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The best gift you can give yourself this season might not come wrapped in paper or tied with a bow. Hi, I'm Rob West. The holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas can be one of the most joyful times of the year, but also one of the most stressful, especially when money's tight. What if you could celebrate the whole season without the financial regret that debt brings? We'll talk about that today.
Then it's on to your phone calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. From the turkey to the Tedsoul, the holidays bring both delight and pressure. We want to give, to gather, and to make memories, but if we're not careful, the bills that follow can overshadow the joy. The good news is, it's not too late to make this season different.
Whether you're preparing for Thanksgiving or Christmas, the same principles apply. First, set a total spending limit. Start with what you can afford, not what you wish you could. That number is your guardrail for the holidays. You're not being stingy, you're being wise.
Every dollar you keep out of debt stays available for future generosity. You'll also want to divide that total into categories, such as food, travel, gifts, decorations, and charitable giving, whatever matters most to your family. Writing it down makes the plan tangible and easier to follow. If you're hosting Thanksgiving dinner, be sure to include the cost of groceries in your budget. If you're traveling to see family, plan for gas or airfare now instead of letting it sneak up later.
Second, pay with cash or a debit card when you can. Studies show that we spend about thirty percent more when paying with credit. If you do use a card, set a firm limit and stick to it.
Some families even open a separate account just for holiday spending. It creates a natural boundary and helps avoid impulse purchases. Third, get creative with giving. Whether it's hosting Thanksgiving dinner or wrapping Christmas gifts, remember it's not about the price tag. A handwritten note, a framed photo, or a homemade pie can carry far more meaning than something store-bought.
Acts twenty thirty five reminds us it is more blessed to give than to receive. That blessing isn't about the cost, it's about the heart. If your children are old enough, invite them to help bake cookies for neighbors or make handmade gifts for grandparents. Those shared experiences create memories that last far longer than the presents themselves. You can also use what you already have.
Maybe you've been saving up reward points. Redeem those for gift cards or purchases. It's one more way to keep spending within your means. Lastly, plan ahead for next year. When January rolls around, start setting aside a little each month for the next holiday season.
Even $50 a paycheck can make a big difference. By November, you'll be ready to give and celebrate without anxiety. If you prefer automation, set up an automatic transfer to a savings account just for holiday expenses. You'll hardly notice it leaving your budget, but you'll be grateful for it when the holidays roll around again. And if you're looking for a place to keep those savings, consider our friends at Christian Community Credit Union.
They're a financial institution that has been providing Christian banking solutions to thousands of Christ followers and ministries for over 68 years. Not only do they share your faith, but they're committed to helping you manage money in a way that honors God. CCCU's savings accounts, digital tools, and personalized service can help you stay on track during the busiest time of the year. Right now, as a special offer to FaithFi listeners, they're offering up to a $400 bonus when you open a high-yield checking, savings, or Visa cashback card. As our recommended banking partner, it's an incredible opportunity to align your faith and your finances.
And by the way, they just merged with Adelphi. They're now the biggest Christian banking solution anywhere. Visit faithfi.com/slash banking and enter the code FaithFi when you apply. That's faithfi.com/slash banking and enter the code FaithFi. As you prepare for Thanksgiving, take a moment to give thanks to God for His provision.
Gratitude is where wise stewardship begins. And as Christmas draws near, let your giving reflect the joy of God's greatest gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ. When we give with grateful hearts and live with margin, we reflect His generosity to the world around us. Ultimately, this creates space for what matters most: faith, family, gratitude, and the celebration of Christ's birth. Even when finances feel tight, remember, lasting peace isn't found in numbers or careful planning, but in resting on God's faithful provision.
That's the heart of faithful stewardship, learning to live not from scarcity, but from trust in the one who provides abundantly. And when you do, you'll find a joy that lasts long after the holidays are over. Back with your calls after this: 800-525-7000. Faith in Finance is thankful for support from The Good Investor, a book by Robin John. In his book, Robin shares his journey from an immigrant child struggling in school to co-founder and CEO of Eventide Asset Management, a faith-based investment firm.
This Faith and Work memoir seeks to inspire readers to view their work and investments as opportunities to honor God and bring blessing to the world. More information is available at goodinvestor.com. That's goodinvestor.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 FAITHFY when you sign up. That's faithfy.com/slash banking with code FAITH FI. Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up at $200.
