Pembirdie

Tag: bible

  • How much to save?

    The White Coat Investor and most other reasonable personal finance blogs for physicians recommend saving 20% of gross income for retirement. (People who aren’t physicians usually do fine with saving 15% because they start the process earlier and benefit from more years of compounding.) If you are aiming to retire early, you need to increase that percentage.

    With my current job, I am technically employed by two different organizations, the result being I get two salaries and can contribute to both a 403(b) and a 457(b). But wait, there’s more! One organization provides a 501(c) with a mandatory 5.5% employee contribution and 8% employer contribution, and the other organization contributes an extra 9% of my salary to a different account (I have no idea what numbers go along with that one).

    All together, if I max out my 403(b) and 457(b), and all personal finance sites recommend maxing out tax-advantaged space, taking into account the forced 501(c) contribution and employer contributions, I’m saving 25% of my gross income. And we haven’t even considered the backdoor Roth IRA! We could save another $15,000!

    This begs the question, do we want to do this? Would I ever consider saving less?

    What if, instead of going for a 25% percent retirement savings rate, I went for 20%? This would involve me not maxing out one of my retirement funds, which would feel weird after reading so much about the importance of doing so. It seems like everyone is doing it. (This is probably not true.) Does that mean I’d fall behind? Would I be missing out?

    What would we do with an extra 5%? Would we save it up for something big, like a bathroom renovation, a new business venture, adopting a child? Would we just inflate our lifestyle by eating out more, going on more trips (my husband would hate that) and upgrading our stuff? Would we give it away, as gifts, family assistance or support to organizations we believe are making difference?

    I have, of course, a few thoughts. The first is that, the extra 9% from one of my employers comes with golden handcuffs, meaning if I leave my job before I’ve worked there for three years, I forfeit the money. I don’t plan on leaving my job, but life does weird things sometimes, so in the spirit of not-counting-my-chickens-before-they-hatch I’m not going to include the extra 9% in my savings calculations until I’m past the three year mark. Taking everything else together, and including a little extra that goes into a taxable account, we’re saving right at 20%. Meaning, we can kick this decision down the road for another two years.

    The second thought is that there are a lot of warnings in the Bible about putting too much faith in money. A wise man in Proverbs asks God to avoid giving him too much wealth, lest he put his faith in his riches and not in God. The rich man in Jesus’ parable is foolish for building up his possessions and not putting any thought to the fact he could die any moment and that he has an eternal future on the other side of death. Jesus teaches that our hearts follow our treasure. James castigates rich people for mouthing platitudes while ignoring the poverty of their brothers and sisters. The Bible also teaches that wealth is not a bad thing, but the implication is that it comes with the responsibility to use it wisely.

    I know that I am tempted to derive security from the money I’ve saved up – that’s just I am. Because of that propensity, I believe it will be wise to avoid going beyond 20% retirement savings in the future. Instead of hedging my bets by stashing away another five percent or more, I can ask God to use what we save to provide for our needs. My husband and I will need to have more discussions about it, but I’d prefer to use the money we’d otherwise be saving for the benefit of others. One can make the argument that by saving more now, there will be more to give in the future… but the future is uncertain. I don’t want to wait for a mythical tomorrow that isn’t guaranteed.

    SDG

  • Won’t let you go until you bless me

    At church, we’ve been going through a sermon series on the first part of Genesis (creation through Jacob). Last week covered Jacob and his family preparing to meet his brother Esau and Jacob wrestling all night with God. Jacob wouldn’t stop wrestling as the morning dawned, and God eventually put his hip out of joint. Even then, Jacob refused to let go until he received a blessing. And, God blessed him. He gave him a new name, which our pastor talked about as symbolizing a new identity.

    As I am a narcissistic person, my thoughts turn to myself, and I wonder – with the hard things I am going through right now – it seems presumptive to call them “trials,” but I guess trials don’t all have to be enduring captivity by Columbian gorillas – is there a blessing at the end of them? Does the blessing depend on me?

    Backing up, what would have happened if, when God told Jacob to let him go, Jacob just said, “Ok”? If he gave up, in a sense? Would God have blessed if Jacob hadn’t persisted and asked for (demanded?) a blessing? In some way, was Jacob demonstrating his faith by asking for a blessing, because he believed that God could do so? If he had given up and remained silent, would that have been a marker of unbelief?

    The sermon did not go into this, so I don’t know what our paster thinks about these questions.

    I do know that 1) God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8), and 2) faith is how we please God (Hebrews 11). Somewhat unsatisfactorily, Hebrews 11 goes on to say that although OT Bible heroes had faith, they didn’t receive all of what God had promised, because the promise hadn’t come to fruition yet (Jesus). I guess now that we’re in the post-NT era I don’t have to worry about that. I also know that God responds to people’s faith, as demonstrated multiple times in Samuel-Chronicles. This happens to be where my loose reading-through-the-Bible journey has taken me right now. Just read about God saving Jehoshaphat and his people when they chose to rely on him to defeat their enemies.

    Some more questions, then. Am I wrestling with God about my trials? Am I wrestling with him about my current disability? About Lindy’s death? About infertility? The answer is, sometimes, maybe. I certainly cry about it and ask God “Why!” every so often. Definitely not all the time. More often than not (hence, partially, starting this blog which may or may not end very soon) I drift along, searching the interwebs, mindlessly reading articles, passing countless hours in activities that numb my mind with the digital equivalent of crack cotton candy. This is more like Jacob shrugging and taking a nap than struggling to throw God to the ground.

    I don’t think I’ve even been asking God for a blessing. I HAVE been asking him to give me “my” hips back/take the pain away, to heal my grief, to give us another child. So far, he hasn’t deigned to answer these requests in the way I want (hint, the answer is “yes” to all three), but even if he answered them right now, it wouldn’t feel like a blessing so much as a restoration of a damaged previous whole. Should I be asking for God to give me the blessing that comes WITH my hip pain, WITH a dead child, WITH barrenness? To be honest, I can’t really see how he would do that, but my imagination isn’t as good as God’s. More concerning, perhaps, is the idea that these blessings could come with a new identity. Jacob was changed from The One Who Deceives to Israel, The One Who Struggles with God (or, maybe as our pastor said, The One Whom God Strives For). Am I ready for God’s blessing?

    I do not know if I am prepared for everything the Lord has for me, but I do know that he is good, and his love endures forever. I know that I am disgusted with how I choose to live my life, and by trying to save my life I will only lose it. I acknowledge, even if I do not always feel it in my marrow, that I am beguiled by mud piles when God has infinitely better things to offer, like C.S. Lewis said.

    Heavenly Father, let me strive with you in my trials. May I not let you go until you bless me with blessings only you can give. If this involves transforming my identity, let it be so. Let all the glory be yours.

    SDG