It’s Not About the Money

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. Psalm 50, 10, and 11.

Hi, I'm Rob West. That passage and many others in the Bible remind us that God owns everything, and we're only stewards of what he gives us, and that only for a time. But is there a deeper meaning in these verses? We'll talk about that today, and then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Now, to be sure, the message that God owns everything and we don't is something we need to hear over and over again. That's probably why the Bible repeats this teaching several times. Job needed reminding. Job 38, one through five reads, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man. I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements?

Surely you know. And Psalm 24 one and two tells us, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. And of course, Colossians 1 16 reads, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. This is a message that we need to hear all the time. It frees us from getting too attached to our money and possessions, because they're not our money and possessions.

They belong to God. You may have heard the story about the believer who really took this to heart. He'd saved and saved to buy a new car. But soon after taking possession, he got into a fender bender, but he didn't get that upset.

He just shrugged it off and thought, I wonder why God wanted his car to get in that accident. Now, that would certainly be difficult to do, but it makes things a lot easier if you think of yourself only as a steward and not an owner. Okay, we've got stewardship covered, but what about that deeper meaning in these verses?

For that, we need to consider the larger passage of Psalm 50 verses 10 through 15. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves on the field is mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble.

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. The psalmist is really warning Israel that they've become too legalistic with their sacrifices. They had come to put value on the actual sacrifices and by extension themselves. God already owns the beasts of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills. Indeed, all the cattle on all the hills.

He owns all creatures wild and tamed, the fowl in the mountains and the beasts of the fields. That said, how could he possibly be impressed with the burnt offerings of the Israelites? They were just giving him back a tiny bit of what he already owned and then patting themselves on the back for it. Nonetheless, God did require Israel to make those sacrifices to temporarily cover sin, but also something else. Note verse 14 again.

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High. This verse gives us the context we need to put things in perspective. That passage and others like it are really about giving and the attitude of our hearts.

They're not about legalism and checking boxes. Galatians 2 16 reads, Only then are we giving him the loyalty of our hearts. God is a spiritual being. What use does he have for earthly things?

Well, not of course. He wants our hearts. He wants us to worship him in spirit and truth. Our tithing and gifts must only be tributes of our gratitude for what he has already given us. Not just material things, but the priceless gift of his son Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation. We must search our hearts to make sure we give for the right reason because he is God Most High.

He sees right through us and takes no pleasure in giving that isn't joyful and done out of gratitude. All right, your calls are next. The number to call 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance Live. Stick around. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal or other professional who understands your specific situation. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. It's time for your calls and questions now on anything financial.

That's right, you drive the program. We tackle your financial decisions and choices in light of biblical wisdom, help you think through your role as being a faithful steward in light of those questions you have today. The number to call is 800-525-7000. Our team is standing by. We've got lines available and we're ready for you.

800-525-7000. Before we head to our first caller though today, in the news today, some interesting data out. Surprisingly, new home sales are up and that despite continuing high mortgage rates. Now, last week we reported on how the median sales price for all homes reached a record high of $383,725 and you'd think that would keep the number of sales down, but that's not the case, at least with new home purchases. The Census Bureau is reporting that 693,000 new single-family homes were sold in March. That's an 8.3% jump from a year ago. The median sales price again for new homes only was $430,700. That's in sharp contrast to sales of previously owned homes which actually dropped 3.7% from March a year ago.

Why the difference? Well, analysts say it's because of the inventory of new homes being higher and developers are offering more incentives to buyers. So if you're looking to purchase a home this summer, pay particular attention to new construction. You may find that you're surprised by a greater selection and even some incentives that perhaps make those homes more affordable.

It's at least worth looking at. Now, as we think about housing, this is one of the big three budget busters. You know, the biggest allocation often in our budgets are housing, transportation and food. Food a little easier to deal with, although now harder than ever with inflation. Transportation and housing tend to be a little more long-term. They're more costly to make changes because you've got big transaction costs often, especially now you're replacing an existing loan with a low interest with a higher interest mortgage. So not as easy to deal with those.

