What does God think about a Christian Stock Investor?

To the question of whether a Christian can invest in the stock market, my quick answer would be yes.  Read on for the difference between saving and hoarding.

This is the first article in the series to investigate what I believe God thinks about certain professions.  Firstly, what might be challenging about investing in the stock market?  What is the difference between gambling in the casino, and speculating in the stock market?  Nothing.  But what is the difference between speculating and investing?  There is a huge difference.  Companies need capital operate and listing on the stock market is one way to raise funds.  We won't go into the Christian businessman in this article, and we won't go into gambling either.  But investing in stocks is a way to invest in a company and its operations.  To decide whether a company is worth investing in must be decided upon on a case by case basis.  Some people will not invest in casinos, weapons manufacturers, non-fair trade, multinationals which hire child laborers, alcohol manufacturers.  I also think many of those are bad, but its sometimes hard to draw the line, what about companies which support, supply or trade with those businesses?  What about businesses which are supported by those businesses?

What then is the difference between hoarding money and saving?  The bible warns against the hoarding of money, since money is a material wealth, which we cannot take with us when we die.  We are to save money and be good stewards of money.  When we save money, it must be for some purpose; saving for our retirement, to give to the Church, to give to overseas aid, to give to the poor, to save for our children's education.  All these things are good things to do, encouraged by the bible.  The hoarding of money, is when we accumulate wealth for the sake of it.  We keep it because we love looking at our bank balance getting bigger.  Remember money is not evil, it is the love of money which is evil.

Are there any examples of investors in the bible?  Since the stock exchange did not exist in biblical times, it is quite difficult to find an equivalent.  But the bible does have a lot to say about money.  We should be good stewards of our money, meaning we must look after every cent, and not let any of it go to waste.  All our money comes from God, in fact all money and wealth belongs to God, and is given to us for safekeeping.  We are to look after the Lord's wealth.  Part of this means being generous and giving to the poor.

Matt 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 

Jesus told the rich young man to sell all that he had and give to the poor.  The wealth that we are given is not ours in the first place, we are to let Jesus dictate what we are to do with it, most of the time that involves helping others less fortunate than us.  Proverbs 3:9-10 tells us we are to honor God with our wealth.

Prov 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 

Prov 3:10  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. 

Proverbs 28 tells us not to try and "get rich quick".

Prov 28:20  A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. 

And much of the bible warns against putting our trust in worldly possessions such as money.

1Tim 6:17  Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy

And finally, the parable of the talents.  Matt 25:14-30, Jesus tells us that we should invest our money in a way that reaps the greatest return, to the best of our abilities.  This means putting effort into learning about interest rates and term deposits.  We must learn about the stock market, and foreign exchange for the best place to invest our money.  Perhaps even looking at property investment and real estate.  If God has given you an intelligent mind, which by the time you read this, you likely have, I think its not good enough to settle with storing your money in the bank and being a 'good saver' simply by not spending.  We must looking into options with greater return.  We are looking after the LORD's wealth, he has given us Talents, and we are show Him what we have done given the mind and skills He has given us.

Its time to Invest in Stock

Well, I think so anyway.

Here's a place to get started:

FundSource.co.nz

What is a Managed Fund?

The Advantages of Managed Funds

Investing in Managed Funds for Investment Returns

Tailored Managed Fund Research Solutions

Idea for Countries to encourage young people

This is just a crazy idea I had while running, and thinking about places like Singapore which make it compulsary to serve in the Military.  This isn't something I recomend for NZ as much as it my idea for my ideal country, to help build up young people and strengthen a nation.

When someone turns 18, they have the choice to join the Military and serve for 3-5 years, or go to University to attain a degree.  When you finish university, if you have not served in the Military, you must serve at least 2 years.  In the military, you serve in a role suited for your skills and abilities.  Not everyone is suited to be a soldier, and for those people, roles as technitians, engineers, scientists, medical personnel, pretty much every profession out in the civil world, but in the context of the military or government sector.  You would receive military discipline, physical training, and real-world experience applying your skills to real life scenarios.  Even an opportunity to travel the world.  Of course, you get paid a good salary for your service, and after your service is over, you join the rest of the world, you can go get a degree (or another) or pursue a carreer.

