My Why
For the first couple years of my USGC career, I had this tug at my heart that I felt drawn to invest, and I didn’t know how to respond to that tug. I felt like I wasn’t doing what I should be doing with the resources I had, but didn’t take action on it, because I was going on 3-month deployments, preparing for marriage, and helping Alex with the youth ministry in Key West.
Come to find out, money is one of the main topics in the Bible. I really started to read and continued to keep coming across the parable of the tenants in the Gospel of Matthew and started to understand that talents are actually referring to the money or currency of the time. The parable is when Jesus shares with his disciples a story of a master who entrusts his servants with one, two, and five talents; the servant with five produces five more, the servant with two, two more, and the servant with one, buries it in the ground. Jesus ends up praising the first two and admonishes the last. The lesson is the following question: What are you doing with what you have been given? Are you producing? Do you trust me enough to live a life of abundance?
One book that helped shape my view is a Catholic perspective of how to handle money called, 7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free: A Catholic Guide to Managing Your Money, written by Phil Lenahan. That seed was planted, and really just dove into learning and taking action. I learned how God calls us to be good stewards of what he has given us, and I believe that that one of the fruits of being a good steward is achieving financial independence and building for your future and your family’s future. So, we are working on our family’s future and working toward financial independence of financial freedom through real estate investing.
My ‘why’ is so that I can transition from the USCG and have the freedom to give more time back to my wife and our son and future children, and their future children, and to create a legacy for them and their families, and their families while simultaneously giving generously to the Church and the mission of the gospel. Once I am able to separate from the service, the goal is to be in a position to serve the efforts of the New Evangelization in an intentional way with the increased time I will have. This is my dream here in this life, but at the end of this life, to arrive before God, and for Him to say, “well done my good and faithful servant, welcome home.” My prayer is that he says that to Alex, our son, and our entire family for generations to come. I believe that real estate investing is a financial vehicle that will help us take intentional steps in pursuing what God is calling us to. I encourage you to think about what your why in life is, maybe you know it already, maybe you know your purpose, or maybe you are working on discovering your purpose. What is your why?
