Should Christians pursue wealth?

The Bible seems to send mixed messages about money. It says, "Better is little with the fear of the Lord" but also "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life." So what should our mindset be as Christian business owners?

Today I'm talking with Gino Barbaro, a certified money coach and real estate investor who homeschools his six kids. He's learned hard lessons about money, scarcity, and what God wants for us.

Gino shared a powerful quote: "Money does not corrupt an individual—it reveals the individual." If you want to create impact and serve families, you'll need to make money. Money is just a tool.

Legacy isn't just financial—it's three things: human capital (faith), intellectual capital (wisdom), and financial capital (resources). Without the first two, wealth disappears.

Gino was paralyzed by fear during the 2008 recession, stuck in victim mentality. His turning point came when he stopped being a victim and got clarity on where he wanted to go.

Four Steps to Change Your Money Mindset:

1. Stop being a victim
2. Get clarity on what you want
3. Go easy on yourself
4. Examine your money biography—what you heard about money as a kid is still playing on repeat

We don't own anything. God owns everything. We're stewards. Profit is the fuel, not the destination.

How can we honor God in our business?

By keeping Jesus at the center. By being stewards, not owners. By using money as fuel for legacy—not the destination.

One challenge from today:

Examine your money mindset. Are you operating from fear and scarcity, or trust and abundance?

More About Gino Barbaro

Website www.barbaro360.com

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@barbaro-360

Book: Happy Money Happy Family Happy Legacy https://a.co/d/9k5dTTP

More About David Schmidt

Free Resource: What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for the Modern Business

Subscribe to the RBT Weekly Newsletter for weekly simple, practical, and Biblical steps to help you build a thriving business in a way that honors God.

Newsletter also comes with Bible verses for business success for you to read, apply, and be inspired by.

Book a call: Get Unstuck and Move Forward

Website: redeemingbusinesstoday.com

LinkedIn

Donate to the Show

Mentioned in this episode:

Leadership GPS: Christian Business Coaching

Are you looking to integrate your faith and business but don't know where to start, book a time to discover if Christian business coaching and training might be right for you. If you are dissatisfied with your current rate of improvement, desire a clearer vision of what God says about business, or even what those first steps may look like, let's talk.

Initial GPS Coaching Call

What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for Modern Business

If you want to go deeper in your walk with God and integrate your faith and business this is the tool to make it happen. God has laid out the path to success without the regrets and emptiness that come with success the world's way. Download your FREE pdf resource today. A 10-minute investment of your time will return a lifetime of transformation.

What God Says About Business

The Bible says, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. But it also says by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life. Better is the little with righteousness than great revenues without right. The blessing of the Lord makes rich, but he no sows to it. And then Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evil. And if you just look on the surface, it seems like some of these verses are contrary to one another, talks about all these different things, but.

The question I have for today is as Christians, what should be our mindset about money? And especially when you're looking at a business owner growing and scaling your business, is it a godly work to scale and become wealthy? What does God say about money and wealth building? Well, today I brought on Gino Barbaro, who is a certified money coach. He's also a real estate investor coach and one who loves Jesus and to talk about believers, the mindset we believers have and should have concerning money.

So Gino, welcome to our podcast. And to start off with, ⁓ what is one way that you have found to honor God in your business that other people may not know about?

David, I love the question. ⁓ Thanks for having me on. I was actually sitting at Mass yesterday and our pastor, Father Martin, it actually was the Feast of the Holy Family yesterday and it was really awesome because tons of families there and he said, if you want to replicate the Holy Family, you need to put Jesus at the center of your family. And I think that's probably the way that I honor God is by always thinking of having

Jesus at the center of the family and I'm always looking at st. Joseph as the role model as to what I should do as how I should lead my family because st. Joseph, you know Can you imagine getting married and then finding out that your wife is pregnant and you have to trust in God You have to trust in the Holy Spirit. He comes down and then you say yes I'll take her in and then all of a sudden you get threatened and you have a dream and then you have to go to Egypt and you have to wait and then come back there's a lot of trust there and

Yeah

I think it's just really, really cool way for me to look at it from that perspective, trying to be just like St. Joseph, and then also trying to keep Jesus in the center of our life. And then you bring in the whole money situation into it. Money has been a pretty novel idea over the last few generations. mean, money was basically used to barter. mean, before we had money, there was bartering. So you don't really need money. I think that was the concept, David. And I think now,

Money has become so emotional. Money, it's just really interesting. And there's so many of us that have really a bad relationship with money because we take our patterns, our behaviors, our beliefs. They're formed when we're little kids. They're formed from our parents and from our relatives and from family members, and they're brought into adulthood. And we're confused as children. Then when we become adults, we don't really understand our relationship with money. And we're trying to figure it out as we're adults and we're making

big decisions as adults, but we're reverting back to the patterns that we learned as young youngsters.

