Sunday's Gospel and retirement savings

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Loud-living-dogma

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This may truly sound like a stupid question. In reading today’s Gospel, I can’t help but compare it to the way that modern people are told to save save save for retirement, etc. If someone is sitting on a fat retirement account, the way that financial planners tell us we should be, isn’t that taking money away from people who need help today?

Isn’t the man who had to build bigger buildings to hold his grain, behaving the way that prudent financial planners tell us that we are supposed to sock away 10-15%?

When the foolish man (who was hoarding the grain) dies, won’t the grain stores go to his widow or children? Wouldn’t he be pleased that he is at least providing for his family after his death?

I"m probably looking at this with my secular glasses - - somebody set me straight!

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It seems to me that if we follow the advice in this parable, we shouldn’t have retirement savings. Or should we? Or savings accounts at all?
 
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I think the man who was hoarding, and building bigger storage bins, had much more than his daily needs, much more than his needs for a dignified retirement. It was such an excess as could be considered stealing from the poor.
 
After all, I guess regular storage barns were okay. Just not the huge new ones.

I guess the question becomes, at what point do savings or retirement accounts become hoarding? Because online accounts hold a lot of $$ and we don’t have to build new ones, so it’s less obvious…
 
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It is common sense that we all need to save if we want to retire someday. Our priest said in his sermon that for him, the key to Jesus’ warning was the fact that the man had SO much hoarded he needed to build a bigger barn, aka storage unit, to hold it all. And then the fool thought his entire security was based on that treasure and he could just kick back and play the rest of his life. Clearly we can’t base our security on material goods in this life or we are fools indeed.
 
Once, St. Brendan asked St. Ita what three things God loved the most.

She replied, “True faith in God and a pure heart, a simple life with a religious spirit and open-handedness inspired by charity.”

He then asked her what things God hated the most.

St. Ita explained, “A mouth that hates people, a heart harboring resentments and confidence in wealth.”
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So I think that’s what the gospel was about— it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that he had been blessed with abundance. But he was so focused on his material goods, he didn’t give any consideration to the fact that he couldn’t take it with him… and that the day he would be held accountable for his life was much sooner than he suspected.

So, we need to focus more on the “open-handed charity” and less on the “trust in material wealth.”

How many people are driven to earn a bigger and bigger paycheck, and sacrifice their families and their relationships in their pursuit of earnings… only to keel over and die of a heart attack/die in a car wreck/die of a sudden illness/suddenly discover they’re in stage 4 cancer?
 
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Today’s Gospel parable comes in the context of an inheritance quarrel that Jesus is asked to set right – the man who comes to him wants him to tell his brother to share his inheritance with him.

The parable is Jesus’ answer. I think what he condemns here is how self-centered the man who wants a share of his brother’s money is, and how self-centered the man in the parable is (it’s me, me, me). I’d say his problem is that he’s been blinded by his wealth to such extent that he’s only thinking of himself and his own well-being. Nothing else exists – no family, no friends, no workers in the fields, not even God. Wealth has the potential to make us think like this, but it doesn’t have to be so.
 
An unnamed Protestant author is quoted here (on p. x of the Preface) as praising the religion of Jesus Christ as “the pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of social order, which alone has the power to curb the fury of the passions, and secure to every one his rights; to the laborious the reward of their industry, to the rich the enjoyment of their wealth, to nobles the preservation of their honours, and to princes the stability of their thrones.”

 
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I like how it tied in with the first reading.
 
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There’s no real comparison. The savings that we put in the bank today, don’t sit in storage. They make money for others because the bank puts them into investments and into loans that allow people to live better lives.

However, if you want to compare to someone putting their money in their mattress or in a hole in the ground, now you’ve got a comparison.
 
I may be a minority, but I like how invested money helps toward people’s mortgages or other companies grow.
 
De_Maria said:
There’s no real comparison. The savings that we put in the bank today, don’t sit in storage. They make money for others because the bank puts them into investments and into loans that allow people to live better lives.

However, if you want to compare to someone putting their money in their mattress or in a hole in the ground, now you’ve got a comparison.
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But there are people literally starving to death in the world, right? Or dying for lack of medicine? Shouldn’t we as Christians be prioritizing that over investments and mortgages, retirement savings, etc?
 
OddBird said:
Today’s Gospel parable comes in the context of an inheritance quarrel that Jesus is asked to set right – the man who comes to him wants him to tell his brother to share his inheritance with him.

The parable is Jesus’ answer.
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Exactly. Jesus basically says, I didn’t come as your probate lawyer. My concerns, as should yours be, are of things above.

You can’t take your inheritance with you. But a cold heart, a lustful heart, an incompassionate soul… these are the things that you will carry & these will be burned away in the fire.
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
But there are people literally starving to death in the world, right? Or dying for lack of medicine? Shouldn’t we as Christians be prioritizing that over investments and mortgages, retirement savings, etc?
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We should do as our conscience dictates. Rich, poor… everything in between all work together. If you feel called to help the poor you can do like Mother Teresa & live among them.

You have a responsibility to your children & your children’s children. & there’s a whole industry of people whose livelihood depends on investing, saving, & wealth management.

The key, I think, is to not let that wealth be an idol.
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
But there are people literally starving to death in the world, right? Or dying for lack of medicine? Shouldn’t we as Christians be prioritizing that over investments and mortgages, retirement savings, etc?
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It depends. These are systemic problems though and sometimes it’s not even about money. So in some places, conflict prevents aid from reaching vulnerable people. I’m thinking about the Ebola epidemic. I’m not aware of any funding issues but the conflict in eastern DR Congo and attacks on medical workers are a problem. No amount of money will fix that problem.
 
midori said:
How many people are driven to earn a bigger and bigger paycheck, and sacrifice their families and their relationships in their pursuit of earnings…
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I live in an area where a lucrative career is a pretty common idol. It is arguably the main cultural identity of the region now, and I myself have kind of gotten swept up in it at certain times. Needless to say, this was where my mind instantly went.
 
Sometimes I have wondered if there could be a trend, or “movement” for Christians to repopulate urban blighted areas. Then they could:
  1. Have smaller house payment / not work so many hours / spend more time with their family
  2. Bring stability to a part of a city that needs it
  3. Have potentially shorter commutes
  4. Demonstrate to everyone their love of the poor, since they wouldn’t be trying so hard to get away from the poor
 
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Loud-living-dogma said:
But there are people literally starving to death in the world, right?
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Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

If we want to take care of others, the very first one we need to take care of, is ourselves. Then the brothers in faith. And then outwards.

Philippians 2:4 each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others.
Or dying for lack of medicine? Shouldn’t we as Christians be prioritizing that over investments and mortgages, retirement savings, etc?
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1 Timothy 5:8 And whoever does not provide for relatives and especially family members has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Basically, charity begins at home. What’s going to happen if you don’t save for retirement and then put the burden on someone else to take care of you?

Proverbs 22:26 Do not be one of those who give their hand in pledge,
those who become surety for debts;
27 For if you are unable to pay,
your bed will be taken from under you.

But, anyway, let your conscience be your guide. As for me, I want to make sure that my children aren’t saddled with my debt and that I can help them as long as I can.

For example, if I have to go into a retirement home at some point, I hope my retirement will pay for it and not my children.

But, let your conscience be your guide.
 
Financial planners tend to overestimate the retirement stash. Do your own calculation tallying up expenses separating necessary and discretionary. Then use an online retirement calculator.
 
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