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Money Matters: Answers To Your Financial Questions
The founder and president of Christian Financial Concepts, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching biblical principles of money management, presents the most requently asked questions and answers from his national radio show, Money Matters.
341 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2001
8 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Larry Burkett
304 books55 followersLarry Burkett was an American radio personality whose work focused on financial counseling from a Christian point of view.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 13, 2015
If you're looking for someone to give financial advice from a Christian perspective, I would recommend Dave Ramsey. Larry Burkett comes across to me kind of like an opinionated uncle who is interested in finance. I'm not convinced of his expertise in the area of finance. He seems more like an informed amateur than an expert. For example, when discussing front-load mutual funds versus no-load mutual funds, he said that if you buy and hold for 6 years or so, the costs will wind up being about the same. But he didn't give a detailed explanation of why he believes this - he said he believes it because that's what the experts tell him! So perhaps even he doesn't see himself as an expert. He also made a comment in the insurance section that most people need some sort of permanent life insurance, but he didn't elaborate. I wonder if this is something else that he believes because it's what the "experts" told him. I certainly don't think that most people need permanent life insurance.
There were a few other areas where Burkett said things that just seemed wrong, but since this book is from 2001, I wonder if the book was right at the time. For example, when he talked about term insurance, he said that it gets more expensive later in the term. That's not the case with level-term insurance, which seems to me to be what people are usually referring to these days when they talk about term insurance. Was level-term insurance unusual in 2001? He also said that people with a retirement plan at work can't put money in an IRA. That's certainly untrue today, but maybe the law has changed since 2001. Still, if the book is so out-of-date, people should be cautious about taking advice from it. I'm suspicious that maybe the book was wrong even when it was first published, but I haven't done the research to know for sure.
Some of Burkett's Christian ideas bothered me a bit, even though I'm Christian. Maybe this because I'm from a different generation. For example, he gave advice to people who were married to non-Christians and who disagreed with their spouses about whether to tithe. But his advice differed based on gender. To the wife, he advised her to follow her husband's counsel because the Lord had given him authority in the home. To the husband, he advised asserting his God-given authority, taking the couple's joint money and paying tithing with it. I don't think there's an easy answer to this issue, but I'm bothered by advice to a husband to jeopardize his marriage because he's the one with the authority. I did like Burkett's suggestion to ask spouses for a trial year, where they pay tithing and see what God does in their lives. I think this is a good way to compromise with a spouse and show faith.
Overall, this isn't a terrible book, but there are much better ones out there. For a Christian perspective on personal finance, I suggest Dave Ramsey. Another idea would be to read a personal finance book without a religious spin on it and then consult with a religious adviser about particular moral questions. For example, Suze Orman gives generally good advice, but she recommends a degree of separation of finances for married couples that I think doesn't promote oneness. Someone reading her books might ask a religious leader for advice in the area of financial cooperation in a marriage but follow the book's advice in most other areas. I think that would be a better idea than taking all your financial advice from Larry Burkett.
There were a few other areas where Burkett said things that just seemed wrong, but since this book is from 2001, I wonder if the book was right at the time. For example, when he talked about term insurance, he said that it gets more expensive later in the term. That's not the case with level-term insurance, which seems to me to be what people are usually referring to these days when they talk about term insurance. Was level-term insurance unusual in 2001? He also said that people with a retirement plan at work can't put money in an IRA. That's certainly untrue today, but maybe the law has changed since 2001. Still, if the book is so out-of-date, people should be cautious about taking advice from it. I'm suspicious that maybe the book was wrong even when it was first published, but I haven't done the research to know for sure.
Some of Burkett's Christian ideas bothered me a bit, even though I'm Christian. Maybe this because I'm from a different generation. For example, he gave advice to people who were married to non-Christians and who disagreed with their spouses about whether to tithe. But his advice differed based on gender. To the wife, he advised her to follow her husband's counsel because the Lord had given him authority in the home. To the husband, he advised asserting his God-given authority, taking the couple's joint money and paying tithing with it. I don't think there's an easy answer to this issue, but I'm bothered by advice to a husband to jeopardize his marriage because he's the one with the authority. I did like Burkett's suggestion to ask spouses for a trial year, where they pay tithing and see what God does in their lives. I think this is a good way to compromise with a spouse and show faith.
Overall, this isn't a terrible book, but there are much better ones out there. For a Christian perspective on personal finance, I suggest Dave Ramsey. Another idea would be to read a personal finance book without a religious spin on it and then consult with a religious adviser about particular moral questions. For example, Suze Orman gives generally good advice, but she recommends a degree of separation of finances for married couples that I think doesn't promote oneness. Someone reading her books might ask a religious leader for advice in the area of financial cooperation in a marriage but follow the book's advice in most other areas. I think that would be a better idea than taking all your financial advice from Larry Burkett.
October 11, 2012
Great practical advice. A summary of items from his other works.
July 28, 2013
This was the go-to Christian money manager guy before Dave Ramsey.
December 14, 2015
I liked it. He was very straight forward with the answers.
November 3, 2007
Excellent book with heaps of really good advice.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews