The Sin of Pride

One listener that stands out that I worked with recently was this older couple that was interested in refinancing. They reached out to a few different lenders and you know their credit wasn't the best. I know some of these other bigger banks, you just won't hear back from them, which I cannot stand. Not everybody has the 780 credit scores and never had any hardships in their life.

I'll walk you through what you have to do. How can you end up being able to do this refinance, whether it's two, three, six months from now? Back to that older couple, we worked with them for months and months. To improve their credit. And we were able to get the loan done. We were saving them hundreds each month, thousands of dollars a year. Finally got themselves into a situation financially that they can handle and they could start saving money each month, saving for retirement.

At the end of the day, they just could not be happier, which just put a huge smile on my face. We are United Faith Mortgage. Isaiah 2-11 reads, The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. I am Rob West.

Pride first made its appearance in the Garden of Eden and has harmed our fellowship with God ever since. But what does thinking too highly of yourself have to do with money? I'll talk about that first today that it's on your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800.

525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. God the glory. He did, after all, give them both to you, along with everything else you possess. Even the ability to earn money is a gift from God. The pride we're warned about in the Bible is quite different. We read in Proverbs 16-18, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

C.S. Lewis wrote that pride is the great sin that leads to all the others because it exalts the self over God. 1 John 2-16 tells us, For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The sin of pride can be described as having an exaggerated view of yourself without regard for others. And history shows that from the Tower of Babel to the Titanic, that kind of pride is proven to be disastrous. So how do you know when you're having a problem with pride? It's been said that pride is the easiest sin to spot in other people's lives. It's difficult to spot pride in yourself because it's the one sin that tells you you don't have it. Maybe that's why Jesus says in Matthew 7-5, Pride can reveal itself in any number of ways, and it often leads to other sins. Certainly, one of the ways pride shows up is when we fail to manage money according to God's financial principles.

The first and most important of those is that God owns everything, and we're simply managers or stewards. Pride tells us that we own the things God has entrusted to us, and that we can do with him what we want. Pride leads to all kinds of bad decisions, and a lot of bad decisions. Pride tells us that we own the things God has entrusted to us, and that we can do with him what we want. Pride leads to all kinds of bad decisions, and a lot of them are financial in nature. It could be something as simple as missing out on bargains and spending too much because you refuse to buy generic items.

Or maybe you won't shop at discount stores because you feel you're above that. Proverbs 29-23 reads, One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor. And pride often leads to big financial mistakes, like buying too much house or too fancy a car. Those are far more serious and can often be traced back to pride.

And then of course there's just running up a lot of credit card debt. Often folks will say they had no choice, but more likely it's because deep down they feel they deserve a higher lifestyle than God has provided. The Bible repeatedly warns us that pride goes before destruction, and often that destruction is financial. But his word also says that as God resists the proud, he gives grace to the humble. For most of us, humility doesn't happen by itself.

We have to work at it, in our finances and elsewhere. Fortunately, God's word encourages us and teaches us how to be humble. First, before God, as we read in James 4-10, humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. But also humble toward one another. Here, Jesus' second great commandment is key, love your neighbor as yourself. And Paul states in Ephesians 4-2, With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. And in Philippians 2-3, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. By thinking more highly of others, extending grace to them, we humble ourselves and allow God to extend grace to us. Being financially generous requires humility and putting pride aside as we think more highly of others.

Proverbs 19-17 says, Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

Thank you for joining us for MoneyWise Live today. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions straight ahead. Here's the number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got about five lines open. We'd love to hear from you. We've got some great questions lined up today, but first, speaking of questions, let me remind you if you already knew or perhaps you're hearing for the first time about our community. That is the MoneyWise Live community, specifically in the MoneyWise app. This is a place where you can go to come together with other stewards trying to be found faithful in managing God's money. And here's the great thing about it, that in the app, which by the way is a free download, as is participating in our community.

But in the app, when you click on the community tab, you can post questions. You may have a financial question. You may not be comfortable being on the air with us, but you'd like to post it. Well, here's the great news is that our MoneyWise coaches are in that community responding to your questions, even other stewards, God's people weighing in with their expertise when they have something to share from time to time. And I'm in there as well. In fact, I just responded to TJ yesterday. He wanted to know about tithing on the sale of a home and how he calculates the increase.

