Most Christian money books stop at the same three things: budget, get out of debt, give generously. The Steward Investor: Investing God’s Resources for Eternal Impact starts after that, and asks a question the others skip. Once the money is invested, what is it doing?
Donald E. Simmons wrote it. He is a Certified Financial Planner with more than thirty years in the field, founder of a boutique investment firm he started in 1988, and he spent time with a London-based economic development fund placing mentors and capital into businesses in more than twenty of the world’s poorest countries. That background is the reason the book exists.
The argument
Simmons’ claim is that standard financial planning has exactly two objectives, maximize return and minimize risk, and that both are aimed entirely at you. He argues a steward has more than two. If the money belongs to God, then what it does to employees, communities, and the places it operates is part of the accounting, not a separate charitable afterthought.
In practice that means he is asking you to look at what you actually own. Not just what percentage you give away, but what the underlying businesses do, whom they employ, and what they leave behind.
That is a harder question than tithing, and it is the honest strength of the book. He is not repeating The Total Money Makeover with verses attached.
What to weigh
This lands in the middle of a live argument, and you should know that going in. Screening investments by values goes by several names and has real critics, including Christians who argue that the responsible move is to maximize return and then give aggressively, rather than accept lower returns for a values screen. Simmons is on one side of that. He makes his case well. He is not the only reasonable position.
Note also who published it. This is a Christian Faith Publishing title, which is an author-services publisher rather than a house that acquired the book on its merits. That says nothing about Simmons’ credentials, which are real. It does mean the manuscript had less outside editorial pressure than a traditionally published book would.
The earlier version of this review credited the book with diagrams and family discussion prompts. I could not confirm those. Use the Amazon preview before buying it for a group.
Also, check the format
The listing this post originally pointed to is the Kindle edition. Print editions exist and the link is below.
Who should read it
A man who already has the basics handled, is actually investing, and has never asked what his portfolio is doing on his behalf. Business owners. Anyone who has felt the gap between what they give on Sunday and what they own on Monday.
Skip it if you are in debt or living paycheck to paycheck. This is not the book for that stage, and starting here would be a distraction from the work in front of you.
The Steward Investor, print edition