Back when Ves and his wife, Jill, were in their 30s, they rarely considered retirement. “We were living paycheck to paycheck,” Ves admits about those early years as a pastor. “Life was busy. Our kids were growing up. We just didn’t think about it.”
But his third church, Wethersfield (Conn.) EFC, was thinking about Ves’ retirement. When he candidated in 1981, the church board told him that part of his compensation package would include an investment of 10 percent of his salary—above and beyond his salary—into FCMM. “I thought it was a nice benefit,” Ves says simply.
The next church he pastored—Woodbridge EFC in New Haven, Connecticut— did the same. As did the New England District, when Ves took on the role of superintendent in 1999. So Ves and Jill’s retirement nest egg quietly grew and matured.
At one point when he was in his early 50s, Ves met with a Christian financial advisor and mentioned his FCMM account. After some thorough research, the advisor basically said, “You need to put as much money as you can into this plan.”
Ves explains, “He told us that many of these types of retirement plans are no longer being offered. And compared to similar plans, FCMM was the best, most careful investment plan and portfolio he had ever seen.”
As their children grew, Ves and Jill made it a goal to help the kids get through college with as little debt as possible. “Finally, after four weddings,” Ves says, “we realized that we now needed to put as much money toward retirement as possible and take responsibility ourselves to contribute to FCMM.
“Our plan with FCMM means we can experience retirement in a way that facilitates continued ministry—where we can totally give rather than try to find a way to be reimbursed for it. We just have more options.
“Now, every time I help a church call a pastor, I encourage them to use FCMM and make sure some percentage is part of the package.”
Ves looks back at all his years of ministering without paying attention to his future financial needs, and he’s grateful beyond words for what he calls “the generosity of God’s people.”
