one degree

About one degree

The Faith & Finance newsletter, read aloud — weekly reflections on money, stewardship, and the Christian life. faithandfinance.substack.com (https://faithandfinance.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Nicholas Garofalo

Category

business · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Feb 2024

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

69 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026

   The Gift That Leads to Death

   “The Gift That Leads to Death.” I know, such a cheery start to your day. Probably not the day-one giving campaign sermon title of choice, and that’s fine. I want to put two stories from Scripture next to each other, starting with the widow in Zarephath in 1 Kings 17. Elijah comes to her and asks for bread, and she tells him she has a handful of flour and a little oil left. She’s going to make something for herself and her son, and then they’re going to die. That’s how little she has. She’s already thinking in terms of their last meal. So when she makes something for Elijah, I wonder how much hopelessness was wrapped up in that moment. Humanly speaking, you could almost read it as, “Well, what does it matter? Fine, you can have it.” We aren’t told everything going through her mind, but Elijah has also brought her a promise from God: the flour and oil will last until He sends rain. And she acts on it. This woman, who isn’t even part of Israel, trusts the God of this prophet enough to give from the bottom of her barrel. Somehow the flour doesn’t run out, and neither does the oil. There is food for her household through the famine. Then we get to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. It’s the early church, and people are bringing gifts to the apostles to care for the other believers. Ananias and Sapphira sell a piece of property and bring part of the proceeds, but they present the gift as though they’re giving the whole amount. And Peter sees straight through it. By the way, they were allowed to keep some of the money. Peter specifically says the property belonged to them, and after they sold it, the money was theirs to do with as they wished. They could have brought a portion and been honest about it. Instead, they lied. They wanted people to think they had surrendered everything while they were secretly holding something back. They wanted to be seen as these wonderfully generous people giving their lives to the service of the church. And both of them died. That is a sobering story to read, especially next to the widow’s. Both gave, and yet apparently not every gift is generous. Where is the giving coming from? The widow is responding to God’s word with almost nothing left. Ananias and Sapphira have property to sell, and they’re trying to manage what people think of them. From the outside, you could look at either gift and see someone being generous. But what’s happening in their hearts is very different. And I think it’s pretty easy for us to put spiritual language around mixed motives. I can give because I want to be faithful, but I can also give because I want to be impressive. Money might be losing its grip on me while approval still has a pretty firm hold. The outward act could look almost identical, even to me if I’m not paying attention. So “Am I giving?” doesn’t get far enough. Where is that giving coming from, and what is it doing in my soul? Who am I becoming as I give? I’ve talked before about the gravitational pull of wealth. We have to respect its ability to draw our lives into orbit around it. Giving can help loosen that grip, but I can also give an amount I’m perfectly comfortable with, get the satisfaction of feeling generous, and never have to trust God with anything that feels costly. Or I can give a lot and become even more attached to being known as someone who gives a lot. That possibility ought to make us pause before assuming the gift tells us everything we need to know. I can hide behind a good strategy In my line of work, I talk about generosity in terms of tools quite often. Donor-advised funds, appreciated securities, estate planning, deductions. All of that matters, and it can be really helpful. Take a donor-advised fund. You