Beginning of the End, or Business as Usual?

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. This is Jamin Baxter and I serve as Business Development Director for Moody Radio. The only reason we're able to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ on the radio is because of financial support from listeners like you. We also have businesses support us too, like United Faith Mortgage.

Faith and family is at their core. It's why they choose to be such a close partner with our station. It's why they specifically advertise on Christian radio stations across the country.

It's why father and son John and Ryan still lead the company to this day. Check out United Faith Mortgage and their direct lender advantage at unitedfaithmortgage.com. Thanks to you and to United Faith Mortgage for supporting Moody Radio. United Faith Mortgage is a DBA of United Mortgage Corp. 25 Melville Park Road, Melville, New York. Licensed mortgage banker. For all licensing information, go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org, corporate NMLS number 1330, equal housing lender.

Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Mutual fund pioneer Philip Carré once said, it's usually a much simpler matter to forecast a bull market than to call the turn at its end. Hi, I'm Rob West. Are we at the end of a bull market? Are we about to see the bear set loose on wall street?

No one knows for sure, but you can prepare. Here to talk about that today is investing expert Mark Biller, and it's on to your calls and questions. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, Mark Biller is the executive editor of SoundMind Investing, where they're always watching for changes in the market. Mark, always great to have you on the program. Thanks, Rob.

Good to be back with you. Well, looking forward to diving into this, especially amid the recent market volatility. We're going to talk about your recent article in the SMI newsletter, Beginning of the End, or Business as Usual. I know you wrote this several weeks ago now, but I want you to tell us what's going on from your vantage point that prompted you to write this.

Yeah, Rob. So back in mid-September when I first wrote this, you know, the stock market was down a few percent off its highs, but investor sentiment was getting really bearish at that point. In fact, the thing that really grabbed my attention was the investor sentiment survey was showing that investors were more bearish a month ago than they'd been at any point since the March 2020 bear market bottom. And that was with stocks just, you know, maybe three percent off of their highs. On top of that, it was clear from some of the positioning data that investors were really heavily hedged already against a bigger market decline. So it was in that environment of really kind of rapidly rising fear that I wrote this article that we're talking about today to argue that any further pullback from that point was likely to be pretty mild rather than real severe.

And I had some reasons in there for that, and that's really what's unfolded in the weeks since then. But I really want to emphasize that while all of that sounds like I was making some big market timing call that things are going to be great, the point of the article, Rob, was actually the exact opposite of that. You know, what I was really trying to accomplish was encourage SMI readers to not make a market timing call by abandoning their long-term plan and letting all the noise, the rising tide of bearishness that was all over the news right then to scare them out of the market. And, you know, it's worth noting at this point now that as the markets recovered over the last few weeks, some of that bearishness has gone away. So things do look a little bit different today than when that article first came out, but I think there's still a lot of helpful points that we can draw from that article.

Oh yeah, I think we absolutely can. Mark, why do you believe, at least at that point, and obviously a lot of this continues today, why are investors so pessimistic? Yeah, you know, a number of factors. I think one big one is that investors can see how far this market's run since those March 2020 lows. So over the last 18 months or so, we've had the stock market basically double.

It's been a full year now since we've had even a 10% correction. So there's kind of this feeling that the market may be overdue for a bigger decline, but there are also some more, you know, obvious immediate challenges on the political side. We've had this debt ceiling issue. We've got this massive infrastructure bill squabble going on, and a lot of people are, you know, probably rightfully concerned that maybe borrowing another three and a half trillion dollars for more social spending may not be the best thing for us right now. We've got the Fed clearly wanting to start to take the punch bowl away a little bit by tapering some of their monthly bond purchases.

You've got a lot of the aggressive government support from the last 18 months recently rolling off. So a lot of factors, inflation, a lot of things that make people nervous as they look ahead to next year. No doubt, and we're going to continue to unpack that and talk about whether we should be concerned as investors are about the present state of things. We'll also size this up in terms of what that means for your portfolios. We'll begin taking your questions as well.

