Every day, Faith Phi is making a profound difference in the lives of thousands of Christians. We help them integrate their faith and financial decisions, all for the glory of God. Our resources, including Bible studies, devotionals, the Faith and Finance program, articles, videos on FaithPhi.com, and the FaithPhi app, are instrumental in this transformative journey. We are so grateful for your faithful love and support of this ministry, and we'd like to invite you to partner with us in this work. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry?
If so, please consider becoming a monthly FaithPhi partner by visiting FaithPhi.com and clicking Give. That's faithfi.com and click Give. Money touches every part of our lives, and for many of us, it also touches our deepest fears. I am Rob West. When bills rise, when income feels uncertain, and when the future feels cloudy, it's easy to slip into worry and believe everything rests on our shoulders.
But scripture invites us into a better story: one where God sees, God knows, and God provides. Today, we'll explore the peace that comes from trusting Him as our provider. And then we'll take your phone calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance: biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Few things test our faith quite like money, but when bills stack up, when emergencies hit, when the market dips at the wrong moment, the question comes quickly: will I have enough?
Most of us respond by trying harder, saving more, hustling more, planning more, and there's wisdom in working diligently and stewarding well, but beneath all that effort, many of us carry a deeper fear, the belief that everything ultimately rests on our shoulders. Jesus invites us into something better, something rooted in the character of God, not the instability of our circumstances. In Matthew 6, 26, he says, look at the birds of the air. These tiny creatures, no incomes, no savings accounts. They don't stress over tomorrow's food or next month's shelter.
Yet Jesus says, your heavenly Father feeds them. Not their Father, your Father, the one who watches over creation, watches over you. Jesus isn't telling us not to work. He's telling us not to worry. Because behind every paycheck, every opportunity, every act of diligence stands a God who provides.
This is the heartbeat of one of the days in my new devotional Our Ultimate Treasure, a 21-day journey helping you anchor your financial life in God's character. And today's theme is simple and transformative. God is our provider. We see this truth woven through the entire story of Scripture. Consider Abraham in Genesis 22.
He stands on a mountain in agonizing obedience, ready to offer his son Isaac. At the very moment of surrender, God provides a ram caught in a thicket. Abraham names the place the Lord will provide, not the Lord once provided, but the Lord will. his provision came at the exact moment it was needed. Then there's the widow of Zarephath in First Kings seventeen, down to her final handful of flour and last drops of oil, one meal left.
God sends Elijah, asks her to trust him with what little she has, and she does. And day after day her jar and jug never run empty. God didn't give her an overflowing pantry. He gave her enough. enough to sustain her, enough to show she was seen.
And think of Peter, worried about paying the temple tax. Jesus sends him to cast a line, and the first fish he catches carries a coin in its mouth, just enough to meet the need. Not excess, not luxury, but precise personal provision. From beginning to end, Scripture shows us that God Himself is the source of all we have. Yes, he uses our work, our planning, and our effort, but he stands behind them as the true provider.
Paul captures this beautifully in Philippians 4.19. My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. He wasn't writing to wealthy believers. He was writing to a church that gave generously even when resources were scarce, reminding them that God's supply flows from his glory, not from their bank accounts. God gives us what we need, not always what we want, not always when we expect it, but his provision is wise, intentional, and rooted in his love.
And then Jesus makes this truth unmistakably clear in John 6:35. I am the bread of life. He doesn't only provide for us, he is our provision. The greatest gift God gives is not material, it's himself. Peace doesn't come from perfect circumstances, peace comes from the presence of a faithful God.
So let me ask you. Where do you need to trust his provision today? Where are you stretched then? Where does worry whisper that you're all alone? Where do you need to be reminded that you have a heavenly Father who provides, not reluctantly, but joyfully?
Bring those needs to Him. Ask for wisdom, for peace, for strength, and stay open to the unexpected ways He may provide through people, opportunities, quiet moments, or renewed perspective. And if you want to explore this truth more deeply, I'd love for you to walk through my new devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure. It's a 21-day journey designed to help you explore what it means to put Christ first in your finances and your life. You can pre-order it today at faithfi.com.
