3 Important Social Security Tips

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Almost all Americans fall into one of two groups. You're either receiving Social Security benefits or you will someday. So how do you make the most of it? Hi, I'm Rob West. You may be thinking that Social Security is something to think about later, but steps you make now can have a big impact on your future financial security. I'll tell you about three of them first today, then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Now I know that some of you, especially younger listeners, are thinking, why bother? Social Security won't be there for me anyway. Well, let's put that myth to rest right away. Yes, the Social Security trust fund is projected to run out in 2034 or 35, but that doesn't mean the program is going away. The worst case scenario is that benefits would have to be reduced, not eliminated.

But that's not likely to happen. Congress is famous for delaying important decisions, but there will come a time when lawmakers have to address Social Security's looming shortfall. Not wanting to face the wrath of millions of Social Security recipients who vote, they'll probably increase payroll taxes or extend the full retirement age, or both. Bottom line, Social Security will almost certainly be there when you retire. Now, another question we get frequently is, should I start receiving Social Security benefits at 62 or at full retirement age, age 66 or 67? We usually advise folks to wait if they can, because it means their check will increase by 8% each year. But certain individuals might do better by taking benefits early.

More on that in a minute. Okay, so the first Social Security tip is actually something you don't want to do. And that's to depend on Social Security as the only source of your retirement income. It was never intended to be more than about 40% of the average worker's pre-retirement income. But today, millions of elderly Americans depend on Social Security for 90% or more of their income. The average monthly Social Security check is $1,544 or $18,528 a year. You can do better than that if you wait until full retirement age at age 66 or 67 to retire.

The maximum benefit would then be $3,148 or $37,776 a year. But even then, you'll still need to supplement that income with earnings from a qualified retirement plan, a pension, or an annuity. I can't emphasize enough the importance of investing now for the day when age or health prevents you from working. The earlier you start, the longer you have for compound earnings to build. Okay, Social Security tip number two is taking steps now to maximize your benefits later. As I mentioned, you can elect to receive benefits at age 62, but your benefit check will be reduced by 8% for every year under your full retirement age. On the other hand, if you delay benefits beyond full retirement age, your benefits will increase by 8% a year up to age 70. So, for example, delaying from age 67 to 70 will boost your check by 24%, turning a $2,500 monthly check into $3,100.

There's one more reason to delay benefits if you're still working. If you start benefits before full retirement age, your check will be reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above $18,960. The only good news there is that you'll be reimbursed the amount withheld after you reach full retirement age. And after full retirement age, you can earn any amount without it affecting your benefits at all. You can also increase your benefit check by making sure you work a full 35 years. That's because the Social Security program considers your highest earning 35 years adjusted for inflation when figuring your benefit. So, if you work less than 35 years, it could affect the amount of your check. Also, if you're close to retiring and making more now than in earlier years, each year you delay will boost your highest 35, and that will increase your benefit check.

By the way, you can go to SSA.gov to set up a My Social Security account. Then you'll be able to see the record of your income and the payroll taxes you've paid, and you can estimate your future benefits. All right, our third and final Social Security tip is to coordinate with your spouse. Having a working spouse gives you more options. You can elect to have the one making less start receiving benefits earlier, while the higher earner delays benefits. That gives you some income earlier, but you're still increasing the other spouse's future benefit checks.

Well, I've thrown a lot of information at you, but it's important to learn as much as you can about Social Security. Hey, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. In just a moment, we'll be taking your calls and questions. We have some great questions stacked up and ready to go for you today with one line open.

Here's the number 800-525-7000. We're going to run your financial questions and conundrums through the biblical lens, looking at the Council of Scripture as it relates to money, recognizing first and foremost that God owns it all. That makes us his money managers, and money then becomes a tool to accomplish God's purposes. We should use it in a way that glorifies the Father and recognizes that we have an abundance, starting with the fact that he paid the penalty for our sins so that we could be reconciled to him. The substitutionary atonement of Jesus taking our place so that we could then be free to have a relationship with the Father, that's the beginning point. So we have more than we need before the first dollar, but then we want to be found faithful as managers of God's resources. Well, how do we do that?

