 Right, so today we are looking at the last chapter. We started with the last chapter, last class, looking at stewardship and also some practical guidelines. So that is what we are looking at, some practical guidelines to how to steward our finances or the finances that God puts into our hands. So that's what we are looking at. Okay, so why don't we pray and then get started, right? That's great. Father, we thank you Lord, thank you for this day that you've given us, Lord. This is the day that you have made and we will rejoice and be gladdened. Lord, we thank you that every new day is a gift from you, Father God. We thank you for the promise of your presence in every new day and every minute of every day, God. Lord, we thank you that your Word says that you're the one who daily loads us with good things, daily loads us with benefits of Father God. Yes, Master, we thank you for your presence, the blessing of your presence. We thank you for the blessing of your Word. We thank you for the blessing of your Holy Spirit, Lord, leading us, guiding us. And Lord, we thank you for the richness of the wisdom that we find in your Word, Lord. Father, we thank you for the precepts, the principles that are there in your Word, Master. Yes, Lord, we give you all the praise even today, Father God. And Lord, we pray that you would write your Word upon our hearts, Lord. The things that we have been learning and we are about to learn, Father God, I pray would be, Lord, stay in our hearts, Father God, and Lord, direct our lives, Father God. Yes, Master, Spirit of God, we pray that you would quicken, that you would cause us to remember these things that we are sowing to the Spirit. We thank you. We give you all the praise and we give you all the glory. In Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen. Okay, so I'm just sharing the screen. Okay, so we looked at the third topic in the last chapter, which is basic guidelines. Okay, basic guidelines. So what is a guideline? A guideline is like a map. Okay, so these are not laws, but these are guidelines. Okay, so what is the difference? A law or a command, you have to do. You have to do it. If you break that, there are consequences. If you break that, you're saying that, okay, I'm not obeying the law. Whereas a guideline is more like a suggestion. Okay, here is something that you can do. Okay, here is something that is good for you. Well, if you do it, well, it's good. But if you think, okay, right now, you know, I don't want to do it and there are alternatives to do it, that is also fine. So this is basically guidelines, which will help us. Okay, the first thing that we saw, I think we are in, which page are we in? Okay, page 29 in the notes, right? So the first thing that we saw is that we need to spend less than what we earn. No, that's a basic, basic criteria. It's logical. We need to spend less than we earn. So what will that result in? One, we are living within the means, within whatever money that we are getting. We are not spending more. We don't want to please others by spending. We are living within what we are getting. Now, is that easy or difficult? Sometimes it's difficult, right? Because the needs could be more, right? The requirement could be more. So living within what we can earn is sometimes challenging, but that is why we need to discipline ourselves and live like that. Okay, second one that we see is to avoid the use of debt. So Proverbs 22 and verse 7 says, The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. Okay, so when we say debt, okay, we, let's say we borrow something. When we borrow something, what does that mean? We need to, we need to pay back, right? With that understanding only we are taking. Suppose you take a loan from the bank, why is the bank giving you the loan? First, they're going to charge some interest, but they give you with the understanding that you will pay them back, right? If you're taking 1000 rupees, then they might charge you 1000, you know, whatever, 1000, 100 or something like that with the interest. But the understanding is that you would pay them back, okay? So now we've taken the loan and we need to pay back. And let's say, you know, there are other needs which come up, other requirements which come up, we have used the money. Now monthly we are not able to pay back. That is a challenge. We're not able to pay back because when you're paying back, you're paying back more. Not the same amount that you took, but you took it in faith saying that, okay, I will be able to earn, I will be able to pay back, but if you're not able to pay back, then that is a challenge, okay? And I just want to caution us today about, you know, how very easy they have made it to get loans, right? With very high interest, okay? And if you default a payment, which means you're not paying back on time, a particular payment, the interest doubles, right? And now they have so many apps, right? You just, if you've not, you know, if you've not defaulted on any payment earlier or if you just have, you know, if you give them even a rental agreement that you're paying, they're staying in one place for two years, any kind of ID, you know, they just immediately give the loan, just comes to your account, right? And then if you're not able to pay back, these are not nice people, right? These are not nice people. They're