So that's why it's so important to go in with the right assumptions. Those being no more than 25 to 28% of your pay toward principal interest, taxes and insurance. Another 5% on top of that for all the other housing related categories.

Or, excuse me, line items. So think, you know, your home maintenance. Think utilities. All of that rolled into one should be no more than 5%. So that puts us at a max for the housing category of probably 33% of your take-home pay. And then you want that 20% down payment going in to avoid private mortgage insurance, which remember that's about 1% of the mortgage value.

It does nothing for you. It's an unnecessary expense. And on top of that, you certainly want to have some equity and keep that mortgage as low as possible. That's why saving, delaying that purchase, continuing to build that down payment is really key, especially now while we're riding these high interest rates. Historically, they're not high, but they certainly are over the considering, you know, where rates have been the last 10 or 20 years. So up over 7.1%, you may find that I guess, you know, expecting a recession around the corner and perhaps lower interest rates over the next 12 to 18 months.

This may be a time to wait, save and give those rates a chance to come back down, but hopefully that helps you as you just think about this big expense in your budget called housing. It's more challenging than ever right now. And so just be on your guard there. All right, let's head into some phone calls today. As I mentioned, we do have some lines open. You can call right now with your financial questions.

800-525-7000. Let's begin today in Spring Hill, Florida. Charles, you'll be first up, sir. Go ahead. Hey, how you doing, Rob? I'm doing great. Glad to hear from you.

Hey, listen, I'll give you a quick background here. I'm 78 years old. My wife is five years younger than I am. A couple of years ago, took out a refinance, the mortgage at three and a half percent, took some money out of the house and put it in a high yield money market account for a new roof, a well that we had to get, some other things, which we've done that now. And the money market account now is down to about maybe 12,000 left in it.

And here's my question. Should I now at this point put money over and above my mortgage payment back into the house or should I continue to save that money in case of emergencies down the road because of our age? And one more thing, if something happens to me, then my wife will have about half of my annual income.

And she doesn't want to stay here if something was to happen either. So that's the other issue. Okay, got it.

Yeah, that's really helpful. Charles, separate from that 12 grand that you have leftover from the cash out refi that you haven't put into those renovations. Do you also have what I would call an emergency fund beyond that? Or is that the extent of your liquid savings? No, that was the extent of it, because I receive civil service retirement, which will, you know, go until I'm gone, and then my wife will receive half of that plus a minor amount of social security.

So we, I lost about 33% of that because of the windfall. I gotcha. Okay, very good. So there's no additional savings.

It really is 12,000 is the extent of it currently. Right? Okay.

Yeah. So I would not put this back against the house. I mean, if you had called me beforehand and said, you know, or today and said, Rob, should I cash out? Just to build my emergency savings?

I'd say no, that's just too expensive to do. And especially now the rates will be working against you. But since you've already done that, you've got this leftover, you've completed those projects. And this is the extent of your liquid savings.

It would just put you in a bad position. Even though I love paying down the mortgage and eventually paying it off. You need some margin. You need some reserves for the unexpected because they will come. So I would just see this as the kind of the base of your emergency fund.

Now, do you all have any surplus on a monthly basis where you could continue to build this up? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. I do receive I do receive some money from one of my sons who's living with me at the time. So I'm taking that money and putting it all into savings.

So, okay. But the extent of what you've been able to put away to this point is still only that 12,000. How much do you think you can add to it every month if you were really diligent? Maybe $100.

Okay, great. And how much are you all spending on average over a month's time? Roughly?

Do you know? Well, I, my budget is probably about 16 to 1800. Okay, let's call it 2000. So you're right at six months.

So that's great. And I love that I'd probably continue to build that now, as to your wife's income. Let's look at Social Security and see what options you're going to have down the road. Because if your civil service is going to get cut in half, we're going to need to build that budget around what her lifestyle will be at that point. Maybe she sells the house and invest that and downsizes. But let's see, maybe she needs to switch to your survivor benefits. Hopefully that would give an increase there even though she's losing half of the pension.