I think we best do that with the Council of Scripture and in community. So we're going to tackle that together today, and we'll begin in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hi, Pearl, how can I assist you?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I'm 67 and already retired, getting Social Security, and I have upwards of 40 or so thousand in an IRA, it's a traditional IRA, and I was thinking about turning it over into gold. Hmm.

What do you think? Yeah, I'm not a particularly big fan of that strategy, Pearl, and here's why. You know, a lot of investors tend to flock to gold when fear rises in the market, and the reason is gold has a 4,000-year history of handling pretty much everything mankind can throw at it, and it's still standing at the end. And so when people, or when things get dicey, people get scared as they did, you know, in the, you know, the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the bear market was ramping up and it spurred a lot of interest in gold. And now with some of the uncertainties moving forward, you know, every decade has its challenges.

We certainly have ours now. Inflation is creeping up. We've obviously, you know, had incredible loose fiscal policy, which has resulted in a lot of liquidity in the markets, if you will. We've on the tail end potentially of a major bull market that certainly happened over the last couple of years, but even the decade before that, we're looking at the prospect of higher taxes. I mean, there's a host of issues out there, but to think that gold would be the place to go, the safe haven, if you will, I just don't think that's the right approach. You know, it tends to be much more volatile than the market. You know, if you look at 2011 to 2015, gold went from a $1,800 an ounce to just over $1,000 an ounce after having run up from $1,200 to $1,700 in late 2018. And so, you know, it's just tends to be very volatile. So my approach is to say it really shouldn't be more than 5% of an overall diversified portfolio. So still fairly small, number one. And number two, a great way to introduce that gold allocation would be not through physical possession, but buying what's called a tracking stock or an exchange traded fund that tracks the price of gold, the largest of which is one called GLD.

But there's a number of them out there. The nice thing is you're able to get the overall rise and fall of gold, again, as a part of your overall strategy, but it's got the liquidity that you don't have with physical possession. You also don't have to secure it.

And you're not paying markups on the buy and sell with a dealer. So I just think your better option, Pearl, regardless of what comes our way, is to have a properly diversified portfolio with an allocation that's consistent with the fact that you are 67 and retired and wanting to be conservative. And that should be driven largely by the income that you need to generate, if any, from this portfolio, not taking any unnecessary risk. But piling it all in gold, I think, is added risk because even though it's a safe haven, it does tend to be quite volatile.

I know I've thrown a lot at you. Give me your thoughts. I just I'm kind of concerned about the future, the future of America and the dollar. Yes, yes. Well, here's what I would say to that.

I mean, there's no question. Again, we have our challenges. But, you know, if you go back every decade over the last hundred years, there's been some major issues that we've worked our way through. We're still really, for all intents and purposes, the largest economy in the world. Yes, the dollar could have some challenges down the road. The problem is, what do you exchange it with when you put it up against the other currencies of the world?

There's really nothing that looks any better. So I don't see the dollar losing its reserve status. And, you know, I believe, especially given the purchasing power you're eroding through inflation, that the very best, most prudent way for you to grow wealth modestly in this season, take, you know, the conservative posture you need is by staying with a stock and bond portfolio that's properly allocated.

But I think even though, again, it is a store of value and a safe haven, there's still quite a bit of volatility, Parle, even more so than overall stock and bond investing if you were to overallocate in the precious metals. So I keep that to a five percent allocation. And if you need some assistance, connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in Albuquerque. You can find one when you visit our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click, find a CKA. And we appreciate your call today very much to Joliet, Illinois. Hi, Herbert. How can I help you, sir? Hi, Rob. How do you feel today? Very well. Thank you.

Look, I got a question. The Marcus Bank is advertising. They have a promotion going on. And you have until the end of the month to invest a minimum of five thousand dollars in a diversified investment program. What it is is that for the first 90 days, they will waive the advisory fee. And then after the 90 days, then the fees kick in. So they are also talking about additional fees in regard to this account. And they would be ancillary services and the type of funds that you might have in your program.

