Nice day on Old Hickory Lake, Memorial Day, 2010. Charlie rode up front with daddy. I was driving…carefully! 

What if they find out you left early to get to your son’s practice, or, they discover you have an online business, or you’re looking for another job? What if it’s worse than that? There’s the story of the Corporate Executive on his way to a meeting in Memphis, with FedEx. He tweets as he is taking off, “I absolutely HATE Memphis! Can’t tell you how much I dread this meeting!” Well, you guessed it, he landed in MEM, got to his meeting and learned he had been fired!

So, the lesson to be learned is the same lesson we teach our children and teens when it comes to “posting” online, Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and etc,

Be careful little eyes what you see, Be careful little ears what you hear, Be careful little hands what you do, For the Father up above is looking down with love, so Be careful little ones what you do!”

Well, in this case, it’s not a loving Father looking down (or over our shoulder), it’s Big Brother! I don’t have anything to hide, BUT, I am careful what I tweet. Great article by Phil Wilson entitled, Should Churches Follow Their Staff’s Tweets? Read article @ http://tinyurl.com/yjeu956

Most financial advice is aimed at the young! Do this, don’t do that, save, save and save! If you think about it, older baby boomers and retirees are maybe more vulnerable than anyone else. Here’s a great article if you are thinking or rethinking retirement. http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2009/08/5-personal-finance-tips-for-smart.html This article includes the following 5 tips.

1. Delay retirement
2. Don’t outlive your money (Longevity Risk)
3. Stay in control
4. Smart Budgeting by watching your expenses
5. Be careful when it comes to investments,

Four Left Turns

   One of the cool things about working in Hobbs, NM, as I did for seven years, was the relatively close proximity to Sante Fe, NM. Our family enjoyed great times on frequent trips to this quaint and artsy, ancient city. What a great city! Walking along the square in Sante Fe, you will find a colorful array of upscale art galleries, sidewalk vendors, café’s serving authentic Mexican cuisine and maybe 50 or so Indian families sitting on blankets selling authentic, handcrafted turquoise and silver jewelry and hand woven blankets. Several of our favorite restaurants, to this day, are located in Sante Fe, Pink Adobe, The Inn of Loretta and Bishop’s Lodge, just to name a few. Just outside Sante Fe, in Lamy, NM, was another of our favorite restaurants, The Sliver Spike, a really cool steakhouse, located in a turn of the century, wood frame train station, built next to the tracks of the Southern Railway. This is where this story actually begins.

   I had a two or three day speaking engagement at Glorieta Baptist Assembly, just up the road from Sante Fe, and so I took Sharon and the boys along for the ride. Besides my speaking assignment, we had shopped in Sante Fe, played at Glorieta, hiked in Holy Ghost Canyon, had ice cream at the Chuckwagon, and now we were headed home. We had eaten dinner at The Silver Spike in Lamy and were preparing to make the lonely trip back to Hobbs. Now, typically we would take the state road out of Lamy, back to HWY 285, South to Clines Corners, then on to Roswell, Tatum, Lovington and finally, Hobbs, about a 4 hour trip.

   I needed gas so we stopped and filled the tank.  When I went inside to pay, I struck up a conversation with an older man dressed in jeans and cowboy boots and fringed leather jacket.  He had shoulder length grey hair and wore a cowboy hat with a simple beaded turquoise band.  He looked out at my family in the car and asked, “Where are you guys headed?”

    “Hobbs. You don’t know a quicker way than backtracking out to HWY 285, do you?” I replied, mostly joking and with a smile.

     “Sure do. I’m headed that way.  Why don’t you just follow me and I’ll show you the way.”  He pointed to a well-worn 1960’s Dodge pickup with three bails of hay in the bed.  “That’s my pick up over there.”

     “Thanks, we’ll be right behind you.  I really appreciate this,” as I waved and got back in the car.

     “You appreciate what,” Sharon asked, eyebrows raised and doubt coloring her words.

     “He’s going to show us a short cut to Clines Corner.  He says the locals never go back out to the highway.  It’ll probably cut an hour off our drive-time.  Don’t worry about it.  I know what I’m doing.”

     Unconvinced, Sharon persisted as we turned onto the narrow two lane road out of Lamy. “Ashley, we’ve been coming here for years.  Why haven’t we ever heard about this short cut?  I think we’re making a mistake.  I don’t think we should do this.  It’s dark and we are, literally, in the middle of nowhere.  What if we break down?”

     “We’re not going to break down, we’ll be fine, please go to sleep.”

     I was grateful Sharon followed my advice and went to sleep, because about an hour later when we passed the sign, “Clines Corners, 45 miles” my heart sank.   We were on a ‘wild goose chase’ that not only had not been a short cut, but had taken us further away and wasted time and gas in the process. In actuality we had almost made a complete circle.

     I reluctantly turned our SUV onto Hwy 285 at a spot that was only 11 miles from where I would have been an hour earlier, if I hadn’t followed the guy in the truck. Sharon opened her eyes and looked around.  “Well, we’re not in Kansas anymore, are we ToTo?  Where are we?  And don’t even try to tell me we’ve made it to Clines Corners.”

     What is it about us guys? That we will defy logic by continuing in the wrong direction with the belief that we will eventually end up on the right road?

