Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Eddie James, CKA® Owner of Harvest Wealth Management-Retirement Planning for Christians

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Eddie has a clear vision to do things differently as a certified pastor and fiduciary advisor. He wants to challenge conventional thinking in financial services that seem to be all about selling expensive and baffling financial products to the public to generate large commissions, but which never seem to solve the real-world issues faced by clients. He has established a client-focused business culture in which he spends time getting to know his clients, listening to them attentively, understanding them, and building a long-term relationship as a true trusted adviser.Eddie believes that helping clients see money from God’s perspective changes every decision with money and so he is passionate about providing biblically-centric financial planning to help you achieve the aspirations and objectives you feel God is calling you in life.He has an incredible innate ability to translate complicated financial and tax strategies into plain English. His diversified experience working with professional employees, churches, and other non-profits helps them understand and answer client queries to the best of his knowledge. He wants to make sure that his clients are as well-versed and well-organized financially as he is, with a defined plan for how their investment funds will be managed to achieve their goals.Eddie is all about helping others. Eddie believes that helping clients see money from God’s perspective changes every decision with money. Christian clients want a return on their money and have an impact on the world. They realize the brevity of life and see their wealth to invest for eternity and so Eddie devotes a lot of his time to teaching financial literacy, leading a Stewardship ministry, and helping to create healthy churches in Arizona, the United States, and throughout the world. Eddie has a lovely wife and three lovely girls who occupy most of his time outside of the office yet encourage him to look after your funds as if they were his own.Learn More:https://www.harvestwealthplan.comwww.MoneyYourSlave.comThe opinions expressed by Mike Saunders, MBA, and guests on this podcast show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this podcast station. All Statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable. Although, it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Any strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone, information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned, please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it is suitable for your specific situation. This program is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to subject covered. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC (BCM), a registered investment advisor. BCM and Harvest Wealth Management are independent of each other.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-eddie-james-cka-owner-of-harvest-wealth-management-retirement-planning-for-christians

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us, Eddie James, who's the owner of Harvest Wealth Management, and we will be talking about retirement planning for Christians. Eddie, welcome to the program. Mike, thank you for having me. It truly is a blessing to go ahead and be on your podcast today.

Thank you again. I am looking forward to talking with you. We had talked previously and just really love your approach and your service, it's hard, and I just really love what you're doing. So I'm excited to learn more about how you're serving your client. So get us started first with your story and background. How did you get into the financial services business in the first place? Sure. I guess it's a pretty interesting story. I'm currently a licensed pastor and a licensed fiduciary vote for over 10 years. So while in college or right after college, I actually wanted to pursue a career in

mediation and arbitration. And at my church, I ended up feeling really led to take a class on your spiritual gifts. It was a real deep dive eight-week class on spiritual gifts. And what was interesting is that at the time, I was pretty active in ministry on the worship team. So many people in the class are like, why are you here? You kind of know what your gift is. I said, yeah, I feel I do, but something's telling me that I still belonged in this class to kind of really discover that process. And at the end of the eight weeks of class, it was really clear that I was supposed to minister in finances, which was interesting because I didn't think that, you know, personal finance was anything that I was good at at all, you know, whether for myself, let alone trying to speak to someone else about it.

But as I stated, I wanted to pursue a career in mediation and arbitration. right after college, there was an opportunity for me to start working in the financial services industry. And I says, well, even though I have a couple of different options here after college, I'm going to go ahead and take this leap of faith that's thinking that this is the direction that God is leading me, I'm going to go down this road. So a couple years into it, I'm assisting or part of a small group at our church. and we're going through a financial literacy session. And I'm like, hey, these are some of the items that, you know, books that I'm reading through work,

I feel like I kind of know some of these items. So, hey, if you need some help as I'm sharing this with a small group leader, know that I'm here to serve. And he goes, well, why don't you just take it over? Oh, you're like, oh, okay. Well, I wouldn't go for that. There's an open door. Right.