There will be fees attached to that. And so I'm just wondering, I got five thousand dollars in an online savings account and this is accessible to me and I'm 74 years old and retired. So I'm just wondering, would it be a wise move to make to invest in this program? Yeah, yeah.

Well, Herbert, I appreciate that. First question I would have is, is this five thousand dollars truly discretionary, available to be invested for the long haul? And I would want you to take at least a 10 year, the very minimum five year time horizon if you're going to invest this and know that you don't need it or at least have that expectation. So is this money that's truly available for investing or is this a part of your emergency fund?

No, it's available for investing. But I'm concerned about that 10 year mark since I'm 74 years old. I'm just wondering if I'm going to be around for that long.

If the Lord tarries and you're in good health, Herbert, you could need this money to last a couple of decades, sir. So I think time perhaps is on your side here. But at the end of the day, none of us knows the day or the hour. Right. So we're just going to be faithful with what we have while God has us here.

And clearly our calling doesn't have an expiration date until he's ready to call us home. In terms of how you should think about investing this, a robo-advisor, which is what this Marcus investment option is, can be a great way to go with a small amount of money. It's very low cost. And basically, as you input your information about your age and objectives, it'll build a low cost, diversified model portfolio using what are called index DTFs, exchange traded funds that just mirror the broad indexes. And so you'll have a certain percentage allocation to stocks and inside the stock allocation, you'll have international and domestic and large and mid and small cap and it'll be properly diversified.

And then you'll have an allocation of bonds and then some to cash and their algorithms. And they'll be good because Marcus is owned by Goldman Sachs, a very reputable investment banking house. Their model portfolios will just make sure you're constantly rebalanced and again, do it in a very cost effective way.

I wouldn't choose Marcus for this 90 day promotional though. I'd choose the one that you feel like is the best fit for you. Alongside this, I would look at the Schwab intelligent portfolios and I'd also take a look at Betterment. You can also see reviews on each of the robo advisors on nerdwallet.com. That's nerdwallet.com that they review and rate all of them. And you'll see that Betterment and Schwab intelligent portfolios, even the Vanguard advisor, which is very similar with a very similar strategy, typically rank very high. This is a new offering from Marcus, so we don't know quite what kind of rating they're going to get, but I suspect it'll be pretty good.

So I'd check those out, but then once you pick the one that's for you, I'd move ahead. I like this plan. We appreciate your call today. Much more to come on Money Wise Live. Stay with us. We're grateful you're along with us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

Appreciate your call so much. We love being invited into your story each day as you share what God's up to in your financial life, because keep in mind, you know, my experience is that your financial journey is one of the key ways that God shapes your spiritual journey. It really is a true reflection of our hearts.

Remember, Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Our heart follows our money, and the way we allocate God's money says a lot about where we place our trust and what we value, and so together we want to make sure that the way we're allocating God's money tells a story about what's most important to us. You know, one of the ways you can be in community with others on this journey is through our website at MoneyWiseLive.org. Once you create a free account, not only can you access all the great content from our content partners like the National Christian Foundation and Compass and Sound Mind Investing and Gospel Patrons and so many more, but you can also jump into our community, post a question, get responses from our coaches, find a Certified Kingdom Advisor, and even download the MoneyWise app to manage your spending using one of three different approaches for managing money. We've got it all there—MoneyWiseLive.org. And by the way, we can't do what we do without your support, so while you're there, would you consider contributing to the organization? You can click the donate button. It's a way that we fund our work because we're listener-supported, so everything we do from this broadcast to the app and the coaches, it's all as a result of your generous support. When you give between now and the end of the year at least $25, we'll send you as our thank you, the great new book Redeeming Money by Paul David Tripp. It's our gift to you. Again, the website MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click the donate button. Let's head back to the phones today. We've got some great questions stacked up from St. Louis and Boca. We're going to be in Dalton, Georgia.

But next up, it's Brownsburg, Indiana, WGNR. Hi, Debbie. How can I help you? Hi. Hi. A while back, you talked about putting a block or something on your credit report to where people would have to have a password to call and get a credit report. How do I do that?

