Planning Ahead - Financially

Money is important in life. People frequently say that the Bible says more about money than it does any other topic, however, I have read the Bible many times and I cannot find evidence of that. If you have such evidence (real verses, not quotes from people) please send it along.

I have seen some lists that include verses which have nothing to do with money. All that being said, money truly is an important part of life, and the Bible does have a fair amount to say about the subject. With that in mind, I wanted to provide a quick overview of Dave Ramsey’s new book The Legacy Journey. This is his first Christian book and he sets out to provide a framework for how to manage wealth across generations. I must say at the start that I really enjoyed the book and it provides a great framework for planning for the future where money is involved. I will recommend the book for the sound teaching on finances, several excellent explanations of parables, and the merit that the book has for teaching people to handle generational wealth.

The book contains philosophy about money on many fronts. Typical to Dave’s style, he discusses personal finance from the bottom and continues on to teach the practical steps. Unlike his book The Total Money Makeover, this book is not geared directly to our personal life, but that is the starting point needed to launch this book beyond that talk about generational wealth. His model centers around four positions: fix your current problem, and then focus on setting up our own future. The next step is to learn to take care of our future family members before serving in other ways that God might call us to use our money to accomplish.

The book is not just about the theory and steps, but Dave also discusses pitfalls to wealth, bad investing and estate planning, and more. The book is very quick to read and very simple to understand. The book is certainly more Christian than his other books, but I also do not think that it is so overwhelmingly Christian that it would offend the non-believers that pick it up. This is an excellent book to get your financial present and future lined up properly.