The discussion we have today focuses on a highly relevant issue that many people struggle with but rarely get the chance to explore openly and supportively: the complex connection between financial responsibility and personal faith. I am joined by Justin Buonomo, a notable entrepreneur and the creator of Journey to Financial Freedom, whose goal is to help faith-based individuals achieve financial success by applying biblical principles and practical methods. Our talk explores the deep emotional and spiritual effects of financial difficulties, pointing out how shame, guilt, and societal misunderstandings can hinder one’s path to financial understanding. Justin recounts his personal journey from financial hardship to responsible stewardship, stressing that true financial freedom involves more than just managing money; it requires a complete change in mindset and identity. Through our conversation, we hope to shed light on how to manage finances responsibly, emphasizing the need to align monetary habits with spiritual values to honor God and build a legacy of abundance for future generations.

Takeaways:

• The essence of stewardship transcends mere financial management; it encapsulates a holistic approach intertwining faith, responsibility, and the pursuit of freedom from guilt and shame associated with monetary matters.
• Engaging in discussions about financial stewardship often evokes discomfort due to the emotional and psychological baggage tied to money, necessitating a sensitive and grace-filled dialogue.
• The Good Steward Program emphasizes the fundamental tenet that financial freedom begins with the transformation of one's mindset, aligning financial goals with biblical principles and genuine motives.
• Understanding God's perspective on wealth and stewardship is crucial; it reframes the narrative from viewing money as inherently evil to recognizing its potential as a tool for kingdom advancement and personal growth.
• Generational patterns of financial behavior can perpetuate cycles of poverty and mismanagement; breaking these cycles involves conscious efforts to instill healthy financial practices and attitudes in future generations.
• The journey to financial stability requires actionable steps, including prayer, diligent budgeting, and a commitment to managing current resources effectively before aspiring for greater financial blessings.

Links referenced in this episode:

• journeytofinancialfreedom.co

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome back to Becoming Bridge Builders, the podcast where we explore stories, insights and purpose driven work that helps us navigate a complicated world with more wisdom, compassion and clarity. I am your host, Keith Haney.

Today's conversation is one so many people desperately need but rarely get a chance to have open, honest, grace filled space. We're talking about money, but more importantly we're talking about stewardship, faith and freedom.

My guest today, Justin Bawanamo, CEO and founder of Journey to Financial Freedom, a coaching company equipping faith based individuals to build wealth through biblical wisdom, proven strategy and intentional living.

After walking through his own season of financial hardship, Justin became passionate about helping people break free from guilt, shame and confusion around money.

His signature program, the Good Steward Is has helped hundreds of clients rewrite their financial story, create stability and honor God with their goals and with their money. Justin is known for blending practical financial tools with timeless biblical principles.

His work doesn't just help people budget, it helps him flourish personally, professionally and spiritually. He joins us today from Maryland where he lives with his wife Warren and his and her two kids and their two dogs. We welcome Justin to the podcast.

I How you doing today?

Thank you, I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Looking forward to this conversation. Part of my role in what I do now is stewardship. So this is help my congregation and my pastors kind of and church workers talk about stewardship.

So looking forward to this, adding it to my list of stewardship resources.

Amazing. Amazing. Hopefully it'll serve today.

I'm glad it will. So I'm going to ask you my favorite question to kind of get us warmed up here. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Best piece of advice I've ever received.

Man, this is going to sound a little cliche, but Matthew 6:33 first see the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added onto.

And I think that as I dove more into that and understood what that meant is when we see God with sincere motives, genuine motives, because we truthfully believe Jesus is who he says he was and that it's in our best interest to fear the Lord, right?

Which is prioritize his wisdom each day he starts to align your heart with his, he starts to align your desires with his, and he starts to mold your character to be more and more like Jesus every day, in every facet of your life. And then when that happens, he starts to match opportunities to your character and you walk in alignment with him instead of away from Him.

And so maybe a tiny bit cliche, but I don't know. I think it's just the best advice I've ever been given.

Giving my life to Jesus and truthfully seeking him for the right motives and for sincere reasons.