$250,000. This institution is not federally insured. Mm. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. All right, let's dive into your questions today.
Again, that number 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. Let's begin today in Texas. Jason, go ahead. Yeah, yes, sir.
Uh thanks for your program. Um When I was forty, I started having seizures from the head injury. continue to work until my fifties, uh really had some terrible medicine. Finally got to where I couldn't work. Um went on disability.
And after about two years of that, got on some better medication and was able to go back to work. Um I took off two different times. about three months apart. And um You know, spent the day trying to get a hold of Social Security and finally talking to somebody and told them, hey, look, I'm. I'm working and I'm going to make more than.
More than I'm supposed to. And they're still sending me money. Yeah, got it. Yeah, certainly you want to get this right. And, you know, I think you've done the most important thing by keeping lines of communication open.
There is something, and they may have mentioned this to you, called a trial work period.
So you're allowed nine trial months within a rolling 60-month window where you can earn as much as you want and still collect your full disability benefit. And a month basically counts as of 2025 this year. Any month you make over $1,160.
So you're probably in that trial period right now. And then after that ends, then you get a 36-month window where you can still receive benefits for any month your earnings are below what they call substantial gainful activity. But this is a pretty low barrier.
So you're probably going to go above this. And there's a higher limit if you're blind. And if you earn above that, then that's when your check usually stops.
Now there's a grace period, so the the first month your benefits stop because of the substantial gainful activity, plus the next two months are still fully payable, so that prevents that abrupt cutoff. But I think the reporting is key. You want to keep sending your pay stubs, stay in touch with Social Security. If you don't report, that's when overpayments pile up and you risk having to pay money back. But you should be in good shape here if you're still within that trial window.
But just recognize that it is probably going to wind down and eventually stop.
Okay, thank you so much. Um I did leave something out. developed prostate cancer about four years ago and did the uh surgery and forty radiation treatments and everything's been good for quite a while, but this last year has come back and it's right at the point that they're calling it reoccurrence. And I'm concerned that I might have to not work as much. And so I would need my Social Security reinstated.
Is that just Is that something I should talk to them about it? Should I make an in-person Um Visit with Social Security. Yeah, that's never a bad idea. But yeah, if your benefits ended because you earned above the substantial gainful activity limit, then within the next five years, if you stop working or your earnings drop below that due to your disability, you can request an expedited reinstatement. You don't have to start the whole application process over.
And then while they review that, you can even get up to six months of temporary benefits. And then they'll check that your original disability still limits your ability to work.
Now, if you're saying this is something new, then that may involve you starting over. And again, that would never a bad idea to visit with them and talk about that. But if you're in that five-year window and it has to do with the disability that had been previously limiting you, then obviously that could happen much quicker.
Okay, well, that is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you very much. God bless you. I appreciate your time. Absolutely, Jason.
All the best to you, my friend. And we appreciate you giving us a call here today. Call anytime. Again, just to make sure I'm clear here, Social Security will treat this as a new claim if it's a new medical issue.
So you would need to start that process from scratch.
So just be ready for that. That's going to take a little bit longer. Thanks for your call today. Ralph is in Texas. Go ahead, sir.
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking the call. Yes, sir. My wife and I, we own our house, Lockstock, and Barrel. Um But over the past five, six years we've had to live on credit cards for a while.
And we brought up Quite real. I'm toying between going to the bank and using the house as collateral for a loan. and doing a reverse mortgage. Yeah. Are you planning to stay in this home if you can make it work indefinitely?
Yes. That's the reason that I'm calling about the reverse mortgage, basically. If something happened to me, I got to looking at the the payment on the house. If I took out the loan. and the insurance I'd have to take out to cover that loan if something happened to me because his wife couldn't take care of it.
It basically is up to the same point I'm paying now, and but I'm not getting anywhere now.
So I was looking at the reverse mortgage to keep them paying anything. Yeah, very good. Yeah, you're right. I mean, so this, you know, if you don't have the assets and the income in this season of life, this is where, you know, the fact that you're sitting on your largest asset that's essentially after tax equity in your home could be the game changer in terms of you all being able to just even maintain your modest standard of living without that added pressure and the expense of the interest.
