Money Making Ideas

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. As COVID-related shutdowns drag on, many Americans continue to struggle with lost income. But the good news is there are still plenty of ways to make money on the side.

That's right, these days every dollar counts, but you have to know where to find them. So today, Kingdom Advisors President Rob West shares some ways you can earn extra cash in your downtime. And then we'll have some fascinating news from Wall Street, and then later your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7000. Call right now, open lines, 800-525-7000.

I'm Steve Moore. Moneymaking ideas next on MoneyWise Live. So Rob, finding extra dollars, I assume you're not talking about looking under the couch cushions here. No, although you can probably find change for the parking meter there. Today, Steve, we've got some ways you can earn extra money, some we've talked about before and bear repeating, and some that are new, well, at least to us.

Okay, well, let's dive in. Where's the first place to find those extra dollars? Well, would you believe in your closet? If you have gently used clothing items that you no longer want or need, you can sell them online. Websites like ThreadUp and Poshmark offer a service to help you find buyers and provide all the information you need to get started. We'll have links to many of these sites, by the way, in today's show notes.

How do you know me so well? That's a good way to turn prom dresses into profit, I suppose, and also that sports jacket you only wear once a year, much to your wife's chagrin. Okay, what's next? Well, how about trading in old cell phones and other electronics you may have tossed in the junk drawer? Maybe an old iPad or gaming systems that's no longer used. Amazon offers a trade-in option and pays you with gift cards as payments. And speaking of gift cards, Steve, did you know you can sell unused ones? Check out sites like, yeah, Cardpool, Card Cash, and Grif, excuse me, Gift Card Granny. They won't pay you the full value. Usually they'll take about 10% for their fee, but it's an easy way to bring in a few extra dollars. Wait a minute, Gift Card Granny taking 10%?

Granny, what's happened to you? All right, well, I think these are pretty good. We're making some money and we haven't even left the house yet. Well, that's right.

You will need to for this next one, though. You can start driving for Uber, Lyft, or another ride sharing company. If you have a good driving record and a car that meets their eligibility requirements, you can probably make, well, most estimate about $10 to $15 an hour. You can also set your own hours. That could be handy for stay-at-home parents if the kids are back in school.

What if you have an old junker, though, I guess that's out then? Well, in that case, you can still make a little side money, Steve, by delivering meals and other items like outfits for Uber Eats, Poshmates, and DoorDash. Again, you'll probably clear around $10 an hour plus tips. We should point out that none of those are huge money-making ideas, but they can provide a little extra cash for paying the bills.

All right, interesting. Even if your car isn't the latest and the newest and the shiniest, Uber Eats, Postmates, and DoorDash. Okay, well, it's better than sitting around the house just worrying about the bills.

So, anything else? Yeah, for this next one, you may not need a car at all. If you love dogs, how about walking them for cash? You can also be a good dog sitter in your own home or in a client's house. It's another side gig where you can set your own hours and websites like Wag Walking and Rover help you get started. There may be opportunities to sit or walk dogs right in your neighborhood. In fact, I saw someone in from Wag Walking last week in my neighborhood. Really? Wag Walking, okay. I guess you have to make sure you bring some plastic bags along or supply those as well.

Exactly right. Yeah, here's another one, an oldie but goodie, babysitting. You can probably get started by letting a few folks know you're available.

Word of mouth still works, but there are also sites for that, of course, like Care.com. That one can also connect you with folks needing elder care as well as babysitting. You can also check out Sitter City for babysitting jobs and, again, all these websites in our show notes. Okay, and what if you're not especially good with kids? Any thoughts there?

Yeah, here's one. Instead, how about house sitting? You would do things like watering the plants and making sure the trash gets out. HouseSitter.com can help you connect with folks needing those services and, according to the company, you can make $25 to $45 a day. And for odd jobs, you can check out Task Rabbit. It'll put you in touch with folks who need moving, delivery, or handyman services. Maybe you like putting furniture together, i.e., some of the big box stores, or you don't mind waiting in line at the post office. Some folks are willing to pay you to do that. Again, the site is called TaskRabbit.com.