can contribute eligible appreciated assets to a charitable account, then recommend grants to ministries and other charities from that account. Depending on the asset and your circumstances, that can allow more to go toward giving than selling the asset yourself, paying capital gains tax, and giving what’s left. That’s a really cool tool. I love helping people think through things like that. But you could set up the fund, contribute loads of appreciated stock, and still have the same heart problem you had before you started. A clever strategy can’t settle the question of why you’re giving. And sometimes the planning itself gives us a way to delay obedience. I have five kids, and then I have a sixth kid called Charity in my estate plan. The ministries we care about, our church, people getting the gospel to unreached places, will receive an equal portion of our estate. I’m glad we have that in place. But I also have to ask whether knowing they’ll receive something someday could become an excuse to ignore God’s prompting to give now. Because when I say, “I’m going to give a lot to them someday,” I should probably be more precise. My executor will give it. I’ll be gone. Oh, dang. There’s a different kind of trust involved in giving while I’m still here and could still use that money. Planning a future gift doesn’t answer whether I’m obeying God with what He’s asking of me today. And the same question applies when a ministry invites us to give. If nobody ever knew I made the gift, would that change how I felt about making it? Am I responding to God’s prompting, or do I want the person asking to think something of me? Those are questions I need to sit with even when the financial strategy makes perfect sense. The death I actually want But our faith also revolves around a gift that led to death. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.” The Father gives the Son, and the Son gives His life. That gift leads to death before it leads to resurrection. So as I think about this title, there’s a kind of death I actually want to happen in my giving. I want my desire to impress people to die. I want the hypocrisy in me, the parts of my heart that don’t match what I’m saying, to be brought into the light and dealt with. Sometimes an act of generosity can be part of that. I give, and there’s no credit coming back to me. Nobody respects me more because of it, and I don’t get to build a story about what a generous person I am. God prompted me to do something, and I did it. I’d like that to put another nail in the coffin of my pride. Even there, I don’t want to turn around and try to impress God with how little I’m trying to impress everybody else. First John says we love because He first loved us. That’s where I want my giving to come from too. Christ has made me His, and I’m responding to what He’s already given. People ask me good, practical questions about giving. Do I tithe on net or gross? What about Social Security in retirement? What happens when I’m selling appreciated assets? I’m glad to talk through those questions, and I love a good giving strategy. But we’d miss an awful lot if we worked out all the calculations and never considered what kind of people we’re becoming as we give. When I give because God prompted me, without needing anybody to know, I want my pride to lose a little more of its hold. That would be a gift that leads to a death I’d welcome. P.S. This newsletter started as another way to serve my clients, sharing my thoughts on integrating faith and finances. If we’re not working together yet, here are three ways I can help whenever you’re ready:‣ Prepare for a Gospel-centered retirement (https://www.openhandedwealth.com/blogs/does-the-bible-say-i-shouldnt-save-for-retirement)‣ Align your investments with your faith (https://www.openhandedwealth.com/blogs/from-railroad-bonds-to-index-funds-why-christians-need-to-know-their-investments)‣ Figure out how much is actually enough (http://www.openhandedwealth.com/blogs/how-much-is-enough-financial-finish-line-give-generously) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit faithandfinance.substack.com (https://faithandfinance.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Then what?

