With Halloween several weeks away, you might think that I am going to write about candy… but I’m not… The truth of the matter is that I was reading an interesting article about making money, saving and looking toward the future. After all, we are stewards of the resources, financial and otherwise, that God has entrusted to our care. Imagine my surprise when I learned about those people in our country who are referred to as HENRYs. I had never heard of this designation before, but it probably shouldn’t have surprised me because we seem to have an acronym for everything and everybody.
So, let’s get to it… HENRY stands for “high earner, not rich yet…” Can you believe it? So, of course, I had to research this and to my surprise, it’s a real thing! In fact, the usage of the term was coined in 2003. Depending on your source data, the HENRY designation applies to people who make more than $100,000 per year in income but do not put away any savings to build wealth for retirement. Their funds seem to be spent on housing costs and using their disposable income on other things rather than setting themselves up for eventual retirement. In other words, they are victims of what is called, “lifestyle creep” where their spending increases and outpaces increases in income.
Lately, the HENRY designation has also been applied to those folks, usually pretty early in their careers, who have incomes north of $250,000 – $500,000 per year and still have not made any moves toward building wealth and saving for retirement. Essentially, people in this category should be moving toward the “rich” category but current spending is of more interest than considering the future. In the case of double income families, there are multiple reports of combined incomes in excess of $700,000 per year without any prep for the future. In fact, one case study showed that a high earning couple had less than $7000 per year of discretionary income after sending their child to a private school and living in a $1.8 million dollar home that they really couldn’t afford with all their social climbing “obligations.” These includes private workout coaches, dining out multiple times per week and carry out meals as standard for dinner. Oh, designer clothes is another source of expenditure.
Some of these usually younger executives are working 100 hours per week and figuring that if they can stick it out for ten years, they will end up multi-millionaires. The issue is that they are working themselves to death and usually can’t hang on long enough to get the payout at the end of the rainbow. Ironically, as these folks age, it is known that 20% of Americans have ZERO retirement savings at age 50! But only 40% of this group worries that they may not have enough money for eventual retirement.
In some ways, though, I can understand this mentality. When Janet and I were younger, I was raised to try and increase income rather than worry about spending. But as our faith increased, and we recognized that everything is a gift from God, our habits changed drastically. I am embarrassed to say that as an entrepreneur, we have made it and lost it several times during our journey toward retirement. Today, we live more by faith than we ever have in our entire lives. I wish that I had learned these habits much earlier in our lives. And all of our children will tell you that my mantra with them has been “don’t sell out for the money.” By this time, it’s probably tattooed on the inside of their foreheads and I am happy to report that all our kids have learned this lesson – settling into careers that they all enjoy and prosper in. I even reminded one of our grandsons of this very lesson earlier today.
Our verse for tonight comes from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus is speaking and reminds us of our value to God. Matthew gives us the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-33, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
My encouragement this evening is that, as a child of God, our Heavenly Father has us covered… Life is much easier when we turn our troubles over to Him. My prayer is that we can trust enough in the love of God that if we seek Him first, the rest will all fall into place in accordance with God’s will for our lives. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…