169: You might be funding things you don’t believe in

Jim Brangenberg: Your retirement years can be filled with meaning and purpose as you connect your faith and your retirement days.

Martha Brangenberg: Welcome to iRetire4Him. We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Check us out online at iRetire4Him.com.

Jim Brangenberg: We all wanna change the world. All of us wanna change the world. We all want the world to be a better place when we leave it than when we got it. That's the beauty of our retirement years. We have the flexibility to impact the world around us in so many ways. We're no longer fettered by an 8:00 to 5:00 job.

Our future has been freed with limitless possibilities on how to make an impact. It's what this podcast is all about, letting God transform our thinking about how we live out our faith in our retirement years. But wait - there's that money thing always hanging over your head. Will there be enough? Will our investments pay off? Will our monthly income provide enough so we can have fun and make an impact?

Of course, we're all wondering those same questions, but what if our investments could make an impact while we personally make an impact? What if your investment portfolio has the opportunity to make a kingdom impact just like the way you spend the time on the clock?

Your portfolio can move from a portfolio that is haphazard at best on making a positive impact to a 100% making an impact for the kingdom with Biblically Responsible Investing. Luke Andrews has partnered with our ministry since day one of iWork4Him over 13 years ago. He's here today as a faithful partner of our ministry to help each one of us in the iRetire4Him crowd make an impact with our investments, too.

Luke Andrews with Inspire Advisors, welcome to iRetire4Him.

Luke Andrews: Yeah, it's great to be here, and I can't even believe 13 years. You're good at math, Jim.

Jim Brangenberg: I was thinking about it. It was actually December of 2012 when I started talking about it and February of 2013 when I said, "Hey, I'm going on the air," and you're like, "I'll be a part of that."

Luke Andrews: Yeah. So- Yeah, I think, was it one day a week it, when it started? One day a week, that's right ... and then it went to three days, and then five days, and then now it's just continued to grow, and I am thankful to be a part of... it was always iWork4Him, so being here with iRetire4Him is, it's a pretty awesome experience and happy to be here.

Jim Brangenberg: And it's been quite a development, iRetire4Him, which, Ted came up with. Yeah, martha's dad came up with that idea. So let's get going, Luke. Everyone wants to know if they're gonna have enough for retirement. That's important to know, isn't it?

Luke Andrews: Yeah, because, at some point everyone's gonna have that in the back of their mind, right? Maybe when you're... I would say, my kids, my son just graduated high school, my daughter's 24, they're probably not really thinking about retirement, but there's gonna be a point in time when you move away from the accumulation phase of your life where you're growing, you're building- to where you're getting out to a point where it's gonna be a distribution phase, right? Where now you're no longer bringing money in, the money is going out. And, whether or not you're in that, if you're listening to this show, iRetire4Him, you're probably a little closer than my son and daughter. It is, it's in the back of all of our minds. Proverbs 15:22, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed."

You could go put in the Grok or ChatGPT how many scriptures there are about planning, and there's plenty of guidance in those areas. So yeah, if you're not thinking about it yet today, you should be, number one. And then secondly, if you are thinking about it, then we can actually come alongside you and give you a Biblical perspective on the retirement.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah. And, we love so much what you do, Luke, and I look forward to the rest of this conversation. And I just wanna think about this for a minute. Having enough, as we say, whatever that is, is truly like saying, with the iRetire4Him crowd, that I'm a fully funded missionary. I'm able to- work for free, make my life have impact wherever I go, whatever I do. Do you have clients that actually think that way?

Luke Andrews: Yeah. Not all of them are gonna think that way or may not even use those exact words- ... when you say fully funded missionary. I think that's a great way to put it. And I would say a lot of my cl- again, I have older clients, I have younger clients.

I would say specifically to my pre-retirement or retirement clients, I have these meetings all the time where we're doing annual reviews, and one of the things that we do in our annual reviews is we check the returns, right? And I have clients that are over 70 and a half, which is when you can start doing qualified charitable distributions.

I also have clients with high taxable highly appreciated stock that we can gift. So some of the neatest things that we get to do is come alongside those clients, those individuals who have those opportunities, and we're celebrating, not because your account has grown, right? When we do our reviews. One of the things that we review is the returns. And when I'm doing my reviews, one of the coolest things I get to, to think about is I know that Jim and Martha aren't looking to go buy a new house or to go buy an expensive hobby or pick up an expensive hobby.