So that kind of led to, you know, teaching, you know, a couple. lessons to our small group. That kind of got around to our church leadership. I was asked to then start teaching some finance classes at our church and financial literacy. After a few years of that, that led to me teaching finance classes at my employer. And then, but still kind of pursuing, you know, a financial services, mediation and arbitration, career field. And then after the Great Recession, God just opened the door to where that ministry was now going to become my profession, right? To where, you know, it was just crystal clear through the number of people that I had just kind of assisted for years upon years at the church that, okay, God, you're really opening doors for

me to be able to go ahead and make this a profession, get licensed, take some of these very difficult licenses and tests, pass them with flying colors, and then start to build a book of business of truly serving people. And again, strangely enough, knowing how that tied all the way back to those years before of me having this yearning or desire to take the this class on my spiritual gift. So, yeah. You know, isn't it interesting that the scripture, the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord, you know, while you were going through those initial steps, it was like,

okay, this is what I'm doing. But then it's kind of like you see the 30,000 foot view and the 60,000. You see how those steps weave together and how they fit together. And it's like, okay, wow. You know, thy word is a lamp into my feet and a light in my path. a lot of times we think it's a floodlight or a lighthouse and it's like the whole path, but sometimes it's just a little lamp that we can see that first step right in front of us. And then the next step, we don't see the whole picture.

Is that kind of what you were experiencing as well? Absolutely. Any time throughout the process, if you had told me that, wow, you should become a financial planner or a financial advisor. I was like, no, no, no. Those people, they're too advanced for me and they have, you know, these years of experience. and expertise that I could never obtain. But then knowing how God was helping me to acquire those skill sets that I was just oblivious to, you know, while just serving in the kingdom. So, yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. So anything to do with money and finances and stewardship of money and planning for retirement, all of that applies to any human. So why Christians? And I know your background and your Lys, Orday Minister and all of that, you're working at. But talk a little bit about some of the special focus that Christians can take from learning about financial literacy. What are some of those impacts that are different than just the traditional, you know, person off of the street? Well, that's a great question, Mike. I know that for myself, back in 2011, my dark.

who was three at the time, ended up contracting leukemia. It was a very difficult road. So the night that we found out about it, my wife and I were actually about to lead a marriage mentoring class at our church. And so it was completely unexpected, turned the whole world upside down. And for the next two and a half to three years, you know, we're at the hospital. two to three days a week, you know, three to four hours at a time, you know, as she's receiving treatment, as she's continually trying to reach these benchmarks in treatment to reach the stage

of cancer-free in hopes that it would never come back. And through that season, it wasn't my biological family that stepped up. It wasn't my friends who I'd grown up with, college friends, that I'd known for years. It was my church family that was just there for us time and time again. And, you know, you kind of get to a point where you just realize that there's just no reciprocity. There's no way that you can pay back. But at this time, I wasn't in, I wasn't a financial advisor. I wasn't a financial planner.

So when it was time to make that, to make that transition, to really just surrender to this is where God is leading me to for both a profession and end to continue in ministry. It was clear that, okay, just like what you told me years ago, going back to that first part of my beginning story, that I'm supposed to go ahead and serve people in finance. it's clear now that this is not just for ministry, but for profession as well to truly help just shepherd his children providing them peace and clarity and giving them someone that they can trust. Right? You know, I'm just a big believer that, you know, in recognizing I have a lot of different types of clients,

not all of them are Christian, but I do believe that, Christians are more just attracted to the message that I bring to what I stand for as as far as my values as far as the results that we provide. To me, I'm just a big believer that, hey, when I'm working with fellow believers, I have a sense of peace that I don't have to worry about you asking me to do something with your money, which doesn't align with the Lord. and personally that you can have some peace that I'm not going to do anything with your money that doesn't align with the Lord. That's huge.

It totally does. And you know, another thing, and you can kind of quantify and clarify that this is an accurate statement. But in scripture, money and finances is one of, if not the most, talked about topics in all of the Bible. You know, I mean, you would think that love or salvation or things would be. but money is one of, and I think it's up for numbers from 700 to 2,000 different references. And if that is a topic that is so frequently talked about and taught about in scripture, then that amplifies your calling to know, look, this is something that the body of Christ needs. This is something that will make a big impact in people's day-to-day lives,

because there's probably some things just even with budgeting and things like that, that you're able to make some really big quick differences in your client. life. Those are, you're absolutely correct. Those, that's the items that I enjoy. So whether my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they're struggling with their finances, they're solid with their finances, they have a surplus, just being able to be that advocate for them, you know, to, I always like to go ahead and say, you know,

kind of discerning from the spirit what I'm supposed to go ahead and shepherd them from the front. side by side or behind them, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So let's kind of shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit, not into the weeds or specifics on, you know, product recommendations or things like that. But how can hardworking Christian employees address some of these retirement planning issues like lifetime income and growing a portfolio? What is the first place that you start in guiding your clients?