Just click shop. That's faithfi.com. Just click shop. All right, your calls are next: 800-525-7000. 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.
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.
Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. We've got lines open. We're ready for your questions, 800-525-7000. Call right now. Lucille is in Illinois.
Go right ahead. Thank you so much for taking my call. I have an opportunity to do a three-year special catch-up. Yes.
So I'm gonna be able to contribute like double What's your contribute? I'm fifty-eight. And I was wondering, what should I be considering? Should I just do it all as four fifty seven? Or because within the 457, I have an opportunity to invest some of that as ROS.
I don't have a lot of ROS. account, you know, balance of my Rot account. what should I be considering to split it? Or am I better off doing all of it as They fed. Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I've mentioned before there was a study done by some researchers that looked at thousands of actual retirees to determine what is the optimal mix between tax-free and tax-deferred retirement accounts once they got to retirement and started drawing it down. And what they found is, and this was just based on the study they did, that the optimal scenario was if you take your age and you add 20 to it, so you're 58, add 20 to it, that's 78, that that would be the portion you should put in traditional, and then you put the rest in the Roth. And the idea was that you're probably at the peak of your earnings years, so you could really benefit from the deduction. But the fact that we don't know what tax rates are going to be in the future, you at least want something going into Roth.
So whether you do 80 to traditional or 70, you know, I think somewhere between 70 and 80 to the traditional and 20 to 30 to the Roth is probably at least based On this study, an optimal scenario for you. I hope that helps, Lucille. Thanks for your call. Let's go to New York. John, how can I help?
Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, so the situation we have is my wife and I have recently received a legal settlement for a little over $50,000, and we'd like to tie that. And we normally give the ten percent tithe to our local church, but this is kind of over and above that. And what we're wondering is two things. One is what kind of guidance can we look at in terms of how much of that should go to our local church versus other causes that are New kingdom related that are in our hearts.
And secondly, Is it appropriate to take part of the tithe for one of those causes, which would be a ministry that my wife and I are now developing, and which would have some significant expense to it? With that, is that valid to consider tithing as well? Yeah. Well, it's a great question, and I love the heart behind it because, really, as we think about giving, you know, clearly giving should be a response to the grace that's been extended to us.
So, it's an act of worship. It just should be that natural response to say, I've been given much. I have an abundance before the first dollar because of what God has done on my behalf through Jesus' shed blood on the cross. And so, you know, I was created in the image of the ultimate giver, God Himself. And so, I give as just a natural response to that.
And so, I think that's great. I think the second thing we can often do as we think through this is really think about the role of the tithe. You know, we addressed this pretty specifically in the Faithful Steward magazine as we did a deep dive just looking at the tithe and really thinking about all of those passages in the Old and New Testament about the tithe. And what you will see when you explore. That and I'll send you a copy of Faithful Steward so you can read it.
I think you'll really enjoy it. You know, but we see the idea of tithing about 15 times in scripture, even though the word is used 49 times, obviously, largely in the Old Testament because it was a part of the law of Moses. There were actually three types of tithes.
So you had the Levitical tithe, you had the festival tithe, you had the charity tithe. When you put all those together, it was, you know, because one of them was every three years, it was like 23 and a third percent. But I love this idea that we would give systematically and proportionately. I think we see that clearly in the New Testament. We're to give, you know, based on New Testament givers out of an overflow and as an act of worship.
And I think using the principle of the tithe as a starting point, you know, viewing that 10% as a historic benchmark of generosity, not as a legal requirement, but as a practice that still offers guidance. Today, I think is great. I also think one of the ideas that we can pull forward from the Old Testament tithes is giving to the local church to advance the gospel and support spiritual leaders. That clearly reflects the Levitical tithe.
So, I think both of those are important. Supporting our church, God's plan A clearly, and doing that systematically and proportionately, perhaps using the 10% as a guideline, not as an ending point, but as a beginning point, I think is great. But at the end of the day, it really shouldn't be about rules or even percentages. I think New Testament giving really cares more about the heart posture than a specific number or percentage of giving. It really is about a fully surrendered life of godliness, which includes.
