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The simple believe everything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. Proverbs 14, 15. Hi, I'm Rob West. In a world where scams are increasingly clever, Scripture reminds us that precaution is a form of stewardship. Today we're talking about something that isn't just practical, it's spiritual, protecting the resources God has entrusted to us.
And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. These days, scams show up just about everywhere by phone, email, text, social media, and even by impersonating people you trust. But as followers of Christ, we're not called to live in fear.
We're called to walk in wisdom.
So, how do we do that when it comes to guarding our finances?
Well, first, pause before you respond. Scammers thrive on urgency. If someone pressures you to act immediately, whether it's a phone call claiming to be your bank or a text message saying your account's been compromised, slow down, verify the source, hang up and call the official number on your card, check the sender's email address, and remember, pressure is a red flag. Second, never send money via wire transfer or certainly not gift cards. No legitimate organization will request payment in this manner.
Scammers use these methods because they're nearly impossible to trace. If someone insists, just walk away. When shopping online, use a credit card rather than a debit card. Credit cards typically offer stronger fraud protection and limit your liability if something goes wrong.
Next, enable two-factor authentication on all your financial accounts. It's like adding a second lock on your digital front door. Even if someone steals your password, they can't access your account without a code sent to your phone or email. While we're on the topic of passwords, don't reuse them. Use a password manager like Bitwarden or NordPass to generate and store strong, unique passwords for each account.
Both offer free, secure options to help you stay protected. Also, monitor your accounts regularly. Most banks let you set up alerts. for large transactions, logins, or unusual activity. These alerts act like a financial alarm system, helping you catch suspicious activity early before real damage is done.
Another crucial step, freeze your credit. It's one of the most effective defenses against identity theft. It's free to do with all three major credit bureaus and can be temporarily lifted when needed. Think of it as putting a padlock on your credit file. Be especially cautious with public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, airports, or libraries.
Never access financial accounts or enter passwords while on public networks. Wait until you're on a secure private connection. The same goes for using public or borrowed devices. Only check accounts from your own phone or computer. And don't forget about social media.
Over-sharing personal details like birthdays, family members, or recent purchases can give scammers clues to your passwords or security questions. Set your profiles to friends only and think twice before posting personal information. Here's a classic but still essential tip. Shred sensitive documents, bank statements, medical records, Records, tax forms, anything with your personal financial information should be shredded before going in the trash. Identity thieves will dig through garbage if they think there's something valuable in there.
Also, never click on suspicious links. Even if they appear to come from someone you know, hackers can take over accounts and send phishing messages that look perfectly normal. If something seems off, reach out to the person directly before clicking it. And finally, educate those around you. Scammers often target the most vulnerable, particularly older adults and teenagers.
Make this a family conversation. Talk with your kids, your parents, your friends. Share what you've learned and keep each other informed about the latest scams. If a company offers you identity theft protection after a data breach, take advantage of it, but verify first. Don't trust links or numbers in the letter or email.
Instead, contact the company directly through their official website or customer service. Number to confirm the offer is legitimate. There's no question that in today's world, financial faithfulness includes digital awareness. Guarding your data, protecting your family, and staying alert to fraud are essential parts of stewardship, but don't let that lead to fear or discouragement. With a few intentional steps, you can safeguard what he's entrusted to you and live with peace, not panic.
By the way, another great way to manage your money wisely and grow in financial stewardship is to download and use the FaithFi app. You'll find it at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. All right, your calls are next: 800-525-7000. We'll be right back.
We are grateful for support from Crossmark Global Investments. They are a faith-based firm with a goal of offering values-based investments to help align financial choices and faith, ensuring a portfolio that reflects what matters most. Crossmark does this through investment solutions that span the capital market spectrum from large cap to small cap strategies, including equity, fixed income, and balance strategies. They are led by industry veteran Bob Dahl, CFA, a regular guest on the Faith and Finance program. More information is available at CrossmarkGlobal.com.
Wondering who Faith and Finance recommends as a banking partner that aligns with Christian values? It's Christian Community Credit Union. When you open a high-yield checking, savings, or visa cash back card, you'll help advance the gospel when making everyday transactions. Visit faithfy.com/slash banking and use code FAITHBY when you sign up. That's faithfy.com/slash banking with code FAITH FI.
Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up to $250,000. This institution is not federally insured. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Our goal today is to be an encouragement to you, to help you live as a faithful steward of God's resources.
