We have been discussing over the last few months what to give our grandchildren for birthday or Christmas presents.  We decided to go with the long-term perspective of giving stocks.

Most of the presents we have given to our children over the years ended up broken, in the trash or lost.  And really, think about it, will your grandchildren remember the ugly Christmas sweater you got them after they have grown up? Probably not!

So we decided that with our grandchildren we wanted to do something different and help them develop a longer term perspective on life by giving them stock or mutual funds for presents.  This is something that would stimulate conversation not only with our grandchildren but also between us and our children and perhaps between the siblings.

We also hope this will help our grandchildren to see a better way to handle finances than living paycheck to paycheck.

This also is one way of doing the following verse:

• Proverbs 13:22a  A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children….

This giving of stock can open up conversations in your family and especially between you and your grandchildren as they grow up. For instance:

1. Why to save money
2. How to save money (automatic deductions from checking accounts)
3. Not to spend all you take in
4. How to grow your net worth over time
5. How saving this way can provide for your family and your retirement.
6. What happens if you live paycheck to paycheck?

Then when they reach adulthood, they will still have much of your presents left.

To do this their parents need to open a guardianship account with an online stock broker like TD Ameritrade or Charles Schwab.   Usually these accounts can be opened with no funds deposited in them. And they usually do not require a management fee from what I have been told. Then when the child comes of age, 18 or 21 depending on your state, the account will become theirs.

Then we would buy the stock in our account and transfer it to the child on or before their birthday.  Most charge no fee for the transfer.

Doing this may stimulate your children to add to the guardianship accounts for their children also.

They no longer issue stock certificates for stock (I was disappointed at that information), so you will need to download a blank fake form online and fill it out yourself to have something to give them on their birthday.  Then they could keep those in a notebook.

Our plan is to buy all the stock for all the grandchildren on the same day once a year, usually in the fall when stocks are cheap.  Also buy some of the same stock for ourselves so we can see how their accounts are doing since we will not be the guardians of the accounts.  This way they all get the same stock bought at the same time.  No partiality.

There is no rule on how much money you should spend.  It is the idea of the long term perspective on life, and how to treat money that is important rather than the amount.  So you could do $50.00/year or much more. So for five grandchildren and us that would be $300.00/year.  Not too bad.

This is just one more way in which we change ourselves and set a pattern for the generations that follow us to being producers instead of consumers — owning instead of buying.  Learning to live on less than our income.  Then taking part of the income, investing it and having it produce more.

This is all part of The Prosperous Life.

Have a great New Year.  Let me know how it goes for you in this adventure.

Poverty vs Wealth  Available on Amazon

In the movie Hell or High Water, towards the end, one of the actors makes the statement, “My parents were poor, my grandparents were poor — poverty is a disease that is passed generation to generation.”

Poverty is a relative term. According to some sources, 90% of the world’s population live on less than $10.00/day. According to that estimation of poverty, our welfare class live like kings with their food stamps, paid rent, air-conditioned houses, TV’s, cars and Obama phones.

However, poverty is not determined by how much money you have, but by how you think. Professional ball players making millions still think the same way they did while growing up and many go bankrupt within a few years of retirement.

Poverty mindsets — Here are some common ones:

1. Won’t go into certain stores because they don’t feel good enough to go in.
2. Can’t save money or make more than they need.
3. Always jealous of what others have.
4. No matter how hard I work, I can never make ends meet.
5. Struggling is the story of my life.
6. Might say: I’m short on cash, I’m hard up or I’m broke.
7. Spends most all of the income every month.
8. We are just scraping by …. On and On.

Our culture, our politicians and many times our religion are our enablers by the attitudes they expound. All the following quotes have one thing in common. Poverty is something a person is born into or has thrust upon them, and it is not the fault of the individual, nor can the individual do anything about it. It takes some greater power than themselves to extract them from the poverty.

“There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” Frank Buchman, protestant evangelist.

What he is saying is to meet the needs of all the people, we will have to take from the have’s and give to the have not’s. This is only accomplished by force — taxation or at the point of a gun. Clearly, a socialist mentality.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”   Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32^nd President of the United States.

Here we see that the poor can do nothing about their situation unless a power like the government provides for them. The poor are victims.