But we need to start working on building that budget so that if you're gone before her, which usually that's the case, that she has a plan. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air. We'll be right back. I hope you're having a great day.

I sure am. And I'm looking forward to your phone calls here. 800-525-7000.

The calls are coming in and they're building but we've still got a few lines remaining. So if you have a financial question today, give us a call. 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. Let's head right back to the phones.

We'll go to Cleveland, Tennessee, WMBW. Hi, Carol, go right ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to ask about revocable trust. I formed a trust 23 years ago after my husband died and at the time I owned a house and I was advised to get a trust. Well, now I don't own the house. The only thing that is in there is my car, which probably wasn't a smart thing to do to put that in there. But anyway, the car and then some investments, which are some stocks and interest-bearing money market accounts that have a total of $80,000. So is it worth having the trust? Should I get rid of it?

How do I do that? But I'm also concerned about tax-wise for my children after I die. What's the best thing for them? To have the trust or not? The trust, and I'm not an attorney, so any legal questions you want to direct to an estate attorney, but let's just talk generally about how this works. So what's the trust going to do for you?

Why did you do that in the first place? Well, the reason you would typically do a trust is generally, unless you have a really massive estate, you don't have to worry about estate taxes because there is no inheritance tax, so your kids don't pay any taxes on whatever they receive from you. And estate taxes don't kick in until you have an estate bigger than, at least today, $13 million. So if you're under $13 million for your estate, you have no estate taxes and they don't ever pay any inheritance tax.

So there's really going to be no taxes due on this unless, after they receive your assets, they hold on to them and they appreciate in value, but that's after the fact. So what's the purpose of the trust? Well, the trust is just to facilitate the efficient transfer of your property and assets outside of probate. So what is probate? Well, when you die with a will, the probate court gets involved and they adjudicate the process of administering the will alongside the personal representative, and there are court costs involved.

And it can be time consuming. It can be months or years if it's complicated or there's a contested will. So the trust avoids all of that. Whatever is in the trust, as you said, you know, some investments in money market and a car because the home is no longer in it, then those things that are titled in the name of the trust are going to pass directly to your heirs outside of probate, which means they'll get them quicker.

They'll be anonymous, not a part of the public record, and there won't be any court costs. So I would say, given that you've already taken the time and expense to put it together, I don't see any benefit of you dissolving that trust. You certainly can because it's revocable, not irrevocable. But I don't think there's any benefit.

And I think the fact that that's a sunk cost, you get still the added benefit of at least those things that are in the trust passing directly to your kids outside of probate, which is a good thing. So, you know, I think I'd probably just stay the course, Carol. Does that make sense, though? Oh, very much, yes.

And that's exactly the question I was wondering. So, yes, that's perfect. Okay, very good. Hey, if I can help you further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. May the Lord bless you. Let's go to Franklin, PA. Hi, Greg. Go ahead.

Well, thanks for taking my call. I'm curious, I'm looking at putting an addition on my home, which I own free and outright. I'm 61 and my 401k has grown substantially. It's about a million dollars. I didn't know if it would be better at this point in life to borrow the money and have the opportunity cost that goes along with it to put the addition on or is it better to go set up a home equity line of credit?

And just pay it back like a regular mortgage for the next 10 or 15 years. Yeah, that's a good question. Let me ask you, what do you think the total cost of these renovations and addition is? Probably going to be somewhere in the neighborhood between 50 and 75,000.

50 and 75,000. Okay, and you own your home free and clear. Is that right? Yes. Okay, yeah. And you've got about a million dollars in the 401k and that's still in the 401k? Yes, yes.

I have never touched it, but I've just learned opportunity costs usually outweighs anything else. Yeah, yeah. And you are still working for that employer, correct?

Yes. Okay, yeah. You know, here's the thing. I mean, if you can cash flow this thing, I kind of like you leaving it there because once you take it out, although you wouldn't have the penalty because you're over 59 and a half, it would all be taxable and so you'd have to add 50 to 75,000 to your taxable income. Now, we're at the low end, I think, of the tax rates, if anything, depending on what happens out in the outcome of the next election. I mean, the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is set to expire in 2025. And, you know, the Biden administration is already talking about some pretty significant increases to the tax code.