Yeah, very good, Debbie. You know, this is called a credit freeze. It's been around for quite a while. You used to have to pay for it, but through some legislation that came out a little over a year ago, it's now required that the credit bureaus offer this free. You will have to set it up with each of the three major credit bureaus. If you do it once, it doesn't apply to the other two. So you'd want to go directly to TransUnion, Experian and Equifax and let them know that you want to do a credit freeze. You should be able to do that online and you'll want to make sure that you do apply it, but there shouldn't be any charge on that.

Now, what is that going to do for you? Well, you will have a PIN number that is assigned to your credit file, which just simply locks your credit report. So anytime someone is trying to open an account in your name, they will have to have that PIN number to unfreeze your credit report so that the lender can evaluate your credit worthiness. Well, if they can't supply the PIN number, the lender can't evaluate your credit, that account will be denied. That's going to prevent somebody from fraudulently opening an account in your name, which is the benefit of the credit freeze.

Now, as a part of this, you'll want to find out how long that freeze lasts so you can renew it or update it at the appropriate time. Does all that make sense? Yes, thank you. Okay, very good. I think it's a great idea to do, especially in this age where we're seeing more and more fraud online with all of the online transactions. So I wholly support your idea here, Debbie, and we appreciate you checking in with us.

Alice is up next in Dalton, Georgia. Go right ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. I'm 62 and a half. I currently make less than half of what I was making 15 or 20 years ago. And I don't expect that to change before I fully retire. I keep looking at the Social Security and something somebody told me made me understand that if I keep making less, that my Social Security will decrease.

Yeah, well, here's the thing. So the way that your Social Security is calculated is based on something called the high 35, which just simply means that they look at your 35 years of highest earnings, and they use those earnings that you paid into Social Security through your payroll taxes to determine what your monthly benefit is going to be. And the higher the income for those high 35, the more your check will be. So oftentimes, what we see is that later in life, people's earning power increases. And so in those years leading up to retirement, often they're replacing some of the lower earning years with higher years.

In your case, you might not be, but that doesn't change anything. It just means you're not going to be increasing it. It's going to be based on the highest 35 years that have already been established. So you're not replacing any of those lower years. But that doesn't mean you should start taking it because when you take it at 62, instead of full retirement age, you're probably taking about a 25 to 30% reduction.

So if you can, I'd wait till full retirement age, even though that check is not increasing by your income earning potential. Stay on the line, and we'll talk a bit more off the air. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host.

This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We're delighted to have you with us today. Let's head back to the phones. Next up is Rosalinda in Florida. Hi, Rosalinda.

How can I help? Hi. Good afternoon, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. I'm 71 years old. I'm a widow and just had the social security income, but I have a 30,000 CD that's coming due that I really don't need right now. And I just want some income or if I can get some safe investment that I can put that.

Yes. Well, the key there is safe. So anytime you're investing it, you're taking a risk. Now, there's different levels of risk depending on what investment you choose.

If you don't want to take any risk and you'd rather transfer that risk, one option is to transfer it to an insurance company. And that's when you would use what's called an annuity. Those are not my preferred option for investing because they tend to be complicated. You'll tie up your capital and you'll have surrender penalties and charges to get it back. And the returns tend to be a bit less than you might be able to do otherwise. But you're again not taking the risk. You could get a guaranteed return for that annuity to allow it to accumulate over time or to what's called annuitize where you're converting that in this case 31,000 into an income stream for the rest of your life.

So that's one option. If you're okay taking risk, but just making sure that that's modest risk, you would design or have someone designed for you an investment strategy of largely bonds, fixed income type investments with some smaller allocation to stocks so that you could achieve not an eight or ten percent return as an objective, but maybe a three, four or five percent return. So you're trying to outpace inflation. You're doing certainly better than you could do in a savings account. But you're trying to grow the account so that you can pull an income off of it. How much are you planning to pull out every month, Rosa Linda, out of this 31,000? Okay, nothing right now because I have an IRA and I will be taking that mandatory distribution next year because I'll be 72 next year and I have a 10 over 10,000 on that and I can use that and I still have a savings for emergency that's over 20,000 that I'm, you know, so I just want that 31,000 for, you know, emergency investment that I can have. I have something to look forward, a little income. Yes.