Sure. Yeah, great question. We have a process here at Harvest Wealth that we call the Retire with Peace Plan. This is to kind of just help people just kind of get out of those high-risk financial products that usually have low performance, they usually carry high fees to get them to something that I like to call that's more tax efficient, more fee efficient, more market efficient, helping them to kind of preserve their wealth while still aligning with their morals and values. You know, a lot of people don't believe that you can't have both. It's like, oh, yes, he created it all. Of course you can have both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a three-step process that we kind of created a while back, you know, here again, our retired with peace plan.

Like I said, three steps. Is there the first step is the balance sheet optimizer system. We're here again. It's about that focus of, again, tax-efficient, cost-efficient, risk-efficient investment vehicles that don't wipe out your gain every time that there's a market downturn. Yeah. Secondly, is our wealth preserver system.

Here it's all about generating inflation-adjusted monthly lifetime income to offset your retirement lifestyle. And so that people can have just a sense of assurance about that. And then third is the legacy protector system. Usually I know when finance guys speak about legacy, you know, speaking about estate planning and aligning with your tax repair and with your attorney, your state attorney, which are very important items. But we like to go ahead and take it a bit further and help you to establish a legacy with your non-financial assets as well

to ensure that you're passing down your values, your principles, your convictions to the next generation. Because what I've seen in all the years that I've been able to go ahead and help love and shepherd on people is that sometimes those items, those non-financial assets, they hold them as high as esteem as they do their financial assets is sometimes even more. Yeah. Yeah, and sometimes those have the biggest impact. You know, it's like reminds me of the quote by Maya Angelou that says people will forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. Right, right. You know, my real quick item, I think about that upcoming here in a couple weeks is we're going to have Thanksgiving.

It's one of those two or three times of the year where traditionally here in the U.S. we get together, right? But let's be candid. Most of the time for most people, it's a very, it's a very hurried environment. People have travel plans. They're trying to go ahead and meet different agendas. And with that in mind, some of those different sit down around. the sofa times that we used to have with our grandparents and just listening to their stories,

allowing them to share some other values and what's important to them. You know, why is it important that we're the James family? And, you know, and as far as certain convictions and principles that must be carried on, and here's why, right? especially as we have younger people. You know, I have daughters who are 15 and 13, and they have so many friends who are just not sure about who they are. You know, and recognizing that here's our, you know,

our later generations who would love to be able to have an opportunity to kind of share, you know, those values. But sometimes that there isn't a right opportunity. So I like to go ahead and kind of help create that opportunity, kind of make it red carpet, to see if that's something that they would like to go ahead and pass on. You know, we could spend about four and a half more hours on that one point alone, which is our noses are buried in technology. And I'm sure sitting around the sofa like you mentioned on Thanksgiving time or any other time, there's 19 teenagers with all their devices. and they don't even listen. There's no, that's not conducive to those stories.

So I love that you bring that up, the values and the mission of a family and that ties right into when you are making specific recommendations to clients, you are looking at it and thinking about it through the lens and filter of would this type of investment or this type of recommendation be something for a Christian brother or sister that would be a good extension of their family values. And so it's more than just product recommendation, buy this, move this, let's go. It is you are taking that personal touch. You are learning about that client's mission and vision and values and then implementing some recommendations that way.

I think that is such a spectacular approach that you are doing. Exactly. You're right on. That's exactly what we do here. Thank you. Well, if someone is interested in learning more about what you do, what's the best way they can reach out and learn more and then also connect with you, Eddie? Sure.

They can go ahead and reach out to us by our website. That's at www.harvestwealthplan.com. They can always email me as well at Eddie. That's E-D-D-D-I-E at Harvestwealthplan.com. Excellent. I will make sure to have the link in the show notes as well. So thank you so much for coming on the show today. Eddie, it's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Mike, again, thank you again for the invitation. This has truly been a blessing. And thanks again, my friend. Thank you again. Thank you. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.

influential entrepreneursradio.com.