Cut Your Cell Phone Bill

If you had to name one utility where you're probably getting gouged every month, would you say it's your electric bill, maybe water, cable TV? Well, those are all good candidates, but more likely, it's your cell phone bill. That's right, Americans spend an average of $100 a month for a cell phone service, a utility that barely existed just a generation ago. Today, financial planner and teacher Rob West shares some cost-saving ideas. Then we'll take your calls and questions on any topic at 800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore, cutting your cell phone bill. That's next, right here on MoneyWise. You know, Rob, it's really amazing how smartphones have become such a part of our lives these days. Well, that's true, Steve. It would be difficult to get along without one these days, and our dependence on them really makes it such that we're reluctant to take a hard look at how much we're paying every month for the service. As you mentioned, it can run as high as $100 a month or more. Well, one problem with taking a hard look is that it seems like you have to take a hard look about every six months.

Things seem to be changing a lot, and that doesn't make it easy. All right, but you've got some ways to trim the costs, so let's get started. What's first?

Well, no doubt, Steve. The quickest and easiest way to save money on your cell phone bill is to switch carriers. What many people don't realize is that the big three carriers, that would be Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, each own discount services that use the same towers and have the same coverage areas. Verizon has Visible, AT&T owns Cricket Wireless, and T-Mobile has Metro by T-Mobile. So those would be places to start your search for a lower cost carrier, and we'll actually have links to those discount brands in today's show notes.

Yeah, who knew? Okay, but what if I don't want to take a chance that the coverage area won't be the same if I switch to one of these discount guys? Yeah, in that case you would explore other plans with your current provider. If you're paying for unlimited data, check your usage, which you may find that you don't need all of that. And by the way, you can check that by logging into your provider's website.

If you don't require that much data, then you could look at switching to a lower cost plan. Okay, but you can forget about that if you're always sending around videos of your grandchildren, Rob, and those people will remain. Wait a minute, you don't have grandchildren. Who is? No, no, it's got to be you. Yeah, it is me, but I've got a lot. Well, never mind.

Olivia, if you're listening, I love you, my dear. All right, what else do you have, Rob? Well, this next tip will save money when you have to replace your phone. It's far too easy to go along with whatever upgrade your current carrier is providing.

Instead, think used. You don't need to have the latest iteration of your phone. Look for a used model, perhaps on eBay or another online seller. The trick, though, is to wait until a few weeks after a new model comes out, which happens to be right about now. You'll probably find a lot of the older models for sale. Just be sure to get one with a warranty if you can. All right, that's good. Okay, buy used.

What else? Well, it's simply to get on a family plan. If you haven't already, you may be able to lower your cost to $25 a month per line, especially if you go with one of the discount carriers. But you have to be especially careful with how much data you use each month.

You want to choose a family plan with enough data so you don't get hit with those extra charges, which can add up in a hurry. Okay, good reminder. All right. All right, what's next?

Well, as we continue to walk through these, Steve, there's so many things we can do. For instance, most plans offer a discount of around $5 a month just for signing up for auto pay. But here again, a word of caution. Make sure you have the deduction taken from a credit card, not directly out of your checking account. That way, if there's a problem like double billing, you can dispute the overcharge more easily. Yeah, but don't forget to pay off those credit card charges every month.

All right, what's next on your list? Well, another thing that most people don't realize is that many carriers offer special discounts. They sometimes have special rates for the military, teachers and seniors, for example. They may also offer special deals through your employer as well. I didn't know about that, or at least some of those. It never hurts to ask.

All right, got any more? Yep, a couple smartphones are expensive and most people buy a case to protect their investment. Again, because it's so convenient, they usually go with the one provided by the carrier, but they can be expensive, sometimes upwards of $50. So look on Amazon or eBay for something cheaper.

Also, Steve, a lot of folks don't realize this next one is out there. You can probably get a free cell phone insurance plan through your credit card instead of paying for it. The catch is you have to pay your monthly bill with your credit card and in some cases purchase the phone itself with it. So check that out and see if that's an option for you and maybe a way to save up to $10 a month.

That's great. Great tips for cutting your cell phone bill. Thanks, Rob. Your call is next, 800-525-7000.

Give us a call right now. Many people adopt an attitude toward marriage and finances that it will all work out somehow, but sadly it often doesn't. Financial woes can devastate a marriage, but there is a better way, God's Way. Money and Marriage God's Way by Howard Dayton will help you discover God's approach to growing your finances, strengthening your relationship with your mate, and cultivating Godly joy.

