To grow in any capacity, you must change. Building wealth is no exception. If you want to continue growing on your financial journey, your money mindset must continually develop and transform. For Kingdom wealth builders, many of those changes have to do with expanding your long-term view of money.
For example, most people start out on their financial journey by living day-to-day. Their primary goal is for their paycheck to cover all their needs. That’s a fine place to start. However, the ultimate goal is to get to a place where your financial vision is long-term. A Kingdom wealth builder aims to have enough financial resources to focus on generational, Kingdom, and eternal impact.
Before we get into six money mindset changes every Kingdom wealth builder must experience, let’s make sure we’re clear on what a money mindset is.
What is a Money Mindset?
A money mindset is your perspective on money and your relationship to it. Your money mindset consists of your beliefs about money and how you should use it.
Some money mindsets will push you towards God’s purpose for wealth:
- I have everything I need and choose to be content.
- God has given me the power to get wealth so I will be fruitful for His glory.
- The purpose of my money is to bless others and make a difference.
And others will push you away:
- I am worried about paying my bills this month, so I won’t tithe.
- Money is evil.
- As a good Christian, it is holier if I am poor.
I always say that if you want to be a millionaire, you better become a millionaire in your thinking first. In other words, to reach your financial potential, you must be willing to learn and change.
I’m here to tell you that you can attain a level of wealth that enables you to give or reinvest 100% of your income into Kingdom causes. There are six significant milestones on your wealth building journey. To reach them, your money mindset must grow and change.
6 Money Mindset Changes Every Kingdom Wealth
Builder Must Experience
Milestone #1: Get Out of Debt (Income > Expenses)
Mindset Shifts Required:
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Producer, Not a Consumer
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Have Enough For Today
The first milestone on your wealth building journey is to have more income than expenses. So, eliminating consumer debt is a must! To eliminate debt, your mindset has to change from a consumer to a producer.
Rather than seeing money as something that passes through you, you need to envision yourself as someone capable of multiplying their money. If other people have gotten out of debt and built wealth, so can you!
At this stage, your goal is to reach the point where you can confidently say, “I have enough for today.” Your budget is in place, and you have a plan for getting out of debt quickly.
On a spiritual note, at the beginning of our wealth building journey, God often tries to teach us to trust Him as our provider. Amidst the ups and downs, you may find Matthew 6:31-34 helpful:
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
** It’s important to note that you don’t have to be entirely out of debt before you start steps #2, #3, and even #4. If you are wise, eliminating debt can be successfully stacked on top of your other financial strategies.
Milestone #2: Have a 3-6 Month Emergency Fund
Mindset Shifts Required:
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From Maxing Out to Margin
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Enough for the Near Future
Once you are out of debt, putting your excess cash in an emergency fund is smart. Most financial professionals recommend saving for 3 to 6 months of expenses. That way, you will be prepared for unexpected expenses like car troubles, family emergencies, job changes, and health issues. At this stage of your wealth building journey, your mindset moves into having enough for the near future.
To build significant savings, another mindset is required: from maxing out to margin. The days of maxing out your budget every month are over. Rather than spending each dollar, you will develop a love for margin and the freedom it affords you.
Think about the margins of a book. The white space surrounding the text and between the lines makes it readable. Similarly, as you save money, your finances will feel less suffocated, and your financial goals will appear more clearly.
Growth may be slow at first. Saving will require self-discipline, and you may have to cut some of your creature comforts out of your budget. Remember, you are a producer, not a consumer.
I encourage you to keep your eyes on the prize of financial freedom with Hebrews 12:11 (NLT):
“No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”
Milestone #3: Become an Investor
Mindset Shifts Required:
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From Counting to Compounding + Cash Flow
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Enough for My Entire Future
Once you get the hang of saving, the natural tendency is to continue saving. Whereas it’s not a bad idea to funnel some money to savings every month, at some point, you need to pivot some of those funds into investments. The power of interest makes your money work smarter, not harder, so you can have enough financial resources for your entire future.
There are short-term investments and long-term investments. It’s wise to diversify your portfolio to have both. Here’s why– as the power of compound interest and appreciation escalates the value of your assets in the long-term, short-term investments provide you with the cash infusions you need to continue building.