   Where Finances were concerned, it was sometimes difficult to even admit to myself that I was in the middle of nowhere instead of Clines Corners.  My ability to make four left turns and still make the case that I had actually gained financial ground instead of going in a circle was as silly then as it is now.  It made no sense.

     The term, Financial Freedom, for too many voices in the marketplace embraces the idea of financial freedom being a destination you work toward and, hopefully, finally arrive at.  For quite a little while, I have not spoken up and challenged this rationale.  No more. 

     If your definition of financial freedom embraces a futuristic time and place when you have a beefed-up bottom line and no debt, I, respectfully, disagree.  I know too many people who have reached that destination with an impressive financial portfolio and bottom line, and yet, they are not financially free.  Internally, they find themselves more defined by their bottom line than their personal values, goals and passions.  Conversely, I know people who have engaged a personal journey of financial freedom, and while they still have debt, they are not only liberated and free, they have also found fulfillment in pursuit of their values, goals and passions.  How so?

     More than being a destination, Financial Freedom is the attitude, posture and ‘bent’ of your life.  It is a road you travel, a direction you follow.

     Here are some definitions I believe will pass the test of time.

Wealth:

Wealth is a reservoir filled with knowledge, experience, creativity, imagination, passion and money. A wealthy man has the ability to resource the important things in life.

Fulfillment:

An over-whelming sense of accomplishment, matched only by your true passions.

Contentment:

A good word and a quiet benediction at the end of the day and over the course of a life.  Peace at the end of the day.

Success:

Success is the combination of fulfillment and contentment, a journey along the right path in life.

Have you ever considered that success is usually defined for you by someone else?  They set the bar.  They judge the results, and they give the accolades.   

Riches:

Resources of intrinsic value, to you and your family, that can never be lost or taken away.

Willie Mays was interviewed by Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.  Johnny said, “You’re a celebrity now, and I know your life is different.  I also know you grew up poor.  Tell me what it’s like, now.”  Willie Mays responded, “Let me correct you, I grew up broke and I’ve been broke most of my life, but I’ve never been poor.  Being poor is a state of mind.  I have never been poor.”  The Bible says it best, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

Retirement:

Retirement is not the end of your work or job. It is the honor and sustainability you bring to the final stage of your life, and preservation of the legacy you leave behind.

Louis  Armstrong

Musicians don’t retire.  They stop when there’s no more music in them.

Financial Freedom:

Financial Freedom is not a destination.  It is the ability to pursue appropriate values, goals and passions, unencumbered and regardless of your income and bottom line.

Wake Up  Call

     We were sound asleep and the ringing of my cell phone was unnerving.  Nobody wants to get a call in the middle of the night.  Rarely, is it a good call.  This time was no exception.

     Art’s youngest son, Ross, was on the other end.  “Mr. Clayton, I’m calling to let you know my dad has just passed away.”  It took more than several seconds for the gravity of what had happened to register.  Art Nelson was my best friend and he was only 53 years old.  His two sons, Matt and Ross, had grown up with our boys and our families frequently did things together.  One thing that immediately popped into my mind was our sometimes Christmas tradition of taking our families to the evening Christmas Vespers, service and then going to a local steak house for supper.

     The last thing on Art’s mind was dying.  It was not on his radar, at all.  After all, he was not all that old and he still had a long list of things he wanted to accomplish in life.  His wife, Marilyn, and his two sons were everything to him and nobody had more friends than Art.  More than one of us considered Art our ‘best’ friend.  He was an accomplished golfer, a hunter, a builder, a minister, a great friend and believe me when I say, he loved having fun with his family and friends.

The Uncertainty of Time

     Art’s death was a wake-up call for me in a number of ways.  Life really is brief, at best, and always uncertain.  In fact, it reminds me of that game we all played when we were children, ‘musical chairs.’  Whenever the music stops everybody scrambles for a chair.  The problem is, there is always one less chair than people.  Somebody winds up without a chair to sit in.  The game goes on until there’s only one person left and that person is named the winner.  In real life, however, even the last person standing faces a certain demise.  Nobody has a chair to sit in forever, this side of heaven.

     “For all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; The grass withers and the flowers fall…” 1 Peter 1:24,NIV

     “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”  James 4:14, NAS

 The Passage of Time

     Where finances are concerned, most of us act like there is an unending supply of time.  We want to treat it like a commodity we can purchase at the grocery store.  Jim Croce’s song, ‘Time in a Bottle’, expresses this sentiment as well as I’ve seen.  The fact that it was released after his untimely death makes the lyrics even more poignant:

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I’d like to do

Is to save every day

Till Eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasure and then,

Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I’ve looked around enough to know

That you’re the one I want to go

Through time with…

    While these lyrics refer to the love between Jim Croce and his wife, the real sentiment is even more basic, our desire to extend time, to stop the passage of time, or, to capture and use time as currency to be applied somewhere else.

     In reality, life is brief.  And, not one single person really knows how much time they have.  This presents a problem for those who are hanging their hat on the hope they will live long enough to realize all of their dreams.  The hard cold facts are we don’t know if we will live long enough to enjoy our earthly destinations.  Jim Croce did not, neither did my friend, Art.

Passing The Test of time

     What am I saying?  Simply this, our pursuits in life, including our financial strategies, need to pass the test of time. It’s the not knowing how much time we actually have left that drives the point home that everything in life must pass the test of time.