Our Two Cents: Money, Marriage & Meeting Halfway

0:00 Son, we are talking about money, M-O-N-E-Y. How do you spell money? It's funny. I go to money, money, money, money, money. Money! Whether it should be or not, money is important. It affects where we live, how we get around, what opportunities and life experiences are available to us, pretty much everything. Which makes it a really important conversation to have when you're sharing your life with somebody, no matter how awkward that conversation is. Yeah, Chelsea and I got married young and our conversations around money have changed a lot since we said I do. And of course, so is our perspective. So today we're sitting down between the two of us and having a candid conversation about money and marriage. We'll even reveal some of the big purchases we've made that have caused tension over the years. You mean the big purchases you made? We're going to get into all of that today on In Good Faith.

0:57 All right, I'm really excited about this episode. It's just Chelsea and I, and we are going to talk about the topic. You know, the topic that affects all of us, whether we like it or not, ladies and gentlemen. Every single day. Every single day of our human experience, it is the topic of M-O-N-E-Y. I feel like we've talked about sex and affairs and not having affairs. You've talked about religion, obviously. So it's time to make the big hitters and talk about money. So here's where our story begins. I was meeting with Chelsea's dad in preparation for her hand in marriage. I know these are traditional terms steeped in our own personal culture that we grew up in.

1:53 So bear with us here. But I went to Craig Smith, no relation. I know my last name was Artie Smith and said, I want to marry your daughter. Could I have your permission? And he asked, the very first thing Craig Smith asked for was a budget. He said, will you be able to financially support my daughter? At this point, you were a part-time janitor, part-time youth pastor. Mostly volunteer on the youth pastor front, but yes. I think you got paid to be a janitor at the church. And I was making $100 in excess to what our rent was going to be. Yeah. $100 extra dollars of just free spending money, as it were. I'm trying to like finagle a budget to my dad. Yeah. Out of like $100 extra dollars. But he threw in there me getting a job too. But I remember my dad looking at the budget and he had a carpet company for a lot of years where he sold carpet.

2:45 Entrepreneur, business owner. And he looked at the budget and he goes, well, how are you ever going to save up to buy new carpet for your house? Well, I remember him saying, how will you live like this? And I was like, God will make a way. But fortunately, my dad said yes, obviously. He did. And you know, that's really what I want to focus on in this episode is why did your dad say yes? We really do need to ask him that. Because he believed in me. Yes, in spite of my budget, which was fictional at best, things worked out. And since then, we have had quite a relationship to money. And if we're honest, I think in the last several weeks, it's come up again. And there's been some frustration. My relationship to money is like, didn't have any growing up really much at all. My dad raised support so that we could travel and he would speak and encourage people around the purpose of God and plan of God for their life.

3:40 It was wonderful. but the idea of even having a few extra bucks was a bonus. Chelsea's dad did very well in business. If I can be honest, you were the wealthiest family our church even knew of. Which isn't like saying a lot. Yeah, but still, you were the wealthy family and I married you for money. Little fish in a big pond. But the point is, I didn't come to the marriage with a lot of money, but I did come with a turquoise Saturn. Which is more than I had, which is a set of golf clubs. Yeah, Judah had a set of golf clubs. And for those of you who don't know what a Saturn is, it's a car that is made of fiberglass. They're not even in production anymore. I don't think they last. Oh, because they realized it's a death machine. I don't know. They were supposed to be safe. But I had a turquoise Saturn and it was paid off. It was all mine. And I had like $2,000 in like a savings account that got better interest rate. That is what I came into the marriage with.

4:34 And I think we were maybe young and ignorant and happy. I don't know, but I don't really remember worrying about money right away. And the fact that we hadn't even had that conversation, I'm grateful that my dad forced it upon us. We were barely 21. I was actually still a senior in college when we got married, still finishing up my last year. So yeah, money wasn't totally on our minds, but boy, does money affect our everyday lives. Absolutely. And I think you have a relationship with money, whether you like it or not. And maybe this episode is dedicated to you, the listener, and Chelsea and I together investigating what is the state of our relationship. Because if you don't have one, you have one by default. And you've probably learned it by your environment, your culture, your background, your surroundings. Somebody along the way dictated and determined your perspective and relationship to money. And that will impact dramatically your human experience, particularly for those who want to be in a committed relationship.