going to create all kinds of difficulty, right? And sometimes they take law into their own hands. So we need to avoid the use of debt as far as possible. Avoid borrowing, avoid taking, like in some cases, like we know I need to take, you know, maybe you're building a house, maybe buying a vehicle, and you don't have that much money with you on hand immediately, right? So saying, okay, I'll, let me, let me take a loan and I'll pay back or maybe, you know, it could be in business, whatever, which is fine, right? So the thing is, when we, why do we say avoid, avoiding is, okay, as far as possible, do not, right? Because it's going to be difficult, challenging because till you pay back, you have, that is on your mind. It is going to restrict your life, okay? So that's the thing. Avoid the use of debt. The third thing is to build liquidity. Liquidity meaning, what does it mean? It means that the ability to use the money that we have, okay? Sometimes, or immediately, you know, sometimes we are not able to use the money, okay? What would be that situation? You know, maybe the wealth that we have is in some form of jewelry, right? Maybe the, you know, it is there in some safe deposit locker, isn't the form of jewelry. The wealth that you have could be in the form of a land, right? Maybe in the house, maybe you've rented a house or you're giving it on rent. Now you're getting an income out of it. So immediately, if you need money, you're not able to use that. That house could be worth, maybe whatever, 50 lakhs, one crore. That house could be worth that. But unless you sell yet the money, we're not able to use that, right? Same with, like, if it's jewelry, if it's anything, right? So all our asset, asset meaning, all the things that we own, which is of value. That's an asset, right? You could be having like simple things like a watch or a phone or laptop. These are all assets, right? But you can't, this is of value, some value, but you can't use that money immediately. So that is why, you know, we advise normally given the guideline is to build liquidity, you know, build or save, you know, and build liquidity, build ability to be able to spend money. Immediately, maybe there's urgent need, maybe there is some help that you want to, you know, maybe in your own family or someone else or maybe, you know, even for our own needs, you know, like fees, maybe whatever. Thing is to build that ability to use that money immediately, right? Okay. Then the third one that we see, okay, we can just look at that verse, you know, it talks about, you know, it's a very strong verse, right? Go to the ant, you sluggered. You sluggered means you lazy person. Consider her ways, probably 6 verse 6 to 8. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no captain, overseer, or ruler provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. Now, why does it do that? So that in the, when the season changes, okay, it's doing the, what is it doing? The ant is collecting in summer. It's collecting during harvest time when it's available. So that when the season changes from summer to maybe winter, when there is scarcity of food, it can actually use this, right? So that is it. So the writer of problems is exerting, you know, go to the ant, consider her ways, learn, learn from this. Okay. So building liquidity is one such thing. We learn from it and we apply it. Okay. Then the next one that we see is to set long-term goals. Okay. What do we mean by that? Long-term goals, right? When we set long-term goals, our way of living changes. A pattern of living changes. You know, you're saying, okay, I'm, you know, at the end of two years, I'm going to such and such a place. You're planning. And so accordingly, your finances or the way you spend your money also changes because of that. So you're saying, I'm not going to spend it now, but I'm going to use it two years down the line so that I can actually go to this place or I can use, I can maybe, you know, go to some college or study there. So I'm going to use this money for that. Right. So you're setting long-term goals. Long-term goals can also be, you know, I'm going to maybe build something, buy something for myself or for my family. This is a long-term goal. So you're setting. Okay. You're saying, okay, 10 years from now, I want to be able to, you know, build that house or buy a house. 10 years, 15 years from now. That's a long-term goal. But because you have that goal, what happens is it changes how you live your life or how you spend daily. Okay. Doesn't mean that you have to live life in fear. Doesn't mean that you don't, you have to live in a way that, you know, you're, I mean, you're not taking care of yourself or your needs or anything like that. But your thinking changes because of your long-term goals. Right. And there are people who are, you know, who set long-term goals and said, okay, I'm going to buy this place. I'm going to buy that thing. And, and sometimes we think it's worldly. What is this? You know, very worldly. It's just, when you look at problems, it's full of wisdom. Right. And in fact, it's saying, go, consider, look at the ant, look at how they, all these animals, how they function and learn. Why should we learn so that we can use that in our own lives? Right. So, so it's not worldly. It's not worldly to think like that. It's not worldly to say, okay, I need to think ahead. I need to do this. What is worldly is when we put, you know, when we put confidence or when we boast about certain things that we want to do in our arrogance and pride and not include God in our planning. Now that is worldly. That is, that is worldly because we're not included God and the Holy Spirit is able to lead us. Can the Holy Spirit lead you to plan in such a way that you, you know, own something 20 years from now? What do you think? Or is God going to say only, you know, all that you have, you have to use it either to, you know, give to poor or you need to give it to the church? Do you think, what do you think? Can the Holy Spirit ask you, lead you to, let's say, buy a property, a land or a house for yourself? Yes, Pastor. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because you, we've studied, we've studied about the heart of God. Right. It could be a blessing to you. It could be a blessing to the future generation, your children, their children, whatever could be a blessing. Maybe the Lord wants to use that as a place of ministry. It could be a blessing. Right. So don't think that it is worldly. I will never think like that. I'm just going to live for the day, live for the moment, use whatever high I have for the moment. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Forget about it. No, no, no. God will lead us. No, there is planning and foresight and God will lead us. So where you are right now, like when I'm talking financially, you might be saying, I don't have enough money. I don't even have a bank account. No, I don't have this. I don't have that. Maybe you're thinking like that. But where you are financially is not where God will take you or lead you five years from now, 10 years from now. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, which verse is that? He's able to do that. So right now what are we thinking? I cannot. How can I own that? How can I live in such a place? How can I even have a vehicle? So many things we say, I cannot, I cannot. But God is able to do above what you think. He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above what we ask or even think. He's able to do that. So don't discount yourself. Don't discount God. And he does that for a purpose so that we can be channels of blessing. He does that for a purpose because he takes delight in prospering, increasing and bringing success into the lives of his servants. He takes pleasure in that. Like if you ask any earthly father, any earthly father will take pleasure in the prosperity of his children unless there is one serious issues or challenges. They will take pleasure in saying, I want my children to do more. I want my children to have more than what I have. So how much more our heavenly father? So set long-term goals. It's not sin. Believe that God owns it all. It's a very important thing. Some 24 talks about that. It says that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness. Let's just look at this. The earth is the Lord and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. That means that he's the creator. He possesses everything. It belongs to him. So when you believe that it belongs to God, then we will be good stewards of what he brings into our lives. We will handle it well. We will use it well. And pride won't take control of us. So we will handle money. Money will not handle us. Money will not take a hold of us. Why? You realize, all that I have, it comes from God. It comes from him. And I'm going to use it. He doesn't hold me back. I don't have to hold back from using on my needs. But then I'm going to be ready to use it for his plans and purposes. And so God is able to do that. We need to understand that it belongs to him. The fourth one is about goals. Which means that when you say goals, we just looked at it just now. Long-term goals, short-term goals. Financially, a goal is what? It's an objective, something that you want to achieve, something there you want to reach in the future. So when you say goal, you must always think in terms of how much or what is it, describe it. What is the goal? And it also should have time attached to it. So when you say, I want to become a pastor or I want to become, that's a goal. But also, prayerfully, you need to consider by when. When is it? When is it that you want to start and plan what is God putting in your heart? Plant a church or what is God putting in your heart? Yes, there is a time of season of preparation and there is a season of commissioning and we know that when it comes to planting churches also there could be different seasons of preparation and so on. But the thing is, it always has time attached to it. When we say time attached to it, we say, okay, by when should I do it? A goal should have a time frame. So when you say, I want to financially, I want to save so much or achieve so much, always put a time frame. Well, it could be shortened, it could be extended, but put a time frame, goal. Lifestyle, to be a good steward of God's wealth that he's putting in your hand, we need to consider our lifestyle. So does the Bible talk about a certain kind of lifestyle? What do you think? Suppose you're sitting in Bangalore, this is how a person should live. Meaning, if a person is living in a city or if a person is in ministry, a person is whatever, some kind