And I was able to jump in there and provide him an answer. So check that out if you would. Just go to your app store, the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store. You'll want to search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance. And when you get that downloaded, then check out our community. And by the way, you can read the content in the learn tab. You can also manage God's money using the digital envelope system.

It's all there in the MoneyWise app. Check it out today. All right. Let's head to the phones today. First up is James in Pennsylvania. James, good afternoon, sir. Hi, James. How are you?

I'm sorry. This is James. How are you? I'm doing great, James.

Go right ahead. So my question was today, basically, we have roughly about one hundred and seventy thousand dollars in total debt that's included in a home vehicle and some credit things otherwise. And then we have sufficient enough assets to pull that off and still keep the sixty five thousand left over. And I'm wondering if that's smart to pay off all of those debts to be on that debt free.

We have a budget set up and we have sufficient income. I'm just trying to figure out if it's smart to alleviate all of those assets or if we should be looking to pay them off separately. Yeah. And the hundred and seventy, is that outside of retirement accounts? Yes. Yes.

Okay. So it's just sitting in a savings account of some kind? Yeah. We have them in different investments. We have them set up in different investments.

So we have actually about two hundred and thirty or so in different investments. Okay. So do you have retirement accounts that you're contributing to through work or on your own? Yes. Yeah.

I have one through work and then we also do one separately. Okay. And you said you have about two thirty total, but one hundred and seventy that's available to pay toward the debt. So does that mean your retirement accounts are sitting at about sixty or do you have more than that? Yeah.

They're probably right around sixty to sixty five. Okay. Very good. And what is your age? I'm twenty eight.

Twenty eight. Okay. Excellent. Well, you've been doing some hard work, James. Congratulations.

You and your bride obviously have been limiting your lifestyle, living well within your means. You've had plenty of margin, which has allowed you to get started with your retirement contributions, but also accumulate quite a bit of money outside of that, that you're in a position to use toward debt. So I actually really like this, especially given your age.

You're young. You've got incredible time on your side. And if you went ahead and paid everything off to become completely debt free, which some would say, no, use the leverage and invest it. I love the idea of you guys being completely unencumbered, having complete flexibility, plus even more that you could redirect toward additional giving or long term savings, perhaps bumping up your retirement contributions. If you got your retirement contributions up to fifteen percent of your total take home pay or your total gross pay, I guess I should say. Man, I mean, you know, with nearly 40 years to go, you'd you'd have to define your finish line early because you'd reach it early, which would be a great thing because you'll be debt free throughout the whole of your working life. You'll have plenty in the way of accumulated assets to fund your modest lifestyle in retirement, which means you're going to have quite a bit to give away. And so you all need to be thinking about aligning your passions with your giving, because I think you all could do some pretty hilarious giving along the way. So I really like this approach as you and your wife have talked, thought and prayed about it. Is this something that excites you to be completely debt free or are you all comfortable having the debt?

And is there one of you in the marriage relationship that would rather kind of hang on to it, so to speak, just so you could take that money and put it to work? Yeah, that's kind of where we're at. We're just we've been actually a minute as well. But I've been we've been trying to pray and figure out what's best.

And I know what you guys have in the Christian stance would give you guys a call. But we've been kind of back and forth on what to do. And that we're kind of we have the option of possibly being completely debt free without alleviating all of those assets. And with us being younger, like you've said, we've talked about still having time to be a little bit more aggressive on our investing even after paying off the debt.

Yeah, that's the great option that you have. I wouldn't want to deplete your emergency fund, but it sounds like you have quite a bit of margin on a monthly basis. So even if you dip down below six months, you could probably build that up very quickly and then allow that to spill over into increased retirement savings. But again, you know, you can't go wrong either way. I mean, certainly there's nothing wrong with continuing to carry debt on your home specifically.

I'd absolutely eradicate the other with the idea that you want to get more compounding for you. But given how young you are, how much you've been able to accumulate to this point and the fact that you could literally be debt free and then have all that extra margin to put toward additional savings and giving. I think it's just a great opportunity for you unless that would prevent you from some other shorter term goals that you might be saving for in the near term.

But apart from that, I would just encourage you, if you've prayed about it, thought about it and you like the idea of being debt free, I'd go full steam ahead and not look back. Here's the last thing I'll say is that in all the years I've been doing this, the thousands of calls that we've taken, I've never, never had somebody call back and say, you know, we paid off our house and our car and we're completely debt free. And man, we just can't sleep at night.