Well, I don't think anytime we say scriptures, these advice is probably cliche. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe not the best word. Maybe not the best word, but yes, yes, absolutely.

So we. I'd hope that we could always buy some scripture that kind of resonates with us. So, yes, that's good. You have my permission.

I think that's a great one. So I don't.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

So let's get into your journey. You built an entire coaching company around biblical stewardship, but the work comes out of your own personal journey.

Kind of walk us through that moment or that season when you realize that financially something for you had to change.

Absolutely.

We'll probably get into this a little bit, maybe in the later questions, but my parents filed for bankruptcy a couple of times in my childhood, and then it just led to me just absorbing and following poor money habits, whether it was consciously or unconsciously. And so When I was 18 years old, I was given a settlement for $80,000 for hit by a car a couple of years before that.

And to say I blew this money over the next two years would be a compliment how I spent it. It'd be a compliment for how I spent it. And so two years later, two, maybe two and a half to be. To be kind of. It was all gone.

I'm laying on my bed in college and I got $5 out of my bank account. I couldn't even afford to buy lunch that day. And I called my dad crying. And, you know, I was like, man, this is just not it. This is not it.

And, you know, a couple of years later, I got an incredible job. I got a master's degree in healthcare administration.

So I worked on the business side of healthcare for a while for John Hopkins, and I got a really, really good job out of grad school, paying a tremendous amount of money.

And right then and there I was like, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, you're either going to step up and learn how to manage money or you're going to repeat the same mistakes that your parents had that really traumatized you throughout childhood and things I still struggle with today.

And so my rock bottom moment was blowing through a quick little 80k in about two, maybe two and a half years and having five bucks to my name for the rest of college after that. And so that was, I think, like, really the wake up moment for me.

Well, you know, thinking of your story, you're not the only one who's ever struggled with feeling alone or even shamed, you know, dealing with money. What are some of the emotional and spiritual battles you faced in those early years as you kind of realized? I went through $80,000 in two years.

Oh, yeah, Pride, shame. And then also generational curses of, like, a poor scarcity mindset and, you know, pride. Oh, I can't ask for help.

I can't tell people what's wrong, you know, or when the money ran out, I still tried to act like I had money. Right. And that was really tough to upkeep. Tough to upkeep acting like you got 80,000 still when you got five bucks in your bank account.

And then just shame. Just shame. That just kept me from facing reality. It.

I always say that the enemy uses guilt, shame, and fear as a wedge in between us and God, how he gets us to stay away from God and going to God with our problems. You know, I think that. And then the last thing would just be generational curses where, like, I must be.

Must be meant to be broke, or we make money and we spend it all, or we spend the money even before we make it. And so I was definitely walking around with a lot of.

A lot of pride, a lot of shame, and just these generational curses that were just lies around money but were keeping me trapped at the time.

You know, as I hear your story, my first biblical example comes to mind as a prodigal son, and I could just imagine the same kind of emotions he went through of, you know, all the. You had to act like you still had money.

How do you have the courage to go home and say, you know, like, you say you called your dad, like, hey, Dad, I just went through all this money you gave me for inheritance. What do I do now?

Yep. Yep. And, you know, one of my.

My favorite biblically sound teaching is that pride blocks transformation, but humility welcomes it, you know, And I. I also struggled my whole life, first half of my life, for sure, we'll say up until I was about 27, 28 years old, maybe even up till I was about 30, where I thought that I gained people's love through accolades, accomplishments, and achievements. I thought the more money I had. The more things I did, the more I accomplished, the more people would love me. Right? My.

My ego thinks that rejection is death. So for the first 30 years of my life, I would do anything just to get people's acceptance.

And I thought the best way to do that was through financial things, materialistic blessings, and being the guy who had money. Right. And so it was just a real identity fight for a while as well.

I work a lot with congregations and stewardship, and I've discovered that many churches don't talk about stewardship. In your experience, why is it so hard for people to get into the topic of stewardship?

Is it because they assume that financial wisdom and spiritual maturity go hand in hand? What are your. What are your observations about the struggle?