   It’s a Monday. I’m driving into my office and listening to a voice memo from my good buddy out in Colorado. We banter about faith & finance topics all the time — in fact a few of my newsletter ideas have come from chats with him. And this one’s no different. He proposed to me the question on the other side of most every financial goal. And let me pause there — financial goals like… Build a businessGet rid of the mortgagePay for your kids’ collegeSave $1 million in your retirement accountsGet the promotion to secure your income for the foreseeable future. So you get the point. But I wanna share this question with you. On the other side of those goals … now what? The economic warning light that used to flash in the corner of your life has finally turned off. So what’s next? It’s a fair question because more money really can make life better, especially when there isn’t enough of it. Money can put groceries in the refrigerator, fix the transmission, cover the electric bill, and give a family room to breathe. The longing to provide well isn’t greed. For many people, earning more would relieve real pressure. But my friend’s question assumed that pressure had already lifted. The income is there, the family is healthy, the house is comfortable and the boxes are checked. What do you pursue when you no longer need to pursue the things that got you here? The little Eden we build I think many of us spend years trying to architect our own little Eden. We want a beautiful life with everything we need, arranged carefully enough that very little faith is required. We don’t mind God being present, of course. We would simply prefer that he not disrupt the plans. So we work, save, insure, diversify, and optimize until we’ve protected ourselves from every problem we can imagine. Then, once the structure is secure, we plan to give God the overflow. One problem here is that we never defined how much was enough, so the overflow never quite arrives. There is always another expense, another upgrade, another milestone, or another risk to guard against. The imaginary line moves every time we get close to it. We keep assuming that one day we will look around, discover we have far more than we need, and become radically generous without having practiced generosity along the way. Proverbs says, “The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.” Read that last phrase again: “…they imagine…“ Money can protect us from many things. It can absorb a bad month, replace a roof, and pay for excellent medical care. But the wall is never as high as we imagine it is. Eventually, life reminds us that we are finite. The finish line keeps moving Even if life goes wonderfully, there is no natural point at which desire declares itself satisfied. I once heard a kind Englishman named Richard share his life story. He described what happened when his career changed and his income took off. He began earning in a month what he once earned in a year. Then he earned it in a few weeks. His lifestyle rose just as quickly. Wool became cashmere. Nylon became leather. The house got larger, and the schools became more exclusive. None of the upgrades stood out as outrageous on their own, after all … he could afford it. Couldn’t he? Then he realized that his consumption had become insatiable. Around that time, his church began raising money for a new building. As he studied the plans, he started researching what the same money could accomplish through ministries serving people in much poorer parts of the world. He had spent years asking what more money could add to his life. He began asking what it could accomplish through his life. That question changed the way he gave. For years, he increased his generosity beyond what felt comfortable. Each time, he feared he had finally gone too far and would discover that God would not provide. Each year gave him another chance to learn that God’s provision was sturdier than his fear. Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Near the end of his life, he said he was grateful God had gotten hold of his heart before the fear of death forced the issue. His generosity had been freely offered, not extracted by a diagnosis. I heard his story 2 years after he died, and shared it with my friend on an ordinary Monday morning voice memo. Richard had no way to know where his obedience would travel or whom it would reach. (https://www.faithfi.com/faith-driven-entrepreneur/episode-310-eternal-roi-richard-garnetts-challenge-to-faith-driven-entrepreneurs-7120) A larger story The question “then what?“ assumes there is a finish line where the important work is complete and the rest of life has to be filled. But you may already have much of what you once thought would make you feel secure. You may have savings, a home, healthy children, meaningful work, and enough margin to absorb a surprise. In a real sense, you may have already arrived at someone else’s dream. And yet the worries remain. The goals multiply. The finish line moves. Life may still feel quite hard. Money cannot give us the kind of security that lets us stop depending on God. It cannot relieve us of our finitude or guarantee that life will follow the plan. No portfolio can do that much work, though we often ask it to. This does not make planning pointless. Saving is wise. Providing for a family is good. Work, ambition, and preparation all have a place in a faithful life. But ambition has to be yielded to Christ or it will shrink our lives around ourselves. We can spend decades building a private kingdom, then wonder why the view from the top feels smaller than expected. God’s story is incalculably larger than the life we can secure for ourselves. There is always someone to serve, something to build, a burden to carry, a gift to offer, or an act of obedience that will far outreach our vision. This hard season may be teaching us dependence that affluence will tempt us to forget. The prosperous season may give us resources that were never meant to terminate on us. Either way, God is present before the warning light turns off, and he is still there after it does. So when the income rises, the house is paid off, the children are launched, and the boxes are checked, the answer is not a blank page. The story was never that small. (https://www.andsonsmagazine.com/podcast/episode/222-story-1-or-story-2) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit faithandfinance.substack.com (https://faithandfinance.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   28 Sept 2026

