What if managing your money could actually draw you closer to God? The FaithFi app helps you do more than budget. It helps you integrate your faith and financial decisions for the glory of God. With easy-to-use envelope features, top biblical financial content, and a supportive in-app community, you'll learn to steward God's resources wisely and grow in generosity. Download the FaithFi app today from your app store or visit FaithFi.com and click App.
Um Staying on budget doesn't have to be complicated.
Sometimes all it takes is five intentional minutes each week. I am Rob West. A budget isn't a set it and forget it tool. It's something we revisit so our spending lines up with our values. Today, Crystal Payne joins us to share a simple weekly rhythm that can help you stay on track.
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.
Well, our guest today is Crystal Payne, a longtime friend of this program and the creator of MoneySavingMom.com. She also has a wonderful article in the latest issue of Faithful Steward on how to stay on budget this season. Crystal, we're delighted to have you back with us. Thank you so much for having me. You narrow this down to six simple questions we can ask ourselves each week.
So I want to walk through them one by one. And the first is, what worked this week? Help us understand why that's so important. I think it's so important to start by noticing positive habits and small wins, to look at anything that went better than you expected in your spending and really celebrate that, even if it feels small, and then build that motivation by naming what's working right now. Yeah, absolutely.
That makes so much sense. And then the next question is the obvious follow-on to that, which is, okay, if I looked at what worked this week, now I need to ask what didn't work this week. And we should be paying attention to that as well, right? Yes, you know, starting with the positive because then you're going to have to confront the negative and identify the areas where spending got off track and really look for patterns. Like, are you overspending in certain areas, like meals out or impulse buys?
I want you to remove the shame. This isn't about feeling guilty about this, it's just about the awareness and then using that awareness to help you adjust your plan moving forward. That's great.
Now, next up is: what do I want to change?
So, what are we getting at there? Really, to pinpoint a practical next step, what's going to make next week smoother? I want you to decide whether your budget categories maybe need a refresh and maybe just having some reminders or better tracking habits and really adjusting your expectations. Maybe your budget doesn't reflect your real life.
So, what's one small change that can increase that confidence for the next week? Yeah, that makes sense.
Now, I love this next question. And that is, what surprised me?
So, what kinds of things are we listening for there? Really, are there some unexpected expenses, large or small? Were bills higher or lower than usual? Were there refunds or credits that you forgot about? And this should just give you some new insights into your spending rhythm.
Yeah, that's great. And then you tell us to ask, and no surprise here, was I over budget anywhere?
Now, if we spot something that's over budget, what's our next step? Really, to think, okay, was this a one-time issue or is this a recurring pattern?
So often things can kind of be sneaky. You know, you didn't expect that this was going to be in your budget, but it is. And so adjust the category if the real-life spending is consistently higher. Look for opportunities to trim in other areas and really think of your budget like a GPS. Just recalculate and keep going.
I like that a lot. And then finally, the sixth question we should ask ourselves each week: any aha moments.
So, what kinds of insights do people usually uncover here?
Well, I think realizing how planning ahead really can reduce stress and that can give you motivation to continue doing that. Also seeing connections between habits and emotions, noticing where your values and spending align or maybe where they don't and you need to tweak something. And that can really just give you insight into long-term patterns and discover maybe some small mindset shifts that can make a big impact. Crystal, at the heart of this is really just intentionality, isn't it? It's really with a thoughtful approach, revisiting your budget on a weekly basis.
That's a game changer, right? Yes, I think it's just that having it in front of you consistently makes such a difference to help you to stick with it. Yeah, we've got just about thirty seconds left. Let's talk to the married couples out there. Should they do this exercise together?
I would highly recommend it as long as you can come with this attitude of being willing to listen to your spouse. This is not about hitting them over the head and telling them what they've done wrong. This is really about communicating together so that you can move your priorities forward. That is well said. Folks, a simple weekly review, just six questions can turn your budget from something you react to into something that actually works for you.
Crystal, so helpful as always. Thanks for being with us. Thanks so much for having me. Crystal Payne has been our guest today. She's a good friend.
She's the creator of MoneySavingMom.com and also the author of How Can I Keep My Budget on Track? Check out MoneySavingMom.com today. You'll be glad you did. We'll be back with your questions after this. 800-525-7,000.
