Jim Zes continues his teaching for young people on biblical principles for handling money and finance, drawn from a financial intelligence conference Jim taught at Hope Baptist Church. Part 2 of 2.

All right, we ready? Okay, we're on page 44. This is an actual letter that my son-in-law got in the mail. Look at this. Loan amount, $1, 500.

You've been preselected. Fast and easy online application. Next day funding. No application fees. No prepayment penalty.

Look down the page there on the left. No surprises, easy to apply. Get $1, 500 as soon as tomorrow. Okay, turn the page. This is the backside of it.

You know they tell you watch the fine print. Look there in the middle of the page. The annual percentage rate for an installment loan of $1, 500 is 213.27%. Is 213.27%. So it's, guess what?

You get $1, 500, you're going to make 39 biweekly payments of $129. So you're going to borrow 1, 539 payments times, does somebody have a calculator, times 129 equals? 5, 031. 5, 031. Good deal.

Times 129 equals 5031. So watch out for this stuff. I'm working for Aspen Financial if anybody wants to sign up afterwards. I'll be more than happy to help you. No, just teasing.

Page 46. I put this article in here because he makes the distinction, don't confuse saving and investing. They're two different things. If you look in the middle of the page savings is effectively saving for a short-term goal. Investing is long-term financial goal.

So don't confuse the two. Page 48, and I'd encourage you to go back and read a lot of this stuff I'm just blowing through. Page 48. I put this in here for somebody who's like, well, how do I, where do I start investing? How do I do this?

You could put your money number one, where should I invest my money? The stock market. I recommend the Dow 30 dividend stocks. Anytime you see Anything in these notebooks that's in parentheses, that's my commentary on these articles. You buy stocks, I recommend buying something that pays a dividend every six months.

Page 49, You can buy investment bonds, taxable bonds, and tax-free bonds. They're sold in $5, 000 increments. You can put your money in mutual funds. Number four, savings accounts. Number five, physical commodities, pays no interest, no residual income though.

Just recently on page 49A, How many of you have heard of treasury bills? The government's selling these and it's it's better than having your money in the bank This if you look at the bottom where it says T bill tax considerations 1-3rd bottom of the page there. It says the interest income from T-bills is exempt from state and local income taxes. But it is subject to federal income tax. If you turn the page to 49B, this is how it works.

You have to buy this in thousand-dollar increments. You open an account like a TD Ameritrade, and this was from... Look at the top left-hand corner, this is from November 14th. You can buy a treasury bill And it will expire 11-22, eight days later, and they'll pay you 2.366%. And what they do, the money comes out of your account, and then when the T-bill comes to maturity, the money automatically comes right back into your account that day.

So if you look near the bottom of the page, If you bought a T-bill and it matured December 27th, they would pay you 3.5 interest on $1, 000. Just throwing this out there so that you have a place to invest your money besides just getting a quarter percent interest from the bank. And it's for short term. You may have five thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars and you could have, you could stagger it. I'll get this treasury bill for one week.

I'll get this next one. I'll put a thousand in that one. I'll have another thousand due in two weeks, another thousand due in three weeks. You can see this was from November 14th to December 27th and they're gonna pay you three and a half percent And supposedly this is safer than having it in a bank. It's with the government.

Just one more option for investing. Until you're ready to invest in property or something bigger, might as well get 3% versus a quarter percent at the bank. It's just a matter, you have to set up an account with TD Ameritrade or someone like that and you just do it on your computer you buy them the money goes out if You buy it in your it matures December 27th you check it in the morning the money's right back in there. You don't do anything. It's that easy Page 50 how to build wealth from nothing.

These are just ideas of what you can be doing. Sell your crafts and products Maybe there's something you can make at your house that you could sell. Start a freelance business. Number three, get a second job. My father would tell my brother and I, my sisters, if you're going to get ahead in this world financially, especially if you're younger, just working 40 hours a week is probably not going to get you there.

Sometimes you need a second job to acquire some cash. Number four, sell your clutter. Number five, consider passive and active resources of income or sources of income. Lower your expenses as long as you can. I know a couple that started going to garage sales and they would buy stuff and then they would resell it and they started doing that full time.

And they buy those storage lockers and sell the stuff in there. Page 52, is real estate one of the ways to invest money wisely? Why or why not? This person argues real estate investing is safe, that it makes you money in the short run, brings you long-term profits. Next page.