What's on your mind related to the markets and investing your portfolio and your future? Mark Biller here today to answer those questions. We'd love to hear from you. We've got lines open and we'll be taking those calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Investing expert Mark Biller of Soundmind Investing, our guest today. Stay with us. Much more to come just around the corner. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. This is the program where we recognize that God owns it all and money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes. And we're stewards. We're money managers for the King of Kings, which puts us in a really exciting position to manage the Lord's resources. The question is, how do we align those resources with the Council of Scripture? There is a lot that the Bible has to say about how you and I should manage God's money.

Well, each day we mind those passages and apply them to what you're dealing with. And today we're talking about the stock market investing. Joining us for this segment is our good friend Mark Biller. Mark is executive editor of Soundmind Investing.

You can learn more at soundmindinvesting.org. Today we're talking about a recent article that Mark wrote for the SMI newsletter called Beginning of the End or Business as Usual. And Mark, just before the break you were explaining some of the reasons that led to this incredibly negative sentiment on the part of investors. And I'm curious, do you think we should be concerned about the present state of things?

Yeah, Rob, it's so tricky. And I rattled off this awful sounding laundry list of things after I just said how I was writing an article arguing that those things shouldn't be scaring us out of the market. So how do you reconcile all of that? And that's really where timeframes become very important. You know, I do think that a lot of these things that I just mentioned, you know, they are probably going to be concerns as we look ahead a few quarters and say the middle of next year and so forth.

It's not that these things aren't real or that they don't have actual implications. The thing about this article and where I was coming from is that it was really hard for me to believe that some kind of a significant correction was imminent. And that was in part because there were so many people looking for that type of imminent correction and positioning for one. And one thing that a lot of investors don't recognize is the market tends to move against whatever position the majority of investors currently have. So when investors collectively rush to one side of the boat like they were doing a few weeks ago and getting real fearful, the boat more often than not tends to tip back the other way to balance things out. And that's kind of what we've seen as the market has popped back higher. So another, you know, another way of looking at that, Rob, is that the time for concern is usually when everyone's really excited and optimistic and nobody's playing any defense, not when everybody's already scared and piling into these defensive positions. Yeah, no doubt about that.

And that's obviously the key. I won't ask you for a firm prediction, but how are you sizing all of this up? I mean, take everything you just said and talk about where you think we go from here.

Yeah, sure. So one caveat that's pretty important is SMI uses trend-following processes that don't let us stay on the wrong side of market trends for very long. And that's important because short-term stuff like we're talking about today really plays a very minimal role in how we make investment decisions.

If I'm wrong about everything that we're talking about today, the SMI strategies are still going to respond to what the market action is doing, regardless of any beliefs or things that I think. So I say all that to say we've got the benefit of a safety net when we're evaluating this kind of short-term stuff. But big picture as we're looking out, say, into next year, there are some risks to be concerned about. We have some pretty highly valued markets. We've got some potential growth challenges for the economy ahead.

This was more of a short-term focus than what we're usually looking at, and we don't usually focus on that kind of stuff. But with that all said, there's really nothing that makes me especially concerned right now that something bad is imminent for the markets. I see an economic reopening that got kind of delayed by the Delta COVID variant that seems to be back in motion again. The economy seems pretty strong.

People seem eager to spend. Just last Friday, we got some really encouraging, surprisingly strong retail sales numbers. And so all of that just makes me think the base case, the most likely path, is probably that the markets keep looking pretty decent through this last quarter of the year. So next year, sure, I'm a little more concerned about that, but we'll worry about next year. So all of that, though, Rob, I really do want to reiterate that all of this was really about encouraging people to stick with their long-term plans and not get scared into selling. It's less about making some bold, bullish call that things are going to be great, and it's really more about encouraging people to stick faithfully to their long-term plan, because that's really where the success, the secret sauce in this investing thing is, is sticking with a good long-term plan.

This idea we read about in Scripture, Mark, steady plotting has a lot to do with what you're describing right here. Mark Biller here today is willing and excited to take your phone calls on investing. Here's the number 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open.

That's 800-525-7000. In just a moment, we'll be talking to Michael in Colorado Springs. Let's first go to Belinda in Chicago. Belinda, you're on the program.

