A Journey to Spiritual Wealth

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. First Peter 4-10 gives clear instruction on how Christians should live. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Stewardship for the Christian involves more than just managing money wisely. Today host Rob West welcomes financial planner Mark Hall for a look at how we should use our time, talents, and yes, our treasure, all for God's glory.

Then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore, a Journey to Spiritual Wealth, next, right here on MoneyWise Live. Our friend Mark Hall is a certified kingdom advisor in Dothan, Alabama, with many years experience helping people apply God's financial principles to their lives. He's condensed much of that experience into a new book titled Spiritual Wealth, a 40-day journey to developing a stewardship mindset. Well, and we're looking forward to starting that journey with him here today. Mark, welcome to MoneyWise Live. I'm excited to be with you today. Thank you.

Well, we're delighted. Yeah, we've been blessed to have several great books on stewardship, but a devotional is a different way to teach these biblical principles. Tell us, to begin with today, why you took that approach.

I think that's actually part of the reason that happened. And when God put this idea on me last year, it was looking around and seeing that there wasn't much. There's a lot of stewardship material out there, but not a lot in the devotional setting. And I just wanted to allow folks to take some time to be able to concentrate and focus on maybe how the Spirit leads them over a period of time as they go through the material.

Yeah, I love that. You know, if this is intended to be used in your quiet time, what are you trying to get readers to do as they move through this devotion? Well, I want them to be challenged.

I want them to grow. I had someone ask me a few weeks ago, what do you want someone to experience at the end of the book, you know, that they get out of it? And I simply said, conviction, not from me, but from the Word. If I'm spending time with the Spirit and I'm trying to change behavior or to really concentrate on an area of my spiritual life, I'm hoping that I'm growing in that area. So I hope that that's what folks are able to get out of it.

I love that. You know, the late Larry Burkett used to say that the way we handle money is the clearest indicator into what's going on in our lives spiritually. That's because our heart follows our money and we realize that it's a tool to accomplish God's purposes, but it's also a revealer of where we've placed our trust. And as people meditate on the Scriptures and think about their role in all areas of stewardship, but certainly this area of financial stewardship, it can be and should be convicting to all of us. Now, Mark, I know you're a financial planner, a certified Kingdom advisor. Talk to us about the importance of stewardship in your role as you advise folks. I think that with the background of the training that I'm getting from Kingdom advisors, and one thing that was really neat was finding out that some of the advice that I was giving beforehand, even though I didn't know it was biblical, actually was, which was very nice to know that.

Just because the Bible is so rich, as I know you talk about often, as far as Scripture and how folks should live when it comes to their money. And I think what I am able to help folks do is really to help encourage them and even organize their thoughts. Hey, can I give more to the Kingdom?

Can I give more to church or other organizations? And I think it really helps through the financial planning aspect for them to see I can do all that, but also take care of my family over the long run as well. That's a great word. And I love what you said about biblical wisdom being right and relevant. Ron Blue, one of my mentors, says the very best that Wall Street has to offer finds its roots in biblical wisdom. And that's true whether we know the source or not.

We've got just about a minute left. I want to begin to dive into this. I know spiritual wealth, your devotionals divided into several sections. We're going to look at each. But first, what are God's standards for us as stewards? Well, and you mentioned Ron, and he's been a big influence on me. And I actually took the no-believe-and-do that he used in the Kingdom Advisor material to really format the book and that we have to understand the information before we can actually reconcile that with our thoughts and our worldview, because only when we figure that out will we actually change and do anything. So the first section really defines stewardship and contentment and helping folks to understand that it's not just a money thing, and it's not just our wallets, but that stewardship is involved in everyday decisions in our lives, our time and our careers, our knowledge, our relationships. I mean, everything has to do with our stewardship for God.

Yeah, that's so key. Well, just around the corner, we're going to talk about how we adapt our minds, how we live out God's standards, how we plan, even our giving. A lot more to come with Mark Hall today.

That's right. Mark Hall is a certified Kingdom Advisor, and he's the author of a new devotional, Spiritual Wealth, a 40-day journey to developing stewardship mindset. We'll be back with more after this. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Rob West, your host.

