Set Free From Anxiety

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Contact them to get out of debt today at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the US today? Hi, I'm Rob West. You might assume that we have a major anxiety problem just by the number of commercials you see for new medicines to treat these disorders. But is anxiety really a new thing? We'll talk about it today and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Modern medicine breaks down anxiety into many different forms. These include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety, and any number of phobias. Data indicates that nearly a third of all US adults will experience a form of anxiety sometime in their lives. The cost of treating anxiety disorders in the US is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and the loss of economic productivity due to anxiety may be much more.

We might ask, what's causing this? According to the Mayo Clinic, the causes behind anxiety disorders aren't fully understood. However, they undoubtedly include any number of other physical and mental issues as well as negative life events.

Those might be the loss of a job or financial problems in general. Now, let's be clear about something. If you're experiencing anxiety that simply won't go away, you should see your doctor about it. Medication or counseling or both may be needed, and they can make a world of difference. Now, it might seem that anxiety is a modern disorder, perhaps brought on by today's frantic schedules, electronic bombardment from smartphones, and maybe even improper diet.

But anxiety is not new at all. How do we know that? Well, because Jesus talks about it at length in Matthew 6 and Luke 12. Let's look at Matthew 6, starting at verse 25. It reads, Now, it's not difficult to imagine that as the disciples traveled about Galilee and Judea, and Judea, depending on donations for their sustenance, they might have been a little anxious from time to time about where they'd sleep and where their next meal was coming from. Jesus exhorts them to have greater faith.

In verse 31, he says, John Reinhardt, the founder of Gospel Patrons, says that Jesus wants to set us free from fear and anxiety, but with a purpose, to be different from the world. The world sees the love of money almost as virtue and chases after comfort and security. It builds bigger barns and puts a premium on financial planning. Now, we need to have a financial plan, but not with leisure as the end goal. John Reinhardt says the world wakes up in the morning thinking about wealth and goes to bed at night thinking about it. The world naturally moves toward money for its own sake, and that's dangerous for Christians. Jesus says you're going to be tempted to do that. You're going to be pulled to the love of money.

The cultural pressure is going to draw you in that direction. So how do you fight against it? Well, by understanding that you are valuable to God. He made you, and he has a purpose for you. Jesus tells us what to do to escape anxiety, or what we might call the cares of the world. He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things you need will be added to you. To be sure, we must participate in our own provision, but we must also have faith that God will do his part and provide as he's promised. If you know you're valuable to God, you'll go in the opposite direction of the world. You'll seek his kingdom first and want to boldly proclaim the gospel wherever you go, glorifying God as you do. That is your purpose. Glorify God as you carry out the Great Commission.

So we all have to make a decision. Which way will you go? Toward the world or toward the kingdom of God and his righteousness?

You can't do both. As Jesus says in Matthew 6 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Choose God over money and see what happens.

The cares of the world may just drift away. I hope this has been an encouragement to you today and caused you to want to go back to God's word to renew your mind, to remind yourselves of the promises of God, his care and love and provision for you, his child. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. If the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind, Christian credit counselors can help. We're a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300,000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80% faster while honoring that debt in full. To learn how Christian credit counselors can help you, visit christiancreditcounselors.org. That's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985.

Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. The number to call 800-525-7000. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. Let's go to North Carolina. Hi, Adrian.

How can I help? Oh, hey, Rob. How you doing?

Doing great. Well, I have two debt here that I'm trying to see which to tackle first. And one is obviously just my own mortgage, which I have about 5% interest.

And the other one is a small business loan I obtained a couple years ago at a lower interest at 3.5%. But that loan is just kind of bothering me. But I don't know if it makes sense to put all my half a million dollars now that I come every extra income. And I'm trying to see where to put that money. I should put it towards a SBA loan or just go ahead and try to pay the home off.