The purpose is to equip people to be more well-rounded - not just to be all brains or all brawn.  To keep people out of a career on the benfit.  To assert discipline and nationalism and reduce career criminals.  Crazy?  Yep.  Welcome to the mind of an idealist.

How to Survive the Credit Crunch

Heres a very good article I found over at MSN Money:

http://money.msn.co.nz/money-expert/?blogentryid=415852&showcomments=true

Money Expert

Crunchonomics: 12 things to do to survive the crunch
21/05/2009 5:17:00 PM, Diana Clement

The credit crunch is set to get a whole lot worse. Or so say economists who predict unemployment is going to rise from 4.8 to 8 percent.

Ouch! That's scary. Anyone's neck could be on the block. But there are ways to survive the crunch with your savings intact.

1. Make yourself invaluable at work. Who would you fire if you needed to cut costs? Would it be the person you can't do without or the one who whinges about change?

2. Build up a rainy-day fund. Three months' living costs give you breathing time to find another job.

3. Add a string to your bow. That means acquiring additional qualifications or experience. Depending on your line of work, you may need to study part-time or you may be able to shadow someone at work to expand your skills. You'll impress your employer and make yourself more employable.

4. Overpay your mortgage or personal loans. This will allow you to take a payment holiday if you lose your job. It's nice to be three months ahead on payments if you can manage it. You'll pay less interest. But do check the fine print to see if this is allowed.

5. Cut out non-essentials one at a time. It's hard to go from spendthrift to tightwad. If you budget, you can cut down excesses slowly.

6. Review expenditure that can get out of hand like grocery buying, power and phone bills. Shopping around can save a lot of money. So, too, can taking simple steps to reduce power and water consumption. You can also quit the gym and re-engineer your wardrobe to make more use of what you already own. Using the Internet is a great way to cut down on costs. You can compare prices and shop for bargains. But beware of buying stuff you don't need on sites like TradeMe. Even better, become a seller.

7. Socialise for less. Hire a DVD and watch it at home with friends, have a pot-luck dinner, make one drink last all evening, meet after dinner for dessert to save on restaurant meals, or go to galleries and free exhibitions. There are endless ways to have a good time and enjoy the free things in life.

8. If you can't get ahead financially, get help from a budget advisor. It's free. The Americans call a budget a "spending plan". And if you think of it that way it's much easier to stomach. This will help you plan what spending is essential and what you can ditch.

9. Earn more. Negotiate a pay rise, get a part-time job or set up a business on the side. Even if you work one night a week in a bar or restaurant, the money will soon add up. If you're smart you can even convince yourself that the work equates to a night out.

10. Be smart with your credit cards. If you always pay off your credit cards on time, you get interest-free credit for up to a month.

11. Rent out a spare room. These days people want more rooms than they have members of the family. If you have a spare room, find another flatmate. Foreign students sometimes pay as much as $250 a week for a room and food.

12. If you're into the property market up to your neck, sell off your least-profitable properties before the bank comes knocking. You can always start again.

Update on Recession and Redundancy

A few weeks ago, I blogged about my company making cuts. The entire week after the announcement was made, the entire team's productivity and morale hit rock bottom. The big wednesday (a reference to the recent Lotto Jackpot) was preceded by a Tuesday outing where we all took a half day to do one last big social thing together. We had lunch in New Market at this Spanish (I think) place offering $10 lunch specials which was completely funded by the Snack Box (Cheers Stephen!!). Then we were off to Panmure for some 10 pin bowling. And next we went off to watch a movie: Ice Age 3. And finally to top it all off, drinks at Garrisons. Where all events were paid for by our awesome team leaders Simon and Jacqui!