So your options are would be to move and, you know, try to get that equity out, perhaps invest it and rent somewhere or stay there. And I think that's where the reverse, the home equity conversion mortgage, lets you tap into your home equity, stay in the house, never have a payment. The loan balance would grow over time and then it would be repaid when you move out, sell, or pass away. And you could receive it as a lump sum. Most people receive it as a line of credit, but you could even get monthly payments.
And over time, generally, your home would increase in value and they would come up based on your age and the equity that you have with a monthly payment that you would receive for the rest of your life. And you would continue to receive that and again, never owe anything until you move or pass away.
Now, of course, you still have to pay the property taxes as you have been, the insurance, maintain the home. There are some upfront fees and then mortgage insurance premiums that are rolled into the cost of the loan. And then, in terms of the impact on heirs, it would just mean that your heirs get less equity because when the last borrower passes away, which means that both of you can stay in the home. And if one passes away, the other would continue to live there until this is your wife because you pre-decease her, she would stay in there until she moves or passes. And then the home would be sold generally to repay the loan.
And then any leftover equity goes to your estate and could go to ministry or your heirs. And so, you know, it can be a great option. And our friends at Movement Mortgage are really the experts in this. They all know and love the Lord there and really good at, you know, Helping you understand how this can impact you, and we'd be happy to have somebody reach out to you if that would be something you're interested in. That would be awesome.
In fact, I was Going to ask if you had a uh a recommendation. Yeah, sure do. I see all these things on on online and all this, and I I don't trust about half of it. Yeah, I understand. And there's a lot of advertisements around this.
And so I get it. You're wondering who can I trust?
Well, if you stay on the line, we'll get you some information. Folks, if you're listening today and you want to know more, you can go to movement.com/slash faith. But, Ralph, stay here. We'll get your info and get somebody in touch with you. Lord bless you, sir.
Thanks for calling today. We're going to take a quick break and then back with your questions just around the corner here on Faith and Finance.
So stick around. We'll be right back. If you love what you hear on this program, there's even more waiting for you at FaithFi.com. Explore podcasts, videos, articles, Bible studies, and devotionals, all designed to help you see God as your ultimate treasure and money as a tool to advance his kingdom. Pursue wisdom, practice generosity, and steward God's resources in a community with others who share your faith.
Visit FaithFi.com to take the next step in your faith and financial journey today. That's faithfi.com. Healthcare is complicated. It doesn't have to be. If you don't love how your health insurance works, maybe it's time to leave traditional health insurance behind.
Take charge of your healthcare with Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM offers you flexibility. Enroll anytime. Choose your own provider. And select the program that fits your needs and budget.
CHM is the original faith-based way of taking care of your medical bill costs. Learn more at chministries.org/slash faithfi. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Taking your calls and questions here in our final segment today: 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.
You can call right now. All right, let's head back to the phones. Fox River Grove, Illinois. Hi, Mark. Go ahead.
Well, I have a question for you.
Okay.
Okay, we're selling our house because we're thinking of moving. And I'm wondering if it's better to take the entire proceeds of the sale and put it into the new house. or if we should take part of it and put it in our retirement accounts. I am retired right now. And we'd just like to have a little more income And our you know, every month Yeah.
And I'm thinking that if we put something extra into the retirement accounts, we would have that extra coming in.
So what do you think? Is it does it balance out like a you know, percentage wise, or what do you think? Yeah. Yeah, it's a good question.
So tell me a few more specifics here.
So you've sold your home. How much did you clear on that sale? We're going to sell it. Oh, you're going to sell it.
Okay.
What do you think you'll get?
Well, for round numbers, let's just say $250,000.
Okay.
And we're looking to buy someplace a little closer to $300,000 because of the location we're going to.
Okay.
And so the question is: you know, let's say you were to roll all that in, you'd have a very small $50,000 mortgage thereabouts, versus you taking a portion of this and redirecting it and ending up with a bigger mortgage. The question would be: where would you, how would you put that money into, quote, retirement? Are you all still working and you put it into a 401k or what would you do?
Well, I think between my wife and I, we should be able to roll it into the into our we have three different accounts And I understand that you can put a certain amount in per year. including like last year and uh So we should be able to get pretty close to being able to put it all into our accounts.
Okay.
What kind of accounts are they, do you know? What type of retirement accounts?
Well, they're both four hundred one case it rolled over into just retirement accounts.
Okay, so they're IRAs probably, individual retirement accounts? Right, yes.
Okay, yeah.