Yeah, good question. I love the idea that as you have this surplus, you're really thinking about the best way to get this debt paid off once and for all. I heard you say that the SBA loan is 3.5%. What did you say the mortgage is, the interest rate?

It's about 5.5%. Okay. And the mortgage is on your primary residence. Is that right? It is my primary residence.

Yeah. Okay, very good. And then that small business loan, is your small business covering the debt service on that plus everything else you need, including continuing to pay yourself a regular salary?

Well, actually, no. This small business loan was a few years back and my business went down during the COVID. So I ended up carrying this loan on my, I'm just paying it off for my, I don't have the business any longer.

Okay, got it. Yeah, but the income that you have, obviously, you know, you're living within your means and you have even some surplus here. So, you know, you're easily covering the debt service on both of these loans every month. Is that right?

Yes, sir, that is correct. All right. And have you, what have you built up in the way of savings at this point? Well, in savings, in liquid funds, I probably have probably around 40,000 in savings.

Okay. And I have 401k. Got it. And what do you have surplus each month that you're looking to put toward these debts?

I have probably close to 2,000 extra a month. Okay, got it. And is that a new thing or have you had that for some time?

I've had it probably about, I'd say about two years now. Okay. All right. And then what are your total monthly expenses roughly, including the debt service? Including the debt service, I'm probably around 7,000 a month, including everything. Okay, got it. So you're right about six months' worth of expenses in emergency savings.

That's great. And then what are the balances, last question, on the two loans, the balance on the mortgage and the balance on the SBA loan? Okay, the mortgage I just got about a year ago, so I'm right around 220,000 on the home. All right. And the SBA is about 70,000 is not the SBA loan. Okay, got it. All right.

Yeah, so I can see what you're saying here. I mean, obviously on paper, you're going to save more money in interest over the long haul by paying down this mortgage. And so if you were to prioritize putting an extra $2,000 a month, you've got a fully funded emergency fund. And let's say you are on track for retirement and saving such that you're going to have what you need to maintain your lifestyle in retirement. I think the next priority is, unless there's some short-term need that you have where you're going to have to replace an automobile or something like that that you want to be saving for, I love the idea that you'd pay off these debts. You are going to save more in the long run with the mortgage just because, number one, the way that interest is calculated, but also number two, it's just a higher interest rate.

And so that's just going to make more sense on paper. Now, the benefit of getting rid of the SBA loan is obviously it's going to happen quicker. And so if you're putting $24,000 a year toward your SBA loan, you're going to have that paid off in three years. And then you could take that mortgage or that SBA loan payment and roll all of that toward the home loan. It's kind of snowballing in a sense, and that might give you the motivation to stay after it because now, in less than three years, you've eliminated one of your debts, which obviously that's not going to happen in that time frame with the mortgage. So if that is going to give you the motivation to keep going and get this done and stay with it because you know you're heading toward eradicating one of these debts, then I'd say go for it.

If you're just purely looking for what's the best economic return, then it's going to be the mortgage. God bless you, Adrian. Let's go to Texas. Hi, Bart. Thanks for your patience, sir. Go ahead. Hi, you're welcome. Listen, I have a couple CD IRAs I bought from my wife and I, and one was a four-year, one was a two-year.

That was a while ago, but they both matured at the same time. And when I went to roll over the CD IRAs, it's like $20,000. They said you can only put in $7,000 per person now. Interesting. What do you recommend I do with that? Because otherwise I've got to pay taxes on it. Yeah.

So help me understand that. So this is a CD inside an IRA. The CD's matured and the brokerage firm is only allowing you to put in $7,000.

Why is that? It's a credit union and they said it's federal law. That's all they allow is $7,000 per person.