I'm Steve Moore. Also with us today is Mark Hall, a certified Kingdom Advisor and the author of a brand new resource when it comes to managing what we have, God's standards, what he expects of us, also living our lives as managers of God's stuff and as stewards. And Rob, help us through this, sir. Well, the Spiritual Wealth, I'm delighted, is a devotional because I think that's the right heart posture that we need to explore these ideas and principles in meditation of the scriptures, in prayer, and in quiet reflection before the Lord. And Mark, that's really part of your intent behind this, isn't it? It really is.

And what I want folks to do is to use this. It's not in lieu of your quiet time with God. It's as part of it. The Bible needs to be with you in this because it is scripture heavy. This is not Mark's thoughts. It's God's thoughts, as I hope he's presented them to me, and I'm presenting them in the right way. We're going to talk about how we position ourselves to experience God's best in this area. But before we do, just before the break, you were describing God's standards for us as stewards.

I'd love for you to revisit that, and then we'll move from there. I think that it's important. And the reason it's in that first section of the book is we have to establish what God's principles are and how that coincides with the things we believe or how we're acting now so that we can get into affecting change in our life.

We bring up Ron a lot because he's had a big influence on me and being involved in KA and Kingdom Advisors the past few years. And one of my, really the favorite definition of stewardship comes from him. And he says that the use of God-given gifts and resources that includes your time, your talent, your treasure, your influence, relationships, everything, all of those things for the accomplishment of God-given goals and objectives. Because if you are not thinking in that realm and not focusing on the fact that we're looking for the will of God in our life, the rest of biblical stewardship makes no sense at all.

Yes. God-given goals and objectives is our aim using his resources that he's entrusted to us. Mark, before the break, you said you oriented this around this idea of knowing, believing, and doing.

Let's start with the knowing side. How do we adapt our minds to God's standards? Well, I think this is where we really challenge our worldview. And does it match with the biblical worldview?

You know, if it doesn't, then what am I missing there? Why am I opposed to God's word in a certain matter? And I know that sounds blunt, but that's what we're saying if we're acting in a different way than what his word tells me to. And so I even asked in the book, how can you expect to live a godly life if you don't share the same platform and beliefs as God? And I believe that we're called, you know, James 1-5 is one of my favorite verses, where James tells us, listen, if you don't know, ask him. He's not trying to hide this information from us. If you will ask him, you will find true wisdom.

Yes. Well, once we know that, and we really embrace and understand God's heart related to his money that we're managing and these principles, more than 2,300 verses that we find in the Bible, how do we build the bridge then from knowing to actually living out those standards? Well, you know, as well as I do, they're pretty simple concepts.

They're different from what the world would teach us, but it doesn't mean they're easy to apply. And that's where the hard part comes in because, listen, my flesh is strong and it knows what it wants and what it desires. And I have to be in God's word to be able to understand what he wants me to do. So how much do I spend or how much do I give?

How much do I save? There's no verse that you can go to, to say, you know, Rob, Mark, this is exactly how much I expect you to give and save each month. But that's where we have to understand and let the Spirit lead us and let the Holy Spirit lead us through the devotions and through the time that you're spending with him so that you can take what he's given us and understand how that applies to your life.

Yeah. Well, clearly we need to really seek to know God's heart related to how we should live in the here and now. What should our lifestyle look like? What should we be spending God's money on? But then, Marcus, we also need to ask the Lord for direction on how we plan for the future.

What's the right balance and how much is enough? What does it look like to plan according to God's standards? Well, and it's allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us by doing that. And the Bible instructs us to plan and to take care of our families and our future and the things that we need. But that's stewarding the people that he's put in our lives. But I believe there's a fine line between planning and worrying.

One we're encouraged to do and the other is a sin. I mean, if we're worrying, we can't possibly be worshiping God at the same time. And so we go back to the parable in Matthew 6, where he literally states to us not to worry. If I'm taking care of the birds and the flowers and all these objects like this that aren't made in my own image, how much more am I going to take care of you who is made in my image?

How much more do I want to do for you? And to just be with him and to understand where the Spirit is leading us along the way. You know, Mark, that leads right to what I was thinking about. What should be our expectations from God when we follow his financial principles? You know, on one hand, someone might say, well, he'll give us more and bigger barns. But is that a promise?

And is that the motivation? The promise from God is wealth, but not in the way that we take it here in a worldly sense. And that's really why the title comes back to spiritual wealth.

