A couple of weeks w brought in a financial planner to met with our Pastors and talk us about planning for the future. All of us had done some of what he recommended, but he helped us fill in the gaps. From all I’ve read, done, and been advised here’s what I think are the non-negotiables for Pastors in planning their financial future:

Life Insurance

The stats on death are still hovering right around 100%, so if you’re married and/ or have kids then life insurance is a non-negotiable. I know you think you’re invincible and you never going to die, but then again, the guy whose funeral is today thought that at one point in time as well. The general rule is it needs to be 10 times your yearly salary.

Retirement

Few think about retirement when they’re 20, but if we did, the retirement years wouldn’t be as lean as they are for some people. The fact is, there are some senior citizens eating dog food because they didn’t plan for retirement. Set aside a certain percentage of your income and put it into a 403B and let it grow. The earlier you invest, the more impact you’ll see due to the miracle of compounded interest.

College Fund

Guess what? College is expense. It costs $1,000’s of dollars just to get an AA from a community college. Here’s the reality: $1,000 invested into your child’s college fund growing over 17 years can turn into anywhere from $7,000 – $8,000. That means $5,000 you invest now when your kids are young can turn into $35,000 – $40,000 by the time they’re ready to start college. This planning on our part can help our kids tremendously and keep them from taking out student loans. If they get scholarships, that’s a bonus.

There’s much more to planning your financial future, but I think this is a good start. I haven’t gotten into savings and not having debt because I’m assuming that’s happening. Tomorrow I’ll post some books that I think are must reads for Pastors (or anyone else) to read that will help them think through what they need to do to start planning for the future.