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Uh It's easy to believe that having more money would fix everything. That if we just had enough, life would finally feel secure, peaceful, even meaningful. Hi, I'm Rob West. From launderies to luxury ads, our world constantly tells us that more wealth is the goal. But scripture invites us to ask a better question.
Not how much money we have, but why we want it in the first place. We'll explore that today, 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. You see, money itself isn't the problem.
Scripture never condemns wealth. But it does warn us about the heart behind it. The late Larry Briquette, a mentor to many of us in biblical finance, once said there are seven reasons people pursue wealth. And six of them can lead us astray. Why?
Because when money becomes our focus, it often takes the place of God. Before we talk about how to use it, we need to ask what's driving us to accumulate it.
So let's walk through those seven motivations. Number one, conformity.
Some pursue wealth simply because everyone else is. Whether from family pressure or cultural expectations, they chase money without asking if it's what God wants. Romans 12:2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God calls us to live on earth as it is in heaven, not according to the ways of this world.
Alright, number two, envy. Others look at their neighbors' lifestyles and crave the same. Ecclesiastes 4, 4 says, All toil and all achievements spring from one person's envy of another. This, too, is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. envy leaves us restless, always reaching, never resting.
Number three, competition.
Some people treat wealth like a scoreboard. It's not just about having enough, it's about having more than others. When competition drives our desire for wealth, it turns life into a scoreboard and people into obstacles. Philippians 2.3 reminds us: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves.
Kingdom Living doesn't play to win, it plays to serve. Number 4. Ego For many, wealth is tied to identity. They want to be seen as successful, important, and admired. Even their giving can become a form of self-promotion.
But Paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:17 redirect us. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Wealth isn't a trophy. It's a tool entrusted to us by the one who provides. Number five, love of money.
Some simply love money. They obsess over their accounts and fear losing it. I Timothy six ten warns the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
Some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This isn't about having money, it's about being ruled by it. Number six, security. Others pursue wealth out of fear. Wealth can create the illusion of safety.
Proverbs 18:11 says, The wealth of the rich is their fortified city. They imagine it a wall too high to scale. But that security is imagined. It can vanish with one diagnosis, one crisis, or one downturn. Real peace comes from not how much we've saved, but from who we trust to carry us.
Number seven, generosity, the one good reason.
So, what's the one God-honoring reason to build wealth? To give it away. Generosity flows from a heart that sees money not as a possession to protect, but a tool to serve. What sets a steward apart is the lens through which every financial decision is made. Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Dr. Justo Gonzalez reflects on the Lord's Prayer and notes in his book Teach Us to Pray that when we ask for our daily bread, it's a communal request, not individualistic. If we have more than we need today, it's not accidental, it's providential. What's in your hands today may be the very answer to someone else's prayer. Saint Augustine captured this idea well when he said, Find out how much God has given you, and from it take what you need.
The remainder is needed by others. Jesus echoes this in Luke 3:11 when he says, Anyone who has two shirts should share with one who has none. And in Acts 4:34, we see that the early church truly lived this out. There was not a needy person among them. Building wealth isn't about hoarding or continuing to raise our net worth.
It's about aligning our resources with God's purposes, becoming a participant in His provision for others. When financial goals are rooted in love for God and neighbor, building wealth becomes a means of ministry, not a measure of success. Let God reshape your reason for building wealth and discover the joy of using what He's given you to bless others and glorify Him. All right, your questions are next. The number 800-525-7000.
I'm Rob West, and we'll be right back. Stick around. 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 FaithFy app.
Become a FaithFi partner with your gift of $35 a month or $400 a year at faith5.com/slash partner. Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Soundmind Investing. If you have money in an investment account, you know sometimes the stock market can seem like a roller coaster. But it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind as a do-it-yourself investor, no matter what's happening in the market. A short video webinar about that is available at soundmindinvesting.org.
Financial wisdom for living well.
Soundmindinvesting.org Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance, taking your calls and questions. We've got room for you. If you have a financial question today on any topic, call right now, 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000. Let's head to those phones.
Rick is waiting patiently in Chicago. Go ahead, sir. Hi Rob. I have a question. What is a real estate Estate investment trust and how does it work, especially in a well, is a retirement fund?
Yeah, great question.