By these attitudes, we have developed a permanent underclass that is dependent on the government for assistance. We need a better understanding of how poverty and prosperity really work. Each has its own mindset.

P.J. O’Rourke — You can’t get rid of poverty by giving money to the poor.

Prosperity mindsets — come from God’s Word, the Bible

1. Genesis 32:12 I will surely make you prosper.
2. Genesis 39:2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered.
3. Deuteronomy 28:11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity ….
4. Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night, then you will be prosperous and successful.

Here is a self-talk positive mindset that you can alter or use if you wish.

•  I am a son of the God, who created the heavens and earth.
• The One who parted the Red Sea and the Jordon River at flood stage.
• The One who caused the sun to go backwards and caused it to stand still.
• I am a son of the God, who set the stars in their courses,
• The One who forgave all my sin and seated me at his own right hand in Christ.
• The One who loves me so much he gives his angels charge over me.
• My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hill. (Psalm 50:10).
• His hand is with me in everything I do. (1 Chronicles 4:10)
• It is His wish above all things that I prosper and be in health even as my soul prospers. (1John 1:2)

Whatever you focus on expands. If you have a poverty mindset, it will manifest in your life.

If you have a prosperity mindset, it will expand and become the way of your life.

Put another way: whatever you confess, you will receive. So confess you are a child of God, with His blessing on your life and expect to see His hand at work in your life every day.

Decide today that for your family “the buck stops here.” You are starting a new tradition of Godly prosperity to pass on to the generations that follow us.

Learning how to do proper self-talk in the area of prosperity is all part of The Prosperous Life.

(For more on this topic read our book Poverty vs Wealth available on Amazon.)

There are four very nice promises about receiving when we give.

• Malachi 3:10 …. if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
• Pro 3:9,10  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
• 2 Corinthians 9:6   But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
• Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

These are four illustrations of the same truth: as you give, you receive back much more than you gave.

• The first promise tells us it will be like the windows of heaven opened up for us.
• The second says our barns, savings accounts, and wine presses shall be full.
• The third tells us it takes a while to see the crop we are producing by following these principles.
• The fourth tells us some of the prosperity will come from people giving back to us.

So we learn that prosperity can come from people giving back to us or God opening the windows of heaven. That it is a slow growth process like planting and reaping. And that it will be like a barn bursting at the seams or the windows of heaven opening to us.

When we read about the windows of heaven being opened and blessings pouring out, I think sometimes we feel that if we give, God will immediately shower gold coins down upon our head. Not seeing this come to pass right away can cause some to feel that giving does not work. But when God uses the illustration of sowing, we know that it takes a while once the seed is sown for the harvest to take place.

There is a rule in life that says that things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. If A equals D, and B equals D and C equals D, then A is equal to B, which is equal to C.

These four promises simply show different aspects of how we receive back from God for our giving.

Very few things in life happen instantly. Prosperity is growth over time, like most of the rest of the things in God’s creation. Children take years to grow up. Crops take months to grow. Our prosperity is not in our paycheck. It is in what we do with part of the check.

We need this slow growth process like a crop to learn how to handle the increase in finances. Our minds need time to grow accustomed to handling larger amounts of money, to learn to be good stewards of it, and to learn how to invest or trade with it to see it grow.

According to Dave Ramsey, if you put $35.00 per week away in a savings account and invest it in a good growth stock mutual fund at 15%, you could retire in 40 years with $890,000.00 to $1.5 million. This could be done on a federal minimum wage. A very nice slow growth process.

If you worked at federal minimum wage for 40 years and retired a millionaire, could you feel like God opened the windows of heaven?

Prosperity is built over time rather than being a cash machine whereby we give and God then gives us rent money. This is not to say He will not or could not do that, but we need to take a long-term perspective on prosperity. It is not how much you make, but what you do with what you make. Do you spend it all or save part? It is a huge difference down the road.

So, as you give and save, remember to be patient. You don’t reap the day after you sow. But it will come back to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over so that over time it will be like the windows of heaven have been opened to you.

This is another part of The Prosperous Life.

I was on a job a few days ago, and the conversation with the homeowner turned to my book Poverty vs Wealth. (Imagine that!!) The first thing out of his mouth was, “Remember: ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’” As I tried to talk to him, he repeated that phrase about three times in a row. Apparently, he that verse had been pounded into his mind by his church.

