Michael Blue

One of the principles for life and finances that we talk about regularly is that the longer term your perspective, the better your decision will be today. This can be extremely helpful when deciding about how to use our money both now and in the future. We will always make better decision if we keep the end (eternity) in mind.

That being said, one of the most frequent questions we hear is, “what do I do next?” People will often have an idea of where they hope to be in 5 or 10 years, but they often don’t know where to start. For this reason, we have developed the tool below called the “Freedom Target.” 

![](https://moneywisemedia.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/images/MW-process.svg)

The tool above is designed to give you some potential first steps to take in your financial maturity journey. It is designed around the four ways we spend money--Live, Give, Owe, Grow--and includes suggested steps in each of the arenas.

The starting point for this journey is an acknowledgment that God owns everything you have. Without this belief, we are just training you to be a wiser materialist, and we don’t want that for you. We want you to be able to say with passion that your primary goal in all of your financial life is to bring glory to God by how you use the money He has entrusted to you. In order to say this, you must start from a place that says everything is God’s and you are just seeking to use it in a way that glorifies Him.

Once the ownership issue has been settled, the tool gives you an idea of how you move toward the feeling of financial freedom in each of the areas. Remember though, financial freedom is never going to be defined by a number, it is going to be defined by trusting God in each of these areas and knowing that you are seeking to use your money for His purposes.

As you move through each of the levels of this tool, please remember a few things:

### 1. Your progress across all four areas may not be sequential.

Meaning, you may be on Level 1 in one area and Level 2 or 3 in another area. You will have priorities between the areas and the levels and those need to be determined based on how you feel God is leading you. If you don’t feel a particular leading, then we would encourage you to work through these sequentially to the best of your ability.


### 2. The closer you move toward the center, the more personalized your journey will become.

Each person has different God given goals and objectives, so as you move toward the center you will be learning to ask God what He wants you to do and then doing your best to follow Him.


### 3. We always have simultaneous competing priorities.

This is a reason we designed this tool as a pie and not a path. You may want to tackle all of Level 1 at the same time, but you will have to choose which has the highest priority. These are all of primary importance, but you also probably can’t do all of them fully at the same time. This is where you learn to develop faith as you seek God’s wisdom on where to begin.


The levels of the tool should be pretty self-explanatory, but if you have questions about what they mean we are including a brief explanation for each level below. This journey of integrating faith and money can be challenging to begin, but once you begin you will experience a deepening of your faith and a growing understanding of God’s preeminence over anything material in your life. Good luck as you get started in your journey of asking God what He wants you to do with the money He has entrusted to you.

### EXPLANATION OF EACH LEVEL

# LIVE

### Level 1

__Track Monthly Spending:__ here you will literally record everything you spend over a month. Fortunately, with online banking and credit cards, you can probably download your previous month’s spending into an Excel file and categorize how you are spending your money. Doing this helps you see how and where you are actually spending your money. This knowledge is key to creating a spending plan.

### Level 2

__Create & Maintain a Spending Plan:__ once you have completed Level 1, you will be in a better position to create a spending plan. This process is detailed in the following blog post: [https://moneywise.org/articles/creating-a-basic-spending-plan](https://moneywise.org/articles/creating-a-basic-spending-plan). This spending plan will be what you use to determine how you are going to allocate your money each month.

### Level 3

__Set Lifestyle Finish Line:__ this is a pretty big jump for most people from Level 2 to Level 3. It will not happen overnight. The goal here is to ask God, “how much is enough?” There is a certain level of income for every person that is enough and beyond this we should be seeking to get it moving in accordance with God’s direction. There is great danger in never asking the question of how much is enough.

# GIVE

### Level 1

__Start Giving:__ if you aren’t giving anything, we would encourage you to just start regularly giving right away. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it is critical that giving becomes a part of your regular spending habits. Giving breaks the power money has in our lives and without this discipline we have a tendency to forget from whom our money came.

### Level 2

__Percentage Giving:__ once you’ve developed a habit of giving, the next step in giving is to begin giving in proportion to how God has prospered you. We encourage you to predetermine what you will give (after praying and reading the Bible) out of your income on a regular basis. This discipline acknowledges God as your provider and deepens your habit of giving.

### Level 3

__Sacrificial Giving:__ in this step you will have the opportunity to grow your faith. You will determine how God is leading you to give and you will take steps of faith toward that goal. This type of giving usually seems to be a stretch based on what you make or what you have. It often requires you to commit to give up something you would otherwise have bought or done for the good of others with less than you or so that the Gospel could be preached around the world. This is the type of giving that becomes addictive - once you experience it you will plead to God to give you more opportunities. It will produce more joy than anything you could ever have bought with that money.

# OWE

### Level 1

__Repay Credit Card Debt:__ here you will tally up all your credit card debt and make a plan to repay it. The most common method for doing this is called the debt snowball. This blog post ([https://moneywise.org/articles/repaying-high-interest-debt](https://moneywise.org/articles/repaying-high-interest-debt)) describes how to tackle this level.

### Level 2

__Repay All Debt Except Mortgage:__ this is pretty self-explanatory. Set a goal to repay all debt not repaid in Level 1 other than your mortgage. This may take a while, but set your goals, set your timeframe, and get to work.

### Level 3
__Repay Mortgage:__ this is usually the last piece of debt that people repay. The freedom you will feel when you accomplish this step will surprise you. Just like in Level 2 this one takes a while, so set a goal and get moving toward it!!

# GROW

### Level 1

__Save for Emergencies:__ one of the bedrock principles for financial health is the necessity for margin. Margin is the thing that allows us to weather the unexpected storms of life. This is what this step is all about. The goal here is to save $1,500 for emergencies, and then begin saving to have three to six months of living expenses in a savings account. The $1,500 should be pursued as a very high priority and then you will work more slowly toward the three to six months number. For more on this process read this blog post: [https://moneywise.org/articles/saving-for-emergencies](https://moneywise.org/articles/saving-for-emergencies).

### Level 2

__Save for Retirement:__ saving for the future is something that should be considered in any financial plan. How much and for what is a question you need to be taking to God. There are certainly things people should save toward if they have the ability, but I hesitate to give any hard and fast rules because I believe that we need to be earnestly seeking God’s will for how much and for what we are saving. If you do feel like God is directing you to save for retirement, then I would encourage you to start early and take advantage of all company matches.

### Level 3

__Save & Invest for Goals:__ here is simply an extension of Level 2 where you look at goals beyond retirement and seek God’s direction on the things He wants you to prepare for in the future. As with Level 2, the key is to be asking God what He wants you to do and then respond with confidence and obedience.

FaithFi

Articles

This blog provides a short description of how to use the Freedom Target.

SAVING | Mar 3, 2021

HOW DO YOU USE THE FREEDOM TARGET?

By: Michael Blue

Where Faith Meets Finance

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