And so, you know, a lot of that is going to depend upon what happens in November. So taxes, if anything, are staying the same if not going up. So you could argue that this is a good time to pull it out, although given that you're still working, you're adding this on top of your existing income. So that's probably going to offset the fact that we could have higher tax rates down the road is that if you waited and pulled it out in retirement, you're not adding it to additional income because you're no longer working.

So you don't have any earned income. And I think the opportunity cost is the right way to look at it in the sense that, you know, as soon as you take it out, that's money that doesn't have the ability to grow tax free for the next three decades, assuming you live past the age of 90. So I kind of like the idea of you taking a home equity line of credit. Normally, we'd say home equity loan, but I like a line of credit here because you could ride those interest rates down as they come down, and then just try to get that paid back as quick as you can. You could always pull it out and pay it off at any time.

But I think as long as you have the cash flow and the surplus to accelerate the payoff and pay it off, you know, out of current cash flow, I'd rather you do that than take it from the 401k. That's my best advice. Greg, stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air. We'll be right back on Faith and Finance Live. This is Faith and Finance Live on Moody Radio. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial.

800-525-7000. You know, as we think about managing money so often, it seems very complicated and overwhelming. And I get that it certainly can be. And so that's why we try to simplify as much as possible money management saying that, okay, money is a good creation from God to provide and enjoy and to give generously. God owns everything.

So we're stewards or money managers. And if we start with that premise, then every spending decision is a spiritual decision. We make God our ultimate treasure and we see money as a tool to accomplish God's purposes. So it's not an end. It's a means to an end, which is really a big idea because the world would have us to find our fulfillment for a longing for abundance in the things of this world.

We know they don't satisfy. Only God does. And yet we can use money to accomplish God's purposes. So how do we handle it?

Well, there's kind of five big ideas we see in Scripture, among other things. Live within your means because that's the key to every financial success. Avoid the use of debt because debt mortgage is the future. Set long term goals because the longer term perspective, the better the financial decision you'll make today.

Have some margin or some surplus because that's how you ultimately are going to fund your longer term goals. And then give generously because giving breaks the grip of money over our lives and recalibrates our hearts to the fathers and allows us to participate in his activity. And when we do those things with God being our ultimate treasure in the center of it all, well, it changes everything. And it doesn't mean we'll be free from difficulty in our finances.

We will go through those difficult seasons. We live in a fallen world, but at least we put ourselves in a position to know that, you know, before even the first dollar, we're rich because God has given us his son. He's paid the penalty for our sin. He's reconciled us to him. And so we have life and we can have life abundantly through Jesus and his finished work on the cross.

So hopefully that's an encouragement to you today. But I realize that beyond that you have specific questions in your financial life. So let's dive into those. In fact, we'll head now to Dyer, Indiana. Hi, Carlos. Go ahead, sir.

Hey, how you doing? Thanks for taking my call, like everybody else says. But my question is that I purchased a home in Dyer at the balance of $310,000. And I put a substantial amount and I owe a balance of $17,338 as of right now. My payment that I'm paying on this mortgage is $31.92 goes to my principal, $101.47 goes into my entrance, and then my S score, my tax S score is like $443. That leaves me a balance of $577 per mortgage payment. All right. So I got locked in on a 7% for 30 years and I have substantial enough money right now to pay it off, a balance of $17,338. My question is, should I pay it off or should I just hold on to another year? And I'm in limbo with that question. All right.

Well, that was really helpful background. Where would the money come from if you paid it off? I have three savings accounts, one for this purpose where I work part time and all that money goes into that account that pays my monthly payment on this regular.

The other mortgage is like my savings and then, of course, my social security account that I have on the side is like my emergency account. All right. So how much do you have in each of those accounts?

Okay. On my social security account, I got $41,000. The other two, I got $10,000 each. Okay. So $10,000 and $10,000, so a total of $20,000. And are any of those earmarked for anything in particular? No.

