What is a “Successful” Retirement?

What is a “Successful” Retirement?

What is a “Successful” Retirement? 

“The happiest people I have worked with are not necessarily those who retire the wealthiest. They’re the ones who have a giving spirit infused in their family culture.”

~ Jeff Bradshaw, Financial Advisor & Ten Talents Board Member

Agriculture, Wall Street, & Entrepreneurship: Jeff’s Story

After moving from the Midwest to the Central Valley in his late twenties, Jeff Bradshaw developed a deep relationship with the California farming and agri-business community. He worked for companies including Monsanto, John Deere, and Netafim Irrigation, and in 2000, Jeff began his financial career at a Wall Street firm.

At this firm, Jeff quickly realized promoting commissioned products did not always best serve the client and align with his personal values. This experience led him to start his own company, Sierra Pacific Financial Services, Inc.

“Outperform the competition.” “Surpass last year’s revenue.” “Double the client base.”

These are metrics of success Jeff became very familiar with.

Yet, when a person approaches retirement or is confronted with the legacy they want to leave their family and community, defining “success” can feel more abstract and elusive. Because of this, many people don’t think about it at all. There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing people depart this world with little to show for their efforts and no lasting legacy,” says Jeff.

Jeff Bradshaw, Financial Advisor & Ten Talents Board Member

So, what is a “successful” retirement?

“Retirement is a term created in the West,” says Jeff, “but it isn’t a Biblical concept. While a person’s season may change as they age, their life’s focus does not need to shift from giving to taking.”

“[When thinking about retirement], ’how much money have you saved?’ is not the question at all,” says Jeff.

“Instead, it is, ‘What quality of life do you want to lead?’ and how can I best use my time, skills, and experiences to help others in this next season of my life?'” It’s important to think about how you’re investing your money and how you’ll pay for important expenses later in life.

However, as Jeff defines a “successful” retirement, he also factors in a person’s relationships, physical, spiritual, and mental life. “One important element of a [vibrant retirement] is one [marked by generosity].”

“Retirement is a term created in the West, but it isn’t a Biblical concept. While a person’s season may change as they age, their life’s focus does not need to shift from giving to taking.”

~ Jeff Bradshaw

I’m far from retirement, but how can I think about leaving a legacy now?

Thinking about your legacy involves asking, what spirit am I instilling in my family now?

If I work 60 hours a week and golf every weekend, I can’t be surprised if self-centeredness is infused in my family culture.

Contrarily, if I expose my children through my example of volunteering for important causes they can get involved in too, I am cultivating something countercultural. I am cultivating a generational spirit of giving of time, talent, and financial resources.

Some of us feel like we need to be millionaires to leave a legacy. Is this true?

“It takes the same heart to give $25 as it does to give $25 million,” says Jeff. The amount of money is less important than the intentionality behind your legacy plan.

As an example, Jeff says you can create a trust, or a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), pick a few organizations your family loves to support, and allow your kids to give out of this fund for years into the future.

Usually, we don’t care about an investment until we have skin in the game.

Opening a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is a great way to get your family’s skin in the game. When you put funds into the account, they can’t be removed for personal spending. It’s like putting money into an envelope you get to then give out of in the future, providing a level of accountability for those managing the fund.

It’s also important to remember, says Jeff, leaving a legacy of giving starts in your home and in your neighborhood. Generosity can involve money, but it can also be as simple as cooking a meal with your family and delivering it to a neighbor.

Money without heart doesn’t go far, but a heart of generosity can impact generations.

Leaving a legacy starts in your home and neighborhood. Generosity can involve money, but it can also be as simple as cooking a meal with your family and delivering it to a neighbor.”

~ Jeff Bradshaw

I want to leave a legacy of generosity. But how do I know what to give to?

First, you need to know your identity. What are your values? What is your “North Star” determining what those values are? What are your unique passions?

Then, start strategically giving to organizations and causes aligning with your values and passions.

“The giver is becoming more astute about where their money goes,” says Jeff. Organizations like the Ten Talents Foundation are great resources to help you align your passions and giving with organizations effectively meeting the needs of your community.

