This Faith and Finance podcast is underwritten in part by Christian Healthcare Ministries. Is health insurance eating up your budget for 2026? If you're looking for ways to better steward your finances, consider this. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a health insurance alternative at half the cost. While insurance companies tell you when to join, what to pay, and where to go, CHM is different.
As a ministry, CHM allows you to share the burden of medical bills with other Christians. You can enroll, switch programs, or leave at any time. That's a world of difference. CHM has four flexible programs. You can pick any certified doctor, surgeon, or hospital that you want for eligible care.
Make the switch and take your paycheck back from health insurance this year. Join CHM today by visiting chministries.org slash faithfi. That's chministries.org slash faithfi. Most major economic forecasters now expect U.S. growth in 2026 to hover around 1.5% to 2%.
Slow, but not a recession. Hi, I'm Rob West. Still, some analysts warn that a mild downturn is possible if inflation or global trade tensions flare up, and that raises real questions about rising health care costs. Today, Lauren Guideck joins us with practical ways to ease the anxiety of paying for care in uncertain times. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Whatever.
Well, our guest today is my friend Lauren Guideck, Senior Director of External Affairs at Christian Healthcare Ministries, a much-valued underwriter of this program. Lauren, great to have you back with us. Oh, great to be back with you in 2026. Lauren, economic uncertainty is on many people's minds, and health care costs tend to amplify that stress.
So I'd love to start with your perspective on what's contributing to these worries. Sure.
Well, you mentioned the slow GDP growth, but there are some other things at play here. You know, we have unemployment at 4.4%, and inflation is not really back down where the Federal Reserve would like it to be at 2%.
So I think for households and retirees, the main takeaway here is it's probably going to be a little bit of a slow growth, higher uncertainty environment. Yeah. And that can sound discouraging, but Lauren, you always help us look at the hopeful side of things.
So if someone were to lose their job and with it, their employer provided health coverage, let's talk about the options that are available. Sure.
Yeah. Some of them are good options and some of them not so much. You know, one thing you could do is you could go on COBRA, which is an extension of your employer health plan.
However, you would have to foot the cost of that 100%.
So it's very expensive. Also, you know, another option would be go to healthcare.gov.
However, I've done a bunch of research on that myself and it's also very, very costly, especially when you look at some of those out-of-pocket maximums, you know, with families paying in some cases more than $20,000 per year.
So really, I think, you know, if you're looking for a great alternative, the best one out there is Health Cost Sharing Ministries and Christian Healthcare Ministries. We're not insurance, but we are here to help people with their medical bills.
Well, and you've served so many of our listeners and some of our staff team here at FaithFi actually use CHM personally, and they can tell you it is just an incredible organization, ministry, and service. Support for their healthcare costs.
So let's explain how health cost sharing works for someone who's new to this idea. Yeah, absolutely.
So health cost sharing is the gathering of people together to share in their medical costs. It's a faith-based model. We're based on Galatians 6, 2, and we carry each other's burden.
So you as the member are responsible legally for your medical bills, but CHM helps to share 100% of all of the eligible bills that you send in to us on the back end.
Okay, let's get specific for a second and talk about an example of a program and the associated costs. Yeah, I can give the example of our gold program.
So that is $299 per unit per month. And I can explain what a unit is, but it's essentially an individual.
So a mom, a dad, each would be a unit. And then all dependent children on your membership would also be one unit.
So it's a great deal for families. And we also have other programs, our silver and our bronze, and even our senior share program for retirees.
So that you can really customize it based on your budget and your needs. Yeah, and you mentioned it's not insurance, but explain how health cost sharing works then as you show up to the doctor and you incur medical bills. Right.
So if you end up in the emergency room, you know, God forbid, you know, CHM would share those costs after your personal responsibility amount. And, you know, if you had a follow-up visit, like with your general practitioner, anything that falls within the same incident, you can submit those medical bills to CHM for reimbursement. Incredible.
