What really is at the heart of creating wealth and prosperity in our lives? Stewardship!
In this episode, Chris Miles teaches how to think and act like a steward rather than a saver or spender. If you want to increase your wealth while blessing others’ lives, you NEED to listen to this episode!
Chris Miles Bio:
Chris Miles, the “Cash Flow Expert,” is a leading authority showing entrepreneurs and their spouses how to quickly free up and create cash flow and lasting wealth TODAY spending time doing what they love most! He has been featured in US News, CNN Money, Bankrate, and interviewed internationally on TV & radio and has a high reputation with his company, Money Ripples (https://www.moneyripples.com/) getting his clients fast, life-altering financial results.
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Stewardship Is The Foundation For Prosperity
As always, I want to remind you to go check out www.MoneyRipples.com. Check out the blogs that we’ve got going and the other podcasts we have as well with the show. Those are other ways you can grow, prosper and learn how to create prosperity for yourself, especially those of you that are in business and how to take that to another level. This is something I’m so excited about. I’m excited about this episode as well because there’s a pretty big topic I teach a lot at the events that I do.
The Spenders And The Savers
That’s a topic about stewardship. I talk about the difference in perspectives. There’s the spender perspective, which is easy for most people to get. These are people that money’s easy come, easy go. They usually blow it to where it doesn’t come back. It’s not a productive way of using money. Money goes out and it doesn’t come back in because it’s getting blown on things. They ended up getting things now but they usually don’t have much day-to-day or in the future. They’re surviving. There’s a lot of scarcity and fear around that.
On the flip side, there are the savers. The savers tend to hoard things. They want to save it. They can never save enough. They don’t like spending money and having expenses and debt. They want to get rid of it as fast as possible. Even when it’s gone, they still feel like they don’t want to have any more expenses. Sometimes on the far extremes, they become cheap. They might say they’re frugal but they’re cheap.
These are people that probably make you pay for dinner and make your life miserable especially if you live around them or you’re close to them. In many cases, these people will be those that want to do everything possible to save enough money so that they can someday feel financially free. Unfortunately, they never do because they still live in fear. They’ll eventually get to a point where they’ll never save enough. They’ll never be quite enough to truly feel like they can live free. They’re always scared and worried about not having enough or they’ll run out of money when they get to retirement.
Stewardship
Even if they save a lot, they’re still worried about running out of money. There’s no financial freedom if you’re a spender or a saver. The only perspective that’s not in scarcity that allows you to not be in that scenario is to be a steward. Stewards are very different. I want to dig deep into what a steward is so that you can start to apply that to your life. Prosperity and financial freedom are only possible if you not only understand the stewardship perspective but are able to master it and make it become a part of you. It has to become a part of you or it doesn’t work and become enough. You’ll still go with one of those other perspectives.
Even if you think you’re a great steward, it’s awesome and maybe you are a good steward. Find ways to increase that. You’re never truly prosperous unless you’re progressing. Progression is always at the heart of prosperity. As a steward, that’s essentially what stewards are focused on. It’s about progression, multiplying, increasing, making things better, beautifying and improving upon things.
Prosperity and financial freedom are only possible if you not only understand the stewardship perspective but can master it and make it a part of you. Click To TweetAlways figure out how to manage and make things better. I love to come back to the example in the Bible, the New Testament of the Parable of the Three Talents. In there, three servants were given different sums of money that are called talents. One was given 5 sums referred to his 5 talents. The other was given 2 and the third one was given 1. There was a certain amount of time that they went out and did their thing with their money.
After a certain amount of time, the master called them back. The master had loaned them the money. He gave them a loan to go out and use this money to create an increase. He commanded them to go out and do what they need to do with it, come back and report. They did. The person with 5 made 5 more to make 10. He doubled it.
When he did that, the master said, “Well done good and faithful servant. I made you a steward over a few things. I’ll make you a master of many. I’ll give you much more to deal with so come into my kingdom and deal with the inheritance I have for you.” This is very much a spiritual principle as much as it is a temporal principle too. I want you to remember that.
