A pastor's income ?

Where did he say he wasn't planning for the future?

I know plenty of pastors who love what they do, and never want to completely quit.

It doesn't mean they go at it 50 hours per week...

Maybe they supply preach and interim.
Maybe they step into an associate role.
Maybe they go part-time, and take more trips with their bride, go see the grandkids, etc.

None of that precludes planning for the future. RM never said any of those things.

 

There is another extreme...

That is this: A minister has a calling. They can't retire from a calling.

They can, however, serve within that calling in a manner that is less taxing than what one might do at age 35...

In short, I think many ministers retire from positions that might be too taxing for an older person. But a minister never retires from a calling.

Oh, and another fact: I know many older pastors who serve the Lord and fulfill His calling on their lives...but they do it in such ways that do not pay a dime. There's lots to be said for volunteering. And if you've planned well for yourself, and can serve God in areas that might not be able to renumerate you...then God bless you, go for it, and good job.

 

An inability to function in that capacity.

 

In the bad old days when grandpa got soft in head he was kept in the kitchen where there was most always someone to watch him. These days even the young people in China and Japan no longer want to babysit their elders. Planning for old age is primarily a financial exercise.

I've been retired since 1996 and recommend it highly. There is always something to do but I never HAVE to be tired. It is always nap time and always time to splice the main brace.

 

Our original post had to do with a pastor's income. In my own case, I have certainly found it necessary and helpful to do the things you have mentioned in order to flesh out my retirement. I retired from the full-time pastorate five years ago, at age 66, but almost immediately took on a half-time position as a foundation executive. I have also done one interim pastorate, lots of supply preaching, and have taught a course three times at a seminary as an adjunct. Those income sources were not necessarily critical, but they have been invested to provide revenue streams for the future. Social Security is giving zero COLA this year and, I have read, probably the next year as well. We have to deal with rising prices some way, and my way has been to keep on earning and to invest it.

 

It is when the local averge income is less then $30,000 yr., and more then half people yearly income is less then $20,000.

 

I agree. The cost of living varies so much. What is wealthy in one area is not necessarily wealthy in another. See http://www.city-data.com/ for details on pretty much any area in the country. Interesting stuff.

 

Don't know much about the data. However, here are some thoughts.

For homes, they include condos as well as single family homes. We don't have a lot of condos in our town, but enough of them to skew the data -- at least a little bit, especially since some are 1/1s and 2/1s. Also not trying to be a math geek, but they are using the median not the mean, so the #s will probably be lower.

Regarding income, they probably include all persons within the zip code, whether they are actively working or not. On my street alone, we have four families are either retirees or widows and since no one is working a full time job, their income is rather low. This can definitely skew the data. In addition, it includes all households, including those who live in apartments - with incomes probably lower than those in single family homes. Again, for income they use the median.

Anyway, hope this helps. At least this site is probably good for comparison purposes.

 

>I agree - it totally depends on where you live. Average income in my zip code is almost $90,000. Houses start over $400,000 and run into the millions. Our property taxes are $14,000 a year so we need to save over $1000 a month just to pay our taxes (fortunately, we don't have a mortgage anymore).

Where you live? NYC? In Washington State property taxes run less than 2% of assessed value and median price is maybe $200K - $400K depending on which side of which mountains one lives.

 

I think it is highly likely that we will see a yearly freeze of the COLA, perhaps with a modest decrease in the benefits, in order to help make this more solvent. But that's off topic.

Dunno how we got on retirement, but for my take, I never plan to retire from ministry. I do think it's feasible that one day I'll retire from full time pastoral ministry. I have physical ailments that, even now, make the demands of preaching multiple services on a Sunday very taxing. As a FT pastor, I spent most of the day on Mondays on my back, on heat pads and ice packs, all over my body to try to physically recover. So I can only imagine what that might be like in my 60s and 70s. I'll never give up my calling. Lord willing, I'll always do interims, supply, consults, teaching, etc. That's just part of me...it's my calling. I will do what God grants me health to do, and I will not be so arrogant to presume that I can do at 80 what I did at 35. But that's just me.....

 

God is good, eh? I know what you mean. According to that site, the median home value here was $1m+ in 2007. Thankfully, we bought a long, long time ago.