Your Life...Well Spent: The Eternal Rewards of Investing Yourself and Your Money in Your Family

by Russ Crosson

Money Matters for Eternity When you think about money, you probably think about what it can do for you here, now, in this life. But did you know how you invest your money has an eternal impact? Author Russ Crosson—executive vice president of Ronald Blue Trust and a highly respected financial advisor—offers a look at how to manage your money with eternity in view. You’ll learn the difference between prosperity—the accumulation of goods on this earth, and posterity—the heritage left to the generations who follow you. Discover a new way of thinking about money and how to get a higher return on life itself—as you learn how to add posterity time to your busy schedulebest balance your career and familyinvest in your children and grandchildreninclude God in your financial planningmodel a biblical attitude toward money for your children You can make an eternal impact today when you learn to manage your money—and your life—well.    

Genres: Finance, Christian

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Coralie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some solid takeaways and definitely a challenging perspective. Focused on posterity and investing in time and family rather than building and investing in financial wealth (even though he does talk about the importance of doing this too). A very traditional perspective on husband/wife roles which is fine, just not my reality. Made me consider a lot of things and encouraged me to think differently which I like.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable, Biblical perspective on how to use your money for the spiritual and emotional benefit of your family rather than your own material enrichment. It's about the eternal ramifications of how you use money in this life. It prompts you to think of the afterlife, for yourself and your family, and those you influence during this life, not just your material comfort in this life.

There are several practical suggestions, but mostly it's about mindset.

Notes
Forward
"When you make money decisions, you make life decisions."

Prosperity
"'Abraham and Sarah were wealthy and they pleased God. Jeremiah was desperately poor, but no failure.' The trappings that money can buy have nothing to do with [spiritual] prosperity."

The Principle of Time Replacement
"Although some people might call these items living expenses, I see them as investments in my posterity."

Consider using services that free up your time so you can spend more time with kids (lawn service, cleaning service, etc.).

There is a fine line between indulging our children and using our money to invest in memories and create closeness. … money is a tool, and when it's used to create time that can be spent training our children, that's potentially a much better investment than putting the money in the bank or the stock market.

Build a schedule that leaves a margin of time for your posterity. Only say yes if the activity can replace something else that's already in your schedule that doesn't detract from your posterity time.

Ensure that your family's pace of life is slow enough and includes enough leisure time for quality time with kids.

A New Understanding of Work
"Find a vocation you enjoy and are equipped for, and then live within the income it provides."

"The income you generate is no surprise to [God]. He sovereignly ordains it through your employer or through the clients or sales He allows you to have."

Wanting It All
Have a long time horizon; don't be in a hurry to retire. Invest some of the money you would have put towards retirement towards making family memories.

A Good Name Is Better Than Riches
Even if you can afford to hire out housework and yard work, it may be better not to during the formative years of your children, so they can learn a positive work ethic from seeing you do the work rather than always hiring out. This also prevents them from getting unrealistic lifestyle expectations for themselves.

Give children unpaid chores and optional paid chores.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

We need to use our money to promote the spiritual and emotional well-being of our wives. This use of money should be considered an investment with one of the highest returns we will ever get.

"Invest" in your wife by buying items or services that make life easier for her (e.g., cleaning service, meals out, takeout).

"Invest" in date nights, weekends, special gifts that enhance marriage.

[Jacob Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Retirement is overrated, invest in the youth.

[John Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book as a whole is just OK. But it includes a five-star insight, which is that we are fools to work hardest when our kids are young and going through their most formative stages of development, only to then relax during retirement when they have much less need for us. Crosson definitely has me thinking about the way I spend my time and steward my finances during this season of life.

[Joe Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good at helping me reflect on how Gaby and I use our money. We have a tendency to scrimp and save so much for the future that we miss out on investing in the now. I especially liked the definitions he used for success and prosperity - that is fulfilling your life’s purpose. I love the focus he put on families, we definitely need more of that.

With that being said, I didn’t agree with a lot of the values and beliefs Russ shared. I felt like he would teach a good principle (we should teach our children to not be consumers, for instance) and then he’d take that principle too far (we should teach our daughters to be content with their husbands’ incomes and not work because it might hurt our son-in-laws feelings and emasculate them). The reality is, reading “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” through the lends of money management would be a far better use of time than reading this book.

Part 1 was okay, part 2 was good, but part 3 was not good. If your an old school evangelical, you’ll probably like this book a lot. If you are anything else, you’d benefit from the book but could honestly probably find other books that provide the same value without the unyielding religious undertones.

I will add one final note. This would be a great book to read with a spouse or a group of friends to generate conversations on using money in productive, worthwhile ways. Even if I didn’t absolutely love the book itself, it would provide a great place for conversations.

[Daniel Deurbrouck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a good book. All told, maybe 20% of this book is about money. The rest is a strange assortment of comments and ideas about how to avoid wasting your life. I agree with the author's sentiments in many areas (the accumulation of wealth should not be your goal in life, for example), but his specific advice was random and irrelevant.

If you want to understand this entire book, here is everything you need to know.
1. The goal of life should not be an accumulation of wealth.
2. What should you focus on in life? Russ Crosson chose one random important thing: raising your kids. Agreed, this is important, but it is not the obvious opposite of striving after wealth.
3. Here are a few really random examples of using your money to help raise your kids. (For example, spending $1,000 per month on steak to teach his sons to eat healthy).
4. Here are some tips in case you're hyper-wealthy. (How to hand off your business empire, don't set up a trust fund for your grandkids, etc.)

[Josh Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been waiting for this book. In it Crosson outlines his thoughts on the highest and best use money for a family: investing in the social and spiritual futures of our children. So many finance books address the “how” of investing and financial management, but few take the risk to address the “why”. Your Life…Well Spent is Crosson’s thoughtful response. He includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter, which I appreciate, as I think they will help with ultimately applying our / your own version of these principles.

[William Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is written largely to young married couples and parents, I benefited greatly by being challenged to think about wealth and prosperity differently (through God’s eyes). The book dives into investing into the family, something I have not thought of before but realized I can start preparing now for when I do have one.

[Nathan Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a really great job at giving biblical wisdom into how to leverage financial assets for the kingdom. A great book for young married couples and anyone who wants to learn how to better steward what God has entrusted to us.

[Lisha Haase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book.

[Trista Priest · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would give this book zero stars if I could. Russ Crosson is a sexist asshole with terrible advice. Don’t waste your time with this one.

[Matthew Cazee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never gets old

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great dose of truth for a confused world. Every generation needs to be reminded to invest in posterity not prosperity. It has a quote from Dorothy Patterson about motherhood that I will never forget! The style is rather Sunday schoolish at times but the practical, down-to-earth voice makes it an easy read.

[Bobbie Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband & I are taking a small group discussion class. I really liked book, it gave us some new perspectives on things. Generated a lot of conversation w/ my husband, and in the group as well.

[CT · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read with insight that is helpful for a man or woman trying to navigate the finances of life.