Well, you all are the oldest in this space and you've been a longtime underwriter of this program. And Lauren, how much has been shared in medical bills since CHM was founded? Over $13 billion. Billion would be incredible. $13 billion.
Well, I know it's a ministry, but it's also providing an incredible service to God's people. Thanks for your partnership. Thanks for being here today. Thank you. Have a good one.
Folks, if you want to learn more, go to chministries.org slash faithfy. That's chministries.org slash faithfi. We'll be right back. We work, we earn, we save. But is that all there is?
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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.
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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, 800-525-7,000. Let's go to Georgia. Karen, go ahead. Hi, Rob.
Thanks for taking my call and for your ministry. A couple of items about me. I have a my husband and I have a house, a small house, about a thousand square foot house on 18 acres of land. We bought it from a gentleman who also has a house on the property with 17 more acres of land.
So altogether he had two houses and 35 acres of land and sold us half of it. It is mortgage free. We bought it about four and a half years ago. No mortgage on it, so 100% equity. I'll be 62 years old next month.
So not drawing Social Security yet. I do have a place where I go to serve. I don't use work work. This is where I serve. And I make about $4,400.
A month. We're living pretty comfortably. My husband's an independent electrician and just kind of does side jobs, so nothing taxable. My question is, is we have a nonprofit where God put on our heart several years ago to build a community or a safe haven shelter for domestic violence survivors. We don't we have nothing established yet.
All we have is the one little house.
So we always thought we would build a bigger house, make the smaller house like a common area washer, dryer and kitchen kind of thing. And four days ago, we found out that the owner of the other part of the property has moved out of his house and he's selling it.
So we thought, huh, let's go see if we can buy some of that land where we can build this Stay paid in.
Now he had we have found out that through the real estate agent we went and looked last night at it. The real estate agent has told us what the list price is. and has said that the owner has agreed to knock twenty percent off of the list price and sell it to us because he knows what our heart is, he knows what our mission is. It's an incredible opportunity, a thirty five hundred twenty thousand dollar house and property. it would open up so much opportunity for us.
My question is, Rob, is We don't have a whole lot of savings, but we don't have a whole lot of debt. We've got a credit card we're getting ready to pay off, and we have another one that we use monthly and pay off monthly. We don't like paying interest.
So the question is, and I know reverse mortgage is not until I turn sixty two. I wouldn't qualify for that, but I'm there next month.
Okay.
So reverse mortgage. and rent out. We could possibly rent out the smaller house for some additional revenue or sell the property and have that liquid assets or finance it. We really don't know what the wisest choice is, but we just want to do Um will be the like God has has led us to do all these years. Yeah, yeah.
Wow, I love it. I love your vision for this and how amazing. It certainly seems like God's involvement in this, just the fact that you could get this at a 20% discount for the ministry purposes. In fact, it'd be great if he donated, you know, maybe a portion of it to the ministry or something like that. But at any rate, I realize you've got to have to finance it to pick it up.
What is the status of the nonprofit currently just in terms of its ability with how, you know, the history and the financials, separate from your personal finances, to perhaps take on a loan as nonprofit property? It's brand new. It's brand new. We just within the last six months put it put the property into the nonprofit. It's the only asset.
Okay, got it. Yeah, so that's going to make it a little more challenging in that the reverse mortgage is really not going to be an option because the reverse mortgage can only be used. And I realize you mentioned you have to wait till 62, but you're basically there, but it can only be used for your primary residence. And even if you purchased it and made it a part of the same parcel, and so you essentially join, you expanded the property, you know, large parcels are allowed in a reverse mortgage, but only part of that land could be counted toward the loan value. And that may be okay.
You may still be able to make something out of that. But they would basically say anything that's beyond what's typical or marketable as a part of the main residence would not be able to add value to the reverse mortgage.
So they would kind of limit it just to the area surrounding your primary residence. and it has to be a home that you live in. It can't be an investment property or anything like that. You know, typically what you would want to do is keep everything separate because that's going to ensure that you don't get into a position where you're putting your own personal finances and a home in jeopardy if something were to happen. Meaning, you no longer have the ability to fund it, to continue to service the debt.
