“It is more blessed to give than receive” – Jesus

Most people can barely believe they can/will retire. Much less give anything away. One of our greatest fears is being a burden on others by not having enough. “Don’t build a tower unless you have the materials.”

It takes time and good planning to help clients understand what they are capable of giving. Those priorities can shift over time, and they should as we react to the return on investment we get.

On our eMoney software we encourage clients who are inclined to add a giving goal to track lifetime giving to family, friends, charity, church. We have many tax-efficient strategies to help you optimize and delight in using our skills to encourage clients to give their time, talent and treasure as they are called to do.

Give Time/Energy!  This is critical for near or retired clients to shift from needing to earn, to giving more. See Halftime, or Strength to Strength or pick up a copy at our office. Consider this more as you think about shifting to your “Second Half” even earlier in your careers. Helps to fight burnout while you work as well.

Consider doing a JOG (journey of generosity) with your church, etc. A JOG along with several other things led to Tom Love’s conviction to work beyond his needs and be more generous. To shift the mindset of work as a way to serve others more, bringing more joy to it.

Tom Love’s public goal from 2023 is to give $1M away in 2028. That’s closer now! This audacious goal, particularly at that time is humbling. The goal of sharing this with you is to encourage you to have some of your good deeds seen by others to glorify God (Matthew 5:16). Think about how sharing could encourage them to do the same and to know your reasoning. And do some privately of course as well (Matthew 6:1)! God has been so generous to all of us (John 3:16) with his Grace (Eph 2:8-9), but especially to Tom at times of distress (Romans 5:3-8) over the years – from near suicide at 9. When he was saved spiritually at 19. When his sister passed in 2013 from suicide. His dad in 2016. Tom’s hope is to encourage people to become disciples of Jesus, to glory God through hardship and especially to help you all Honor the Lord with your Money (Proverbs 3:9).

Prayer: We love to pray with our clients. Don’t hesitate to reach out for prayers that you may have, or ways in which you think we can help you. Our team would be honored to serve you. Reverend Jeremy Woltz, who works with us as an advisor would especially be encouraged to do so, rev@themainstreetgroup.com, 804 270 4470. Some studies show that patients who were prayed over had 25% better outcomes. A few studies show the power of consistent prayer for married couples, lowering divorce rates below 1% according to Gallup in 1997, and others.

Here are some of the organizations we have supported: