6 Life Changing Principles

The eminent 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.

Hi, I'm Rob West. When we apply wisdom to our lives, our lives change for the better. Nowhere is that more true than with money. Today I'll talk with Ron Blue about six life-changing bits of financial wisdom you need to know. That's 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, our guest is financial author and teacher Ron Blue, founder of Kingdom Advisors and my good friend and mentor Ron. Always great to have you with us. Well, Rob, it's good to be back too. Judy and I have moved from Atlanta back to Indiana, so I miss seeing you.

We miss seeing you, but you're only a Zoom call away, and that's something we've become very familiar with these days. Ron, as you know, members of Kingdom Advisors go through exhaustive training to help their clients apply God's financial principles in their lives. You've written most of that training material, and I know you've boiled it down in your teaching to six life-changing principles that everyone needs to grasp, and I'd love to unpack those today, the first of which is understanding that God owns it all.

Why is that first on the list? Well, actually, Rob, everything flows out of that, because you can't be a steward unless you know who the owner is, and when God owns it all, He's the owner, and the Bible clearly states that in Psalm 24, which is just one of many verses, proclaiming God's creation and His complete ownership. And Psalm 24 one says, The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. So that's the fundamental beginning place on money management from a biblical perspective. Yeah, and as you said, everything flows from that.

All right, God owns it all. What's next? Well, somebody asked me one time when I was walking out of church, they said, You're a financial advisor, aren't you? And I said, Yes.

And they said, What would you advise? I said, Spend less than you earn and keep doing it for a long time. And that really is the first money management principle.

It's so simple. But you have to live within your income, or you'll never have any margin in your life. Proverbs 1311 tells us dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. And if you don't understand that and spend less than you earn, you can't save for the future because there's no money left to do it. So you have to create margin in your finances by living within your income. And of course, that makes perfect sense, because it comes right out of God's Word. All right, principle number three.

Well, that should come as no surprise to people that have listened to this program. And that is to avoid debt. The Bible never says that borrowing money is a sin. And there are times when borrowing may make financial sense, maybe college education or Christian school education or something like that.

It may. But the Bible also never paints that in a positive light. And it often warns against it. Proverbs 22 says, puts it this way, and that's that a lot of people don't like to think about this. And that is the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slaves to the lender. And there are no exceptions to that.

Yeah, it couldn't be more clear. All right, the next principle. Well, now that you're understanding that you're a steward and God owns it all, and you're living within your income, really, the first thing to do is to build some liquidity. And that's an accounting term that I'm a CPA by background.

So that's my term, I'm sorry. But what it really means is saving up for an emergency. Proverbs six, six through eight says this, go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise.

It has no compander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provision in summer and gathers its food at harvest. And of course, we always advise having three to six months living expenses in that emergency fund in case of the unexpected. All right, I think we're up to number five, Ron. Well, that's a really simple one to say. And it's lifelong. And that is to continue to set long term goals, so that you prioritize your spending now that you're spending less than you're earning. Yeah, and that's key.

And then the final one, I know it's one of your favorites. Well, for sure. And that is to rejoice in generosity. And if you follow all these principles, you're very likely to be financially well off, if you will, compared to your contemporaries. So generosity is a natural outcome of following these principles.

Well, when we hold it loosely and recognize God's ownership, generosity is inevitable to follow behind it, and a fitting way to end our time together. Ron, thanks for stopping by. Financial teacher and author Ron Blue has been our guest today. Your calls are next.

800-525-7000. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

So grateful for my friend and mentor Ron Blue stopping by today. Could it be that simple? Could it be that if we just live within our means and avoid debt and have some margin or liquidity and set long term goals and give generously that we put ourselves in a position to experience God's best in this area of financial management?

