Howdy folks! As a reminder, a couple weeks ago at Vision Days I had you choose a foreign coin of your choice. Please bring that coin to class and be ready to present about your country okay. Instructions are below.
First, I want to tell you how excited I am to be with each of you this year! This class year is all about helping you reduce or eliminate worrying about money the older you get.
Worrying about money is one of the most common struggles almost every human being faces in their lives especially the older they get taking on more responsibilities caring for oneself and family.
So the vision this year in our journey together will be focused on preparing you to no longer have to worry about money nearly as much or at all the older you get. This will be primarily accomplished by teaching you proven financial principles and help you develop money habits that have the power to set you free from money mastering you. Instead you’ll be the master of your money telling it what to do for you.
If you’re not living on your own taking care of yourself financially yet there’s a good chance that you soon will be within the next 5 years or less. I’ve created this class course content to help you enter into that chapter of life more confidently. By the end of this class year in April 2027 the goal is to prepare each of you well enough to confidently say you really don’t or won’t choose to worry about money at all because you’ll have practiced the upcoming “worry-free money habits” so well that those habits will be 2nd nature in your lives. I know that’s a BIG mission to claim and an ambitious goal but I believe it’s possible to achieve as we partner with God.
While I believe worrying about money can be a thing of the past I want to emphasize that all of us are of course human. So we all will most likely still have money worries creep into our minds no matter what along the way. It’s the worry-free money habits though that will dramatically help you escape the money worries you encounter so you can step into living in abundance.
Action Time
- We briefly discussed an important question at Vision Days that set the tone for this upcoming year which was “what would you actually do with your life if money was never a problem ever again, say, $3 billion in your checking account tomorrow?”
For example what would buy? If you would fund charities which ones would you help fund and why? What would your money exactly do for you now that you have plenty of it? What projects or dreams would you create and promote/build up? What other causes would you fund or be a part of? Who and/or where would you serve? What would you fix (things-relationships etc)?- Write down your answer to that big question in great detail and come prepared to share your thoughts about this in class. Try to write at least 500 words or more. Really use your imagination muscle here, exercise that to the max, and detail out what your day to day life looks like now that money is no issue at all. Entirely optional though on who shares in class, I’ll ask for a few volunteers to share.
- Do some research online and/or interview your parents and answer the question “What does Financial Freedom mean?” Write down the answers you personally have about that question along with the answers you gather from your parents. We’ll discuss this in class when we meet.
- Write down in your journal your thoughts and feelings about money? Do you have any issues having lots of money? Do you have any feelings about not having enough money? If so why? What are those real concerns? Would it bother you if you made less or more money than your parents? If so why? Write those down so we can discuss this in class.
- Read Matthew 25:14-30 (the parable of the talents). Notice verse 15: each servant was given a different number of talents “according to his several ability.” Write down one ability that’s unique to you, something you’re naturally good at or drawn to, that could become a way you make money someday (or currently are doing).
- If you fully believed you were capable of building real financial freedom starting now, not someday, what’s one thing you’d attempt to do this year that you’re not attempting right now?
- In the parable, the servant who buried his one talent said he did it because he was afraid (v.25). What’s one talent, skill, or opportunity you have right now that you’re not using because you’re afraid to try?
- In the parable in Matthew chapter 25, the two servants who invested got the exact same response from the master, “well done, good and faithful servant.” It wasn’t about how much they started with, it was about what they did with it. Does that change how much money or how big a “break” you think you need before you can start something? Do you believe that it always takes money to make money? If so why? If not why?
- Read Doctrine and Covenants 104:14-17. Verse 14 says the Lord owns everything, including your money and your stuff. What would actually change in your life this week if you truly believed that?
- The Lord says it must be done “in mine own way” (v.16), not by force and not by the lazy. What do you think that means for how you’re supposed to go about earning and using money?
- In D&C 104 Verse 17 it says the earth is “full, and there is enough and to spare.” Do you believe there’s enough opportunity out there for you to build something of your own, or does it feel like money and opportunity are limited? Why?
- Do one small act of generosity, giving/donating some money to someone, giving someone more of your time over an above what you normally do, or apply a skill toward someone’s benefit this week. Write down what you specifically did and how it felt. Come to class to share and discuss how developing the habit of being generous and being a giver can help you no longer worry about money?
- Country research (started at Vision Days): Using your coin, finish researching your country’s top 3 ways it makes money (specific methods, like oil production, tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, or tech exports) and how much each brings in. Write down what surprised you most about how your country makes its money.
- Bring to class: Your coin, your country notes, and your written answers to the questions above. Looking forward to being with each of you then.
- Come prepared in our first class to receive a financial tool as a gift from me that will help you learn how to develop the first worry-free money habit of learning how to balance a check book. If you’ve never learned what a check book is or what one looks like and how to even use one then I’ll help you develop this skill in our first class!