Sometimes people need a sounding board, coaching, or education on giving, says Jeff. Ten Talents can help people start the discussion, look at their assets, identify assets no longer being utilized, set up funds to save in taxes, and ensure every penny of giving aligns with their values.

The Ten Talents Foundation is deeply thankful for people like Jeff who are inspiring our community to invest their resources to serve others beyond their own lives. If you have questions about starting a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), setting up a legacy plan, or where to begin in thinking about these topics, we would love to connect with you!

Together, we can mobilize a movement of generosity impacting our community for generations to come.

“First, you need to know your identity. What are your values? What are your unique passions? Then start strategically giving to organizations and causes aligning with your values and passions.”

~ Jeff Bradshaw

Generosity & The Gospel

Generosity & The Gospel

Generosity & the Gospel

Last Sunday, some families loaded up a car full of kiddos dressed in their Easter best and sped to church. Others colored eggs, enjoyed a quiet afternoon, or cooked a delicious meal for the family (or perhaps allowed Applebees to do the cooking this year!).

No matter how you spent Easter Sunday, all Christians are challenged with this question today: How do we live out the Gospel, the message of Jesus’ resurrection, in the mundane, difficult, and normal life of this week?

In a recent conversation with Sylvia Plumb, Ten Talents Foundation Board Member, she shares that living generously is one of the most practical ways to carry out the Easter message today.

What does generosity have to do with the Gospel?

“The Lord brings people along our path who we can choose to share our time, attention, and resources with,” says Sylvia. 

How do we respond when a friend in need interrupts our busy schedule? 

Are our thoughts oriented toward impressing others or serving them? 

Do we view our money and assets as status symbols to be held or gifts to be shared?

In a society where time is money and money is success, a willingness to give either freely is radically counter-cultural.

In a society where time is money and money is success, a willingness to give either freely is radically counter-cultural.

Sylvia has been in the mortgage business for over 30 years. She is honored to assist many people with their home financing needs, viewing her career as an opportunity for generosity.  

“God has given me the ability to use the home loan industry as a mission field- it’s my marketplace ministry,” says Sylvia. 

The Lord has provided many opportunities for prayer in Sylvia’s “Marketplace Ministry”. As Sylvia has taken the time to truly see people and hear their stories over the last three decades, she has been able to pray with countless individuals and couples facing hopelessness or discouragement.

Instead of focusing on how many meetings she can fit into a day or what kind of reputation she can build in the community, Sylvia views her work as an opportunity to love people.

“Knowing every good and perfect gift is from God [including my career] makes me feel blessed to be a little part of other people’s journey,” says Sylvia. “One of my favorite Bible passages about this topic is in 2 Corinthians 9.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God…

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (emphasis ours)

When we choose to be generous with our time, attention, or resources people may ask, “Why do you live like this?” Generosity opens the door to share the Gospel, the good news about the One who produces a giving heart.

Generosity opens the door to share the Gospel, the good news about the One who produces a giving heart. 

How can we cultivate lives of generosity?

“Ask God to see people through His eyes and love through His heart, and look for opportunities to be generous!” says Sylvia.

The premise of the Easter message is: we need God. We need supernatural help to live the life He has called us to. We don’t have to work harder to become “better” people or give a certain amount of money so we are now deemed “selfless.”

2 Corinthians 9:11 says you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous.” God is the Only one who can produce Gospel-reflecting, selfless generosity in us.

We are not generous so that we can be blessed or earn God’s favor. We are generous because God enriches us to do so.

Staying connected every day to our ultimate Provider through prayer, community, and His Word is where this all begins. God is the One propelling a movement of generosity in the Central Valley (& beyond) for eternal impact. We just have the incredible opportunity to be part of HIS movement.

As we think about living out the Gospel message this week, Sylvia encourages us to start with prayer. “Ask that the Lord will transform our hearts in prayer to generously share our time, talents, and treasure to draw others to Himself.”

God is the Only one who can produce Gospel-reflecting, selfless generosity in us.