Well, I think it is that simple. When we look at the Council of Scripture, if you do those five things and do them for a long, long time, doesn't mean you won't have some challenges. That's not promised to us in God's word, but it does mean we can count on the Lord's promises to be true, that he'll never leave us or forsake us and that he will provide for our needs. And we put ourselves in a position by following his wisdom and principles to experience his best. And when we go through those difficult times, and we will, and God's people need to come around us and help along the way. I believe even in those difficulties, we'll be able to say, Lord, what do you want me to learn? And I can still live with contentment and we'll be prepared for the unexpected because when we have that margin, then we can have surplus and build up reserves. Doesn't mean we depend on our bank accounts. Ultimately, our trust is in the Lord.

But again, we put ourselves in a position to be able to ride out those storms of life and they will come. What are your questions today? What are you struggling with financially? We'd love to be of help to you. The number to call 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's head to the phones.

So we're going to begin today in Florida. Hi, Charlie. Thank you for calling. How can I help you, sir? Hey, thanks so much for taking my call today, Rob.

I've got a real good friend that's going to inherit close to half a million dollars. He came to me and said, you know, what do I do? I said, well, you need to contact every really rich friend you've got to help you because I can't tell you. But I said I would try to find some resources.

And so I went online and tried to find one of your Kingdom advisors and I couldn't get that information to come up. So I made the call and then the screener said, hey, give him a call and let's talk about it maybe on the air. So my friend, you know, he's 30. He's married, his wife and a child and one on the way. He's relatively debt free, has a good job making about a hundred thousand a year. And he's just in a position, I think, now where he could take this money and invest it wisely.

In 20 years, if he wanted to retire, he could live an incredible retired life and even his children after that. But I don't know where to direct him or tell him which way to go. So I figured maybe somebody on your staff or Mike could give me some direction. Well, I'd be happy to give you some of my thoughts. And then I do think connecting him with a certified Kingdom advisor would be key. And if there's not one in his immediate area, you could, well, I'll get your information or have my producer get your information and we'll reach out to you.

And if you'd like us to, to him and see if we can connect him with somebody. I think the first time when we're, you know, when we're receiving a windfall, the first thing we need to do is, first of all, just recognize that it's God's provision and recognize the incredible responsibility that comes with it. Because we're now a steward of these resources. Whoever decided to leave this inheritance to him made a stewardship decision to pass it on to him as the next steward. And because he's married to he and his wife as one flesh. So acknowledge that responsibility. It doesn't mean we should be fearful or concerned that we're going to get it wrong or scared. But I think it's important to say this is God's money and I want to be found faithful because it puts those resources in the proper context, which is I'm God's the owner.

I'm the manager. And this money is a tool to accomplish his purposes. I think the second thing is to decide if any giving should take place. And that's not something I or you can tell him. It's between he and his wife and the Lord.

But I would be asking that question. I think the next thing, you know, after you acknowledge your role and think about and pray about any giving is really then just to look at this money in light of your priorities. You know, the tendency would be with a windfall like this to increase lifestyle spending automatically. You know, so often as we get raises and I realize this was an inheritance, which is a little different, but our level of spending typically rises to our level of income unless we protest to the contrary. And the same can be true with a windfall like this. And so I think, you know, being mindful about that and praying and saying, Lord, what lifestyle have you called us to? And if we have what we need right now, there's no reason to buy a bigger home.

There's no reason to buy a more expensive car. Perhaps we're right where we need to be. And therefore, this money is then available to give, to invest for the future. And then I think the step after that is really in light of that prayerful consideration and goal setting around the use of this money, whether that's to shore up an emergency fund or pay down debt, whatever portion is going to be invested for the long haul is to get some wise counsel. Because, you know, anytime we're talking about a significant amount of money to be invested, and this would certainly be a significant amount of money, you know, I think the Bible is replete with wisdom around seeking wise counsel. Having somebody who can walk alongside he and his wife to say, where is God taking you and how should this be invested and what's the appropriate level of risk? And then what does that portfolio of diversified investments looks like that matches that level of risk, not to beat your brother-in-law's, you know, returns down the street or, you know, beat an index per se, but to really only take the amount of risk that's necessary to accomplish the goals that he and his wife have. And the other benefit, in addition to the expertise on the investment management that the advisor can bring, especially a godly advisor who understands their values as believers, is accountability. You know, we can't hold ourselves accountable. So having somebody that's a third party to say to the wife, what does this mean to you?

And, you know, what do you think about these decisions? And then the same to the husband and then to hold them accountable to the goals that they've set. Now, those can change over time, but I think that's a really indispensable role. And then I think the final thing would just be that they should be on their guard about perhaps people coming out of the woodworks, family and friends that know that this money has been inherited. And whether they have good intentions or not, you know, what can happen is folks start saying, hey, can I borrow some money?

Can I, you know, can I have some money? And, you know, that can cause a strain in relationships, and that's one of the benefits of having a plan and getting it in place and invested and, you know, paid down the debt and do the giving. Because then that money is not just sitting there where folks can say, you know, can you help me out with this? And they may decide to do some of that, but, you know, that can also cause strained relationships as well. And that's where a plan, I think, can really help to avoid some of that. So those would be kind of my thoughts on where he goes from here, how you might counsel him.

The last thing I'll say is I'd love for you, when we're done here today, to hold on the line. And in addition to us getting your information to connect you with an advisor, I'd like to send you a copy of Ron Blue's book, Master Your Money. We started the program today talking with Ron. This is really just such a great overview of God's Word as it relates to all the financial decision-making areas. And I think as he reads through it, perhaps now with a fresh vision, knowing this money has been entrusted to him, it'll give him some real confidence to know that he's handling this God's way.

Charlie, tell me your thoughts on that, though. Well, it sounds like to me, Rob, you've got some very sound advice. I think I was listening to each one of your directions and I was going to say, well, I'm on track here, I'm on track here, but, okay, well, it's the giving and the goals where I hadn't put much thought into it. I said, you know, I know giving is part of their daily routine, but how much and all that, I guess, is something we need to go ahead and think about. And we are trying to keep it on the very much down low, and I think we can, so that the people don't come out of the woodworks kind of thing. But I appreciate it so much.

I think I didn't have the resources, but I knew enough to be able to make some calls and do some research that we might could find the answer for him. So it's great. I appreciate your help today. Well, I'm delighted that you're there to walk alongside him as he thinks about this responsibility, and it's a privilege and an honor to manage resources for the King of Kings. We all want to get it right.

I think also just final as a one more thought to wrap this up would be this really underscores the need, Charlie, for them, he and his wife, to be thinking about finish lines. You know, we want to set financial finish lines both with lifestyle, we talked about that, but also with our balance sheet on the accumulation side. What is our ultimate goal in terms of what we want to save? We don't just save for saving sake and just to build bigger barns.

We saw that that individual in the Bible was called the rich fool. Right. So we want to set reasonable goals for accumulation that makes sense. And when we're on track to achieve those, that gives us even greater flexibility for more giving both now and in the future. So beginning to think through that with a godly advisor, I think would make a lot of sense. So we appreciate your call today very much. You hold the line. We'll get your information, get you that book from Ron Blue right in the mail.

Again, it's called Master Your Money. And then we'll get your information if we can help connect you with a CKA that you could pass on or two or three. We'll certainly do that. We appreciate your call today. This is Money Wise Live biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. When we come back, we'll talk about buying a piece of property to turn into an Airbnb.

We'll talk about a retirement investment portfolio and paying off credit card debt. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. So glad you're along with us today.

Two lines open 800-525-7000. We'll head back to the phones in just a moment. But first, let me invite you to become a financial partner of ours here at Money Wise Media. We do what we do each day as a direct result of your support.

We are, in fact, listener supported. So if you consider yourself a part of the Money Wise family, we'd invite you to be a giver as well. You can do that quickly and easily online, moneywise.org. Just click the donate button. When you do, you can give online securely. You can mail a check in. You'll find an address there. Or you can call the toll-free number, talk to one of our team members, and they will help you facilitate that giving as well. Whether you become a monthly partner or a one-time giver, we'd be grateful for whatever you can do beyond the giving to your local church. Again, moneywise.org. Just click the donate button and all the details will be there. All right, in just a moment, we'll be in Indiana and Michigan and Missouri.