He says it's affordable, that's debatable. Page 54. I put this in this page, these two pages in these two articles because I don't always do the real estate investing in real estate after this. So I want to just make people aware this is one way investing in real estate for your money. Number one, rent out your old home.

Buy a house, you move out, you don't sell it, you rent it. Do a live-in flip. My cousin from Iowa would come live with us like six weeks during the summer and we'd talk about real estate and investing. When he got married he and his wife moved six times in 16 years. The first 16 years of marriage.

They'd live they'd buy a fixer-upper house. They would paint the outside, put some shrubs in, they would redo the kitchen or bath, whatever it needed to doll it up, they'd live there two years, and then they would sell it, and they made an average of 20, 30 thousand dollars each time they moved. They paid no capital gains tax, because you lived there two years, and then they would buy the next house. They did that six times and they ended up with a $185, 000 house debt free. That's one way to do it.

Next page, page 55. You could buy a turnkey property. That means a property that's all fixed up. You don't have to do any remodeling to it. I don't recommend that, but there are deals out there sometimes that you can find one.

Number four, partner with other investors. You can do more with partners because you can accumulate wealth faster. Number five, invest in the crowdfunded real estate. I don't recommend five or six, but it's an option. Okay, page 56.

An example of using your money as a tool to create more money. This was an actual loan from one of my employees, Which was crazy. He got his car paid off and I was celebrating with him. Well he couldn't stand it. One month later he comes in and tells me I got rid of that car.

I got a new car, a different car and I got car payments again. So what I tried to show him here was he bought the car for, at the top, $16, 950. He could not afford this car because the rule is you pay cash for something that's going to go down in value. Now this guy had good credit. His interest rate was $7.75.

So I tried to show him with your interest and the principle you're paying you're going to pay $19, 767 and that car 20 years later I put it's going to be worth $1, 700. That's a total net loss on your investment of $18, 000. I said a wiser move would have been save the $412 for four years. You see he has $19, 767. You put that, you take that, let's just say $20, 000, put it down on a $100, 000 house, And then 20 years later, that house may be worth 150, 000 plus the principal you paid off.

So you took your 20 and you created 20 years later 150, 000 versus having a car that's worth $2, 000 now. Once again, these were things we were taught as kids growing up. So the question at the bottom of page 56, How well are you doing investing your money? Page 57. Okay, so what is your financial plan?

Stop procrastinating. Take control of your finances. Hopefully some of you are. How long are you going to be stranded at Grand Central Station? Can you get on that train toward financial freedom?

And remember in our household financial freedom was if you make 20, 000 a year, you bring in 20, 000 a year passive income. Then you achieve financial freedom. So just as a review, step one, create a plan. Step two, set up a monthly savings goal. Step four, have a one-year plan, have a five-year plan.

Step four, procrastination has consequences. I was at the dentist office about six months before COVID hit. And there was the dental assistant. She was typically in a good mood. And When I went in there, she was like kind of dragging.

You could tell she was tired and worn out. And I asked her, I said, what's going on with you? You look tired. And she said, I have this job where I work 40 hours a week, and I just recently got two other jobs. She's working like, she said like 65 hours a week.

I said, why are you working three jobs now? She's 54, 55 years old. She said, I just realized when I get my social security check, it's going to be for $1, 500. 15 or $1, 600. And she said, I realized when I want to retire, I can't live on $1, 600.

She said, I have to start getting some money together so I can invest it to bring in some other income. She goes, I'm going to be in trouble. I don't want to be on the street. She goes, I should have been doing this 30 years ago. I said, yeah, you should have.

So don't be 54 years old and think, oh yeah, now I need to start saving and investing and working three jobs. She should have been working three jobs when she was in her 20s, accumulated that wealth, invested in passive income, and she could have been enjoying that for 30 years. So question bottom bottom of page 57, how will you support yourself when you stop working the job you have. Okay, next page. The supremacy of God's Son.

Jesus is God's Son. He's God Himself. We are not to go after other gods on page 58. The first commandment, I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me. The second commandment, Exodus 20 verses 5 and 6, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth.

Don't make money Don't make money an idol. Don't make financial freedom your idol. Remember we are here to glorify and honor God. In the middle of the page it says people have gone after other gods to serve them. For some people their God is their stomach it tells us in Philippians 3 19.

