Have you ever wished someone could take the stress and guesswork out of budgeting? That's exactly what the FaithFi app was built for. FaithFi uses your real spending history to build a personalized plan from day one. And as you categorize transactions, it learns your patterns, automatically simplifying future budgeting so you spend less time managing and more time living. But the FaithFi app doesn't stop with the numbers.
Each daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm invites you to engage scripture, reflect on God's provision, and connect your financial decisions with your faith. And because FaithFi integrates articles, studies, devotionals, podcasts, and community support, you're never walking this journey alone. Try FaithFy Pro Free for 30 days, and for a limited time, get 25% off a pro subscription at faithfy.com/slash app. Scripture reminds us that wisdom often begins with counting the cost. Hi, I'm Rob West.
With the average age of a first-time homebuyer now approaching 40, many are wondering whether now is the right time to buy or to continue renting. Today we'll explore some common misunderstandings around home ownership and how to approach that transition with wisdom and patience. 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.
When questions about timing and readiness around home ownership arise, they usually reflect a sincere desire to make a wise, lasting decision, one that supports long-term stability rather than undermining it. Before comparing monthly payments or picturing life in a new space, it helps to take a clear-eyed look at what it truly costs to move from renting into home ownership. One area that often catches first-time homebuyers off guard is the sheer cost of getting into a home. The preapproval and closing process involves numerous expenses, including appraisal fees, home inspections, credit reports, earnest money, title searches, loan origination fees, and closing costs. Taken together, these can add up to thousands of dollars before move-in day ever arrives.
For those transitioning from renting into their first home, these costs usually need to be paid out of pocket. That's one reason we often encourage having around 20% of the purchase price available, not only for a down payment, but to create margin for the entire process. This isn't meant to delay dreams unnecessarily, but to help ensure home ownership doesn't begin with financial strain. Many people also feel a growing weariness with renting. Paying rent month after month can feel unproductive, especially compared to the idea of building equity.
That desire for something tangible and lasting is deeply understandable. But it's important to remember that rent is not wasted money. Rent pays for shelter, safety, maintenance, and predictability. It meets a real ongoing need. And in that sense, it's paying for a valuable service.
It's also helpful to understand how a mortgage payment actually works. A typical payment includes principal, interest, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and often private mortgage insurance if you own less than 20% of the home's value. In some cases, HOA fees may also be added, especially in the early years of a traditional 30-year mortgage. A significant portion of each payment goes toward interest rather than reducing the loan balance. 30-year mortgages can still be wise because they keep cost manageable and allow flexibility should you want to make extra payments toward the principal.
However, they're designed to be repaid in 30 years, so they are long-term loans. If early equity growth does occur, it often comes more from market appreciation than from principal paydown. Another concern many people carry is the fear of waiting too long. Rising home prices can create pressure to act quickly. While market trends are worth paying attention to, they shouldn't be the deciding factor.
A home should fit your current season of life and support your responsibilities and priorities, not stretch your finances or limit your ability to live and give faithfully. This is also where it helps to release the pressure of finding a forever home. On average, first-time homebuyers remain in their homes for seven to ten years. Career changes, growing families, and life transitions often make moving a natural part of the journey. The first home simply needs to fit your current season.
Rising rent is another common frustration. Lease renewals often bring higher costs.
However, owning a home doesn't eliminate rising expenses. While a fixed rate mortgage keeps principal and interest steady, property taxes and homeowners' insurance typically increase over time. Even after a mortgage is paid off, these costs remain. Maintenance is another reality worth considering. Once someone becomes a homeowner, all repairs fall on their shoulders.
Roofs, plumbing, electrical systems, and heating or cooling issues can bring unexpected costs. While homeowners' insurance can provide protection, deductibles and coverage limits often mean high out-of-pocket costs. And filing a claim may also lead to higher premiums down the road. Renting, by contrast, offers predictability. Repairs are the landlord's responsibility, which helps provide stability during seasons of debt reduction or saving.
The phrase house poor exists for a reason: buying before one is ready can strain budgets, limit generosity, and leave one with regret. While owning a home can be a blessing, it's not a measure of faithfulness and it isn't right for every situation.
Sometimes it's far better to continue to rent. All right, your calls are next: 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Managing money isn't just a financial decision. It's a discipleship journey.