Honoring God with our giving, you know, freely and joyfully and directed to causes that honor God.
So, what am I saying here? You didn't call, ask for a history lesson on the tithe, but I think what that leads us to is our knees to say, God, what would you have me to do? Because God's not an accountant, He doesn't need our money. And as long as we're giving with a glad heart and as a response to His grace and in alignment with the causes that are on the heart of God, then I think clearly, wherever you and your wife land on that is God honoring. And I think starting with your local church, because it's God's design for reaching communities and equipping believers and advancing the gospel is good.
But I think there's clearly other causes on the heart of God as well. Serving the poor is clearly on the heart of God. Sharing the good news is on the heart of God. Strengthening believers.
So, you know, if you guys decided, listen, we're going to take part of our increase of these unexpected funds and we're going to support our local church, but then the Lord is going to lead us to do a few other things with that as well. I think that's perfectly appropriate with the right heart posture, as long as you and your wife are on the same page and you've, you know, taken it before the Lord in prayer. Does that make sense? It does. And we're certainly we're in the process of doing that right now.
So he's kind of seeking any other godly counsel in that process.
So yes.
So because there are significant other needs that we've kind of had on hold for a long time that we this is gee, this is really kind of windfall that's a blessing to us. Yeah. So we want to take care of some of those as well. But I think So, I guess what I'm hearing is that maybe, you know, it's not a matter of, you know, the first 10% should definitely be to the local church, and anything you do above and beyond that would go to other things. But it sounds like there's more flexibility in that.
I think there is. I mean, you know, many churches teach that that's the minimum standard, that a tenth based on the Old Testament principle of the tithe, even though we're under now the law of Christ, not the law of Moses, is the minimum standard starting with the local church. And I would say, is it a helpful guideline? Yes.
Does the word tithe mean a tenth? Yes.
Should we begin with the local church? And does that honor the Levitical tithe from the Old Testament? Yes, absolutely. But I think there's more flexibility than that. You know, I think we also need to be careful, and I'm not saying you're doing this, but we need to not talk about giving or tithing as if they're transactions we have to complete to stay on God's good side.
Giving is an invitation to trust Him more deeply and to join in His work in the world. I think starting with the local church, but it's not. Meant to be a burdensome obligation that leaves us asking, does this count as tithing? And does this count as giving? You know, when generosity flows from a sincere desire to meet the needs of others and reflect the love of Christ and honor those places that are on the heart of God that we see clearly in scripture that includes the church, but it's a lot more than that, then I think it reflects the heart of biblical stewardship.
So in that sense, it always fits within true God-honoring generosity. I hope that gives you a few things to think about. John, stay in the line. I'm going to send you a copy of Faithful Steward so you can do a deeper dive into this topic. We'll be right back on faith and finance.
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All right, let's head back to the phones. Pennsylvania, Donna, go right ahead. Hi, Rob. My husband and I have two daughters in their 30s, and neither has a long-term financial plan at this point. And we want to encourage them to do this by opening a Roths for each of them with $2,000 or $3,000 so that they can add to it.
See it grow, see the benefit and simplicity of long-term planning, but there are several things we don't know. Could I ask you those questions? Absolutely, yeah.
Okay, well, what we don't know. One is whether you think this is a good idea, but let's save that one. The next one is whether we can open it for them or would simply give them the money to open it themselves, you know, sort of make a family party out of it. Yes.
Any other questions? Are those the two? Yeah, I have one more of whether this gift from us would be a tax liability for them, counted as income. And if so, do you have any recommendations for us on how to handle that the best way? Awesome.
Yeah, those are great.
