For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.
In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more.
But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
“Now after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
“And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.
And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’
“For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matthew 25:14-30 NASB
What is a talent in this story?
Let’s replace talent in this parable with MONEY. Let’s put the talents in money perspective.
In my further research, I discovered that one talent is 20 years of a day labourer’s wage [Matthew 18: 24]. Wikipedia puts it this way, [A talent (Ancient Greek τάλαντον, talanton ‘scale’ and ‘balance’) was a unit of weight of approximately 80 pounds (36 kg), and when used as a unit of money, was valued for that weight of silver. As a unit of currency, a talent was worth about 6,000 denarii. A denarius was the usual payment for a day’s labour. At one denarius per day, a single talent was therefore worth 20 years of labor (assuming a 6-day work week, because nobody would work on the weekly Sabbath).]
Imagine the first servant was given 5 talents which is 100 years’ worth of money, let’s do a simple calculation here, let’s assume every year stands for One million naira. This means the first servant was given a 100million naira to invest to create wealth.
The second servant was given two talents which is equal to forty million naira.
The third servant was given 1 talent (worth 20 years of labour) using our assumption that One year is One million naira. This means he was given twenty million naira to invest and build wealth.
Looking at what they were given by their master, all three servants started out pretty well off. Each received talents according to his abilities as the story implied.
This is probably not comparing apples to apples though since it does not take into account inflationary effects as of today. It may also be true that some of us may not have been entrusted with such millions of money. Nevertheless, this shows us that we all have equal opportunities according to our abilities, skills, background, knowledge, and attitude toward money and the ability to use that to create wealth, empower ourselves to live a good life, plan for retirement, and plan for our loved ones. From this story, I can see clearly that no one has an excuse not to start on the journey of wealth creation, no matter how small.
If you think deeply about the master’s response to the servant with one talent ….. “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the BANK, and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest.”
Financial analysts will always talk about the law of compound interest. Imagine saving as little as 10,000 with the bank, without any additional money for 40 years; excluding other investments, you may have.
The mathematical formula for calculating compound interest, A=P(1+r/n)^nt, uses four simple numbers to allow you to see how much money plus the interest you will have after the number of time periods or compound periods.[The Robinhood formula]. ‘A’ represents the accrued amount of your principal plus interest, which is the total. ‘P’ stands for the principal, which is your original amount invested. The ‘r’ shows the interest rate in decimal form. The ‘n’ variable is used in two places and stands for the number of compounding periods. The ‘t’ represents the time in years. Together, these variables allow you to calculate your accrued amount for any amount of time and interest rate.
Ensure that you put some money away every day, every week, every month depending on how well you can discipline yourself. They say to grow big, start small.
Feel free to share your baby steps with me this week.
and then