TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022 - MONEY

 TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022 - MONEY'

Okay, friends, I’m having some money issues - but not what you might expect.  I am not in debt, I am not going to be in debt - except for one debt.  (Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.)

But, I hope you can read this thoughtfully and if you are led to reply, that’s great!!!  (karenwhite06517@gmail.com) - you might wait until Thursday!!

As my sister and I grew up in a warm, loving, almost perfect family, we really didn’t know poverty.  Our mother was one of the few at that time that worked outside the house.  My parents bought the franchise to the Dixie Candy Store (which somehow tied us into moving to 18th street NW, a nice suburban street).  

I started kindergarten the fall that we moved at Cleveland Elementary School.  But, my father was working as a used furniture salesman for the biggest furniture store in Cedar Rapids, and my mother was running the candy shop.  I - a five-year naive boy - was to walk about five blocks and catch a city bus to downtown.  My grandparents rode with me a few times so I knew the bus location and when to get off.  There didn’t seem to be any discussion of arranging for babysitting, or for daycare - I was to ride the bus downtown - alone.  (I wouldn’t do that today - but those times were different).  

I have only one real memory of that bus ride.  I had lost my nickel (we’re talking about 1952 folks) and kids could ride the bus for a nickel.  I was crying at the bus stop and a neighbor lady came out and gave me a nickel.  (THANK HER!!).

My parents had the candy store for five years.  It was an awesome experience (that I didn’t learn much from).  After kindergarten, my sister and I could walk together until she went to junior high school.  Google maps say it was about 7/10 of a mile.  We were on our own at home until Mom came home at about 5:30.  Again, it was a different day and time.

Our parents never said that I remember, “We don’t have enough money for <thing>.”  And, it seems (now at least) that we didn’t ask for money.  We had Christmas - but not with elaborate gifts, but with love.  We were in church every Sunday (I had perfect attendance pins for 12 years).  

It was the Eisenhower era.  I was a “Baby-boomer” born in 1947.  My sister was a war baby, having been born in 1944.  

I took a job as a paperboy when I was in eighth grade.  Thus I passed up playing football, basketball, or other sports.  I saved my earnings.  

My sister went for two years to a private Church-affiliated college- and that taxed the family budget.  When I was getting ready for college, it was understood (not ever communicated) that I had to go to a public college that was more affordable.  With my summer jobs, my paper-boy money, and working as an RA my junior and senior year, I graduated college without debt (for me or for my parents).  

My sister and brother-in-law will kid me that I have my first dime.  I don’t remember having my first dime, but I might still have it, as I collected coins.   

In my first two years of teaching, making about $6,500 a year, I paid off a car and saved enough money for my master’s degree.  Rent was $75 a month, and gas was 29 cents a gallon.  

And, for my master’s degree, I came out with more money than when I went in - as a dorm director, graduate math assistant, and those summer jobs (at $1.50 an hour).  

*****

Now into retirement, after a divorce, after gender-changing, after two major surgeries, and after being smacked in the head with a two-by-four (only figuratively) by God, I live in a fairly cheap apartment and live frugally.  In our settlement, my wife got our house, the family car, and my IRA.  I kept my Social Security and we split my South Dakota Retirement monthly annuity. Three times in my first year living alone, I went through the food pantry for food.  Last week I gave a chunk of money to that same food pantry.  God has blessed me.

Money - money - money.  It has always been on my mind.  Don’t spend too much, save your money.  Buy cheaper products.  Buy only what you need.  Only spend money on essentials.  Don’t spend money on luxuries.    I had thought our retirement would be one of relaxation, travel, and fun.  (At times I wonder why God smacked me and I changed)

*****

But in the past two years, I’ve taken scripture as more authentic.  “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

If I am fully “sold out” in my Christian faith, can I really TRUST God To Supply ALL my needs? 

I’ve been working at a senior retirement center that (at least to me) tends to be on the high end of independent living.  They have excellent meals, activities, trips, music, movies, and rooms.  I’m thinking their rooms are more than what I’m paying for rent.  Can I trust God to get me to death’s door financially if I just trust Him?  And, I am not working for the money.  The money isn’t much, and I’m working part-time.  I’m working to get time out of my apartment and to keep mentally busy (and to “pay forward” (or “payback”)).  My sister was around for my parents as they aged and I wasn’t other than visiting.

Will I need a retirement home?  Will I need a nursing home?  Will I get dementia or cancer or Parkinson’s?  I have friends that years ago paid for “nursing home” insurance.  I didn’t opt for such insurance.  Should I?  Will God provide?

As I age, I know that I WILL die.  Everybody dies.  I’m going to die.  So, then what?  As a person in the Judeo-Christian tradition, I believe in Heaven.  I believe in God’s love.  Can I trust God to supply all my needs (as Philippians 4:19 says)?  

Or, am I “hedging my bets” - trusting in God a little bit, but not trusting Him all the way?  

So, more on spiritual aspects of money, aging, stewardship, and trusting God for the two days.

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen

May 24, 2022