That's what we're looking to achieve here in all this. And listen, God may very well choose to bless someone more with a financial aspect. That may be that he has plans for them to give more down the road. But he may not plan for you to be the one that makes more money. And that's one of the ways Satan can just play tricks and get into your mind when you start comparing with somebody else. You've got to take your mind off of that comparison and compare yourselves to what God is asking us to do in our lives with what he's gifted us with. Because God is not going to ask you to give anything he didn't give you in the first place.

Your responsibilities aren't my responsibilities. And I have to stop worrying about your life and what God wants you to do and concentrate on what he wants for my life. You mentioned giving, Mark, and the last section in your devotional is about that topic. What do you have for us in terms of how we give by God's standards? We should give cheerfully and with a great attitude. God cares not just that we give, but God cares of how we give. And you go back to the Sermon on the Mount where it wasn't just doing certain things. It was, what is your mindset? Again, going back to a stewardship mindset. He's not going to bless anything for us that we give out of guilt or just with a horrible attitude. Now we're commanded to tithe. That's a non-negotiable on that one.

And I love going back to Malachi 3.10. Again, another one of those that just comes back all the time when I'm researching and doing things on the stewardship level. To bring the whole tithe into the story, house so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this. Again, the only time God tells us to test him to see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there won't be enough room to store it. You can't out-give God.

You just can't do it. And so if we're living with an attitude of, God, what can I do for you and your kingdom through what you've blessed me with? That's your spiritual wealth moment. You were in the sweet spot. If that's the way that you're thinking and moving through life.

I love that. I think one of God's big ideas in scripture related to our management of his money is this idea of contentment. When we accept our role as stewards, we purpose ourselves to be content with what God has provided.

How does stewardship lead us in that direction as we wrap up here today? Contentment is just simply being joyful and simply being satisfied with where God has you right now in life. It doesn't mean he's going to keep you in this exact spot for life, but it means that I should be looking for ways to learn or to understand why he has me in a certain area during that time. And when you can focus on that and on his will, you're in a good place and your desires will change.

The things you desire fleshly will change to what he desires for you. Very good. Mark, thanks for your time today, my friend.

Great being with you guys and I appreciate the time. Thank you so much. Thanks so much.

And you can find Mark's book, Spiritual Wealth, a 40-day journey to developing stewardship mindset at StewardshipMindset.com and of course at Amazon. Your call's next. This is MoneyWise Live. Super nice to have you aboard today. It's MoneyWise Live. Your host is Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. And actually, we'd like to hear from more of you. We have several open lines, so now's a great time to call and get through. So, if you've been wondering about your saving, maybe you're investing, how to put your kids through school, college, debt-free, yes, that is possible.

Not easy, but possible. Anything like that, give us a call. Let's see what God's Word has to say about it.

But you have to place that call first, 800-525-7000. And Rob, how are you feeling today, my friend? I'm doing just fine. Yeah, so well. Well, you're looking good, looking snazzy, snappy. You got the sweater, got the shirt with the collar. And your wife dressed you today, didn't she? I mean, I can tell.

How can you tell? Things match. Okay. 800-525-7000. Let's begin by going up to Hampshire, Illinois. Hey, Teresa, welcome to the program, and how can we help you?

Hi. My husband and I are making a will out, and our children are going to be in it, but one of them is a 30-year-old son who's really not doing well as far as spending money. He kind of runs through his fingers like water and not making good choices, and I'm not sure if he's doing drugs. But how would you put something in the will, like if I'm going to have, say, the person who's going to, you know, be the facilitator or take care of it? Would you say something to them that they could only have put out so much money per year or check? How do you go about something like that when somebody's not making good?

Yes, very good. Well, I think the key here, Teresa, first of all, is just to make this a matter of prayer and, you know, ask the Lord to grab a hold of his heart. And I'm sure there's thousands upon thousands of listeners right now that are resonating with exactly what you're talking about. And I think the key is just to look to the Lord to bring some wisdom here and guidance. With regard to the tools on the financial management side, I think it's really wise that you're thinking through this, because what we know is that if he's not making good choices right now, adding a whole bunch of money to that is usually not going to improve things.