How can we help? Hi, I will have a question. I was doing some research over the weekend. I have some funds that are just sitting in a bank account. It's not growing any way at all, so I was thinking about maybe investing it into like mutual funds or something, but I saw something about an index annuity. I'm not sure what that is or if that's not a good place for me to invest the funds, if you can refer me or recommend some other places that I could possibly invest it where it could start growing. Yeah, Belinda, I'd be happy to get Mark to weigh in, but first let me just understand for context a bit more about your situation. This money that you have put aside that you want to invest, is that money that you've earmarked for the long term, i.e.

10 years or beyond? Yes, it is. It's about maybe $15,000, yeah about $15,000. Great, and that's in addition to your emergency fund? Do you have a liquid savings account that's separate from that?

Yes, I do. Okay, great, and do you have a company-sponsored retirement plan available at work, like a 401k or a 403b? I just started a new job last Monday, and they do offer the 401k, and I am already in that as we speak.

I just signed up like two days ago. Okay, great, yeah, and how much are you putting in? What percentage of your salary do you know?

I'm going to do five percent because they match, so up to five percent, so yes, I'm going to do it the five percent also. All right, last question. Do you have any consumer debt of any kind? Credit cards or student loans, anything like that? Absolutely none.

Okay, great. So Mark, she's in a great spot. Emergency fund, no consumer debt. She's got this $15,000 and a new 401k. Where should she focus her energies, and what about this idea of an annuity? Yeah, I love it, Belinda, that you've checked all the boxes on getting that firm foundation in place.

That's great. Index annuities, we're generally not real big fans on, largely because most annuities tend to come with a lot of fees, and so usually you can accomplish what an annuity is trying to accomplish less expensively in other ways. With the 401k that you're starting, that's wonderful. If this is longer term money, I would probably be inclined to look into a Roth IRA and starting to put that money into a Roth IRA using traditional mutual funds like you were mentioning initially. I like that better because you can do that on a much lower cost basis and still participate in the market's upside, which is what an index annuity is trying to do, is capture that upside.

Now, it doesn't give you as much downside protection, and that's where the long time frame that Rob was asking about comes in because if you do run into a bear market, you need that longer runway to be able to have time to have that recover. But there are any number of good ways to invest that. We have some good starting material on our Soundmind Investing site about how to do that exactly, but I would encourage you to look into putting that money into a Roth IRA and using some good stock equity funds, maybe even some of the same ones you have available through your 401k that you can purchase through your Roth IRA. Rob, any other thoughts on that? Well, I couldn't agree more, Mark.

Great thoughts. I would agree about opting for the Roth in addition to the 401k instead of the fixed or the indexed annuity for the reasons you mentioned. And I think, Belinda, that as you look at this, the goal is to get your total contributions between the 401k and the Roth up to between 10 and 15% of your pay. And if you do that for a long period of time with the compounding effect and the high quality funds that Mark was describing, you'll be well on your way to having what you need in the retirement season of life. And finally, I would also encourage you to check out soundmindinvesting.org. The SMI newsletter would be a wonderful resource to give you those mutual funds you're looking for so you'd know exactly what to buy and when. We appreciate your call.

Lines are open for Mark Biller, 800-525-7000. Stay with us. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. MoneyWise Media and MoneyWise Live are listener supported if you're a part of our community, you rely on this program and all of the resources available at moneywiselive.org and in the Money Wise app. We would be grateful for your partnership with us financially. You can do so at our website moneywiselive.org. Just click the donate button and you'll see that between now and the end of the year is our way of saying thanks for a gift of $25 or more. We'll send you a copy of the great new book from Paul David Tripp, Redeeming Money. It's our way of saying thank you when you support this ministry. Again, moneywiselive.org.

Just click donate. Taking your calls and questions for Mark Biller. We'll be going back to the phones in just a moment. Mark, we were talking about kind of the state of the market, some of the pessimism among investors and the current state of affairs if you will in our economy. I'm curious your thoughts for folks that in the midst of this raging bull market are finding that perhaps for their age and risk tolerance goals and objectives maybe they were weighted too heavily towards stocks because they didn't want to miss the downside and now this market volatility has them a little spooked. Is this a good time to look at whether you have the proper allocation in your portfolios? You know, Rob, I don't know that there's ever a time that isn't the perfect time to look at whether you've got the right allocation. You know, one of the foundational rules that Soundmind Investing that we harp on all the time is never take more risk than you need to to accomplish your goals. You need to keep in mind and the financial media can really take your eye off the ball at this point, but the goal is not to amass the biggest pile you can.