That's a pretty important calling that you've been given, that I've been given. And our goal is: well done, good and faithful servant. We want to help you hear those words. And we realize you have very practical questions going on in your financial life. Perhaps it's how to navigate the market, you know, despite the tariffs and the questions surrounding them, and inflation, and the geopolitical tensions, not to mention the conflict between Iran and Iraq, and excuse me, Iran and Israel, and our involvement there.
How do you navigate all that? We'd love to weigh in, including how you align your values with your investments. Maybe it's something more everyday, like your spending plan, just staying on budget or getting out of debt, whatever you're thinking about in your financial life today, we'd love to help you tackle it and do that through the lens of biblical wisdom. You can call right now. Our team is standing by.
We do have some lines. Open 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Again, that's 800-525-7,000. You can call right now. We'll be diving into a few of those questions here in just a moment.
But first, in the news today, in 2024, listen to this: 401k savings reached record highs, thanks in part to features like automatic enrollment and what's called immediate eligibility, no waiting period. Vanguard reports an average combined savings rate, employee and employer, of 12%, which matches 2023's peak. Fidelity's data shows an even higher rate of 14.3% across 24.4 million participants. Amazing.
Now, these increases reflect growing participation and engagement. Vanguard notes that 76% of plans now offer immediate eligibility. That's up from 71% in 2020, and 61% in Include automatic enrollment, up from 54% in 2020. Vanguard's rule of thumb, which aligns pretty well with ours here at FaithFi, is a recommendation of saving 12 to 15% of your income annually, including the employer contribution. Fidelity's benchmark is about the same, 15%.
In 2024, the average employee deferral was 7.7%, with 25% of workers saving 10% or more, and 14% are maxing out their contributions. Those are mostly older, higher-income workers with longer tenure. Of course, the ideal savings rate depends on your income, lifestyle goals, and retirement timeline. I will tell you that, you know, part of this comes down to what I call and what we call here at FaithFi, your finish line.
Now, we talk in terms of two types of finish lines. One would be your lifestyle finish line. I think you need to start there. And that is, where are we going to cap our spending on? Ourselves, on our lifestyle, there's three approaches you can take to that.
One would be you might call it a maintenance spending finish line. This would be where you look at your current budget, or actually, better yet, your current spending. And I'd look at maybe the past three months. And then your maintenance finish line involves just simply refusing to increase your spending from this level. Where we're at right now, we're not going above it.
No matter what we get in the way of a bonus or increases in pay over time, this is the cap. The second would be what's called a benchmark spending finish line, where you use some sort of external reference point, a multiple of the median income of your area. Maybe you use the work that our friends did at finishlinepledge.com, where they give you a real thoughtful rationale for setting your finish line from a lifestyle standpoint based on a benchmark. That's the second option. The third is what you might call a prioritization spending line.
That's where you begin by reflecting on how God is working and in. Through you and your family, review all your expenses from the last few months, like we said initially, but then specifically look for spending areas that are distracting you, perhaps from God's greater purpose in your life, and then determine how much your monthly spending would decrease by adjusting those spending areas. Regardless of how you approach it, once you have that lifestyle cap, then it's not hard to actually determine what is our accumulation finish line. How much are we ultimately going to save? And then once you know you're on track or perhaps you've reached it, now you can accelerate your giving, which is an amazing opportunity.
Now, you might be listening saying, wait a minute, Rob, I'm not anywhere close. In fact, I'm way behind.
Okay, well, that's a different situation. And I would say, let's start somewhere and start giving system, or excuse me, start saving and investing systematically. But if you're well on your way, perhaps you haven't looked at a finish line or you're just doing it in anticipation of the ability to have income increases down the road, what a great exercise! Exercise between you and the Lord to just really think through why have you entrusted to me what you have? And what if you, Lord, were to entrust much more to me?
How would I approach that? Would I just automatically increase lifestyle spending? Or would I cap that at some level and then continue to give more and more away?
Something to think about. By the way, this is one of the articles in Faithful Steward, and we have articles just like this in every issue. And just go to faithfy.com/slash give to learn more. All right, we're ready to dive into your questions today. We've got lines open.
The number to call 800-525-7000. Let's go to Illinois. John, you'll be our first caller. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.
Appreciate you taking my call. I've got a 14 year old son, and he was just dying to work. And he finally got a full time job this summer. He's actually working thirty seven to forty hours a week.
So he's bringing home about $100 a day, and we want to get him. an investment account like a I'm thinking Roth. But I am wondering what the best Option for him and where to go. get it. Yeah, very good.