I know that these clients are kingdom-minded, a lot of these returns and this money isn't gonna go to the IRS in taxes. It's gonna be smartly distributed in a way that avoids those taxes and builds the kingdom. So yeah I do have quite a few clients. It's a train of thought, right? It's a new, it's a paradigm shift of accumulation to retire. Now you're retired. Now what, right? And and so I do. And it's actually a joy of mine to get to see those and to help in those things.

Jim Brangenberg: I think there's another important question we should be asking as well. Is our portfolio making a kingdom impact as, while it's being used by God to provide for me? Can my investments actually make a kingdom impact?

Luke Andrews: Yeah. It should, right? Proverbs 3:9, "Honor the Lord with your wealth." Again, there, there's lots of scriptures that also, if you wanna know how to... That everything belongs to God, right? We are really just stewards of it. And it, this is a it's a new training of thinking, right?

When you've retired, you've accumulated assets. Are they honoring the Lord? Can... Number one, can they honor the Lord? And I would say yes, there is a way to honor the Lord, because we're supposed to, we're supposed to be good stewards of what God has asked us to do. This is something that Inspire, our team at Inspire, takes dearly, not just with your investments, but it's how do we give more, right?

The scriptures tell us to leave an inheritance to your kids and grandkids. How do we plan for those things effectively? So there are... We should be thinking about ways that our investments are going to impact the kingdom, and not necessarily when you go home to be with the Lord. That's not fun.

What are some- ... strategies and things that you can do today, while you're alive, to have some joy in those opportunities, to be a blessing to ministry or your kids or grandkids, so forth.

Jim Brangenberg: Yes. Have some fun with your investments. Now, I like that. Yeah. I like that very much.

Martha Brangenberg: That's so good. So Luke, we believe that even a potluck can be a kingdom impact. So this summer we are challenging the iRetire4Him listeners to have a potluck, a picnic, a social or gathering of some type in the neighborhood. Food and fun are two of the best ways to get to know your neighbors and let them get to know you. Remember listeners, send us a photo of your picnic, and one of you will be drawn to win an amazing prize at the end of the summer. Email the picture to jim@iwork4him.com.

Jim Brangenberg: Luke, I think in order for us to understand Biblically Responsible Investing, we need to understand non-Biblically Responsible Investing. Talk to us about this, Luke.

Luke Andrews: So yeah, it's a good question. First, what Biblically Responsible Investing is it's a process, an investment philosophy that we look to eliminate companies that are selling or generating revenue, celebrating, selling products, or even supporting through activism or philanthropy anything that's antithetical to biblical values.

So that's essentially what the philosophy or the strategy of what Biblically Responsible Investing is. So I like giving an example because I think that helps. So I've just told you what we try to do. We're gonna avoid companies that are invested in or, are selling and distributing pornography, that are distributing the abortion drug, that are paying for employees' abortion travel, that are heavily involved in anti-family matters. And then alcohol, gambling, tobacco as well.

So Amazon would be a really good example, that they have a negative score, a negative impact score, which Inspire has developed our own system for analyzing stocks and what they sell, don't sell, what they support. Amazon, most people understand them as a, as an online retailer.

You need a light bulb that's this obscure little light bulb, and you can have it to your doorstep that same day or the next morning at 4:00 AM, right? They don't also realize that Amazon supports abortion travel, so part of a healthcare benefit... and this again, one... when you own a piece of Amazon, whether directly through your stock or a mutual fund or an ETF, you are taking part in the profits of a company that's doing these things.

So there's some ownership, right? So Amazon distributes the abortion drug. Amazon distributes and sells pornography. They're big supporters of - They're, they have a high Human Rights Campaign score, which is a very LGBTQ what do we call it? They... It's o- one of their... anyway, it's an organization that's very pro-LGBTQ and Amazon is a big part of that. So Amazon would never be in our portfolio. So that's a good example of what an, a non-BRI holding would be.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay, so let's take a moment right now to tell people about that great little place they can go and look up stocks if they're interested in just finding out "I've always wanted to invest in this company," or what. Tell us about that, Luke.

Luke Andrews: Yeah. We just, we did that right before the show. You had a question about a stock. And it, you would go to www.inspireinsight.com, so inspireinsight.com. Soon as you get there on the front page you'll have some information, but there's gonna be a search bar.