yeah, and I know also some of the mindset of Christians today is like a pendulum swing from the prosperity gospel, where, you know, come to Jesus, you'll be prosperous and all will be well for you. That's not exactly how it goes. You could be prosperous, but Jesus, says Jesus also let us an example that we may suffer and follow in his steps. So it's not completely that way. And I think as Christians, we kind of have swung. So instead of being wealthy, it's like, okay, let's be poverty.

poverty mindset. But yeah, so that's kind why we're talking today, to try to hopefully come a little bit back more biblical minded there. ⁓ So to give us just my audience a little bit background and so that they know that you know what you're talking about. Give us a little background too of what you've been doing in the past and how God has led you in your business today.

huh.

I love that. I love

That's an interesting question. I always ask myself, do I really know what I'm talking about? And the quote in the Bible, those who shall be exalted shall be humbled and those who shall be humbled shall be exalted. So I never want to ever think of myself as an expert on any topic because I'm not, because I understand that a smart person knows the answer to all the questions and a wise person knows the right questions to ask. And I'd rather err on the side of being wise because I don't know all the answers.

Hehehehehe

All I know is that I have a collection of stories and a collection of my history of what I've gone through. I have six children, ages 26 to 11. We've homeschooled the kids ever since my first daughter was born. When it wasn't cool to homeschool, when God said to me, you know what, I don't think your path is sending your kids to school. I think your path is having them home, suffering, having people make fun of you, being ostracized.

You know, literally I would have construction guys coming in at the time I had a restaurant. They'd be making fun of me because your homeschooling your kids and that's difficult, but I had to trust in God and more importantly, I did trust in my wife as well to say that this was the right decision for your family and it was a hard one. And like you said, sometimes it's not. It's not an easy path. Very difficult. It probably took a good 15 years before I said to myself we made the right decision.

You have to stick in with it. You really do. There's times when you don't quit. But I knew deep down inside, I knew what our values were. And I think for anybody listening, the first thing that you should be doing as you're listening to this is dive in to what your values are. David and I are not here to tell you what to do. David and I are here to share our experiences and what's worked for us, what hasn't worked for us. But I think the values, the values-based decision-making

That's a long time, yeah. Yeah, yep.

will guide you and help you make decisions that are right for you. And that's why homeschooling was right for us because it aligned with our values of family, of faith, of us teaching our kids the faith, of us having not our kids in the world at such a young age and having friends that we didn't know who their friends were and being able to control certain things. That worked for us and it's.

⁓ yeah.

continued to work for us. love that. And every decision we try to make, whether it's starting a business, whether it's buying a property, whatever it is, it has to align with our vision and our values.

Absolutely. That's great. And no, that's good. And I don't, yeah, I don't ever feel like I am the expert and everything I say is true and you got to listen to me, but yeah, we go by our examples, the life and the things that we've learned along the way. ⁓ So money, Paul said that the love of money is the root of all evil. And so how do you reconcile scaling your business and profits and not loving money? How do those two reconcile?

Mm-hmm.

It's interesting. just shared, think a quote with you before we hit the record button and it was, and I truly believe this money does not corrupt an individual. I think it reveals the individual. So if you're a really good, you know, well-intentioned, hardworking person who wants to earn money, to be able to create impact, to be able to become more generous, to be able to feed more families, to be able to create more jobs, to be able to have more impact.

Mmm, good.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to make more money. Money is just a result. That's all it is. It's just a tool. Now, some people may be hearing this and saying it's crazy. If I just made a little bit more money, then my problems would be solved. And I'm here to tell you that is not the truth because I've lived it. I thought when I became financially free from my restaurant and I got into the real estate, all of sudden all of my problems were solved. I just started having different problems.

To me, and when I look at it, David, I wrote a book called Happy Money, Happy Family, Happy Legacy. What I want people to do is I want them to earn happy money. I want them to find their passion, their sole purpose, why they were put on this planet. I want them to have an abundance mindset so when they go to work, they're not miserable like I was at the restaurant for years, going to work for a paycheck, being stuck at a job that felt like I had no hope.

Sure.

You know, and then one day I woke up and I said, God, why am I here? Am I wasting my time? Am I creating one of the seven deadly sins of sloth where I'm sitting in back of the kitchen, hiding, washing dishes, when I should really be out there amplifying whatever gifts you gave me? It wasn't for me about the money at that point. It was for me about the frustration of knowing that I was created for something better. And I know if I did something better and I got better at it, ultimately, the better you get at something, the more money you make.

