Financial Finish Lines
I wanted to highlight a short video we have circulated internally with the team. A few years ago, we read the book “God and Money: How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School” by Greg Baumer and John Cortines. The book was published in February 2016, and this video is a revisit of one of the key features discussed within the book – a financial finish line.
If you have read this book already – this video is worth a watch. If you haven’t read it (I’d recommend it, and I’ll send you a copy) here is some context surrounding their discussion.
What is a financial finish line?
In God and Money, Cortines and Baumer highlight two different types of financial finish lines.
1) A Lifestyle (Income) Finish Line – This is a targeted cap in expenditures or assumed income for you and your family. It is a decision and commitment to contain your lifestyle to how much you need to live on each month. The intent is to provide freedom to be generous with what you earn beyond your lifestyle finish line. This is revisited heavily in this Generous Giving follow up video. Cortines talks about adjusting his finish line for inflation as well as family size and ultimately trying to maintain a specified quality of life rather than a specific dollar number (e.g. caveats for home repairs, private education, etc.)
2) A Net Worth Finish Line – Both Cortines and Baumer would support saving for retirement and to provide for your family and children, but they caution against accumulating for accumulation’s sake. Establishing a net worth finish line is an attempt to guard you from an endless pursuit of a bigger number while still allowing for comfortable retirement and emergency cushions.
Should you set a financial finish line?
Yes. Finish lines are tools to protect us from the endless want of “more” and to remind us that everything belongs to God. We are stewards of His wealth, and part of that role includes not only enjoying it but also using it to better His world. We must be careful not to follow an endless pursuit of wealth itself. There is no amount of net worth that can be enough (Ecclesiastes 5:10) – what satisfies is not wealth but the provider of wealth (John 4:10-14).
Do you have a finish line in place? Here are some more resources for thinking about this subject:
Should you set a financial finish line? - National Christian Foundation (ncfgiving.com)