The second one comes back. He had 2 given to him and came back with 2 more for a total of 4. He also doubled it and got the same reward. There is no difference. This is a very valid point because stewards realized that it doesn’t matter where you start. It’s how you progress and grow. It doesn’t matter if you end up being a billionaire or a millionaire even. What matters is what you do with the stewardship you’re given.
The person was one though, out of fear, buried it. This person had a saver mentality and did not want to lose money. Therefore, he made sure he paid back his debt and did so but the master said, “You’re awful and not a wise servant. You knew exactly what I commanded of you.” There’s even talk about him being a hard master and reaping what it sows. He said, “You knew what the rules were. You get out of here. I’m going to give that one to the guy that made ten.”
It might seem unfair but think about what our purpose is. Our purpose on this planet is to bless other people’s lives and serve them in a way that only we can to bless them in any way possible with not just money but with time, talent and everything we’ve been given to be able to help make this world better. Our purpose when we’re here on this earth is to do that. We grow both financially, spiritually and in all ways in our lives.
True Wealth
It’s what creates true happiness. True wealth happens when there’s happiness and progression involved, not when it’s about making money. How many times have we heard that people with more money are not necessarily happier? There’s even a certain point where people make just enough money. If they’re essentially providing for their needs, at a certain point, their happiness levels don’t increase. There is some comfort there but it’s not necessarily more happiness or less stress. It’s about stewardship.
Stewards do everything possible to use all their money and resources in a way that helps create value for more people to help bless people’s lives. Stewards take the best of the spender and the savers. The spenders at least are willing to use money. They just don’t use it wisely. That’s the difference between them and a steward. A steward is willing to take the money and become a little bit wiser of it like a saver would be but they’re willing to use it like a saver would not do. They’re willing to use it wisely in the way that it comes back. They always want to create an increase. They want to multiply, grow and manage that stewardship they have.
They want to grow, manage and keep growing from there. They want to keep managing the stewardship they have. Some people will be uncomfortable at certain points. They might say, “I don’t know if I can feel like I can manage a lot.” Nobody can on their own. There’s going to be a certain point where you’re going to say, “I’m going to need other people’s help.” You can’t expect yourself to be at the same place and increase your money or wealth overall in life. Progress is at the foundation of prosperity like stewardship is.
Stewardship is all about progress, trying to increase things and make things better. Even when they do save money, they still save with a purpose because they want to use that money. Stewards realize the principle that money is meant to be used. It’s not meant to be hoarded and saved from the way that traditional people try to teach you. If you’ve noticed most of the people that teach you how to save money are telling you to save money in places where other people are using that money as stewards, for example, banks or other financial institutions. They’re not just hoarding your money, letting it sit on a shelf and collecting dust and interest over time.
They’re actively using and managing it. They’re trying to increase and grow it. Look at some of the best stewards in the world, not the ones we had to bail out. Some of those forgot some of the stewardship principles and got themselves in trouble. Most of the time, you see financial institutions that are around. They last and do good things. They’re looking at things as stewardship. They don’t want to take a lot of risks with their money.
It’s funny because I have people that are eighteen-year-olds that have never used a bank before. They’ll still know all five of these questions correctly because we know that the bank wants money. How often do they want your money? They want it as often as possible. How much of it do they want? As much of it as possible. How long do they want to keep it? Forever. They’ll tell you about compound interest, how amazing it is and never touch it, which comes to the fourth one.
True wealth happens when there's happiness and progression involved, not when it's just about making money. Click To TweetHow much do they want you to take out? As little as possible. They want you to live off the interest or they’re telling you to live off less than the interest because they can’t guarantee you won’t run out of money. They’re telling you to live off between 2% and 3% a year, which is a horrible way to have wealth. There is no wealth there. They’ll tell you to take high risks. In reality, banks and financial institutions don’t like to take high risks.