Okay. But that's new contributions though. Are you looking to put new money into these IRAs? No, I cashed them out at the 1.15% that they're paying. Now the credit union is paying 4.4%. So I wanted to take out new CDs at a higher rate. And they said you can only do a $7,000 limit. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, you know, what they may be talking about is, you know, new contributions, there is obviously a contribution limit that you could bump into, which is, you know, for this year, for an IRA is $7,000. If you're over the age of 50, it's $8,000. But that shouldn't have anything to do with money that's already in the IRA. I mean, using brokered CDs as an investment option, you should be able to put an unlimited amount of money in CDs.

So I would revisit that. You said this IRA is with your bank. Is that right? Credit union.

Yeah. Okay, credit union. So what you may want to do, I mean, if they don't have an option for you, you could roll that IRA out to another institution like a Fidelity or Schwab.

And you could buy CDs there. And again, through the brokered CD option, you should essentially be able to put this in unlimited numbers of CDs. So there shouldn't be a cap there. That $7,000 or $8,000 cap, depending on whether you're under or over age 50, is about new contributions, not about money that's already in the IRA. Is this money you're not wanting to put it at risk?

You're wanting to have it essentially at the safest investment possible? Correct. I'm 69. My wife is 73. And even if I put it in an IRA CD, she's gonna have to take an RMD. But it is a new contribution.

I cashed out the old CDs because they were paying so little. Right. Okay, I guess I was thinking that when you cashed them out, it stayed inside the IRA, but you actually took a distribution? Correct. Okay, yeah. So then the max you could put in, you're over the age of 50.

So you could put in $8,000 this year. Do you all have, I mean, are you still working at all, either of you? Yeah, part time I work. Okay. And are you self-employed or are you W-2? Yes. Self-employed, $10.99.

Okay. So the other option you could do would be to open a SEP IRA. And you could put in up to 25% of your earnings or $69,000, whichever is less. And that would be a way that you could get in some additional money going in on a tax deduction if that's what you're looking for. Alright, thanks. Yep, absolutely. It's called a SEP IRA.

Check it out. And you could probably open that with your bank. If not, Fidelity or Schwab can help you with that one as well. Thanks for your call today. Let me mention, if you want to support the broadcast, we'd certainly be grateful. With a one-time gift of $25 or more, we'll send you our new four-week study, Rich Toward God, that you can use for your own edification or with a small group.

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Let's head out to West Virginia. Hi, Gene. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hey, how are you doing today?

Doing great. I'm retired and financially comfortable, and I've heard you speak about the home title lock that you did not recommend that, but what about the ID theft that you can purchase? I recently got something from AMAC.

It's called ID Resolved. In your viewpoint, is it worth it to get these identification protection plans? Yeah, you know, my thought on that is, I mean, does it hurt?

No. I mean, it's just one more way to prevent or to offset a risk that exists that's very real. As you well know, identity theft is dramatically on the rise. The FTC, which tracks ID theft and other fraud complaints, you know, they received, I think the number I saw was more than a million reports of identity theft in 2023. And so this can be credit card fraud or government documents or benefits fraud or loan or lease fraud.

I mean, there's just so many different ways that hackers and other fraudsters are taking advantage of people. And so subscribing to one of these services, obviously, is going to help you spot signs that your identity might have been stolen. And then there's insurance there, you know, to help you in the event that you need to use it. My experience, though, is that it's just one more subscription.

And as long as you're doing the things you can do on your end, that, you know, that's probably the best way to go. And I would just hang on to that, you know, monthly subscription. And the other reason for that is, Gene, you know, because more and more of these legitimate companies that you're doing business with are being hacked and compromised. What you'll find is that probably every six months you're going to be notified from somebody that you do business with that, you know, they're going to pay for identity theft protection for you for a year. And so what I do is I just wait until I'm notified that I have one of those coming to me and then I take advantage of it. As long as it's a legitimate company, I do the reviews on it, but I don't ever pay for it. So the latest one for me is I'm a subscriber to AT&T.

They were compromised with a major breach and, you know, they're paying for identity theft protection for the next 12 months for all of their customers who were affected. So I took advantage of it. So I would say it's an unnecessary expense. Is it a bad thing?