It perhaps will make things get quite a bit worse. And so, yeah, I think being really mindful about who is the next steward, are they chosen and prepared, and to the extent they're not prepared to handle this money wisely, that then there are tools in place to allow for that. What you're describing is really not going to be handled very well through a will, but a trust. And basically, with a trust, you would deposit assets into the trust during your lifetime. It can include financial resources, money, but also other accounts and even property. And then you choose trusted individuals like a family member or friend to serve as one or more trustees to manage your trust assets if you become incapacitated or pass away. And they can be distributed out of the trust to your children in regular installments every year or whenever you think is reasonable, giving you a great deal of control and protecting the assets from misuse. They're also safe from the beneficiary's creditors, lawsuits, irresponsible spending, those types of things. And there can be certain triggering events that would result in the dollars being released by the trustee that you could define in advance.

So I think it will give you exactly what you're looking for. What I would recommend is that you connect with a certified Kingdom advisor in your area and ask for a referral to a godly estate planning attorney to talk about setting up a trust to meet your specific needs. It will cost a bit more than it will. You can expect to spend maybe $1,500 or so, but it will be money well spent in the sense that you will have the peace of mind to know that should things continue on this track, if something were to happen to you, that there is provision in place to make sure that the money is only distributed at the appropriate time and under the appropriate condition. So I think that's your next step, but we do appreciate your call today and we'll certainly ask the MoneyWise Live community to be praying for your son.

Thanks very much. 800-525-7000 if you'd like to speak with Rob West. Rob, before I forget, you were talking about a trustee. What if there's not a person in your circle of friends and relatives that immediately rises to the top? What kind of person would you be looking for? A banker? An attorney? Your pastor?

I mean, where do you go? Yeah, it's a good question and I think, you know, having perhaps a godly trust company and obviously there are no Christian corporations, only individuals, but there are a number of them that really are run by believers and for that purpose. So a trust company could actually serve in that role and again, they're just fulfilling your wishes as outlined in the trust.

Most often, you will see that to be somebody that's known to the individual, but it could be handed off to a trusted financial advisor, trust officer, or trust company and so I think it's just a matter of doing your research and then finding somebody who is in fact going to carry out your wishes. Okay, great. Makes sense. Alrighty, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and Laverne, nice to hear from you today. What's on your mind? Yes, I've been wondering, since CDs are so low right now and I'm not really getting much in my savings account, would it be wise to just put more into my 403b and spend down my my savings, live on that for a while? Yeah, it's an interesting question. So tell me about your situation, Laverne. Are you actually living off of your investments right now in retirement or what are your income sources? No, I'm working full-time, my husband's retired, I'll soon be 69 and I really don't want to stop working at the moment and so my savings account has been just accumulating and I want to do something with it. So CDs are so low right now.

Yeah, makes sense. Alright, I think I've got what I need. Let's do this. I'm going to ask you to hold the line. As soon as we come back from the other side of this break, I'll weigh in with my thoughts. We'll see if we can help you make some good decisions moving forward.

That's right. Thousands of people are in the same situation you are, Laverne. So we'll see if we can help you and lots of other people as well. This is MoneyWise Live. Good to have you listening today to MoneyWise Live. We're taking your calls on anything financial. So give us a call while we have a couple of open lines, 800-525-7000. Now before the break, we were speaking with Laverne who's wondering what's the best place to put her savings and investment dollars, especially now because rates are so very low.

Yeah, Laverne, I certainly resonate with what you're saying. So you're contributing right now to your 403b systematically out of your pay every month. At what percent are you putting into that 403b each month? I was putting four percent. Okay, alright, very good. And does that include a match or is the match on top of that?

Yes, that's the match. Okay, and then the portion that's going into savings each month, roughly how much are you putting into savings that you have left over after your bills are paid? A good 1,500 usually.

Okay, very good. Yeah, so I resonate with this idea that once you get to three to six months expenses in savings, because that really will serve as your emergency fund for the unexpected. And even though it's earning a very modest interest rate, it's still important to have it there because I don't want you to have to pull out of investments that may be declining for a period of time when the unexpected comes, and it always does. But there's no reason to continue to add to it once you get to that comfortable reserve amount of, again, I use a rule of thumb of three to six months expenses. So I think at that point, you could pivot on that could pivot and take that 1500 a month. And if you're beyond what you feel like you need in your emergency fund already, with the 20,000, perhaps you pull a little bit of that out as well, and begin accelerating the money going into the 403b. So maybe that 4% goes up to 10, even 15%.

I wouldn't do more than that. But it would be a way that you could reallocate this excess that you have on a monthly basis into longer term investments. I think the key is to recognize that even though the market has done well, and even last year did quite well, despite the global pandemic, and certainly the 10 years before that it's been doing well, you know, we're due for a correction here, perhaps even a recession at some point.

