John Cortines Financial Finish Line Podcast Q&A God and Money, Windfalls, Expensive Cities, Growing Family Size
Finish Line Podcast Episode 38

Finish Line Q&A with John Cortines: Expensive Cities, Growing Families, Managing Windfalls, and Giving Out of Savings

You may like the idea of a financial finish line while still wondering how it holds up when real life brings expensive housing, growing children, inflation, inheritances, changing savings needs, and unexpected opportunities.

How can you define enough without turning the finish line into a rigid rule, while still preserving the margin, contentment, and generosity that made the idea compelling in the first place?


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Meet your guide

John Cortines, co-author of God and Money and True Riches, joins Cody and Kealan Hobelmann for a practical Q&A on applying a financial finish line to changing life circumstances. Drawing from his own family’s experience, John describes a finish line as a guardrail that separates lifestyle growth from increasing financial capacity and creates room for greater generosity.

Together, they explore how geography, inflation, family size, education costs, mortgages, and other major expenses can legitimately change what enough looks like over time. They also discuss how to approach financial windfalls, inheritances, and giving from accumulated wealth rather than income alone. Instead of prescribing fixed answers, they emphasize prayer, trusted community, and periodic reevaluation as circumstances change.

The conversation ultimately returns to the principles underneath the number: contentment, margin, stewardship, and freedom from automatic lifestyle expansion. By the end, you may see a financial finish line less as an inflexible spending cap and more as a practical framework for continually discerning what you need and how the rest can serve God’s purposes.

What you’ll gain

  • How to adjust a finish line for higher living costs
  • Why your financial finish line should change with life
  • How to approach inheritances and other financial windfalls
  • Why giving from savings requires a different kind of trust
  • How to avoid turning a finish line into legalism
  • Why defining enough can create freedom before income increases

Inspired? Take your next step

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Play the Game of Life Simulator

Not ready for the assessment? Try a quick interactive simulator to see how you stack up in managing wealth.

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Inspired? Take your next step

Try the Game of Life Simulator

Step into a four-minute interactive experience and see what unfolds as you decide how to manage your resources.

Start the Game
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot

Quotes to Remember

  • “There’s nothing right or wrong about living in a high cost area.”
  • “This is a matter of walking the adventure with the Lord, seeing what he’s called us to, and yeah, sometimes making tradeoffs.”
  • “Your finish line will need some continuous tweaking. It’s not meant to be set in stone for the rest of your life.” 
  • “What are those dollars doing in an investment account that you don’t need versus what could those dollars do if they were injected into the kingdom?”
  • “There’s a real pride in thinking you can out-invest God.”
  • “I can figure out how much is enough income, but how much is enough security?”
  • “Nobody stumbles into enough.”

Links from the Show

Bible References from the Show

Acts 5:1-6 | Ananias and Sapphira

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

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Free Guide

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Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.
Generosity Profile Image
Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.
Generosity Profile Image

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