5:37 it's going to come up more often than you'd like. Right, and I have no idea if this is true or not. Talk about unresearched stats. But I remember hearing at some point that at least 50% of divorces in one way or another finances are cited as a reason. But regardless, it is a factor in the tumultuous moments of relationships. We've gotten our fair share of disagreements and fights over money. Yeah, and I've got so many stories that I'm excited to share. Having said that, can I kick off by asking you a question. Of course. What is your relationship to money and how do you define it? I think in general, I'm a pretty content person. I agree. I don't tend to need a lot of things or I don't tend to have eyes for more. And I've been like that always as a kid. It's not something that I've earned or deserved, although I think it's something that we can all choose to cultivate or not cultivate. And I think cultivating contentment is a very significant part to happiness, but also to having a healthy relationship with money.

6:36 So I think that's a positive part of my relationship with money. I think maybe a more negative part is that having money in the bank, money in savings does produce security. And as a follower of Jesus, I always want to find my security in God and not in money, but boy, it feels good when there's money in the bank account. Would you agree with that? I would agree with that. I think the good part of my relationship with money is a vehicle. It's a tool that I yield and wield as I see best fits in honoring God. And I don't serve money. Money serves me. Money makes you more of what you were before you had it. A lot like marriage. I think my negative relationship to money is more that it's a solution because it's not. It's just not a solution. And yet- Like it's a solution to problems or to buying happiness or to stress or to? All of the above, really. I find myself sometimes when I'm emotionally unwell or unhealthy thinking that, well, money would solve that. And money has a way of telling you that.

7:44 You need more. And that more will be the answer. So like when I'm in pain, it's like, well, if I got a new car or if I got a new shirt or a new hat or a new watch, and that's unhealthy, as opposed to seeing it as a vehicle to live the life that I believe I was put here to live. you know what i think one of your best attitude towards money is is your generosity is that you are truly one of the most generous people i know like it's an old phrase like i'll gave you the shirt off his back. You would genuinely do that. You don't have a tight hand towards money. You're very willing to share and you love to share with other people.

8:43 And I think that's a really cool part of your relationship with money. The most impactful statement in the history of the world for me in relationship to money is a quote of Jesus. And he said, you'll be far happier giving than you ever will be getting. And yet we live in a world that keeps telling us, if you'll get, get, get, you'll be happier. Jesus promotes this concept. If you plan, prepare, and plot to give. I got to be honest with you, giving money is one thing. Preparing to give it is also something, though, that creates incredible endorphins and passion for life. It can excite me for an entire day that I am preparing to give something significant. I love the feeling. A lot of people don't like the feelings that greed produce. Lack of contentment, for instance. So you don't feel settled.

9:36 You don't feel grounded. You don't feel present because you are, I've got to go on that vacation. I've got to get out. I've got to make more money to get on that yacht. And so what ends up happening is on a Wednesday, you can't enjoy your Wednesday afternoon. I have discovered in our own journey, let alone the teachings of Jesus and scripture, that one of the ways to combat, resist, fight, that discontentment that greed serves up in bucket loads is planning to be generous. A generous man makes plans to be generous. I think Solomon said that actually. And those generous plans, they just squelch greed. and it's so fun to feel it happening in my soul. And greed for me is like, it's like a daily companion oftentimes and it's embarrassing to admit that, but it's like greed, this little sinister voice in your head that's like, you need more, like get more, do more, make more money, save it.

