Lookin for [Financial Truth] in All the Wrong Places
My Journey to ‘Becoming [My] Own Banker’.
As far as I can remember, I have always sought to learn why something is the way it is. If it seems inefficient, I try to find a solution to make it more efficient. This is especially true about money.
Growing up in small town Oklahoma I saw many hard-working families that seemed to always struggle with money. This was very much the case for my own family. I heard the phrases, “We can’t afford that” or, “We don’t have the money” many times. I believe my parents were doing what they could in their circumstance, but I wanted to know ‘Why?’
College
Believing education was the answer, I received a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University in Business Management, minoring in Entrepreneurship in 2009. From all the accounting, economics, marketing, etc. classes I took, none of them taught me about personal finance. Why?
Automotive Sales & Financing
My first full-time job out of college was in a management training program with a regional pre-owned automobile dealership. I was fortunate to have some great team members and have many great customers, but the customers I knew the best, were the ones who could not make their payments regularly. Some of them just had unfortunate circumstances that we helped work around, but many needed a vehicle desperately, and were willing to lie and ignore the higher cost (interest) to get what they wanted. Why? Also, why were their options so limited and why was this normal?
Insurance Specialist
When my, soon to be, fiancé wanted to attend a master’s degree program, we relocated to the school of her choice, and I worked for a local bank in their loan department tracking insurance on the loan collateral. I built great relationships with the local insurance agents and learned quite a bit about how property insurance works. Each year when I received the policy updates, I noticed something strange; the premiums kept increasing. Why? Many of the loans were construction and housing loans, and since many of my family members were in construction, I began a several year study of current and ancient construction techniques and processes. I discovered some really neat things, but I still didn’t know why prices kept increasing, forcing insurance premiums up as well. Looking back, I was focused on the production of goods and services, rather than the other side of the transaction (the money).
Mortgage Processor
Carrie and I married, she graduated, and we relocated again, where I worked for a much larger bank in their mortgage processing department. I learned great details of what goes into mortgage applications, underwriting, and the various federal mortgage programs (FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC, FHA, VA, etc.). Carrie and I were planning to purchase our first house together, so I started tracking the different types of loans and programs to discover which one would be the most beneficial for us to utilize. We were still in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis, so rates were at a historic low, which was great for us as potential buyers. Thinking 5% or so was a small price to finance a house, I was blown away by the volume of interest that is actually paid to finance a house. Though the RATE was only 5%, the volume of interest over 30 years was almost equal to the loan amount; 90%+ by volume. Furthermore, most of that volume is paid in the first half of mortgage schedule, yet many, many, many, people were refinancing their homes starting this process all over again. They were ok with paying 60% — 80% interest by volume each year. Why? Also, why was this the norm?
Receiving “The Call”
During this time Carrie and I enrolled in a popular financial stewardship course through a local church. I was finally getting some answers to some of my ‘Why?’ questions. I finally knew why so many people, including my own family, didn’t have enough money to pay for life. I finally knew why so many people made strange decision to acquire the desires of life. The answer was summarized about like this:
“More money cannot solve a management problem.”
Though my family and I were not followers of Christ when I was growing up, I came to faith in Christ in college and was curious about what the bible teaches us about finances. I was very confused, when I began following Christ, to discover Christians had the same financial struggles. I thought if anyone knows the solutions to these worldly problems, it should be Christians. In this course we learned strategies to save for the future and manage debt, as well as be generous with the Lords gifts. My heart sank when the facilitator asked the class to raise their hand if they were ever taught money management, and no one raised their hand. There were business owners, retirees, and newlyweds in our class; no one? Why? At that moment I knew I wanted to help.
I prayed for God to open opportunities to help, and to give me the knowledge and wisdom to help others be set free from financial bondage, which I had witnessed my whole life.
Financial Advisor
Fortunately, the bank I was working for at that time had a wealth management division that I transferred into so I could begin training to become a financial advisor. After a few years of licensing, training, and mentorship, I had the opportunity to become a full-fledged financial advisor, living my passion to directly help others and walk with them to navigate difficult financial waters. I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with people, understanding what they were trying to do and helping them implement a plan to achieve it. I became confused again however, when some of my clients had done all the “right” things throughout their life, but it didn’t seem to be enough. The plan that they had followed didn’t happen the way they planned. I also had some clients that did very well over their life, but when it came time to utilize their wealth, the tools they had used were less than ideal and sometimes became a hinderance. I had a new ‘Why?’ to answer.
Finding Truth
My hunger for truth became veracious. I sought answers from various Christian and non-Christian resources to discover real financial freedom. After about a year obsessive study, I realized I was continuing in the confusion, by seeking answers from these various sources. Many of them are very good resources and can be helpful in some capacities, but the Christian sources claimed to be speaking from the word of God and were not the word of God themselves. I ultimately realized that I was looking for shortcuts to the truth and not actually going to the source of truth. All the Christian sources were pointing their anyway, I was just trying to avoid what I thought was the long process (which took longer than if I had just started in the right place to begin with).