No. The only thing I'm paying right now is just my regular utilities, but I've been through this before because I sold my home last year and then I purchased this home. And the fact was that when I purchased this home, I purchased it before I sold my last home. And with the capital that I walked away from selling a home three months later, I put it all, every penny on this home that brought it down to where I'm at now. Got it.

Yeah, that makes sense. And so you plan on living in this home for the foreseeable future? As of right now, I'm looking at my age. I'm going to be 69 and I don't know if this is my last hurrah. I was living in a home. My three daughters have left the house and I raised my daughters and now I'm trying to do something for myself. So then just to put this in there, recently in March, I had a personal health issue.

I recovered for it and that's when they woke me up to say, OK, well, my my ducks are not in order as far as this home. Now they are. Now that I have time for it, I have, you know, and so I was just wondering, just in case you never know no more, I want to have the house either paid off or I'm going to have a balance that my daughters will have to pick up. Yeah. And you said that the interest rate's about 7 percent?

Yes. OK. And last question, what are your income sources today beyond Social Security? My only income working for the town of Dyer is about, I'm going to guess about $1,200 per month. I get paid every two weeks. All right. And how much do you usually have left over at the end of the month? With that one, I have at least, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't add that I have a pension because I'm retired from a company. Yeah. So if you put all your income together, the city of Dyer, Social Security and the pension, how much do you usually have surplus at the end of the month?

OK. I want to say at the end of the month, about $38,000. $39,000. Per year, you have that left over? No, no, monthly, monthly. Well, not $38,000 a month. You mean $338,000? Yeah.

Yes. I'm getting, you know, $14,000 and $22,000 from Social Security. So I'm looking at $36,000 and then whatever I own with monthly. But after your bills are paid, you usually have something left over?

I'm sorry? After your bills are paid, you usually have something left over every month? I'm going to say about maybe $5,700. OK. Got it. Yeah, I'd pay it off. And here's why. I mean, it's an immediate 7% return on your money. You're not going to get that anywhere else, guaranteed. And it's guaranteed when you pay off the mortgage. Number two, you've got plenty of liquid savings. You're up at over $60,000 in liquid savings. You got an extra $500 to $700 a month.

As soon as you do this, if I understand correctly, you know, you'll have another. What is your mortgage payment today? Right now, it's $577 and only $31.92 goes to my principal. The rest are interest and escrow. Yeah, but obviously you'll continue to pay the escrow to yourself because you need to have the money available for the taxes and insurance. But you're going to free up $150 a month between the principal and interest that you're no longer going to be paying. And that's just going to go on top of the $500 to $700 surplus. So I'd say wipe that thing out. Own your home free and clear and never look back. All right.

Thank you. I kind of figured it'll be that route. But like I said, I just want to make sure because right away, you know, they say, well, that's a tax write off. Yeah, but I'm still paying interest on this tax write off. Well, not only that, but 90 percent of taxpayers take the standard deduction. And if you do that, you don't get you get no benefit from a tax standpoint on that interest unless you itemize.

And even then, you only get equivalent to whatever tax bracket you're in. So, yeah, this one's a no brainer here, Carlos. But listen, I appreciate your calling. You sound like a wonderful dad. And I'm excited to hear in the future what God has for you in this next season of life. Thanks for your call today. Hey, back with our final segment right after this. This is Faith in Finance live. Stay with us. So thankful to have you with us today on Faith in Finance live.

I'm Rob West. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me mention, you know, Faith in Finance live is listener supported. That just simply means we can only bring you this broadcast and all of the amazing resources our team produces here at FaithFi because of your generous support.

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And then in the fall, our new study on the Book of Ecclesiastes. And right on from there, we'll be sure to send it to you before it even is available to the public. And that's just our way of saying thanks for being a part of this ministry and being invested in our work. Again, that's for FaithFi partners partnering with us at thirty five dollars a month or more. Or if you'd rather just make a one time gift, a gift of twenty five dollars or more would allow us to send you the new FaithFi study Rich Toward God just as our way of saying thanks. But in either case, we just are so thankful when you stand with us and say, I value this ministry, I've benefited from it, and I want to get in the boat with you. If you'll head to FaithFi.com and click Give, that'd be a huge blessing. Again, FaithFi.com and just click Give at the top of the page. All right, let's head back to the phones.