All right, and speaking of rabbits, we have to hustle out of here, but we'll be right back with some more suggestions and ideas. Don't go away. Great to have you listening today. It's MoneyWise Live. Your host is Rob West. I'm Steve Moore, and we're taking your calls today on anything financial at 800-525-7000, chatting for just a couple of minutes about some fun and creative ways to earn some extra bucks on the side. But remember, after all, it's called work for a reason, so we're hopeful that it's kind of fun, but, you know, fun is in the eye of the beholder.

So anything else, Rob, before we put a bow on it for today? Yeah, Steve, freelance work like writing is growing in popularity, especially as technology helps folks to connect. So you can be a virtual assistant, computer programming, design. You know, there are many legitimate sites to help you find clients. A few of those include Upwork, and then Fiverr, that's five, and then two Rs, and freelancer.com.

And if you're fluent in another language, that's always a marketable skill. Gengo and one hour translation can put you in touch with potential clients. By the way, if you're not sure what the going rate for your services, Upwork has helpful information to get you into the ballpark. And one final note, Steve, be on the lookout for scammers.

All of the websites we've given are legit, but if you do any googling on your own, it's a good idea to check out any prospective company with the Better Business Bureau or just put in the company's name and then the word review and see what comes up before you proceed. Yeah, and if you see a website that wants you to pay them money up front, I'd probably run 90% of the time. You don't want to pay someone else. You want them to pay you. So, you know, be very careful.

Some of these sites can look very legit and professional, but that's because they're good at what they do. You don't want to be part of that. Speaking of, Rob, let's go to our phones because Paul's calling from Tampa, and I think he has a comment or a question right along these lines. Hi, Paul. Hey, how are you? Doing great, thanks.

What do you have for us? Yeah, I just wanted to, well, you know, you were talking about, you know, Uber Eats and some of those things, you know, making a little side money. I know lots of people, including myself, to make, at least here in the Tampa area, and I'm sure other cities are more, you know, $1,000 a week. I've had weeks up to $2,000 just delivering food and groceries, and also being a part-time referee. There's a national shortage of referees, and referees make anywhere from $20 to $60 an hour, depending on the sport, and they will train you. You know, there's a little bit of money up front to get certified by the state or the county, but otherwise, you know, my son does it as a college job, and he works about eight hours a week and makes three to four hundred bucks. Yeah, I like that a lot, Paul.

Thanks for that suggestion. In fact, if your local church has a sports ministry, that's a great way, especially for youngsters, to get involved, make a little extra money, and have some fun at the same time. Both of my boys, who are basketball players, 116 and 114, they both referee basketball and soccer at the church and make some money.

They love doing it on a Saturday morning, and it's great experience, I think, for a lot of kids. Paul, quickly tell me about Uber Eats. You deliver food.

I know what that is and how it works, but how does it work for you as far as interaction with people? Do they pay you all the time? Do they pay you well? Do they tip you? If it's a $20 lunch, how much tip should I expect to give you?

Help us look inside this for just a moment. Well, with Uber Eats or DoorDash, any of them, basically, your phone, you have the app on the phone, it'll ding, it'll tell you there's an order, it'll tell you how much it's going to pay, including the tip, and about how far it's going, and then it's your choice to take it or not. So, there's a lot of orders that come down that are $3 to go 10 miles, and that's not worth my time, but then you got other orders that pay $25, and doing the Instacart and the shipped grocery delivery services is good money as well. It takes a little more time, but again, between the two, I know a lot of people that make that money.

It takes a little bit of learning, but with Uber Eats, you can just walk in, grab the order, walk out, and deliver it. Paul, very, very interesting. I had no idea you could make $1,000 to $2,000 a week, and we wish you the very best as you continue with that.