We really regret that decision. I just don't get that call, James. And I think there's a reason behind that, and it's one of the reasons that I think the Bible encourages us to try to move toward being debt free because it changes the relationship. It's a slave master relationship.

The Bible talks about it, and I'd love for you to be out from under that. So thanks for your call today. We'll be right back. We're grateful you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Thanks for being along here today, and thanks for calling with your questions.

We've got some great questions lined up, but we do have room for you. You've got a question today related to saving or giving. Perhaps it's your lifestyle or managing your spending. Perhaps it's giving wisely or saving for college or, as we just talked about with our last caller, James, paying down debt.

Is it prudent to become completely debt free even if you have the opportunity to take those funds and invest them if you don't pay off the house? How do you process that? Well, we'd love to process that with you using the Bible as our backdrop to draw the wisdom from Scripture around money. Here's the number 800-525-7000. In just a moment, we'll go to Kalamazoo and Fort Smith. But first, Pam is in Tampa, Florida. Pam, thanks for calling today.

How can I help you? Yes, I have a question. I heard you mentioned earlier about paid upon debt. And I was wondering, does that apply to cash, like savings accounts?

Yes. Some bank accounts do have a POD designation. Retirement accounts certainly do. You know, this payable on debt feature allows you to name one or more beneficiaries and then those assets would then not have to go through probate. I mentioned the alternate beneficiaries and it really is important that you name not only a primary but an alternate in case the primary dies before you. I would also encourage you to review those beneficiary designations at least once a year in case anything changes.

But yes, the POD or payable on debt or TOD transfer on debt is a feature that allows it to pass more expediently and efficiently outside of the probate process. I will say though, Pam, do you have a will though currently? No, we don't.

And I hope that we should. You really do need one. You know, some assets including real estate don't have a payable on debt feature and if you die without a will, if you're married, you and your spouse, that means the state would step in and through the probate court determine how your remaining assets would be distributed and you certainly don't want them making that decision if you have the opportunity to make that decision. For those who have children, dependents at home, minor children, you absolutely want a will because that's going to designate their guardian if the Lord were to call you both home. So I think it's really something you need to do. It shouldn't cost you more than $500 or so but it's your last stewardship decision and I would certainly encourage you to make sure that's in place.

But yeah, definitely worthwhile to have the POD, not a replacement for a will and also make sure you update that annually. Pam, we appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000 with your questions.

On to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Logan, good afternoon. Hey, what's going on, man? How are you?

Thanks for calling. Hey, so I just got a question and my fiancé and I are getting married in September so I'm about to be a married man and start that wonderful chapter of my life. Congratulations.

That is exciting. Yeah, dude. No, I'm not talking about a nervous man. But it's definitely a transition going from single life and managing my money to being married and joining that money together.

And I was just looking for some advice about maybe some stuff to get started on. You know, I know starting with like saving six months expenses and whatnot, but also like further than that and just being good stewards of God's money, right? Because there's so much more we can do than just putting in a savings account.

Yeah, boy, that's so true. Well, first of all, Logan, congratulations. It is exciting. It's going to be an amazing journey and blessing in your life. Secondly, you know, just the fact that you're even asking this question around wanting to be prepared says a lot about who you are and what the Lord is going to be able to do through you as a married couple, because this is the area that so often trips up so many married couples. You know, 70 percent of couples will say they have conflict in their marriage over money. And so you can lay the right foundation, get the right plan going into the marriage to handle money God's way.

It will be a huge blessing to you and your bride throughout the rest of your lives. You know, what I would say to you is a couple of things. Number one, communication is key. You're going to hear that over and over again, but it's certainly true in this area of money management, both in terms of, you know, having a conversation about what money was like growing up and really understanding, you know, your different money backgrounds. You know, how did her mom and dad handle money? How did your mom and dad handle money?

You know, were you on a tight budget or did they have excess and did they operate on a spending plan? I mean, so much of what we bring to the marriage relationship in terms of our money habits and personalities were formed in our childhood. And so talking about that and finding out where, you know, there was differences that you all can then move together and make plans as one flesh as a married couple based on those uniquenesses really will be key. And having those conversations are really important. I think you need to decide who's going to be the bookkeeper, even though you're both going to be involved in the decision making. And I would encourage you to have a weekly or at the very least a monthly money date to evaluate your spending.

You do that together. But one person who's probably the more detailed person would be the one to pay the bills and so forth. Talking about your lifestyle and, you know, depending on how you all see God leading, what kind of lifestyle do you want to live and how important is giving to you and where does that fall? And really talking about all that.