But first, the beautiful Great Falls, Montana. How can we help you, Hillary? Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. Just calling. My husband and I are – we're in our early 30s. We've got a young family, growing family. We've built a house kind of as a, you know, just paying it while we had the money kind of thing. So we have no debt.

The place for us next door is an empty lot and it's for sale, and we're considering taking out a mortgage on our home to build an Airbnb there. But we're feeling like we just are not clear whether that's a wise decision to do. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I think it's one you want to proceed with very carefully, for sure. You know, as we think about taking on a business, and that's essentially what this would be, we want to make sure that our personal finances are prepared for it. We've got a good foundation under us. Being out of debt is certainly one of those check boxes and you've checked that one and that's a great thing. Making sure you have proper reserves, that you've got a fully funded emergency fund, that you've got income that to the best of your knowledge is reliable and will support you.

Because if you're going to take on debt of any kind to start a business, whether that's to build a piece of property to rent it out or to buy a business or a franchise, obviously servicing that debt is going to be key. And, you know, if things are good right now in terms of the economy and consumer demand, and especially as it relates to vacations now that we're, Lord willing, kind of emerging in the next several months from the current state of the pandemic, moving perhaps more toward an endemic. We're seeing people get out and travel. We've got a strong real estate market. But what if a couple of years from now we were to get into a recession?

What would that do? And the extent to which you're having to service debt when perhaps you don't have as many folks coming through and occupying your Airbnb. We just want to make sure that you'd never put yourself at risk. So, you know, the one red flag I would hear about this as you describe it, Hillary, is that you are taking this on your personal residence. I'd love for you to separate this from your domicile if possible, which would mean you could get a construction loan that would ultimately be collateralized by this new dwelling, which allows you to keep it separate from your personal finances. So if something were to happen unforeseen and you were to lose this home, you're not putting your personal residence at risk. I realize the downside of that is it's going to be a bit more expensive because you're not going to be able to enjoy as good of an interest rate on a home that's not your primary residence. Second thing is I'd love for you to ultimately have no more with an investment property than 50% loan to value, which means you may need to save a bit longer before you do this.

And the benefit of that is it just keeps the debt service manageable. So if you got into one of those difficult spots where you didn't have it occupied as much, and, you know, perhaps there was periods of time where you didn't have anybody in there, you had some repairs, although with a new place you shouldn't have much, it would take some of the pressure off where, you know, hopefully you build up quite a reserve account by only having to service a 50% mortgage loan to value that would help you versus having 80 or 90%. Beyond that, I would just want to make sure you've done the research to be sure there's enough demand that you know kind of what that looks like. And then finally, do you have the time to spare to run it?

I've got some friends who do this as a full-time business and they have multiple properties, but it can take some time. So you just want to be honest with yourself about, you know, what that's going to do to your quality of life and whether you have that time available. But as long as you've prayed through it, you've thought through these things, you've done your research and you feel like your finances are ready for it, especially if you could separate it from your personal home, then I would say there's nothing that says you shouldn't proceed prayerfully. We appreciate your call today, Hillary. Thanks for thinking of us. We're going to pause for a brief break when we come back, more of your questions right here on MoneyWise Live.

Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Taking your calls and questions, one line remaining open, 800-525-7000.

We'll head right back to the phones here in just a moment. Have you downloaded the MoneyWise app? If not, we'd love for you to check it out. Just head over to your app store, the Google Play or the Apple App Store and search for MoneyWise biblical finance. What you'll find is the ability to access all of our great content from 15 content providers, the best and leading voices in Christian finance. Today, you'll find broadcast archives from this radio program.

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I'd love for you to download it today. If you want to learn more, you can check it out on our website at MoneyWise.org. Back to the phone, St. Louis, Missouri. Hey Max, how can I help you?

Yes, Rob. I'm trying to figure out, one, should we retire and then do I have enough to retire? I'm 70. My wife is several years younger.

She's already retired. We have both activated Social Security and we have a couple of small pensions coming in. We have an emergency fund of about 10 months. Thanks to God's blessings, we give about 15% of gross to Christian organizations. I'm still working three days a week.