Check the air in your tires and all that, but Paul, God bless you. We appreciate that call. Rob, before we take another call, there's something else you wanted to mention, and I think we mentioned it at the top of the program. Something kind of unique on Wall Street, huh? Well, there's a bit of a game changer taking place on Wall Street, and it was actually talked about on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today.

We thought we'd help you understand perhaps what's going on. It's come to be known as the GameStop Frenzy. A very large group of young day traders have more or less squared off against the Washington establishment. They're using a page called Wall Street Bets on Reddit, the social media discussion page, basically a discussion board, to identify troubled companies that are targets of hedge fund operators and what are known as short sellers when you expect a stock to be declining in value. Well, Wall Street Bets has 2 million followers, and large numbers of them are buying up stock options for struggling companies driving up their stock prices. Well, that hurts the establishment types who essentially bet that those stocks would fall. But simply, the young upstarts are making a lot of money, and the Wall Street elites are losing big time. And if you read some of the posts on Wall Street Bets, you'll see that these young people, essentially day traders, are relishing what they view as payback. You see, they blame Wall Street professionals for market collapses like we saw in 2008.

So I mentioned GameStop, a company that's struggling because people have to go to a brick and mortar store to buy games and consoles, and they just don't do that these days. Well, that stock happens to be up something like 1700% since January 1st. There are others that the day traders are buying up and putting the squeeze on short sellers.

An old name that you'll remember, Blackberry, Bed Bath and Beyond, and even a movie theater company, AMC. Well, but we're not suggesting listeners buy those stocks, are we? Absolutely not. It's just a fascinating turn of events, and it could change the way Wall Street does business. They can no longer ignore a group that has the power to raise stock prices like that.

And by the way, this apparently is completely legal. But to your question, no, this certainly isn't investing advice. Let me remind us quickly of Proverbs 21.5, the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. At the end of the day, Steve, this is a bubble, just like any other stock market bubble that we've seen in the past.

We saw something similar in the late 90s with some of the dot coms. You could lose a lot of money if you want to buy these stocks. Now, you really need to have a long range investment plan, but it is fascinating to watch, and it's certainly going to be an evolving story.

Bottom line is when there's more buyers and sellers, something's going up, and that's been their strategy. Okay, very, very interesting. Yeah, keep your money in something safe like, oh, I didn't know Bitcoin.

No, no, no, absolutely not. All right, you're listening to MoneyWise Live. We're trying to be wise here and not facetious, so we'll be careful.

You be careful as well. This is MoneyWise Live at 800-525-7000. We'll come back and speak with Joe, Don, and Sally, and maybe you. Stick around.

Remembering that God owns it all, we're just temporary managers. This is MoneyWise Live. We'd love to chat with you today. If you have anything financial you'd like to run past Rob West, now's a good time to call 800-525-7000 because we have three open lines. Indianapolis, Indiana, WGNR, and Joe, welcome to the program.

How can we help? Yeah, I was just calling to ask. I put a credit freeze on my credit, and I'm wondering how long I should leave that on, and does my credit change while it's froze?

Yeah, good question. Your credit does absolutely change while it's frozen, so really the key here is that freezing your credit only freezes access to your account, so when it's frozen, no new credit accounts can be opened in your name without the PIN number. It doesn't keep creditors, though, from reporting about you and how you pay your bills, for example, so your credit score will still be able to go up or down even if your credit is frozen. Also, remember that you need to freeze it at all three of the major credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

It also has an expiration, usually six months or a year, where you'd have to, in a sense, refreeze it, so you'll want to check on that, but yeah, your credit will continue to change while that's in place. All right. Does that help, Joe? All right, buddy. God bless. All right. Oh, go ahead, Joe. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there. Oh, I think we lost Joe, but Joe, God bless. Thank you very much.