The goal is to reach retirement with the resources that you need to be able to sustain your lifestyle and meet your expenses and so forth and those are two very different things. So if you have been over allocated perhaps to stocks, you know, that's been a fortunate thing over the last year. Stocks have done very, very well, but this may be a perfect opportunity then to re-evaluate in light of gains that we've had over the last 18 months and if you think that you can meet your financial goals with a lower level of risk, then yes, by all means look at ratcheting that down because as we did discuss earlier, Rob, there are a number of things that as we look ahead, you know, 6, 9, 12 months, there are some legitimate concerns out there. So yeah, it's a good time.

How's that for an answer? It's a good time. I like it. Always a good time is what I'm hearing and that makes a lot of sense. Let's head back to the phones today.

Michael is in Colorado Springs and Michael, how can we help? Well, thank you very much. I am 61 years old. My wife is 56 and I'm planning on retiring maybe at 80, if not 75.

I haven't put anything away and she works for Walmart where she has a 401k, she has some stock and a little bit of other things at work, but we haven't done anything because nothing is going anywhere and we haven't seen really any improvement in that area. So do we go with a brokerage firm? Do we go with, I don't know where to go next. What do we do? Very good.

Mark, your thoughts? Yeah, I think that the 401k that you mentioned, Michael, is a wonderful first step. That's something that's already set up. It's going to be a very low cost, very efficient way for you to be able to do quite a bit of saving right there and probably have access to very good investment vehicles. Usually you can get a good chunk of that income put away in savings. I'm talking like 15% if you are able to save that much can go right there without having to go outside of that umbrella to another source. If you are able to save even beyond that, then I would encourage you, as we just talked about with Belinda, to potentially look at a Roth IRA for additional savings beyond that 401k. That's a wonderful tax-advantaged way to save more for retirement, and that will give you an even broader range of investment options.

Roth IRAs can be set up basically with any mutual fund company or any brokerage company, Schwab, Fidelity, those types of companies. So you've got a lot of options there. Yeah, that's a great thought, and I would do some planning, Michael, around this. What is your budget going to look like in retirement? How much do you need?

What will your wife's 401k likely be able to generate in addition to Social Security, and how much more ground do you need to make up? That'll give you a target for what you're trying to save between now and then. We're going to take a quick break, and when we come back, more of your calls and questions from Mark Biller. We're talking investing and the markets on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Great to have you along with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. With me for this segment of the broadcast, Mark Biller, executive editor at Soundmind Investing.

You can learn more at soundmindinvesting.org. Let's head right back to the phones. Muncie, Indiana. Hello, Eric. How can we help you, sir? Hey, how are you guys doing today? Doing very well, thanks. Thank you so much for what you guys do.

I truly appreciate it. I'm 47 years old. I'm 47 years old, and I basically am starting over with retirement. I have about two years of retirement saved up in my Fidelity 401k through work. God has truly blessed me and allows me to put 10% of my income into my retirement. Currently, I have 100% of it in stocks because the market has been doing so well.

But as you guys have discussed earlier, there are going to be changes. So I didn't know what would be a good split. Should I invest the majority of it in a safer mutual fund?

Or what direction should I go with that? Yeah, Eric is 47 years old, just starting over with his 401k. Mark, what are your thoughts on the right allocation? Yeah, it's a tough question, Eric, because right now with interest rates so low and with them actually starting to creep higher, bonds are not a real attractive place. You know, as people get older and closer to retirement or in retirement, it still makes sense to own some, even though the dynamics around interest rates and bonds are not great right now.

And the reason for that is really for the biggest and for that is really for the ballast in the portfolio. Bonds tend to hold up pretty well when stocks fall, when they go through these temporary bear markets and corrections. So bonds can still make sense in that respect. If nothing else, as stocks fall and the bonds hold steady, the bonds can provide some dry powder to reallocate into stocks at lower prices. So there are a number of reasons why we build the safety of bonds into a portfolio, even if we're not super enthusiastic about the outlook for bonds in and of themselves.