They like the guarantees. They like to make sure they’re making money on your money no matter what. If markets go up or down, they still make money. They still charge you fees. They always still charge interest and all those things they need to do. If you pay it off, it’s not a problem. They’ll still turn around and loan out to somebody else to make more interest. They love it when you pay them back fast, especially when it comes to loans. They love when you save money forever and don’t want to touch it because they have the ability to be stewards of your money. Why can’t we do the same thing?
This goes well beyond money. If you think that when it comes to increasing your stewardship and wealth, that’s about how to take money to make money. You’re missing a big point of how most people, especially the wealthy, make money. Most of it isn’t from their own money. Even billionaires will leverage other people’s money. It’s all about how to increase everything and use all the resources that you have, both the things that you have that don’t seem so tangible that are your gifts and talents. Your time, energy and all of those things are used in coordination with the money to create something more.
Why Stewards Don’t Believe In Retirement
Stewards are always trying to do. They’re not worried about retirement as much. They think retirement is dumb. I do. Here’s the thing I don’t think is dumb about retirement. Most people believe retirement is about getting to a point where you work hard and do nothing. You go travel, play or do whatever. I want to ask you, would a steward say, “I’m going to go play, be with my family and do nothing else?” The stewards say, “Maybe I can have fun doing it too but how can I still keep blessing people’s lives? How can I still keep being a value to people?”
Stewards always want to be of value to others. It’s not about simply living off the interest like every financial institution wants you to do. It’s about how to create more and bless more people’s lives. There’s true happiness and wealth there. The funny thing is, even though you’re happier, money wants to follow you more naturally because you’re always trying to provide value for people and dollars will follow the value you create. It’s a natural law of exchange.
When you think about it from that standpoint, retirement from a lazy perspective, a consumption perspective, like most of our teaching is ridiculous. Here’s where it is cool. You get yourself in a financial position where you work because you love it, not because you have to. Especially those of you that are business owners, that’s where you want to be. You already love the business you are in for the most part. I imagine most of you reading this, love what you do and know that you’ve created a great service or value for people but you would love to be in a place where you wouldn’t have to feel like you have to keep working all the time. You feel like you’re almost in bondage to the thing you love.
You want to work regardless of the money. You want to work for people and be able to not worry about the money. That’s a great noble place to be and that should be our objective. That’s where a lot of other podcasts and things that I teach with our events and my coaching goes into. It’s always about increasing that stewardship and making it better. You don’t retire to retire for laziness’ sake. You look for ways to create freedom and keep working because you love it not because you have to.
If you’re going to retire from anything, retire from the things that you hate and don’t love but make sure you never retire from the things that you do love. Why would you ever stop doing what you love if that’s what you would do regardless of money? That’s what I love doing what I do. I do this regardless of the money. As you well know, I do not charge for these podcasts. That’s why you’re receiving them. I don’t do that. It’s more of a labor of love. It’s also because I know I can create a lot of value for people. Dollars naturally follow that.
There are always opportunities and doors open up, even if not directly for my show because I go and do those things. I’m always looking at increasing my stewardship, influence and the way I can bless more people’s lives. Money doesn’t seem to be an issue when that happens. When that priority is set and you focus on what’s for should be the priority, which is blessing people’s lives and doing what’s right, the natural consequences are awesome. That’s prosperity.
Stewards focus on that. They also don’t mind spending money. They love it. They want to use money. They don’t care about becoming wealthy and consuming all their money. They’re looking at finding ways to produce more with it. How can you hire more people and employ more people? There was somebody that was feeling disturbed because there was a religious leader that said that pretty much when it comes to money, you should create the living that you need. The rest of it should be helping cloth the naked and feed the hungry, those kinds of Christian principles.