10:39 Don't spend it, don't give that, don't pay for lunch. It's about you. And every time you go, no, it's not, I'm gonna give this, I'm gonna, oh, it's like that voice gets a little less loud, at least for the day. Yeah. And I think it's so interesting, true to everything else in our personalities and in our marriage, we are very opposite. You would be happy to spend. I would be happy to save. You'd be happy to give your money away. It's a little harder for me. Be happier to save it and invest it. Yeah, yeah. But it's interesting that you say that planning to give has actually been something where our two personalities have met in such a middle role. Because it's giving, but it's also planning. And it kind of meshes both of our strengths. And I think that's been something that you and I have both taken so much delight in. And I use delight very accurately. That it has been so much fun making plans to give money. So one of the first things we did early on, and I'm not sure where we learned it, who we heard it from, how it came about, we decided to put in what we simply call giving goals.

11:41 And that's pretty self-explanatory. That's what they are. And I don't know when it happened, but we started doing giving goals by the decade. Giving goals in our 20s, giving goals in our 30s, giving goals now in our 40s, giving goals in our 50s and in our 60s. I don't know if we've reached our 70s, but I don't mean to brag. We are a decade ahead. Yeah, what we wanted to give away by the time we finished our 40s, we actually gave away by the time we finished our 30s. And meeting that goal was actually one of the most fun things that we have done with our money. I mean, we've had some enjoyable vacations in the process too. Those are fun. I'm glad we didn't have to sacrifice those. But that feeling was just pretty incredible. I think Jesus knows what he's talking about. Yeah. And it takes me back because I can tend to find security in money. Going back and looking at those goals has helped me to remind myself and almost prove to myself that, you know what, I'm actually not driven by greed.

12:40 I actually don't find security in money ahead of security in God because we've done those things. And it feels like whatever God's asked us to do and whatever we felt led to give that we've actually given. I don't feel like money could buy all of the good feels that giving money away has provided. Yeah, the human connection and human experience that generosity provides, I don't think you get that in any other activity. Yeah, and I think what's fun about our giving goals is we literally started in our early 20s when our budget was super tight. We didn't have a lot of money and every person is different, but ours came in chunks of money. Like, hey, we want to give this, write this check at this point in time and give it away. And the first one was actually the hardest for me because we had taken this big class on finances that said, hey, to be financially secure, you need to save up three months worth of an emergency fund that needs to equate to three months worth of living.

13:41 This is when we were doing envelopes with cash. Yes, it was like, okay, we literally, my wallet was so ugly. It was like made of like multiple envelopes with cash in them. Manila envelope. And it was, okay, here's our groceries, here's our dining out, here's our gifts, here's our whatever for any of our spending money outside of our regulated bills. And so we're working and saving. And we worked, probably took us, I'm going to say two years maybe, to save up three months worth of reserve. That's the point when you felt like, you know what, I think we need to give that away. And that was the hardest for me to give away. Well, and I think we both, unbeknownst to each other, we both had a number, but that number was exactly all that we had saved up. I don't know if you remember that. I struggled with this one. We've been in a lot of environments where, you know, when somebody's asking for generosity and- We kind of end up getting the same number. We kind of get the same number and then that works out. This one, your number was like had an extra zero in it.

14:34 Oh, that's right. And I struggled because- Because I have more faith than you. I forgot about that. Because I knew how hard we had worked to get this amount of money. So we actually didn't do it right away. I had to sit on that one for a bit. I remember looking at the check going, I don't even know we could write a check that big, you know, to us at the time. And yet, sure, it's a big check, but it's literally everything we had. But those were moments of just toppling greed again. And we probably were so young and dumb, we didn't even realize the implications and the ramifications of what we were doing. And it has created momentum in that area. Because I know generosity has been easier for you. And like writing that check was harder for me. When you think back to those days of cash and envelopes and really, in some ways, restraining spending, was that hard for you? Yeah, I think it was because I think there's a lot of concepts and perspectives out there amongst kind of evangelicals, faith people, that if you trust God enough, you don't have to make such a strict plan.