So, a REIT, a real estate investment trust, REIT for short, allows you basically, Rick, to invest in real estate, like apartments and shopping centers or office buildings without owning property directly.
So, they trade like stocks and they have to pay out at least 90% of taxable income as dividends.
So, they are known for creating steady income.
So, it's for people that want to be diversified and diversified not just among large cap, small cap, international domestic stocks, but diversifying among asset classes.
So, out of stocks and bonds into real estate, but without the hassle, I'll say, or the capital requirements to invest directly. They're using these real estate investment trusts. And many people who own them like the idea of having that dividend income that they're using to either supplement their portfolio or maybe it's a part of the income that they're living on.
Now, in an IRA, I would say a REIT can be a good fit because their dividends are usually taxed as ordinary income.
So, by holding them in a tax-deferred, traditional IRA, you avoid that, well, essentially delay that tax bite because you're not paying any taxes on it as those dividends are paid into the IRA. You'll just pay the tax as income when you take it out down the road, unless you take it out by way of a qualified charitable distribution after age 70, and then you never pay any tax. But most of the time, at some point, you will pay the tax or your heirs will as you take them out.
So, bottom line: REITs offer diversification, they offer income, and an IRA, I would say, is a smart place to hold them for tax efficiency. Is that helpful though? Yeah. Do they decrease in value over time? Yes, they can.
So it it really depends upon what is owned inside the REIT. You know, it just, you know, really depends on what's going on in the real estate market. You know, they don't automatically decrease over time, but like any investment, they go up, they go down, and it would be based on instead of the sales and earnings and the overall market for stocks, it would be based on the real estate market, based on interest rates, and then to some degree, management performance. But I would say overall, they're considered stable investments. Not guaranteed to grow, but usually offer appreciation over time and steady income.
Okay, because I've seen some for office REITs for Healthcare rates and for mortgage rates? Yeah, there's all kinds. And so it really just depends upon what you're looking for in terms of what you might buy. But the big three categories are equity REITs, where they own and operate income-producing real estate.
So that would be apartments, offices, shopping centers. That's the most common. And you earn through the rent and the property appreciation that, again, is paid out in the form of dividend. The other big classification would be mortgage REITs.
So, these invest in real estate debt, basically mortgages. They are more sensitive to interest rates and can be riskier, but often pay higher dividends because, with that elevated risk comes typically an elevated potential for return. And then you've got hybrid REITs, that's the mix of the equity and the mortgage. Those are kind of the big categories.
Okay, well, thank you very much. All right. You're welcome, Rick. Call anytime if I can help you in any way. Let's go to Miami, Florida.
Hi, Teresa. Go right ahead. Hi there. Um thank you for taking my call. I appreciate it.
Absolutely. I'm just in a little pickle. I uh we purchased a house Six years ago, we have about 160,000 still left on it, but didn't really realize that. I guess we needed to start upgrading and do repairs and stuff on the house as we go along.
So now we're at the point where Uh a lot of stuff needs to be things like the rules. Yeah, we did. that's starting to slow down and uh actually we have a pool as well. Um that need some min some repairs.
So I was wondering if like It would be a good idea if we sold Um got the equity from the house. to purchase in a fifty-five-year-old community. Uh with the two hundred thousand um that we would probably uh be able to have extra after we pay off the one hundred and sixty thousand dollar mortgage. Just to not have those repairs overhead and everything will be basically paid in full and then we can take the three thousand and due. you know, like payoffs.
We have about a thirty thousand dollars worth of credit cards. Yeah, yeah, got it. Yeah, that certainly could be a smart move.
So you're down potentially downsizing your expenses and simplifying your life and avoiding having to, you know, the upkeep depending on what you buy, and hopefully it's in a better state.
So, you know, I think the questions or the things to consider will be: you know, what the new housing will cost if you buy something. And is there an upfront cost to buy into this community? Or is it, you know, you're just responsible for the home and the HOA, but you need to understand the true cost of what it will take to get into it. And then, based on that, how much equity will you keep after selling and paying off the mortgage? And then, once you buy in, are you going to have any kind of cushion left after the move?
And if the goal is really just to get out from under having any mortgage, can you truly do that just based on what you'll net from the sale and then what it will actually cost for you to get in to this new 55-plus community? And paying off your debt.