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That's Christian credit counselors.org or call 800-557-1985. Welcome back to Money Wise Live. So glad to have you along with us today. We're talking about cell phone plans, at least at the start of the program. And our question of the day was how have you managed to keep your cell phone costs in line? That was on Facebook.

We were delighted to have a number of folks weighing in on that question. Brenda said, I got a track phone years ago and I've stayed with it. I pay about $10 a month.

That's where you pay as you go. Mike said one way is to save is to never buy the latest phone that comes out. Probably some advice I should take myself.

No, the next one is the one you should take yourself. Go ahead. Let's see what that is. By not buying every phone that comes out.

Excuse you. And Sandy said, as a senior, I had my child put me on their plan, which Steve, maybe that's something you ought to look into. You know what?

As a senior, what? See, now I'm going to go back to the other one about not buying every phone. You don't buy every phone, but there's that fruit one that you tend to. You're the guy that lines up at midnight, aren't you? No, no, you don't do that anymore, but I do. I do watch the, uh, and they have the big reveal events.

I do actually watch those. Cool. Cool. All right. New tech gets me every time.

I know it does. All right. Here's the phone number again. Speaking of tech, you'll have to use a little bit of it to get on the program today. Dial your phone, cell phone, old fashioned phone, uh, the kind of phone where you crank the handle and put it up to your ear.

If you have one of those, that'll do just call 800-525-7000 if you have a question or a comment or a complaint for Rob West today, 800-525-7000 Evansville, Indiana. Hi Misty. Thanks for contacting us today. And what is your question?

Hi. Um, my son's been in the military for almost a year and he took out a life insurance policy and it just got mailed back home. And I think it's a whole life policy. And I'm wondering if if it's ever a good policy to have, you know, being in the military and saving. Sure.

Sure. Well, Misty, you know, we're not big fans of whole life insurance. I would rather make sure that he has the proper amount of coverage by buying pure insurance, which is really term insurance where you just pay the mortality expense for a certain period of time could be 10, 20, 30 years, something like that.

Assuming he's healthy, you would update it periodically. And so, you know, if you're 10 years into a 20 year policy, you can replace it with a new 20 year policy as you go tends to be very inexpensive, which means you can get the proper amount of coverage starting with probably 10 to 12 times his income, but then adding on beyond that for specific situations and then do his saving in other vehicles. Obviously, the military retirement if he's planning to stay there for some time is very good. But additional savings options are available like a Roth IRA, things like that where he can get the full upside of the market as opposed to getting the returns that come with whole life, not to mention the fees and expenses that kind of put a drag on those over time.

So that would be my preference. It's not that they're always wrong or there's never a place for whole life insurance policies. Just think for the average person buying the amount of coverage you need during the time you need it, which is you're working in savings years and then saving separate from that in tax deferred vehicles is a better way to go. But given that he's already got it in place, you wouldn't want to cancel it or drop it until he has something else in force that can replace it just to be sure he has that death benefit in the event somebody is counting on him for income or other reasons. Does all that make sense though? Yes.

We've always had the term life insurance and I'm not sure that he quite understands what he got because he thought it was the face value of it was a lot more than what it says. So I think that he may have been misled with the whole thing. Yeah.

Okay. Well, and yeah, so this would be a great opportunity to dig into that, perhaps go back to the person who sold it to him or somebody else who's knowledgeable in the area who could really get into the fine print. It's one of the other challenges, I think, frankly, with these types of policies is they can be confusing. Doesn't mean they all are, but I think just understanding what you have, how it's growing, how you access the cash value as it builds up and you know, you can take it out or you can borrow it and there's tax ramifications.

Just all of those things make it somewhat complex. So I think understanding what he has and then if again, he's going to make a change, make sure you have a new policy in force before you release this one. Misty, we're glad that you called. We wish you and your son the very best. Thanks. Ringgold, Georgia.

Hello, Kathy. You're on with Rob West. Hey, you were talking cell phones earlier and I just had a quick question about, I've seen advertised consumer cellular and it's just so much less than what we pay each month. I just was wondering if that was legit. Yeah. You know, I've heard about it.

In fact, I've seen that they've won some awards by J.D. Power, which is very reputable. But I can't tell you I know anything firsthand about it, Kathy, other than they really position themselves as a low cost provider and they roll everything together.

So you get the text and the talk and the data and it tends to be less expensive. Now, the key is always going to be what kind of coverage do they have, especially in your area. And so you're going to want to look at that, probably talk with other people, maybe get online and look at some reviews. So I'm aware of it. I wouldn't necessarily say it's anything like a scam, but I would just say make sure that with the lower cost doesn't come a lower quality of service that's going to leave you frustrated. So there's always a balancing act there.