And you can put the ticker symbol of pretty much any stock that's publicly traded, ETF or mutual fund. The ticker symbols, right? That's the identifier of that position. And we don't just, we don't just give Amazon a negative 93 score, okay? We have a white paper that we did on it that explains how we calculate that score.

But it depends on, if they distribute pornography how much of their revenue and business, and how much pornography do they distribute? One, it's bad to do it anyway, but then the higher portion of revenues or exposure you become, you're gonna get a higher negative score.

Same with abortion. They distribute the abortion drug, several of them. So that affects that negative score. So what we do is when you search Amazon or any other stock, once you pull it up, you're gonna get a score, but it, there's gonna be some dropdown buckets, some little buttons, and it's gonna say, "Abortifacients," or it's gonna say, "Sexually explicit." And when you click on those, it sources. So we don't just say, "Hey, trust us." We let you trust, and then you can verify it directly through links. So that's inspireinsight.com.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay. So say I look at my portfolio, I pick a couple of companies and I put in their ticker symbol, and I'm shocked at where my investments, what they're supporting, and what I am getting income from, right? Through the gains. How do then I or a person - i've already done this, because Jim and I were very convicted about this years ago, but how does somebody listening then take their portfolio from being worldly focused- ... non-biblically responsible to more kingdom focused?

Luke Andrews: Yeah you and Jim gave me a book, I Found Jesus in the Stock Market, right?

Jim Brangenberg: 10 years ago I got that book.

Martha Brangenberg: Long time.

Luke Andrews: I share that story quite a bit, especially if the client or prospect really likes their current financial advisor, right? Because the Christian, in Christian households there's over $22 trillion of investible 401k money. That's not all the other money.

So there's plenty of assets to manage. We need more Christian financial advisors doing Biblically Responsible Investing. So the first thing that I always usually do is say, "Hey, go talk to your current advisor. Let them know what you've found out and see what they have to say. If you like them and if they are a believer, my guess is they're probably gonna be shocked or you might hear a couple of these different objections. If you start getting pushback on the objections then come to me and then I'll take care, I'll help you work through those issues."

But yeah so if you self-manage, and that's quite easy, right? You just need the resources, and you can connect with me through investbri.com, or you can call me at 727-798-4188, and I'd be more than happy to kinda help you, walk you through what that transition looks like. So that is important.

If you have a taxable account that has a lot of stocks in it that have done really well over the last 10 years, you don't wanna convert that entire portfolio overnight and pay hundreds of thousands in capital gains. We have strategies for that as well. Sometimes it's a one-year, a two-year, or a five-year strategy in some cases.

Jim Brangenberg: I think it's important for us... Here's why we brought the conversation to the iRetire4Him audience. We have, you just noted the number, $22 trillion in Christ-following retiree accounts. I don't know how many of those people are actually retired and, what that number is, but the number is in the trillions of dollars, and we have the ability to make an impact with our money.

And right now, a lot of our money's invested in places that they specifically then invest in either- Yeah ... organizations or activities that are opposite of what we stand for as followers of Jesus. Yeah. And so it's important that we look at this because we can make a difference by moving our portfolios and moving away from companies that spit in the face of Jesus followers.

Luke, if I move - when you first started with Inspire, they were managing several hundred million dollars. Now they're managing billions ... now they're managing billions of dollars. Is it making a difference? Is anybody gonna notice at these big companies if I move my portfolio?

Luke Andrews: It's... that's a good point. It's kinda if you have one member of a church, you don't get much done, right? But if you've got a community, 100 people, wow, you're starting to make impact on the community, on the members of the church. If you've got thousands, now your outreach is even bigger, and it's the same thing with Inspire.

There's three pillars to what Inspire does, okay? One of 'em is Biblically Responsible Investing. We are gonna do our absolute best to steward, which you are asked to do as well, and you don't own it, I don't own it, but we are called to be managers of it. So we're gonna steward your investments the best we can in a way that's gonna align with biblical values through that strategy or philosophy of Biblically Responsible Investing.

The next thing we do is give 50, okay? We give 50% of our corporate net profits, of fees to mission work, kingdom building. Three specific examples are PreBorn!, which if you're not familiar with PreBorn!, you can check them out, but, it's all about pro-life counseling, helping mothers through the transition of motherhood, with support, with training and classes.