Most economists I trust aren't calling forward in the next year, but certainly in the next two or three years, cyclically speaking, we should see a recession. Now, that shouldn't scare us because when we're investing, whether it's a 403b or any other type of stock market investing, we should have a 10 year time horizon. And that 10 year return, you know, with a prudent portfolio for your age and objectives should do well. But you don't want to put it in thinking, well, I can take that out in a year or two and start living on it.

You know, if the market was down, because if we got into a bear market, because we were in a recession, that could last 18 months, two years, maybe even a little bit longer. And so we wouldn't want to touch that money if we didn't have to. But this idea that you've already established your emergency savings, and so you would increase your 403b contributions for longer term investments, with an objective to achieve a much better return than you're seeing in your savings, I think is a really good one. But tell me your thoughts and questions.

Okay, well, that's what I wanted to hear. Because that's what I was thinking that I should increase it and just put more into the 403b. Yeah, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense, especially since I'm hearing that you're only putting in about 4%. The only other thing I would offer, just as we wrap up here, is that it might be a good opportunity for you and your husband to sit down with a financial planner, just to look at your ultimate objectives, your savings goals related to funding your retirement. So when you get to that point where you're no longer working, he's already at that point, what do you need in the way of income to supplement Social Security, let's say to fund your lifestyle now and in the future? And are you on track to have that amount of money? Keep in mind, typically we would think in terms of funding about 45% of your retirement income from savings. The rest would typically come from Social Security and a lifestyle that's been dialed back in retirement. So having the assets that will generate that kind of income on a monthly basis and last for 20 or 30 years, if you're in good health and the Lord tarries, you know, we need to know what that number is so you have a goal.

And once you're on track to reach it, perhaps then you're even doing more giving and other types of things. So I think visiting with a financial planner to clarify some of that may give you a bit of peace of mind, but I'm glad you called today. Thank you for listening and we'll hope to talk to you again real soon. All right, let's go now to Fort Myers, Florida, Rob, and see if we can help Jean. Great, Jean. How can we help you today?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I am a first time home buyer and I was wondering if I can use my, some of my 401k to help with the down payment and some of the costs. And also, should I use an online lender or a local bank? Which one is better?

Yeah, that's a great question, Jean. And you know, I like you checking with both options. We generally recommend in terms of the lender, the second part of your question, that you get three offers, if you will. I'd check with a local mortgage broker or banker, I'd check perhaps with your own bank, and then I'd go online to bankrate.com and see if an online bank perhaps could do better. And keep in mind, what you're looking for there, Jean, is not only the interest rate, but you're also looking for the expenses associated with that, because what you don't want to do is get a great rate, but then find out after the fact that you're paying discount points that got that rate down to what it is, and that's just added expense.

So I'd get a quote from all three. In terms of using 401k money for the down payment, I'm not a fan of that. You know, I think, you know, the better option is really just to save and do the best you can to put money away out of cash flow, your margin, your surplus, until you build up that 20%. Now, you may decide that for a season, you want to dial back new contributions to the 401k, so you have more in the way of resources to put toward that down payment savings account, if you will, but pulling it out, paying the tax on it, paying the the early withdrawal penalty, it becomes very expensive money, not to mention the fact that it's not available to grow for the future.

So there's an opportunity cost there. So I would just say, reevaluate what your margin is, start with the budget, look for ways to cut expenses, begin socking money away into your down payment fund, and perhaps as a way to increase that, look at decreasing your 401k contributions temporarily. I wouldn't pull the money out though to do that. Gene, thank you very much for your call today and we wish you best as you purchase your first home.

Thanks very much. Rob, here's a quick email from Ruth. She says, what exactly is the purpose of emergency savings only to fill in for the loss of income or for an unexpected need? I'd like to buy a new washer or get a new roof or like to buy a new washer or get a new roof. Yeah, Ruth, it's a great question and I think the key is it really should be unexpected. You know, if we know that something is coming in terms of it's ending its useful life, we should plan for that. You know, we know that washers have a typical useful life and, you know, when we get beyond that, you know, we should plan for having to replace that.