Stick around. 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? The Faith Buy App helps you do more than budget. It helps you integrate your faith and financial decisions for the glory of God.
With easy-to-use envelope futures, top biblical financial content, and a supportive in-app community, you'll learn to steward God's resources wisely and grow in generosity. Download the Faith Buy app today from your app store or visit FaithBuy.com and click A. 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. Um Yeah. I'm so glad you're with us today on Faith and Finance. We do have a few lines open.
If you have a question today, call right now, 800-525-7000. I've got an amazing team ready to take your call and we'll get you on the air quickly. Florida is where Elizabeth is located. Elizabeth, thanks for your call. Go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my call. Yes. Me and my husband are trying to make a decision in reference to our son. He is in the military and he has a student loan that he has not paid since twenty fifteen. The total amount is six thousand five hundred.
It's small interest at this point. He acts on it and had it deferred until December, but he needs to start to pay at least seventy five dollars. a month. Um, my husband just he's all for just Yeah. The full amount.
He had a Close to that amount in a Um retired. Account that he recently moved to an island, but he feels that it's a big burden to him. I think differently because I think if he could if we could pay the seventy five dollars a month and he would put seventy five dollars a month on a account for emergence funds for his future and his wife, he's married, no children. It would help them more to start something. We don't know.
We would have different opinions and we're praying about, but we still have not a definite answer on what to do. Yeah. Let me make sure. I understand your husband's wanting to just pay it off. And let me ask before I want to understand more clearly your thought on how you'd approach it.
But if you all were to pay off the $6,500 in full, because you decided together that was the best option. Where would those funds come from? It would come from our accounts. He had this recently some consulting work that we are retired, both of us. We retired in March, but it will come from our retiring account.
Okay, so an IRA or a 401k, what is it? Yeah, we could we could take the money from elsewhere. We do have uh you know some savings. It doesn't have to go exactly from the retired. Yeah.
But um how do you know how much you have in savings roughly? Who? My husband? No, no, how much do you, the two of you, have in savings, liquid savings outside of retirement plans? Yeah.
Maybe it goes to a hundred thousand?
Okay. Yeah. And that's in addition to your retirement savings? That's cool.
Okay, so yeah, you could pretty easily take that out. And the key is, you know, it would not jeopardize your financial security, right? You could pretty easily write that check and you all would have plenty left. That's correct. Yeah.
What would be your idea, Elizabeth? Would it be that. You know, you all would just start making the payments, or what would you do different from just paying it off?
Well, I thought about that the amount that he's supposed to pay. We would pay for him and he would pay, he will open an emergency fund for him and his wife. Until himself $75, put that on an account every month. until the payment. My husband think that for paying monthly that his credit score probably is going to be boomed.
But I feel that the solution to pay month by month would give him the ability to invest some and an emergency fund that he might need it. Along the way. Yeah. So you're trying to instill discipline and good financial habits by saying basically, all right, your payments are going to start, but instead of you sending the $75 a month to the student loans, you put that in savings and we'll essentially match it and we'll cover the amount that would have gone to the lender, correct? Yeah.
Yeah. And then I think you just need to kind of think through, you know, how will he receive that? I appreciate what you want to do there. And I love the idea that you're thinking about how do we bless him and help him get on a financially sound footing and develop the right habits. At the same time, you know, he's grown and married.
And, you know, I think there's only so far we can go in terms of, you know, we want our kids to do certain things that they may or may not follow through on it.
So, you know, I like the idea. How do you think he would receive that if you said, listen, we're going to pay the 75 a month. And as long as you'll put the 75 in savings, I mean, you would have no way of knowing that. You're not going to check up on him or anything like that. But how do you think he would receive that idea?
Well, I thought about asking him. how he would feel if that was the plan. Yeah. Yeah, I would talk to him about it because I think what's most important is preserving the relationship. And I can't imagine that either of these scenarios would damage it because you all are just trying to bless him.
