Catholic financial advisor Daniel Catone joins Lutheran Answers to explore how Christians can steward their finances in ways that honor their faith. From ethical investing to the virtues needed for financial success, this episode offers practical and theological wisdom for navigating the world of money.

In this episode of Lutheran Answers, Daniel Catone, a Catholic financial advisor and founder of Arimathea Investing, discusses the intersection of Christian values and financial stewardship. The conversation explores how Christians can align their investments with their faith, focusing on avoiding support for industries that conflict with Christian ethics, such as abortion, pornography, and anti-family policies. Daniel shares his expertise in helping religious organizations and individuals manage their assets conscientiously, offering insights into Catholic investment guidelines and the moral implications of financial decisions.

The discussion also covers broader financial topics, including the pitfalls of speculative investments like cryptocurrency, the behavioral aspect of financial success, and critiques of mainstream financial advice figures like Dave Ramsey. Daniel emphasizes the importance of virtues like prudence and courage in navigating financial decisions and stresses that all wealth ultimately belongs to God and should be stewarded accordingly.

Things We Discussed

Parting Thought

Every dollar we manage is ultimately God’s treasure, entrusted to us for His purposes. As Christians, our financial decisions should reflect our faith, guided by virtues like courage and prudence, ensuring that we honor God not just with our words but also with our wallets.

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Transcript

Remy: Should be it. Yeah. This is live. So anyway, the way my apartment is set up behind me over here is the kitchen and then that's my front door.

Daniel: Oh, funny.

Remy: So I can't. This is the only place I can put my computer because it's like an open floor plan. Oh.

Daniel: Yeah.

Remy: So I just have the old shower curtain. I. It's funny, I. Sometimes I put it like upside down or sideways so, like the books are wrong and so far no one has noticed.

Daniel: So, I mean, I would have noticed, brother.

Backgrounds are kind of fun, man. It's like I spent a lot of time on my background actually.

You can actually see some of my artifacts. I have a lot. Quite a collection of artifacts. We can talk about that too.

Remy: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, so far the only thing that I'm getting out of this is that you're a Catholic billionaire. Once again, that's.

That's, that's what I'm getting.

Daniel: I don't think that's a good idea.

Remy: I.

I don't have artifacts. No, no.

Daniel: You talk about that a little bit. I. It's funny. Every year I try to find one or two topics that I both know nothing about and have no interest in. And my theory is I don't have an interest in it because I don't know anything about it. Everything, in a way, is fascinating if you really think about it. I think, yeah. And one year, this is years ago I thought, you know, I don't know anything about Egypt and I have less than zero interest in Egypt. I started taking some online courses and I found basically it was the love of my life. It was one of the most fascinating subjects I've ever studied. And wow, dove in head first and started collecting artifacts. Went to Egypt a bunch of time. Been to Egypt. You know, that's like much times. It's fine. It's great. Archaeologists and stuff out there helped me out and done a little digging.

Remy: Wow. So this actually, I think initially we were going to talk about finance because that's what you do.

Daniel: Yeah, right.

Remy: But it actually, this gets me into.

I joke about you being a Catholic billionaire or whatever, but you are an incredibly successful person.

Daniel: Thank you.

Remy: I would say financially, materially, like in the world, but also familially. You seem pretty.

Daniel: Thank you.

Remy: Pretty successful. It seems like you get a good family and spiritually as well. You're. You seem to be a very well studied, devout Catholic.

Daniel: Thank you.

Remy: So I guess. Well, it's, it's just the truth, man. It's just what I'm seeing and I I, I guess what I want to ask is. So like, you appear to be a very high functioning individual. Yeah, you said you're very regimented and all that. Uh, do you think that's, do you think that's part of it? Do you think that's required for attaining a certain level of success or, or what have you?

Daniel: It's an interesting question. You know, it's like a chicken the egg kind of situation, isn't it? Yeah.

You know, Nassim Taleb, I think his name is, he wrote a book called Fooled by Randomness. It's a very good book actually. The first 2/3 of it's very good. The last third is. Gets in a little philosophy and he doesn't know what he's talking about, but he's an economist, a statistician, and it's not a math book per se. There's a little bit of math in it. But he makes an interesting argument. He basically says that success is randomized and that we over emphasize our contribution to the success of whatever it is. He's talking about portfolio management, but he kind of extrapolates it to other areas of life too.

Remy: You know, studies have shown that.

Daniel: Oh yeah, oh, oh yeah. And then people who become successful, you know, we just get pride and arrogance and think, well, you know, I did all this and the reality is you're born in the right place at the right time, the right parents and you know, this and that happened. What we would think is seemingly random. It's not, of course, it's God's will, but you know, the sun shines on the good and the evil alike and the rain falls and the good and evil of like. And so it's. I would not say that my quote unquote, financial success or career success or things like that is indicative of some hidden trait or characteristic that I have that I could reveal to your audience or to you. I mean, and everybody can just apply that and suddenly it works.

I mean, I certainly have some peculiarities of the way in which I engage in the world professionally and personally and other things too.

I'm not a goal setter, for example, I mean, a lot of people are like, you know what?

Remy: She's.

Daniel: I watch these like TikTok videos and it's like somebody telling you, you do these three things and you're going to be successful. And one of them is like set goals or something. I'm not, I'm more of a virtue guy. So. And the idea is we lean into the virtues because whatever comes our way, it's filtered through the lens of virtue and works out to our benefit. So, you know, if you're a courageous man because you've practiced courage your whole life, you know, whatever comes, you can apply that particular skill like a violinist can apply the skill of playing a violin. If you have practiced courage and other virtues and things like that, you just apply those to the decision in front of you. And I think the outcomes are generally better.

Remy: Yeah.

Have you read the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell?

Daniel: No, I'm familiar with it.

My favorite business book is Nicomachean Ethics, which is Aristotle, but that's a whole other thing.

Remy: Yeah, well, so it's, it's not necessarily a business book either. It's just, it's just about sort of general success and winners and losers and what makes winners and losers. And it's fascinating because you take someone like Bill Gates and you say, oh, well, he, you know, he started Microsoft in his parents garage.

Daniel: Right?

Remy: Well, he did, but prior to that he also had completely free and unlimited access all through high school to the MIT computer lab because of a guy his dad knew. And that like, that makes a significant difference in his story. Right, like, so there it's, it's the idea that we are in fact fooled by randomness. We, yeah, we think he was the guy that worked hard and you know, camp, but really he just, he had a good connection and was able to leverage that.

Daniel: Well, you know, it's evidenced in the story. Morgan Housel wrote a book too, called the Psychology of Money. Highly recommend that I recommend anybody I work with professionally read that book.

Morgan Housel. H O U S E L Anyways, he's a finance journalist and he wrote about Bill Gates too. And he said, you know, there are three guys. It was Bill Gates and what was his partner?

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Christian Finance, with Daniel Catone