But specifically whether or not it's something I can endorse, I just don't know enough about it. We're glad for your call today, Kathy. Wish you the best on that. Here's our phone number, by the way, 800-525-7000. And speaking of always looking for a balance, Rob, then we'll I think we have to take a break here. But Ed called. We're almost out of time here, but he says, what do cell phones have to do with the gospel?

That's what I want to hear about. I get along fine with my phone because I have a flip phone that goes back a couple of years. What does cell phones and managing our money have to do with the gospel, Rob? Yeah, well, here's what we recognize, Steve, is that it's all belongs to the Lord. And yet we're called to be managers of God's resources.

So when it comes to managing our money, we want to know what's on the heart of God as we see money as a tool. It's not an end. It's a means to an end. And I would say the same thing is true with cell phones, right? It's a means to an end to stay connected with those we love. And it's been an effective means to share the gospel.

Well, with that comes some risks as well that we need to be very cautious and careful. Well said, Rob. Thanks so much. This is MoneyWise Live. And Ed, we appreciate your thoughts as well.

We'll be right back right after this. Do you know if you have enough? Enough money? Enough house?

Do you know how much is enough? If not, Ron Blue can help with his book, Master Your Money, a step-by-step plan for experiencing financial contentment. Learn how to save, invest, and give wisely, how to create a long-term financial plan, and how to get out of debt.

You'll find it all in Master Your Money by Ron Blue, available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org. We live in the light. Privacy is very different from secrecy.

And here's what I came up with, and I thought this was profound. I don't know if y'all think it is or not, but privacy as regards modesty. There's modest living.

Those are the things. I mean, you shave in your bathroom. That's not something you just want to do out in front of everybody. But that's because it's modesty, not because it's secrecy.

Does anybody understand what I'm saying? So I ask you today, is it modesty or is it secrecy? Live out in the light. I have defined so much of my own personal liberty in Christ. I have defined as the loss of fear that someone would find out what. Just to live outside of that.

Where if you could just follow me around with the camera, I'm not being embarrassed because I'm just an idiot. But I wouldn't be humiliated over secret sin. You understand what I'm saying? It begins with bringing, dragging that junk out in the light. And the beauty of living with Christ is that it says in Psalm 139, even if darkness is allowed unto him. He can't see any darkness. So whatever we're doing, we're doing full out in the spotlight of Jesus Christ.

I mean, full out. If you're sleeping around, you have never one time done it in the dark. No, you haven't.

You've done it in the full open shed of sunlight. You've been listening to Beth Moore with a quick word. We have two ways to experience now that faith has come a study of Galatians. The online experience is now available at Beth Moore.org.

The workbook edition will release in January 2021. Either way, Beth would love to have you in Bible study. The financial wealth you leave behind could be the best thing that ever happened to your loved ones or the worst one. In Splitting Heirs, giving your money and things to your children without ruining their lives, Ron Blue explains why it's important to make these decisions now instead of forcing your heirs to do it later. Splitting Heirs will foster a real appreciation for the precious resources that God has entrusted to you.

And it's available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org. So what is it that you and your spouse were talking about this morning over toast and coffee? Was it saving, investing, being generous, your giving, buying a car, paying for college? What was it that we might be able to help you with and give you God's perspective on?

Let's be honest here, even though there are only 2,300 verses in God's word that deal with money and finance and things like that, there are a lot of principles there that will apply to most of the practical things that we deal with each day. So if we can help you, give us a call. We have some open lines at 800-525-7000. We'd love to chat with you. Chicago, Tina, what's on your heart today?

How can we help you? So I do have a term like insurance, which is about to expire in two years. And then about four or five years ago, my insurance agent said that, you know, if you get spires, you have kids and you need to have insurance. You may not be able to renew the home life insurance. So you need to have a home life insurance. And she got me and my husband to get the whole life insurance, which is about 50,000 only.

And it's been like four or five years now since I had it. And I pay like 100 something to I think a month. I'm just wondering, I do have one full time and I have insurance at work, a one-time salary, and I have also supplemented the two-time salary with, you know, the home life insurance at work. Is it worth keeping this whole life insurance?

Because I am paying for it every month and I'm like, maybe I shouldn't. Yeah. Well, a couple of thoughts here, Tina. The first is I would just kind of step back from all of this and say, what are we trying to accomplish?