Hmm.

better the results will show up. And then it's up to you what you wanna do with that money. We're not here to tell you what to do with it, but once again, it has to align with your values. I don't feel comfortable going out and spending money on bling and all this excess. That's not in my realm, right? That's not the relationship that I have with money. But if it is with you, that's fine. Just understand it's okay the way you want to divert your resources. You've worked.

really hard with it, but I think it as we're having this conversation, just to take a look back and reflect that, hey, you've been bestowed with these gifts, you're becoming really a steward of your money. How do you want to direct steward? And when we talk about legacy, because legacy is so important, there's a quote in the Bible that says, a good man leaves his children's children and inheritance. It's in the book of Proverbs. To me, when I heard that, I actually heard it on an Instagram reel. I'm like, I want to be that.

Yeah.

And it's

not only an inheritance of money, it's an inheritance of three things in legacy. It's human capital, it's intellectual capital, and it's financial capital. I want to leave my kids our faith, and I want my grandkids and my great grandkids to continue to practice the faith. The financial component, the money component is only one of the three. Then the intellectual component is all of the books that I've read and written, all of the YouTube videos that I've done.

all the teachings that I've done, I want to be able to pass them on to my children and I want them to pass them on to their kids to continue that legacy. So when we talk about legacy and money, that's just one component of it. We have to look at the other two components, which I think are much more important than just the financial component. But those other two components will prepare them for the financial component.

Sure. And what's interesting is you've heard the comment, I think it was Benjamin Franklin that said it, maybe not, that a fool and his money is soon parted. Yeah, you can have a wise person who is rich and he stays rich, but a foolish person who is wealthy tends to disperse that money and it's gone and he becomes poor again because he doesn't know how to handle it correctly. that intellectual, yeah.

Yes.

Mm hmm. And David, you had

mentioned you had mentioned ⁓ earlier about the relationship with money and why some people spend more and some people don't. This is an important, important component because you said the wise person tends to keep money and tends to multiply. There's basic rules of money, of perpetuating and continue to grow wealth. And I think one of those rules is you have to be able to save money. You can't just go out and spend money.

Yes.

The second one is if you are a spender, you need to understand why you're spending money. We have ⁓ a lot of times we have an identity crisis, we have shame around money. We think that, hey, we spend money, we get that dopamine hit, it makes you feel good. And then a couple weeks later, the dopamine, or even a couple hours later, it's worn off and you need another dopamine hit and you don't understand why you're caught in this cycle. Well, that's what the money coaching is all about. That's what the relationship with money is all about.

understanding why you're doing certain things that aren't allowing you to grow your money. That's where I think we have to really have a conversation with each individual, understanding it, because there is a lot of shame and a lot of fear and a lot of anxiety around money. And if you have all those components around money and you start making some money, well, what's gonna happen? Are you gonna continue to grow it or do you have this un...

subconscious or unconscious feeling that hey, not really worthy. I don't really know if I should keep this or I'm not really sure what I should do with this. I don't really deserve it. Well, then ends up happening you end up losing the money unconsciously.

Hmm, never thought about that. That's good, that's good. ⁓ Yeah, question. And we talked about this a little bit before, because I think this is one of our contentions that people have when they look at money, when Christians look at money. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all they had and follow him. Was that just for him or do you think we're supposed to follow that same command with our wealth?

That is another great question. right before we hit the record button, I said that I had interviewed a gentleman who wrote a book called The Makers Versus The Takers. And in that parable, Jesus was speaking to ⁓ a Pharisee or a Sanhedrin, someone in the upper class in Jerusalem, in Judea, where there was the money center. He was speaking directly to that individual and

For me, from what this author said, he said he was basically talking to the higher class and Jesus, the way he was describing it, he felt as if the higher class, the upper class was manipulating and taking advantage of the lower class and the middle class. And it's sort of emblematic of what's going on today. We have our politicians sitting in office, ripping us off, laundering hundreds of millions of dollars, and they're there lecturing us and they're telling us what to do and they're taking

our money and it feels very similar to what's going on back in Jesus's time where the upper classes would control. That's why he went into the temple, he threw the money changes. Every time he had an issue with money, this author said that he always talked about it in a negative light when he was in Judea or in Jerusalem, AKA Washington DC. That's where you have issues with money and to me, I sat there and I'm like, that makes a lot of sense because when he was in Galilee, when he was in Nazareth, when

You didn't hear anything negative being talked about money. Now, obviously, I think it's really important for us and I'm a huge proponent, big fan of David Green from Hobby Lobby. I think his model is incredible and I truly have come to the realization that he said, we don't really own anything. God really owns everything. And that's been really hard for me because of my pride and my ego and I'm a real estate investor, but.