Hopefully that makes sense. Now at 47 years old, I don't personally feel like there's a big need to have a large bond allocation. We are a little bit more aggressive at SoundMind Investing than some advisors would be. Some would be layering in a decent bond allocation already at this age. You know, we tend to look at it as something that as you're moving up into your 50s, you want to start building up that bond allocation little by little.

I wouldn't be especially concerned about that right now. But it's something over the next, say, five to 10 years, you're certainly going to want to start thinking about creating a bond allocation within your overall portfolio. So all that to say, Eric, I don't think you're in a bad spot right now being 100% stocks.

Now you just have to know what that means. If we do head into a bear market, you don't have the ballast, the protection there. So that's the trade-off. You're in a riskier allocation, more upside, but less protection on the downside. So that's something that over, say, the next five to eight years, probably want to start layering in a little bit of bonds. We have some allocations and what we call our seasons of life table that helps people see at different ages what appropriate stock bond allocations might look like.

They're more general guidelines than any fixed rules for individuals. But that might be something that's worth looking at if you're interested over at soundmineinvesting.org. Rob, what are your thoughts? I couldn't agree more. I think you're right on, Eric. We appreciate your call today to Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Hi, Kurt. How can we help you? Hi, how are you doing today?

Very well. Okay, thank you for taking my call. I just had a quick question. I'm 66 years old. I'm retired from AT&T and they had a 401k where they matched funds up to 5%.

So I went through that program and, you know, I drew them. Oh, I think we might have lost Kurt. Let's see if we can get him back. No. Okay, I can see the question that he voiced to our call screener, Mark.

He is retired, wanting to know how he can grow his retirement income to last the rest of his life. And Kurt, do we have you back on the line? Oh, yes, I'm on the line. Go ahead. Great. Yeah, why don't you just finish your question there.

We'll get Mark to weigh in. Okay, yeah, basically, that's the question I had about how to grow my income with, you know, with minimum risk, you know, for the rest of my life. You know, I do have a pension that I retired with, you know, so it rolled over into, you know, Fidelity. Okay, what do you have in that Fidelity account?

What's the market value of that? It's about $266,000, somewhere around that. All right, and have you started to draw an income off of that yet? Yes, I draw an annual maintenance income off of that, you know. About how much are you pulling? I'm typically pulling down around $12,000 to supplement my Social Security. Okay, $12,000 a year off of $266,000, and that about covers it in terms of what you need? Yeah, that covers my expenses.

They have a tool online where you can put in all your expenses and all your income, and then they give you an estimate of what you should draw down. Yeah, very good. Mark, pulling about four and a half percent. What are your thoughts? Yeah, that's a reasonable amount to be withdrawing, Kurt, so I don't see any issues there in that regard. You know, one thing that as we're having to deal with higher inflation here this year for the first time in many years is retirees are having to kind of look at things a little bit differently than we've had to lately where inflation is pushing expenses higher, and the question is how do I keep my portfolio, keep my income growing in proportion with those higher inflation rates and higher expenses? And one of the big things, Kurt, in that regard is that you don't want to pull too much money too quickly away from the riskier parts of the portfolio, and by that I mean stocks. It sounds kind of odd to encourage a retiree to pump the brakes on getting out of stocks, but stocks are the way that the portfolio is likely to keep up with higher rates of inflation, so that's not to say go heavier into stocks. It's more of just a caution to say one way to keep the portfolio growing is to not get too conservative too quickly. You want to have that blend of stocks and bonds, and it is a tightrope of sorts.

You've got this tension between that need for growth on the one side and trying to keep risk as low as possible on the other side, so those are mutually competitive goals that does make it kind of tricky, but if you've got a good mix and you're able to meet your expenses right now, that would be the thing that I would keep an eye on. Unfortunately, there aren't any easy answers on the bond side. Rob?

Yeah, exactly right. Great counsel. Kurt, we appreciate your call today. Mark Biller has been our guest today. We're going to take your calls on anything financial just around the corner, 800-525-7000.

To learn more about Soundmind Investing or read this article we've been discussing, Beginning of the End, or Business as Usual, visit soundmindinvesting.org. Mark, thanks for being with us. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host.