God is the One propelling a movement of generosity in the Central Valley (& beyond) for eternal impact. We just have the incredible opportunity to be part of HIS movement!

Sylvia Plumb, Ten Talents Foundation Board Member

2022 Ten Talents Foundation Annual Impact Report

2022 Ten Talents Foundation Annual Impact Report

TEN TALENTS FOUNDATION 2022 ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

Thank you.

At the Ten Talents Foundation, we believe our time, talents, and treasures are gifts from God. We have the responsibility to manage our resources with wisdom, creativity, and generosity to build His kingdom. We strive to unify our faith community in the Central Valley under this mindset. Darkness trembles, hope grows, and cities change when businesses, families, ministries, and churches come together in His name!

We’ve seen it first-hand. Since our inception in July of 2020, over $1,000,000 has been thoughtfully distributed on behalf of our Donor Advised Fund holders through the Ten Talents Foundation to organizations making a positive impact in our region and world! Our 14 Ministry Partners are receiving training and resources to become even more effective conduits of God’s love in our community.

In 2023, with your help, we can double our impact, increase our generosity, facilitate more complex gifts like crop giving and real estate, and add 10 new Ministry Partners!

Thank you for partnering with the Ten Talents Foundation. Whether you are a Founding Member, Donor Advised Fund holder, Ministry Partner, Prayer Partner, or a neighbor, you are a vital part of this movement of generosity.

A Life of Generosity: Don Eskes’ Story

A Life of Generosity: Don Eskes’ Story

A Life of Generosity: Don Eskes’ Story

“When I became a Christian, I decided I didn’t want to be a spectator. I wanted to be in the game. At 78 years old, I don’t have the same energy and capacity I did 20 years ago, but I don’t think I will die sitting in a rocker somewhere.

I will keep going as long as God will let me.”

 

When Don Eskes moved to Fresno, California in 1965 to attend Fresno State University, his intention was to stay in the city for just a few years.

Little did he know that Fresno would be the place he would become a Christian, meet his wife, raise three children, enjoy his grandchildren, work as a successful business leader and owner, invest heavily in the nonprofit community, and help countless others do the same.

Business Owner to International Missionary

Don worked in the business world as a corporate Vice President and then the owner of his own company. During this time in the business world, Don’s daughter moved to Kenya, Africa. He and his wife visited their daughter in Kenya several times.   

“I had been around the world and seen things that made me want to make a bigger contribution to society and my faith,” says Don.

So, in 2004, after 34 years in the business world, Don sold his company and went to Kenya again.  During that trip he delivered wheelchairs to Rwanda and worked with a local microloan group supporting new businesses in the Congo.

In January, 2005 he went to Thailand to help refugees recover from the devastating tsunami that had taken place on December 26, 2004. In Thailand, Don felt God direct him to read Isaiah 58:10-11 in the Bible which says:

“and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in the sun-scotched land and will strengthen your frame, You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.’”

It was at that moment in Thailand that Don thought to himself, “Serving others… this is what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

Becoming the Fresno Mission’s CEO

Wherever he felt God leading him, Don would go. In 2010, as many of Don’s international projects were wrapping up, Don felt an undeniable pull to the Fresno Mission.

Don called the Fresno Mission’s CEO at the time and said, “I don’t know what this means exactly, but I’m going to go work for you! Don’t worry, I will not impact your budget.”

Don began serving as a volunteer at the Fresno Mission and was given a desk and business cards. Within a year, he was asked to come on staff. In 2016 he worked as the mission’s interim CEO when the need arose, serving for two years.

During 2019, Don also worked for the National Association of Rescue Missions visiting and supporting 50 different missions in the western United States.

In 2020, Don returned to the Fresno Mission as their Director of Strategic Initiatives to specifically focus on the development of the new City Center- a 9-acre campus that will include over 165,000 square feet of buildings dedicated to helping vulnerable people with a pathway out of crisis.

Developing a Passion for Legacy Giving

Through Don’s decades of experience working with nonprofits and donors in the Fresno community, he identified that not enough people think about something called Legacy Giving.