   You Have Permission to Save for Retirement

   About a year ago, I needed someone to give me permission to save for retirement. I know that sounds really strange coming from a financial planner. I got into finance because compound interest absolutely bedazzled me. It felt like black magic. You look at a graph showing what happens when money compounds over 10, 20, 30, or 40 years, and it is hard to believe. Then I tried to reconcile the financial wizardry of modern investing with my Bible—especially Jesus’ teachings in Luke 12 and similar. I read about a Jesus, who had nowhere to lay his head and gave haunting warnings about wealth. Who called the rich foolish for building bigger barns and telling himself he could finally relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Suddenly, my excitement about investing and building wealth felt harder to reconcile with following Christ. Was saving for retirement wise stewardship? Or was I slowly buying into an affluent, self-indulgent, godless vision of the good life? Could it be both? I do not think I am the only Christian who has felt that tension. I talk with people who say, “I want to save, but I don’t ever plan to stop working.” That sounds bold & faithful when you are 35. Then you turn 50 and your knees hurt. Your back hurts. Your eyes are not what they used to be. Work takes more out of you than it did 20 years ago. Then grandchildren arrive. Your parents need help. You want more time to serve your church, care for your family, or do work that matters without worrying about what it pays. Eventually, the question changes. It is no longer, “Why would I ever stop working?” It becomes, “What might become possible if I no longer had to trade so much of my time for money?” I needed to know that it is okay to save for retirement. Saving does not mean you are abandoning God. It does not mean your faith is weak. It does not automatically mean you are storing up treasure on earth or pursuing a secular fantasy where enough money finally makes you safe. It may simply mean you are being a wise steward, carefully managing your household and preparing for responsibilities you can reasonably expect. Consider the ant Proverbs tells the sluggard to consider the ant. She prepares food in summer and gathers provision at harvest. She does not wait until winter and call that “trusting in God’s provision”. She recognizes that seasons change, and so she works while work can be done. Human life has seasons too. Most of us will not have the same strength, earning capacity, or opportunities at 75 that we had at 45. Preparing for that change is …wise. Pretending it will never happen is …foolish. And Scripture repeatedly commends wise provision. “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it” (Proverbs 21:20) Wisdom does not consume everything today. It preserves some resources for tomorrow — that is what retirement savings can be. A careful, consistent setting aside of some of today’s income because you know tomorrow may require something different from you. You are preparing to care for your household. You are reducing the chance that your future needs will fall entirely on your children or community. You are creating room to respond generously when God places an opportunity in front of you. None of that guarantees security. Money cannot do that. It does not replace daily dependence on God. It is still wise to consider the ant. The problem with the bigger barns But what about the rich fool in Luke 12? His land produced abundantly. He tore down his barns and built larger ones so he could store the crop. Then he told his soul, “You have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” God called him a fool. YIKES. Take that in for a second. God doesn’t often call people fools. The warning needs to be heeded. Wealth can tempt us to treat God as unnecessary and comfort as our reward. A retirement plan can become an attempt to build a private utopia where no one needs anything from us and we need nothing from God. But notice where Jesus takes the parable. The man “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” His abundance stopped. With him. In his hands. Or, more accurately, in his barns. Proverbs 11:26 says, “The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.” It’s never occurred to me that the rich fool could have sold grain. He could have paid workers, met needs, given generously, strengthened his community, and turned abundance into blessing. Instead, he hoarded everything for himself …and called it the good life. That is the spiritual danger. The size of the barn matters less than what the barn is for and whose kingdom it serves. We have no clue how large his barns were before. That’s really not the point. The mindset and heart-posture around money and it’s perilous implications for our souls is the point here. Financial freedom for faithful work The usual retirement story says you work for several decades, save enough, and then earn the right to stop contributing. I do not think that is a Christian vision of aging. An 82-year-old may not need to get out of bed and go to a job every morning. But an 82-year-old still needs a reason to get out of bed. Paid employment can end while meaningful work continues, and retirement savings can make that possible. They can give you freedom to care for grandchildren, volunteer at church, mentor someone younger, support a missionary, help an aging friend, study Scripture, learn something new, tend a garden, make a meal, or take on work that will never produce a paycheck. That kind of retirement still needs ambition. Paul spoke positively about ambition when it was pointed toward God. He was ambitious to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9). He was ambitious to preach the gospel (Romans 15:20). He told the Thessalonians to make it their ambition to lead a quiet life and work with their hands (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Financial freedom should create room for that kind of godly ambition. Ambition of the heart: I still want to please God, love people, and see others come to faith.Ambition of the mind: I am still learning, reading, listening, and growing. I have not had my final new experience.Ambition of strength: I will steward the body God has given me and use whatever capacity remains to work, serve, build, tend, and help. Jesus calls us to love God with our heart, mind, and strength. None of those receives permission to become complacent when the paychecks stop. Save without worshiping the savings Proverbs 1:32 says, “The complacency of fools destroys them.” That is a needed warning for retirement. Financial freedom can open beautiful possibilities, but it can also make a comfortable, self-focused life easier to build. So save diligently. Hold the money with an open hand. Prepare for future needs without pretending you can control the future. Build financial freedom without making personal comfort the goal. You do not need to feel guilty for preparing for a season when your body changes, your family needs you differently, or paid work is no longer the best use of your time. You have permission to consider the ant. You have permission to manage your household carefully. You have permission to save enough that someday you can choose work because it is faithful, useful, and good, even when nobody pays you to do it. Save for retirement. Just do not retire from loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit faithandfinance.substack.com (https://faithandfinance.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

4,466

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

60

Social presence

0

YouTube

68

Engagement

60

Contact one degree

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.