What Should I Buy These Days?

How many times have you been with family, friends, or colleagues and the subject comes up that you are a financial advisor and naturally a little “free advice” from a friend would be appreciated and the question arises in various forms about “what do you like?”.  This is always a short route to disenfranchising family members since if you do have a good idea and share it and they call another broker to buy instead of you then you have to wonder about their loyalty to you. 

If indeed they do call you and want to buy your idea and it doesn’t work, well let’s just say there will be more than one turkey carved at next years get together.  This same routine was played out in many parts of the gospels when everyone from the disciples to strangers and church leaders would come to Jesus in all hours of the day and night seeking answers to their questions even if they were not all of a financial nature.

One source of great wisdom that I would offer you on this matter is the work of Ken Boa.  He was gracious enough to share with me some time back in the work I am doing on Biblically Responsible Investing.  Here is a sample of some of his comments from a recent book he wrote and in the context of struggling with the world’s ideals about money and what the Bible teaches:

“Money is a good servant but a bad master—if we follow the world’s wisdom, money will dominate us, but if we submit to “the wisdom from above” (James 3:17), money will serve us as we use it to serve God and others.” This is from his book Conformed in His Image

When I was young in my career, it was such a turn on to feel the importance of sounding astute and in the know about strategic investing ideas whenever this situation came along.  In just a few years as I realized how little I really knew and how fickle the markets can be, I tried to use these opportunities to share Biblical truth. 

Oh that I would have started even earlier and saved myself some of those crazy turkey days when my feathers got plucked along with the bird!  I hope you find some of Ken’s books as helpful as I have in regard to building up your understanding of God’s will for your life!  

Sent November 27, 2006

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