World Help, we've partnered with them in doing church plants in Cuba. And then LifeWise Academy, we've partnered with them. They bring Bible education to public school during school hours. So these are, that's a second pillar. There's also some other things that we're doing with that Give 50.

But the third thing, and this kinda is gonna hit your, hit the question, is shareholder engagement, right? If we own Target stock, we can go and file resolutions. We can attend their shareholder meetings. So we can communicate with the board of Target. The more assets that Inspire manages or even other Christian financial firms, that the whole idea behind one person of a church doesn't get much done, but when you've got 100 in the church, you can really start moving the needle.

And that's the same thing with Inspire. When you started with us, it was millions, and now we're billions. We are starting to make some inroads and I could share stories - that might be a show of its own- ... just with our engagement. We're making an impact with Walmarts, with Home Depots, with MasterCards, with Tractor Supply Company, all these different companies in some of their woke or DEI policies.

We are making an impact, and it's because we... it's not just us, but we've teamed up with other organizations as well, but we're bringing shareholders, so we're trying to bring biblical truth to corporate power, and we're using investment dollars that come to Inspire to do that. So does it make a difference? Can it make a difference? It's absolutely, it's making a huge impact.

We have story after story that I could share how we're engaging with, partnering with detransitioners, Chloe Cole, and there's another detransitioner, as they've gone to the boards of Home Depot, gone to the boards of these other organizations to testify to them during their shareholder meetings on how terrible gender-affirming care in their healthcare is. It is making an impact and it's pretty exciting.

Jim Brangenberg: Yeah. It is exciting, and it's exciting to hear that an impact is being made. Many Christian retirees, even those with Christian advisors, have never asked this important question: Are my investments advancing God's kingdom, or are they unknowingly supporting companies that stand against biblical values?

Luke Andrews with Inspire Advisors is helping retirees like all of us practice faithful stewardship through Biblically Responsible Investing. His approach delivers biblically aligned portfolios designed for growth and impact without compromising performance. Visit investbri.com today or to connect with Luke and start your Biblically Responsible Investing journey, or you can call Luke directly, which we'll have us in the show notes, 727-798-4188. We made that call. No turning back. You should make that call, too.

Luke, is BRI proven? I mean- are there enough choices out there today for me to invest in BRI products, companies that have a positive or an even score or positive versus a non-BRI portfolio?

Luke Andrews: Yeah. You'd be surprised. I think initially, right, when you start hearing no alcohol, gambling, tobacco, abortion, pornography, et cetera, human trafficking, you're starting to say what kind of companies... I know how crazy these companies are and how political they, politicized everything's become. Are there any companies that you can build portfolios?

And I would say, so 2018 is about when I started making the transition. Yeah, I read your book and was introduced to it, but it took time. And what I did is I started with my own personal accounts and my kids' accounts, and then I started talking to Inspire and Robert Netsley and really getting a passion for BRI.

So I was there eight years ago when - Now, so let me back up. So Biblically Responsible Investing has actually been around since the '90s with Timothy Plan. So Timothy Plan, they've been around, they build mutual funds and I might, they might have some ETFs today, but they're not financial advisors.

They don't do financial planning, tax planning, social security income planning, investment management, things like that. It's what we do. So back then, they kinda got the ball going and so we haven't created anything new. We're hopefully making the term BRI or biblically responsible more popular and aware within the church.

But yeah, eight years ago you could say, you could probably make a case it was in its infancy. We're actually considered a large firm at this point. We're managing billions. So the strategies are not only proven, we have some phenomenal stories with our investments. Specifically, this is not investment advice but our technology model has been one for the record books, and all of our technology holdings have nothing to do with the magnificent seven stocks, which is Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Facebook, Tesla, Nvidia, which are, all the stocks that you hear about.

So I really believe, and I told this to a client the other day, is I believe that God is really leading our portfolio management team because there's no other way to explain some of these things, right? And when you know it's unexplainable because it's human hands touching it, you have to believe that God has a plan in all this.

I believe that God is using companies like Inspire to help Christians transform the way they invest, and it's 100%, 110% feasible. It's in action, it's growing. People are being called to it, the Holy Spirit is moving in the church. And when I say church, it's not buildings. It's just believers that are hearing Biblically Responsible Investing and making decisions to that calling.

Jim Brangenberg: Okay. And this is an opportunity for every one, one of us tuning in today to make an impact without any energy. Literally, here, Luke, just take care of this. I'm gonna move on and do some other things now, but just fix... I wanna make sure my money's making an impact, too, because we've been told to be good stewards.