The second thing is really learning. So from communication to learning, you need to learn God's way of handling money. And when you get done here today on the radio, I want you to hold on because Deb's going to get your information. I want to send you a copy of Howard Dayton's book Money and Marriage God's Way as our gift to you on these upcoming nuptials. And I just want you and your bride to agree to read that together, a chapter at a time. I think that's really going to unpack some of these key principles. The next would be a plan.

And you alluded to this. You know, it's important to have six months in your emergency fund. It's important that you're on a spending plan and you guys have a plan to live well within your means. It's important that you talk about how much you're going to be able to save toward retirement.

How much systematic giving and even sacrificial giving you want to build into that plan. Begin to look at all that in advance and you'd even want to probably pull a credit report for each of you so you can see, you know, what you're bringing in. And that's not a time for finger pointing. That's just a time to say, hey, whatever we have, assets and liabilities is now ours. It's not yours and mine.

It's ours together. And then the last thing I would say is you might even want to think about getting a mentor financial couple for the first year. Somebody that you can just check in with once a month who can really guide you, who understands God's way of handling money. Because the last thing, Logan, is that, you know, having a vision for where God is taking you. Talking about your values and recognizing that money is a tool to really take you toward where God has you.

And where he's leading you as a couple is really key because, you know, money is not the end. It's just the tool we use to accomplish all of those things that God is doing in our lives. And the extent to which you can establish those goals based on your values, based on scripture, then it becomes a lot easier to make sacrifices financially in the short run. You know, we're not going to go out to eat tonight.

We're going to wait and do it on Friday night. Because, you know what, saving that money is going to help us pursue things that we feel like God really wants us to do. Whether that's saving or giving or whatever that might be. So I hope that's an encouragement to you. I do want you to know that you're well on your way to having a fruitful marriage in this area of money by just even you calling today.

So I'm really proud of you. Hey, you hang on the line. We'll get your information. We'll get that book Money and Marriage God's Way out to you. And congratulations on your upcoming marriage, Logan. All right, folks, we still have a lot of ground to cover today.

We're going to be talking about 401Ks, building homes, wills versus trusts. That and your question, 800-525-7000. Stay with us. We're glad you're along with us today for MoneyWise Live, a community of stewards coming together to manage God's money faithfully so we can pursue freedom and joy and contentment. That's what it's all about.

Mining the scriptures, applying God's truth, His wisdom, which is timeless and transcendent to today's financial decisions. Thanks for your calls and questions today. We do have actually two lines open. 800-525-7000. Let's go to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Denise, you're next up on the program. Go ahead.

Thank you. My company matches my input into it four percent. I currently have a balance of that particular portion of it. The current balance is $251,000 of that where they've matched me four percent. The cost basis is $64,500. My outside brokerage firm tells me that I should do an N-U-A, a net unrealized appreciation.

Should I do it? Yeah, so essentially they're suggesting you take a lump sum distribution based on the difference in the cost basis and the market value. Is that what you're getting at? Yes. Yeah. Is this all in company stock, the whole $251,000?

Yes. Okay. The whole 401k is about $1.4 million. Okay. But of that, the company matched portion is the $251,000.

Okay. How much of the $1.4 is in company stock? Dollar wise, $251,000. Oh, that's it. Okay, so you don't have any other company stock outside of that. All right, so you've got a good bit, obviously, in company stock. I'm glad to hear it's not the whole account, but it's still, I would say, a highly concentrated position. So I agree.

I like the idea of you diversifying away. What are they suggesting you do with that money, just have them redeploy it in another account? And what are they telling you about the tax event there?

What they're telling me to do is if I take a lump sum now that I would be paying lower taxes on it if I do it now, then if I wait till after I'm retired and start taking it out, you know, like so much a month. Yeah. Yeah.

That makes sense. Yeah. And do you have the option, Denise, to diversify away from the company stock inside the 401k without taking the lump sum distribution?

Yes, because what they will do is the money that they match me goes into company stock, but I have taken the money that I have had, and I have taken it down to like 10% of my portfolio. So I don't have so much in company stock. Yeah. Good.

Okay. Well, I would further diversify. I'd love to see you get that position down to only about 10%.