That's a great question. I think a couple of things come up. I think just the topic is just touchy for people in the first place, right?

There's a lot of fear, a lot of emotions, a lot of trauma around the topic. So even spiritual leaders that may even be being good stewards on their own, and they avoid talking about it. It's uncomfortable.

It brings up trauma and emotions and fear, right? And then also they know, like, it brings it up with the other people as well.

Like, what are they welcoming by bringing up the topic and opening up the conversation. I think also too, as well, I think there's just a lot of misconceptions about God's truth around money, right?

And I always say it's really hard to understand God's will for our life if we don't understand his heart, especially with money.

And I think there's just a lot of lies or misconstrued Bible verses or interpretations around money where people think that God hates money or is calling it evil. One of the most misconstrued Bible verses of all time is the money is the root of all evil.

Obviously it's the 1 Timothy verse, but the verse actually says, for the love of money is the root of all evil. And if you dive into the biblical translation of the love, it means to idolize something. And you can only idolize one thing at a time. So.

So you're idolizing money. Guess who you're not leaving room for? God. And that's where it becomes a problem, right?

The majority of the scriptures that are warning about money are specifically actually just warning about idolizing money, right? Putting it on the throne over God, right? Like it's. It's calling out our motives in our heart, right?

Like in Matthew where God was talking to the one young Successful businessman, I believe. And he said, the only thing you're missing is, go trade all your possessions and then come fault me. And the guy walked away with sorrow.

And it was not because Jesus wants us to be poor and give all of our money away. He was just calling out what actually truthfully had that man's heart, right? Was it God or was it money?

And so I think that, like, that also impacts the teaching of stewardship in the church as well. And the last thing I'll say is I just shot a podcast episode on this, which is I say God's truths in the gray area, right?

We.

We think in black and white, right? Either money's good or bad. It's right or wrong. It's bad. Or it's evil or right. Like, it's just. It's anything in life, right? It's this or that, right?

And actually the truth's in the gray area, right? Especially when it comes to money. Like, money is neutral. It's a piece of paper or a piece of plastic.

Where it goes wrong is where the human beings behind it misuse and abuse it, right? Or I like to say, money doesn't change your character, it just magnifies it. One of my favorite quotes is, money's a great tool, but a terrible God.

That's the gray area. Or God calls us to be a steward of the tool, not idolize it over him, right? And so us as humans, we don't like tension, and we don't like tension.

And that's what the gray area brings, because it brings some thought. We have to sit there and think. We gotta ask hard questions. We gotta address our limiting beliefs.

We gotta have a hard conversation with ourselves, other people, and God to really get to the truth, which is in the gray area. And we as human beings, we don't like tension, right? We want to pick black or white to avoid the tension.

And a lot of times, right, the option that we pick is the one that's most societally pushed on us and. Or what we heard growing up, okay, money's bad, right?

Let me get out of this tension and not sit here and actually get to God's truth, because it takes tension to get to that truth, right? And so I think, along with an answer to say is a culmination of those reasons and probably many more.

But those are some of the observations I've made over the years.

That's good. So let's get into your program, the Good Steward. What inspired you to create it, and what.

How does it differ from traditional financial coaching yeah, absolutely.

So my company has been around for a little bit over six years now and have just been extremely blessed. We've had almost a thousand people go through the program over the years.

I've got a team of 10 working for me right now and about 100 active clients in the program. It's been an incredible experience. But as you probably know, entrepreneurship is also just a game of solving problems that creates more problems.

I heard this quote that says, you want to get to know God at the deepest levels, get an entrepreneurship, because it'll show you you're not in control. Well, it's been a blessing. It's also been an extreme challenge, but it's been such good spiritual growth as well. But we were.

I've always open about my faith, right? Everyone always was clients, employees always knew my faith.

But we were, what I would say, a secular company for the first about five years up until about a year ago. And last February, I was sleeping on the couch, and I popped up and I heard God just say, you got to give this business to me.

You got to give this business to me. And I was like, what's that really mean? What's that really mean? And so we rebranded to the Good Steward Program.

