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Money is a false god. Ambition is a false god. Success is a false god.

In life we all worship something, whether that be ourselves, money, or our goals. The one thing all of these idols have in common is that they will become irrelevant.

We’ll grow old, we’ll die and all of a sudden all of the money we have made and all of the success we have retained will disappear in an instant.

But our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God will live forever. His grace, His will, His love, will all sustain us for an eternity.

Now if you’re here because you want to serve God while learning about finance, accomplishing your monetary goals, and turning your dreams into a reality, you’ve come to the right place.

I started the FinanceBro newsletter because I was constantly overwhelmed by the plethora of information out there about how to become financially successful by maximizing your income, investing, etc.

Unfortunately, I began to obsess over all of this newfound knowledge.

Why haven’t I opened a Roth IRA yet? How can I monetize my substack as quickly as possible? How am I supposed to understand stock jargon and become a millionaire?

These are questions that haunt me and continue to haunt me because in a way just like any other sin or false idol in my life I have worshipped this idea of constant success, ambition, and money.

God has driven me to a good point in my life. I would not have survived this lost and broken world without His constant love and guidance. Now I’m at a place where I want to grow my wealth and learn as much as I can about finance. With that being said, what can we all do to accomplish our financial goals without serving false idols?

• Prayer over payments

Let me put this simply. If you think about the money in your bank account more than Christ, then you’re already on the wrong track.

I wrongfully take advantage of God’s love because I know He will always be there. When I sin. When I fall.

And money won’t always be there. It comes and goes on its own accord and if you don’t seek it it won’t find you.

But isn’t that the case with our Lord? God will always be there for us but if we do not seek Him, if we do not ask for His help, we are not apt to receive it.

Every morning, pray before you check your phone, before you see if that paycheck came on time.

I also recommend you practice journaling everyday and use a few different journal prompts to help you stay connected to God and spend responsibly even in the busy seasons of life.

I, like most people, am a very busy person. I am either at work, or school, spending time with family or friends and often find myself “not having time for God.”

The reality is I always have time for Him, I just don’t feel like spending those 5 minutes in prayer each morning, or reading my Bible before bed, or watching a sermon online instead of a how to make 100k in 3 months video.

Always remember prayer>payments. Jesus Himself said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Matthew 6:26

No matter how much money we have, God will always be our ultimate provider.

• Build systems, not idols

Do you ever find yourself consistently overwhelmed by, imagining your substack becoming a bestseller, making your first million, or simply learning as much as you can from the financial world?

Ya, me too, and let me just say it is not fun.

Instead of creating constant stress for myself I decided to start building systems.

Simple methods I use to keep track of my money and tasks to reach certain financial goals.

For example, in my calendar I put that each week I have to post two substack articles. One paid and one free.

This keeps my mind in check, instead of worrying about how I’m going to monetize my substack as quickly as possible I simply have the system in place where I have to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy towards my work.

I also built a checklist system where I can track my financial goals while involving God in the decisions I make.

• Learn with a limit

Something I find myself doing quite often is learning about new financial topics at the worst time. Right before bed.

It’s past 10pm and I should be sleeping or at least preparing my mind for sleep. Instead I’m scrolling the finance section on substack or googling how to invest inside of a Roth IRA.

It is important to use our free time to learn as much as we can about finance and the economy. But if the time we choose to do so interferes with our health or relationship with Christ then it is an utter waste.

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own.” 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Treating our bodies and minds with care is showing reverence to our Lord. So no, you don’t and can’t learn everything about finance in one night.

It takes small actions, day after day that build our knowledge.

• Choose your sources and stick to them

I find myself very overwhelmed with the amount of financial literacy resources we have on the internet.

Part of the system you use to educate yourself and build wealth should include small amounts of learning every day from very specific sources. This will prevent you from spiraling and allow you to better retain all of the information you learned.

In order to learn more about God through our lives we should all be reading the Bible because “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs 1:7 and the Holy Bible contains so much wisdom about who God is and how He wants us to spend our money.

If you sometimes struggle reading the Bible everyday I recommend you read a daily devotional alongside it. These are shorter meditations on the Christian faith that can educate and enlighten you on the majesty of our Lord.

For your financial education I recommend you follow my substack. I publish weekly articles of the basic and more complicated principles of finance so we can all learn how to build wealth alongside loving Jesus.

I also recommend Dave Ramsey and AWM Financial as resources for a financial-faith based education. I will link their platforms below.

The Dave Ramsey Show

AWM Financial

With all of this being said please keep in mind…..