And the FaithFy app is the only app built to guide both your money and your heart. With meaningful check-ins, automated budgeting, personalized insights, and biblical wisdom woven into every step, FaithFi helps you build habits that last. Join more than 70,000 believers pursuing clarity and peace as faithful stewards. Start your 30-day free trial today at faithfy.com/slash app. Poverty's roots run deep in African villages, affecting one generation to the next.
It doesn't have to be this way. FaithFi is partnering with Cross International and you to combat generational poverty. Together, our goal is to provide vital resources for 250 vulnerable children while pointing them to the unshakable hope rooted in Jesus Christ. Visit faithfi.com slash cross to change a child's life today. That's faithfi.com slash cross.
Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Let's get right to the phones. Tennessee, Lisa, go right ahead. How can I help? Yes, thank you so much for taking my call and just being so thankful to have this program.
Because I really pray that God allows you to continue. with your boldness in financing, just letting the truth go off the airways.
Well, that means a lot, Lisa. Thank you for saying that. You are so welcome. My question is that I want to know what an irrevocable trust Yes. Yes, an irrevocable trust is a legal arrangement where you transfer assets into a trust.
and give up ownership and control of those assets.
So once it's set up, it generally cannot be changed or undone. without beneficiary consent. That loss of control, though, is what creates its benefits.
So, what are its benefits?
Well, a lot of times they're used to protect. Assets from long-term care costs.
So, assets placed in an irrevocable trust are no longer considered yours.
Now, if Medicaid is involved, there is a look back period, usually five years, where those Assets may be shielded from the nursing home spend down.
So anything in the five-year window would not be, would still be included as your assets, even though it was in the revocable trust. But that's one of the most common reasons people use them. It also removes assets from a taxable estate, which can reduce estate taxes. But just given the limits on estate taxes, most people don't have any concern over that anyway, at least under the current tax law, because they just come in at an estate, 15 million plus, and most people just don't have to worry about that. The other reason you would use them is to protect heirs, so the assets can be protected from creditors or lawsuits or perhaps a divorce.
You know, those types of things.
So, those are the general reasons, Lisa. Is that helpful? Very much though. I was approached and given that information. with my mom.
What? assuming at that moment needing longer care in a facility. And the young lady told me, well, in order for Medicaid To help you, you need to. Fill out this paper, and then you all need to put her assets in an irrevocable trust. And then you can get the help from Medicaid and They'll pay.
And I'm like, no. I'm not going to do that. I want to know what it is first. I don't know. It may be beneficial, you know.
But um At this point, I don't think we have to go to that extreme. You know, so. Yeah, well, I would agree with that. And it's an important question. I think it really is important to be thoughtful in terms of how you approach it.
Used properly and well in advance, I would say it certainly can be ethical. If it's used at the last minute to quote hide assets, it's not.
So, long-term care is extremely expensive, and many families are shocked to learn that their savings could quickly disappear. And Medicaid planning exists because the system itself is complex, but there are rules and guardrails.
So, I would say it's ethical when it's done years before the care is needed, way outside the five-year look back. It follows the letter and the spirit of the law, and it's really its intent is stewardship and protection, certainly not deception. And the person still contributes appropriately to their own care rather than just relying on the state.
So I would say if somebody's encouraging you to do it, you know, when care is imminent, or if the goal is to appear, you know, poor on paper while preserving wealth or to hide something or to shift responsibility entirely to taxpayers, I would say that's where I would stay far from it. Sure, sure. And that makes all the sense in the world. You know, I really appreciate you because. You know, the Bible tells us to be wise as serpents.
You know, that serpent has the wisdom to the same ease. Yes. We just come to say, make you think of the Holy Spirit. That's all. That's our end game.
You know, but we don't need to know. How to operate in this world, even though we're in the kingdom. You know, so I appreciate you very much. Thank you.
Well, I'll tell you, thank you for saying that. You know, our desire is to be a source, not the source, but a source of wise counsel. And only to the extent that we're listening to the Lord and rightly dividing scripture, do we have anything to bring to the table here? Me or anyone on the team here at Faith Five. But thank you for saying that, Lisa.
May the Lord bless you. If we can help you further at any point, don't hesitate to reach out. Let's go to Texas. Jaime, go ahead. Yes, thank you for getting my call.
I have a thirty thousand dollars that I want to invest into something new. I have I've been doing real estate. And it's done well. But I'd like to invest about thirty thousand wherever you advise me to and leave it there for about ten years or so without having to To read it. Yeah.