Martha Brangenberg: So Luke, you said unexplainable, but what I love, I get that. You were talking about spiritually unexplainable. God is a sovereign God. But what I love about you, and I believe I can say this without being biased, is that you are very good at explaining. And just this conversation alone, our listeners are probably, I would believe, very intrigued because you have said nothing that is above our understanding. You are very clear in the way that you explain things.

So say a listener is very intrigued by what this conversation would look like with you. What does that look like? If they were to say, "Oh, man, I wanna talk to Luke because this is really important stuff," what would that look like?

Luke Andrews: Yeah. I would suggest a quick 15-minute call, right? And it's all mercy - or all grace. Mercy, I'm thinking. But all grace, right? Believers, I didn't know about Biblically Responsible Investing before you gave me a book so and you guys gave me grace. You didn't say, "Hey, Luke, do this right now." You said, "Luke, read this and give us your opinion on it. Let me know what you think."

And it wasn't until I read the book for a second time, because I had another client kinda ask me something in a roundabout way, that might've been a hot topic in the news, and they had asked me, "What's going on? Am I in, in... Do I profit from these things?"

And, and you might be asking yourself, "I own stock. I'm not actually profiting from it." Just as a reminder, when you own stock, you have a ownership interest in that company. It would be like me coming to Jim and Martha today and saying, "Hey, would you like to invest $10,000 in my new online business? I'm gonna sell all movies. Yes, I'm gonna sell a little bit of adult movies, but not a lot." You as a believer, would you want to profit from that little bit of pornography that may be selling? And you would, your answer would be- " No, of course not. No, thank you. I'll go find something else to invest in."

So that's how we, that's how we look at this. But so I would have a lot of grace, and I would have a lot of I've been there, I've done that but I'd also steer you in the right direction, right? Number one, if you like your advisor, they're a believer, let's get them on board to do Biblically Responsible Investing.

If you're not satisfied with your response or some of the objections that you're getting, but you're being led to do this, then let's go. Let's partner. Let's start, not just the investments, we've talked only about investments today, but estate planning, right? Tax strategies. Give the, pay the IRS less so you can give more.

That's a big part of my conversations with people, with clients, is you have deferred taxes through your retirement accounts all your life. Now you're in retirement. Don't start pulling that money to pay taxes. Use that money to gift. Use that money for your tithes and offering and live off cash. But yeah sorry, long-winded answer to your question.

Lots of grace, lots of explanations, but a 15-minute call would be probably the first step.

Martha Brangenberg: Awesome. We'll put all that information on how to get ahold of Luke in the show notes for you, no matter where you're listening so you can go back and take a look at it. And I just know that, Luke, your passion is authentic and real, and I know that's what's gonna, it continues to attract people because you are doing the hard work but for a good reason. So thank you for that.

Jim Brangenberg: And a lot of people think it might go, "Hey what are we doing - a sales podcast today? What's the deal?" Like- no, this is kingdom transformation kind of stuff. We need to transform the earth with everything that we are doing.

And as retirees, when we get a chance to actually, quote-unquote, retire, we still have to make meaning and have meaning and purpose in everything we do. And we, as we go to work for free somewhere or do some volunteering, our investment portfolios are part of the kingdom. And it's just important that everybody understands this is out there and available.

Luke Andrews, thanks for bringing us to it, bringing this to us, and for really a great re-intro conversation on Biblically Responsible Investing. Thanks, Luke.

Luke Andrews: You are welcome, and thanks for having me on iRetire4Him. What a cool opportunity. I hope to hear from some of you. And God bless, and we'll hopefully talk soon.

Jim Brangenberg: Hey, we wanna take just 30 seconds to thank you, to say thank you to our audience. Because of the people who support this ministry, we released eight episodes, new podcasts, this month. We heard from a retiree who said that they see now that retirement can be intentional. That's why we do this. If you've been on the fence about supporting what God is doing in retirement, this is what your $5 a month does.

It keeps these conversations going. It reaches people who feel discouraged in retirement. It matters. You could keep iRetire4Him going when you make a monthly gift at iWork4Him.com/donate.

Martha Brangenberg: You've been listening to iRetire4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. In this retirement phase of life, we all want our lives to be full of meaning and purpose so we can say, "iRetire4Him."