Personal Financial Security
Home Up Personal Jubilee Economics Biblical Studies Co-operative Economy Education Financial Planning Spirituality

 

Personal Financial Security

February 2001

Over the last five years we have experienced an upsurge in a popular ‘wisdom` that our personal security is based on developing our personal wealth.  We are inundated with media messages that we need to develop a personal financial plan that will provide for our future personal financial security.  A key concept in all this is that we need to make our money work for us.

Most of this market hype comes from financial institutions which have perceived and decided to manipulate three social trends: 

A large proportion of people over 45 now have high disposable incomes
This same group is to inherit several trillion dollars as the older generation dies
There is a dominant perception that governments can not sustain old age security systems and people will have to fend for themselves.

These trends are making this social group a major target of financial planners who see them as a major market opportunity. As a result all the financial institutions, including credit unions including many with a religious bond, have formed ‘wealth management’ departments to exploit this opportunity.

In addition the popular media has adopted the same theme with numerous talk shows on personal investment strategies and daily reports on stock market ‘performance’.

But our scriptures have a totally different message:

And then he (Jesus) told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’.”  But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.’

So what should Jesus followers do?  In Luke (chapter 12) Jesus continues the teaching with telling his disciples not to worry about life, food and clothes.  “For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

And what does this mean? “Sell your possessions and give to the poor . . .  For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

But what does this have to do with the concrete experiences of daily life?  Jesus is very clear. “You can not serve both God and Mammon”.  Jesus knew that money has a spiritual attraction to most people in the form of personal security.  And in fulfilling that need we give our allegiance to a spiritual power which twists and enslaves human life. 

No financial planner tells us that our investments turn the creation and everything in it into marketable commodities whose value is set by the Market.  No financial planner tells us that the income on our investments comes because poor people go without.  But that is the reality of today’s market-based investment industry.  Similar to the Romans who could experience a good life because they enslaved and exacted tribute from most people within their empire, today’s affluence comes at the expense of the billions of people who don’t have enough for life.  But the dominant culture which is controlled by the spiritual power of Mammon is never going to admit that basic truth.

And it is a measure of where our hearts are, that most of us find it much easier to listen to and obey the voice of the banks and financial planners than the teachings of Jesus.