So I could go either way. I think there's something to be said about the tax consequences based on what they're telling you of getting this money out through the distribution or excuse me, the lump sum distribution and then redeploying it and realizing that tax liability now as opposed to later through the N.U.A. So I would check with your tax preparer or CPA just to have another professional who's unbiased look at this to make sure he or she agrees from a tax standpoint that that makes sense. But at the very least, whether you do that or just leave the money in the 401k, I'd love to see you get that company stock position down to about 140,000 or less so that you're not, you know, over 10% of the portfolio in one holding. I think that's just too highly concentrated if there was a, you know, a bad quarter or there was something that went awry with the company.

I mean, just talk to the folks from Enron, you know, years ago who lost a combined 850 million dollars when the company went bankrupt and everybody thought it was doing great. I realize that's a worst case scenario, but that's why the Bible talks about being diversified in Ecclesiastes. So I could go either way.

I'd check with your tax preparer before you do the N.U.A., but at the very least, I'd try to get that position down to 10% or less. Does that make sense? Yes. Question, though.

Since I have gotten these figures, I have taken it down considerably. Okay. Good. And so now with whatever the dollar amount is, is doing an N.U.A. a good thing? My CPA says no.

Okay. Well, I would take your CPA's advice, and I think because you've diversified, you know, further, I think, you know, leaving it right there if your CPA says it's not a good thing is probably the right move. There's no reason not to just let that continue to grow inside the 401k, and then you can begin taking it out as you need it through, you know, regular distributions or required minimums if you get to that point at age 72.

So I would go with the counsel of your CPA on that, and if that's what they're saying, they don't have a dog in this fight, you know, so to speak, other than just to make sure you pay as little tax as possible. So that would be the direction I would head. And, Denise, we appreciate your call today. On to Lafayette, Indiana, WGNR. Robert, go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. I appreciate your Christian wisdom. Thank you, sir.

I'm looking for that as opposed to legal advice. We are a couple in our mid 60s, retired, and our grandchildren live 1700 miles away near Glacier National Park. And in order to be near to them, we signed a fixed price contract in November of 2020, which we extended in May of 2021 to have a builder build a townhouse at the edge of Kalispel, Montana. And then in April, when we were there, the trust package was there on our lot. But just two weeks ago, with our unit to be done at the end of this month, we received a notice that we needed to pay $20,000 more than the fixed price, along with 10 other units because of the spike in materials in May.

Now, again, our lumber package was there in April. We are going to be discussing this with the builder and the developer, which is a fairly large development going into another phase of construction soon tomorrow. And I'm just wondering the Christian response. I know that we can, as homeowners, hire a lawyer and there's young families and retirees involved.

So what would be your Christian response? Yeah, well, clearly, if you've signed a contract and that contract has a fixed price and there's not any, you know, exclusions or exceptions based on, you know, a unique circumstance where materials have a certain percentage and rise in price and that kind of thing. If there's fine print that allows this, then obviously in that case, you're legally required. If not, if it was truly a fixed price contract, then the burden of those price increases really falls on the general contractor. As you well know, and you can demand that you stay, you know, pay only the fixed price amount and obviously could pursue legal options in the event he is demanding that you pay more. Now, from a biblical standpoint, you know, if we need to pursue legal action, I think as long as it's not believer to believer, you certainly are entitled to do that.

The question would just be, you know, if this wasn't as a result of inefficiency or poor workmanship, these overruns came honestly and in good faith. You know, you may decide then it's an opportunity to go to the negotiating table and say, listen, how about we share this additional cost? Let's keep this outside of court. Let's work together. And, you know, we're willing to take a portion of this if you do as well. Obviously, we don't have to take any of it, but you want to use that as a witness and perhaps to resolve this amicably based on these unprecedented times that we find ourselves in. I think, you know, that would probably be my starting point if you have the ability to pay more and you're comfortable doing that.

So I think you just continue to pray about it, see where the Lord leads, and you're certainly entitled to take either approach. Hang on the wine. We'll talk off the air.

We've got to hit a break. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Hey, if you haven't supported the ministry, I would encourage, perhaps challenge you to do so if you consider yourself a part of the MoneyWise family. MoneyWise is brought to you each day in part by the generous contributions of our listeners. We can only do what we do with our app and on the radio here, the broadcast each day with our community and our coaches and our CKs and all the content on our websites because of your support. We don't have an organization or anything behind us that's funding this.

