Behavior vs. Knowledge: Why Your Habits Matter More Than Information?

Do you ever say to yourself, I know what I should do, Ralph, but I just don't seem to be able to do it. I don't know about you, but I feel that way sometimes. And I got this listener question. I thought, this just nails it, Ralph.I know what I should do with my money, but I don't actually do it. Why is it so hard to follow through? Well, here's what I want to say. Welcome to the party, my friend. Because, yes, me too. It's a struggle, isn't it?Sometimes it's so hard to really understand why we don't do the things we do. So that's exactly what I'm going to cover on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hello there. Welcome to the show. My name is Ralph. I just want to thank you so much for joining me today on the show.I appreciate your time as we continue on this journey. As we talk about things. 30 Ways to or 30 Days to Improve your investment life. And you might be saying, okay, who's this guy, Ralph?Well, the truth is it's important that I talk to you today because I've worked with people for over 30 years in this area. I've seen situations that people understand investing. It could explain it to me perfectly.But those same people are the people that don't always contribute to their 401k. They don't always do the things that they know they should do. And unfortunately, there's a true disconnect there. Then I've worked with other people.Let me just be honest with you. I've had other people that I've worked with that weren't sophisticated at all. They had no idea about investment knowledge. But you know what they did?They were consistent, they were diligent, they saved a little with each and every paycheck. Truth is, they made it automatic. And I've talked about that on the show so many times.When you make it automatic, that's when you can actually build wealth. And I'll tell you, when I was a kid, I used to play football. Football was my passion.And I had a coach one time say to me, because I wasn't a great football player, I didn't have that talent that so many professional and college football players said. But he said to me, Ralph, he said, you know what he said? 90% of this is heart. Do you have a heart for it? Do you have that desire?Do you have that diligence do you have that eagerness even more than talent? And that's really what we're talking about today. Do you have a heart for investing? Because so many of us know what we should do.It's kind of like a diet. For many years, I was a big overweight guy. Listen, I'm still a little overweight. I knew what I should be doing.I didn't need somebody to tell me, Ralph, you need to eat less, you need to exercise more, you need to choose to eat these better things. And I remember When I hit 430 pounds, my health was out of control. And even at that point, I knew what I should do.But it took that dedication, it took that daily diligence to say, okay, here's what I should do. Now how do I make that happen? I'll tell you a story. I had a client, well educated guy. I mean, this guy had gone to school for business management.He knew all the financial rules. Honestly, he probably knew him better than I did. But this guy never set up those automatic savings rules. He never put the effort in.He never made that diligence. He never made it automatic. Then I had another client. This guy was just a hard working, what they call blue collar guy.Just worked hard every day, worked with his hands, got in there and got dirty. But the thing he did is he saved a little bit with each and every paycheck. So let me ask you this question.At the end, who do you think ended up with more? You'll be amazed at the results. The person who made it diligent.Not the person who had all the education, not the person who understood all the financial derivatives and all the financial markets. It was the person that was diligent. It was the person that, day in and day out, they made it a purpose to do that.And I heard this quote from James Clear. Now, James Clear wrote this book called Atomic Habits, a great book. If you have a chance to read it, I would highly encourage it.And what he says is just so important for what we're talking about today. And this is what James said. He said, you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.And he's getting at it right there because he's basically saying what we're talking about today. You might have these goals, these intentions, these pie in the sky ideas. You're going to do this and you're going to do that.But if you don't have the system to do it, you're not going to do it. See that system, it's all about building that consistency. So now you're saying, Ralph, okay, great, I get it, Ralph.I know what I need to do and I'm not doing it. So how do we build that system of consistency? Well, I've got a solution for you today. It all starts with moving beyond your head and into your hands.See, it's easy to know a whole lot. I've met some of the most well educated people, knew all the ideas about finances in the world.But that knowing, just having understanding doesn't move money. It doesn't do anything. You can have the greatest knowledge in the world, but if you don't put it into practice.See, I say this on the show all the time. Intentions are great, but it's all about action. See, action is where it comes at. So move out of your head and move into your hands.Think of a marriage. I've been married for 25 years. Just celebrated my 25th anniversary a few weeks ago.Now, one of the things when we first got together, my wife said to me, Ralph, I would love it if you would take out the trash. Now I could say, you know what, I'm going to take out the trash one time and I get the bonus points. I took out the trash one time.But that's not the answer. The answer is you love your wife. And husbands listen to me right now, Christ says, love your wife as Jesus. Think of a marriage like this.The Bible says this. Love your wife as Christ loves the church. If I just took out the trash one time, that wouldn't be of any value, right?Well, if you're doing your investments the same way, if you just throw that money in that investment one time, it's not going to matter. It's when you do it consistently, it's building those consistent habits. And that's the thing I want to talk about today.The next step to this is building that consistency. And again, these don't have to be elaborate things, just simple habits.Automating those contributions, building that routine, maybe even think