Well, we're trying to accomplish a couple of things. One is we need a death benefit. We need life insurance that's equal to the amount that is necessary on your life for somebody who's dependent upon you for income or who will assume additional cost at your death because of a burden placed on them. And a classic example would be as if you're the caretaker of small children that would now need full-time daycare. That would be an added expense beyond what's in the budget today. If you're an income provider and that income goes away and that income is necessary to maintain a lifestyle and cover all of the expenses, then you'd want insurance to offset that. And the same would be true for your husband if you were married.

And so you need to ask yourself, what is the right amount of coverage that we need and for what period of time? And typically when we talk about the period of time that insurance is needed, it's during those working years when you're saving. Because keep in mind, if you've saved throughout your working life, using your wealth as an income generating tool, investing that systematically in the stock market, tax deferred vehicles, you should build up enough wealth that when you retire or God redirects you to something else in that season of life, you no longer need insurance because if something were to happen to either of you, you're not generating income that way. You would still have social security. You'd still have your retirement assets to be able to fund your lifestyle.

And so the need for life insurance goes away. That's an expense that comes off the books, if you will. So the question is, what is that proper amount of coverage? And as a rule of thumb, we would say, you know, start with 10 to 12 times the income. You might add in a major expense that's going to happen, you know, in a relatively shorter period of time, like a college tuition that needs to be funded or a payoff of a certain amount of debt, something like that. So for an $80,000 a year salary, we might start with saying we'd like to have $800,000 worth of coverage that we could then convert into an income stream during the remainder of those working years equal to that $80,000 a year so that that doesn't place a hardship on the family. That typically is going to be most cost effective when done through term insurance. So you and your husband in case of that $80,000 salary, you would go out and say, Okay, what is it going to cost for me to get a 20 year policy or a 30 year policy with $800,000 worth of coverage, you know, just with the term policy only, and then you would add that into your budget after you shopped around and went through the medical underwriting and then selected the policy. Then the separate question is how are we saving for the long term and that's where we would prefer you to use tax deferred retirement vehicles, a company sponsored retirement account like a 401k or an IRA or, you know, some other type of plan depending on what your work option is and what availability you have. In terms of the whole life policy, you know, we're not big fans for the reasons we've already said in that, you know, it tends to get very expensive later in life, it's bundling a savings vehicle with the life insurance. And oftentimes, you just end up underinsured in terms of what you actually need in the death benefit. And there are better ways to save for the long term outside of insurance contracts. So where do you go from here?

Well, step one is to figure out how much coverage you and if you're married, you and your husband actually need, then two, what is the most cost effective way to do that, get those policies in place for the period of time that you need them, and of course, make sure it fits in the budget, and then make sure you're saving for the long term. Once you do all of those things, and you absolutely could drop that whole life policy, take the cash value that's built up and cancel the policy and go from there. Does that make sense?

It does make sense. So my one question I have on this is, when you put the $50,000 back, it makes money and it has extra money now that I'm able to withdraw $6,000 out of it. So would I be able to drop it after I withdraw that one? Or if I just can't, would they give me that back? Yeah, so there's a, what you would want to do is call and ask not how much you can borrow, but what is the cash value, the amount that could be surrendered or withdrawn completely from the policy. And you'd be able to pull that amount out, that cash value, and then you would cancel the policy. And at that point, it would lapse.

But that cash value that's built up, which was the savings component minus the expenses that have been taken out of it, is your money. And you're absolutely entitled to that if you collapse the policy. Tina, we're glad that you called today. We wish you the very best with that. Thank you very much.

Tampa, Florida, next. And Brenda, you're on Money Wise. What's on your heart? I recently retired unexpectedly, and I'm going to be selling my home. And I should get about $150,000 out of it because I put a large down payment on it.

My daughter and I have a little bit of a disagreement. I think that I should try to go through with selling the house after January instead of in November or December because it's going to put me in such a higher tax bracket. And I was wondering your advice on that. Brenda, is this your primary residence that you're talking about? Yes. And have you lived there two out of the last five years?

Yes. Okay, then you would not be, first of all, it wouldn't be ordinary income tax anyway, it would be a capital gain. But in the case of your primary residence, where you live there two out of the last five years, you have up to $250,000 in gains, not the selling price, the gain that would not be taxable whatsoever. So if you were to get, you know, you said I think 150,000, whatever portion was the profit would obviously be well below that quarter of a million dollar of exemption on your primary residence in terms of a capital gain. So there would be no tax implication to you, which gives you the freedom to sell this at whatever point makes sense. Okay, so the down payment, I put $98,000 down from another cell of another house. When I was married, my husband decided to leave and so we sold the house that we lived in. And that's why it's such a large profit.