I’m not a priest, theologian, or financial planner. I am simply writing about how our faith and finances don’t have to be divided. If you are a Christian and believe anything I am stating is heretical please comment!!! I only want to bring glory to God’s Kingdom through this newsletter and I am completely open to being corrected and questioned. May God bless you all!

Your FinanceBro,

Darla😇💸

^{photo credits: pinterest}

Recently I’ve stumbled upon an appalling realization. I am cheap.

Not the kind of cheap where I refuse to buy a 5 dollar bottle of water because it’s 100 degrees outside and I don’t want to die of dehydration. (happened to me yesterday)

But it’s the kind of cheap where I refuse to spend money on tools that will truly benefit my life. For example, a gym membership (why pay to workout when I can walk outside in 100 degree weather.)

Recently, all I’ve been able to think about is how to monetize my substack. What product should I sell, what should I refine my niche to, and who is my audience.

The reality is I have no idea.

Well to be fair, I do have an idea of who my audience is. It’s people like me that want to learn as much as they can about money without worshiping it. People that did not grow up in a financially literate home and have big dreams of being financially independent and retiring as soon as possible.

This is ultimately my goal, and my audience is the people who want the same for themselves.

I plan on investing in one of the resources on this app that claim they help people monetize their substack. Because ultimately I know and every other FinanceBro knows that in order to make money you have to spend it. Whether that be on a 5 dollar bottle of water so you can live another day, or betting on a person that has the knowledge and experience to help you reach your goals.

I plan on sharing with all of you what resource I decide to invest in on substack and an honest review of their services for free.

As you can tell, I’m still not ready to provide something behind a paywall. And that’s okay.

I have to keep telling myself that it’s completely okay to not know what I’m going to spend my money on yet and how I’ll make money off of that resource in the future.

We live in a world of constant rush, “how to get rich quick”

“10 side hustles that’ll make you $10,000 in one month.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t rush building a personal brand, business, and ultimately making money.

Even in the job I have now I can’t stand the fact that I have to wait longer than 2 days for a paycheck. Which is unreasonable and petulant of me, but this is why I chose finance as my niche.

Because money is an excellent tool, but if you don’t have the patience or work ethic to “deal with it” then you can just give up right now and chock this up to another random hyper fixation.

I pray that all of you find immense wealth in the future, a life driven by God and goodness where you don’t have to rush in the mornings to get to work.

But I ask all of you, be wise, be careful with your money, but please don’t be cheap. Don’t be the me I was a few weeks ago, unwilling to ask for help and even more unwilling to pay for it.

Because the whole point of being a FinanceBro is that you are willing to learn from people that are better than you. Smarter, more disciplined, and more financially successful.

You won’t grow your money if you’re not willing to spend it.

I pray you all have a blessed day and successful financial futures!

Your FinanceBro,

Darla😇💸

^{photo credit: pinterest}

A side hustle is simply an opportunity to make more money outside of your current job and responsibilities. If you want to maximize your income, but don’t have a lot of money to spend, here are 5 side hustles you should look into.

I’m going to rate each side hustle a 0-5 by cost, time, and effort.

A 0 rating means no cost, time, and effort will be needed.

5 will mean you need the greatest amount of that specific factor to start the side hustle.

Money is measured by how much do I need to get started?

Time is measured by how much of your time will you need to sacrifice?

Our measurement of effort is, how much exertion do you need in order to make money?

Let’s get into it…

1. Sell digital products on Etsy

This is a side hustle I’ve been looking into myself, mainly because it is very low on the cost scale.

However, in order to launch a successful Etsy shop you must dedicate a lot of time to research and plan beforehand.

On the effort scale I rated this side hustle a 3 because creating digital products takes much less effort than starting a physical Etsy business, for example: crochet stuffed animals, or handmade jewelry. Once you’ve created all of your digital products you don’t have to keep producing more.

Overall rating for this side hustle:

Cost= 1

Time= 4

Effort=3

2. Read books

I know this sounds like a gimmick. Who would pay me to read books? But what’s great about the Internet is that we have thousands of audio books at our fingertips. Through Amazon’s audible ACX platform you can audition to create an audio book.

This side hustle is higher on the cost scale because you do need a decent microphone in order to record sound clips for an audition. Thankfully, there are many affordable options on Amazon that range from $30-$70.

Time wise… you’ll be getting paid to read a whole book. You can imagine how much time that’ll take out of your day. But, if you enjoy reading for long periods of time and feel comfortable reading out loud it could be worth your time.

The effort it takes to read out loud for long periods of time is not the only thing you should take into account, you must also edit and send sound clips in to make sure the format of your sound clips uphold the ACX requirements.

