Jeff:
We’re talking about investing advice from Solomon, ancient wisdom. Does the scriptures have anything to say about that? It does, which I think is really fascinating.
Solomon, this was something that was very important to him. Thinking about the longterm goals financially, how to set up his assets, how to do all these different types of things, and how to set up his household was really important.
And here Jeremy, what are some of these ones? All right, the one I see right here where it says the verse, it says, “cast your bread upon the waters for you will find it after many days.” I have no idea what that means. So I’m really interested to hear what that means. That’s right [crosstalk 00:00:35].
Jeremy:
What is he talking about? Let’s go throw bread on water. Yeah… it’s a little more nuanced than that.
Jeff:
I have little kids, but I’m thinking like the ducks, that’s like we’re always throwing bread in the water with the ducks that with the little kids.
Jeremy:
Yes. Take your kids to the park and feed the ducks. Now what it’s talking about you guys, and this is, I think this is the absolute, if somebody had to ask, what is the best advice the entire Bible has about investing?
I would say it’s Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 verses one and two. So yeah, like Jeff said, “cast your bread upon the waters for you will find it after many days.”
What does that mean? He explains it in verse two, “give a portion to seven or even to eight for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.” I love this advice.
Jeff:
Diversification.
Jeremy:
It’s saying, you must diversify your investment portfolio later in your life. That’s what he’s saying. Now I love the basic advice that you concentrate your wealth to build. You concentrate your resources to build wealth. You diversify your resources to keep wealth.
And so I do think that there’s really two stages to this process, but you need to get to the second stage, which is you need to begin to accumulate enough resources so that you can do what Solomon’s saying here. Cast your bread upon the water, which is to make sure that you have several different places where you can get your income from when bad things happen.
And you know, the Jewish people have a way of thinking about this because obviously they’ve gotten this advice for a long time, but they also have much longer memories. They know that disaster comes. They know that a lot of times you’re like, I’m doing great today. I could only survive like three weeks if something bad were to happen.
Jewish people know something bad’s going to happen. Like we’ve been around a long time. Our memory goes back thousands of years and about every 80 years, some terrible disasters tends to strike almost every culture, whether it’s a depression or a war or something. And so they’re always thinking and planning for that. And one of their strategies is they put a third into businesses because they want their wealth to grow.
When there’s boom times you put a third into real estate because they want their assets to be secure during bus times. And they put a third into savings because they don’t know when they’ll need to leave the country suddenly-
Jeff:
That’s true.
Jeremy:
… or because some crazy things happening. So again, Solomon saying that there’s a time in your life and you guys, again, most of you are not in this season, but you need to think about this season because it’s coming.
You need to begin to concentrate your resources, build them up during boon times or big opportunities, but make sure you’re saving enough. And you’re creating multiple income streams. Our family has four or five different income streams. And so I think that… and that’s been something we’ve been really trying to figure out how do we diversify?
But it’s right there in Ecclesiastes 11, “cast your bread on the water.” I love that image as weird as it is that’s how it sticks in your mind. That’s how ancient people used to create that. But do we have a visitor? Who’s that?
Jeff:
We do, Kannon. Kannon, can you say hi?
Kannon:
Hi.
Jeremy:
Hey bud!
Jeff:
This is what happens guys, when you work from home and you forget to lock the office door, but he’s so sweet. You guys just woke up. We shoot these early in the morning. One last note, I’ll put on this episode. And reminds me, even kids… Teach your kids to invest like investing is one of things we don’t teach until they’re like 30. Right. You know, until they’re older. I think a lot of us do a good job with money with our kids.
The three classic buckets is what it’s like… save, give, spend, right? It’s sometimes what we’ll teach our kids. But I say put one in there that’s invest. And one way that we were just about to start experimenting with it now that we’re just starting to talk with money with our five-year-old and stuff in a more detailed way is, “Hey here’s $5,” or “Hey you earned $5.”
Every time this $5 stays in this little jar every month, another dollar is going to get added to it. Right. And teaching some type of investment or currently-
Jeremy:
Really, do you do this?
Jeff:
No, I said, we’re just about to start this year. That’s my-
Jeremy:
Oh my gosh. I’ve never heard of this. This is a great idea. I’ve been writing it out and kind of like, I think something like that, I’m just like adding, investing to like the non negotiable strategies for financial competence for your kids is really important. And that’s a really easy one. What I just said there, like adding a dollar a month if they hold onto a certain amount, because not only does that teach them investing in interest, compound interest.
But what that also does is I think teach them like delayed gratification, which is really, really important at that age so I would say that-
Jeremy:
That is a great idea.
Jeff:
Yeah and then extending that even into yourself, into adulthood and learning these from Solomon. That’s what I would say.