So that doesn't matter. No, the down payment has nothing to do with it. The question is, if you've lived there for two out of five, the last five years as your primary residence, you can have up to 250,000 in profit. The way you calculate that 250,000 is the selling price minus the purchase price minus any improvements.

So you're going to have well below the quarter of a million dollars of exemption or exclusion on this sale, which means it will be not taxable whatsoever. Brenda, we hope that's good news for you. Thanks so much for calling. We'll be right back. Investing is more than just returns. It's an expression of who you are and what you value. Does the way you invest your money reflect your identity as a Christian? At Eventide, we design investments for performance and a better world so you can invest with a confidence to reach your financial goals while remaining true to your Christian values and commitments. We call this investing that makes the world rejoice. More is available at investeventide.com.

That's investeventide.com. Christian healthcare ministries enables believers to meet their healthcare costs affordably, biblically, and compassionately. It's not insurance, but a voluntary cost-sharing ministry based on the biblical example of Christians sharing each other's needs and members aren't fined under the law for not having health insurance. Christian healthcare ministries might be your health cost solution. Call 800-791-6225 or visit chministries.org.

Hi there. My name is Anna, a biblical studies major at the Moody Bible Institute. The Moody Radio Verse of the Week on this Pastoral Care Week is found in Hebrews 13, verses seven through eight. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. That's Hebrews 13, seven through eight, the Moody Radio Verse of the Week. You may know that you're loved by family, friends, by God, but do you really feel it? Dr. Gary Chapman and York Moore have teamed up to write Seen, Known, Loved, Five Truths About God in Your Love Language. In it, you'll learn how to know your own love language and how God uses it to communicate with you personally. Learn how God is intimately involved in your life in beautiful and unexpected ways.

Purchase your copy of Seen, Known, Loved at moodypublishers.com. Money and life run on the same track, but unfortunately, sometimes it seems like your money is heading in a different direction from your goals. In Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment, author Ron Blue helps you to break down all your financial options to a basic four and then shows you how to keep it all chugging along in the right direction on the same track.

Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. President Trump has started a busy day of campaigning with a rally in Lansing, Michigan. Some of Mr. Trump supporters waited for hours in the wet, near freezing temperatures to see him. The president also planning to campaign today in Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Democrat Joe Biden with two events planned for today in Georgia. U.S. consumer confidence dipped slightly in October as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country. The conference board reporting that its consumer confidence index fell to a reading of 100.9 from 100.1.8 in September. Stock indexes are closing mixed on Wall Street as the market's momentum slows further on worries about rising virus counts. The Dow fell 222 points today.

The NASDAQ gained 72. The S&P 500 was down 10. This is SRN News. This is MoneyWise Live. Whether it's budgeting, buying, selling, giving, any questions along those lines, that's where we're at today with open lines at 800-525-7000. Jot that down.

Put it on the fridge. 800-525-7000. Miami, Florida. Hello, Mary. How can we help? Hi.

Good afternoon and thank you for taking my call. I have two young ladies in my office. We happen to have a discussion today and neither one of them are budgeting and they're excited to know about budgeting.

So I was wondering what resources would you recommend that I get them started on? Yeah. Well, that's a great question, Mary.

I'm delighted to hear that you're engaging them in this conversation. A couple of thoughts. Number one is our brand new MoneyWise app is out and we spent the last eight months because I couldn't find an app that had all of the budgeting features in it that I wanted. So we had a world-class team go build it and it just hit the app stores in the last couple of weeks. You can find in the Apple App Store.

You can find in the Google Play Store. It's called MoneyWise Biblical Finance but here's the bottom line. It will walk them through the process of setting up a spending plan, capturing all of their expenses in the plan tab. What their income is and it'll use a digital envelope system which means you have an envelope for each category and then you populate that. Then you connect it to your accounts like your checking account, your savings account, whatever else you want including your credit cards which download in and then you can allocate each of the transactions into those envelopes. So at any given time whether you're on your computer or on your tablet or using your smartphone, you know exactly what's left in each envelope and that's really going to be the key, Mary, that they understand that there's limited resources and without a plan by giving every dollar a name, your money is going to find its way into places you probably don't want it to go slipping through your fingers but by keeping tabs on it, developing a spending plan and then monitoring it throughout the month using an envelope system where when it's gone you stop spending because the money's out, that's really going to be the key. What I'd like to do is if you hold on the line, we'll get your information and we'll give you two complimentary MoneyWise Pro subscriptions for six months for both of them. You can give them to them as a gift from you and hopefully that'll help to get them started.