Jeremiah 25 6 do not go after other gods to serve and worship them. I was talking with an employee this has been five or six years ago, and I was sharing Christ with him and telling him about the goodness and grace of God. And he said, hey man, I'm just not religious like you. I said, do you know You have a God you serve? He said, no, I don't.

I don't even go to church. I said, the way God created us, you have a God you're serving or gods. I said, you can either serve the God who created us or something in creation. He said that's not me. I don't worship anything.

I said yes you do because that's the way God created us. Well, a couple weeks after that, I'd been cheering on and off with them. A couple weeks after that, like 3 o'clock in the morning, someone kicked in his front door and it woke him up and he got up and he kind of saw someone run out the living room and the front door standing wide open and the door frames all broken and the door was kicked in and the wind was blowing and he called in and said that morning he said I'm not going to be at work someone broke into my house I have to fix the door frame and I'll be in tomorrow So he comes in the next day and he tells me, when someone broke into my house, at three in the morning, woke me out of a dead sleep, that really shook me up. And he said, I had to pour myself two shots of whiskey to calm me down and just settle me. And I said, oh, guess what Jerry, that's one of your gods.

He's like, what do you mean? I said in a crisis You will turn to your God to comfort you He's like, what are you talking about? I said your God is whiskey. You turn the whiskey to comfort you settle you down He's like no, that's not me it still didn't sink in but I think he eventually got it. Page 59.

No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God in money. That's from Matthew 624. And then the importance of the fear of God. Proverbs 1-7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Romans 3-18, right there at the top, there's no fear of God before their eyes. I was thinking about this with Christians. I've read lots of things that say Christians, small percentage of Christians, even tithe, it's like less than 10%. I just wonder how much We really fear God.

If you fear God and know that you're a steward of what he's given you and trusted you with, you know there's gonna be an account. You know how the Master came back in Matthew 25 and said let me see what you've done with the talents I've given you. That's going to be for all of us. You're going to give an account before the Lord of how you've spent your time, your talents, and your money glorifying and honoring Him. This is what I told my brother-in-law and his wife.

I said, do you really fear God? You're representing the name of Christ, you're $50, 000 in debt and you're living on $35 a month to put gas in in your car and food on the table. $35 a month. Just something to consider. How much do you really fear God?

And look at your checkbook or your credit card statements of how you're spending your money. Do you need this or do you want this? I said my in-laws, they put that sign on the refrigerator. Do I need this or do I want this? So they started packing their lunch just to give you an update on them.

It took them seven years to get out of debt and after seven years they saved their money for another two years and they bought their first house by God's grace. They've been in there a year, year and a half. So it can be done. They're in their 60s now. They wish they would have been able to do this when they were in their 20s.

They feel like they wasted 40 years. So they're like, will you please tell young people, please tell them our story. You have our permission. We don't want them in the same boat as we were. That's how you get ulcers.

You know, when you're living paycheck to paycheck, that just grinds on you. How am I going to pay this or that? Or hope nothing breaks down with the car? Hope nobody gets sick and we miss work. It's not how God created us to live.

That's why he sets up these principles in his word for us to live by. You know, there's principles how you're to be a father or mother, how you're to be a faithful son or daughter. There's principles of how we're to use the money that's been given to us. Let's continue. Page 60.

I put this in for unbelieving employees. Once again this whole notebook came about because I wanted to share financial principles with unbelievers and share principles of Scripture with them. So John Piper here, page 60, summary of the gospel. God created us for his glory. Every human should live for His glory.

We've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. We all deserve eternal punishment. In His great mercy, God sent forth His only Son, Jesus Christ, to provide for sinners the way of eternal life. Eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. Page 61.

This is an article from Mark Dever. He said in his church he always asked prospective members to tell me the gospel in one minute or less. This is what he said, here's what I understand the good news to be. The good news is that the one and only God who is holy made us in his image to know him, but we have sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all who would ever turn and trust in Him.

Jesus rose from the dead showing that God accepted Christ's sacrifice and that God's wrath against us has been exhausted. God now calls us to repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God. Page 62, Jesus says, repent and believe. An article you can read later.

Page 63A, Salvation is found only in repenting and turning to Christ as your Lord and Savior.