We were financial coaching, and we had faith aspects to it. People like the 95 of our clients were believers, you know, leading up to that moment.

But, you know, we rebranded a year or so ago to the Good Steward Program. And I guess really just what I found is that there's no better way than to manage your money based off of biblical wisdom.

Biblical wisdom is scripture that indirectly or directly gives us advice on how to best steward money. Right? And it falls into several buckets.

I think there's just a lot of different things where, like scripture, God talks about stewardship of money, and it's in that gray area. It's like, no, God does not want us to idolize money, but he also doesn't call us to neglect it and ignore it. Right? And so what's that happy medium?

It's stewardship. And I always use marriage or relationships as an example, Right. Like, God obviously doesn't want us to idolize our marriage or our significant other.

But as we all know, he's also not calling us to ignore and neglect it. We want to get best results, right. Instead, there's a way he calls us to steward the things he's entrusted us to, particularly money.

And I've made money and stewarded money away from God, and I've made money and stewarded money with God and rooted in biblical wisdom. And I pick rooted in biblical wisdom or with God all day long, 366 days of the year, right?

And so I just truthfully realized like that was what God was calling me to do, to make disciples through teaching them proper biblical money stewards. I think that poor money management is one of the biggest wedges that the enemy puts in between us and God.

If we're not being good stewards of our money, we're not walking in alignment with God, at least in totality for our life. And it keeps us in deception, it keeps us limited, and it keeps us less useful and valuable for the kingdom. You know, if you just.

I had a journaling session last night and I was asking myself, what is my purpose here, right? And I was like, let me equipped disciples with good stewardship habits. Because if you take a quality disciple, you change nothing.

You change nothing but just make them a good steward of money. And then the other version of them is everything's exactly the same and they're a bad steward of money.

The one that's a good steward of money is more useful and valuable for the kingdom. Not to say the other one's not useful and valuable.

I'm just saying that same exact disciple that has good financial stewardship rooted in biblical wisdom and truth and doing it for all reasons to glorify God and grow the kingdom and not trying to learn how to manage money for selfish, greedy desires, they're more useful and valuable for the kingdom. Right? And so that's, that's why I, I strongly believe in this.

And so again, about a year or so ago, after making millions of dollars and having a bunch of success, hearing God say, give me your business, I mean, like, oh, this is me, right? Over the past year, that's kind of what it's come to. And it's been very challenging. Very, very challenging, but very super rewarding.

So you teach in your program, this stewardship is not just about budgeting. It's a mindset, it's identity, it's a calling. I love that idea.

If it's a calling, what are some misconceptions that Christians often have about money and that your program kind of helps to dismantle?

Yeah, absolutely. We teach a four step process for financial freedom. And step one is actually working on the mindset.

You know, Romans 12:2 says, be renewed by the transforming of your mind. Or some of the first words that Jesus spoke in the gospels was metanoia, which can be translated to repent.

But it also does mean to be the renewing of Your mind, the renewing of your thoughts, to think a different way, right? And so I think I always say your external Welsh is a reflection of your internal wealth, right?

If you got scarce, limited, fearful, the feelings and thoughts around money, what do you think your external reality is going to look like, right? And so a lot of Christians carry the belief that money's evil. We kind of already debunked that one, right? The.

The key is in the character, the keys in the keys and the motives, right? And then also they feel guilty about wanting to grow wealth, right? They think that.

And I find, actually, Keith, that most believers fall into two buckets, either prosperity gospel or poverty gospel, right? Prosperity gospel is like treating God as a vending machine. Like I put in a tithe and I get out of Tesla, right?

Or if I just act like a good boy and I tithe and I wake up and, you know, do the right things, God's going to bless me financially. God owes me something, right? Which is the furthest thing from the truth, right? If we all got what we really deserve in life, it'd be wrath, right?

And so they either fall into, like that prosperity, health and wealth gospel, right? It's transactional, right? Manipulative, almost.