I like that idea a lot. I would just say, you know, perhaps you divide, you know, between the Roth and something that would be savings for, you know, more current spending.
So if he has, you know, a savings goal or he's saving for something specific, you know, maybe a carve off a portion of that that he'd be able to enjoy right now. Or, you know, maybe it's not immediate, but something he can save for, let's say, in the next 12 months. But then I love the idea of getting a portion of this going into an automatic investment. I would actually look at the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios or Betterment, either one of those. Just type that in your search engine, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.
And then as a second option, Betterment, B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T. This is essentially a robo-advisor. You'd open the Roth IRA there. As long as he doesn't put in more than the earned income he has for the year up to $7,000, he's in good shape. But the nice thing is, it's low cost and it's going to use ETFs to build a very diversified portfolio that's just going to capture the broad moves of the market.
You know, it might be more fun for him to pick a company or two to invest in that he knows and likes and follow it. The problem is, we're just not teaching the concept of diversification that way.
So you may want to do a little bit of both, but I think the RoboAdvisor could be a great option. You'll open the Roth with them, fund it with them, and then they'll build the portfolio. Hope that helps, John. You sound like a great dad. Hey, stay on the line.
I'm going to send you a book from our good friend Art Raynor. It's called The Money Challenge for Teens, and it'll be a great resource to help him think about God's way of handling money. Let's see. We're going to take another break here in just a moment. We also have other lines open today in our final segment.
We'd love to tackle your question or hear your testimony. Maybe God's been at work in your financial life. You'd like to share that with our listeners as an encouragement today. We'd invite you to be a part of the program. Program.
The way to do that, just head to the phones and call us right now at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. By the way, if you'd like to connect with an advisor, you know, we talk often here about investment advisors. Often we talk about financial planning issues.
So many of these issues require a trusted financial professional. And I would go a step beyond that to say a competent financial professional who shares your values as a Christ follower.
Well, that's the CKA designation, Certified Kingdom Advisor. And you can find a CKA in your city when you go to faithfy.com and click find a professional. That's faithfi.com. We'll be right back. Right now, more people than ever are looking for biblical wisdom to navigate their finances, and you can help meet that need.
When you become a FaithFi partner, you're equipping believers to trust God, steward his resources well, and live with kingdom purpose. Partners receive early access to our newest resources, our quarterly Faithful Steward magazine, and the pro version of the FaithFi app. Become a FaithFi partner with your gift of $35 a month or $400 a year at faithfy.com slash partner. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community.
For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Here in our final segment today, taking your calls and questions, I may have room for one more question between now and the end of the program. You can call right now, 800-525-7000.
Let's go to Chicago and welcome Mary. Hi, Mary. Go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. And my question was I wanted to know if it was wise to get into a car note for a second car.
We don't have any debt, and the car note would be about five hundred dollars a month. with interest.
Okay. I'm just not sure if that's the that's a wise decision. Yeah, I mean, it's a great question.
So tell me a little bit about your situation, just your overall financial picture. Do you all have an emergency fund? We do have an emergency fund and we have money in our investments. We don't have any debt. Our first car is already paid off.
And the reason why I'm a little nervous about it is because we just bought a home last year. And so I'm trying to see if it if it's it's wise to make that move at this moment. Yeah. No, I get that. And so when you do your budget, do you have the ability to add a five hundred dollar a month payment and still have some surplus or some margin at the end of the month?
A little bit. It would be very tight.
Okay. Yeah. And and right now you guys are operating on just one car, is that right?
Well, we have a s uh we have a second car, but it's it's really not reliable and we spent money on the mechanic and all that, so we just We don't know if we should just wait and continue to put money in this car or to just get a second car. Yeah. Yeah. So, would you sell this second car, the current one, if you if you went ahead with the new one? We would, but i i we wouldn't get much money out of it.
Okay, got it. Yeah. But you wouldn't have to insure it any longer and so it would reduce your overall expenses, right? Correct. Yeah.
Okay. And another thing, so we would probably use money from our dividends to pay for the car note.
So that's one way that we would kind of be a little bit more afloat.
Okay. Yeah. I mean, it just sounds like you're right up to the edge. That's the only thing that's concerning me. And so I think you need to just take a hard look at the budget.
You know, I'd be happy to connect you with one of our certified Christian financial counselors if you all would take advantage of it just to kind of help you look through your spending plan and get on a more solid, you know, monthly plan that you feel better about. I just don't want you to be right up to the edge. And then, you know, anything comes out of left field, you know, you're all of a sudden slipping behind, you know, or spending more than you're bringing in.