The only thing that would really have to be replaced is my current salary. Currently, I've listened to your show. I listen to your show via One Place Podcast. Sure.

You talk about multiples. Roughly, the market goes up and down, but we have a multiple of 18 of my current salary. I'm thinking I have enough to retire, but then there's a question, should we retire? Then I have a couple of other questions.

Yeah, sure. The retirement conversation is both financial and non-financial, of course. The financial side is pretty easy to calculate in the sense that we want to determine, and it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on this, exactly what are our lifestyle needs. What does it take to fund our expenses on a monthly basis? Then what income sources do we have? It's easy to figure out what your pension checks are and Social Security.

Great to hear you're giving regularly. You've got a healthy emergency fund, and then you've got these investments or savings that you've put aside. Then the question is, what kind of rate of return would we need to achieve on that to offset whatever gap exists between your living expenses and what you're bringing in from guaranteed income sources without working? Then just see whether that's reasonable to expect that we could offset that by not taking an inordinate amount of risk such that that account could sustain you throughout the rest of your life if the Lord were to tarry and you live to be 100 years old or more.

I realize that means this money needs to last decades, and that's why we want to make sure that we are outpacing inflation and we've got some growth component to it, but we're not taking unnecessary risk. What is that amount, Max, that you would need to bring in each month if you stopped working? Each month? Or yearly.

Either one. Well, it'd be about $6,000 a month, not including what we're getting from Social Security and pension. So that would be the replacement of the salary. By working three days a week, you're bringing in about $6,000 a month currently. Right. I think you said a multiple of 10 is adequate.

Yeah, 10 to 12 times is usually enough, because keep in mind, most folks live on 70% or so of their pre-retirement income, and then when you add Social Security and other sources, a lot of times that will do it. How much do you have set aside in long-term savings, if you don't mind me asking? About a million and a half. Okay.

All right. What is that currently in? Is it in a money market or is it invested? It's invested. I've always believed in diversified investments. I learned that a long time ago. Yeah.

Well, so that's great. And are you doing that yourself or do you have somebody managing that for you? It's pretty easy these days with Fidelity Vanguard. So you're using index funds?

I picked up funds. Well, I don't have index funds, but they're long-term, mid-term, short-term bonds, and then there's large, mid, and small cap, and there's value and growth, and that's what I've been doing for years. What's roughly the breakdown between the bonds and the stocks? Well, we have about 50 percent and just a small interest account because I kind of wanted to shelter it from the market when I hit 65, 66. But the rest of it is pretty much 100 percent stocks, and again, it's the diversified, large, mid, and small cap value and growth funds with Fidelity and Vanguard. Yeah.

Very good. Well, I think the key here is just comparing what you've got, the roughly million and a half. We typically use that 4 percent number. Some folks think you should be able to get a little bit more. Others want to be a little bit more conservative, but you've done the math, I'm sure.

That would throw off about $60,000 a year or $5,000 a month, not quite the $6,000 a month you're looking for, which means you'd have to probably bump that up to about 5 percent a year in order to offset what you're bringing in currently if you were to stop working. And then the question is, how do you go about that? What's the appropriate level of risk to take given that we've had a really strong market for the last decade, certainly the last couple of years, but even the 10 years before that? And we've got some challenges on the horizon.

Could we roll over cyclically? Could we hit a recession here? What about inflation? We've got rising interest rates. The Fed's making some pretty significant changes versus what they have been doing since 2009. How's that going to affect the market return? So it's going to be choppy, and I think the key is, A, you're comfortable continuing to manage it, and B, are you willing to absorb the downside by being perhaps a little bit more invested in stocks than I would typically want you to be with this kind of portfolio, especially if you stop working? I'd probably like something more like 30 percent in stocks, where not quite 50, because if we were to have a significant decline, 20, 30-plus percent, what would that do to your peace of mind? And would you be willing to weather that in a paper loss without feeling like you need to make some changes? That type of thing.

