Financial adviser brings Catholic perspective to spending, investing

Catholics concerned about doing God’s will with their money can take several simple but difficult steps each time they face a decision: Pray, reflect, then act.

“Is this where God is leading you?” asks Todd Johnson, a certified financial planner. “Or do you want to do it, and you’re asking God to bless it?”

That question can be asked about everything, he said, from spending money on clothes, food and vacations, to investing and tithing.

A member of Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, Johnson runs Provision Financial Group of New Brighton, a private wealth advisory practice of Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial Services. His office holds a picture of Jesus and several photos of young adult mission trips building homes in Mexico that he has helped organize through an ecumenical group called Youth With a Mission.

Johnson, 50, said he is happy to help clients from a secular lens of tax advice, asset management, income distribution and estate planning. But his heart lies where the Catholic Church leads, and he is not afraid to let people know.

“I have to be careful and read the room,” he told The Catholic Spirit in a recent interview about faith-based spending and investing. “If they (clients) don’t want to talk about it, I won’t talk about it. But I’m not shy about bringing it up.”

Johnson suggests that tithing is the first step to placing God in the mix of money decisions. It might be the classic 10% of a person’s income going to the Church. It might be less than that, particularly for families with lower incomes, higher medical costs or other challenges, in which case people might devote a larger chunk of their tithing through service to the Church and others in need, he said.

“God does not need your money,” Johnson said. “He just wants your heart. It’s not a bad offer that God lets us keep 90% of what we earn.”

Investments are important, he said, and decisions in that arena are about more than finding the best returns. Socially conscious and life-giving investments can be made that avoid such activities as abortion, pornography and gambling, through mutual funds or other stocks and bonds, Johnson said.

Mutual funds working to do that include Eventide, Timothy Plan and Ave Maria Mutual Funds, he said.

Johnson’s journey to faith-based financial management began in Chicago, growing up in a Catholic family with his parents and three older brothers.

On the financial side, one of his brothers works on Wall Street, and his experiences helped Johnson discover his own interest in finance, a field he has worked in for 29 years. On the faith side, an ecumenical, Colorado-based Promise Keepers weekend at the downtown Minneapolis Metrodome in 1994 led Johnson to rededicate his life to the Lord. He also was greatly influenced by the faith of his late business partner, who died in a swimming accident in 2006.

Johnson and his wife, Jennifer, age 52 and a convert to Catholicism, have been involved in their parish, including Johnson as a lector and member of the finance council, his wife as part of a mother’s sharing group, and both serving as mentors for married couples. They have two daughters, one a nurse and another discerning religious life.

Another important perspective on financial decisions can be summed up in a question, Johnson said. “Who owns it?” Johnson applies that question when he thinks about the roots of his business and asks clients about their views.

“God has allowed me to own a financial services business,” Johnson said, emphasizing that he doesn’t own anything. “I don’t want to be bountiful for myself,” he said. “I want to be bountiful for God.”

People seek excellence in grades, sports and other endeavors, he said, and everyone can do the same when meeting their responsibilities to people in need. “Just as you excel in anything, see also that you excel in the graces of giving,” he said.

“I’m still a sinner, please know this,” Johnson said. “But I want to do God’s will in things I can control,” including spending and investing.

The story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish supplied by a boy in John’s Gospel is a wonderful example of Christ creating the bounty — but the boy’s generosity starting the process, Johnson said.

“What if the boy didn’t hand over the fish and loaves?” Johnson asked. Applied to his own life, Johnson often prays for guidance, asking the Lord, “what fish and loaves do you want me to let go of today?”

Johnson said he lives by a motto for godliness — GRIP — based in part on the faith-building strength of small groups. The acronym stands for groups, reading the Bible, investing money and time for others, and prayer.

“Either you’re in the world’s grip, or God’s grip,” Johnson said. “I am a sinner trying to remain in God’s grip.”