Every month. Sure. Well, what I would probably do, I mean, again, if you're looking to, you know, have a guaranteed return on this where you don't have the potential of losing any value, then you'd probably want to look at an insurance product like an annuity and you could contact a certified kingdom advisor in your area to help you understand what options are available. Apart from that, I would look to invest it but on a conservative basis and our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could help you with that or you could use one of the robo advisors that we mentioned earlier on the broadcast, Betterment or Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or even the Vanguard Advisor which based on your age of nearly 72 and your objectives, it would design a very low cost but very conservative largely bond portfolio where you could see some growth over time and then hopefully when you need it, you could draw some income but you are taking risk. Anytime you're investing in the market, there's risk associated with it so the principal balance of 31,000 could lose value as opposed to what you've been in with a CD. So I think you just got to figure out kind of where on this risk spectrum you fall. Are you willing to take a little bit of risk for a better return or do you want to put it back in the CD although they're not paying very much or do you want to look toward an insurance product and I think a certified kingdom advisor could help you figure that out. Just head to our website MoneyWiseLive.org and click find a CKA and we appreciate your call. On to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Hi Chris, how can I help? Hi Rob, my question is when you mentioned about social security, my wife's one year away from taking social security and that would be at 62 and a half and our plan was that she would do that but when you mentioned she might get deferred from income because she's making too much. We don't make any money from income, we do make passive income and I wanted to know how passive income plays into if she would get a deferral on her social security. Yeah, when you're talking about a deferral, I mean there is a reduction in the benefit if you earn over roughly $18,900 a year and you take your benefits prior to full retirement age, a dollar for every $2 you earn over that threshold but that's a temporary reduction. They restore that to you after full retirement age in increments until you're paid back in full. Otherwise, you know by collecting it now, she's no longer replacing lower earning years that would cause her benefit. Well, actually I should say this, you can still increase it by continuing to work if you're earning more than you had earned previously.

Where you're locking it in is by claiming the benefits, you're you know going to be at a reduced level by about 25 to 30 percent at age 22 versus waiting till full retirement age. So, does that clarify it or do you have additional questions about that? Yeah, I guess it was more specific regarding passive income. So, the income comes from rental property and she doesn't work but it doesn't matter.

I don't know. It does, yeah. So, well it doesn't include passive income in the determination of benefit payments. So, you know generally the IRS views rental income as passive and so I would check with your CPA to make sure that in fact the way yours are structured that would be the case. You know investment incomes typically you know interest, pensions, capital gains, you know rental income, things like that.

But again, ultimately it comes down to I would check with a professional just to make sure that you understand based on what she's earning does it apply or not because you certainly don't want to get that wrong and be thinking one thing and then realize you owe some taxes or you haven't reported it properly. So, I hope that helps Chris. We appreciate your call today and thanks for checking in with us.

God bless you. Well folks, we're going to head to a break here in just a moment. Let me give out the phone number because we've got still some time to take your calls and questions and a few lines open.

Here's the number 800-525-7000. A quick email before we go to break. This is from Amy. She says, I just sold a piece of property and bought a new home. I made $65,000. Should I be paying a 10% tithe on the profit? And I would just simply say, first of all, Amy, I appreciate your generous heart and yes, if you're trying to apply the principle of the tithe which is to give on the increase a tenth to your income or excuse me to your increase, that would be your increase. It would be not the selling price but the profit which you've said is $65,000. How do you calculate that?

Well, it's just simply the original or excuse me, the selling price minus the original purchase price minus any improvements you made to the property that are going to stay with it to increase the value and then any transaction costs and that net number, if you will, is your profit. That's your increase and if you want to tithe on that, I would take a tenth of that amount and give that to the Lord. We appreciate you checking in with us, Amy. Well, we're going to pause for a brief break when we come back. Many more of your questions. We'll talk about indexed annuities and how do you value valuables that you want to get rid of?

A few more social security questions as well. Stay with us. Much more to come. We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. We're grateful to have you along with us today. I'm Rob West, your host. Let's head right back to the phones.