But obviously, you know, you not coming in and just saying, listen, we're going to pay it off. We would love for you to start taking what you would have been sending and start putting it in savings, but we're going to leave that up to you and trust you versus we're not going to pay it off. We're only going to do $75 a month. And, you know, we're going to do that with the understanding that you're essentially matching it, but it's going into savings. You know, I just think you're going to have to feel out how that's, he's going to react to that relationally because what I wouldn't want is as much as I like him developing good financial habits, I also don't want you to have any kind of strain in the relationship.
I feel like that's even more important than the $75 a month that may ultimately amount to $6,500. And You know, in emergency reserves. Does that make sense? It does. A lot of sense.
But um, the fact that if we pay seventy five dollars a month, would that be um in some way negative and will reflect negatively to his credit score? Or That is better than just paying for. Yeah, I mean paying it off in full um If he has other active credit accounts, it is probably going to be slightly better because it reduces his overall debt to income ratios. But if he doesn't have a lot of other active accounts, keeping this open with him being an on-time payer is actually a really good thing as far as his credit's concerned because as soon as it's paid off, the account is closed. It's no longer in the history, or it's in the history, but it's no longer factored into the current accounts in terms of him being an on-time payer.
And so, if he doesn't have other accounts, he could actually get dinged for a lack of credit activity.
So, it's kind of six in one, half dozen in the other. You know, I think it's probably not a reason to go either way in terms of the credit score. I think what's most important is that you all have the ability to help. It sounds like you do, that you have the desire and the willingness, sounds like you do, and then I think you just talk. Talk it through with him, express your desire that he would start to build some emergency reserves, that he would have to bless his family because the unexpected is going to come.
But you trying to force how he does that and trying to keep up with it, I just feel like that's where it may end up going sideways.
Okay. Okay. Just it helps a lot. I understand the point, and I have not thought about that, which is a good point to consider. But we have helped him in many occasions.
And we're praying for a better job for him because he doesn't earn much. And he's not so bad with the military. Ah, okay. Yeah. Well, the good news is it's a fairly robust job market.
So if he's got marketable skills and he's out there pounding the pavement, he should find something and hopefully something to improve his situation and get a little more income coming in. Elizabeth, you sound like a wonderful mom, you and your husband, great parents, and we appreciate you being on the program today. Call anytime. We'll take a quick break, folks, and then back with more of your questions. 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. 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. Are you a financial professional looking to grow your practice while offering advice that aligns with your Christian values? By becoming a certified kingdom advisor, you'll gain the biblical wisdom and professional credibility to serve clients who are seeking faith-based financial guidance. Each year, more than 75,000 people search for a certified kingdom advisor. Join our community and share your expertise with clients looking for someone who shares their faith and values.
Start your journey today by going to kingdomadvisors.com slash get certified. 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 800-525-7,000. That's 800-525-7,000. Let's head back to the phone.
Chicago, Illinois. Karen, go ahead. Hi, El Raoul. Thank you so much for taking my call. Of course.
So I'm thirty six years old and I have a four hundred one K. I Don't necessarily put that much in it. I think it's like maybe $25 every two weeks for every paycheck. But I would really like to invest more, but I don't really understand the difference between the NASDAQ, the SP, like an index fund, and all the different variations. What do they really mean?
And what would be the best option for someone in my age group with a, I guess, a fair, you know, I'm willing to risk some. Yeah, very good.
So what percent of your income, Karen, are you putting into your 401k? Let me see. I don't know, maybe like 5%.
Okay, and are they matching any portion of that? Um, they will only match up to like Uh one percent. I think Yeah, no problem.
Well, the match is a great thing.
So we want to, at a minimum, make sure you're taking advantage of that because that's free money. You know, if you get a hundred percent, you put in one percent and then they add one percent to it, that's a hundred percent return on your money. You're not going to get that anywhere else.
Now, your goal would be: assuming you've got an emergency fund of three to six months' worth of expenses, and assuming you don't have any high interest debt, like credit card debt that you're carrying month to month, and you're on track with if you have any student loans to let's say pay those off within 10 years. The only other thing I would add is if you have a near-term savings goal, like you're trying to buy a house or something like that, you need to replace a car or buy a car, you would want to be saving toward those in a reasonable time period. But if you've got all those boxes checked, we ultimately want to get that 401k contribution up to 10 to 15 percent of your income. And you may not be able to do that right now, and that's okay, but that's a great target for you. Because that tax-deferred environment in your 401k is really the best place for your long-term money.