No, it's always a good thing to offset potential risks, but there may be a way you can do it without having to pay for it. And I think, you know, that would be my preference. Does that make sense? Yes, sir, it does. I thank you for your answer. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Appreciate your call, Gene. Let me just mention before I go on to the next call, you know, the key is to use these best practices on preventing identity theft in the first place.

What are a few of them? Well, collect your mail daily. You know, there's a low tech approach to this, and that is people stealing things out of your mailbox. Second, review your credit cards and bank statements regularly. You want to try to spot any transactions that are not yours or that would be an indication that something's been compromised. Go ahead and freeze your credit. It's easy to do. At each of the three bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, it's free, and that will stop anybody in their tracks from trying to open an account in your name.

It doesn't affect your credit score, and it's going to really help to prevent fraud. Create different passwords for your accounts with long strings and change them regularly. You probably want to use a password manager. I use one called 1Password, the number one password. Another popular one is called LastPass. Shred documents. Review your credit reports.

Keep your operating system updated. Use two-factor authentication. Don't ever click on links in emails or give information when someone requests it over the phone.

So I think if you're doing those kinds of things, then you're putting yourself in a position to at least offset the most common methods of identity theft, which is hacking, requesting info by email, stealing your wallet or purse, or stealing your mail. So hopefully that gives you some thoughts, and I think those are just best practices we all need to use. Let's finish up today in Minnesota. Hi, Angie. Go ahead.

Hi. We have a term life insurance policy that is coming to an end, and we can cash it out or we could roll it into a whole life policy, but we have other adequate life insurance. So we're just wondering, with a child going to college in about a year and a half, if there's a way to put that money in a savings account for that expenditure that would not be painful for taxes.

Yeah. Angie, the only question I have is, you know, with term insurance, just plain term insurance, there is no cash value. You just pay the mortality expense during the term, and if you don't collect on it, meaning you don't pass away, you drop it. And I realized that you could say, well, then the money's gone, but it's kind of like your car insurance. You pay the premium to offset the risk and you hope you never have to collect. And that's true of term insurance. There may be a few exceptions. One is what's called a return of premium rider, but that's an optional add on to a term life policy that if you outlive the term, it pays you all or some of the money you spent on the policy payments.

Do you think that's perhaps what you have? It must be either that or does a whole life policy do that? A whole life will have cash value.

Yeah, it's not term. That's a combination of a savings vehicle and the life insurance. It's much more expensive than term insurance, but it does build up savings. And I would say, depending upon the tax treatment on that, I would probably go ahead and well, the first question is, do you need the death benefit?

Are you all still working? Yes. And do you have any other insurance or is this your only policy? Oh, no, we have several other policies. Life insurance policies? Yes. Okay.

Yeah. Well, the key is just to make sure you have the proper amount of coverage. So at a minimum, you want 10 to 12 times your income on the person's life that's generating the income. So if you're making $60,000 a year, you know, you'd want to have somewhere between 600 and 720,000 on the person who's earning the 60,000 and that's going to give you enough to generate enough income to get through until you, you know, would have normally retired and started taking Social Security. So first thing is I determine how much life insurance do we need at this point and what policies do we have to cover that?

And then if you have enough coverage, then I would drop that policy into your point, take that cash value and invest it or build up your emergency savings with it. Thanks for your call. I hope that helps you. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us. We covered a lot of ground today. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to come alongside you to talk about our role as stewards, to look to God's word, to encourage one another and realize that as we see God is our ultimate and true treasure. Well, money changes its entire focus.

It becomes a means to an end to accomplish God's purposes. And that's what we want to encourage you in as we gather together on this program each day. Hey, check out the Faithfi app. You can download it today and set up your spending plan, faithfi.com.

Just click app. On behalf of my team, Jim Henry, Devin Patrick, Robert Youngblood, I'm Rob West. This has been Faith and Finance. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.