I've come to the realization that that's probably true. But while I have it here, I need to take care of it because I have renters in these in these apartment units. I have quote unquote partners. I have investors. I have employees. I need to maximize what I'm doing to be able to maintain that whole structure. And then obviously, when I pass away, that's going to be going to my children. So I need to really create the foundation to be able to do all of that work. But for me, it's come less

as it's just all mine, my mind. I really need to be steward of that, take really good care of that and be able to say, okay, God, what do want me to do this thing? Do you want me to keep buying these deals? And David, that's why I created the Happy Money Book and I've created our Barbero360 company because I think that's where he's leading me. He's leading me to teach families about financial independence. Our motto was people with financial intelligence can change the world for the better. I flipped that into families.

with financial intelligence can change the world for the better. If you can help families out with their conversations about money, with their struggles about money, with being open and honest, where spouses can really have great empowering conversations about what they fear about money, about what their goals and hopes and dreams are, and teach them some of the laws and some of the rules about money, man, we can create something in

Sure. Neat.

in this country where we don't need the government anymore. We can become self-dependent and we can really create some kind of legacy for our kids.

Yep, and it's interesting that you say that about families, because as you look through the Bible, God works through families, not just individuals, but families and the fathers in leading their families. It's a generational thing. And like you said, you pass your knowledge, your wealth, everything onto your children as well. Very good.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So we've kind of beat around the bush a little bit and not beat around the bush, we've talked about a little bit, ⁓ asking the question right out, what do you believe the mindset, what do you believe God should have, nah, sorry, scratch all that. What mindset do you believe God wants Christians to have concerning money?

I remember listening to Zig Ziglar years ago and he was always talking about the abundance mindset and I don't remember the quote and he's like, well, God didn't make the jewels for the devil. He made it for us basically. And I don't remember exactly how the quote goes, but it always struck me that there's so many beautiful things in this world and why did God create it? He created it for us to use. Now we have to use it responsibly and I think at one point, like you said, we were talking about

Ha ha ha ha.

making all of this money. And if it's just ego-driven, if it's just pride-driven, to me, that's not why I'm in business. Maybe it was when I was really young and I didn't understand, but as I've gotten older and hopefully a little bit wiser, that's not the only reason why I'm here to make money, is to go out and buy my next car or to go out and do my next vacation. I really want to leave a legacy for my kids and I want them to understand and have a better relationship with money because it is generational.

because whatever I'm teaching my children, it's gonna go into them and they're gonna pass it along to their kids. So for me, when I'm thinking about creating businesses and making money, I don't wanna go at it at a standpoint from just being pride driven or ego driven. I wanna really build a viable business that creates a tremendous amount of value for the community and for the families that I'm serving. And if I get really good at that, I think money's just gonna show up. Money is just like I said before.

is the result. For me, profit is the fuel. It's not the destination. Whereas years ago, profit would have been the destination. I need to do this deal because I need to make this money. No, I need to do this deal because it's going to fuel my legacy and it's going to fuel my vision and it's going to fuel my mission statement for my company and for my family.

I like that, I like that. That the money is not the purpose, but the money is a result of that. It's interesting in Psalm 112, it says, is the man that fears the Lord, that greatly delights in his commandments. It says he will be wealth and riches are in his house. But then later on it says he has dispersed, he has given to the poor. He just doesn't keep it all for himself, but he uses that money to benefit other people as well. And so that's what you talk about as far as a legacy and.

Mm-hmm. Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

not just for your family, but to bless the community as well. So in looking at all that, what are some simple practical steps we can take to change our mindset? If we have a scarcity mindset and we're supposed to have an abundance mindset, what are some simple practical steps we can take to shift or change that mindset concerning money?

Well, for me personally, when I was on my journey and I was stuck in the scarcity mindset, it was 2008, the great recession. I was afraid. I had four kids at the time. The restaurant wasn't doing well. I picked up a book by T. Harvacher called the Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. And in it, he said, your fruits are in your roots. And I was really pissed at him because I'm like, he doesn't know me. And then I sat there and I said, yeah, my roots are pretty shallow.

I don't have a lot not providing a lot of value for people. And hence, I don't have any fruits on my tree. I think the first thing that you need to understand is that you have the responsibility and the control to direct your life in any way you want. If you're a victim, number one, you will never dig yourself out of a hole. That's the reality. And I was a victim for those year that 18 months I was paralyzed with fear.

