It's one of the most valuable things we have and one of the easiest to waste. Hi, I'm Rob West. You've heard it a thousand times. Time is money. But if that's true, why do we spend it so carelessly?
The truth is, time is worth far more than dollars and cents. It's the most limited resource God's given us. Today we'll explore how to use it wisely and invest it for eternity. And then we'll take your phone calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.
If you've ever said, I just need a little more time, you're not alone. Many people feel the pressure of time slipping through their fingers. Yet, ironically, we often spend our days chasing money, status, or productivity only to run out of the very thing we were trying to buy back. We treat time like a renewable resource, when in reality, it's more like a savings account being slowly drawn down. Every hour you live is one you'll never get back.
Yet, our culture tells us to equate our worth with how much we earn. But Scripture invites us to see time differently. Psalm 90, verse 12 says, Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Moses isn't talking about counting hours on a clock. He's talking about recognizing that our time on earth is limited and therefore immensely valuable.
From a biblical perspective, time isn't ours to manage as we wish. It's God's gift to be stewarded wisely. Just as money, talents, and resources belong to him, so does time. In Ephesians 5, 15 and 16, Paul writes, Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. In the original Greek, that phrase making the best use of the time literally means redeeming the time to buy it back and use it for God's purposes.
Some translations use the word redeem here, and that's no accident. It's the same Greek word Paul uses elsewhere to describe what Jesus did for us. Christ redeemed us from sin and emptiness, giving us life with eternal purpose. In the same way, we're called to buy back our time, to invest every moment, every conversation, and every decision in what will last forever. But here's the catch: if we don't decide what our time is worth, someone else will.
Your employer, your phone, your to-do list, even social media all have plans for your time. If you don't set boundaries, your schedule will fill up with things that seem urgent but aren't truly important. Jesus, however, modeled a completely different rhythm. Even with the most important mission in history, he frequently withdrew to pray. He took time to rest, to eat with friends, and to be fully present with people.
Jesus lived in such a way that He had the margin to be interrupted, to stop and heal the sick, to listen to those in pain, or to teach when someone had questions. He never rushed, yet always accomplished exactly what the Father intended.
So, how do we live as if our time actually belongs to God? First, re-evaluate your priorities. Every decision is a trade. When you say yes to one thing, you say no to something else. Ask, what matters most in God's eyes?
And am I giving that my best time? Second, measure time by meaning, not money. Our culture calculates value in dollars per hour, but God's economy works differently. A quiet afternoon encouraging a struggling friend might not pay in dollars, but it honors God and advances His kingdom in ways money never could. Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Third, build margin into your life. Just as financial margin creates space to respond to needs, time margin allows you to live generously. When you're not overscheduled, you can pause to listen, serve, or rest. Sabbath isn't wasted time. It's holy time that reminds us God is in control, not us.
And finally, steward small moments. The worth of your time isn't only found in the big events, it's also in the five minutes you spend praying for someone, or the ten minutes you use to read Scripture before your day begins. Colossians 3:17 reminds us, Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. When you begin to see your time through that eternal lens, Even the smallest moments take on lasting significance. You stop chasing the clock and start cherishing what truly matters.
As missionary C.T. Studd put it, only one life twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
So, what's your time really worth? It's worth exactly what you do with it for eternity. Don't just count your hours. Make your hours count. Live intentionally, rest purposefully, serve generously, and let every day remind you of the one who holds all time in his hands.
All right, your calls are next. Stick around. We'll be right back. What if managing your money could actually draw you closer to God? What would happen if we began to see God as our ultimate treasure?
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So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Really looking forward to hearing from you today at 800-525-7000. The calls have started to come in, but we've still got room for you at the moment.
So if you have a question today, go ahead and call right now. Again, that number, 800-525-7000. Let's go to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, my hometown. Tavia, thank you for calling. How can I help?
Hi, hi Rob. Thank you for taking my call.
So I have two kids. I have a 14-year-old and I have a newborn. And I just opened a brokerage account for the newborn and I have one established for my 14-year-old. I only have like a couple of shares of Roblox in his account. But I just wanted to know like what are some of the best options for investing for them, especially the newborn, because he has a longer time horizon than the 14-year-old.
Yeah, I love that you're thinking about this early, Tavia, and congrats on that newborn. That's great. Are you wanting to earmark this specifically for college, or would you like for them to be able to use it for? Anything. Anything.