St. Louis, Missouri. Hi, Rick. How can I help? Hi.

Thanks for taking the call. I was just curious if there's a way or a formula for a rule of thumb to go about selling new stuff. I've got art that is expensive, but when I put it on sale to sell, they only wanted to give me 100 bucks out of a thing that's valued at 1,600. Is there a rule of thumb where you just walk away and not sell it? Well, I think it's just how badly do you need to sell because at the end of the day, if you can establish the true value of it, I wouldn't necessarily sell for any discount on it. I think the question is, are you trying to sell it in the right place to the right buyers who actually place value on what you're selling at an appropriate level and are willing to come to an agreement?

I think the starting point is right in that you need to establish the true value of these collectibles depending on what they are, and you can do that a number of ways. You can look at auction selling prices. You can look at some of the online price guides.

There's written price guides out there. There's appraisal services on and offline. Local antique and collectible dealers could be a source. Depending on whether this is a big ticket item or not, you may want to pay somebody for an appraisal on a particular valuable. And then you need to find the best and most reputable places, again, on and offline to sell. And it could be that you're just selling to folks that truly aren't interested as much in the valuables that you have and wanting to get it at a significant discount versus some other places that may give you an audience of people that really like what you have. They're seeking for these types of valuables and are willing to pay the appropriate rates. Obviously, if you're in a difficult financial spot, you may be willing to take less than if you have time on your side, and you can wait it out for somebody who's willing to pay you what it's truly worth. But I think that's the key is you need to make sure you're looking at a reasonable and appropriate valuation so that you're not waiting for somebody to pay something that's just unrealistic. And that's where I think a lot of these tools both on and offline can be helpful to you.

So I definitely wouldn't take a 50% hit on this and, you know, in some cases, not even a 75, you know, even 75% of the value is not enough because, again, why are you having to take a 25% discount if you got a proper valuation in the first place? Does that make sense? Oh, yes, it does. And I appreciate your help with this matter. You're very welcome. We appreciate your call today, Rick. God bless you. On to Cleveland, Tennessee. Hi, Mike. How can I assist you?

Hello there. Well, I'm 69 years old, retired from pastoral ministry of about 40 years, and somewhere back in the 80s or so opted out of Social Security because the guy that advised us said it wouldn't be there when we when we finally got ready to retire. But I had put in enough quarters or however the Social Security system works to still draw about $1,000 a month. So my question is, I'm working out part time. If I make more money in a year currently than I did in one of those previous years, 30 years ago, will my Social Security go up?

Yes, absolutely. You can increase your Social Security benefit at any time, even via part time work during retirement, by replacing those zero or low income years with a higher income year. So you will continue to see that increase as you replace those years, even now as you continue to work. Okay, so does Social Security automatically do that? Can I trust them to do that? Or do I need to contact them and say I made more money?

No, no, as it's reported, that should happen automatically. But it doesn't mean you can't keep a close watch on that, a close watch on making sure that, you know, that additional income is being reported. They'll send you a statement every year showing that and that that check is increasing on a commensurate basis.

You can also schedule a meeting virtually or in person just to ask those questions and make sure that they can explain to you that that has been reflected as you move forward. So all the best to you in this season of life. And I know as you continue to work, and if you can see that check increase, especially with some of the rises in the prices of goods and services these days, every little bit helps. I'm sure you will be grateful for that. Mike, we appreciate your call. WNBI on to Chicago, Illinois. Hi, Dolores.

How can I help you? Yes, I was to a seminar a week ago or so and the scout kept pushing these fixed index annuities and how good they were. And it's always a win-win situation. And can you tell me does the prince is it just that you keep your principal all the time? Give me a little bit more insight, because I can't essentially what this is, is an insurance product, an annuity contract that pays an interest rate based on the performance of a specific market index. So think S&P 500, the 500 largest growth stocks in the United States could be an example, which is different than a fixed annuity that pays a fixed rate of interest and variable annuities, which base their interest rate on a portfolio of securities that are stocks that are chosen by the owner of the annuity.