of profession, this is the lifestyle a believer should have. So explicitly? The scripture explicitly does not tell anything in specific what to do and what not to do, but what we understand is God provides for our needs and not for our greed. So needs, wants, greed, they're not different categories of. But God gives principles, God lays down principles. Think about it. Let's say we go to, you know, my grandparents, they grew up in a village in Tamil Nadu and then the main road was just one road. That is the only road, main road. And if you have a car, it's like this person is rich. Any car, any four wheeler, because I think those days some two families owned cars, two families. My grandfather was a doctor, and so, you know, whatever it happened, he had one old ambassador. Anyone seen ambassador car? I don't know if it's still in production, but I think they stopped. Hindustan Motors ambassador, so he had an ambassador car. Then there was one more politician and his house, they had, what about telephone? Okay, all of us know this kind of phone. But do you know this phone? Yeah, you have dialed the phone, right? So my grandfather did not have a phone. Okay, in the house, there's this, only this house had a phone. So whenever we needed to talk to someone, we had to go to that house, book a call, trunk call, they used to call it. So you call one number, you give you who you need to call, and that operator will connect the call. Now you have to wait. Sometimes it could happen immediately or it could happen after five hours, ten hours, whichever. The line has to be cleared because there are not too many lines. And then, so a trunk call, you book a trunk call. Long, long distance call. International calls, forget it. So that is how it was. So if you had a phone, you got a big shot. It's like he has a telephone in the house. TV, same thing, right? I remember my grandfather had one, small, okay, black and white, Durudarshan only, with the antenna, one channel TV. So if there's any program, all the neighbors, everywhere, everybody will come into the house. Why? Because they want to watch the program. And they're all sitting there. And if there's a power cut, oh, everybody is very disappointed. No program today, we can't watch it. So that is how it is. That is how it was. Now you shift the whole scenario to maybe a city. And you see that almost everybody is driving in a car. You could see that, okay, almost everybody has a television in their home. So relatively speaking, it's like you cannot say that, okay, this person is super rich, right? Or is the richest? So when you say lifestyle, that is also very relative, right? How much you're earning, where, how, how you want to spend, what are your needs, right? So the Bible does not say, okay, so that does not mean that, okay, if you're a pastor, or if you're in ministry, then you should not have your own house. The Bible does not say that, right? Or let's say you're in ministry, oh, I'm in ministry, you know, how can I, how can I go by plane? Now people are starving. That's not it. If you need to reach a place in one hour time or two hours time, and it's, you know, if you go by bus or train, it's going to take two days. And if you need to be there, and if you can afford to spend for the ticket, well, you can do it, right? So you cannot say, you know, I'm in ministry, therefore, you know, I should not, what kind of reasoning or what does the Bible say? No, I should live this way. I should be in poverty. No, right? So the Bible does not say that, okay, this is the lifestyle of this person. This is the lifestyle. No. There are principles, guiding principles, right? And, and that's how, that is what it is, right? If you decide, and the same way, you cannot compare, right? You cannot compare and say, okay, that person, this person, all the doctors are living like that. I'm also a doctor. All the, you know, ministers or pastors are living like that. So I should also, no, no, no comparison, right? No comparison. You don't have to compare and live up to the other person or the other neighbor. No, you decide. You decide. God has given some wealth or, you know, you decide why Bible is there, the Holy Spirit, he will lead, okay? So live within the means, okay? I'm not going through all the scriptures there. You can read through it, but we'll just look at one, which is Matthew 25, okay? Matthew 25, we saw this, okay, earlier also when you consider stewardship, the Lord said, well done, good and faithful servant, you are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. He is specifically talking about money, which was interested to this person and how that person used that money, okay? So that can be our guiding principle, okay? God has given it. We need to be faithful with it. And how faithful am I with whatever has been given? So these are guiding principles, okay? We won't go through all the other scriptures. You can, you know, please go through it in borrowing and debt. We looked at it for a small question. Yeah, please go ahead. Yeah. So in the biblical time, are there any examples of people who have actually been in debt? I recollect that video where Elisha actually you know, to sell off the thing, because sometimes getting into a trap of debt doesn't happen overnight. It happens by chances. Yeah, but it can happen overnight also. It can