You Have Permission to Save for Retirement copertina

You Have Permission to Save for Retirement

You Have Permission to Save for Retirement

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 About a year ago, I needed someone to give me permission to save for retirement. I know that sounds really strange coming from a financial planner. I got into finance because compound interest absolutely bedazzled me. It felt like black magic. You look at a graph showing what happens when money compounds over 10, 20, 30, or 40 years, and it is hard to believe.Then I tried to reconcile the financial wizardry of modern investing with my Bible—especially Jesus’ teachings in Luke 12 and similar. I read about a Jesus, who had nowhere to lay his head and gave haunting warnings about wealth. Who called the rich foolish for building bigger barns and telling himself he could finally relax, eat, drink, and be merry.Suddenly, my excitement about investing and building wealth felt harder to reconcile with following Christ.Was saving for retirement wise stewardship? Or was I slowly buying into an affluent, self-indulgent, godless vision of the good life? Could it be both? I do not think I am the only Christian who has felt that tension.I talk with people who say, “I want to save, but I don’t ever plan to stop working.” That sounds bold & faithful when you are 35. Then you turn 50 and your knees hurt. Your back hurts. Your eyes are not what they used to be. Work takes more out of you than it did 20 years ago. Then grandchildren arrive. Your parents need help. You want more time to serve your church, care for your family, or do work that matters without worrying about what it pays. Eventually, the question changes. It is no longer, “Why would I ever stop working?” It becomes, “What might become possible if I no longer had to trade so much of my time for money?”I needed to know that it is okay to save for retirement.Saving does not mean you are abandoning God. It does not mean your faith is weak. It does not automatically mean you are storing up treasure on earth or pursuing a secular fantasy where enough money finally makes you safe. It may simply mean you are being a wise steward, carefully managing your household and preparing for responsibilities you can reasonably expect.Consider the antProverbs tells the sluggard to consider the ant. She prepares food in summer and gathers provision at harvest. She does not wait until winter and call that “trusting in God’s provision”. She recognizes that seasons change, and so she works while work can be done.Human life has seasons too.Most of us will not have the same strength, earning capacity, or opportunities at 75 that we had at 45. Preparing for that change is …wise. Pretending it will never happen is …foolish. And Scripture repeatedly commends wise provision.“Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it” (Proverbs 21:20)Wisdom does not consume everything today. It preserves some resources for tomorrow — that is what retirement savings can be. A careful, consistent setting aside of some of today’s income because you know tomorrow may require something different from you. You are preparing to care for your household. You are reducing the chance that your future needs will fall entirely on your children or community. You are creating room to respond generously when God places an opportunity in front of you.None of that guarantees security. Money cannot do that. It does not replace daily dependence on God.It is still wise to consider the ant.The problem with the bigger barnsBut what about the rich fool in Luke 12? His land produced abundantly. He tore down his barns and built larger ones so he could store the crop. Then he told his soul, “You have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” God called him a fool. YIKES. Take that in for a second. God doesn’t often call people fools. The warning needs to be heeded. Wealth can tempt us to treat God as unnecessary and comfort as our reward. A retirement plan can become an attempt to build a private utopia where no one needs anything from us and we need nothing from God.But notice where Jesus takes the parable. The man “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” His abundance stopped. With him. In his hands. Or, more accurately, in his barns.Proverbs 11:26 says, “The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.” It’s never occurred to me that the rich fool could have sold grain. He could have paid workers, met needs, given generously, strengthened his community, and turned abundance into blessing.Instead, he hoarded everything for himself …and called it the good life. That is the spiritual danger. The size of the barn matters less than what the barn is for and whose kingdom it serves. We have no clue how large his barns were before. That’s really not the point. The mindset and heart-posture around money and it’s perilous implications for our souls is the point here.Financial freedom for faithful workThe usual retirement story says you work for ...
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