15:40 You don't have to be so diligent. You just trust God. And God will work it out. And I think that's more my personality, if you remember. If you remember, that was a joke. I am like, let's not make money the deal. Let's not focus on money so much. And all these envelopes and all this cash, it gets me thinking about money. And I don't want to think about money. I want to think about God and people. And it was almost reckless of me. I wanted to not think about it. And you were like, no, we're going to save. And we're going to track every dollar. And I was like, wait, is that how we honor God? and I discovered a whole new depth of trusting God when I dug in and looked at our numbers and looked at our budget and looked at what we were trying to save and looked at what we were trying to do. And it was like, well, the depth of meaning and trust in God grew. But you know what I think is cool looking back on that is that you actually trusted me. And even though it was uncomfortable and not fun for you, I don't even remember you fighting me much on it.

16:35 It was kind of like, okay, but thank you for trusting me and for recognizing which of us are stronger in which areas and leaning into the strengths instead of, I mean, the old-fashioned would have been like, I'm the man, I do the finances, which both of our homes, our moms did the finances. Yeah, I was like, I was raised in, the strongest people in the world to me are women, period. Yes, I appreciate that about you. You trusted me and that was really cool. Yeah, and maybe because we had already experienced some really meaningful back and forth where you deferred and then I deferred. And before you know it, you have this really open-handed relationship. I wanna be open-handed with our money and not closed-handed. I didn't choose my birth date. I didn't choose my eye color or hair color. I just chose that I have a mustache.

17:28 But a lot of things I didn't choose that God chose. And money feels so much a part of that. Like, wow, God, this is just gold you put in our hands. And it really ultimately all belongs to you anyway, just like my heart does. And so we're going to keep it open handed. And I think both of us in our own unique way have embraced that open handedness. Yeah. And for us starting out at 21 years old, actually looking back, I never thought about it until this conversation. I actually think generosity was probably our meeting ground for coming together to get a financial plan together to be on the same page. Because I think a marriage is miserable if we're on opposite pages financially. because it's a constant tension. And we've had some of that tension this week. We need another car because our son started driving. I'm looking at very economical, sensical cars that would not- Five-year-old, three-year-old.

18:23 Yeah, but with low miles and low maintenance. And Judah starts looking at cool trucks and things to be done. A 1991 Bronco Eddie Bauer edition. So, of course, you won. Yes. So annoying. but what did i was like can we please have a mechanic look at it before you buy it and he did and he gave us a bid and the bids come back uh two to three times more almost costing as much just as it costs to uh buy the car i was hoping he wouldn't put two and two together oh no i put two and two together ladies and gentlemen this is not prepared podcasting this is like real-time therapy this is called real life and i'm so annoyed because if we would have stuck with my car and i am so thrilled because i want to restore it and i've never restored a car and we're doing it now but i just want to say thank you to the podcast universe because if this wasn't a podcast recording i think this conversation would be largely less amicable yes it would be much less gentle thank you listeners for allowing my wife to process in front of you it has made her kinder

19:31 for us starting out at 21 years old some of the good aspects of getting married young is you come in with a bit more of a blank slate yeah and so we got to cultivate our attitude towards money a lot together, even though we had our proclivities and our personalities that were different. And our money has always been combined. I don't think we've ever had any. Which isn't a rule that people have to follow. It just works for us. Were you ever tempted to separate our money? Come on. You know the answer to that. I didn't even know there was such a thing, to be honest. I knew you knew there was, because you're like, you know, I have my own money. Like when we started dating, you're like, I got my own car. I got my own money. I was like, wait, what? I don't know what I have in my bank account, which again is embarrassing. It's true. We were so young.

20:32 Your training on money was much more comprehensive than my training on money. I've learned so much from you about finance, but no, I wanted it to be together. I wanted to grow that way. And I guess one of the ideas we're promoting today is that money can actually be a connection point. It can be a learning point. It can be a growth point. Or it can become TNT in a relationship. And it can be very explosive and combustible. And don't you think part of it being a connector is actually having really hard, awkward conversations about money? No other way. And needing to have them pretty consistently because money just changes consistently. I can't imagine if we would have gotten married in our 30s and I had had a career and you had had a career and we had built up different storehouses of money. what that would have felt like combining our money. That would have been very different.