happen overnight also. You know, like, suppose there's a crisis, like hospitalization something, you know, you see that sometimes the whole scenario changes or you know, during the COVID time we saw that the only person earning member in the family passes away and then the whole thing changes, right? Yeah. So in this scenario, any other example that comes to our mind when we look at it and my question primarily is, you know, sometimes it is not by choices alone. It also happens by chance, like a job layoff I'm talking about myself. So a job layoff and commitments at a different level. And at that time the job goes. Yeah. I'm trying to come out of debt. I've got into more debt. So it's just like a cycle. Yeah. As you say, obviously it takes a lot of mind space which doesn't give the liberty to, you know, breathe through all other areas including spiritually or family or finances because of the last statement on the notes it says, you know, one of the keys for financial freedom is being totally out of debt. Yeah. So how does really one go about it faster? Yeah. So, so the thing is to see people get into debts for very reason, very different reason like when I was working there was one guy who was a, he was a bachelor we were all bachelor's working and he at the end of the month invariably would ask for money. Okay. Last day of the month, maybe 29 30th, he will invariably ask for money and the thing, oh yeah, so I was married, he was single. So then you know, I would ask, you know, what is it one month, two months? Okay, I gave him, you know, you say, can I give 500,000? Then I realized that he had this habit of drinking. Okay. So his, this 500,000 was not for any bills that he had to pay, but he would use that for drinking. Right. So he was getting into debt with different people. I owe this person 500,000, you know, and I think he would have probably, you know, every month he was collecting, accumulating debt of maybe 10,000, even more because of this. So that is one scenario. And like you rightly said, you know, if there is a crisis, right, there's a crisis like maybe somebody losing their job, somebody is laid over, the company closes down, you know, all those scenarios, we, because we need to, let's say we have taken a loan, you know, we bought a house vehicle and we need to pay back, right. And because of that, we take a loan from somewhere else and then finish this loan, but then now interest is accumulating on both sides. So those kind of things are there. So the thing is, when we get into such a situation, right, we need to think, okay, what are the assets that I have? How can I change my life now? Right. We need to take a hard look. Yes, our style of living has to come down, has to change. That's the thing. Okay, I used to do this, you know, maybe four times in a month, every once a week, you know, we used to go out and eat and all that. No, change that. Because this is a season, we need to get through the season and accordingly, my lifestyle should change. And if you're a family man, family person, then we need to have the chat with the family saying, hey guys, we need to, you know, we need to make some adjustments here. Okay, we're not going to be able to afford that holiday that we used to go, you know, twice a year or, you know, we need to make some changes. Then we need to make a list, what are the assets that I have? Vehicle, gadgets, what are the assets that I have? Because I need to pay back this debt, maybe jewelry, land, whatever, what is it that I can let go of? You know, sometimes it could be even PF or, you know, something that's your Provident Fund or something that you're accumulated. Yes, we kept it in good faith saying, okay, I'll use it for a future, you know, for something, and it was maybe a big dream, you know, someone's wedding and family member's wedding, whatever, education. But right now, we need to get over that debt, because it's rising high, right? And so, we need to make a list of that. And also, you know, there are people, good believers who are consultants who are wise in this field, and who can actually suggest various options, safe, ethical options, right? It's going to be painful, but they can help walk through that path of recovery of, you know, our recovery of our situation we are in. They can help do that, so that we don't make further mistakes in our anxiety, in doing something, you know, to get over one mistake, we probably get into some five different things, which again, just earlier talking about all these loans, all these app based, you know, things that you can take loans, and people are getting stuck over and over again, I'm hearing about, you know, even just last week just three cases, sorry. A lot of, yeah, a lot of scams and a lot of very easily, you know, it's not big money. It's like 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, but you have like 10 apps like that, and you take 25,000 from each app. That's it, right? You're already paying huge interest, and if you default on a payment, then the interest doubles. You know, people are and they, when they send people to recover money, they are tough people. They don't listen to reason. They're willing to take away everything that you have, right? So you lose a lot of peace of mind etc. But yeah, so the thing is, yeah, can I, in what situations can I borrow? Again, there's