This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS). It was originally published in 2019, but had minor updates in 2026. One of the hard realities of life in our fallen world is aging. Although we live in a culture that celebrates—and sometimes idolizes—youthfulness, everyone is, ironically, getting old. Some are just … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Retirement Framework (BIFRS) series. It was initially published on July 31, 2019, and updated in January 2026. In this, the third and final article in this series on annuities, I examine variable annuities. The 2025 landscape: Although sales of fixed index annuities have significantly outpaced variable annuities in … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship series. It was Originally published July 24, 2019 and updated December 2025. In my last article, I looked at immediate fixed-income annuities and discussed whether I might want to include them as a part of my overall retirement income plan. Guaranteed payments for life … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically-Informed Retirement Framework (BIFRS) series. It was initially published on July 10, 2019, and updated in December 2025 I recently helped a friend evaluate an annuity product he was considering for part of his retirement savings. Like many of us, he wanted to protect some of his assets from … Read more
You may have noticed that it’s been a while since I posted an article on this blog. That’s because my wife and I have been away on an extended vacation out west visiting the “Big 5” National Parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce, and Capitol Reef. We also spent several days at the Lake … Read more
As a reader of this blog, you know that we hold to the position that the Bible teaches that it’s good to wisely save and invest for the future, including a time in “retirement” (Prov. 6-11, Prov. 21:20), and also to be “rich toward God” by “storing up treasures in heaven” (Luke 12:21; Matt. 6:19–21). … Read more
I occasionally get the opportunity to talk about stewardship and money with young people (high school and college age). I am always grateful to get the chance and I always enjoy the interactions. We are near the end of the school year, a time when many will be graduating from high school or college. So … Read more
A few years ago, a University of Chicago college professor named Harold Pollack remarked that everything you really needed to know about personal finance could be fit on a single 3×5 inch index card. Someone asked him to prove it, the result went viral, and Pollack actually ended up co-writing a book about it called … Read more
This article is part of the Biblically Informed Framework for Retirement Stewardship (BIFRS) series. 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 … Read more