Now, if you could accomplish all those things, essentially you've cut your costs, your lifestyle spending, because now you only have the property taxes and the homeowner's insurance potentially. Plus, you may have a higher HOA in one of these communities.
So you need to understand what that is. But if you've gotten rid of your debt, you've lowered your overall housing category spending because now you don't have a mortgage. And that allows you to balance your budget, have some margin, build up an emergency fund, and be able to more appropriately maintain your lifestyle without it being just a constant burden on you. Then I would say that's a good idea. I would just do your homework to make sure you're truly gonna end up.
In the situation you are expecting to. Does that make sense? Yes, it does, and I appreciate all your help and uh and information. Absolutely, Teresa. Thank you for your call today.
We appreciate you being on the program. Let's go to Mississippi. Hi, Jackie. How can I help? What I was wondering uh I was trying to set up a trust.
And I was wondering what do I look for as far as pricing a trust? Is it a a certain fee or Do I look at something different from that? Yeah, so if you have an attorney, do this. And of course, you'll see a lot of advertisements on television that you can use an online resource to draw up a will or a trust. I would prefer you use an attorney just to make sure that it's done properly according to the laws of your state.
And, you know, if you have a godly estate planning attorney, they can ask you other questions just to help you think through kind of the wealth transfer decisions, including is the next steward chosen and prepared? And that goes beyond the financial capital. But in terms of your specific question, yeah, once you find an attorney to do this, it's just going to be, you know, a fee that you'll pay. It's typically going to be around $2,000 for a fairly simple trust without a lot of extenuating circumstances or conditions.
So it really is fee-based. And you certainly could shop around and talk to a couple of different attorneys, find someone that you feel like you have a good rapport with, and obviously you can ask them what the fee would be. But expect to spend somewhere between $2,000, $3,000 on the high end.
Well, folks, we're going to take a quick break when we come back to our final segment just around the corner. We'll be right back. When you hear the phrase, rich toward God, what comes to mind? Surely it doesn't mean making God rich. Is it about us becoming rich so we can give?
Or maybe. It's an invitation to something much bigger. In the Rich Toward God Study, Faith Phi has created a way for you to explore and reflect on a well-known biblical parable about a very rich man with a very big problem. Purchase your copy of the Rich Toward God Study or place a bulk order today at faithfy.com slash shop. 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. Helping you see God as your ultimate treasure, this is Faith and Finance.
So glad you're along with us today. We do have a few lines open. If you have a financial question, now's the time to call 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7,000. Let's head to Spring Grove, Illinois.
Hi, Sherry. How can we help? Good, I just have a question. My husband recently passed away and Was always a very good steward of our finances. And so I don't have any house payment, I don't have any bills.
But I have a very large sum of money. Um Um Has come to me after his death. Everything else we had prior to his death has been invested, and don't know if I should be investing in. annuities or take that money and split it up. Uh he did all the financing, so I don't know what to do with it.
Okay.
Well, first of all, I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's passing. You know, it's encouraging, Sherry, to hear that he's providing for you even after his death because you all were such great stewards. And that's, I think, the fruit of being well planned. None of us know when the Lord is going to call us home. And I realize this is a large burden that's now been placed on you as he was giving primary oversight to the finances.
You know, I think having an advisor who could journey with you, somebody who really understands your faith and understands God's word, but also could bring really skilled counsel and helping you think through this large sum of money that's coming your way, being able to protect that, but also invest it in a way that makes sense so that it could continue to grow, offset the effects of inflation, but provide for you alongside Social Security and anything else you'll have coming your way, perhaps down the road. Annuities are not my first choice. I mean, there are a place for them in some cases for folks. That want to transfer risk away from the markets. But I think for most folks, being able to just save and invest in a way that you can match the risk tolerance and the needs aligned with your values to the investment strategy, I think will just make the most sense.
Giving you still access to the money as you need it over time, perhaps even in larger chunks, if you have certain needs now or in the future, and not putting that in an insurance product, which creates a lot of complexity, can restrict access to the money and limit even the upside potential on just the investments. But I think that's something you could talk through with an advisor. Do you all have a financial advisor that you used as a couple? We had two different ones. One was through Schwab, and another one was through JPMorgan.