The more I studied the bible, the more my eyes were opened.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. — Matthew 7:7–8
Changed Beliefs
God’s instructions seem to teach us how to specifically and practically maximize our resources to be a blessing to ourselves and others, seeking to advance human flourishing, for His glory. I had believed God’s word in a generic application, but failed to see the specific application of it, therefore I had been missing the golden nuggets of truth that can be transformational when applied.
It seems God instructs His people throughout scripture to maintain control over their blessings, whereas many of the financial solutions I used and helped people implement, separated people from their resources. Scripture also seemed to instruct us how to invest when we do have control over our blessings: invest ourselves to directly impact our own communities, whereas again, the solutions I was utilizing sends resources all over the world where investors have zero involvement in the impact of their investments but take all of the risks. Furthermore, God seems to demonstrate that the results of maintaining this level of stewardship control can be astronomically greater, and less risky, than we could ever receive from someone else’s management over our resources. WHY ISN’T THIS TAUGHT? WHY ISN’T THIS NORMAL?
Privatized “Banking”
As I desperately searched the libraries and the internet to find ANYONE applying these principles, I stumbled on several videos discussing how to start a private family “banking” system to maximize the control and management of money. Interesting. Click.
I listened, found more videos, read articles, blogs, free online books, etc. Everything was pointing to a man named R. Nelson Nash. He had many online videos that I watched to further understand what he was teaching. When I could no longer learn for free, I ordered his first book Becoming Your Own Banker: Unlock the Infinite Banking Concept. I’m slow at reading, but it was quick to get through the 92 pages; I couldn’t put it down. It was consistent with what I was learning in scripture as a very easy solution to maintain control over our personal finances to deploy how we see fit. I was so blown away that I ordered his second book Building Your Wearhouse of Wealth. I was even more mesmerized in this book by his insights of the Biblical history of ancient Israel. I couldn’t help but order a few more co-authored by him and from others in his circle. I was overwhelmingly angry and excited by excerpts like this:
“Economic problems are best solved by people freely contracting with one another and with government limited to the function of enforcing those contracts. The absolute best way to do so is through the magnificent idea of dividend-paying whole life insurance. It has more in common with banking than it does with life insurance. A better name would have been a ‘banking system with a death benefit thrown in for good measure.’ It has been around for over 200 years and stood the test of time. It is not compulsory. It is not a government sponsored idea. It preceded the income tax idea by a long time. It is Private Property! Also, the only people who participate in this idea are people who truly care about other people. What a great group of people to be engaged in business with.” — ‘Becoming Your Own Banker’ by R. Nelson Nash
I was angry because no one ever told me the full capabilities of Whole Life Insurance, but just focused on the death benefit. I was told it was “the worst place to put money” when in fact, it may be the absolute best. I was excited because I could make real change today in living out what God had been teaching me the past few years.
Changed Behavior
This journey led me to the Banking With Life podcast where James Neathery and Ryan Griggs specifically and primarily discuss the Infinite Banking Concept according to Mr. Nash’s teachings. At this point my wife became somewhat annoyed at my obsession, but I wasn’t quite capable of verbalizing my discovery yet. I even tried explaining it to friends that only ended in confusion and frustration. IBC checked so many financial boxes and answered so many financial questions I had. I had to know more, but more importantly, I was ready to implement this concept for myself and my family. I didn’t know everything, but I knew enough to make the right decision. I contacted Ryan to implement our first IBC style whole life insurance policy.
Career Transition
My progress as a typical financial advisor began to decline. The more I understood the truth, the harder it became to utilize typical solutions to “solve” people’s financial problems. I tried discussing this concept with members of my team, other advisors, my supervisor, etc. They were open to me selling it to clients, whether they understood it or not, but they were not open to how long it takes for the educational foundation to be laid before making a sale. I quickly realized my experience as a typical financial advisor at this company was ending. Over the next year, I transitioned to different roles and eventually left the company.
God opened an incredible opportunity for me to work with ministries where I have the pleasure of witnessing God’s hand moving all over the world. Immediately after my departure though, I contacted Ryan Griggs to begin the process of becoming an IBC Agent. I want to help others ‘become [their] own banker’ so they can reach their God-given potential to Serve God & Master Money (Luke 16:13). I am tremendously blessed to be a beneficiary of Ryan’s and James’s expertise.
Conclusion…but not the end of the story.
Personally, I have continued seeking, learning, and thinking through how our family can maximize our specially designed, dividend-paying, whole life insurance policies over time. The more I look at what we have, the more I realize, we started too small with our first policy. Eventually I see our family having several policies on every member for the rest of our lives and beyond, empowering us to give more, live more, grow more, and owe less.
“Money won’t buy happiness, but poor stewardship of money will steal happiness.” — R. Nelson Nash