I would think the same would be true for a roof. But there are going to be those things that come out of left field, you know, a perfectly good washing machine that all of a sudden just, you know, things go haywire or damage that was caused by something unforeseen or a medical event that comes out of left field or yes, a job loss. But not planning for things that we should plan for, meaning that we know things are going to wear out and need to be replaced, I think is, you know, not the best use of our emergency savings.

So hope that helps and gives you some encouragement. And if you have a brief question for Rob, you'd like to send it along. The address is questions at MoneyWise.org. Questions at MoneyWise.org. We're MoneyWise Live.

He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. It's an honor and a pleasure to be with you today, taking your calls at 800-525-7000. Now we're taking for the most part, primarily financial calls, delving a little bit into the world of plumbing. However, just before the break, we took an email from a caller who wanted to know if an emergency fund should be there for use of something like replacing a water heater or a roof. And Rob, I just wanted to point out that I have a friend whose gas water heater exploded and ended up going up through the house and landing on the roof.

And that's the truth. Exploded, went like a rocket through the house and landed on the roof. So in that case, it would probably use up both sides of one's emergency fund, you know, the water heater, the roof, whatever, you know. And that certainly would be unexpected if your water heater turned into a rocket. Yeah, kind of a mini SpaceX all in your own neighborhood.

Exactly. I will say though, Steve, the rule of thumb on that, you know, there always is a good rule of thumb for everything. And in terms of how much you should be putting aside for home maintenance every year. So this would be in addition to your emergency fund, the amount you should be putting into savings. Specifically, I'll talk in terms of envelopes in your home maintenance envelope, because things wear out need to be replaced is 1% of your home's value each year.

So you have a $200,000 home that's $2,000 a year $166 a month goes into the home maintenance envelope again separate from emergency savings. Then when the hot water heater turns into a rocket ship, you're ready. And if you have a cat in your, nevermind, I'm gonna get in trouble. Oh boy.

Steve at MoneyWise.org. I'm not going there. All right, leave me alone.

All right, Sheraville, Indiana. Hi Yolanda, thanks for your patience. What's your question today? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I listen to you guys all the time.

I love your show. Thank you. I was calling because I wanted your thoughts on L funds, which is associated with the TSP on my job. I have a savings plan, but they also have the L funds, which is the 2025, 2030, and so on and so forth. Right. It's like a horizon plan. Correct.

Yeah. And what would be your expected retirement date? I mean, I realize you don't automatically have to fall into a certain date based on reaching age 65 or something like that, because the Lord may cause you to stay right where you're at or maybe redirect you before that. But just based on your current age, what would be your expected retirement year? I would like to retire about six to eight years, which would put me at 60 or 62.

Okay, very good. So let's call that roughly 2030. That may be a little longer than you want to go. Maybe 2025 would be closer.

Seems like you might be right in the middle. I would probably opt for something a little beyond your retirement date, because it's going to have a slightly more aggressive and I mean slight because it is slightly more aggressive portfolio. Keep in mind when you retire, Yolanda, if you're in good health, you know, this money needs to last for potentially decades, right?

You know, we're living longer, which means our money needs to last longer. And the good part about the 2030 fund, the what they call the lifecycle fund and the thrift savings plan is that it's going to be slightly more aggressive because you know, even now, we're still nine years from your retirement, according to this fund with the allocation between stocks and bonds. And you know, those funds will do quite well, and many of them have done quite well. So this is going to really be kind of an autopilot type of investment where it will systematically get more and more conservative as you get closer and closer to retirement, which is a great thing. So I would be, you know, fond of this, if you wanted to, you could, you know, take a maybe half of it and put it in the lifecycle fund.

And if you wanted to be a bit more aggressive for the next few years, you could, you know, put a portion of it directly into the stock fund, you know, which would give you, you know, more growth, potentially the C fund, which is the common stock index fund or the I fund, which is the international stock fund. But in either case, you know, I'd be quite pleased for you just to stay in the lifecycle fund if you felt good about that. Okay, well, thank you. I appreciate that. All right, you're very welcome. We appreciate you calling today. Yes, ma'am. Thanks very much. Okay, moving on to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Hello, Mark. What's your situation there and how can we help? Well, thank you guys for taking my call. I have a friend who is getting remarried. He and his future wife are both going into a second marriage, both previously divorced for infidelity.

So they're good there. But listen, they're trying to do this the right way. I know a lot of times when you get remarried, it seems more like a contract than it does a marriage. So, and they both have children and they want to do this right, this asset thing. They want to do it right. When one of them passes away, how do we handle the kids? And does Scripture speak to this?