So the challenge is: you know, 50 and older with the $1,000 catch-up, the most you can put in for 2025 is going to be $8,000 each.
So if you each had 401ks that you've rolled over, they stay individual. You can't combine them.
So there is no joint IRA.
So that means your 401ks that each of you had at your employers are now in two IRAs, one in your name, one in hers. You could each put in $8,000 a year.
So the most you could put in of that quarter of a million dollars would be $16,000.
Now you could turn around and do that again next year. As a 2026 contribution, but that would be the max you could put in. Oh, I thought there was a look back kind of a deal where you could put in for like last year or something like that, too. No?
Well, the only place that comes up is you can contribute to the prior year until you file that year's return.
So, for instance, for 2025, you'd have until April of 26. But the time has already passed for you to fund, let's say, 2024.
So at this point, the most you could put in would be $16,000 for 2025 and then turn around and do another $16,000, $8,000 into each one for 2026.
Now you have to have earned income, but it sounds like you do because you're continuing to work, right? No, my wife is.
Okay.
And so she has earned income.
So you've got to have earned income in order to fund an IRA. But you as a spouse could do that.
So that would allow you to, as a non-working spouse, to contribute.
So between the two of you, you could put in $16,000.
So does that make sense to take a quarter of your $250,000 and drop $16,000 in and then maybe in January do it again? Sure. I could get on board with that. As long as you don't have any high interest debt, you've got an emergency fund and that mortgage is going to easily fit into your budget. Then I would say, yeah, getting more money into a tax-deferred environment is a good thing because that's going to give you a little bit more working for you.
uh that you can eventually convert into an income stream down the road.
Okay.
So the income from rolling it into the IRAs. Would outweigh The difference in the monthly payment that we would make on a mortgage that was was not paid down, I guess? Or what it is paid down.
Well, it just depends. Yeah, so that's the other challenge is that, you know, right now where mortgage rates are, I mean, let's call it 7%. You know, in order for you to get 7% a year to more than offset the interest you're paying, you know, that's a pretty good annual rate of return, and it's certainly not guaranteed. Whereas the money you put into the house that you're not having to pay 7% a year in interest on is guaranteed.
So, I mean, I think from a pure dollars and cents standpoint, you're probably going to come out better over a one-year period by just paying down the mortgage. You know, if you're going to end up taking on a higher, a bigger mortgage, you know, maybe $32,000 more because you put in $16,000 plus $16,000, you're going to end up spending more in interest than you're probably going to make.
Now, you could run the compounding effect of that out over the next 10 or 20 years, and perhaps the mortgage or the contribution of the IRA, especially given that she's still working and you would get a deduction for that.
So there's some tax savings there that you could say it outweighs the interest, but it's not going to be by a lot. And so, if you would rather press toward becoming debt-free sooner rather than later, because as soon as you pay off this mortgage in full, now you've taken your biggest monthly expense, your mortgage payment, and it's gone. And that's probably going to be really helpful in terms of just keeping your lifestyle expending at a minimum, which means you need less assets to support that because you're just not spending as much on a monthly basis. And so I think from that standpoint, there could be a case for you to say, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and just try to get out of debt as soon as possible and not have a mortgage payment.
Does that make sense? Yes, it does.
So it sounds like the balance of wisdom here is to. put the entire amount towards the new house. You know, I think you could go either way, but I think you're right. Yes, I like that idea of you all taking 100% of what you built up in equity, rolling it into the next place, and saying we're going to try to get out of debt fully as soon as we can and be without a mortgage payment because that's just going to make balancing the budget easier. And I've never had anybody, Mark, in all the years I've been doing this, and I've probably answered more than 30,000 questions.
I've never had anybody call and say, Rob, I paid off my mortgage last year and I've regretted it ever since. I just don't get that call. Understand. Plus, I guess the other idea is that 32,000 into our accounts. Will not boost it enough as like I was thinking a hundred thousand would.
Yeah, so that would be just a marginal input on that side of the equation.
So I think that's like, well, this. I think we'll just go with uh putting it all into the the new house.
Alright, well there we go. You're welcome, Mark. All anytime, my friend. Lord bless you. That's going to do it for us today.
A big thanks to my team today: Jim Henry, Devin Patrick, Robert Youngblood, and everybody here at FaithFi. You want to support our work? Go to faithfy.com and click give, and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith By and listeners like you.