The other thing we can offer is we have MoneyWise Coaches that would be happy to help walk them through all of that if they need it and you would just go to MoneyWiseLive.org to get them connected with a coach. How does that sound? That sounds perfect and I have another question too while I have you here. Yeah, go right ahead. And that is Robinhood, Robinhood.com. Yeah.

What do you think about that? And by the way, I'm so glad that this is an app because you know young people like apps. They do. Well, and that's where Robinhood comes in. Robinhood has captured the millennials just because there's no account minimums, there's no fees and so it offers a streamlined interface. They have a great website, a great smartphone app. They don't allow for any mutual funds, which is a downside when you're just getting started so you have to use individual stocks. They don't have any retirement accounts either. So that's one of the other downsides, but I don't have any problem with it.

Very low cost. It offers what's called fractional shares, but they are going to have to pick individual companies to invest in and oftentimes you just can't get the diversification you're looking for or people are stuck trying to figure out what stocks do I want to buy, which is why often mutual funds are a better way to go. But again, I don't have any problem with Robinhood. If they were looking for more of a turnkey solution, though, to get started with investing, I'd probably go to like Betterment or the Schwab intelligent portfolios. Both of those are what you call robo advisors, where they'll go through a series of questions and answers and it'll build a low cost ETF portfolio which has index funds, index ETFs, where they just capture the broad market and that's I think a better way to invest systematically when you're starting out with a very small amount of money. And again, Mary, that was Betterment or what were the other funds you mentioned, Rob?

The other one was the Schwab intelligent portfolios. Okay, great. Mary, thank you very much for calling and we wish you the best as you work with these young ladies. Chad Nugent, Tennessee, WMBW our station up there. Hello, Tim.

How can we help? Yes, I'm retired, I guess, four years and I've got about a half a million dollars, but I have nothing in stock. Basically, I have a lot 350,000 and guaranteed 4% interest and I've got 150 and guaranteed 3% interest.

They're a craft. Okay. So I, as an engineer, I put this onto a spreadsheet and it tells me if I'm living, I'm living right at about 45,000 a year. If I live at that, it'll last me till I'm 95. But my question is, am I living too conservative? Do you think that I need to get into some stocks? Or, you know, basically, I get guaranteed money for three and 4%. Yeah, I've got some extra money here and there. But that's basically one retirement. Yeah, it's a great question, Tim. And obviously, you've amassed a significant amount of money, you want to be a good caretaker. And ultimately, you're the steward. So you need to make that decision on what you're most comfortable with in terms of the risk you're assuming, and the commensurate return you can expect.

I like the fact as an engineer, you work through the numbers, you run it through a spreadsheet, which is my favorite way to do it. And you've said I can basically take no risk because you've got a guaranteed return here, it sounds like, and the money lasts through age 95. The question is, would you like the ability for it to last a little bit longer?

Would you like to have something left whenever the Lord calls you home to give us an inheritance or to give away? I think that would perhaps be the case for why you would take a small portion of the portfolio to allow that to boost the returns by adding a little bit more risk. The key would be, you know, whatever portion of that portfolio it was, let's say it's 20%.

It would be a portion that you wouldn't have to touch. So if we got into a bear market, let's say, which would last on average, not what happened with the pandemic, because that was more like a V down the fastest ever and up about as fast. But if we got into a true bear market that lasted 18 months to three years, you wouldn't touch it, you wouldn't sell anything, you'd have some paper losses, but it would recover, at least historically speaking, it always does. And what that would do over time, meaning 10 years at a time would be to add a bit more return to pull the overall portfolio up maybe one to 2%. Again, you're taking risk with that, but it's with a portion that you could leave alone and allow it to ride out any particular market or economic cycle. So I think that would be perhaps the only other thing to consider is whether you'd feel better knowing that you could boost the overall returns by adding a small amount of risk.

And you would approach it that way, if that makes sense to him. Well, I think really the big reason why I'm asking is because I don't like risk. You know, for years I had it in the stock market here and there, and I'm not sure if I ever did any good on it. And my financial advisor, TIA, tells me why I need to get more aggressive and put it in stocks.