21:27 Yeah, and I respect, we have dear friends who keep their money separate because they weren't children when they got married in 2021. So you're right, it's completely different. And I think that probably takes a little bit more work for us. This was the journey that God has for us. And I kind of don't mean to say it so dramatically, but that's how I feel. We were supposed to combine our money and I probably needed the maturation more than anyone in this relationship. and it's help. I definitely think that's a conversation that any dating couple needs to have before you get married is having a million awkward conversations around money. What are expectations about combining, budgeting, paying bills, shared assets? There's just so much that needs to be talked about that can be so much more explosive if it's not talked about. Forgive me if this sounds so blessed, but there's also like, you know how you play those silly little games? Like what would you do? Like the other night we were in the mountains and we're by this lake and it's kind of the sun's going down and my son's like, dad, how much would someone have to pay you to swim across the lake right now? And I'm like, oh, son, I'm not going to play this game because it would be a lot of money because that is scary. I don't think you would have survived. I don't think you can swim that far. But like the discussion needs to be really honest. Like, is there a number where you're like, we're just doing it. Whatever it is, we're going to do it.

22:48 I think you and I have decided there isn't. If someone said, we're going to give you $100 million to move to X country, we aren't just going to say yes. We're going to say, well, I think we're supposed to be in the cities we're in. And does that make sense? And there is something to be said about that. The foundation of our decisions, we do our best not to based on finances first. Obviously, finance has come into play because they're part of our lives, but not letting finances be the dictator of our decisions. You know what I've struggled with even more than that is financial mistakes. We've all made them. You've made them. I've made them. One time, this is back early days when balancing a checkbook was honestly doing math, pre-apps, pre-computers, and I completely balanced our checkbook wrong. And so a bunch of checks balanced, and then you have the overdraft fees. This is ancient history now because people can't even relate to this. It's so true.

23:40 But you know the worst part about this story? we just put our money in your checking account which you opened before you turned 18 so your mom had to co-sign with you and removing somebody from a savings account is or checking account is actually harder than it looks and so we've been married for like five this is so embarrassing so embarrassing i can't believe we're sharing this like five years and your mom was still on our account so they tried to call me that we were overdrafted for every reason oh gosh i just want to die. I didn't answer. So then they moved on to call my mother-in-law. They called my mom. Like I'm 25 years old and been married. Oh my gosh. She said your kid's checking account is overdrawn. Oh my gosh. And she had to like transfer money into our, oh. So that, we make financial mistakes or I mean the Bronco still up in the air, whether or not it's going to be a financial mistake. How about the ATV? One of our tools is you can only spend a certain amount of money without conferring with the other. And at the time it was a thousand dollars. So I wanted to get an ATV. I don't want to get into the details for 3,200 online. And I thought it was a great deal. Most ATVs were tens of thousands. And you knew I didn't want it. I knew she didn't want to, so I just did it. Having said that, it broke down. It was a lot. You live and learn. That was a funny one. So financial mistakes, but not holding them over each other's head. I've had to fight with that for sure. Not using your mistakes as a tool for me to gain more influence over our finances and not to use that as an imbalance of power because you made a mistake. You do do that very well. Thank you. But it's hard. How hard is it? I'm just saying it's a fight. And I need, I think acknowledging that it's a fight and that that temptation is there in a relationship to not hold each other's mistakes over our heads is really powerful. Because if we hold those mistakes over each other's heads, it just keeps coming back.