So I think that's the key. It all comes down to what is the right allocation and who is making the buy and sell decisions, and that's really going to govern it. As to whether non-financially you should retire, I think that's a conversation between you and your wife and the Lord. How does he want you to use your time? Where is he leading you? All of these things I think are important to consider.

So I think you've got some things to think about. We'll pause for a brief break, but Max, I'd love to talk to you just a bit more off the air, because this is just a lot of fun to think about, and I appreciate your approach. Folks, stay with us. We'll be back with MoneyWise Live right after this.

Delighted to have you along with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob Last, your host, taking your calls and questions on anything financial. Let's head right back to the phones. Ben has been waiting patiently in Michigan. Ben, how can I help you, sir? Hey, Rob. Thanks for taking my call.

I'll try to make it as simple as possible. So I've worked myself in a little bit of a mess. I have about $50,000 in credit card debt. I do have a rental property, and it generates roughly $2,750 a month. And I'm just wondering if something I should sell to pay off credit card debt. The other side of that, with my job, I net about $2,700 a month. So if I were to sell the property, that would cut my income in half, but it would eliminate a lot of debt.

And so just looking for some wisdom. Sure. So run back through some of these numbers again real quick.

I think I got some of it. You have $50,000 in credit card debt, and you said the property is worth how much? About $365,000.

All right. And what do you owe on it? I owe, I have $65,000 on the mortgage, and then there's a $50,000 equity line on it as well. Okay. So you owe about $115,000 on $365,000, so you could walk away with $250,000 if you were to sell it.

And you say you're generating how much, and obviously less expenses because you'd have realtor and so forth, but how much are you generating in free cash flow on this property each month? Nets $2,750 a month. Okay. All right. So you drop $2,750 in income, and what are you paying right now to service that $50,000 in debt?

Just the minimum, $500 a month. Okay. Across all of it, about 1%.

All right. You know, I think, I mean, that's the first question is just recognizing that loss of income and kind of how you would right-size your budget as a result of that. I guess the other question is just where did this debt come from in the first place? Was it just over time with lifestyle spending, or was there one major event?

No, I think it was just mismanagement. Okay. Yeah. Because as much as I'd love for you to be able to wipe this out, and that may be the right decision, we have to recognize that at that point, you know, would you be able to absorb the loss of income with, you know, if you were to take $500 a month that you're no longer paying to the credit cards, would you be able to absorb a $2,200 a month hit to your spending and still, you know, be able to balance the budget? I'd have a significant lower monthly payments, but yeah, it's just long, I'm looking long term and, you know, obviously holding onto the rental property is good long term.

It appreciates with the market. Yeah. But also the stress of the debt. Yeah.

No, I totally get that. I think the other thing is just looking at what other options you have. Let's say you were to keep the rental property with the $2,750. Do you have any margin over and above the minimum payments that you could use toward debt reduction? Not really.

Okay. So you're living kind of paycheck to paycheck. So I think the key is, you know, first of all, we've got to really be convinced that you've solved the problem that led to the debt in the first place, which means whether it's the current budget, including the rental property income and ordering your finances around that or the new budget, which is $2,250 lower based on my math because you no longer have the $2,750 coming in, but you also don't have the $500 a month going to the credit card. So you lost net net $2,200 a month in income. And how are you going to make that up when you're already living paycheck to paycheck? Well, the only way you do it is you'd have to pull it from the $200,000 that you'd have left, you know, after you paid off the credit card debt or roughly. And I guess the question then would be, can you right size the budget, bring spending down? Can you look for other sources of income to, you know, increase your income over time? You know, I think that would be key before you do anything is to make sure you have a plan that's ultimately going to allow you to balance the budget so you're not, you know, pulling from reserves and you're not accumulating more debt over time. So what I would encourage you to do, Ben, let's have you connect with our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org if you're open to it. They'll do a budget with you, talk you through all of your options, look at what they could get these interest rates down to, you know, in a debt management program. And run a scenario that says, here's how long it would take it take you to pay it off. And then once you look at that, you know, I think then the question is, you know, is that the best option or do we just sell this property, wipe it out and then either invest the proceeds or buy a smaller place for cash, you know, or buy another smaller place that, you know, is going to have the same or similar type rental income. That's going to help offset whatever need that you have. But let's start by looking at our options first before you make that decision on the debt management. So reach out to our friends again at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Have them analyze all of this and do your budget and then we'll see what recommendations they come back with. If you have questions at that point, don't hesitate to give us a call back.