Or they fall into the poverty gospel, which also isn't biblical and missing the mark, which is they, we make poverty or having no money holy or more holy than having money, right? Where it's like poverty and scarcity is holy. And that's also not biblical, right? And so again, God's in that gray area in that happy medium. In that.

In that. In that truth, right? So we help Christians, you know, understand what God actually says about money. It's. It's.

No, he doesn't want us to idolize it, but he also calls us to be a good steward of it, right? And no, you're not wrong for wanting to be wealthy. But let's check your motives, though. Why? Why do you want to be wealthy?

Is it for selfish, greedy desires or is it for kingdom purposes and to grow the kingdom, right? And so. And just teaching them about idolatry of money, right? How to avoid that. Right? It comes in three forms. Greed, or finding your worth in it.

Constantly stressed about money, right. Is a form of idolatry, right? And finding your sense or your source of security and peace in it. Right?

And don't get me wrong, money can give you a sense of peace and a sense of security, but it's not your source of peace and your source of security, right? And so really, ultimately, just helping them understand God's truth. And I'll go back to the quote that I said earlier.

It's really hard to understand God's will for your life. You don't understand his heart.

So getting clear on what he actually thinks and teaches about money and helps break down all these lies and misconceptions that Christians usually have around money that are holding them back from being the best stewards they can possibly be.

I love that. And I think that thing you just said earlier makes me think of a sermon. Ties for a Tesla is kind of a.

Sounds like a sermon in there somewhere along the way, right. So you mentioned early on in your journey about the generational breaking the generational cycle mentality.

What patterns are you seeing over and over again in families that you work with that you're trying to help them overcome?

Absolutely. There's several, I think. Fear, avoidance, laziness, being wrapped in a spiritual bow, calling it rest, finding our identity. Right.

In money, in possessions. And so we, I see a lot of fear and a lot of avoidance a lot of times when it comes to money and, or paycheck to paycheck, right.

And it's just this mentality, it's. People don't realize that we're so addicted to chaos sometimes. Right? I'll give you an example here.

If an 18 year old grew up in an unhealthy environment, unhealthy home, people are constantly fighting, arguing, there's chaos there. You take them out of that home and you put them in a healthy one.

What happens in a couple of weeks if you're lucky, they're starting to create chaos because that's what they think is normal. Right? And so same thing with money. Like people get money and they have it in their bank account. They're like, oh my God, I don't feel safe with this.

This isn't the normal chaos I grew up around. This isn't what my nervous system is used to. Let me go get creative and get rid of this money. Right?

And so, you know, a lot of times our spending habits are deep generational curses where like we just grew up in a paycheck to paycheck chaos, stressful, struggling environment. That's what, whether we realize it or not, it's what our nervous system thinks is normal.

And all you do until you actually you know, dive in to make some real changes. You just mirror what you saw growing up, right? So if your parents were fearful, a lot of times that's what you're taking on.

And they would spend, they'd make money and spend it all, or they would spend before they even made it, right? And then had a whole bunch of debt living beyond their means.

And I've definitely struggled with that, you know, even going back to the $80,000 settlement, even to this day, sometimes I still struggle with that.

And so there's a lot of different things that I see, but mainly fear, avoidance, thinking that finances a lot scarier and confusing than they actually are and like the paycheck to paycheck and.

Or overspending, like just creating chaos that they don't need to live in anymore that God is trying to free them from and Jesus would love to heal them from.

So I know people are hearing this going, oh, this sounds really wonderful. Where do I start? What's the first practical steps I could start on to begin to become a good steward?

The good news is it's available to every single person, right?

And I see the most common bottleneck that people have with their finances is thinking that they need more money or when this happens, I'll get my money together, right? But God is calling us to be the best stewards of what he has currently entrusted us to, right?

It doesn't make any sense to be praying for more when you're neglecting what God has already given you, right? And it was explained to me like this years ago, and I'll answer your question a little more directly here in a second.

But it was explained like this years ago. We're like, if you had a 16 year old who couldn't back the car out of the driveway, you probably wouldn't let them take that car on the highway.

That's not punishment, that's wisdom and protection. And God's the same way with money. We haven't proven that we can back the car to the driveway with our money.