I know there's 529 plans and different things like that for college, but I just kind of wanted to set up something for anything and just like the best options for that. Yeah.
So I would probably, if that's the case, I would probably open up accounts. In your name or the name of you and your husband, separate from other investments or savings accounts that you have, one for each child.
So you can kind of earmark them for that purpose. And then it's not a custodial account, which the only downside there is it automatically becomes the child's asset at the age of majority, which is 18 in the state of Florida.
So depending on where they're at, each of these children, in terms of their maturity, both spiritually and financially, you may or may not want to drop however much you've put away in their lap. And so you keeping that money in your name, even though you've got in your mind allocated it to them, allows you to have control over at what point they actually receive it.
So that would be one consideration. And you could open that account at Fidelity or Schwab. I probably, I know, I see here in my notes that you were wondering about savings options. And, you know, as long as your time horizon is at least five years, and we could talk about with the 14-year-old, whether it is, it certainly would be with the newborn. Then I think investing it would be a great option.
And, you know, to get the proper diversification on a very small amount that you're starting with, you've got a couple of options. One would be: I could give you a list of faith-based investing mutual funds.
So, a mutual fund is just a basket of stocks or investments. And in the faith-based investing mutual funds, you've got a basket of investments, but they've all been screened for faith alignment. And you could teach the principle of diversification. You could have the 14-year-old look up the top 10 holdings and get to know the companies and just kind of watch that grow over time. And you wouldn't be in one particular company.
Now, the other approach with kids, sometimes, even though we're violating the diversification principle, is to teach them about investing being ownership and have them help to pick the companies. And maybe they would pick a company to invest in that they actually like, you know, they do business with. Maybe it's a company that makes their favorite food or. Uh, you know, game or you know, whatever it might be, and you'd have to help them think through that, but that's going to make them a little more invested in it and probably excited to see how well it does. You know, it could be Apple Computer if they like you know, Apple products.
But the downside of that is you've got, even though you can do it through something called fractional shares, now you're very highly concentrated.
So, if Apple has a bad quarter or the just the you know, the high-growth tech sector is out of favor because it's been raging on the upside, well, you've just got a lot more risk now because if one sector or one company declines, it could decline rapidly and you could lose a pretty significant percentage.
So, that makes the case for the mutual funds that I was talking about. The other option would be what's called a robo-advisor, and that's essentially where you and your son would answer a series of questions about the time horizon of the money and your risk tolerance and the age of the investor, you know, and it would basically build a very low cost. Cost portfolio. And every time you put new money in there, it would be reinvested. And it would use what are called ETFs.
And I'm sorry that I'm getting technical here, but these are basically baskets of investments that mirror the broad market indexes.
So you might have the SP 500, maybe you have the Russell 1000, you might have a bond index, a tech index, domestic, international.
So you've got a wide swath of investments covering lots of different sectors, but allocated from a risk standpoint in a way that matches the goals, the age of the investor, the time horizon. And it's all kind of done for you with an algorithm that's driving all of this.
So it takes all the guesswork out for you. And I would probably consider either the Schwab Intelligent portfolios or a company called Betterment. And either of those could work.
So let me just summarize. I'd put the account in your name, one for child one, another one in your name for child two, and then either set up an automatic contribution if you're going to do it monthly or one time if you want to do it one time, and then either buy a couple of mutual funds from a faith-based investing list of funds or do a robo-advisor with Schwab intelligent portfolios or betterment. Does that make sense? Yes, that makes absolute sense. I'm actually in the finance.
So I understand all of those. I just wanted to know which ones, like you said, you'll send me a list of the mutual, the faith-based mutual funds, and that's great. Because I'm just kind of like wondering which ones to invest in, but that's great. Thank you so much. Yeah, excellent.
Let me give you that link to download that list of funds. It's faithandinvesting.com/slash faithfi. I'll say it one more time: faithandinvesting.com/slash faithfi. That'll give you a list of basically all of the faith-based investing mutual fund families out there. You could open the account at Fidelity or Schwab and invest in any one of them.
And anytime you add money to it, you could just add more shares. And hopefully that helps you, Tavia. Thanks for calling. You sound like a wonderful mom. Chicago.