Franklin, Indiana. Hi, Doug. Thanks for your patience, sir. How can I help you?

Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate you taking my call. I'm contemplating retiring and I'm 64 years old right now. And I have a company pension that I have the option to take lump sum or take a monthly payment, which if I did that, I would want to take 100 percent joint survivor payment. And I pretty much decided that I would go with a lump sum, but I also thought I might work through this year until I was 65 because of insurance costs. And I know the feds are talking about raising the interest rates and I talked to my tax guy. And if they do raise them like 0.25 three times this year, figuring on maybe a three quarter of a percent raise by the end of the year, that lump sum will the value of it will decrease between the figures came up to be between twenty four and thirty one thousand dollars. So I didn't know if taking that I hate to continue to work and lose that amount in this next year if the rates do go up like that.

And I was considering, well, maybe because of the market, the situation with the market right now is not particularly great here in the last few days anyway. Should I maybe consider taking the monthly payout instead? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, it's a it's a tough decision and it can be complicated to just figure out, you know, based on what's known and unknown, what the best course of action is to maximize this asset that you have. Obviously, just the monthly payout gives you the guaranteed income where you don't have to worry about market losses. And if if that amount with survivors benefits for your wife solves for any gap that exists between your expenses and other income sources that you have, it may be worth it for that reason. Just to give you the peace of mind to know that for the rest of your life, you've got this money coming in that's going to meet your obligations. The benefit of the lump sum, if you know the internal rate of return calculation is is right and meaning you you have the ability to generate as much or more with a reasonable amount of risk being taken, then the benefit is you get access to the money if you needed larger portions of it for medical expenses, long term care, things like that, as opposed to just being able to get the monthly payout. But you assume the risk of the market fluctuation if it's, you know, invested at that point. And then you have these unknowns about rising interest rates and the impact of that with working for another year. So I think it probably makes sense to go ahead and make this decision sooner rather than later, given what you described about what you're going to give up, given the pretty much certainty of where rates are headed based on what the Federal Reserve is saying. But I'd love for you to connect with an advisor that can really process this for you in greater detail to actually take the data that's being provided by the HR department and help you calculate kind of the benefits of taking it now versus waiting and the lump sum versus the payout, actually look at your budget, your other assets, and just really help you process this and think through if you were to take the lump sum, what are you going to do with it?

And would you be able to generate the amount of income that you need long term without taking an unnecessary amount of risk? This is an important enough decision, Doug, that I think you really need to take your time and get some wise counsel. So I'd connect with a certified Kingdom advisor there in Indiana. You can do that on our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click Find a CKA. We appreciate your call today. Hilda's in Port St. Lucie. Hilda, I apologize.

I have just about a minute left. I understand you're thinking about solar panels, huh? Yes. The company happens to be Sunder Energy. There's no out-of-pocket costs, no installation permits, warranties, anything. And looking at what they showed me, we would be paying a predictable amount of 222 per month.

Like the last 24 months, I would say that I was averaging about like $330 per month. So the 222 seems like at least an over $100 savings. Of course, it's going to be for 25 years. And they take care of everything, warranties with damage, theft, hurricanes.

They 10-year roof penetration and leak warranty. If I move a cell, which we're not planning to do, it's transferable. So there's no out-of-pocket costs, meaning they're going to finance all of the upfront costs?

Yes. There's even like no financing. So it says 25 years, there's no financing. We're going to pay off the remaining balance that's there.

I'd look at all of those things and much more before you make this decision. We appreciate your call today. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thank you to Melody, Amy, Dan, and Jim for their incredible work today. Thank you for being here as well. God bless you. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.