It's the listeners that do it. And that's why we're set up as a 501c3 so we can take those contributions and you have the opportunity, if you itemize, to deduct that. Beyond the giving to your local church, if you'd prayerfully consider that, we'd certainly be grateful. Whether it's a one-time gift, a monthly gift, a gift of appreciated stock, whatever works for you, we would certainly appreciate it. Just head over to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org and you can click the donate button and I'll thank you in advance. We're going to head back to the phones today.

Nashville, Tennessee, one of my favorite towns. Dick, how can I help you, sir? Yes, I'm 71 years old and a few years ago I did a will on LegalZoom and I was thinking of updating that now and a couple of friends were saying I should really have a trust and not a will or a trust along with a will and I'm not sure what reason I would do that. Yeah, it's not necessary for everyone. While both are estate planning vehicles to assist in handling your affairs, there are some key differences. You absolutely need a will so I'm glad you have that and I think it's good to update it whether you do that yourself or have an attorney look it over. But the main difference is the will doesn't go into effect until after death whereas a living trust is active once it's created and funded. So assets have to be either retitled or placed into the trust. So that means that the trust can provide protection and direct your assets if you become incapacitated in some way, something a will is unable to do, the trustee could take over. Also after death, the assets in the trust don't go through the probate process so it's out of the public record, not handled by the probate court and if you have special considerations beyond your death where you wouldn't want assets to be distributed immediately but perhaps over time based on certain conditions being met, that would be another reason for a trust. But if you're just simply bequeathing your assets to your children and you have no special needs and those kinds of things, there's not any real reason to have these assets managed for the benefit of somebody else if you're incapacitated or something like that. A trust is probably not necessary and it's a bit more costly whereas a typical will prepared by an attorney might be around $500 a trust would be more like $1500.

So tell me your thoughts on that, Dick, just based on your situation. Well, I mean, so if I just had a will then the house would go through probate even though it's in the will? Yes, it would. It would go through probate but the will would be the executor who would be assigned by the probate court or named would be the one to handle that and if it's stated clearly in the will then that's not the court making that decision, it's just through the probate process that's how it's distributed but of course according to the will which is why you'd want the will in place. Whereas with the trust, everything happens outside of the probate court but even though the probate court is involved as long as you have that will, it's going to get to the right place, it's just going to happen through the courts as opposed to outside. And so I guess the other thought I had is if my retirement, if I was going to give that to grandchildren, it would go immediately, it wouldn't be, they had to be 21 or anything like that but a trust would do that, it could hold it until they were of age or something? It could, yeah, there could be certain stipulations that you would put in place that based on those triggering events, the trustee would then release the funds over time as those criteria are met and certainly one of those could be age so that might be a reason to consider it. I'd encourage you Dick to connect with a godly estate planning attorney in your area just to kind of talk through this and with specifics related to your situation and it could be that some of those additional flexibilities through the trust might be worth the added cost for you to make sure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes. Let me also offer as our gift to you one other thing, if you stay on the line when we're done here, I want to send you a copy of Ron Blue's book Splitting Errors.

It's the best book in my view on biblical wealth transfer and it covers a lot of the principles but also the how-tos on passing God's resources according to biblical principles. Splitting Errors is the name of the book, we'll send it out to you as our gift and we appreciate your call today, sir. Okay, on to Lombard, Illinois. Ann, thank you for your call today, how can I help? Hi, about a month ago I called you and because I was going to get an inheritance and I wanted to know what you thought I should pay off my house or invest it because my mortgage had like a 2.5 interest rate and we all decided that I should pay off my house and you said call me back when you do so I'm calling you back. Okay, so tell me now a month later how do you feel about that decision? Well, I just did it on Saturday so it still hasn't really hit me yet and I was in there signing the check, you know, going off to the very end with those numbers and then I said to the woman, I said it's kind of anticlimactic and she says, well, when you leave there will be confetti out the door and there really wasn't and there was no parade.

Oh no, none of that. And it's something that you can't share with a lot of people or I don't want to, you know, if you don't do that, it's just kind of anticlimactic. Well, I hope we can add some excitement to that because there's tens and tens of thousands of people listening to your voice right now that are cheering with you, Ann, about this decision that you've made and I'm frankly really excited for you about what this means for you just to follow the leading of the Lord, have complete flexibility and being unencumbered I think is a great place. And I'm really glad you're not saying I'm regretting that decision because I often say I've never gotten a call from somebody who paid off their mortgage saying I wish I hadn't done that. So I wouldn't be able to say that anymore if you said that today, but you're not. So that's a good thing.