And we're asking for highway money, highway blessings, right? And so what I'm trying to say here is the key is just to step up and steward your current situation to the best of your ability. Ability, right.

And so the key is stepping up and managing your current situation to the best of your ability. Right? I think the first practical step is pray.

Like, as soon as you hop off this podcast, say, hey, God, I just want to come to you and just thank you for your patience and your mercy and your grace. Right. Over the years, when it came to my stewardship of finances and not doing it in the best manner possible. But I want to ask you for provision.

I want to ask you for wisdom, right? What is my favorite prayer?

What's my next obedient step, no matter what it is in life of finance, what's my next obedient step to get my finances or to be a good steward? Please show me that God, and please give me the courage to step in that as soon as you show me that God. Right?

And then from there, I would say, you know, really understanding what scripture says about money. Right? Again, it's very hard to understand God's will for your life and understand his heart.

And a lot of us got his heart misconstrued when it comes to money. And so how can we walk in his will when it comes to good stewardship if we don't fully understand his heart?

And then next is just some simple but empowering budgeting system. Right? Because I always say, you can't improve what you're not measuring. Right? You can't improve what you're not measuring. Right?

And most people, stress and anxiety, when it comes to money, 95% of it is avoidable or unnecessary. It's coming from what I call subjectivity, right? Subjectivity is emotions. Being in the driver's seat. It's a lack of factual information.

It's like, I think I need to pay off this debt. I think I'm spending too much. I think I need to save more. I think I need to earn more. Should I go after the house first? Should I do this?

All of that, I think, leads to unnecessary stress and anxiety and missed opportunities.

If you replace it with objectivity, black and white, which is just a budgeting system, a measurement system, just to actually show you what's going on in your situation, even if you don't like the numbers. Right.

We find that our clients, you know, 95 of their stress and anxiety just falls away now that they can actually understand what's going on, they feel like they're in the know, they feel like they're in control. And so eliminate that subjectivity and replace it with objectivity. Right? We can't improve what we're not aware of.

We can't improve what we're not measuring. And I just posted something today on my. My Instagram. It says, financial stewardship starts when avoidance ends.

And so the last thing I'll say is, you know, you're a budgeting system. Again, it's a measurement form. It's a way that makes us a good manager, right. Of money, right? You can't manage well what you're not measuring.

And then also I use like the fitness analogy here, right? Like, a budget is like a. It's your financial plan in a lot of ways, right?

So if you had a goal of getting in shape, losing weight, building muscle, whatever that fitness goal is, right? You would probably follow a workout plan and a diet plan to help you accomplish that goal.

And you wouldn't be too confused on why you weren't accomplishing those goals, that those things weren't being followed. Right? You're not like, why am I not getting into shape? You know, like, it's very clear you're not working out and are eating healthy.

It's obvious a lot of people walk around confused on why they're not making financial progress, but they're not even following a financial plan, you know, and so those would be some, some practical steps there to really get started. But I promise you, the key is in you stewarding your current situation to the best of your ability. Right?

Stewardship is not God's reward system or his punishment system. It's its protection system. Right?

It says, protect yourselves because if he blessed you with the financial blessings that you're calling for right now, they would hurt you more than they would help you most times. Right? You're missing the order and the stability to be able to handle those blessings. Right?

Back in the day, agricultural societies, when they used to think it was going to rain, AKA the blessing that they were praying for, was going to come down, what did they do? They dug trenches to catch the rain. Right.

A lot of us don't have those trenches or the order and the foundations in place to catch the financial blessings that God that we're praying to God for. Right. I questioned my clients a couple months ago on a group call.

We hold a group call every Thursday that I coach, and I said, if God actually answered your financial blessing, your financial blessing prayers are now, would you even be able to steward it to the best of your ability? Right. Would it hurt you more than it would help you? And you just saw the stare on their faces and it's.

The answer was no, they wouldn't be ready to receive those blessings and steward in the best of their ability because they lacked order. Right? They lacked order. Order welcomes abundance, chaos repels it. Right. And it's not a, it's not a prosperity gospel or reward system.