So there's nothing wrong with having a second car and you probably need some good, reliable transportation. And there is a point at which it doesn't make sense to continue to put more money into an older car, especially one that's been giving you some problems. But I also want you to be able to live within your means.
Now, based on what I'm seeing here, it sounds like you've got plenty of emergency savings and investments. And what do you have left on your mortgage? You said that's fairly new, right? Yes.
So it's a thirty year mortgage, so we have about twenty nine years.
Okay, yeah, so you got a long way to go there.
So it really does come down to the spending plan. You just need to go back and take a harder look at it. I mean, the rule of thumb is you want to keep transportation costs under 15% of your take-home pay. And that includes car payment, gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, if you've got it there in Chicago.
So you need to put everything into that payment or into that category. And you need to be under 15%. But that's just a rule of thumb. At the end of the day, you need to make your budget work. And so that means, you know, you guys are going to have to look at, first of all, what is our budget if we're realistic?
Because we can't just put in the things that you get a bill for. We need to put in those non-discretionary items. You know, Christmas comes every year. And, you know, if you're spending $1,000 or $2,000 on Christmas, you know, we really should have $150 or $100 a month at a minimum, maybe more in the budget every month. And cars break down.
And so we've got to have something in the maintenance count. Category. And so we really need to have an accurate representation of your budget, including this new car payment and a higher insurance, because with a newer car, you're going to probably have an increase in your insurance premium.
So when you put all of that in, what you may find is, uh-oh, all of a sudden, we're $300 upside down every month.
Well, that's not going to work. That's not sustainable.
So I think that really should be the deciding factor here: what would it take for us to do to right-size the plan so that we can afford to take on this car, which we could absolutely use. And it doesn't sound like you're being, you know, you're buying something that's just crazy in terms of, you know, it's the right perhaps vehicle for you. But that's only going to be true if you can get to the place where you've got a plan that's realistic and that, you know, isn't upside down. Does that make sense? Yes.
Now my question also is, would it be smart to use money from our dividends to pay for this? Because our financial advisor has Mention that it's fine, but I'm not sure that that would be a good option. Yeah. No, I don't have any problem on with that. What do you have in investments?
What's your total portfolio? About nine hundred thousand.
Okay, yeah. And what is your age? Uh 35.
Okay, yeah. So that's incredible. W did that come, you know, in a lump sum as an inheritance, or have you all just saved really hard, or how did you get built? Saved really hard. And we have a pension, so our financial advisor is pretty comfortable with that because of our pension.
I can imagine so.
So, yeah, I mean, you obviously are way ahead of the game at 35 with that kind of investment portfolio.
So, it sounds like, I mean, I love that you're still being frugal, despite the fact that you have nearly a million dollars in investments. And, yes, dividends could be a great way for you to do that. Ordinary dividends are taxed at your regular income tax rate. That's going to happen regardless. And so, if you could take a portion of those to right-size this budget, I think that makes a lot of sense and stop putting money into a car, you know, that is continually giving you problems.
I also think, you know, hopefully, you have an advisor who understands, you know, God's word and can really come alongside you from a biblical worldview. But I think it would be important sooner rather than later for you guys to determine what is your finish line. You know, how much are you ultimately trying to accumulate? And I can't tell you what that number is. That's between you and the Lord.
But once you know what that is, now all of a sudden you're in a situation where you. Know when you can start increasing your giving because the last thing you want to do is just mindlessly accumulate over the next 30 years and build up way more than you need. But again, that number is something you would need to arrive at prayerfully. I don't think anybody else can tell you what it is. But yeah, I think to get back to your original question, I don't see any problem with you taking on this new car.
It sounds like a reasonable car note. You know, the average car payment today is over $700. You're at $500. Six-year payoff is fine. I like five better, but six is fine.
And if you've got another source of income through the dividends to cover that, if you weren't able to cover it just out of monthly cash flow, then I think that's fine as well.
Okay. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Absolutely, Mary. Hey, well done.
We appreciate your call and thanks for your great question today. We appreciate you being on the program. Folks, that's going to do it for us.
So thankful for the folks that make this possible every day, Sandy and Devin, and grateful for Jim Henry as well and everybody here at Faith Phi. Hope you have a great rest of your day. And by the way, if you'd like to support Faith Phi and the Faith and Finance broadcast, you can do that online quickly and securely at faithfi.com. Just click give. Lord bless you.
Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