Anyway. Big Wednesday came and our team of 16 was cut by 5. Including me... sort of. I offered to work part-time including working some extra days for free. Why did I do it? Many reasons, I think Olympic Software is a great place to work with an fantastic team in ASD. The actual work I do is very satisfying (most of the time anyway). The office is just a 10 minute run away, and the hours are very flexible. But ultimately, I want to serve people. In my previous blog entry, I asked what Jesus would do. After some thought, I think he would be serving people wherever he could. He would probably have been struggle financially too, and would need to be giving to others from what he had, not out of his abundance but out of love for fellow man. And thats what I'm striving to follow too.

So with that, my 3 days a week starts today! What will I be doing in my spare time? I was made the unofficial official social coordinator for my team, so I will need to plan events, and ideas to boost morale. Then theres volunteer opportunities available from Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army that I have long been intrigued by. And then theres sharpening my programming skills, maybe learning some SharePoint, or looking through MCPD books, or even FireFox development... Then theres my excersise, my running, my basketball. But Most of All, I want to look at my time off as a kind of Sabbath. In the Bible, God ordered people to rest from work, which is for our own good. What do we do on a Sabbath? Build our relationships! With God, with our family, and with our friends. So if you haven't seen me in a while and want to catch up, I would love to meet up, drop me a line!!

Recession and Redundancy

When will this recession end? A few months ago, it seemed to have hit the bottom, but now it seems to have stayed there. Sure there have been reports that we were on the rise, with a few reports that house prices and sales were picking up. But I think many of those were red hearings where sellers were finally reluctanly agreeing to a lowered price which met with the increased demand from buyers thinking they would get a bargain.

And several months on from when my company decided to go to a 4 day working week, the boss announced that the company has reached a critical state. He was quoted as saying "The past few months were spent trying to save jobs but now we need to save the company". Basically 15 cuts across the company need to be made and my department had been the most unprofitable. So how can an employee who loves his job help the company? I understand my boss' situation, if we don't make cuts the whole company will go down, and he's been trying his hardest to keep jobs for the past 4 months.

How has your company reacted in these economically troubling times? What ideas have you got for cutting costs and raising revenue?

Another interesting thought crossed my mind... If Jesus was in my situation, what would he do? There is very little written in the Bible of His time spent as a carpenter, but I wonder whether He encountered a recession? Did He need to work longer hours and find creative ways to earn an income? Was He as anxious as us worrying about where His next meal will come from?

My take: Today

RIP Michael Jackson! boy did I love his music in the 90s. And despite all the bad that has happened to him over the last 10 years, his death rectifies it all. He is no longer Jacko, the crazed man hanging a baby out the window. He is no longer Michael, a flawed man with child-like dreams of neverland. He becomes Michael Jackson, the icon, and that will surpass who he really was.

In other news, Charlie's Angels' Farrah Fawcett dies from cancer. Since I never really knew her, my generation will know her as "the other celebrity to also die"

What a jackpot in Big Ticket Wednesday, the biggest lottery in NZ history at $36m. You know lotto isn't statiscally random when less than 1 in 15 winners come from Auckland (since it should be 1 in 4 or something closer to that). I still think gambling is bad, but thats shapped from my personal values rather than from being a Christian. I have heard many Christians say that gambling is bad but have not investigated this since it hardly affects me. But it could be a worthwhile study to see what the Bible has to say about it.

Air Canada lands in Orlando! The Magic trade Vince Carter for Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, Tony Battie. The trade gives the Magic yet another All-Star (4 after Howard, Nelson, Lewis) and a goto guy when the game is on the line, a key piece missing from last season. They however lose the young Lee who showed signs of great potential and could be a great player in a few years, but I guess the Magic are in WIN NOW mode. They may also lose Turk, who has been an outstanding and consistent clutch player. The Cav's also traded for Shaq, Spurs for Richard Jefferson. This is going to be some of the most talented and competitive teams going at it for a championship in recent history.