Don is in Illinois, and what's your question for Rob West, Don? Hey, so I guess closer to 15 years ago, I just felt like I was supposed to give a thousand dollars so a family was in dire need, and I refused to, and for 15 years, it's been bothering me. How do I calculate? Because obviously, it's not going to go away until I pay this family the money, but how would I calculate that interest? I'm sure God wants me to pay interest on that thousand to that family. How would I go about calculating what I actually should give them? Yeah, and so you borrowed the money, is that right?

No, no. They had a life-changing event where they lost their child, and we had saved up a thousand dollars. It took us a year to save it up so we could get our own place, and instead of, I really felt strongly God moved me to give them the thousand, but I wouldn't do it. I just wouldn't do it, and things quickly fell apart afterwards, and it's got to be 15 years, I'm sure, and it just has not gone away, so it's one of those things.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if you took the prevailing rate of five percent for a prime rate, which we're probably a little lower than that now, and you run that out for 10 years, a simple interest calculation annually would be $500 10 years later, but I think you need to just think and pray through that as to how you want to approach it. Once you decide kind of what you want to do with that, you could go online and look for any number of simple interest calculators just to determine what the interest rate would be for a simple interest formula on a certain amount over a period of time, and you can get that number.

So again, I'd think and pray through that, decide how you want to proceed, and then run the number based on the interest rate and the duration, and you'll have your answer. So Don, you're thinking that maybe you'd want to reach out to this family today, or maybe you'd want to give this money to some other needy family or organization. Something along those lines? No, it's just family, definitely.

I run it on a regular basis. Okay. Well, brother, God bless your heart. I can understand where you're coming from. Don't know what it is that God's saying to you exactly. Just because other things in your life aren't coming together doesn't mean that God is punishing you or anything like that, but I don't want to speak for God. So you and your wife pray about this, and we wish you the very best. Thank you very much, and I like that. I like the fact that he's listening to God and has that kind of a heart, Rob. Well, I do too, Steve, and oftentimes that's the way it works, right?

We just feel compelled in our spirit to do something, and I think oftentimes when the Holy Spirit's leading us in a certain direction, we need to act on it. Let's continue on. Rogers, Arkansas. Hello, Sally. What's on your mind?

Yeah, hi. My husband and I are retired. We do not have any bills. Our cars, our house, everything is paid for.

Praise God. But we just had a CD come due, or or actually mature, and we need to have some advice what to do with it. Everybody's saying, buy silver, buy silver. I know Bitcoin is not good.

I don't really want to buy a home and deal with a rental situation. What should we do with our money? What's the best thing?

Of course, we're going to tithe and give something to the church, but still, we just need some good advice. Yes. Well, I think, Sally, I think the key here is not to let perhaps, you know, an overabundance of marketers who are really pushing the precious metals during this period of uncertainty drown out the tried and true approach, which is really, frankly, what the masses are doing. You know, most people that are putting money to work that's long-term in nature are doing that not in a speculative sense, despite the fact that's getting a lot of headlines with some recent names that have run up and not in precious metals, despite the fact that you're going to see advertisements on TV and on the web all the time for those during a period of uncertainty every time. But where the, you know, most people are invested and where wealth is built, frankly, over the last 100 years, and I don't think that's going to change moving forward, is really in a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio where you have the right time horizon with the right diversification, with the right investment mix that's appropriate for you. And, you know, let it go in terms of the long haul, because despite, you know, the change in administration, despite the prospect of higher taxes, despite where even the U.S. national debt is, keep in mind, the interest rate rates have been coming down. So even though the debt is higher in this country, it's not a problem at this point. It could be down the road and we're going to have to deal with that as a nation.

But, you know, I don't see anything that would indicate there's a collapse coming or anything like that. Now, as always, though, we need to be found faithful with what God has entrusted to us. And, you know, the precious metals are going to be more volatile and frankly lack the long-term return that you might otherwise expect from a properly invested stock and bond portfolio.