No, it just hasn't sunk in yet, you know. And then now I have a little extra still left over and maybe let's say like $50,000. So I'm just like, I want to keep some of that like liquidy, but what should I do with that? I have 401Ks and I have, you know, all kinds of other things, but I was just wondering what should I do with that? Sure. Well, what is the total roughly of your expenses per month?

Well, now that changed a little bit. So I'm going to, I don't even know, I have to recalculate, but you know, per month, I don't know, let's say $4,000 or something. $4,000. Okay. Let's say you're wrong and it's five. I mean, you know, you have about 10 months expenses, which is quite a bit, but you're fully retired, correct?

No, not yet. Oh, you're working. Okay. And so, yeah, I mean, obviously you've got quite a bit more, we say, you know, typically three to six months expenses. So I think at this point, you know, the opportunity would be for you to put some of that to work, you know, perhaps half of it. If you need a new car, you know, coming down the pike and you want to replace that with cash, you perhaps could move it over or leave it right there. But your market for that purpose or some other goal where you could, you know, keep yourself debt free. But if you don't think you're going to need to be replacing a car anytime soon, you certainly could deploy that into additional investments. But I think you're in a really great spot here, you know, with plenty of assets being accumulated.

You're still working. You're completely debt free now. You've got a bit more margin every month. So this is a great place to be. And I think, you know, perhaps as a target for that emergency fund, $25,000 is probably the number.

And then anything beyond that, you know, you're free to either deploy it or earmark it for some other purpose. Ann, thank you for calling today. We do celebrate with you. We're so excited for this decision you've made.

And clearly you've been following God's principles, which has put you in a position to do this in the first place. So God bless you. We appreciate your call. On to Wellington, Florida. Ray, thank you for your call today.

How can I help? How are you doing, Rob? Yes. My question is, I had a slip for accident last year at Chipotle restaurant and I got a personal injury attorney. And after a year, like we just got the settlement, it was $14,000 they gave me. My question is, am I obligated to title that $14,000 minus the expenses of the attorney, which is one third minus medical expenses, which is about $6,000. It's going to leave me about $2,300. So my question is, am I obligated to tithe the 10% on the $14,000 or the $2,300?

Yeah, Ray, I appreciate your question. You know, I'm hesitant to say obligated when it comes to the tithe. We don't want to get legalistic about it. And, you know, I certainly recognize we're under the law of Christ, not the law of Moses. And so, you know, that was a part of the Old Testament law.

We're beyond that. But I would also say Jesus really raised the bar in every case. And I would think that's for those of us who have seen what he did for us on the cross, his death and resurrection to pay the penalty for our sins. We should want to give generously back to the Lord out of our excess, out of our increase. And so if you want to apply the principle of the tithe, clearly what you would do is you would say, yeah, I'm going to give on the increase. Well, what is the increase in this situation? Well, it's anything over and above, as you said, the expenses that you incurred. Because if it's them making you whole on expenses or costs related to this injury, then obviously that's not an increase.

It's just, you know, them covering those charges for you. But anything beyond that clearly would. And applying the Old Testament principle, which we see referenced in the New Testament as well, of the tithe, which I think is a great thing. We should be systematic givers.

Randy Alcorn calls it the training wheels of giving the tithe. And I certainly think it's a great starting point. If you wanted to apply that to this, you would absolutely look at that portion that's over and above the real expenses that you incurred.

And then you would give a tenth of that, again, if you're applying that principle. So I think that's a good thing. Clearly, you want to honor the Lord, not out of compulsion or obligation, but as a cheerful, generous giver. And you certainly are that, my friend. Thank you for your call today. We appreciate it.

Jennifer in Florida, we're not going to be able to get to you today. She's got some extra money. She's debt-free, wants to know where to invest it. I would say if you're just starting out, check out our friends at soundmindinvesting.org. The Soundmind Investing newsletter, I think, could be a great way for you to get started with some extra money in no-load, meaning no commission, high-quality mutual funds.

soundmindinvesting.org. Thanks for calling, Jennifer. Well, that's going to do it for us today. I want to say thank you to my amazing team, Eric Tidwell, Deb Solomon, Amy Rios, Jim Henry was along today. And thank you for being here. Thank you for your calls and questions. Thank you for listening as well.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Lord willing, I'll be back tomorrow. I hope you will as well. May God bless you. Bye-bye.