But as far as I'm concerned, unless somebody that knows what they're saying says, you know, this doesn't really look good on half a million, I'm trying to give myself a 2% raise in income every year, but assuming a 1% increase in social security. Let us jump back in here. Tim, let us jump back in here. We're almost out of time. Yeah, we've got to hit a break here. I totally get what you're saying. And I think at the end of the day, you need to be comfortable because again, God's money has been entrusted to you. And so you've got to be the caretaker and you don't want to take any more risk than you absolutely have to.

So I'd say either stay with what you have because you've obviously run the numbers, or perhaps with a very small portion, only consider adding a stock allocation for that portion. Tim, we're going to have to let you go, but thank you very much for your call today. Would you like your life to be infused with joy? Would you like to interject an eternal dimension into even the most ordinary day? Author Randy Alcorn says you can when you discover the Treasure Principle. In a concise, power-packed style, this newly revised and updated book offers a six-step plan to finding the immediate pleasure and eternal rewards of the Treasure Principle. And once you discover it, life will never look the same. The Treasure Principle is available when you click the Store button at MoneyWiseLive.org.

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We'd be blessed to receive it and have you on the team. MoneyWiseLive.org. Indianapolis, Vicki, what's the situation with you today? Well, this summer I lost my stepfather, and my little sister, his daughter is the executor of the will, and I'm going to be coming up with probably a sizable inheritance from this house because once they sell his house, it's being split between all the daughters, and potentially I could be completely debt-free with what I'm getting. But I don't know whether I should perhaps just go ahead and pay off my car and continue to pay on the house and just save some of that money because I know there's going to be taxes and all this other stuff if I should save some of that because I really don't have my account.

I've only got like $2,000 saved. Sure. Okay.

Yeah, let's back up here. I think we need to walk through this in priority order, and this is the way we always need to approach any money the Lord entrusts to us, whether it's our income, paying basic expenses, and then perhaps having some left over as margin and saying how do we allocate this extra that we have on a monthly basis, or with an inheritance where we receive a large sum of money. Now, inheritances are not considered income for federal tax purposes, no matter what you inherit, and so you may have a stepped-up basis, you may have taxes down the road, but typically the taxes would be paid by the estate. So there's probably not much to think about there. So as you think about the money that you're coming into, it really means we have to go back to God's Word and say what are the principles we can apply, what are my values, what is God doing in my life such that I could really establish some financial goals and objectives consistent with what I understand about God's view of money and where I'm headed and what I'm trying to accomplish. You know, typically we would always want to look first at saying do we have an emergency fund?

You know, that fund that's there for the unexpected. I would use three to six months expenses as a guide for how much you'd want in that liquid savings account, not invested but available if you need it. So I would replenish, if you don't already have that in place, your emergency fund. Beyond that, you'd want to look at consumer debt and say do I have any debt, not counting the home mortgage but student loans or credit cards or consolidation loans, something like that that I want to go ahead and pay off that would be an immediate guaranteed return equal to the interest rate on that which would really shore up your financial foundation. Then beyond that, I think the question is with whatever you have left, does it make sense to go ahead and become completely debt-free including your home? Do you want to invest that money because perhaps you're behind on retirement or you'd like to have more put away that's working for you or a combination of the two where you take a portion of it and you put it into an account for a specific purpose like a savings goal and replacing a car with cash or, you know, having money for a child's college or even longer term looking toward retirement and then a portion to accelerate the home pay off because, remember, our goal is to have that home paid off by the time you retire. Now, if you can do it sooner, great, but you don't want to do it at the expense of having no margin or no reserves to fall back on if you need them. So, kind of given my overview there, what are your thoughts, Vicki, as you evaluate your current situation? Yeah, well, I know I definitely have been working hard on the emergency fund but I've been also trying to double the—the only debt that I have is my car and that would be a no-brainer just to pay that off. But I definitely don't have anything in reserve at this point. I am tithing out of that increase.

I've got a couple of places that I support. Yeah, well, that makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, as a starting point to say I'm going to give to the Lord out of this increase, I'm going to completely pay off my car which takes that out of the budget. Now, you recapture something on a monthly basis that hopefully can also be redirected toward your priorities and I'm going to shore up my three to six month emergency fund and I'm going to open an online savings account. I'm going to put that in there and that's going to be there for me to fall back on. And then if you have anything left over, that's where you might want to consider another specific savings goal or just putting it against the house to further reduce the amount that you owe which, by the way, you won't pay interest on for the life of the loan. So, Rob, if there's money there to do it, you would pay off the house.

I mean, you'd like getting really out of debt, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Vicky, we wish you the best with that. Thank you very much. Marty in Ohio, what's your question?