Let’s read that verse in its context:

• 1 Timothy 6:9-11 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

These verses are some of the cautions or warnings against loving money more than God. God wants us to love Him first, and then He wants to prosper us and bless our treasuries, but He also tells us that if we get out of bounds, we will only hurt ourselves. The cautions or warnings are against allowing money to go to your head once you see prosperity in your life.

Most people start at the wrong end when looking for prosperity: their job, their business, or some gold mine that will make them wealthy. I propose that you start on the fundamentals and build from there. The church, because of wrong teaching, has not helped its members because the church has taught that to save is to not trust that God will meet your needs. So those in authority in the church have spent most of their teaching time on the warnings and not on the promises. So when church people think of money or finances, the verses that pop into their heads are the warnings.

But if you are broke, you need to hear about the promises of God regarding His will for you to prosper and learn how He set life up for that to happen. If you need funds for retirement or to leave an inheritance for your children and grandchildren, you need to know what is available from God. Many times it is the poorest of people who think the most about money because they don’t have any.

Let’s look at some of the promises in the Bible about prosperity.

• Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
• Psalm 35:27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

Here is another promise:

• Deuteronomy 28:2-8   And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Again, we see the instruction to keep God first in the words, “If thou shalt harken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”

Notice once again the instruction to keep God first and then the phrase “The Lord shall command the blessing upon you.” “Command the blessing upon” is a rare phrase, and here it is used to refer to prosperity! It is interesting that God could have said He would command the blessing upon many other things, their health, their country, or their children. These things are blessed by Him, but God reserved this phrase for commanding the blessing upon their storehouses, their prosperity.

These are promises to those who seek God first. Seek Him first, and He will prosper you tremendously. You should bring in more each week than you need to live on, so that you can save up your surplus in your storehouses, for your retirement, your spouse’s retirement, for your grandchildren’s inheritance….

Concentrate on and teach the promises. Remember, the cautions are there only for when you get out of bounds. God’s desire is for His children to live The Prosperous Life as they wait for His son from heaven.

There is more on this topic in the book Poverty vs Wealth.  Leave us some feedback in the comments section below.

Robber Baron Bees attacked my wife’s hive a while ago, to rob it of all its honey.  A robber baron is a wealthy person who tries to gain more wealth through unethical means: by robbing people crossing his land, corrupting legislators or, in our case, robbing our hives of honey that is not theirs. Apparently, they are too lazy to work to build their own prosperous hives.

I had always thought that politics was something unique to humans but apparently not.  Although robber barons used to be mostly wealthy land owners, today that has been taken over by Democrats, through extremely high taxes, IRS audits and asset seizures, etc.

Capitalists today are mostly hardworking folks, storing up for their offspring and retirement and providing jobs in the community.  Well, all bees need honey and pollen, their protein source, to make it through the winter. Apparently, some bees are too lazy to work and are like the grasshoppers and want to play all summer.

When fall starts to set in, they know they need a good store of honey and pollen for the winter so they begin to look around and see which bee hives look like easy pickin’s. The robber baron bees hold a conference, pick a hive the scouts have told them is rich in honey or assets, and they are off.

This tactic of robbing from the hard working bees reminds one of the forced redistribution of wealth that takes place in our country every day.   These hard working entrepreneurs who have obviously worked hard to have a good winter store are now being forced to “share the fruits of their labors” with those either too lazy to work or so powerful they just come in and try to take whatever they can.

All hives have guard bees that watch constantly for illegal bees trying to enter the hive.  Once they spot an intruder, they will fight to the death to prevent entry and prevent their hive from being robbed. (We could use some of that on our southern border!)

In order to make it through the winter, our bees need everything they have. They have been diligent like the ant all summer to store up for the cold, cruel days of winter ahead.  Fortunately for the hard working bees in our yard, they have a great bee keeper in my wife who went to bat for them to help them out. Thus, the attack by the Robber Baron Bees was thwarted.

Bees, having been so closely associated with humans for so long, it appears they have finally adopted our political ways.

Diligence is the price of freedom for both humans and bees.  We could take a lesson from the bees about nationally guarding what is ours. The guard bees will bee on duty again tomorrow along with their valiant bee keeper to defend their hard work from the Robber Barons in the Bee Wars!
Diligence is a great tool in your tool box when building The Prosperous life.