Investing for Other Goals: Home, College, or Big Purchases?

I got this listener question the other day and I said this is a perfect question to talk about on today's show. Ralph, I know retirement is important, but what about other goals like saving for a house, paying for my kids education or even a big purchase.How do I invest for those? And I thought this was an excellent question. As we talk about investments, it's so easy to get stuck on just that vision of retirement.Listen, life's not all about just what happens in the end life. Not every goal is retirement. Life has milestones. Buying a home, sending kids to college, even dream purchases.Each one has a different timeline which means different investing approaches. Let's talk about that 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. Hey there, welcome back to the show. My name is Ralph and I, I have a passion for the topic we're talking about today.For over three decades I've helped families just like you, people just like you balance saving for retirement with other priorities. And listen, there's a lot of them out there, buying a new home, educating our children.I've been right where you are and I've had to make those tough choices myself, deciding how to balance those immediate needs with those long term financial goals. And I use the word balancing because it's so important we understand that it really is a balance.So I want to start off with a couple that I worked with a few years ago. They came in and sat down with me and they wanted to invest for their child's college. And I'll never forget, husband and wife came in and sat down.They had told me about, hey, they talked to somebody at work and they were tempted in this high return stock, somebody at work could give them a tip. How many times I hear about these tips, they were going to make a quick killing overnight. I remember I said oh, let's take a step back real quick.Let's take a pause here for a second. And I took a look at their timeline and I said wait a second.Timeline wise, some safer investments might make more sense because I was worried about them getting into this investment that didn't make what they thought it was going to make in the short term. And as I was preparing for today, I found this quote from Susie Orman. I thought this was just brilliant for the topic we're talking about today.Investing isn't just about retirement. It's about aligning your money with your life goals. And see that's the truth. Susie nails it here. That's what I'll talk about on today's show.Because it's all about finding that alignment. That's what it's all about, isn't it? Think about a car you're driving down the road. As I was prepared for today's show, I thought about this.A car, got a car driving down the road. All of a sudden you start feeling it pulling the one way or the other. I don't know much about cars.But then I realized, wait a minute, this thing's out of alignment. Well, if I don't do something about that, what happens? At some point I'm going to be looking at it and the tires are going to get a weird wear on.That's what happens if your car is not in alignment. Well, if you don't have your financial horizons in alignment, guess what? You're going to find yourself in a very similar situation.So that's what I want to talk today about, those time horizons. It's really important that we narrow this down because there are so many things to save more besides retirement.Listen, I'm not saying retirement is not important. I've done many shows the last couple days about this actually. Actually many shows over my 30 years of working in this industry. That's important.But there are other goals. So let's start off with understanding. Really what I see are the three main time horizons.There's the short term goals, that's those one to three year goals. There's the medium term goals, that's the three to ten. And then there's the long term goals, ten plus years.But each of these have different things that we need to understand. Let's talk about those short term goals first. Like I said, these are your one to three year goals for investing in these things.You want to use things that are relatively safe. These are the times to use savings accounts, certificates of deposits, maybe money market accounts.Because you can't afford to risk money that you need soon. Go back to that example I talked about. These folks are going to be putting their children into school in just a couple years.They didn't have time for a quick win. Yeah, great if it does win overnight, but what if it loses? They don't have time to recover from that. So think about those short term goals.If you've got a short term goal, you've got to use short term investments. Things that are safe, things that don't carry that risk.These are the things that the money you're going to need soon, second tier, mid range or midterm goals. Those are your three to 10 year goals.Now here's where you actually can think about considering a mix of bonds and maybe some conservative stock funds. Again, like I said the other day, even funds have risk. But here what you're doing is you're balancing that safety with some growth.You're saying, okay, Ralph, it's cool, like I'm going to take a little bit of risk, I'm going to put myself out there a little bit because I got a little bit of a time horizon. But you're balancing that with that safety because, yeah, I'm going to need this money in three to ten years.I know it's a big swath of time, maybe I have to get a little more granular than that. But you got to think about what is my time horizon, when do I need this money? So what does my investment mix need to look like?And then finally we look at our long term goals, which most people, that's retirement. For most people, retirement is a long term goal. I'm gonna tell you right now, I just turned 