Like many of you, I’m “indebted” to Dave Ramsey for his financial advice delivered through numerous books and his radio show. I still listen in whenever I’m driving in the early evening and usually pick up further nuggets of helpful counsel, as well as motivation to keep on track. For the first time in my life, I’m actually saving a little money, not so much by earning more, but by managing it better.
What’s Next?
But what then? Up until now, Dave Ramsey has largely been known as the debt-guy and the budget-guy. He gets you out of debt and on to a monthly budget. But what happens next?
That’s where Dave Ramsey’s new book, The Legacy Journey comes in. It’s focused on helping those who are now out of debt and on a budget begin to think about building and managing wealth.
“Building and managing wealth?” you say. “That doesn’t sound very Christian to me. Aren’t we meant to live as poor as possible and give the rest away?”
The War On Success
Ramsey tackles this common idea throughout the book, especially in the chapter, The War on Success. While also warning about the many dangers of wealth, Ramsey says his primary purpose is “to biblically give you not only permission to build wealth for kingdom purposes, but to challenge you to consider that it could be your responsibility as a believer to manage and grow wealth” (p. 56).
Pretty revolutionary, especially in a day when many seem to think that the worst sin is to be in “the 1%.”
Although many of the stories in the book are about the super-rich, which feels like a different world to me, Ramsey argues that as the biblical principles of managing wealth and giving generously are the same, we just need to scale the figures down to our level.
Accountability
What’s clear throughout the book is the responsibility to manage our money with a view to blessing others, both the present generation and even generations yet unborn. We might think that just because we don’t have ten talents, there’s no point in doing anything. However, this book gave me a renewed sense of responsibility and even excitement, about managing whatever resources God has given me for the good of this and future generations.
We won’t be called to account for the millions that some have been entrusted with. But we will have to account for whatever monthly surplus, God has given us, whether it be in the tens, the hundreds, or the thousands. This book will help us to give that account with a clearer conscience.