It preserves clean lines.
So your personal residence stays separate. The nonprofit activities stay separate. The liability stays separate. If you were ever sued for something, let's just hope and pray that doesn't happen. But things like that do happen, especially with people living on the property.
And so there's some legal protections by you keeping everything separate and then financing that separate, you know, with the nonprofit property standing alone. You're probably going to have to almost certainly have to guarantee it personally, but it still could. Be held in the name of the nonprofit. You would need to talk to an attorney about it and you would need to have, you know, find a lender who would be willing to take this on. I mean, there are lenders who specialize in loans to ministries and nonprofits.
They generally require two to three years of financial history and want stable revenue and a board clearly in place and a budget and a track record.
So that would be mainly a future option. You could look for a private donor loan, somebody who would do more of an impact loan or a missional loan, maybe even at low or no interest or even forgivable because they buy into the vision of what you're trying to do. You could raise donations to purchase the property because obviously, even just with this seller, people are hearing your vision for what you're trying to do and it's something that's captivating them. And maybe we start praying that God really brings those people as you start telling the story that would be willing to do that. You know, what's more common in this situation, although there's some risk here, is that you buy it personally.
And you would, because the lender won't loan a brand new nonprofit any money, there's no revenue, no balance sheet. You know, you could take on a traditional mortgage for this property almost as an investment property. And then you would just have to have the ability to qualify for it and then need to make sure that you're not putting yourself in financial jeopardy in terms of getting overextended if it takes longer for this to get up and running. Does all that make sense, though? Yes, it does.
So would it benefit us to put the house back that we're in now back into our personal name and leave the property in the nonprofit? and then be able to have access to that reverse mortgage opportunity? It could. I mean, I think you just need to understand what you're doing there, though. You're taking a loan that's the home that's free and clear, and you're beginning to borrow against it and deplete that equity.
You know, at the end of the day, money is a tool. And if God's called you to do this, I'm not in any way going to stand in the way of it. I love your vision, but I just want to make sure you've thought through it, perhaps with some wise counsel, maybe a certified kingdom advisor or with your board to make sure that what you're doing is God honoring and following His call in your life, but not putting you in financial jeopardy, if that makes sense. Thanks for calling. We'll be right back.
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Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Our hope each day is to provide wisdom from God's Word on financial decision-making, to be reverent as we approach the scriptures, to be hopeful and encouraging, also empathetic, knowing that, listen, we all make mistakes in our financial lives and we can put those to the foot of the cross. The goal is to move forward, seeking to be that wise and faithful steward. We want to be your partner in that each day, providing you encouragement and great, sound, practical advice.
So, if you have questions today, call right now, 800-525-7000. Let's head back to the phones. Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Christy, go ahead. Hey, Rob, thank you.
Listen, my question is, I have a pretty sizable check coming to me from an account that has closed. And I've been interviewing financial advisors, but I want a holding place for the next maybe few weeks, maybe up to a couple months. where the money can earn some interest. But it's my understanding that The money is only protected in these money market accounts up to 250,000. And I'm wondering.
Do I have to open multiple accounts in order to earn interest? to have that protection? Or is there a way to increase that dollar amount that is protected Ah. in a single account. Yeah, yeah.
It's a great question. Do you mind me asking how much total you have coming? Uh it's It's a sizable amount. I'd have to open probably about five accounts. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So there's a couple of options here. I mean, one would be use multiple banks.
So you could open accounts at different FDIC insured banks.
So each bank's $250,000 limit per account type applies. And so you'd have $250,000 at bank A and $250,000 at bank B. The other option at the same bank would be different ownership categories.
So, and you can only go so far with this, but if you had one in your name only, that could have $250,000. If you were married and you had another account at the same bank that was jointly held, your name and your husband's name, you could get another $250,000 on that.