And I think once I understood that, it's almost like a cloud lifted over me. Now, was I successful immediately? No. But what that allowed me to do was, okay, now, Gino, what do you want to do? I don't want to continue to complain. I don't want to continue to blame Obama or Bush or the global meltdown because there are people that are doing really well. I'm not one of them. What are they doing? And I saw a lot of personal development.

I saw a lot of mentoring. That's when I started to my mentoring in the real estate space and multifamily. I really learned the business. That quote that you had about Benjamin Franklin, I was one of those. A person with money meets a person with experience. The person with the experience gets the money and the person with the money gets the experience. That was me because I didn't understand real estate. I didn't understand the investing aspect of it. I was just speculating.

Sure.

you

Be aware of it. I think number two, David, ask yourself, what do you want to do in life? For me, when I was at the restaurant, early on I would say, well, I don't want to be at the restaurant. Great, that's not the question. The question is, where do you want to be? I think we don't lack the motivation, we lack the clarity. And I wasn't clear on what I wanted to do. Once I read T. Harv's book and I said, wow.

Yes, sure.

If I start investing in myself and I start learning about real estate, I can eventually own a deal and then maybe two deals and then maybe start owning some money and having a side hustle. And then eventually I can leave the restaurant and go into real estate full time. I think you need to have those baby steps and have those realizations. And, and I think, I think the third step was just go a little bit easier on yourself. I think there's so much, ⁓ so, so many of us out there.

that really struggle with our identity, really struggle with, I don't wanna say self-loathing, but you know, the quote, what is the quote? You know, love thyself as thy neighbor. Well, that doesn't, love as your neighbor yourself, right? But that presupposes that you love yourself. I mean, how many people out there really can say, love, not very many people love ourselves. And that's the tricky part, right? So we're already going from fear. So understanding that,

Love your neighbor as yourself.

is really, really important. And once you start looking at that, and then what we do in money coaching, we have people fill out a money bio, you go back into your earliest memories and start looking at what happens when you're young. What did you hear about money? What didn't you hear about money? Did you worry in the grocery store when you're seven years old and your mom said, Hey, we can't afford that, put that back. And now you're 42 years old, and you're fighting with your wife about a $10 coffee that you can afford.

but you think you can't afford because when you're six years old, that memory comes back to you and it's on repeat. That's the incredible part about it. I know people who are wealthy who are still very, very, for lack of a better word, parsimonious. Why? Why are you struggling with money? It's not that they want to, it's just that they're so preconditioned and they're so wired into having these behaviors and the beliefs that it's almost automatic or almost unconscious that it happens. So I think the next step would just to become aware.

Become aware of your habits, of the thoughts that pop into your mind, of the feelings you have when something comes up, of the arguments you have. Just start becoming aware of it, because most of us, believe it or not, we are not, and I can attest to that, because for years I struggled with my wife about money. I was always afraid. I have to say for the future, I can't pay for braces now. I'm not gonna have money to send them to college, or I'm not gonna have enough money for them to go to get married. I mean, that's fear.

There's a lot of fear involved in it. There's not much trust in God in that when I was younger. There really wasn't. And that's where I struggled. But I think few of those simple steps just to become aware, just to become what you want, just to become, once again, aware of those thoughts that you're having is, I think, where anybody should start.

Very good. Those are four really good steps. We're going to try to include those into the show notes so you guys can have them. But Gino, this has been great. Do you have any final thoughts to inspire or challenge my audience today about money?

Mindset. You had spoken about mindset. And if anyone wants to read an excellent book, Mindset by Carol Dweck changed my mind about how I actually converse and talk to my kids, how I look at when I go back in time and I say, well, wow, why was I so good at something and I was terrible at something else? And it really came down in her book. She talks about the two mindsets, the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset. And I was like,

What a ⁓ simple but ingenious concept. If you have the growth mindset, you're not worried about what anybody else says. You understand that you weren't born a natural born singer, let's say. You have to learn this and it's all about the journey. There's not really problems in life. There's only opportunities and there's only learning lessons. That's what the growth mindset has versus the fixed mindset where a lot of us are, especially when we're victims.

It's not my fault. It's not the right time. I don't have the money. You can make all the excuses in the world and that's where the fixed mindset goes. So if you want to read a rather it was actually a pretty easy read. Mindset by Carol Dweck was a phenomenal book for you to start out to actually challenge yourself as to what thoughts you put into your mind and are you exhibiting a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

Very good. Gino, thank you so much for your time and encouragement today. And friends, if you want to go deeper and to learn more about Gino's work, we're going to have those links in the show notes. So go ahead and check them out. And finally, remember, your business represents the great God you serve. So build a business worthy of God's name and in a way that honors Him. Bye for now.