00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 60 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Derek Guajardo from Strong Life Coach. I encourage you to find your own journey to building your own strong life, and one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her wear. All of a sudden the car breaks and you've got to buy a new car. Have you put money back so that you actually just have the money for the new car? And it's no longer a financial emergency and a transportation emergency?
00:00:41 It's merely an inconvenience. Are you doing the things to take care of both your wants and needs today and to prepare for the future? 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 learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired Searchie podcast who learned to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world in today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your treasures.
00:01:26 I talk with you about why we often think of wants and needs and how this can affect our income and expenses in a wrong way. Why disposable income is, ah, horrible term and a horrible way to think about your money and how to refocus on your income as a tool for growth as we talk about stewarding your treasures, wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without costing yourself an extra dime? It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon,
00:02:04 and a small commission will come back to support the show. If you enjoy the show when you're ready to buy from Amazon,
00:02:11 just use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon wants and needs and disposable income. You know, we used these sorts of terms all the time.
00:02:21 When we're talking about our money, I hear people talk about the money that they have left over as disposable income.
00:02:30 I hate that term, and when it comes to wants and needs were, there's also some confusion around that as well.
00:02:38 I mean, don't get me wrong. The simplest concept, right? We all know that there's certain things that we just need.
00:02:44 Food, water, shelter, basic clothing, basic transportation, these sorts of things, our needs. In the modern world,
00:02:53 you pretty much are living below a survival level if you start missing out on these, but at the end of the day,
00:03:01 for instance, transportation or shelter, there's a big sliding scale there. Transportation does not necessarily mean you need the newest car.
00:03:10 It may not even mean you need a car at all. Maybe you can live in a place where ah,
00:03:15 bicycle and public transportation is all that you need. So what is the need for transportation while I need to get from Point A to point B,
00:03:24 but I don't necessarily have to do it in exactly the same way that everyone else does. I don't necessarily have to do it with the most expensive brand new item.
00:03:34 I can do it in a variety of ways. Shelter is the same sort of thing. Their shelter as in I have a roof over my head and a warm place to sleep where I can stay dry and protected,
00:03:46 and then their shelter, which is having a really nice house or having a two story house or having a house that has fancy patios and wonderful carpet and all of these other things that we all want because they're comfortable,
00:04:01 they help us be more comfortable. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you've got the money to pay for it and still do all of the other things that you need to do with money.
00:04:13 What when it runs into problems for us is when we began to give up on all of the other things around our money,
00:04:21 just so we can have the nicest house in the neighborhood. I know people that have had one of the best houses on the neighborhood,
00:04:31 but then had little to no furniture because they couldn't afford it. That's not doing it right. So when we think about our needs,
00:04:39 we can kind of think about him in two levels. The initial need is the survival need most of us in America have that taking care of most people in the world today have that taken care of,
00:04:52 but not everyone. But let's assume that you've got your basic survival taking care of. Then you can add another layer of needs on there that include two things.
00:05:02 They include adding some fun, some entertainment, some extra comfort, a little better shelter, a little better transportation and so on.
00:05:12 But they also include the needs of taking care of things like retirement things like taking care of your kids,
00:05:20 taking care of schooling, taking care of growing yourself, taking care of making sure that you're investing some of your income and growth and new opportunities.
00:05:30 They can take the place of growing for the future as well as taking care of comfort in the present.
00:05:37 And when you begin to add those needs in, then all of a sudden the amount of income that you have left tends toe rapidly go down wants are those things above that.
00:05:50 So even after you've added a layer of comfort, a little bit of travel and maybe a little bit of fun activities and you've added a certain way level of investing for the future once our then the things above that.
00:06:03 So this is adding on to their house. This is remodeling the house. This is upgrading the car to a newer car.
00:06:12 This is those things that are definitely not just a need, but you want them because you want them and there's nothing wrong with that.
00:06:21 But again, you've got to fit it into the plan. You've got to make sure that you're looking at both short term and long term.
00:06:26 And when you do that, you you suddenly discover that usually there's little to no income left. So this whole concept of disposable income goes away very quickly because disposable income sounds like income that I could just get rid of.
00:06:44 I don't need. It doesn't do anything for me. And the truth is, that's the wrong way to look at it.
00:06:49 Your income is your most powerful wealth building tool. Your income is what allows you to take care of your wants and needs today and into the future.
00:07:01 If you do smart things with your income, then you begin to grow not just your wealth but yourself.
00:07:09 Do you have a certain amount of your income that you put back every year for growth opportunities to take classes,
00:07:15 to read books, to go to conferences, to do things that grow your mind and your body and your spirit and your soul and help you get better than you are today.
00:07:26 Do you have a certain amount of your income that's put back and looking to provide for the future for yourself,
00:07:33 for your spouse, for your kids? Do you have a certain amount of your income that you're looking at and you're taking care of those things that often times turn into the unexpected expenses where all of a sudden the car breaks and you've got to buy a new car?
00:07:50 Have you put money back so that you actually just have the money for the new car? And it's no longer a financial emergency and a transportation emergency?
00:07:59 It's merely an inconvenience. Are you doing the things to take care of both your wants and needs today and to prepare for the future?
00:08:08 And if you're not doing that, why not? Usually a lot of times people will say, because I don't make enough,
00:08:14 and that may be true. You may discover that you actually have to increase your income to be able to have enough money to do all the things that you want to do,
00:08:22 and there's ways that you can do that But you also may discover that the truth is you've got plenty of income coming in.
00:08:28 You're just distributing it wrong because you're beginning to think of some of it is disposable income that you could just waste.
00:08:35 Almost inevitably, when people sit down and do a budget for the first time, they look and they say,
00:08:41 I can't believe I'm spending that much money on fill in the blank For most of us, it ends up being food.
00:08:49 We end up eating out and spending tons of money on groceries that when we reflect on it, we recognize the fact that a lot of that is money that we don't need to spend on that cause.
00:09:00 It's not about eating, it's about convenience. So as you examine that, you can begin to realign your money with your riel core priorities and reason why and when you do that,
00:09:12 all the sudden you don't have any disposable income. But you also don't miss it because you've planned and built into your budget those things that are most important to you,
00:09:23 including providing some comfort, some entertainment, some fun and taking care of the future because you can't do it all but you can do the most important things to you if you actually sit down and pay attention.
00:09:39 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:09:51 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way toe.
00:09:59 Live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of treasures, you can sign up for our treasures tips by going to inspired stewardship dot com slash treasures or text in the U.
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00:10:31 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.