Okay.
he had left me a note in our folder that if anything happens to me, you need to talk to somebody different. We need to diversify. And I don't know what that really means, except the to add another person to the layer because we have so much invested in those other two. That was he knew if When this was coming, I needed to talk to somebody else.
So I'd be happy to talk to another person. Yeah, I think that would be good. And I'm not opposed. I mean, I certainly understand what the note that was there, and I don't know the full rationale for what he was thinking, but I'm not opposed to you having one trusted advisor who's really walking alongside you, being that sounding board and wise counsel, overseeing the investment strategy that could be among multiple managers, whether those are mutual funds or separate accounts, not to get technical. But I think having one trusted advisor that can journey with you and help you coordinate both the tax side, the estate side, your budget and your spending and lifestyle expenses, but also your investment strategy for this wealth that you're stewarding.
And that's where I think a certified kingdom advisor could be very helpful. You could head to our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. Right there at the top of the page, Sherry, it'll say find a professional. You can put in your zip code.
I would interview two or three CKAs in your area and just find someone that you feel like is the best fit, that you have a good rapport with. They're going to ask you a lot of questions and just get to know you and what this next season of life is going to look like and then help you make those decisions. I also want to send you a book, just as our gift to you. It's a book called Wise Women Managing Money that was written by Miriam Neff. Who, as a widow, found herself in a situation similar to yours and wrote this as an encouragement and a helpful guide for you around this area of money management.
So stay on the line. We'll get your information and get that right out to you. May the Lord bless you. 800-525-7000 to Virginia. Hi, Ann.
Go ahead. Hi, I recently got a letter from the IRS that I have a retirement fund in another state. I completely forgot about it. I've lived in several states. I tried to reach out to the employment, the business.
They gave me a number to call. They said they don't handle it. They gave me another number to call. I've called like three or four numbers, and I can't locate my account. Should I be concerned about that?
Or since the IRS got the letter, will they just handle that for me? Yeah, the question, I guess the first question is: who's the letter from? Is it coming from the IRS? Yes, they had been filed with them.
Okay.
What had been filed with them, a $1099? And I had a retirement fund. I see. A $1099. And are they saying taxes are due for gains or something?
No. They just, it was like an acknowledgement letter that they had received a 1099 from this employment. for a retirement fund of this amount. Got it. And are you familiar, obviously, with the employer that this would be coming from?
Is that right? It's one of your previous employers? Yes. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Yes. And did you reach out to the HR department or the plant administrator from that employee to try to chase it down? I did, and they gave me a number, said it was located in another city. And I called there and they said, no, we don't handle that here. And they gave me another number and I called that number.
No, we don't handle retirement funds here. I can't seem to find out who handles these accounts. Yeah, yeah. No, I can understand your frustration there. I would go back to the company that you worked for in that HR department.
I mean, they've got undoubtedly, I mean, they deal with this every day. And even though this may be a previous plan administrator, everything should have been rolled forward to that new plan administrator. And they should be able to tell you very quickly who to contact that handles their retirement accounts.
Now, I mean, there is a national registry of unclaimed retirement benefits. You could do a search for that, but that's going to take you a bit on a somewhat of a wild goose chase. It's unclaimed retirementbenefits.com. I mean, you could do a quick search there and just see what comes up. But I would really press this with your former employer and say, listen, I've got an old account there.
I need to get that rolled out to an IRA and I need you to help me. And the number that you're giving me is, you know, the person is telling me they can't help me.
So I need you to help me to get to the right person because they should be the one to help you navigate this. You shouldn't be kind of left out there to your own devices.
So again, unclaimed retirementbenefits.com, but I would really press the issue with your previous employer and you're going to get there. Hang in there. We appreciate your call.
Well, folks, thanks for being along with us today.
So thankful for your comments, your kind remarks about the program. You know, it's my high calling and privilege to be able to come alongside you each day and tell you you can do this. You can be that wise and faithful steward that you want to if you're thoughtful about it, if you lean into God's word, if you heed the counsel of scripture and not the consensus of this world. And we want to help to encourage you to that. And big thanks to my team today.
Brent, Adam, Jim. Taylor and everybody here at Faith Phi. We'll see you tomorrow. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
