As a Certified Kingdom Advisor, at Affiliated Financial Planners we strive to have Faith in Finances. This obviously means a lot of things to a lot of people. Over the past 32 years, I’ve met many people who have lost faith in their financial future.
If I’d be completely honest with you, I’ve gone through seasons where I about lost faith in my own finances. When I was young and just starting out I made some very poor financial decisions. I purchased a home, not just a home, but the home where I was raised, and purchased it before I found any real success in business and my wife Stephanie was barely making minimum wage.
Then we began using some biblical principles and started tithing, and Stephanie’s pay nearly doubled with many months retroactive and my business quickly doubled. I’d love to tell you everything was easy street from there forward, I found biblical principles that worked, and we lived happily ever after. No, I continued to make decisions on my own and in my own way and we got off track.
We suffered major health crises that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Not only do we have huge medical bills facing us, I self-medicated by taking vacations we cannot afford. There were times we got complacent on tithing let alone following other biblical principles. I’m not proud to say I used my home as an ATM like millions of other Americans. There were seasons I didn’t save for my future.
In August 2008 I left the little bit of security I had with a firm and decided being independent was the best thing for me. I remember the fear of watching the markets daily and my business partner tell me I would lose clients and assets. My mind screamed but I don’t have many clients or many assets, will I lose everything.
We’ve also gone through seasons of abiding by ancient wisdom written in that well worn text, and we pay off our debts, we save money for the future, we give generously, and the future is bright.
I don’t know what season you’re in right now, but know that we care, and we’re here to help. We’re not all on the same page with our beliefs, and we don’t expect you to even have faith in money, God, your future. What I do know is our mission is to add value to you even if you do not become a client. If you do become a client, I’d expect to create a financial plan and execute that plan. My prayer is I can be honest enough with myself and with you that if you chose to depart from that plan we can have a discussion regarding the consequences of that plan. Looking back at 32 years, I look at my greatest failures where I allowed people to stray from their plan and run out of money.
Whether you have deep rooted beliefs and convictions around the bible or if you’re completely agnostic, I’ll work those principles into your plan, into our meetings, and even if you have little faith in your financial future today, it’s my goal to change that mindset and reality regardless of your faith in the principles behind it.