And if it does, directly or in a gray area? I don't know. Yeah, it's a great question, Mark. And I'm so delighted to hear that you're really coming alongside your friend as a new married couple. They're thinking through kind of God's design and how they can proceed in a way that honors the Lord and draws them closer to one another and to the Lord at the same time. And this can be challenging, frankly, in terms of dealing with finances when they're coming into, in this case, both husband and wife have had a previous marriage. They're obviously bringing a more complex financial situation, assets, debts into the relationship that were created in a previous marriage.

And so obviously where there's kids involved, there's an ex-spouse involved, it does get quite complicated. I want you to recommend, perhaps you even buy this for them as a gift. I want to recommend a book by our good friend Ron Deal. It's called The Smart Step-Family Guide to Financial Planning.

The Smart Step-Family Guide to Financial Planning. And Ron talks about in this book, a fabulous idea, which is what he calls a togetherness agreement, a TA. And it's different, you know, with a prenuptial agreement, it's what's been done to me, a togetherness agreement. The idea is together, we're trying to define how we want to proceed as a new married couple, realizing there are complexities.

And how do we handle these? And who's going to care for, you know, various people when somebody passes? And what if there's a business involved? And how does the money that was, you know, amassed prior to this marriage get handled in terms of an inheritance? And, you know, is it better to keep that portion separate? And then from the point that the marriage, you know, was created forward, then everything, you know, is an asset of the couple.

But prior to that, you know, it's handled differently. And we can get, you know, trusts involved. And there are legal instruments to carry out the wishes. But the idea is you want to build relational trust between the new couple. So there's a, there's confidence there that's that's built in oneness, which is God's design, but recognizing there are still financial complexities that need to be addressed. So I think picking up a copy of that book, encouraging them to read it, doing a lot of talking and communicating prior to marriage, and then taking all of those thoughts and ideas and memorializing them in a legal instrument that's going to practically carry out their wishes, but in a way that honors each other and the marriage, as well as the kids and the assets that were created prior to the marriage, I think is something that's rare, and yet can be just a fabulous idea.

So pick up a copy of that book. And if you have any questions, or they do after they read it, have them give us a call back. Thank you, Mark. We appreciate your call. You sound like a good friend. And we pray that things go well this time around. All right, time for I think one more Spokane, Washington. Aaron, what's your situation there?

And what's on your mind? Yeah, thank you. I appreciate your time. My question is my wife and I want to be investing for our kids in an investment account. But typically the educational investment account be something to do. But as time goes on, we just we're not so sure that that's what our default setting is going to be for our kids. And I'm not against them going to, you know, a four year, or using an educational account.

But in the event that they choose not to do that, for one reason or another, I just want to see what the other options are for investment accounts for them. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a great question. And I realize, Aaron, you know, as so many things are changing in this environment in which we are in, you know, college education is one of those things that is changing and probably will be changed forever as a result of the pandemic. So many of the trends that were already in place have been accelerated. And I would say, just how we approach college education, and even postgraduate education, perhaps has changed forever.

And so thinking out, you know, 10 years or more as to what that's going to look like, and assuming we know, I think is, you know, flawed, because, you know, things are changing so rapidly. You know, it really comes down to first, what type of account and then second, what investments in the account. The thing is, you know, when we think about accounts for kids, we have two options. One is a custodial account. So UTMA, UGMA account, essentially a custodial account, the challenge is, it becomes the kid's asset at the age of majority. So they could take it and buy a sports car if they wanted to. And if they happen to be in that season of life, not making good choices, that could be dangerous. The other option is you keep the assets in your name, but segregated for them and for that purpose, so that you could make a transfer. You just need to recognize that that's what it's for. I think in terms of the investment solutions, I'd be looking at something really broadly diversified, probably an index portfolio of ETFs, you could think about the Schwab intelligent portfolios, maybe Betterment, but the idea would be systematically investing for the future in a way that gives them some assets you could make available to them down the road.

Perhaps they just continue on investing them at that point, but they've not already been committed to the kids so that you have more control over it in the future. Aaron, we're glad you got through today. Always nice to get a West Coast call in each and every program, sometimes more than one. So we appreciate your participation today. This program MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks so much for listening. Hope you heard something that will be practical and helpful and biblical for you. And we trust you'll join us again tomorrow.