about it, like set it and forget it. Go to your HR person and say, listen, I know we've got this 401k, I know we've got this retirement plan. Let's do this.And let me just tell you right now, that action, that taking that intentional action is better than any once in a while thing to do. And it's all about those systems. Clear mentioned this earlier. Make the right choice and make it automatic because small changes stick.It's all about your systems. Think about this. Small steps, just $25 a month will add up to something so much greater than just one time. $500, someday or never.I don't know how many times I've worked with people. They say, Ralph, someday I'm going to put money away for retirement. Someday I'm going to pay off my debt.Someday I'm going to pay down those credit cards. Someday I'm going to build that emergency fund. Your someday is today and tomorrow and the next day. It's all about building that consistency.Don't wait until you know you have enough. So many people will say to me, Ralph, you know, when I make a little bit extra money, I'll do this.When I set aside a little bit more, when I get that big raise, you know, enough right now. Act on what you know right now. Because truth is, you can do this. You can make these impactful things.My grandfather used to say this all the time, and he was a good old Southern fellow. Actually, him and I were very close. He actually was the one that brought me to salvation at age 13.And he said this one time, and he is so right about this.He said, if you aspire to greatness, if you envision that greatness, what that looks like in your life, and you start to live in that greatness, that does become your reality. And I think we all can learn from that. And let's get right to the Bible. You always want to tie scripture into this.And I love this verse from the Book of James, chapter one, verse 22. And this might step on your toes a little bit. It stepped on mine when I was preparing for the show today.It says, do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. And we can all take a listen and say, wait a minute. Hey, you know what? We can listen to the Word.A lot of us sit in church or we read our Bibles and we listen to it, we hear it, but are we doing what it says? And that's one of the reasons I tie these two pieces together. A lot of people say, Ralph, you're crazy.Faith and finances should not be mixed together. But the Bible talks about finances from the back of the front to the book. And I love what Proverbs 13:4 says. Again, I'm going to step on some toes.I'm going to use a term here called sluggard. My minister at church had talked about sluggers one time. Everybody said, oh, Bill, you can't say that in church. But what does Proverbs 13:4 says?It says, a slugger's appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. See, the moral of the story here is God rewards diligence. God rewards consistency. God rewards that daily action of faith. So don't be a slugger today.You know what you should do? Go do it. How about we pray together right now? Lord, we just come to you right now.We thank you for a heart, Lord, and we thank you for faith that surpasses all understanding. And Lord, we just ask you right now to strengthen us as we act out in this faith.Help us to do the things that we already know, Lord, and the discipline to build those lasting habits that will be so fruitful for generations to come. Lord, help us to have faith and trust in you, Lord, above all things.Help us to be steady in our steps, not get sucked into those big dreams and those pie in the sky ideas that we never bring to full tuition. Lord, we ask this in confidence in the name of Jesus. Amen. So here's your one action step for today. Just one habit.I want you to pick one habit today and automate those things. Maybe it's automated savings. Maybe you've never really set aside that amount with each paycheck. Just decide, today I'm going to do something.Maybe it's time to track that spending. You're thinking to yourself, Ralph, I get to the end of the month, I don't know where my money is. Well, here's an opportunity to be consistent.Track that spending every day. Maybe you've got that mountain of debt. You're looking at this debt in front of you and this mountain of debt you're.Ralph, how am I ever going to get past this? Well, just this month, maybe take that extra $25 and pay that debt. Pay it towards that debt.Build that system, build that consistency and work on that diligence. The truth is, knowledge is important. I can't undersell that. Those people who understand investments are valuable people. That's valuable information.That's great. Go get that information. But as my football coach said, behavior changes your future.So build those systems, build those habits, beat those goals and intentions are the most important thing. So start small, be consistent. Because the truth is, and I want you to hear this loud and clear today, God is going to bless that diligence.And one of the ways that I can help you in that diligence. I just finished writing my third book and this was a passion project for me. It's simply called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian.You can get that for free, absolutely free. Just go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming this is 30 years of me working with clients just like you.Stories of struggles and triumphs and crying on each other's shoulders and really helping each other when we hit rock bottom. And so many of us have been there.But in that book, I help you build those systems that will show you how to finally break that cycle of financial shame and live in confidence. Why don't you get that today? It's yours absolutely free. Just go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming and listen, here's a little secret.Share that link with as many people as you can because I love to give away free books. Now tomorrow we're going to change the topic a little bit. We're going to talk about how not to freak out during those market cycles.We're going to talk about how to deal with panic, how to deal with fear, and how to not live in that reality anymore. Because truth is, I'm going to give you a little spoiler alert tomorrow. You don't have to live like that today. I have confidence in you.I want you to have confidence in yourself because God believes in you. Stay financially savvy out there. Live out that belief in being a financially confident Christian. God bless you and you have a great day today.