Overall rating for this side hustle:

Cost= 4

Time=5

Effort=3

3. Sell your artwork

This side hustle is for the creative and artistically talented. I’m not going to throw this option into a specific category because there are tons of ways you can monetize your artwork.

You can sell printable art on Etsy, design greeting cards, I’ve even met someone that sold random drawings on Twitter.

Overall the cost of this is very low, whether you are creating your artwork on paper or have an Ipad to draw digitally.

Time wise, it really depends on the niche you choose. If you want to start a caricature drawing business for parties, that’ll definitely take more time than a printable art business because you’ll have to regularly create new artwork instead of designing beforehand.

This side hustle is towards the middle on the effort scale because creating artwork can take a lot of energy, but for those of you that already enjoy this side hustle as a hobby or a way to unwind the process can feel much less trying.

Overall rating for this side hustle:

Cost= 1

Time= 3

Effort= 3

4. Social Media

Making content on social media is one of those side hustles that takes no money to start. Whether you start posting short videos on instagram or longer content on youtube the cost to start can be zero, unless you want to invest in camera and lighting equipment.

The time and effort ratings are going to be on the highest scale because in order to gain traction and make money from posting content on social media you have to record, edit, and post videos as often and consistently as possible.

Overall rating for this side hustle:

Cost= 0

Time= 5

Effort= 5

5. Write a newsletter/blog

I had to mention a newsletter as the last and final side hustle! I am obviously biased but I believe this is a great affordable option for people that love to write. You can start a substack or medium with no original cost and use it as an outlet to write about whatever you’re interested in.

The time and effort scale for substack is the same as social media because in order to gain revenue from your page you have to write, edit, and post your work as often as possible.

Overall rating for this side hustle:

Cost= 0

Time= 5

Effort= 5

Below I’ve provided links to YouTube videos that will show you how to get started with each side hustle. I hope you find the perfect option that fits your lifestyle and financial goals!

Until next time,

Darla ;)

How to sell digital products on Etsy

How to start selling audiobooks on Amazon

How to sell your artwork

How to make money off of social media

How to make money off of a newsletter

However, this feeling does not last.

Whenever I find myself feeling empty or bored sometimes my mind will drift to all of the things I would love to buy. Granted, I am not a shopaholic and never have been yet, I, like many other people have found myself wanting to consume more than is necessary.

Do I need a new water bottle, no. But I saw a really cute one online last week and I’m still thinking about it today.

I’ve noticed how the enemy can use consumerism as a form of fulfillment. Instead of looking to God to fill our emptiness we look to things that (a) don’t last and (b) lose their charm once we buy them.

I think why I never became addicted to consuming is because I’m all too familiar with the disappointment of purchasing something and it losing it’s wow factor in a day.

Not to say that all spending is bad, of course it’s good to treat yourself every once in a while but it’s important to differentiate whether you’re buying a feeling of fulfillment or a product you will use consistently.

I know this was a short article, I’m just trying to gain the motivation to write again. Thank you for reading darlings! We’ll chat tomorrow.. may God bless you!

I know she means that he was hungry for success which could mean anything. Success could be financial freedom, a comfortable lifestyle, or even a flexible schedule. But this got me thinking about how people need to hunger to succeed.

If we are defining success as something good, better, and beneficial then we need to understand why people want to become successful. All of the people in my life that have started businesses, gotten married, or accomplished small goals have all hungered for that outcome.

Let me make something clear before I move on. Jesus is what all people initially hunger for, a relationship with God cannot be replaced by any success this world can offer. But once you have that relationship, and feel fulfilled by Christ what then?

We all have our callings, dreams, things that we aspire to do and accomplish. God gives us strength and a vision and I believe our hunger for a bigger and brighter future motivates us to sweat.

There have been many times in my life where I have asked the Lord why? Why is this happening to me? Why can’t things be different? It was only a few years ago that I realized all of my misfortunes, pains, and troubles were my greatest gifts and opportunities. Tumultuous relationships with family, God is giving me the chance to learn boundaries and healthy confrontation. I don’t have enough money, God gave me the ability to work and now I have a job.

Every lack in life is turned into a beautiful hunger- a healthy dose of desire that is planted in us by God. The desire to be better Christians. People that not only learn how to bring about their own success but those that lay down their life to bring glory to the kingdom of God.

I want to be a writer, which is why I started this account in the first place. Recently, I feel like I’ve been losing my hunger to write and I think it’s because I haven't felt the need to. I don’t necessarily need to write to improve my life or become a better Christian. But I do need to write if I want to become a writer- so that’s what I’m going to do.

I established a challenge for myself today. I must write an article, or post everyday on substack for a week. Thank you for reading and supporting my journey! I’ll see you tomorrow…. may God bless you!