Carol is in northern Wisconsin. Go right ahead. Well, my husband recently passed away and so I have received money from insurance at about one hundred and twenty six thousand and not quite knowing what to do with it. I plan to put some of it as liquid savings. Our local bank is offering seven percent for a seven month CD, which is certainly a lot more than I can get elsewhere.

So I was wondering if I should put all of it there for a while or what would you advise? Yes, ma'am. Well, first of all, Carol, let me just tell you that I'm so sorry to hear that your husband passed. I'm delighted that you called today and would love to help you think through this decision. Did you say that they were offering on a seven month CD? What was the interest rate?

Seven percent. OK. Yeah, that's tremendous. And is this a bank or a credit union? It's a bank. It's an associated bank here in Wisconsin. OK, great.

It's the bank that I bank with. Yeah. And that's FDIC insured, I assume? Right.

OK, great. I mean, that's a tremendous rate. Obviously, they're using that as kind of an introductory rate, I suspect, or for maybe for a limited time. It's considerably above maybe as much as two percent above the average of even the online banks. And this is a brick and mortar. So that's great.

Let's kind of zoom out, though, for a second and just talk about the bigger picture. So what are your income sources moving forward, Carol? Part of my husband's pension and Social Security. OK, great. And will you be moving to survivors benefits or will you stay on your own benefit?

Do you know which is higher? Survivors benefits. OK. And then the combination, Carol, of his pension plus the survivors benefits. Have you been able to build a budget around that and do you feel like that will give you enough to maintain your lifestyle?

Yes. OK, very good. My home is worth about $500,000 and I have a car and it's paid for and I have no other debt. Well, that's tremendous. And do you have other liquid savings apart from the $126,000? A small amount in the bank, but I just paid off $16,000 for a funeral and still have to buy a headstone.

I lost a lot of money back in 2008. OK. All right. And let me ask this. What are your total monthly expenses, do you think, in a typical month? Probably about $1,200.

OK. So let's round up and say it's $1,500. I mean, I'd probably want you to have a good, you know, 12 months worth of expenses in the bank. So that'd be somewhere between $15,000 and $18,000 that I would probably set aside into a high yield savings account, just so you've got plenty of cushion there for the unexpected.

And then I think, you know, you taking advantage of with whatever's left. So let's say, you know, you were to put roughly $100,000 or maybe even $110,000 into the CD. I think, I mean, that's a tremendous interest rate at 7%.

And then at some point down the road, we'll need to think about kind of where you go from there, whether that's turning that over to an advisor to manage, continuing to ladder CDs. You know, you could even buy some individual bonds. I mean, for instance, the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond. If you hold the maturity for 10 years, you get all your money back, backed by the U.S. government. And that's, you know, over 4.5% right now. And so, you know, there are some attractive rates out there longer term where you're essentially minimizing dramatically any risk, even though there's nothing that's risk-free as long as you're backed by the U.S. government.

That's pretty close to it. So I like this as kind of a temporary solution to get your legs under you and kind of figure out what the Lord has next for you. And then from that point forward, perhaps engaging with an advisor who could be a sounding board for you moving forward.

But I think in the meantime, set a siding and building up the emergency fund and then using the CD sound like great choices for me. All right. Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it. Absolutely, Carol. Hey, stay on the line. I want to send you a book. Miriam Neff, the widow of Bob Neff from Moody Radio, wrote a wonderful book called Wise Women Managing Money when her husband passed to be an encouragement to widows who were all of a sudden in the seat of financial manager for their family household. And I think it'll be an encouragement to you, even really helpful practically. So stay on the line. We'll get your information and that'll be our gift to you and we'll put that in the mail.