The Principle Of Exchange
There are a lot of different ways to do that, not just throwing money away. She was having a little hard time with that. I said, “That’s not it at all. I don’t agree with that. However, how do you go about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked?” When you employ other people to use their talents and stewardship to bless other people’s lives and you employ them to help you increase and manage your wealth and stewardship, this is where everybody becomes wealthy together. Stewards understand that principle of exchange. The more we can exchange with one another, the wealthier everybody becomes.
The more that we add fear and scarcity either blow money or hold on to it and hoard it, the more that people become impoverished. You want to focus on how you find ways to allow others to bless your life and increase your stewardship so that you can bless everybody’s lives. A good example given was from a pioneer that settled here in Utah. He was teaching Economics. At this time, Utah was starting to raise crops, do a lot of things and establish communities here.
The more we can exchange with one another, the wealthier everybody becomes. The more we add fear and scarcity, either blow money or hold onto it and hoard it, the more people become impoverished. Click To TweetHe gave the example of stewardship. He says, “There’s a story of a farmer. This farmer after several years decided to sell his farm for $150,000.” I want to put this in perspective for you. Some of you may have heard some of these other shows I’ve done like, “Does God want you to be rich?” I talk about this story as well but I want to talk about this from the stewardship perspective.
If you factor in inflation and things like that, there’s a lot of debate about how much inflation but I would say easily, this would be at least $7 million or maybe $8 million he sold this farm now. Think of it this way, $7 million to $8 million. How many of you know people that would say, “I can put that money into an IRA or some investment vehicle, even a very conservative savings vehicle and live off the interest.”
Many people would say, “Even 1% of that is pretty good.” You’re saying that’s even $70,000 or $80,000 a year at 1%. I make two. I’m in the hundreds of thousands. He doesn’t stop there. He takes that money and starts a wool factory. With that wool factory, he employs dozens, if not hundreds of people. Over a course of time, about 5 or 10 years past, he’s built it up. He’s improved the community that people have become wealthier. They’ve done things to clean up the community and make it better. Everybody’s prospering. Things are beautiful. People are happy.
Men come into town with their gold and silver and say, “You’ve got thriving communities and a growing good business. We want to buy that from you for $500,000.” Using that same number, that’s over $25 million to $26 million. How many of you could easily retire off of that? Anybody could for that matter but here’s the thing. He didn’t stop there. He took that money and did it again. He wants it to multiply and make it bigger and better, employing hundreds, if not thousands of people. That is what a steward does.
Owning Nothing
It doesn’t mean you have to open up a business and employ hundreds or thousands of people. That’s not what we’re saying here. Everybody’s got their different threshold and level of where they’re at. You might not employ anybody or even have a business. You might be trying to manage what you have and make things better. There are still ways to increase and grow. The point of this is what we do and how we use our time, energy, gifts and talents, as well as our money are in the service of others to bless lives. We realized that money is not our own. We don’t own anything. These savers are so consumed with ownership. They wanted to own everything like their house and investments outright.
The problem is that once you die, you own nothing. It’s not about ownership. It’s about control. Stewards, even the very wealthy don’t care about owning things. They want to control and have management over those things. They focus not on ownership because they know they won’t own it when they’re dead. They’ll go to somebody else. Even if it’s in a trust, it still goes to somebody else, not you. Your whole job and purpose are to figure out how you can take all the resources you’ve been given, including your money and use them in a way that blesses people’s lives that creates a legacy that lasts well beyond you.
What do you do to make the world a better place, which people say, “This person not only left a footprint on the planet but left an imprint in my heart?” That is what stewardship is. I challenge you to understand those principles of stewardship more deeply and allow us to serve you that way. If there are events or things that we can do that you would want to attend, attend those things. I’m telling you, the heart of all prosperity here is that stewardship.
Understand that abundance perspective on how you view money goes well beyond what we talked about in this episode. It’s all about how you can grow and prosper or bless people’s lives and make the world so much better and wealthy because you are in it. That is the power of stewardship. Have a great and prosperous time.