I'm getting new broadband internet after being fustrated at Slingshot's increasingly slowing speeds. Its becoming difficult just to load a web page let alone checking emails or internet banking. Telecom seems to have the best deal at the moment at 20Gb ADSL2+ at $59 a month which is just $20 over the basic package. Woohoo! more on this later :)

The economy is still not showing signs of recovery, it is however stabilizing at a low point. I hope for the people's sake that things pick up and people who are financially in difficult times are assisted. But ultimately God has things under control, and its far more important that we have a moral recovery than an economic one. A quick scan of the news indicates some crazy and sick people out there.

Philosophical Difference between Labor and National

Here is something someone at work sent me, which I found very interesting!

Philosophical Differences: $50

I asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up.

She said she wanted to be Prime Minister of New Zealand some day.

Both of her parents, Labour supporters, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people."

Her parents beamed, and said, "Welcome to the Labour Party!"

"Wow...what a worthy goal!" I told her.

I continued, "But you don't have to wait until you're Prime Minister to do that. You can come over to my house, mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out. You can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I smiled and said, "Welcome to the National Party."

Generation Y and the Recession

Just a few interesting links and articles about Generation Y (my generation) and the current economic situation:

Generation Y Poised to Dominate the workplace

Generation Y's First Recession

• Gen Y: How to get a Job Now
• Motivating Gen Y's in a downturn

Turn Gen Y's 'unreasonable' requests into a negotiating tool

What is Generation Y? from wikipedia:

Generation Y, also known as The Millennial Generation, is a term used to describe the demographic cohort following Generation X. Its members are often referred to as "Millennials"^[1] or "Echo Boomers"^[2]) . There are no precise dates for when Gen Y begins and ends. Most commentators use dates from mid 1980s to early 1990s.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}Members of Generation Y are primarily the offspring of Generation Jones and the Baby Boom Generation

further...

Generation Y, like other generations, was shaped by the events, leaders, developments and trends of its time.^[17] The rise of instant communication technologies made possible through use of the internet, such as email, texting, and IM and new media used through websites like YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, may explain Generation Y's reputation for being peer oriented and for seeking instant gratification. This trend of communication is continuing into Generation Z.

Fair Trade at Salvation Army

This morning (Sunday) I woke up to my alarm which is set to 7:50am and after setting it off and realizing it was 45min too early, I headed back to sleep. When I next woke up it was a good 10 minutes past 9 and the Church Service at Howick Baptist was starting at 9:30. So after quickly showering and brushing my teeth, I sped off to pick up Kathy. Thinking constantly that we would be late again for the 4th consecutive time I was also thinking about other churches we could attend.

After picking Kathy up and learning that her parents would be attending Salvation Army (a few blocks away from Howick Baptist which had a service starting at 10am) it gave us a moment for a breather and some breakie! So I stopped at McDonalds and used my good 'ol entertainment book to grab 2 McMuffins and a hash brown (mmm yummy hash browns!) and a McCafe Mocha, we headed over the service.

Upon ariving, we noticed the hall laid out with tables like it was a restaraunt with a variety of cookies and chocolates and sandwhiches on it. Wow this isn't a church service! So after a song and a welcome, the leader or speaker announced that this was a special occasion which to try out some fair trade food and coffee. After some messages we watched a video clip about fair trade coffee. All the while I was thinking about the coffee I had purchased and was still sipping! it had approved by the rainforest alliance but nothing about fair trade stamped on it...

The economics behind the Oxfam fair trade cooperative is quite interesting. This however is purely my take on it. Bassically you have many many farmers selling coffee beans at a low price due to supply (see Economics 101 Supply and Demand theory). The problem arises because the price is barely enough to break even, and the standard of living in those countries is simply unacceptable. The Oxfam organization essentially unites all these farmers and sellers to pool their supply and boosting their selling power. They can demand a higher price, turning a "perfect competetive" market into more of an "Oligopoly". Some can argue that this creates market inefficiencies but I think that there are market externallities which need to be taken into account. The cost of such low priced coffee beans is having a negative impact on their economies and the world. Deforestation, Crime, Instability, Visous-cycle of uneducated communities... you get the picture.

It certainly has achieved what it set out to though, which is to raise awareness of fair trading and I will definintely think twice before buying that coffee next time!