It’s important to note that just within the past two hours, I’ve learned that my church’s sermon this past Sunday was actually on tithing and giving. My Sunday attendance is less than consistent, but I rarely make a note to listen to the sermons online. Except today.
The thought of giving has been heavy on my heart lately. There have been some medical issues in my family and it’s dawned on me that I’m perfectly capable of covering some money concerns in this regard, except that most of my net worth is wrapped up in my 401k, which has some serious tax consequences when you withdraw money from it. The idea has been to convert this money to a more accessible form, doing what is called a Roth Conversion Ladder, when I go overseas, but as I’ve mentioned in other recent posts, I don’t actually know when or even if that will happen. Having more money not trapped behind the tax wall of a 401k would make it much easier to “solve problems” with money, very quickly. But as it stands, I don’t have too great a sum of cash.
In a pathetic display of first world problems, I’m very close to maxing out my 401k for 2019, but I’m torn on how to approach this. I’ve been wanting to complete this because there’s the possibility I won’t be able to finish my contributions if I switch jobs. How badly do I really need to max it out? On the other hand, I can still give while maxing it out, it just means dipping into my 5-6 month emergency fund. If I were to find myself unemployed, though, I’d be much more qualified for jobs this time and likely wouldn’t endure what I did last time. And even if that’s not enough, I can always dip into the contributions I made to my Roth IRA. Which made me realize something:
I have security issues.
I can hide behind the wall of the Enneagram all I want, but it won’t change a thing. For all intents and purposes, I am a global one percent-er. I do enjoy strategy at times, yes, but I feel I’m seriously missing the bigger picture when I get trapped into this worry over conserving resources and reaching goals.
This is part of what giving addresses. It’s a willingness to let go of some of the things you think you need in order to focus on more important things, such as the church, or family, or friends. While money can do some cool and awesome things, guaranteeing security is not one of its tricks. We give in order to check our hearts; in order to acknowledge that we are not in control.
Does the way that I handle money acknowledge that I am not in control?
More importantly, I’ve been challenged to let go of the formulae. When I first learned about the Financial Independence community, I read the articles, I saw the math. It all made sense. I started putting the principles into practice, and they worked. But I will admit that it’s very easy to get caught up in this. My love of Jacob Fisker‘s sardonic realism, while insightful, has not been especially productive, or helpful to others. It is, I think, constantly betrayed by the need simply to live, which precedes any quest for financial independence.
This is also the power of giving. When you support the church, you’re supporting community and the people who operate inside of it. There are ministries out there that I don’t even know exist, witnessing to people I could never witness to myself. When you give to others, they get to share in the abundance God has poured out on your life. When you receive from others, you get to share in God’s blessing to others. And never be too prideful to receive!
I felt that I had so much more to say on this subject, but things change. Supposedly, there are more sermons on money to come, and they just might get my lazy butt into the church more often.