A Roth IRA is one of the best long-term investment vehicles you can get. With a Roth IRA, you pay taxes on the contributions, so all your earnings are tax-free. When you contribute to your Roth, there are various investment options such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), certificates of deposit (CDs), and money market funds.
Real estate is an excellent long-term investment with short-term benefits. For example, in the United States, a piece of property will appreciate 2-3% every year on average. Over time, real estate investors can sell their property for far more than they bought it for or take out home equity lines of credit to purchase more properties. In the short term, real estate investors can rent out their properties as short or long-term rentals and receive a nice chunk of change each month.
Other short-term investments (or income investments) include dividend stocks, profits from a business, CDs and bonds, intellectual property royalties, and oil and gas. Investing is essential to becoming a Kingdom wealth builder, and the sooner you can start, the better.
Milestone #4: Financial Freedom (Passive Income > Expenses)
Mindset Shifts Required:
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Not All Debt is Bad
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Enough for the Next Generation
The next major milestone is acquiring or creating enough investments to replace your monthly income and expenses. When that happens, you have reached financial freedom. You can quit your job if you want to because your investments are paying you more than your boss!
Financial freedom doesn’t just happen. You must intentionally acquire and create short-term income investments that pay you monthly, quarterly, or annually.
At this stage of one’s financial journey, understanding leverage is a major mindset shift for many people. They don’t want to go into debt, so they hesitate to invest in real estate or take out loans to start businesses.
If this is you, your mindset must shift from a money manager to a money maker. You must be comfortable with using “good debt” to build wealth. The version of you who takes out debt to BUILD is not the same person who previously used debt to BUY.
If you get knowledge and consult experts, you can wield other people’s money to build a legacy. And that’s the whole point.
Here’s the thing: You can probably make enough money to have a safe and secure retirement without taking risks or using loans. You may even make enough to take care of your four and no more. However, the goal is to build a level of wealth that can bless the next generation and beyond. Once you realize and commit to this, you are on your way to the next milestone: becoming a Kingdom wealth builder.
Milestone #5: Kingdom Wealth Builder
Mindset Shifts Required:
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From Personal Legacy to Kingdom Legacy
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Enough for Multiple Generations (City and Nation Transformation)
After reaching financial freedom, you have abundant time, talent, and treasure. The question is, what will you do with it?
When I reached financial freedom, I made the wrong decision. For a few years, I played golf and sat on the couch. I was comfortable, which is a dangerous place to be spiritually. Eventually, my wife and The Holy Spirit (who often sound similar) urged me to get up and do something with my newfound freedom.
That’s when God spoke to me about His desire to raise up Kingdom wealth builders: people who want to use their gifts in finance and business to further the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth.
So, the most significant mindset shift that has to happen at this stage is from personal legacy to Kingdom legacy. If you want to continue growing into all that God has for your life, you must move past comfort and get motivated by something bigger than yourself. You must realize the influence your time, talent, and treasure can have. With the Lord, you can use your wealth to transform communities, cities, and nations for the better.
Milestone #6: Eternal Impact
Mindset Shifts Required:
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Connecting Treasure on Earth to Treasure in Heaven
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Enough for Eternity
Ultimately, Kingdom wealth builders use their financial resources to create and invest in places that invite people to taste and see that the Lord is good. The result is salvation and eternal impact.
Once you surrender your preferences and finances to advance the Kingdom – when you shift from a personal to a Kingdom legacy – things will really start escalating in your life. This is exactly what happened to me. The moment I got off the couch and said, “Okay, God, I’m ready for you to use me,” here’s what happened. God led my wife and I to start two nonprofit organizations, WealthBuilders and Tricord Global; I became the CEO of Charis Bible College and Andrew Wommack Ministries, and created a biblically responsible investment firm, to name a few. And we are just getting started.
God wants to show you how the daily details of your life can have a supernatural impact. The peak of your financial journey is seeing how God can use something as mundane as your money to change lives for eternity.
The beauty of this milestone is that you can experience it at any stage of your wealth building journey. From the moment you give your first tithe or offering, you are a financial partner with God. However, as you grow in wisdom and financial capacity, you will get to partner with God on different levels. That’s the real gift, and I hope it motivates you to keep going and growing.
