Who is Ten Talents aimed at?

I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to learn a lot about financial planning as a result of my professional studies and my career in financial services. I get to help an interesting and diverse set of people who have a lot of money and need some help utilising if effectively. However, I often think to myself it would be great if regular people on average incomes could learn how to build generational wealth. I believe God has given me the mission to help as many people as possible to financial freedom.

I would like to help as many people as possible from all backgrounds. However, my heart is especially for the Church and his people, black people from working class families and the Millennial generation (18-35). As I will re-iterate, the knowledge I want to share is for everyone who wants to hear, we are all God’s people, but I will explain why I feel drawn particularly to the groups I have mentioned.

The Church

There is sometimes a tendency to over-spiritualise things when it comes to the Church. This may seem counter-intuitive, especially as I am definitely a card-carrying believer and know that there is a spiritual dimension to all things. However, there is also a practical element that we should not neglect. There are many good people in the Church who are saddled by debt, have no financial plan or are involved in dodgy investment schemes. It should not be like this. Jesus said in John 10:10:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

We have been promised the abundant life and I would never suggest that abundance is purely financial, however it is part of it and we as Christians have a role to play. We play our part by following the practical steps which can be traced back to God’s Word, which leads to financial abundance. Don’t believe me? Deuteronomy 8:18 (NKJV) says the following:

“And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

I have just noticed something when reading this passage again. It doesn’t say God has given us wealth but rather he has given us power to get wealth. We have been given power and I hope that you will come on the journey with me to learn the practical steps needed to use this power effectively.

Just a quick word for those people who think all Christians should be poor because money is evil. 1 Timothy 6:10 (NKJV) says:

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The love or worship of money is what is evil. Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) says:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Money itself is just a tool that can be used for good or bad purposes. We must choose to worship God and use money for the right purpose as opposed to worshipping money and allowing money to use us.

Black Working Class Families

Despite what some may believe, there is no universal black experience. There is a uniqueness to each and every family and a different story to tell. However, there would be many recurring themes if we looked at the majority of stories. I can’t and won’t pretend to speak for every black person in the UK, but I will point out a few of the key factors in my life growing up and you can stick your hand up if you can relate to any:

• Big family and parents worked multiple jobs
• Regular trips back to the Motherland
• Jollof rice
• Very strong focus on educational achievement
• Strong emphasis on discipline and respect
• Institutional racism limiting opportunities in life (particularly the workplace)
• High amount of debt
• Money poured down a black hole under the guise of sending money to relatives abroad
• Lack of knowledge on investing in stocks and shares
• Unlikely to pass on significant liquid assets to the next generation

These are just a few examples but what I want to focus on is the lack of financial literacy. I am in no way insulting my parents and other hard working black families who have worked tirelessly to give us the best life possible, for which we are eternally grateful. My message is that we can now make the step from surviving to thriving. I am full of admiration for some of my white friends whose parents have saved large sums of money to give them a head start in life. Honestly, it is not envy because I see that and think, ‘I want to do exactly the same for my children,’ and my hope is that more and more of my black brothers and sisters will be in a position to do the same for their kids.

The Millennial Generation

I am passionate about reaching young people because they have one of the greatest gifts of all – time. The opportunities you can give yourself as a young person by getting your finances right are endless.

Simply by getting started with investing at a young age, you can save up significantly more than someone older than you who is contributing a higher amount. How? Compound interest my friend. In very simple terms, if you invest £100 at 10% interest per annum, you will have £110 at the end of the year. In the next year your original £100 will earn interest again giving you another £10 but also your interest of £10 from last year will also gain interest at 10% equalling £1, giving you a total of £121. Interest on top of interest. The process repeats exponentially growing your funds as time passes.

The second main reason I want to reach out to young people is to plead, beg and/or cajole them not to get into debt. I really can’t stress this enough. I personally know young people who are in university with over £10,000 of debt. To clarify, this is not student loan but rather credit cards, payday loans and Paypal credit amongst other things. Understandably this brings a lot of stress, shame and can be very detrimental to mental health.

In some ways, I can understand how young people get into debt. There is a pressure to try and live a certain lifestyle and finance companies entice young people with the money to fund their instant gratification. Proverbs 22:7 (ESV) says:

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

What a lot of young people don’t realise when they take on this debt is that they are effectively selling themselves into slavery and robbing from their future selves.

If you truly want to reach your full financial potential, then make a commitment to start today. No matter where you are, you can improve your situation. I’ll tell you a story. At a previous role, I was preparing an investment report for a client’s pension. The client was in his sixties and had roughly £1m in his pension pot. I thought to myself that he must have been in a very well-paid career, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw that he was an electrician who earned less than £50,000 a year. I talked to the adviser I was working with about this and he said that I shouldn’t be surprised. In his experience the lawyers and accountants etc earning hundreds of thousands a year also have large expenses in the form of big mortgages, private school for kids etc. However, it’s often those on modest incomes who save regularly but over a long time period that have built significant pots of money in retirement. It’s not what you earn that matters but what you keep.

The reason for the above story is to show you that with time (and God) on our side, anything is possible. As I said before we don’t do get rich quick here. Slow and steady most definitely wins the race.

God bless

Ten Talents