Hey, Carlos, go ahead.
So I. Retired the end of twenty three. Um I'm fifty nine. I'm not yet um join any of my retirement funds. I had gotten injured, so I'm getting a Social Security disability.
So that's taking care of me. I don't have any debt, and my home is paid off. And um And I have a nice amount of money in my retirement as well as some money in my um in a uh trading account So I'm pretty pretty decent.
So I have a um a nice Piece of cash. that I'm looking to buy a new car. And I prefer to buy it outright so that I don't have any debt. Um But I wasn't sure whether that's the best thing to do, whether to buy it outright or or get a note or lease it and let it depreciate and then buy it afterwards. Yeah, yeah.
You know, if you have enough cash, you know, and this fits kind of with your overall, you know. Wealth that you have and the needs you're going to have both now and in the future. I mean, there's nothing wrong with buying a new car. Nobody bought new cars, we wouldn't eventually have any.
So, you know, the key is: is it the right fit for me? And then, if you have the ability to do it without debt, well, that's fabulous because if you were to buy, I mean, depending on what the amount is of the purchase, let's say you were to finance the whole thing. I mean, you could easily over a five-year, even using the simplified formula, I mean, you could spend $10,000, $12,000, $15,000 in interest. And, you know, I would rather you get that guaranteed, let's say, 7% a year in the form of not paying that interest versus trying to make that up in the market. And then, especially if you're somebody who buys a car and drives it for a long period of time, given that you're in retirement, perhaps you're driving less miles too.
So, I like the fact you can build equity.
Now, if you're somebody who likes to swap these out every few years and you want to keep your payment low, well, I mean, that's where, again, you could look at a lease, but I'd much rather, and I think you suggested this at the outset: if you're going to buy it, keep it, drive it, you can afford it, let's pay cash and, especially at these interest rates, not pay that interest. Hang on the line, we'll be right back. Uh We're grateful for support from Movement Mortgage, who provides residential home loans in all 50 states. Guided by a mission to love and value people and a goal to redefine the mortgage process, Movement seeks to help others achieve their financial goals. You can find out more at movement.com slash faith.
Movement Mortgage LLC supports Equal Housing Opportunity, NMLS number 39179. For licensing information, please visit NMLSconsumerAccess.org. We are grateful for support from Praxis Investment Management. Since 1994, Praxis has offered investment products designed to meet practical needs for everyday investors seeking to steward their assets consistent with their desire to promote positive social and environmental impacts. Praxis aims to bring a faith-based approach to ETFs, mutual funds, multifund portfolio solutions, and money market accounts reflecting their 500-year-old Anabaptist Christian faith tradition.
More information is available at PraxisInvest.com. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Faith in Finance. Had a chance to follow up with our previous caller. We spent a few more moments on the line today just talking about whether you should buy out right or lease.
That was Carlos. And, you know, we did a quick break-even analysis. And, you know, even with a pretty expensive car, which he can afford, he's got the assets to do it, an $80,000 car, when you look at the total five-year net cost, even with the opportunity cost. It's going to be 48,000 over five years in terms of the depreciation, and then he'd be able to sell it because he owns it, or with the opportunity cost, 70,000 total. Um but that's better than you know the the financing cost.
And it also is better than the lease because he'd spent $78,000. In terms of out of pocket on the lease with no ownership.
So he's always paying in no equity versus the buy with cash, $48,000 out of pocket. Even with the opportunity cost, that jumps to $70,000, but he owns it. And as a guy who drives cars a long time, you know, that's just going to always be the better option, especially up at these interest rates.
Now, he asked a great follow-up question off the air. He said, Well, wait a minute, what if they're offering incentives? for me to finance it. And then I could just turn around and pay it off. And he's exactly right.
Here's the key on that, though. You know, a lot of times these manufacturers, they tie the rebates and the discounts, usually between one and three grand, to using their preferred lender.
Well, that's fine. And then they make the money on the financing and they reward you for taking it, even if you don't keep it long. And you can usually pay it off early without penalty, but you got to check the contract.
Some loans have a minimum payment period, like three or six months.
So then the rule of thumb is: okay, if the rebate or the discount is greater than the total interest you'd pay, even over that short term, and the loan has no prepayment penalty, well, then of course, if you're up for the hassle and the paperwork, then it's smart to take the loan, get the incentive, and pay it off within a few months. You're just going to have to make sure that's possible. All right. New Mexico is where we're headed next. Ty Lee, go ahead.