We're delighted you're along with us today. In just a moment, we'll be talking to Beverly in Gurney, Illinois. She wants to know whether she needs to be more conservative. In her portfolio, Andre is wondering whether it's a good time to start shopping for a house. We'll talk about that in a moment.

But first, Indianapolis, Indiana. Hi, Nicole. How can I help?

Hi. We have a little bit of extra money that we want to invest short-term to kind of make more so that we can enjoy it as our family. We're a family of five, two teenage, almost teenagers, and a five-year-old, and we just want to be able to enjoy life a little bit. Yeah, I understand.

It sounds like you have a busy, but I'm sure exciting household with those almost teenagers and five-year-old. You said short-term, Nicole. Tell me what you're thinking there. How long would the time horizon be? So, I think it's a little bit of a long-term time.

Maybe a year or two at the most and six months at the least, kind of depending on what you would advise. It's something we want to be able to use and enjoy quickly. We have our 401Ks that we are involved in through our paychecks. My husband has a Roth IRA that he uses. We have a savings account for emergencies and just a little extra. How can we use it best to enjoy it?

Yeah, no, it makes sense. Well, I'm glad to hear you've kind of checked all the boxes. I imagine your debt is under control and you've got that emergency fund. You're also contributing for the long term. You know, my only hesitation, Nicole, is just that time horizon.

Really, anything less than five years, ten years, and certainly less than five years, you've been five years. You probably don't want to put this at the risk of the stock market. There's just too much short-term volatility for you to be able to have any kind of expectation that money you put away for 12 months or even 24 months is going to be at least what you put in. Because we've got enough headwinds that at the tail end of this bull market cycle, even if it continues to run for a bit, we could find ourselves in a recession. I mean, the economy and the markets work in cycles and we've had a long run in this current cycle.

Doesn't mean we know when it's going to turn over, but it will at some point. And you could find yourself 12 months or 18 months from now lower than where you started. And so I think for that reason, money that you want to protect first and have access to in less than five years, you don't need to be investing in stocks and bonds. So unfortunately, that means you're not going to get a whole lot in terms of return. What I'd be doing is just sticking that in a high-yield savings account, probably alongside your emergency fund. And that way, at the very least, if the market was down 20 or 30 percent, which it could be in the recession, it would eventually recover. But you may not have the time horizon to wait for that recovery to occur. And so from that standpoint, I think about the best you're going to find at least today is about a half a percent a year in a high-yield savings at something like Ally or Marcus or Capital One 360.

It may not be what you were looking for, Nicole, but I think, you know, just given that time horizon, there's going to be too much risk for you to do anything else. Does that make sense, though? Yeah.

No, that's what we kind of want to know. Is there something that looks good to try to invest in right now or just hold on to it in the savings? Yeah, I think that's the place to be because anything else would just be speculation and that's just a losing proposition. Really, we need to invest for the long term because we can't pick the top or the bottom. And to try to pick one particular company or a couple of companies that we think is going to do well in the next year, it's really, you know, not the steady plotting approach that the Bible talks about when it comes to investing. So I just unfortunately stay put with that savings account.

The good news is at this point it's about the return of your money, not on your money, because you want to make sure that what you have saved is available when you're ready to use it in 12 months and that's going to be the way to go. We appreciate your call today. Thanks for checking in with us.

On to New Mexico. Hi Marcy, how can I help you? Oh hey, I'm sorry.

That's okay. So my question is, I work just on commission, so I try to tithe to my church when I have a sale. New Mexico is the full-term abortion capital of the United States and there are a lot of politics here that I just really think need to be changed. I would like to be able to contribute to conservative candidates who are very open about their faith, and I wonder if that bittered as part of my tithe to encourage, you know, God's work in this state, or is that not appropriate? Yeah, well a couple of thoughts, I mean let's back up and talk about the tithe for a second.

