The Peaceful Investor's Checklist: What Pastors Really Need to Start

Why Most Pastors Never Start Investing

If you're in ministry, you’ve likely felt it: that quiet tension about money. You trust God. You live on a modest salary. You’re doing Kingdom work. But somewhere in the back of your mind is a question you can’t shake: How will I ever retire with margin?

For most pastors, the problem isn’t laziness or lack of faith. It’s overwhelm. The investing world is filled with jargon, noise, and a sense that you have to be “a numbers guy” to even begin. It feels like another full-time job you don’t have time for.

That’s why I created the Growth Plan. You don’t need more noise. You need clarity. Let’s walk through exactly what it takes to begin investing wisely, with peace, even if you’re starting from scratch.

Reframing Investing Through a Biblical Lens

Before we get to the practical checklist, let’s deal with the internal resistance. Most pastors don’t think of investing as stewardship. Some even feel guilt or hesitation about building wealth.

But Scripture tells a different story. Jesus praised the servant who multiplied his master’s money. Proverbs honors the ant who stores up in summer. Paul worked with his hands and encouraged others to provide for their families.

Investing is not greed. It’s wisdom. When you grow your resources with discipline, you create space for generosity, freedom, and peace, not just for yourself, but for your family and future ministry.

Bottom line: Godly investing is simply proactive stewardship. And like any stewardship, it requires a plan.

The 5 Essentials You Actually Need to Start

Here’s the truth: You can start investing with less money, time, and stress than you think. But you do need a few things in place. Here’s what I tell every new member of the Growth Plan to focus on first.

1. A brokerage account

This is where you buy and sell your investments. It’s like a bank account, but for stocks.

• What to use: I recommend Tradier. It’s beginner-friendly, low-cost, and offers a free paper trading feature for practice.

• What to avoid: Platforms designed for day traders. You don’t need charts with 47 technical indicators.

Pro tip: Don’t wait until you “understand everything” to open an account. Just getting your account funded builds momentum.

2. A checking account

You’ll need this to transfer money into your brokerage account. Most brokers require a linked bank account. Choose one with low fees and good online access.

3. $100 to get started

Yes, really. You don’t need thousands. You can start with as little as $100 by buying individual shares of high-quality, seasonally strong stocks. These are hand-picked each month in the Growth Plan watchlist and have shown consistent patterns of success. Even one or two shares can give you valuable experience, build your confidence, and help you understand how the market works.

This approach requires no margin account, no advanced trading tools, and no options approval. Just a funded brokerage account and a willingness to learn.

Note: If you do want to explore more advanced strategies like options spreads, you’ll need to fund your account with at least $2,000 to meet the minimum requirement for a margin account. But that’s optional. You can build a strong foundation without it. The goal isn’t size. It’s rhythm.

4. A strategy

This is where most people get overwhelmed. They assume investing means you have to predict the next market crash, stay glued to financial news networks, and somehow "beat" Wall Street by sheer intuition. It’s intimidating, and for a busy pastor, it feels like a distraction you can’t afford.

But here’s the truth: you don’t need to predict anything. You need a plan. One that works even when you’re not watching the markets all day. One that doesn't require advanced degrees or endless research. Just a handful of repeatable steps that you can trust month after month.

You need a plan that tells you:

• What to buy – Stocks that have a history of performing well during certain times of year. The Growth Plan watchlist highlights these high-probability opportunities based on 10+ years of seasonal performance.

• When to enter – Not based on a gut feeling, but on historical patterns and a few simple technical indicators, like price ranges or moving averages. The goal isn’t to guess the bottom, it’s to enter when the odds are in your favor.

• When to exit – Every trade needs a destination. Whether that’s a target price, a percentage return, or a specific date, having clear exit rules helps you stay peaceful and prevents second-guessing.

This is exactly what the Growth Plan teaches. It’s the same system I personally use in my own investing, and I built it specifically for leaders like you. It turns chaos into clarity, and guesswork into guidance.

5. 10-15 minutes per week

That’s it. Once you learn the process, your monthly investing rhythm takes about an hour and a half total. Most of that time is spent reviewing the updated Growth Plan watchlist, evaluating a few stock candidates based on seasonal strength and technical confirmation, and deciding which ones make sense for your current account size. From there, you simply place your trades using your brokerage platform, set reminders for your targets or alerts, and then go back to focusing on the rest of your life.

What makes this so powerful is how little disruption it causes. You don’t need to sit through webinars or trade during market hours. You don’t need to follow breaking news. You just need a single block of time each month to align your finances with your future goals. Whether it's a Saturday morning before breakfast, a quiet evening at the church office, or a lunch break on a Tuesday, this system fits into your life without demanding control over it.

You can do all of it from your laptop, between sermon prep, staff meetings, and hospital visits. That’s what makes it pastoral-friendly. It respects your calling while quietly building your margin.

The Growth Plan System, Simplified

Let’s break down how this actually works. If you want to follow a peaceful, consistent investing method, here’s the monthly checklist I recommend.

Step 1: Review the Monthly Watchlist

Each month, I release to my members a curated list of 20 stocks with strong seasonal trends. These are based on 20+ years of historical data and refined with technical filters.

Look for:

• Win frequency above 70%

• Average seasonal gain of 3% or more

• Stocks priced above $15 with high trading volume

These are your “best candidates” for the month.

Step 2: Choose 1–3 Trades Based on Your Budget

If you’re starting with $200, choose one trade. If you have $500 or more, you might place two or three. Stick to the 10x8x2 rule:

• No more than 10% of your account in any one trade

• No more than 8 trades open at once

• No more than 2 trades in the same sector

This keeps you diversified and limits risk.

Step 3: Set a Profit Target and Stop Loss

Once you enter the trade, set alerts for:

• Profit target: 1.5x the average seasonal move (often 5–8%)

• Stop loss: Exit if the stock breaks a key level, like the most recent swing low.

Step 4: Log Your Trade

Over time, keeping a detailed journal will reveal patterns you can’t see in the moment. You might find that certain setups work better for you, or that you trade more confidently on certain days. It also builds a personal history of wins, lessons, and corrections that sharpen your instincts and improve performance with every passing month.

Pay attention to metrics like:

• Entry and exit date

• Ticker symbol/Stock name

• Position Size (Shares traded)

• Setup or strategy type

• Profit or loss in dollars and ROI

• A couple of sentences that explain why you took the trade

How Long Until You See Results?

Let’s be real. This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. But it is a plan that has produced 2–3% average monthly ROI historically.

If you compound that slowly, here’s what happens:

• Month 1: $100 becomes $102

• Month 12: $100 becomes $127

• Month 36: $100 becomes $200+

Now scale that. Imagine trading 100 shares instead of 10. The power isn’t in the size. It’s in the rhythm.

Pastors I’ve worked with have seen meaningful portfolio growth in under a year, even on modest incomes. But they all had one thing in common: they started.

It’s Simpler Than You Think

You don’t need to become a financial expert. You don’t need to sacrifice your calling to make extra income. You just need to start with a simple, peaceful checklist and a proven plan.

Here’s your final list:

✅ Open a brokerage account (I recommend Tradier)
✅ Fund it (even with $100 to start)
✅ Use a structured plan (like the Growth Plan)
✅ Place 1–3 low-risk trades per month
✅ Review and refine as you go

That’s it.

If you’re tired of living with low-grade financial stress, wondering if you’ll ever get ahead, this is your next step.

You’re already a faithful steward of your time, your energy, and your ministry. Now it’s time to steward your financial future. You can do this! You SHOULD do this!