How to Wisely Invest Your Time and Money in Your Family

Focus on the Family with Jim Daly

This episode of 'Focus on the Family' features Russ Crosson, a financial expert with over 40 years of experience, discussing how to wisely invest time and money in

Key takeaways

• Money should be used not to accumulate wealth but to buy time for meaningful relationships with family.
• Living within your means allows you to focus on eternal values rather than temporary pleasures.

Main topics

• Financial stewardship from a Christian perspective
• Using money to buy time for family

Notable quotes

"We manage our money not to have more money. We manage our money to have more life."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a call to shift mindset from chasing material success to investing in

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Free up your schedule, live in the older house longer, drive the older car longer, spend less than you make, live on one income, save the second income. All those things help you have more time. Speaker 2 (0:11) Russ Crossan is here with us today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly to discuss managing your finances with eternity in mind. Thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller. You know, I think managing Speaker 3 (0:22) work and family is one of the hardest things to do. It maybe shouldn't be that way. Maybe today Russ is going to tell us how to do that better. But I can remember that battle all the way along. Gene and I had our children a little later, but I was traveling around the world for Focus on the Family. It was exciting. I was helping to build the international effort, but I was gone like two, three weeks at a time. And, you know, it took a lot to do that. Thankfully, the boys arrived just as I was concluding that big adventure, and I was able to be home a lot more often. And so that worked out for us. But it was almost just a mistake. It's like God took us that way. It wasn't planned. And I'm excited to help others think about it and plan for it rather than rely on just... share maybe. And we'll talk Speaker 2 (1:15) about that with our guests today. Yeah, family takes a lot of intentionality and money is a part of that process. And Russ Crossan is passionate about helping us think through these things. He's the chief vision officer and senior partner of Blue Trust, and he's helped families and couples be good financial stewards for over 40 years. Now, he's captured some of his expertise and insights in a terrific book called Your Life, Well spent. The eternal rewards of investing yourself and your money in your family. Russ, welcome back. The folks really Speaker 3 (1:49) loved the last program we did with you on budgeting. Speaker 1 (1:52) Well, I'm glad. This wouldn't be better than that. If they like budgeting, they should like this one. Thanks, Jim. It is kind of interesting Speaker 3 (1:57) that there was such a large response. I mean, you're obviously tapping a nerve just talking about how to budget in a godly way and the things to remember and things to do. And that's what people responded to. And today we're going to talk about much more. but kind of like a life plan. Speaker 1 (2:13) Well, I think the idea is that was budgeting and how to manage your money and make sure you spend less than you make. That was the punchline. But today we want to talk about why do you even want to do that? Why is that important? Speaker 3 (2:24) And I Speaker 1 (2:25) would propose to us that what I've seen over four decades is that we manage our money not to have more money. Julie and I aren't on a budget to have more money. We manage our money to have more life. So how do we begin to manage and use and spend our money to have more life? I like to say a life well spent is a life that earns and uses money to buy time, to impact people. First and foremost, your family, if you're married and have kids. Secondarily, other people. It's a life that focuses on the eternal in the realm of the temporal. We live in a society that's just constantly telling us not to be content and also lying to us about this issue of money, saying things like, hey, the more money you have, the more content you be, the more successful you are, the more you're worth as a person, the more money you have. And these things get us totally whacked out on balance. You mentioned earlier that it's issue of money and family is really interesting because you start your career, you start your family at the same time. And it's interesting. They both require the most time at the same time. Speaker 2 (3:21) Yeah. Stop Speaker 1 (3:21) thinking about that. When you finally get the big house and the money, you don't need it. And when you needed it, you didn't have it. Right. So we have to have the right perspective about this as a journey. And so we spend less than we make, not just to have more money, but to have more time and figure out how I can enjoy the trip. Richard Swenson in his book, Margin, said, we need room to breathe. We need freedom to think. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. Speaker 2 (3:43) And Speaker 1 (3:43) our children. Lay wounded on the ground over by high-speed good intentions. And so we have to figure out this money thing so that we can hopefully have a chance to balance life. Well, in that context, give Speaker 3 (3:55) us some practical approaches in your late 20s. Let's say you're the married couple. Maybe kids aren't here yet, but you're thinking about what you need to do. You buy the starter home. You already got your eye on what we might be able to buy by 35 or 40. Just describe. attitude-wise, how we get a hold of those appetites so we can live within our means and do the right thing. Well, Speaker 1 (4:19) the longer term, your perspective, you bear your decisions. So if you think, okay, these decisions I'm making in my 20s, so you're both working. Well, one principle there is live on one income and save the other. Put some cement in the basement, you know, put some savings down. The other thing is get used to the fact that, hey, maybe we can stay in this starter home a little longer. I mean, whoever had this idea of starter homes leading into bigger homes? That's one of the biggest stressors. For couples, they've got to get bigger and bigger. And that's back to some of this self-image, trying to keep up with the Joneses. I hate to tell you, your kids don't really care where they live. What they care is if you are around a little bit. So it doesn't make any sense for me to keep buying bigger homes, buying newer cars. So, Jim, I would say, practically speaking, I do it different. You know, Julie and I, for example, we didn't have a dining room table for three years. Speaker 3 (5:03) I can relate. We'd carry our sofa Speaker 1 (5:04) table into the dining room. And it was because, you know, we were saving. you know, and trying to manage our money in such a way we didn't get out over our skis. So I think this idea that I don't have to impress anybody, you know, I mean, I just need to figure out, hey, how can I put some money in the bank, have some savings, spend less than I make, and not make these decisions? I think the two big ones are the house, you know. You know, where do we get this idea of starter homes? We're going to do a bigger home and then a bigger home, and guess what? When you're 40 or 50, there's nobody in it but you and your wife. Speaker 3 (5:34) Right. I mean, it's so true. And, you know, why not? Be satisfied in what you're at and just see where things go, whether or not you'll be able to afford that bigger house. I was aware, I was made aware of a, I think it was 60 Minutes clip that was done where whoever the journalist was had six or seven successful women who had really bought into the feminist. perspective. And they had never married. They reached the top of corporate success and they were sitting in these big homes. And the journalist said, can you explain to me, you're in this big home with big yards, but you're by yourself. And they cried the Speaker 1 (6:20) way Speaker 3 (6:21) I understood that story. That's kind of an exaggeration, but it's what you're talking about, right? Speaker 1 (6:27) Yeah, Speaker 3 (6:28) I Speaker 1 (6:28) mean, the whole issue of, you know, if you're blessed to be married, you know, and raising a family, then focus your attention there, not just on the money. I like to equate this to, I call that posterity. Posterity are the generations that come after us versus prosperity. And that's usually what we think about. Prosperity is all the things we can buy with money. And I think, Jim, one of the things that's helped me is I never thought about this before until I began to get in this career and help couples. But we need to think about