Regardless of where you are investing and what type of retirement savings plan you have, you need to take steps to protect those investments.  This is especially important as we get older.  We could always write off a bad investment and start over when we were young.  It wasn’t a lot of fun to see an investment we had high hopes for go down the drain, but sometimes it happens.  When we’re older though, we know we have to be very careful where our money is invested, to try to minimize risk.

Christians have an advantage, however, when it comes to investments or at least to peace of mind.  The Bible says:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. John 10:10

This post is too short to get into involved in a debate on whether God really wants His children to prosper financially as well as spiritually. I think he does.  Maybe we’ll look at that another time.   For now, most Christians accept that the Devil does not want Christians to prosper.  We can then can look at what the Bible says about protecting ourselves from the thief and how to stop him from stealing from us.

The Bible compares investing to planting a seed.  For example:

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”  Gen. 8:22

When a farmer plants a crop, he does not just go away and leave the crop unprotected until it is time for harvest.  He watches his crop to make sure it gets adequate nutrients and enough water.  If insects attack the crop, he fights back before they can devourer the crop.  For Christians, the Bible says:

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts.  Malachi 3:11

The same principle applies here to protecting our financial crops.  Of course, God is our ultimate source – not a special set of financial investments we have made.  If all our investments were wiped out, God could find another way to supply our needs.

Bet let’s start with what we know best – the investments we have been involved in.  If you’re a Christian, you can accept and appropriate God’s protection on your crop (based on the promise in Malachi) and pray that the devourer (Satan) stays away from your crop (your investments).

I know this may be a little radical for some of you Christians out there.  But we are also told:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.  Ps. 103:2

The promise in Malachi 3:11 is a tremendous benefit, if we have the faith to receive it.  Let’s be bold enough to acknowledge that we have been given this promise and to accept it.

For you non-Christians and skeptics out there who are reading this, you probably won’t think today’s post fits in the usual practical advice on retirement investing and retirement savings accounts you see on this blog.  Feel free to post a comment or to just ignore today’s post.  It’s not really for you.  But for the Christians out there, this is one of most practical pieces of advice you’re likely to read on retirement investing.

Let us remember to “forget not His benefits”.

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I posted a blog entry a couple of days ago I called Retirement Investing – What Would Jesus Do? After seeing that post, a friend reminded me the Bible also says:

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” PSALMS 118:24

We can rejoice over happy memories of the past, or we can rehash old mistakes we made.

We can rejoice – in effect – about the future because we can imagine goods things happening. We can also worry about the future by imagining bad things happening. And isn’t it interesting how it often seems easier to come up with more negative things to imagine about the future than positive ones.

You may be asking what does this have to do with retirement investing or saving for retirement? We must remember – the only day we really have control over is today. To take control of the future, we must take control of today.

Let’s begin by taking control of our attitude. Let’s resolve – just for today – to rejoice.

Remember – “One Day At A Time”.

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Many articles on retirement planning and investing for retirement focus on what is the best investment if you have an extra $10,000 or $100,000 lying around. That’s a good thing to know if you really have an extra $10,000 or $100,000. But what about the rest of us?

Sometimes simple changes in our habits can make a tremendous difference in our future. We all know we need to save for the future - and to save on a consistent basis. That’s the cornerstone of retirement planning. But where do we find the money for investments or retirement planning?

Let me show you something that hopefully inspires you to get started investing if you haven’t already. Starbucks charges about $3.75 plus tax for a mocha latte frappachino.

A visit to Starbucks, often daily, has become a habit for many of us. But what would happen if you used that $3.75 a day for retirement planning?

If you begin when you’re 25 and saved $3.75 a day, 5 days a week, that’s about $81.25 you’d have to invest in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or other tax deferred account every month. If you earned 8% interest in your IRA, you would have over $285,000 at Age 65.

If you’re already past Age 25, the same principle still applies. There will just be less time to invest and less time for the miracle of compound interest to multiply your money. If you began at Age 35, you would have $187,000 at age 65. Even if you began at Age 45, you would still have nearly $78,000 in your Individual Retirement Account or IRA at Age 65.

This post is not a criticism of Starbucks. They make great coffee. If you don’t buy it there, you can always make it at home or the office for less than 15 cents a cup. You don’t have to give up coffee to begin saving for retirement. The point is that saving even a small amount of money on a consistent basis can pay huge dividends in the future.

Retirement investing requires some discipline, and yes, maybe a little sacrifice. If it’s not Starbucks, find some other expense you can cut back on, and begin your retirement planning by making regular contributions into your IRA or 401(k) plan today.

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