Financial Regret #3: Not Investing Wisely

He who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.
—Proverbs 28:19

Another regret people have about their finances is this: “I wish I had made wiser investments.” I know a man who saved a large portion of his income and was frugal in his spending. Yet when he came to the end of his life, he didn’t have the resources he needed. His problem was not in his saving or in his spending; it was in how he invested his money. In Ecclesiastes 5:13–14, Solomon says, “There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him” (NASB).

The first financial mistake people make in their investments is postponing investing. Many people fail to understand how time can multiply your assets. They don’t grasp the value of compound interest. Most people do not begin investing early enough.

The second mistake people make in their investments is failing to diversify their assets. I was listening to financial experts on television the other day. One person was saying, “Keep all of your money in cash.” Another guy was saying, “Be 100 percent invested in stocks.” Somebody else was making a case for bonds; another person a case for hard assets like gold. Who was right? The fact is none of them was right. Ecclesiastes 11:2 says you need to “divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth” (NASB). None of us can predict the future, and that is why God’s Word says the way to financial freedom is to diversify your assets.

The third mistake people make is waiting for the right time to invest. Maybe you are saying, “I don’t think it is the right time to invest for the future. We are living in economic chaos. I will wait until things settle down.” The truth is we are always going to be in a time of economic uncertainty, and we cannot try to time our investments.

The fourth mistake people make with investments is get-rich-quick schemes, where people promise great returns if you invest in a particular deal. The Bible says to avoid get-rich-quick schemes. In Proverbs 28:19–20, Solomon says, “He who tills his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty. A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished” (NASB). To make wise investments, invest early, diversify your assets, invest now, and avoid get-rich-quick schemes.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Living without Financial Regrets” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2009.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.