May the Lord bless you. Before we head back to the phones here on a Monday in our final segment, our good friend Bob Doll stops by. Bob is CEO and CIO at Crossmark Global Investments. And Bob, we haven't had you on since we got the inflation and the GDP data. Boy, that sent some shockwaves through the system, especially just in light of what you've been saying now for months. And that is clearly inflation is continuing to be stickier, perhaps than we would like. And the economy is undoubtedly so slowing and that showed up in the data, didn't it?

It sure did. To put numbers on it, Rob, the first quarter GDP came in at up 1.6 percent. Expected was 2.4. Core PCE, the inflation number that goes with that report, up 3.7.

Expectations were 3.4. So as you point out, growth a little weaker and inflation a little higher than hoped for and expected. And that did it to the market that particular day. But earnings for some of the mega cap stocks have taken over since and the market's done better.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Bob, alongside that was some other data, particularly around manufacturing. What did we learn there? Well, we're learning that the manufacturing is part of our economy and services, for that matter, are coming in a little less than expected. That's from the so-called purchasing manager index PMI's. They came in short of expectations, both of those numbers. And the fact that the manufacturing side below 50 and below 50 introduces the fact that the economy is contracting. So we'll watch that carefully, but a little more weakness.

Yeah. So as somebody who's thinking about their 401k, perhaps they're somewhere between 5 and 10 years out from retirement. I mean, where do we find ourselves today and how should this play into their planning, thinking about the next decade or two? Probably not a whole lot if their time horizon is 5, 10 years or more. We get caught up in all the short-term nonsense.

I guess what I would say is if you have more money to contribute to those programs or other savings programs, take your time. We may get some sell-offs in the market. And if we do, that's when you deploy the capital. I think it sounds like I'm trying to time the market, and maybe I am. But things are on the expensive side, as we've talked before, Rob. Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

You heard my last caller just a moment ago, Carol. What would you say to somebody who's in that position where they're really not wanting to take on a lot of risk? Perhaps their bills are paid, but they're just wanting to hang on to what they have. I mean, we find ourselves in a pretty attractive environment right now from a yield standpoint, but obviously that's not going to be around forever. So how would you counsel somebody looking for as close to risk-free as possible, but yet taking advantage of some decent returns?

Yes, I thought her maturity around this, and your responses were right on. I mean, it's hard to pass up 7%, Rob. Yeah, exactly. Very attractive rate. It won't be there forever, as you say. It's got to be some sort of introductory rate to get people interested. But for the short term, meaning for this calendar year, if you can get 7%, take it and run. Now, we don't want all our money in that kind of deposit, as you hinted, because rates will come down at some point, and that's when longer dated bonds and stocks will do a bit better.

So for the future, you need to have some of those other assets, even though they're riskier. Absolutely, Bob. All right, my friend, thanks for stopping by today. We'll catch you next week. Have a great week. All right, that's Bob Dolly, CEO at Crossmart Global Investments.

You can learn more at crossmartglobal.com. Right there at the top of the page, you'll see where you can sign up for his weekly investment commentary. I rely on it. I know you will, too. Let's finish in Delray Beach. Alice, I have just about a minute left.

How can I help? Oh, hi. I just have a quick question. I wanted to know where would be the best place for me to look into getting a high-yield savings account and also wanted to know the interest on that savings account. Is that something that's added monthly, and how does that work?

Yes, very good. The place I would go is bankrate.com, bankrate.com, and you will be able to look through. Just click on high-yield savings. You'll see the online banks that have the most attractive rates. Typically, that is credited monthly, and it's completely liquid. You're going to want to make sure you're with an FDIC insured bank, but as long as you use one that's highly rated, they have a five-star rating system at bankrate.com, you'll get that monthly interest. It'll be really attractive right now at about 5% plus, and you'll have the backing of the U.S. government, and many of those are fee-free.

So check them out, bankrate.com. Thanks for your call today. That's going to do it for us. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Mooney Radio and FaithFi. So thankful for my team today, Jim, Anthony, Dan, Amy, and the rest of the team here at FaithFi. May the Lord bless you, and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.