I mean clearly we see the tithe in the Old Testament, even before the law of Moses with Melchizedek and Abraham, and then clearly it was a part of the Jewish law and there was actually multiple tithes, but the word tithe means a tenth, and we see in Malachi bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, the temple, which would be most akin today to the local church. So I think if we're going to apply the principle of the tithe, even though we're now under the law of Christ, we don't want to be legalistic about it, we want to follow the pattern of the New Testament and give cheerfully and give generously, give proportionately as well, which I mean, which I believe means systematically. So I like the principle of the tithe in terms of a starting point for our giving, and because the word tithe means a tenth, that'd be a great place to start as well, and for me, I would put that toward the local church. And then I would absolutely encourage you to give beyond that, to look for where God is working in your life and meeting the needs of others around your convictions. And obviously, God's given you a conviction to align your values around political candidates that are going to promote those values that are very important to you and you believe come right out of Scripture, and I would absolutely affirm the idea of you doing that. For me, I just wouldn't see it as a part of the tithe, but at the end of the day, your giving is between you and the Lord. I think you ought to just, you know, pray through that and make a decision as to what are you going to give to support the local church, and then beyond that, where are you going to give where God has really captured your heart and you believe aligns with what he's doing in the world, and I can absolutely affirm this idea of supporting political candidates that line up with that. So hopefully that's helpful to you.

I think at the end of the day, just take this up with the Lord and ask him how he would have you to proceed, and we appreciate your call today. On to Gurney, Illinois. Hi, Beverly. How can I assist you? Hello. Quick question.

All right. I am 72 years old, so I'm not a spring chicken. What I want to know is I have a lifetime annuity, so I'm getting my monthly stipend from that. I have my social security. I try to put my social security away into savings and live off of my annuity and another entity that I have. My question is I do have money saved in the bank, which is getting like maybe a half a percent. Is there something I can invest in that would help that to grow, or should I just keep doing what I'm doing? My house is paid for. I have no credit card debt. I have at least six months to cover bills.

So ideas, please. Yeah. So if I understand correctly, the social security plus the annuity, which has already been annuitized and is paying you out monthly. Is that right? Okay. And both of those together, the annuity stream and the social security are enough to meet your monthly obligations, correct?

Yeah, it gets a little tight, but yeah, I tried. I definitely work to make it meet. Yes. Okay, great. And then what do you have in addition to that that you're considering investing? How much?

Actually, probably about $75,000. Okay. And that's currently sitting just in a savings account? Yes, sir. Okay.

And this is money you'd like to grow and at some point used to fall back on if you had expenses beyond what you're able to fund through the annuity and the social security, whether that's medically related or something else. Is that right? Correct. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. So I like this idea. You're going to want to use a mix of stocks and bonds where you would look at probably the vast majority of it being in a fixed income type portfolio, but where you'd have a portion, let's say 30% that's allocated to stocks that would kind of provide the growth component of the portfolio, which would allow this to hopefully outpace, you know, the meager returns on the fixed income portion.

But if the market was down, if we hit a recession, you wouldn't sell that, you know, the ideas that you would hold on to it, let it recover, which historically, you know, it always has when we work our way through any kind of recession that we've experienced, you know, prior to this time. And, you know, if the Lord tarries and you're in good health, this money, you know, needs to last you several decades. And so, you know, that would be there to provide some of that growth engine, if you will.

How do you actually accomplish that? What are the actual, what's the actual allocation, the mix of stocks and bonds and the actual mutual funds you would select? Well, I'd recommend you visit with our friends at soundmindinvesting.org to talk about that. And they could actually give you those mutual funds that you would want to invest in. Or you could find a certified kingdom advisor there in Illinois.

You just head to our website moneywiselive.org and just click find a CKA. And this would be a professional who's has significant experience, but who's also been especially trained to bring a biblical worldview of money alongside their professional advice. And that individual could actually build this portfolio and manage it for you.

But I think the idea would be that you'd have this working for you generating a stable return, but then also having a growth component where the overall annual return objective might be four or five percent a year so that this money would, you know, continue to grow and you'd have it down the road. Does that sound like what you're looking for? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Okay, very good. You're welcome. soundmindinvesting.org or moneywiselive.org.

Just click find a CKA. We appreciate your call today. Well, that's going to do it for us, folks. We've covered a lot of ground today. We appreciate you being along with us. Let me say thank you to my team today, Amy Rios and Dan Anderson and Jim Henry. So glad to have them along with us today, making what I do sound easy.

And I couldn't do it without them. Hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow. I'll be here as we continue to unpack God's principles for your financial decisions. By the way, MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. God bless you.