no hard and fast thing. Maybe, you know, borrow in the sense you're using your credit card to make an online payment, if you're buying a ticket, or you're using something, but use it in a way that you know, use it in a way that you know that you can actually repay. You know, every loan people take, they take it with that good faith, right? That tomorrow I'll be able to repay. But there are people who take saying I'm going to take it now. I'm not even thinking of repaying now. That's a dangerous mindset, right? So borrowing and debt, we need to be careful, okay? If you're a married person, you know, consult, discuss with one another. If one person is not in agreement, then it's better to stay away, right? So that's the thing. Yeah, any questions, any further questions on this? Sorry, I'll just... There's no example that we can relate to. Sorry about that. Yeah, that is one thing that comes to my mind also. The other thing is that Jesus cast a miracle to pay the taxes. To pay off the tax, yes. Even I can't recall anything. But numerous verses, I mean, a lot of verses in Proverbs which talk about you know, don't stand in surety for someone who's borrowing. Wisdom. Yeah, a lot of wisdom, a lot of principles about debt and everything is warning. Everything is warning saying that do not get into such a situation, right? So that's the thing. I can't recall right now any other situation. But at times it also hinders ministry also, if the mind is really clogged with all of these issues. So let's say a church trust or something takes a loan to buy something. Now every month their focus is I need to pay back. So offering time is something that they cannot miss, right? They cannot miss on a Sunday offering time, emphasis. Then all these supposes offering dips or people, maybe people are not attending for some reason. Then we use, like one tends to use other means to hold the people to make sure that they give the offering. So we get into other modes of manipulation, putting fear in people's lives saying that, you know, then every Sunday, one mini message on giving, right? A lot of pressure, emotional pressure, you need to give what are you doing etc. You give sacrificially, give to you, whatever. So all these methods come into play and then, like you said, yeah, it hinders ministry, right? Maybe God wants you as a ministry to give. You're saying, no, I cannot. I have this loan, I need to fulfill that, repay that, right? So, yeah. So if you're maybe here or online class and you have you are in debt, okay? So you can think about, okay, you don't have to lose hope. You don't have to panic, right? You can get help. There are people who can give financial advice, chartered accountants, believers who, you know, who live that life. They're not talking theory, who have lived out of experience and so they're more than willing to. But we need to be transparent. They're more than willing to help. So they will ask tough questions, like you know, how much are you, what is your income? So, and so, such such an amount, okay? What is your spending? Why should I tell this person where I know, you need to, right? Like, just quite recently one person whom I knew said, you know, because of this I'm in debt. Okay, people help now that then that situation didn't change, you know, always some kind of a problem financially. And all the while the problem pointed out to us, you know, because I stood in the gap as a surety for another person I'm in this problem. So I guided them to a person who could help, you know, give financial wisdom and advice a couple. So then, I find out that, that is not, that is one of the problems. There are many other problems. But praise God, you know, this person was open enough, transparent enough to say yes, this is how the problem started all these loans, various things, all these expenses and and so, they realize that there is a pattern of spending, right? There is a mindset when it comes to money. There is a mindset maybe it could be things like what will the other person say? Simple thought. Okay, have you ever thought like that? I'm sure all of us have. What will the other person say? Now, if it's about money or spending of money, okay, what will the other person say, you know, if I invite them home and I serve this food, what will the other person say if, you know, I'm at this age and I should be living this kind of life. I should be driving this kind of vehicle. What will the other person say? So if that person has that mindset that's a dangerous thing. So it's not about how much money they are earning. It's about this. It's about this thinking. It's about the stronghold. So they were able to help in that. You don't need to do that. You don't need to order food from me and Zamato every other day. You can very well manage. They suggested all that. They went to that level. Right? And so, there is help available to walk out of debt but one needs to be transparent and teachable. Saying, okay, I'm willing. It's a very humbling experience. But one can walk through that. Okay, this whole the seventh one is about bankruptcy. Bankruptcy, you know, it's more of a, I think it's a western thing where or maybe it's in India also where the business, you know, takes on a lot of loan in order to do business, takes on a loan. Maybe it could be a person. It could be an enterprise, an