Well, first of all, Donna, I love how you and your husband are thinking about not only getting them started with some seed money for the long term, but really modeling this idea that, you know what, we should be living within our means to have margin that allows us to fund these longer-term goals, whether that's increased giving or long-term savings or maybe paying off student loan debt, saving for a home purchase. All of those things happen when we order our lives in such a way that we've got some surplus that we could put toward those goals. And to your question, I absolutely love the Roth IRA. I think it's really one of the most powerful compounding tools available because you put in the after-tax dollars, but then that's going to grow tax-free for the next, let's call it 40 years until they start to think about needing to, or maybe 35 years before. They start to need to pull that out, maybe to supplement Social Security in that season of life.
And so, all those years of compounded growth are going to be tax-free, which is just amazing and will be a real blessing to them down the road. In terms of your ability to do that, you know, if your kids are adults and they are 18 or older, they'll need to open the Roth IRA in their own names. You can't open it for them, but you can gift them the money to fund it.
So, you know, you could transfer that money to them. And I love your idea of let's make it a party and kind of do it all together. But that gift is not going to be taxable to you or them because you have the ability to gift any individual up to $18,000 tax-free. You don't even have to tell the IRS about it. And between you and your husband, you can each do $18,000.
And this is for as many individuals. As you want.
So, between the two of you, you could actually give them up to $36,000. And, you know, the contribution limit obviously is quite a bit lower than that at $7,000.
So, what you would do is you'd decide how much you want to gift them. You'd make it clear to them why you're doing it, what it's for, and perhaps even get with them to open it together. You make the transfer, it's not taxable, it goes into the Roth IRA. The only decision you're going to have to make beyond that is where do we open the Roth? And that's going to be driven by how you want it managed.
And what's often a great solution here is what's called a robo-advisor, which is for folks who are just getting started. It's very low cost. It's going to give them a nice, broad, diversified approach using something called index funds, which is going to mirror the broad moves of the market in a way that's appropriate and suitable for their age and risk tolerance, which is probably pretty aggressive just because they have so much time for this to grow. And unfortunately, there's not too Today, a faith-based investing robo advisor. There's one coming, but if you wanted to do it, I would suggest you look at either betterment.
or the Schwab intelligent portfolios. Unless you had another plan already in mind for where you would open it in terms of the custodian. But to your question about is this a great move? Yes.
Will there be any tax implications? No. And they do need to be the ones to open it. Is that helpful though? It is so helpful.
It makes me so happy to know that we can do this without harming them in terms of their own taxes. Thank you so much. Absolutely. It's very exciting.
Well, I'm so thrilled to hear that. Let's do this. Stay on the line. I'm going to send you two copies of the book, Master Your Money, for you. You said there were two adult children, right?
That's right, yes.
Okay, so Ron Blue's book, Master Your Money, is a classic. When you have that party to open those accounts, I want you to give them that book. It's one that I read in college, and it kind of shaped my thinking and was the beginning point of my passion around the intersection of faith and finance. I think they'll really enjoy it. And you sound like great parents.
Call anytime, okay? Yeah, Rob, thank you so much. You've been a great help. Have a great day. All right, you two, hold the line.
Sherry is in New Mexico. Sherry, go ahead. Hi, Rollip. I have a question on social security. You can't have uh too much savings on social security.
I heard the um Singles. can only have up to two thousand and couples can only have up to three thousand. Otherwise it can be taken away from you. I was wondering if if that's true. Yeah, there is some truth to that, but there's some confusion going on here.
It's not related to Social Security, regular Social Security. What you're describing is something called SSI. Which is a completely different program for those with low income and limited resources.
So it's supplemental security income. And that does have limits: 2,000 for individuals, 3,000 for couples. But if you're receiving regular Social Security retirement, you can save and invest freely without losing any benefits. There are no income or savings limits on regular Social Security. Oh, okay.
Okay. Is that helpful? Did you have a follow-up question? No, that's okay. Not today.
Thank you.
Okay, very good. Thanks for calling. Call back anytime, Sherry. Lord bless you. Let me say thanks to my team today.
I certainly couldn't do this without the entire cast and crew here at Faith 5, but certainly today, Devin Patrick, my producer, Jim Henry providing great research, and Sandy Dickinson handling our phones today. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you. Yeah.
