Episode Details

“Abundance isn’t God’s provision for me to live in luxury; it’s His provision for me to help others live.”

That line from Randy Alcorn captures the heart behind a financial finish line. When God entrusts us with more, the question is not simply, “How much can I keep?” but “How much can I use for His purposes?”

Cody Hobelman, Certified Financial Planner and Certified Kingdom Advisor, joined the show today to share how that question became deeply personal in his own life. Along with his brother Keelan, Cody contributed to FaithFi’s new Field Guide, How Much Money Is Enough? But before he taught others how to set a financial finish line, he had to wrestle with it in his own context.

The Early Pull of Accumulation

Early in his career, Cody’s view of money was much like that of many people. He wanted a large income, growing wealth, and the kinds of opportunities that seemed to promise happiness and success—perhaps vacation homes, financial freedom, and a comfortable lifestyle.

Those goals were not unusual. Many people begin their careers with an eye toward building, earning, and accumulating. But over time, Cody began to sense that something was missing.

After college, he returned to church and began reading Scripture for himself. What stood out to him was how often Jesus spoke about money. Those passages began to reshape the way he viewed his role in managing what God had entrusted to him.

When Obedience Begins to Reshape the Heart

At the end of 2016, Cody’s church went through a series on managing money biblically. At the conclusion, the congregation was invited to commit to tithing in the coming year.

After prayer and conversation with his wife, Steph, Cody decided to begin giving 10% of his income to the church in 2017.

That step mattered. It was his first move into intentional giving. He began to see that not every dollar he earned had to serve his own lifestyle. God gives resources with purpose, and giving helped Cody begin to discover that purpose.

But as he later reflected, his generosity at that stage still felt like “checking the box.” He was giving, but accumulation remained the deeper goal. Tithing became a generous layer atop a life still largely centered on earning, comparing, and building more.

He realized he was trying to serve both God and money.

The Question That Changed Everything

In 2020, Cody’s brother Keelan invited him to consider a simple but life-altering question: “How much is enough?”

In other words, if God provided more income over the course of his career—or even in a single year—how would Cody know how much was enough to spend on his own lifestyle? And how could he create margin so that additional resources could be used for God’s purposes?

At first, Cody resisted the conversation. But he could not escape the realization that he was still at the center of his financial world.

So he and Steph accepted the challenge. They chose a number that represented a reasonable level of lifestyle spending for a season. That number became their first financial finish line.

A financial finish line is a cap on lifestyle spending. Once that line is set, anything beyond it can be directed toward generosity, debt reduction, ministry, or other God-honoring purposes.

A Finish Line Before the Increase

Interestingly, Cody and Steph set their first finish line when their income was still below that number. Steph was in graduate school, Cody was early in his career, and they still had student loans. They were also hoping to buy a home.

So the finish line was not immediately restrictive. It was more future-oriented. But that decision prepared their hearts before additional income arrived.

Not long after, Steph graduated and began working full-time. Cody also received a raise. Sudd