Hey, how are you guys? Great, thank you. You guys crack me up too, by the way. I have an annuity that was through a union that I was a part of and I'm not part of that union anymore since 2011 and I was just wondering if it would be wise for me to roll that money into my existing 401k.

This annuity has been about anywhere from 4% to 4.5% over the last 8 years. Yeah, okay. What is your age, Marty, if you don't mind me asking? 57. Okay. And you plan on working for quite a while? Yep.

Okay. Yeah, you know, I think you could do better than that. If you look at kind of a longer term, meaning an 8 to 10 year time horizon where you're fully invested, looking at what the stock market returns would be, you know, I would be shooting at this stage of your life for more than 4%. If the annuity permits you and if your 401k provider, the administrator will accept it, then absolutely doing that rollover right into that 401k keeps everything fairly simple, because you don't have to select the investments, you would just choose from the various investments you already have in the 401k, probably consistent with what you've selected previously, as opposed to rolling it to an IRA where you have unlimited investment choices, and now you're really having to go out and spend quite a bit of time doing some research or hire someone to do it for you. So I think consolidating all of that in one place, especially if that 401k has been performing well, taking another look at whether the allocation is right, just given your age and risk tolerance and performance history on the investments you have selected previously, and then rolling it right in to allow that to grow with the other funds that hopefully you're contributing moving forward makes a lot of sense to me. Marty, thank you, my friend.

We appreciate that call today. Quickly out to Durango, Colorado, a place I've always wanted to visit, maybe one day. Hi, Betty, what's going on in your life that we can help you with? Okay, I'm a widow, age 75. My husband left me pretty well with his experience of working in finances, and now I have it all consolidated in one financial institution and I need to know how do I manage it? Yeah, Betty, if you don't mind me asking, if you're comfortable giving this number, what do you have in investable assets that you've consolidated at that institution? I have an IRA account and then the other is around two and a half, three million.

Okay, all right. And currently, it's just sitting in those accounts and you're not aware of anybody looking after it? Are you getting phone calls from that institution from them wanting to manage it for you? I am, but I don't know if they really manage it. I don't have enough experience to turn it over and trust.

Yes, that makes complete sense. Well, Betty, let me just encourage you. Your husband did leave you in a great position where you've got plenty of assets, I suspect, to last you for the rest of your life and beyond that, where you can really think about what God has for you in this season in terms of the lifestyle you want to lead and the giving that you want to do, because really when you get to this stage where we don't have any debt and you're not going to pay any more in taxes and you're probably not looking to increase your lifestyle beyond what it is now, it really comes down to how much do you want to save and what is your financial finish line, which gives you then the opportunity to do even more giving than perhaps you're doing today. But in terms of how you effectively steward what God has entrusted to you, because you are the steward now of God's money, I would absolutely encourage you to have a trusted, godly financial advisor who could walk alongside you and help you navigate the decisions and ultimately make the investment decisions for you based on your goals and objectives, what risk you want to take, what you're trying to accomplish, how much you want to be giving, how much you want to keep, what the purpose of this money is. All of those things need to be factored into how this investment professional you select is going to manage these funds. But you don't want it on autopilot and you certainly want to make sure it's somebody that really aligns with your values and priorities, but also has the experience and expertise to make these decisions for you.

So here's where I would go next. Right there in Colorado, I would look on our website at MoneyWiseLive.org for a certified kingdom advisor. This is going to be somebody who's attained a designation that says he or she has significant experience. They've met character requirements, they've gotten a pastor reference and client references and they've had a regulatory review and they've gone through a 50-hour academic program at a university to really understand how to apply God's word to professional financial decision-making and investment methodologies. That designation is what sets that person apart as somebody who shares your values and can help you make those decisions. When you put in your website, when you put in your zip code there on our website, again MoneyWiseLive.org and you click find a CKA, you'll come up with a list of advisors who have that designation in your area. I would interview three and really visit with those to see which is the right fit for you.

Who do you have the most rapport with and who's going to communicate in the rhythm that you're looking for and really has the expertise that you really need and where at the end of the day you just have a peace of mind about selecting that individual. If you have any questions, send a question to us at questions at MoneyWise.org or stay on the line and give us your information and we'd be happy to walk you through that in more detail. Betty, we're glad that you called today. We wish you the very best as you seek God's will in this regard. Thank you very much and thank you for listening MoneyWiseLive as a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Do us a favor, tell a friend and have a great remainder of your day and remember we'll be back tomorrow same time with another edition of MoneyWise Live.