53 a couple weeks ago.That retirement goal is getting a little closer for me.So even in my own life, I gotta start thinking about even in my retirement portfolio, what are the stocks, what are the investments that I have and how much time do I have to really make a change if the market changes? Because it's all about prioritization. Always keep retirement on your track first. That's very important. A lot of people miss that.I did a show about that just the other day. So many people are not putting a month away for retirement. But you can't sacrifice everything for retirement. There are other goals.Maybe you're listening right now. You're watching right now. You're like, Ralph, we really would like to get a house.We're tired of renting, or we've got children that are gonna be going to college or secondary education. Or maybe like most people, you want to go take that vacation, but you don't want to run up credit card debt to do it. So you've got that saving goal.Prioritize those things.Because when you can find this match, when you can bring, like Susie Orman said, when you can bring these things into alignment, that's when you can have peace of mind. It's going to reduce your stress and it's going to reduce your regret. Because here's the truth.I have seen this in my own practice and even in my own life to some extent. Timeline issues cause so much stress, they cause so much anxiety and Honestly, they cause so much regret.And these are the kind of things you gotta adjust over time. Well, let's get right into the word of God, because I always want to give you scripture to back up what I'm saying.And today we're going to Proverbs chapter 24, verse 27. Put your outdoor work in order and then get your fields ready. After that, build your house. And see, this is the main goal, isn't it? Plan, prioritize.Before you spend, think about those short term goals. What are those mid range goals, what are those long term goals? Because until you understand a timeline, you don't know where to invest.Like I said, this 30 day series is all about a 30,000 foot view.But as we get a little deeper into this, we need to understand it's not just about, well, there's these type of investments now we've got to match up, okay, this type of investment for this horizon, this type of investment for this horizon. And that's really the key to today.It's all about building that alignment, building those time horizons and really understanding what our goals are and finding the right investments for those. Well, how about we pray together right now, Lord? We just thank you for the wisdom that you give us, Lord, and the ability to prioritize goals wise.And we ask that you would just help us to do that better these days. Help us to have patience to save and patience to invest at the right pace and avoid those temptations that are so easy easily coming to us.When people tell us about these short term things and it's a sure thing.Help us to understand the horizons that we have and help us to understand the different things that we need to do to be in gratitude for the things that you give us, the resources you've already provided to us. And as we go through those milestones of life, Lord, help us to be mindful of those things. Help us to develop a plan that meets those things, Lord.And we just ask this with complete confidence, you, in the name of Jesus, Amen. I always want to give you an action item. So today's action item is I want you to pick one non retirement goal. Doesn't need to be anything elaborate.Maybe it's building your emergency fund, maybe it's saving for a vacation. Maybe you want to go and buy that house finally, maybe that's your goal.Write it down and then write down right next to it, what is the timeline for that? Is it one year, is it five years, is it 15 years? And then ask yourself this question because maybe you've already started investing.Ask yourself, is the money in the right place for that timeline? See, that's a great question to ask yourself. Always as you're going through these investment decisions, ask yourself those questions.Is my money in the right place for that timeline? Because, listen, times change. When I meet with people who are getting closer to retirement, we're changing our portfolios around.One of the things I would really appreciate you would do is if you're getting value from the show, when one of the best ways you can express that is share the show with somebody else. Everybody needs to understand the things we're talking about.And if you share the show with them, you can help them become a more financially confident Christian. Because in the end, not every goal is retirement. I hope I made that crystal clear today. Timelines matter. That's the key to this whole thing.Think short term for safety, medium term for balance, and long term for growth. And again, in the end, don't let your other goals rob your retirement. That's a warning, kind of leaving it here at the end.But it's important that you understand that.But with planning and prayer, and I truly believe this with every ounce of my being, with planning and prayer, you can prepare for life's milestones while still building for that future. So I just want to encourage you today, go out there today and be that financially confident Christian you can be.Now, tomorrow we're going to talk about how not to keep all your eggs in the same basket. Grandfather always told me that. He said, son, don't keep all your eggs in one basket.So that's exactly what we're going to talk about on the show tomorrow. So I encourage you to join me tomorrow. And today, I just want to encourage you again. Go live out that financially confidence that you have.I believe in you, believe in yourself. And more importantly than any of those things, God believes in you. God bless you. And you have a great day today, Ra.