In this case, that would be you. So this is tied to an index. And oftentimes, there's a floor to it that just simply says, you're not going to get 100% of the upside of the index, you're going to get a portion of it, but they're going to cap the loss so you can't lose value. And for somebody who's really concerned about preserving their capital, they're willing to give up a little bit of the upside in exchange for the loss of their capital, because you're turning it over to the insurance company, and they're in exchange for the floor on the investments, so that you're guaranteed you don't lose any value.

Is it my preferred approach? No, I'd prefer you still keep access to your money, not get into, you know, these complicated products that are very difficult to understand, and get the full upside of the growth of whatever your investments are over time, but you absolutely are taking some risk and you could lose principal value. Whereas in the case of this annuity, you're transferring that risk to the insurance company, but they have to make a profit. So you're giving up something.

And what you're giving up is fees, the loss of your money, and you know, they're not giving you 100% of the returns on those indexes. They're keeping a portion of that. Does that make sense? Yeah, well, I didn't think it was a win-win situation all around because she really buttered it up. She said that if you had $20,000 in there, and I guess you had it for 10 years, you get a 25% bonus.

I mean, that doesn't make sense. Yeah, that sounds a little rich. I'd probably have another objective third party look over anything that you are being sold, especially if there's a meal involved before you do it. But listen, all the best to you. If you need a second opinion, connect with a certified Kingdom Advisor there in Chicago.

You can find one at MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click find a CKA. All the best to you, Dolores.

On to Tampa, Florida. Hi, Rebecca, how can I help you? Yeah, I had a conversation with a family member. She's 72. She's still working. And she's convinced that at her age, and she's getting her full Social Security, that she can make as much money as she wants. And there not be any taxes or anything. She's convinced that at her age, she can make as much money as she wants. So I wasn't sure about that.

I wanted to find out. No, that's not true. So it just depends upon the year. And it does depend upon your age. But there would be a point at which your earnings would be taxable.

I believe over 65 this year would be around $26,100. But you'd want to check with your tax preparer. But there is no free lunch. So it's not unlimited.

There's a certain threshold, but certainly not unlimited. So you can pass that along. And I'd have her connect with a tax preparer, a CPA or account to make sure she's filing properly and paying all the tax she owes. You certainly wouldn't want to find out down the road that she owes tax to the IRS. And we appreciate your call.

We're going to finish in Florida. Desiree, thank you for your patience. How can I help you?

Yes, I have a question. My husband is going to be retiring in a year. And he actually has two pensions, one's a 25 year pension. And another one is a 15 year pension plus he has a 401k. And we were told that when we go to withdraw any of that money, because we wanted to purchase a home, that we would be taxed 20% on that. Is there any way of getting around that?

No. When you take that money out, it is going to be taxable. And, you know, it's going to depend upon how much income you have as to what rate it will be taxed at.

And so I would check with your tax preparer just to determine exactly how much will be withheld and ultimately what tax will be owed, but it will be taxable. So you'll want to understand that going into it. And you can pay those on a timely basis and not be caught off guard with any surprises. And listen, all the best to you and your husband in the days ahead as you enter this exciting season of your life. And we appreciate your call today. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us.

We've covered a lot of ground today. You know, as we think about managing God's money, and we think about really the five things we can do with money, we can live on it, we can give it away, we can pay our taxes, we can pay our debt, we can save it for the future. You know, that's all we can do with money.

The question is, what's the priority use of that? And what does God's word say about how we should handle money? And I think, you know, if we begin with our giving, and we say, God, we serve a generous God, and we want to reflect that by holding what you've given to us loosely.

Let's build that in on the front end. And then let's pray and say, Lord, what lifestyle have you called me to? How much is enough? Both for lifestyle, meaning your cash flow, what you spend on a monthly basis, and your balaji, what you, you know, save for the future. And then we order our finances on the rest, creating margin so we can respond to the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, that's going to give us freedom, contentment, and joy. We appreciate you being on this journey with us.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I want to say thank you to my team today, Robert Sutherland, Eric Tidwell, Amy Rios, and Dan Anderson. Thank you for being here as well. Come back and join us tomorrow, will you? I'll be here. God bless you. Bye-bye.