So if it were me and this money has at least a 10-year time horizon, I would hire an investment professional to deploy it, again, appropriately, according to the risk you're willing to take and what this money is earmarked for. And I think, you know, over the long haul, you'll be rewarded for that. And, Sally, even if we were to get into a bear market or even a recession that lasted a couple of years, we've been through that before.

It happens in every 10-year period and the market always recovers and the economy does as well. Would a Kingdom advisor be helpful in this situation, Rob? Absolutely could be. Go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, and click find a CKA. Sally, we wish you the best. Thank you very much. John in Barrington, Illinois, you're next. Don't hang up on us after John. We're going to say hi to Joe and then maybe Tony. You're listening to MoneyWise Live.

It's MoneyWise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. We're checking your calls, questions, comments, and queries today at 800-525-7000.

If you're struggling or just wondering about something financial, maybe your Sunday school class is having a study on biblical finance and you're stuck on something. Maybe we can help you with that. Anyway, give us a call. 800-525-7000.

Barrington, Illinois. Hello, John. How can we help you, sir?

Oh, yeah, I appreciate the topic. I've been taking advantage of a couple of bank deals where if you open an account, they offer you a bonus after a preliminary period has passed by. Is there a potential repercussion, though, if I don't keep those accounts open for a certain amount of time with my credit score? You know, that's a good question, John, and there's not with the traditional bureaus. There is a particular credit score and agency that is for the bank accounts, but they're looking for things like overdrafts or, you know, where you have overdrawn the account and not made good on that, or a check was bounced, something like that. And that's going to be information that's shared among the banks when you go to seek an additional account. But the kinds of things you're talking about where, you know, perhaps you open it for a period of time and then you move on to another bank, that's not hurting you.

And that bank activity, frankly, is not being reported to the credit, the main three credit bureaus anyway, and those would be TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. So I think you're perfectly fine as long as you can keep up with it. Sometimes it becomes a little bit of legwork to figure out, you know, where's my account these days, and how do I log into it, and how long do I have to keep it open.

So, you know, apart from that upkeep shouldn't be any issue to you. John, we're glad you called. Thank you very much. We wish you the best. Indianapolis, hello, Joe.

What's in your mind today? I think it's Kathleen, actually. Oh, is it Kathleen? Yes. Okay, I apologize.

Kathleen, how can we help you today? Okay, I just have a question about retirement that I'd like to go ahead and retire when I'm 65, which is about two years, and my full retirement age isn't until 66 and a half. All right. But I would rather go ahead and retire, you know, now if I could, but I can't. So 65 would be about 18 months from now, and I just wonder if that's a wise thing, or should I go ahead and wait for the Social Security because my mom is in assisted living, and my husband's already retired, and it's time crunch, you know, I am crunched for time quite a bit.

Got it. Yeah. So what if you did wait until full retirement age, what would be the implications of that to you financially in terms of, you know, is that creating a hardship in any way or what?

Well, I'm not sure. I think it's about a $600 a month difference between, you know, in the year and a half, and it wouldn't probably hurt that much, but I just think about it over time. Yes.

Yeah. Well, you know, I think the key is you recognize, yeah, if you have the ability to wait, that's going to serve you well, just because, you know, every year, you know, you're going to see about an 8% increase if you can get to that full retirement age, and then you enjoy that amount, plus cost of living adjustments, and if you keep working at any point in the future, and you could replace some of your earlier working years where you didn't make as much, that would actually increase it as well, but that base number of benefits is locked in based on when you elect to start receiving those benefits. So if you could get to that full retirement age, you'll maximize that amount, but if there's a reason you need to go ahead and start collecting that because you need the money or whatever it might be, then, you know, that's certainly something to factor in, and I wouldn't, you know, feel bad about that. I think it just comes down to how does that fit into your, you know, life situation right now, and is there the ability to wait and collect more in the future, or do you need to go ahead and proceed? How's that work for you, Kathleen?