It's just God values order. Right. And he matches your level of order and stewardship to opportunities.

And so just, just some things I think just I want to be able to teach that correctly to the audience and I hope that, that, that was of value.

Yeah, that's good. So you've seen individuals and families have breakthroughs in finances through your program.

What are one or two stories that stick with you that represent what financial freedom really looks like?

One of them sticks out and she wouldn't be my saying her name.

His name is Becky Oste and she came to us three years ago now, still with us three years ago, was always a high earner, grew up in the church, had tried every other system, but had a lot of fear based mentalities around money. Everything felt like scary and dry and didn't have any savings, no investments, was making maybe about three to $5,000 a month. Three years later.

Now with working with us, they've got a proper funded emergency fund for the personal side of stuff and their business owners, their business side as well. They've got over six figures invested in the stock market. They've got no bad debt.

They teach their kids how to manage money well, which is one of my favorite things to see. And she now makes well over $35,000 a month. And I believe that's a result, again, not a reward system. Right.

But I believe that's a result of stepping up and managing her current situation to the best of her ability. And God then entrusted her with more. And so she is free for the most part.

We still struggle from time to time from this scarcity, lack thinking, and now has I think internal wealth and external wealth, which is beautiful to see.

So many people have bad debt.

We just saw that, I think in this country right now, the last four or five years, so many people getting a credit card debt use credit cards to buy groceries. What are some things you would tell people who are walking around a lot of bad debt to get out of that situation?

It's a great question. So number one, right, we need to figure out which ones to pay off first by understanding which ones are costing you the most. Right.

And so this is where there's. People get a little confused. They, they hear, oh, pay off the Highest interest rate 1 first, which is not a bad piece of advice. But it's not optimal.

Why? It's because. Let's just say you had a credit card with $10,000 on it and it had an 18% interest rate.

And then you have a credit card with $1,000 on it and has 29% interest rate, right? Though 29% interest is higher interest than 18%, 18% of 10,000 is a heck of a lot more money than 29% of 1,000, right?

So you need to figure out which one is costing you the most by taking the balance and multiplying it times the interest rate, right? And then that would be the one, in my opinion, you go after first. I've heard the debt snowball before and I get it, right?

It's like, let's take some small wins, right? And that's fine. But I just think, like, let's just be clear and objective on which one's costing you the most and go after that one first, right?

Then from there you have to ask yourself, okay, how can I actually pay this off? And there's really only two options, right? It's either your own cash or transferring it to a better form of debt in a very responsible manner, right?

And so you know, your own cash would either be. You go through your budget, okay, I make $5,000 a month. If I really tightened up and followed a budget, right.

I would spend $4,000 a month and I have a thousand left over. That's the money that I'm going to use to go towards my credit cards. Again, this is a financial goal debt, right?

And it's very hard to accomplish goals. And you're not using the proper tools or plan like a budget, right?

You can have a weight loss goal all day long, but if you don't got the tools and the plans in place, you're not going to accomplish that goal. Same thing with your finances, right? So understand which one's attacking you.

First, be on a tool that's actually going to help you accomplish these goals. And then also another way to think about it, like, please consult a professional on this and be very responsible with this. Right?

But there's a lot of better forms of debt that you can transfer credit cards to, right?

For example, a personal loan with the bank at 10% is a lot better form of a debt and a lot cheaper of an interest rate and probably monthly payment than $20,000 in credit card debt, right? Credit card debt is what's called consumer debt, and that's what crushes your credit score, right? It's looked at as bad debt on your credit report.

A personal loan is like a car loan. It's like a student loan. It's like a mortgage.

It's called an installment debt, which is a good form of debt, at least from a credit reporting standpoint, right?

And so not only is it better on your credit score, it's cheaper interest, one monthly payment instead of to month, multiple different creditors, and probably a cheaper monthly payment as well. And it actually helps you build your credit every time you make a payment. I'm not advising people on here to go rack up unnecessary debt.

That's not what I'm saying. But I think scripture is actually very clear that, like, they don't advise against all debt, right?