25:32 And I don't think that I would have the confidence that I have in the area of finance. But somebody like you, who's one of the smartest people I've ever known, one of the things that attracted me to you is your brilliance. And I think you have shared your brilliance with me and you've allowed me to become confident and feel like I'm good with money, feel like I can even talk with my cousins or friends who are in their 20s and be like, bro, here's what I learned, you know? And that's a special gift that you've given me by not going, you're an idiot. This is so dumb. What did you just do? And I thank you for that. Almost 23 years into marriage now, boy, I'm nothing like the person I used to be in relationship to money. What I really respect and admire about you in regards to money is your risk tolerance. You have a much higher risk tolerance and that has more often than not paid off in our marriage. Your ability to take risks, I've definitely learned from. And I think that's been a really good thing for us. But not an easy thing to walk through when couples have different risk tolerances. Totally. Like, whose do you go with? Yep. And how do you think we've made those decisions? Case by case. But the other thing that has been so valuable to us is counsel. Wow. And for us, the church community has been a great resource for that. Finding people who seem to be good with their money and asking them questions. It's a bit humbling to put ourselves in a position where they can ask us questions. Oh, we have this and that. But that has been a really incredible resource for us. Totally. And I don't know if this is related, but I think about the anxiety that is around money. It seems to affect every personality. Hopefully by now in this episode, you, the listener, have asked yourself, what is my relationship to money? How do I define it?

27:22 But how do you handle anxiety around money? And I would say that's what got me thinking. Counsel has relieved anxiety. I still to this day, I have a business mentor. I've gone out of my way to find really, really shrewd, wise people with finance, money, investment, business. And I listen a lot. That relieves a level of anxiety that comes with my relationship to money, which is sometimes I just feel dumb. I was never trained to be around money. My family was not wealthy at all. So here I am with opportunities and I feel dumb. I feel out of my depth. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. And talking to friends and relationships who do know what they're doing and their encouragement has relieved a lot of personal anxiety for me. What would be ways you've limited anxiety around finance and money?

28:22 First of all, can I say I love how uncomfortable in life in general you are at being out of your depth. I would tend to just not go out of my depth. But you're always willing to do that. And I think that's a really cool thing about you. Having a plan and executing it relieves anxiety for me. But sometimes that still doesn't work. And then I go back on, you know, I've been generous with my money. And that just gives me a sense of peace. Wow. You and I did grow up very differently in regards to in our households, the attitude towards money, the conversations around money. How have we landed with our kids? Where are we at with our kids? Obviously, they're teenagers now. Well, I mean, obviously, I talk a lot. So I would imagine a lot of the fodder in our family is around this idea of never serving money, always allowing money to serve you as you serve God and people, using it as a vehicle and a tool. also that money is a wonderful servant and is a horrible leader it's a horrible leader when it leads your life when it becomes why you do what you do when it becomes the motivation the impetus the passion behind is just money money money it'll never deliver what it promises it's a liar it's a deceiver and sometimes it can you can attach an attitude to it that can be very destructive I think we've treated money a little bit like fire too.

29:45 It can add so much warmth and depth and dimension to the human experience or it can burn everything to the ground. And so I hope there's a level of trepidation with our kids. Like money's not to be played with, but God's got you. Literally in real time here, just process it. You know what surprised me the most about our kids is obviously they're all in the same environment and how differently they each handle their money. I mean, they get an allowance a week and it's kind of for their own expenses. but then one of them has started like selling things on the side and making investment. And this child is just very disciplined with saving money. And it's so funny. I laugh. I think I could take credit for being a good quote unquote money saver, but it's just in my DNA. And I see in one of our kids, it's just in their DNA. And I think just helping them each lean into their strengths in regards to money is something that I want to do more of as a parent. Like if their strength is investing in risk tolerance, that's great.

30:40 If their strength is saving, that's great too. And teaching them to lean into their strengths while also compensate for them. We're all uniquely different. And money is that platform and vehicle that is a revealer of kind of the way you are. I see money as means to party, as means to have a good time for others, for me, for like, let's just have the best time. And then like, let's make a difference in people's lives. And a lot of people see money naturally more as a vehicle for stability and backup and worst case scenario, trauma, what happens, medical bills. We're going to be prepared. And neither one is more right or wrong. It's just what you have and what you start with. Gosh, parenting is wild that way. It's such a teacher. I do hope one thing we definitely teach our kids is about debt. And one thing we've always been in agreement on, and that is that other than an asset, so maybe a house or a car, we don't spend money that we don't have.

