce faith.

Financial wealth is an incredible gift, but it is a terrible substitute for intentional leadership.

In fact, wealth tends to magnify what is already there. If a family is united around shared values, wealth can multiply generosity and opportunity. If a family lacks trust, purpose, or healthy communication, wealth often amplifies those challenges instead. Money is an accelerator, not a foundation.

The Legacy That Lasts

Throughout scripture, we see that God is far more concerned with the condition of our hearts than the size of our portfolios. Money and possessions are only temporary.

Parents are instructed to teach God’s commands diligently to their children, not just during formal moments, but in everyday life (Deuteronomy 6). Jesus reminds us that where our treasure is, our hearts will follow (Matthew 6:21).

In other words, our financial decisions are never just financial. They are deeply spiritual.

Every family is passing down something. The question is whether we’re passing down wisdom or anxiety, generosity or entitlement, faith or self-reliance, and purpose or comfort.

Those lessons aren’t primarily taught through estate documents. They’re modeled around dinner tables, demonstrated through generosity, reinforced during difficult seasons, and lived out over decades.

Character Before Capital

One of the greatest gifts parents and grandparents can pass on isn’t an investment account or a vacation home—it’s character. The values you model today shape the decisions your children and grandchildren will make long after you’re gone. Those decisions influence the way they treat people, navigate adversity, approach work, and handle money.

That’s why financial wealth should never be viewed as the starting point of a family’s legacy. Wealth is most effective when it rests on a foundation of wisdom, healthy relationships, and faithful stewardship. Without those things, money can just as easily create conflict as opportunity. But when they’re already present, financial resources become a powerful tool for generosity, service, and lasting impact.

Leading While You’re Still Here

Many estate plans are designed to answer the question, “What happens after I’m gone?”

That’s an important conversation, but perhaps an equally important question is: “What kind of people am I helping my family become today?” I think for too long, we’ve started with the wrong question, and I’d include myself in that.

That might look like inviting your children into conversations about generosity rather than shielding them from every financial decision. It might mean sharing your testimony about God’s faithfulness instead of simply discussing investment performance. It could involve serving together, giving together, praying together, or having honest conversations about what success really means.

These moments rarely make headlines, yet they often become the stories future generations remember most.

A Different Kind of Return

At St. Croix Advisors, we often talk about pursuing more than financial returns. Many times, deep down we have a desire to help others, have a desire to have these types of conversations and are not sure where to start. This is where—with us.

We want your resources to support the life God has called you to live, because true wealth is measured by more than net worth.

Financial planning certainly includes investment strategies, tax planning, retirement income, estate planning, and risk management. Those are valuable tools.

But ultimately, those tools exist to support something much greater.

They help create the freedom to live faithfully, love generously, and leave a legacy that cannot be measured on a balance sheet.

Because years from now, your family probably won’t remember your account balances. They’ll remember your example, and that may be the most valuable inheritance you ever give.