Episode 1150: Money Management Art or Science?

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,150 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm

[00:00:08] Kristen And Jeffrey Ingram: from small biz life podcast. If you're calling is to be a small business owner, we challenge you to grow yourself and find your true identity. So you can be empowered to live your calling. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with our friend.

[00:00:26] Scott Maderer: but these things, these science tools are not the thing that really fundamentally changes how you do it over time. This is why so often people will find an app, find a tool, get excited by it, start playing with it, make some progress, but then fall back to old behaviors and go right back to where they were before.

[00:00:49] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must [00:01:00] learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that.

[00:01:14] Can impact the world.

[00:01:16] And today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why money management is both an art and a science. I share why we often focus on the tools, tips, and science at the expense of the art. And I also share why the art is just as good. As we talk about stewarding your treasures.

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[00:02:05] Just like I talked about on Tuesday, when we were talking about managing your time, managing your money is really both an art and a science. We talked yesterday about the differences and the similarities between art and science and money management falls to that category where you have to understand.

[00:02:26] And have a certain degree of technical knowledge and skills. There are applications and tools that can help make things easier, but fundamentally it comes down to how well you understand yourself, how well you understand your values, your priorities, how well you understand your relationships, your family of origin, your relationship.

[00:02:50] With other people and with money, as well as with yourself, it's about those connections that we have that [00:03:00] really determined. How we handle our money. Cause the truth is you can have a budget, you can have a tool, you can have something where you track every dollar that you spend, but at the end of the day, you still choose to spend a certain way.

[00:03:16] Think about the language we use when it comes to money. We talk about things like I had to buy. This item, I had to buy a new car. I had no choice. I was powerless in this situation. Someone came in and forced me to do it. That's really what that language is implying, but the truth is in all situations, you actually have the power of choice.

[00:03:43] But until you understand that, not just with your head, but with your heart, you really end up having a bad relationship with money. We focus so much on the tools and the tips and the techniques of money management. If you think [00:04:00] about it, you can see blog after blog podcast, after podcast that talks about whether or not you should have a Roth IRA, a 401k, a 4 0 3 B all of this alphabet.

[00:04:10] There's tons of technology and applications out there that claim that they're the thing that's going to automate and make it where you save more money. Are there the thing that's going to make sure that you budget all of your money and spend it exactly the way that they want you to, that you're going to gain the power over your money, and there's nothing wrong with these apps.

[00:04:31] There's nothing wrong with these tools. There's nothing wrong with the tips and the knowledge, but fundamentally. We know what we're supposed to do to manage our money. We know that we should spend less than we make. We know that we need to do something smart with the difference. And a lot of times we end up arguing about things that really don't move the needle that much.

[00:04:55] Fundamentally, is it better to pay off debt or invest? And [00:05:00] immediately, most people start doing a math calculation about what's the percentage of interest on each thing. How long will it take you to pay off the debt? What kind of growth would you have on the investment in that length of time? And they turn it into a scientific problem and a math formula about whether or not you should do one over the.

[00:05:23] But the truth is fundamentally, it's really more about a mindset and a view. The length of time is a factor. Sure. The interest rate. Yeah. That's a math problem and it affects your decision making maybe whether or not you're geared toward savings or spending might matter. All of these things do affect the decision.

[00:05:45] But fundamentally, what is your relationship and decision that you have around investing, saving, spending, paying off debt and these sorts of things. What is an alignment with your values and your goals? What [00:06:00] actually makes you be able to achieve the freedom and the flexibility that you probably want quicker?

[00:06:08] Oftentimes we look at it as a math problem. When in reality, what we're trying to achieve is a direction for our life. We want to get to a point where we have more freedom and flexibility. We have the ability to do things because we want to do them not because we feel like we have to remember, you always have a choice, so there is no half too, but you can feel like you have to people talk about saving up enough money so that at any moment they could quit their job.

[00:06:39] And what's funny is oftentimes when you do that, you then stay in the job for a lot longer because just having that mental idea of, I can leave this at any time, somehow make some of the things that were intolerable tolerable. Again, that's more of an art discussion than it is a [00:07:00] science discussion. And the truth can be true about paying off debt or reaching financial independence, or what does success look like for you?

[00:07:09] How do you want to set up your life in a way that really gets you what you want? Yes. You need to understand the tools. You need to understand the fundamentals. You need to be able to do sixth grade math, and you need to be able to understand and educate yourself on these things. But these things, these science tools are not the thing that really fundamentally changes how you do it over time.

[00:07:35] This is why so often people will find an app, find a tool, get excited by it, start playing with it, make some progress. But then fall back to old behaviors and go right back to where they were before, because they don't understand the art. They don't understand the emotionality. They don't understand how to really develop a why and get connected with the process.

[00:07:58] So instead of a [00:08:00] chore, it becomes something that they want to do. It becomes a habit, a mindset, it becomes a routine and a value that they have instead of just something that you have to do. We're back to that word half too. Again, the truth is you can choose to understand the science and the art of money and really make a change.

[00:08:22] And a difference in your life are you can choose to continue behaving and acting and struggling as well. You always have a choice. Thanks for listening.

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