“Most ministries raise funds to fund their operations. There aren’t that many who spend time on legacy or estate giving. While I was at the Fresno Mission, I wrote a number of articles on legacy giving,” says Don. “I realized it can have a significant impact if someone includes legacy giving in their planning.”

Legacy Giving, sometimes known as Planned Giving, is a donation (of money, assets, property, or stocks) made by an individual to an organization or cause to be distributed during or after their death.

“Legacy Giving is a plan people have to fund ministries beyond their own life.

People think you have to have tens of millions of dollars or be the owner of Microsoft to leave a legacy. That’s not true.

“You don’t have to [have a lot of money or] leave it all to your kids or your family. If you have a passion for an organization in your life, [you can include them in your legacy, no matter the size of the gift],” says Don.

 

 

Serving with the Ten Talents Foundation

Don’s passion for educating individuals and ministries about Legacy Giving is one of the reasons he decided to serve on the Board of Directors of the Ten Talents Foundation.

In addition to spreading awareness about Legacy Giving, Don believes there is a lack of knowledge among nonprofits and generous individuals about different ways to give, including through crops and property.

“One of Ten Talents’ purposes is to help people create a legacy of giving and to educate people on how they can give to organizations creatively,” says Don. “Ten Talents is an organization focusing on this not for themselves, but to underwrite worthy nonprofits.”

Through Don’s 18 years working with ministries in Fresno and around the world, he has also seen the value in specifically supporting Christian organizations.

“There are no local Christian financial organizations [like Ten Talents]. Ten Talents is focused on Christian ministry.

I have seen that Christian ministries are the only ministries that can minister not just to people’s emotional and physical needs, but also their spiritual needs. They minister to the whole person.”

 

Don’s wisdom, life experiences, and passion for helping people and ministries give and accept gifts more strategically for Kingdom impact make him an invaluable part of the Ten Talents team.

What do you want your legacy to look like? You can make an impact and think about your Legacy Giving NOW. Ten Talents would love to help you consider how you can prayerfully and intentionally think about leaving a legacy for eternal impact. Click the button below to get in touch with Ten Talents today.

 

Final Words of Encouragement from Don

1. You don’t have to be a millionaire to leave a legacy. Think now about how you want your giving to outlive you.

2. You are no less valuable if you are giving to a ministry financially than if you’re out on the streets doing the work. We need Christians doing both!

3. Want to make a difference? Don’t look far. Start with those nearest to you.

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

Giving your RMD to causes you care about

… and save on income taxes!

If you are over 72 years old with a traditional IRA or 401(k), you are likely required to take a minimum amount out of your account each year. This is called a Required Minimum Distribution or RMD.

If you transfer your RMD directly to a non-profit organization or a designated Ministry Fund set up with the Ten Talents Foundation, the RMD will not be counted as income and you will not have to pay income tax on the amount! This allows you to give more to causes aligning with the unique passions God has put on your heart.

Unlike a stock transfer, RMDs can not be transferred to a Donor Advised Fund. RMDs must be given directly to a non-profit or to a designated Ministry Fund with the Ten Talents Foundation. Ten Talents can simplify the RMD giving process for you and the organization you would like to support.

For more information about how to give your RMD to a cause you love, contact Ten Talents at (559) 387-5534 or info@tentalentsfoundation.org. We can’t wait to help you leverage your generosity.

Tax-wise way to donate stock

Tax-wise way to donate stock

Tax-wise way to donate stock

A simple, quick process.

The Ten Talents Foundation has a simple process in place to help you transfer your stock into a Donor Advised Fund with a 3-4 business day turnaround!

To begin the process, contact Ten Talents Foundation and we will provide you with transfer instructions that you can give to your financial adviser.

The adviser facilitates the sell of the stock and the money can then be transferred directly into your Donor Advised Fund. Therefore, the funds from the sale are not considered income and you do not have to pay income tax on the amount.

Interested in donating stock to a cause you believe in? Contact the Ten Talents Foundation today and we will help you through the simple process.