So it's not only by institution, but it's also by account type. Um if you had a trust, you could get another 250 on that.
So, that's something to keep in mind. If that's not an option, then the other type of account is something called a deposit sweep.
So, some banks or financial institutions use programs that sweep or spread a large deposit among multiple FDIC insured banks behind the scenes.
So, even a large balance is split into chunks that fall under the $250,000 limit, and they kind of do the work for you.
So that would be an option for you to look at as well. Are you familiar with that idea? No, I've not heard of that until you just said it.
Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean, I think that would be the simplest. And, you know, you could go. I mean, many local banks do this.
So you'd want to, you know, just ask the bank whether they have a sweep. Account option. Larger banks and brokerages often will offer this as well.
So, think like a Fidelity or Merrill Lynch or Charles Schwab or some of the big national banks like Bank of America and others, they'll do the cash sweep as well.
So, you're just going to want to ask about that. And you just simply say, Do you offer an insured cash sweep or equivalent service for large balances? That'd be the question you'd want to ask. And then, you know, once you do, you find one that you're comfortable with, then essentially, you know, they would do that work for you. And do they put it into A money market account, or where do they?
It's an interest-bearing account then that they're spending the money along.
Okay.
Yeah, exactly.
So you would be getting the interest on each of the accounts with the sweep, and you're going to want the consolidated statement.
So you're going to want one statement showing everything. But it's a pretty popular service. And obviously, because it's multiple banks, the interest rates, typically you're earning the interest at the rate set by the primary bank. You know, that's typically the way it works, but that would be one of the questions to ask for sure.
Okay, thank you so much for all that you do. I appreciate it. Absolutely, Christy. Thanks for your call today. Lord bless you.
Miami, Florida, Veronica, how can I help? Yes, hi. I would like to know um I give my when I give my type in offering throughout the year and I get that statement back. If I filed that statement with my taxes, is that taking the money back from God? Or would that hinder me somehow in my taxes?
Or maybe I'm just not understanding how money works? Yeah. Well, I love this question, Veronica, because clearly you want to honor the Lord with what you're managing, what he's entrusted to you. And that's great. That's the right posture.
I would just say simply: no, taking a tax deduction for your tithe is not taking anything back from God. Here's why. When you give to your church, the gift is already given to the Lord. That's what we see in 2 Corinthians 9:7. I mean, it says pretty plainly: each one must give what he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
So when we give, we're giving as unto the Lord. A tax deduction doesn't reduce or reverse any of that generosity. It simply recognizes that under the law, that charitable giving serves the common good.
So you're not being paid back. You're being allowed to keep a little bit more of your income so you can steward it wisely.
So think of a deduction as good stewardship, not reclaiming your offering. And if the government allows you to reduce your tax burden because you give to God's work, well, you can joyfully receive that benefit and then redirect those resources, those tax savings, toward further generosity and caring for your family or savings, whatever you choose.
So I think, you know, at the end of the day, when it comes to giving as Christ followers, especially the way I read the New Testament, your heart is what matters most. And the fact that you're concerned about honoring God already, I think, shows a beautiful posture of worship. And if anything, a deduction can be another opportunity for you to just say, Lord, you've given some of this back through tax savings.
Now, how can I use it in service to you for your kingdom? Does that make sense? Yes, thank you very much. It makes plenty sense.
Okay.
Veronica, I appreciate your call today. Lord bless you. Call anytime.
Well, folks, that's going to do it for us. We covered a lot of ground today. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to come alongside you to talk about our role as stewards, to look to God's word, to encourage one another and realize that as we see God as our ultimate and true treasure, well, money changes its entire focus. It becomes a means to an end to accomplish God's purposes. And that's what we want to encourage you in as we gather together on this program each day.
Hey, check out the Faith By app. You can download it today and set up your spending plan. FaithBy.com. Just click app on behalf of my team, Jim Henry, Devin Patrick, or Robert Youngblood. I'm Rob West.
This has been Faith and Finance. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
