Parable of Talents

So I feel very convicted from my time with God this morning. He is asking me to share what I am learning with the people around me that are ready to learn…Some of you are probably way more knowledgeable than me in these topics, others may have no interest at all. This is for the people who are interested but maybe not sure where to start.

Let me give you a little background on why I speak with confidence on these topics. From 1999 to 2007 I worked in the residential mortgage business in Portland, OR and dabbled in real estate investing. From 2007-2010 I was a licensed financial advisor and went through a lot of product training. Over the past two years I have invested a lot of time in reading and studying economics and the issues that are effecting all of our personal finances. Most importantly I have done a lot of praying and seeking God’s wisdom in these areas.

Jenni and I  have systematically reduced our monthly expenses from a high of around $7500 per month a few years ago down to around $3500 today. We believe in living a simple life with an emphasis on investing in people and ministry. We believe that we have been adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Being children of the Kingdom we are blessed with unlimited resources when we follow His instructions for living and claim His promises in faith. (this is a whole other post or 10).

Today I want to focus on a few points that can be found in the parable of the talents Matthew 25:14-30 NKJV. Come on a short journey with me.

• Those who have spent time seeking wisdom will be given more to manage. there is real truth to this, we are instructed to seek wisdom and understanding in regards to growing and protecting our resources. We need to be excellent stewards and treat what God has given us with the utmost care.

• We should not hoard what God has entrusted to us. Money needs to flow to grow.

• The treasures of the Kingdom are entrusted to His servants. Look closely at verse 14 where it specifically talks about who was given the talents to manage.

• He trusts us to do our research and to make decisions with the wisdom He is imparting to us. Seek Him, do your research, seek wise council, be decisive and pay attention. (After the talents were distributed He went on a journey verse 15). We may not hear a clear yes or no on every financial decision that we face.

• We should not paralyzed by be fear and indecision. (This is a tough one for me because I am not decisive naturally and from childhood I learned to live in fear). Look at verse 25 because I think this speaks to most of us. Once we have done our due diligence we need to take action.

Please meditate on this parable and pray for wisdom to be revealed to you. It is extremely important to draw out what God has to say to you personally. My only objective is to get you to start thinking and asking questions so you can act wisely and decisively.

Interested in some fabulous resources? Contact me by email, Facebook or twitter and I will be happy to share them.

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Being the Bank

I promised in our last clayville clan update to write a post about my new business passion. This is something I have eluded to a couple of times over the past few months but have not written about in  any detail yet.

I don’t have the mental capacity to get way into this tonight since the brain is focused on goodbyes, packing and planning the move. I will however give a brief explanation and then provide a couple links to much more detailed information that has already been written.

Back in August I took a look at a website my parents told me about.  They had spoken to Tom and done some research on the program he teaches (Infinite Banking Concept).  Since I spent about 3 years in the financial services business after my mortgage career I was very intrigued by solid financial strategies. It took very little time for my interest to be piqued. I did some reading on his site and then called him to ask a few questions and decided to go to a breakfast he hosted in Salem.  After attending the breakfast I told Jenni that this was something we would be pursuing and it may be my primary business at some point.

The very next week my job with Carhelp came to an abrupt end. Starting a new business was not something I had any intention of doing right then so I continued to do research and read up on this concept. The first book I read (which Tom requires all clients to read before proceeding) is called “Becoming Your Own Banker” by R. Nelson Nash. I quickly read it then scheduled an appointment to meet with Tom and develop a strategy for Jenni and I. The beauty of the way Tom does business is that he will not work with someone unless they do their homework. He won’t hire an agent unless they are practicing the “infinite banking concept” themselves.  When it comes to actually getting a client started he never pushes but waits for the client to say, lets move forward.

This way of doing business blew me away because everything I had experienced in the financial business required strong sales tactics and closing skills.  Even if you were a good honest person you had to close people to get them to move forward.  I love teaching and helping people but I hate being a pushy sales person. As I have begun to work with a few clients and teach this program I have found that about 7 out of 10 people want to move forward and they start telling other people about me right away. This never happened to me with my previous experiences.

The concept in a nutshell is this: spend less than you make and save what you can in a financial instrument that has been around for hundreds of years. The products and companies we work with have been paying guaranteed interest and varying dividends for over a 100 years.  As you save this money and it begins to grow, you can have access to it for anything you need to spend money on. Your money grows tax protected, you access it tax-free and you pay yourself back with interest so that your bank begins to grow exponentially. As you begin to look into this you will see how much banks have taken advantage of you over the years. I know that we all look at low-interest home loans and think that they are great. In reality when you break down your mortgage payment you will see that almost every dollar you pay in is pure interest for several years.  Low rate or not, you are paying the bank a LOT of $$$$ in interest! What you will discover is that the volume of interest you pay is much more crucial than the interest rate.

If this concept interest you at all I would ask that you contact me and I will get a book in your hands and then set up a webinar with you to help you better understand exactly how this works and how much it can benefit you and your family. This works even if you don’t have any extra money in your budget or don’t have any need to finance your purchases. You can email me at brianclayville at gmail dot com for more information or to request a book.

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