I just have one more thing. If I would retire then at 65 and not collect the Social Security, that's kind of what you're talking about, isn't it? Yes, I mean, it really all comes down to when you start collecting as to when you're going to lock that in. Now, if you stop working, that's only going to have an impact in the sense that, you know, every year you work, your Social Security is based on your 35 years of highest earnings, and, you know, every year that you replace a lower earning year, perhaps earlier in your working career with a higher amount, that's, you know, in your benefit or to your advantage.

So, if you stopped working early, that would be the only effect, but, you know, the other kind of key idea is when you start collecting and whether or not it's before full retirement age or whether you wait until you get to your actual full retirement age. We appreciate that call. Thank you very much.

Great question. Let's move along quickly to, let's see, out to Michigan Roxanne. You have a question, no, you have a comment or an item you'd like to share with us regarding our opening topic, huh? Yeah, hi guys. I really appreciate you. I listen to you every day of the way home from work.

Thanks. I just wanted to share with you and your listeners something that happened with me. We had a situation where we brought our son in to have an orthodontist look at him to see if he needed braces, and he did. He actually needed them for his sinus problem. Well, we didn't have insurance that would cover that, and it was going to cost us six thousand dollars. So, I just, we were thinking, and I have always been a thrifter, raising a large family, going to the Goodwills, and all that. So, I thought after seeing some YouTube videos, I thought I'm going to start trying to collect things from the Goodwills that I go to and reselling them on the eBay. And I thought if I could do that, I could pay the monthly payment for these braces for the next 24 months.

Ended up, not only did I have plenty, because of the thrifting I've done all my years, to provide for the braces, I've been able to go way beyond. And not only myself, but I got three of my friends who are also doing it, and we are all moms, all thrift minded, you know, garage sales in the summer. We all got our favorite stores, Goodwill or other ones that we go to, and we've gotten to know how to use the eBay website or the app, and it really helps you to see if things have value or not, and what you're reselling for. Yeah, interesting. Well, I know a lot of people have kind of made a business out of this. It's not without its work. I mean, there's obviously a lot of legwork, a lot of research, you are taking, you know, the risk that something's not going to sell.

But if you're efficient at finding things that are really good value, and then you can turn around and sell them for a profit, you know, that could be a great way to bring in some extra money on the side and in your case, pay for your son's braces. So you'll be rewarded by looking at that, that smile for the rest of his life. Right. So we appreciate you sharing your idea with us, Roxanne. Yeah, thanks, Roxanne. We do appreciate that. And, well, you know, I just love the inventiveness of something like that.

People look around and instead of collapsing to the ground and saying, woe is me, it's like, well, Lord, what can I do? Give me an idea. Give me a suggestion.

Maybe something that not only works, but something I can share with someone else. And you got to love it. Well, that's exactly right. And by the way, there's nothing illegal about that at all.

You have to classify those sales as a hobby and then report the income on your 1040. Good point there. Thanks, Rob.

You're listening to MoneyWise Live. We'll be back with more calls right around the corner. According to Hebrews 11, and without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And we hope your relationship with God today is a strong one. If not, go to your knees, ask God to give you His grace, His mercy, and His wisdom as you move through your life. Let's continue on.

Orlando, Florida. Corrine, what's on your mind? Hi, how you doing? Thanks for taking my call. Thank you. No, my mom, she's 82. She's retired. She has a Social Security. That's correct.

And that's it. And she always wondered, and I always heard, too, I don't think you—do you have to do a taxes once you're 82 and collecting Social Security? It's all dependent upon how much income you have. So, does she have any other income besides her Social Security benefits?

No, that's it. She paid off her house, and that's it. And so every time she does her income taxes, but she always has to pay a lot, like 700 and 600, and she's wondering why. I said, you know what, maybe you don't have to do taxes since you're, you know, retired and collecting Social Security. Yeah, I'd be hesitant to say one way or the other without knowing the details.

