I was recently surprised to see a couple of words being used together in an article that I might not have expected to see: retirement and grief. You may be thinking, “What!? Grieving over retirement? No more daily commute, an unreasonable boss, or long hours and low pay? The freedom to do whatever I want? … Read more
In this second of two articles on my stewardship practices, I discuss my saving, investing, and protecting (insurance) approaches. The stewardship principles that are most applicable to these areas are as follows: There are a few other more granular ones that apply here and there, which I will highlight in the appropriate sections. My practices … Read more
One of my pastors and I recently taught a class on stewardship at our church. In one session, a young couple in the class asked about vacations. The question wasn’t very specific, and I took it as “is it good stewardship to spend money on vacations?” It was a reasonable and sincere question as money … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS). It was initially published in February 2019 and updated in February 2026. Author and speaker Chris Hogan, who was once part of Dave Ramsey’s team, wrote a book titled Everyday Millionaires as a follow-up to his earlier book on retirement, Retire Inspired. The … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS). In our culture, success with money is usually associated with self-confidence, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. We take pride in how much money we make, how much we save, how much debt we paid off, and how well our investments do. The Internet is lit-up … Read more
I was recently in a fellowship meeting with a bunch of guys (all younger than me) from our “community group” (small group) at church. We were discussing what we’d like to accomplish in 2019, and the word that came to my mind was “fruitfulness.” So I shared that I wanted to be more “fruitful”—a sincere … Read more
A friend recently sent me this link to a chart on PNC Bank’s website titled “A Timeline for Achievement” that provided a helpful list of age-based retirement planning milestones. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement for PNC, although I am sure they are a good bank, I just found the chart interesting. This kind of … Read more
Happy New Year! Planning is a wise part of retirement stewardship. But no matter how well we plan, we must always remember that “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). And now that we are closing out 2018 and looking out ahead to 2019, I thought I would share some thoughts … Read more
I have been officially “retired” from my full-time, paid position since October 1st. And since then, I have noticed something that happens fairly regularly: In general conversations with friends and family they ask me: “How’s retirement?” or “Are you enjoying retirement?”. If my wife is with me, she sometimes gets the “Is he driving you … Read more