31:38 And I can't think of one time in our marriage that we've thought, oh, we want this so bad, we have to have it now. We can buy it now and pay it off later. One final question that I want us each to answer. Looking back, what's your biggest regret about money? Mine is worrying about money. I have realized that everything I've worried about, are we going to be able to pay this bill this week? Is this going to happen? What if that happens? Everything that has kept me awake at night has never happened. Or maybe it has. We have just a few bill payments here and there. But it didn't ruin our life and we moved on. But the worrying did not add anything to it. My biggest regret about money is the energy I spent worrying about it. I think my biggest regret looking back is that I defined a proper relationship to money through the simplest, myopic, one-dimensional way. And it was basically how I relate to money.

32:42 It was like you didn't realize there's other ways and other personalities and other strengths. We're thinking in our marriage, wow, you're really not spiritual in this area. Wow, you really don't have faith in this area. When in reality, it was a lot of the way God put my wires together. I naturally do not worry about money. You have to like really sit me down and convince me that I'm broke or something for me even to have the thought that like, oh, shoot, maybe we won't have enough. Like it's just always going to work out. And trust me, I can be really helpful in this area because if you're out there and you're worried about finance, like if we have coffee, I'm going to probably make you feel pretty good. Now, I may not give you any tools to help you whatsoever, but I thought that was faith. And I have grown up now only to realize, oh, that's my wiring. Now, the faith dimension is actually transferable to all personalities. and I have learned to really value and appreciate and admire that your brain thinks of all of the expenditures.

33:45 And it's like, did you go to coffee? Yeah. Did you fill up the gas? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Did you pay for somebody's lunch? Oh, yeah. Did you buy a new leather chair? Totally. And your mind goes, those were a lot of expenses. My mind goes, that was the most fun day ever, right? And both are beautiful to God. and the meeting point for all personalities is that you bring this natural connection you have to finance to God and you just say, hey, show me, help me, grow me. Your faith to me seems a bit deeper and more meaningful to me because your wiring is to see all the expenses in a given day and you still go, and I trust God and Judah, I trust you and I trust that God's in control of our future and yes, we are gonna be generous And I'm a little more dumb and generous. You are much more informed and generous.

34:41 And I've actually learned more about generosity probably from people with your wiring and personality than I have with people with more of my personality and wiring. And that's become a gift, a gift that I minimized in the past. And I regret that. It's crazy thinking we're talking about regrets, but we still have a long ways to go. Yeah. We got to get this bronco fixed. in relationship with money because it does affect everyday life and that's just the facts. Will you close in prayer? Love to. God, we love you and we just acknowledge you in this space. You are the God of the whole earth and you have created this concept of a vehicle to purchase, acquire, help, mobilize this idea of economy and money and finance and it's yours. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Just saying that out loud in this prayer to remind me that that's who you are.

35:38 And you're a provider. We see you over and over miraculously supplying for nature, for rivers, for mountains, for humans, for animals. You're incredible. You are the great provider. And so we trust you. We take this little space in our life, which probably doesn't feel so little, the area of money. and we just put it in front of you. And we just want to learn. We want to grow. And oh God, we don't want to live our life anxious, worried and fearful around money. We want to live our life generous, open-handed, open-hearted and expectant of all the supernatural supply and blessing and favor that is going to be upon and around our life. Lord, I pray specifically now for anyone listening who is going through a financial crisis of any kind, of any scale, of any size and shape, be there with them now and show them that you are in fact, again, enough for this circumstance and this situation. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

36:45 This has been a presentation of OBB Sound, SP Projects, and Cadence 13. Executive produced by Chelsea Smith, Judah Smith, Michael D. Ratner, Scott Ratner, Elias Tanner, Scooter Braun, Scott Manson, James Shin, and Chris.