So here's what I'd recommend you do, Corrine. I think it would be worth just sitting down with a tax preparer who could look over her situation and see if, in fact, it is necessary for her to file. And even if she needs to file, whether there's any tax due, we want to make sure she's taking advantage of every opportunity her way to only pay what's legally required, right, and not a penny more. So she probably still has to file, but I would not expect her to pay based on—have to pay anything based on what I'm hearing you say. But again, I'd like to have somebody look at this just to make sure there's not something else there that we're missing. So if you don't have a tax preparer that you use that you could recommend, you could go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click find a CKA and choose one in the tax and accounting area. It'd be worth, you know, an hour or so of a professional's time just to look it over and advise her how she needs to handle this moving forward.

But I'm surprised to hear that there was any tax due. And so I think it's worth a once over. Karine, thank you very much. God bless as you help your mom there.

Spokane, Washington. Erin, welcome to MoneyWise Live. Thank you so much. It's great to be here.

I listen to you guys all the time. I'm just going to try to be brief. I have a son who's about 33 and he just moved from Maine to Arizona with his sister and he has a family. They've adopted a little girl. They have three children and a wife that stays home. He's been in the upholstery business for years and years. He graduated wild tech just out of high school. He's not having a heart. He's having a very difficult time trying to find something that will sustain him. He was wanting to go into the armed forces, into the air force. And apparently because of the last house that they sold and some financial issues, he doesn't qualify for Intel. And he was really excited about that before he made this move.

This has all happened in the last month. So now he's kind of really feeling discouraged, not sure what God would have him do. He's given out resumes, looked online. He's very serious, hard-working, good Christian boy.

And I'm just wondering if you have any ideas. Yeah. Well, I certainly appreciate what you're trying to do and helping him explore opportunities. First of all, I'd make this a matter of prayer and just ask the Lord to make it really clear what his next move should be. I think it's really important and this is going to be more challenging in a new place, but really start to lean into his network or form that network and involved in a local church and start to meet folks, update his LinkedIn profile. You know, things will start coming his way, you know, just based on his skills. I think another thing that I'd like to do for you, Aaron, is there's a tool called Career Direct. And some of our friends there that are Career Direct coaches have given us a number of licenses for Career Direct to give away. And I'd like to put one in your hands to pass along to him. This is basically going to help him uncover his God-given abilities and skills and really help to point him in the direction of where his giftedness aligns with real work opportunity. And perhaps this could shed some light on an industry or a business opportunity or whole trade, if you will, that maybe he hasn't thought of previously. So if you hold the line when we're done here today, we'll get you connected with this Career Direct license. You can pass it along. He'll take the assessment online. And let's see what the information comes back with. And perhaps, you know, that could get him going in the right direction.

But I'm confident the Lord will make it clear in the right timing where he needs to go. And we appreciate you checking in with us today, for sure. Aaron, God bless you. Thanks so much. That's quite a move from Maine to Arizona.

I guess he can throw out his snow shovel at least. And we wish you and he and his family the very best. Cleveland, Ohio. Hello, Mike. What's your question for Rob?

Good afternoon, gentlemen. We may need to put my dad into a nursing facility. So I'm questioning like, how would they work with our assets?

What assets would we have to use? Like as far as my mom and dad have savings and stocks and things like that? Yes. And so you're wondering, how do you protect the assets so they won't get eaten up while you're dealing with these elder care costs?

Is that right? Yeah, again, if we put them in a nursing facility, we would have to use the assets of that. But like, is there any way to protect for my mom? I mean, do they use them? Do they use my mom's and the dad's together? Like is one account or?

Yeah, yeah. Well, it would be, this would be something that I think you'd benefit from visiting with an elder care attorney who could really help you navigate this based on their specific situation. If you think, you know, he will ultimately need Medicaid, obviously, you know, you have to have limited income and assets before it will start to pay for care. You know, there are ways to, you know, establish irrevocable trusts and do certain things, depending upon each person's situation as you think about moving into this season of life.