organization. But they declare bankruptcy. Meaning that the business is not working or I'm at a place. So they declare bankruptcy, which means that, you know, they don't have to pay back. Right? So I don't know how the situation is. I mean, all the, you know, this kind of a thing happens. So it means that they cannot they don't have to pay back. Okay? So, what is the thing? Can I declare bankruptcy and then just make sure that all my whatever I owe is cleared, cleared off or written off, right? Or should I actually make an effort to repay? No, that's the question here. Right? So, you know, certain, certain cases, yes, we can, you know, one need one declares bankruptcy. But when you declare you also know that your reputation as a business person, your reputation, your credit worthiness, it changes. Right? When you declare bankruptcy, which means no other bank will readily give something. Right? Or, you know, maybe you want to start a business and you want capital and no other bank will give when you declare bankruptcy. So you need to be careful about that. And also, you know, what about those people to whom you owe money? Maybe it could be vendors, maybe it could be customers, right? Think about that. As far as possible, let there be what we would call as an equitable treatment, right? Let there be a righteous treatment or settlement for all who to whom we owe money. Right? Okay. Next is about giving. I think we looked at that, right? Giving, we looked at tithes. We looked at offerings. We looked at arms, which means ALMS, arms, which is giving to the poor. So I won't go into that. Investments. So it is, is it sinful to invest as a believer, as a minister of God, as a child of God? Is it okay to invest? What does that mean? Invest. You're taking your money and you're putting it somewhere, maybe investing in a business or investing in some kind of a policy, right? So that you will get a return. Okay. So what is the simplest way of investing? I don't think you can even call it investing. What is the simplest way where you get a return on your money? Fixed deposits. Great instruments of like fixed deposit, recurring deposit. Or your simple savings account. There is an interest that you earn. You can't call it investment, but this is what. But when you talk about fixed deposits or when you talk about recurring deposits. Risk taking appetite is very low. So it is more long-term and there is less risk. When you say less risk, which means less chances of things going back. So those are some things to consider. What are other ways, I'm not an expert, financial expert, but what are other ways by which we can invest something called mutual funds, right? Stock market, high risk, high return. So one needs to know, one needs to be knowledgeable and we need to study and then do it. There is a high risk. There is a chance that you invest and then everything goes down. Depends on so many things. Depends on the political climate. Depends on the industry. Depends on how globally things are functioning. Suppose there is a war. That's all. Because there is no supply. That's what happened. Ukraine, Russia and prices shot up for because the supply stopped and so on. So we need to understand that. But yes, it is a high risk but also high return. Investment can also be in land and assets like that. Real estate where again, we know land value always appreciates. So maybe in gold so those are some ways of investing which you can consider. So there are several options and probably I will just share a document on simple ways of investing. But also if you are listening and if you are from another country and so on, you see what works in your nation in your country and also if you are from another state in India also, you see what works there and then you can invest. Is it okay to invest in chit funds? Chit funds, you know those. What do you think? Because when chit fund is suddenly that office is open. Yeah. I do not say it's a wrong investment. It's a wrong investment. I mean it's a risky investment. Yeah. So it's a risky thing because if somebody defaults there are so many organizations which are there open up office start get the investment and then shut office and you do not hear about them. So there are some well reputed organizations but there are others we do not know. So we need to be careful. Okay. Okay. So investments consider that. It's not sin to invest but at the same time also guard your heart because why are you investing? You want return. So there is nothing sinful about that and in fact you must have that thing to get back and to have a good return. So in the inverse here. As far as you're not putting everything in one place so then that gets diversified. Right. So that's that's the thing. Like when it comes to mutual funds that is what everything is in different mutual funds do that. They put it in different debt instruments so that even if one is they do put in stocks and shares but then even if one pulls down the other one is able to balance it. So yeah. So that should be the right. Okay. We'll stop here. We are going to look at how many more work in retirement, net worth, income taxes, life insurance, wealth transfer training shelter. Okay. So we will finish this in the next class and with that we'll come to the end of this course. Okay. So, okay. Thank you so much. God bless.