What does that mean?
Well, that means you get a current tax deduction when the money goes in.
So it saves you a little bit on your taxes. But it also means that as the money in the 401k is invested in stocks and bonds and mutual funds, and we'll talk about those in a second, you have no impact of taxes on the growth along the way like you would if you were investing outside of a retirement plan. Because every time you bought something and sold it for a profit, if you were outside of the 401k, you'd have to pay some tax on that called a capital gain. That doesn't happen inside that 401k.
So the full amount is free to grow all the way up until retirement.
Now, when you start pulling it out, you'll pay tax on it like income at that time. But we're talking 30 plus years down the road after it's grown a whole lot bigger than it is today.
So that's really a great place for your money. And let's just try to continue to. Keep your lifestyle at a minimum and try to ratchet up the percentage going into that 401k as you're able.
Now, what investments do we want to put inside of it?
Well, the nice thing about the 401k is it's not like there's unlimited choices. You generally have kind of a menu of investment options.
So, what is a stock?
Well, a stock is a very small percentage of ownership in an actual company.
So, stock ownership is real ownership. What is a bond? It's a loan to a company or a government. And then, a mutual fund or an index fund are just basically a basket of investments.
So, at your age, just getting started, starting to put some money into a 401k, you're going to use mutual funds. Inside the 401k. And again, there's going to be a pretty limited menu of options. And you're going to want to be almost exclusively at your age in stock funds because you're worried more concerned about long-term growth. And to your point, from what you said a moment ago, you are willing to take some risk because you've got so much time on your side.
And so, you know, what you could do, one of the simplest ways to go about this is what's called either a target date. or a life cycle fund. And basically, that's where you pick your expected retirement date and you find the fund that matches it.
So, inside your 401k, and so let's say we're looking 30 years down the road until you're 66, you would look for the target date fund that's 30 years out for you.
So, you'd be looking at a 2055 target date fund.
Well, the good part about that is you could put all your money in that 2055 target date fund and it's automatically going to invest in a way that's appropriate for a 36-year-old, which means it's going to have almost all of the money in stocks and very little in bonds. And that's what you want, but it takes a lot of the guesswork out and makes it really simple. And it's just something that you can park all the money in and then just you focus on getting more and more going in on a, you know, out of every paycheck. But Karen, I hope that's helpful. I'd love to send you a copy of the Sound Mind Investing Handbook.
Our team will get your information and get that right out to you. Thanks for your call. Lord bless you. Wyoming, Steve, go ahead. Yeah, thanks for taking my call, Rob.
Hey, I've got a question. I retired when I was sixty-six. And I've never touched my retirement, my company paid retirement, my IRA. And I'm seventy three. I turned seventy three this October.
And I know that there's a mandatory I have to take so much out of that account every year. And I was kind of wondering like how does the percentage go on that? And also, I want the money to go to my children. I I tithe it. I'm going to tithe it as I take it out.
And I tithe it regularly and give to to Um Yeah. People that that I, you know, that God leads me to give to. But I just I just want to make sure I'm a good steward with this money, and there's a lot of money in there. I mean, I've never touched it. Yeah, and God's blessed me so I can live.
I've never had to touch anything in my retirement. I've actually been able to invest in other things, also. But that's amazing.
Well, let me try to tackle this because this is a great question.
So, two things: one is you're right at 73, you do have to start a required minimum. How much do you have to withdraw?
Well, the amount is based on your IRA balance as of December 31st of last year and what's called the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, which is basically a life expectancy factor. And your brokerage firm will calculate this for you. But let me just give you an example: at 73, the factor is 26 and a half.
So the RMD is the prior year-end balance divided by 26.5.
So if you had a, you know. 265,000 in there divided by 26 and a half, you'd have to take out 10,000. The good news is, as long as you're over 70 and a half, and you are, it can go straight from your IRA to a 501c3 charity, including your church. It counts toward your RMD and it goes into ministry. Thanks for calling, folks.
That's going to do it for us.
So thankful to have you along with us today. Let me say a big thanks to my team today, working really hard. Amy and Taylor and Dan and Gabby T on our phones today, plus everybody here at FaithFi. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.
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