Hey Rob, here's the story. We just purchased an RV after about a year of searching, found the one we wanted. We did finance through the dealership for good reasons, but at a 7.9% interest, RV rates, as I'm sure you're aware, are pretty high. uh with the twenty year loan, which I don't anticipate in twenty years.
So it's a three part question. I do have the opportunity, I can refinance it, but each bank tells me that they all use simple interest. I am not understanding what that means.
So the real question is, does simple interest rules apply all the same across the board at all banks? That's the first part. The second part of the question is Is there a good simple interest calculator so I can figure out how much extra in principal I can pay in order to pay it off early within my time frame? And the third part is, is there a better place to find a better RV rate loan? To refinance if I decided to go that route.
Yeah, yeah, really good.
Okay. Yeah, simple interest works the same in principle everywhere. And the bottom line is you're charged interest only on what you still owe. But each lender can calculate and apply it a little differently.
So what's consistent?
Well, all simple interest loans calculate interest on the outstanding balance, not on the original loan amount.
So the math works like this. The daily interest equals the balance. times the rate divided by 365. And that's essentially the same across all lenders.
So what can vary?
Well, what can vary is when they apply the payments.
Some banks credit payments immediately, others batch once a month, which could slightly change the total interest.
So you could ask about that. They have grace periods that vary in posting time.
So it could, you know, payment could post late by a day or two, and that could increase the interest slightly. And then, you know, the extra payment handling can vary.
Some automatically apply it to principal. Others require you to designate it. But by and large, they all should be the same. And so, I mean, essentially, it's calculated daily based on your current loan. Each payment first covers that day's interest, and then the rest, you know, reduces your principal.
And because it's based on your balance, the interest that is, the faster you pay it down, the less total interest you'll pay. By contrast, other loans, let's take a mortgage, for instance, they use amortized schedules, and that preloads more interest early on, whereas the simple loans do not. It's just simply based on the outstanding balance.
So that's basically the way it works. In terms of where to get a calculator, there's a number of them out there. Calculator.net would be one. Just look for their simple interest calculator. Credit Karma has a simple interest calculator that's really easy to use.
And then there's one called Calculator Soup. They have calculators for everything.
So just look for their simple interest plus principal calculator, and that gives you a lot of flexibility.
Okay. And then as far as trying to uh Find a place, another financial institute to get a better rate. On an RV loan, per se? Is there something you would place that you would recommend? Yeah, it's a good question.
We have good credit, so I'm not concerned about being approved. It's a matter of right now, our interest is 7.9%, which is actually pretty low. My other financial institute wants 8.3%. That's kind of why I was asking about the simple interest because they both say they do simple interest. And for me, in my head, I think that I would just pay the extra principal at the first place.
with the 7.9% versus going through all the paperwork for the same type of loan and paying more. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what? You want to find somebody who understands this space and perhaps even specializes in it. But at the end of the day, you can just shop the rate.
I don't have a particular lender that specializes in RVs.
So I think it'd be worth you spending some time online just to do your own research and due diligence. I really don't have a specific option to send you toward.
Okay, nope, that sounds good. In my head, you know, let's see what your thoughts are. I would prefer to have my low payment yet pay the extra principal, which they do require me to pay a separate principal payment, which gets applied. versus refinancing and getting locked into a higher payment, giving me the flexibility in case something goes south in life. Yeah, yeah, exactly right.
I mean, that's always key. I mean, depending on what that, you know, the difference in the interest rates, obviously, is going to tell you, you know, what the cost is for that flexibility. But if you can get it, I mean, it's kind of like, you know, getting a 30-year and paying it like a 15-year, but then always having the option to fall back to the lower 30-year payment on your mortgage. Um if you got into hard times.
Now, there's a cost for that because a 30-year mortgage is higher than a 15-year, but a lot of people say I'm willing to pay that premium because I like the flexibility of being able to drop down, and you're essentially doing the same thing. I love it.
Okay. Very astute.
Well done, Lee. Hey, thanks for being on the program today. Lord bless you, bud. Big thanks to my team today: Jim, Devin, and Sandy. We'll see you next time.
Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFu and listeners like you.