They advise against irresponsible borrowing, right? They say that borrowing and not paying back is what's evil, right?

Bad debt is buying things you don't need with money that you don't have, with no plan how to pay it off. We're at a high interest rate in a way that doesn't glorify God, right? And so scripture does talk about, like, if debt is necessary, right?

If it's necessary, just go about it with extreme caution, right? Extreme caution. And so not to say avoid a mortgage or a car payment, stuff like that, but like what? Even if it's necessary debt, right?

Pray, read scripture, seek wise counsel, pray again, and create an optimal debt payoff plan before you even touch any form of debt, right? And then go about it if you hear from the Lord, right, that he is calling you to go about it that way.

So before I get down that rabbit hole, let me come back and get this train back on the tracks, right? And so to answer your question, they're dealing with bad debt. We gotta, we gotta just, just like a budget. We gotta get clear on it.

What's actually going on here, what cards, what interest rates, how much is on there? How much is it costing you? Pick the one that's costing you the most.

Then either use your own funds or figure out how to very responsibly and very biblically sound transfer it to a better form of debt to make the payoff more manageable and cost you less money in the process. And overall, this is a financial goal. You have to follow tools or have tools that help you accomplish goals.

And a solid budgeting system is going to help you do that.

What do you want to be remembered for?

What? What I want to be remembered for? Sorry, for the audience, I'm pausing. I prayed before every single one of my events, every single one of my podcasts.

I just say, God, just help Me make disciples. Help me make disciples. And so I want to. Or one of my favorite quotes is the loudest sermon who'll ever preach is the life you live.

And so I want to be remembered for making disciples, you know, living a life that represents Jesus and being able to spread his word in the most truthful and biblically sound possible way.

So another thing we started doing on the show is a surprise question. Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.

10. It was my, my high school lacrosse number.

Oh, I love this one. Who would you most like to sit next to on a 10 hour flight and why?

Jesus, you know Jesus. That's obviously everybody knows why. So I'll pick, I'll pick another one. I'll pick another one. Obviously Jesus is the given answer. Flight.

Man, I honestly this is coming to mind here. Even though he's kind of a competitor and I'm being called the new and improved version of him in the online space is Dave Ramsey.

You know, I may not see eye to eye with everything he teaches and you know, but he's a great guy. He's in a lot of great things.

The reason why is because he's just, he's worked with so many Christians around their finances and probably has from that experience so much wisdom on how to best serve these people. And so it'd be a funny conversation, be a great 10 hour flight.

But I think that that would serve not just me, but the kingdom so well because he'd be able to share so much wisdom with me to what I would say to, to carry on the torch here for the next generation.

Where can people best connect with you, find you on social media and learn more about the Good Steward.

Yeah, absolutely. So JustinBuanamo, you can find me on Instagram. My last name's a disaster. So just look at the, the, the show notes to find the spelling.

You'll find me on there. It's the best way to contact me. And then my company's name is Journey to Financial Freedom. It's a company name.

The program's name is the Good Steward Program. And so you can go to my company's website. Awesome website, super informative.

Got a lot of details about the program and you can book a call with one of my team members to see if it's a good fit for you. But it's called Journeytofinancialfreedom co not dot com. The drop in the M saved us like $5,000 on the domain.

And so Journeytofinancialfreedom.com co is the website.

Well Justin, thank you for sharing your story, your heart and for helping others experience freedom not just financially but spiritually and emotionally.

Your work reminds us that money isn't just a tool, it's a discipleship issue, a stewardship, responsibility and a pathway to impacting future generations for our listeners.

If you find this conversation stirring something in you and you're able to take control of your finances without shame, fear or confusion to check out Justin's good steward program and the resources from Journey to Financial Freedom. The links will be in the show notes. Today's episode encouraged you.

Please subscribe, leave a review and share with someone who needs the hope and practical wisdom we discussed today. Until next time, keep building bridges, keep walking in purpose and keep becoming who God created you to be. Until next time. See See you later.

Thanks a lot Justin.

No problem. Thanks for having me.