You know, so I think there's, it's worth probably spending some time to consider, you know, what might be the best approach with the assets that they have. So he's ready to deal with the costs, which it's going to be expensive in assisted living, but also to make sure that his wife, your mom is provided for and everything is structured legally and properly. So I would connect there in Cleveland with a Certified Kingdom Advisor and ask for a referral to a godly estate planning or specifically an elder care attorney who can really just go over their situation and then bring some competent counsel with regard to how they should proceed moving forward. I know this is a challenging season. None of us are prepared to walk alongside aging parents, and yet it's what we're called to do in Scripture. And so I'm delighted to hear, Mike, that you're helping your dad navigate this. And I think getting some godly, competent counsel to make the right decisions in this season is really key. Mike, we're glad you called. We wish you the best.

Thanks so much. And obviously, Rob, you're totally correct. The boomers are not getting any younger. They're getting older and taking care of elderly parents.

I mean, that's a scenario that is not going away. Anything that adult children can do at this point to help their parents think through and walk through some of these things? Well, I think the bottom line is, you know, just being well planned in advance in terms of thinking through based on the assets that each person has, what is our plan? And if there's assets there to cover it, great.

How are those properly positioned? And if they're not, then they're not going to be properly positioned and invested. And what options do they afford us in terms of in-home care or assisted living or even a nursing home when that's needed? If there's not, understanding what assistance is available from the government and what needs to happen in order to take advantage of that and what facilities would you be comfortable with and talking through their wishes. I mean, there's, you know, really a lot of planning that can be done in advance to hopefully alleviate some of the stress and the strain and the challenges that come with that season of life. And we want to do it in a way that honors our parents and, you know, and recognizes there's limitations financially at the same time.

So these can be difficult and challenging discussions, but being well planned and thoughtful in advance is obviously really key. Okay. Rob, we have an email.

We haven't gone to the email bag in a while. This one is from Keith. He says, how can I determine if I should sell my rental home or rent it out? Not a lot of details there, but he has a rental home. Should he sell it or rent it out and remain a landlord?

Yeah. Well, yeah, obviously I would need to know a lot more, but here's what I would just say generally. You know, if you can make a good bit of money in real estate, if you've got the proper reserves, meaning you're ready for repairs and other things that will come along, and you're ready to put in the time to be a landlord. So it's not a passive investment by any means. It's an active investment that can cause or that can involve some work. But if you have it rented out, your cash flow positive, meaning any debt service and maintenance reserves and obviously the taxes and utilities and all that is paid from the rental income, then, you know, over time, in a sense, your renter is paying off the mortgage and now you've got an income producing asset that you own free and clear. I like that. And diversifying away from the stock market once you have kind of a base of investments as your core investment strategy, diversifying into another asset class like real estate is a good thing. Now, if you're saying, though, in this case, you know what, I don't have time for it.

I want something more passive. This is not my cup of tea. Yeah.

Then liquidating it, paying the capital gains and putting that into a properly diversified investment portfolio would certainly be a lot less work and I think should do as well or better over the long haul. Have you ever been a landlord, Rob? I have not. No.

Me neither. And in the past, when we've talked with folks who've called on this program, in fact, even thinking back to former hosts, Howard Dayton and Larry Burkett, there was always a little bit of a concern that when you became a landlord as a Christian, you almost took that on as a ministry. I mean, how do you throw somebody out? Maybe they have a couple of children that can't afford their rent and like it or not, you've almost got a ministry scenario there, right? Yeah. And I think, you know, no matter what business we're in, we need to always be mindful that we're the hands and feet of Jesus in the marketplace and we need to operate and conduct ourselves to honor and glorify the Lord no matter what we're doing.

But that certainly would be true as a landlord as well. Well said, Rob. Thanks. MoneyWise Live, this program is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Really a pleasure to have you with us today. Hope you'll join us again tomorrow.