Well, I love this. And as long as it's outside of what I would call your emergency fund and you have that true 10-year time horizon, I think that's a great idea. I think the first question is: what type of account do you want it in? You could either put it in what's called a taxable account. Or you could try to.
Maybe over time, as the contribution limits allow, try to get it into a retirement account, which might extend and likely, depending on your age, would extend the time horizon, but it could be creating some tax efficiencies. Do you want it your market specifically for retirement, or do you think you might need it after 10 years, but before retirement? I think I'm just going to leave it for family, not for myself. We've been blessed and We have what we need and extra. Yeah, very good.
And then someone get it I'm seventy right now. Yeah.
Very good. Yeah.
So, what you would want to do is just get it into some good, high-quality funds, maybe exchange-traded funds, which are a great way to invest when you've got less than $50,000.
Some people use them with a lot more than $50,000, but certainly with less than $50,000, you can get good diversification. And if you want those screened for your faith values, you could use a mix of investment solutions from one of the faith-based investing providers you would find on our website at faithfi.com. Just click on the show, and you'd see fun families like Timothy and Eventide and many others, Praxis, One Ascent, any of those could help you put together a good, diversified mix of investments using exchange-traded funds at maybe an account that you open at Schwab or Fidelity, one of the low-cost discount providers. And you would have confidence that all the investments are screened for Christian. Values.
If that's less important to you and you just want to invest it in the broad stock market, then you could use a robo-advisor like the Schwab Intelligent portfolios. That would be another option. I'd say either of those two would work well.
So essentially, you'd open that brokerage account in your name, or if you're married, maybe a joint account and you're in your wife's name, deposit the 30,000, and then you would have to decide at that point: do I want to use a robo-advisor that just captures the broad moves of the market, or do I want to try to do some research and understand among the faith-based investing solutions, you know, which solutions I might use? But in either case, I think just getting that invested, kind of forgetting about it, letting it grow, would be a great way to go. Thanks for your call.
Well, folks, we're up against our next break here. We come back. We've got some great questions coming up. We do have some lines open. We'd love to hear from you.
That number, 800-525-7,000. You can call right now. By the way, if you count on this broadcast, it's been an encouragement to you. Maybe you've learned something along the way. We'd invite you to be a Faith Phi partner.
All the details on supporting our ministry at faithphi.com/slash give. You can check that out today. 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. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We're taking your calls and questions today. That number, 800-525-7,000.
That's 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you today. We do have some lines open. Our team is ready to take your call. Let's go to Missouri.
Hi, Jeff. Go ahead. My wife had real bad teeth and it was affecting her health.
So Pierre. Took out some loans, one for $16,000, one for $15,000, one for $4,000. To uh and put four thousand down for her implants upper and lower. I was working quite regularly. I was sixty five years old.
and I've always worked probably sixty hours a week. But in the last few months, they've cut me down to about one week every month. And that's uh made it. like almost impossible by key. I've been making the payments and I've used all of my savings to keep up with everything, and now it's down to where it looks like a hole that I can't get out of.
But I've not failed on any payments yet, and I paid the $4,000 or $5,000 one off. I paid it off. That was about a a year ago when she got her teeth. And um So I was just wondering if there was a place or somebody that could help me get secure loans because the loans I have are like 30, 29 something percent interest. And for a while I was paying extra on all the payments.
You know, I paid the small one off. But one of them, when I asked them why the balance, you know, the the principal was not dropping, they said all my payments were going towards interest. And On the contract, it said plainly said that anything you paid monthly over your $480 payment. would go towards principal. But then they told me there was some fine print that I'd missed that I have to get pre-approval and everything.
So I'd just like to. be about getting a loan for the entire amount. through all of them. That's left. At a lower percent interest rate.
So I have one payment with somebody honest that when they say it goes towards principal. It would actually cool torch principal. Yes. Boy, boy, that is a difficult spot, Jeff. And I know that's a heavy load that you're carrying.
And I understand why this was necessary for you to care for your wife medically. And I'm so sorry to hear about not only the interest rate, because I realize that is really challenging, but also just your job situation. Are you in a position to work full-time, health-wise? And if so, are you actively looking to supplement the hours that were taken away through other means of employment? Yes, sir.
Yeah, I've been putting in applications and looking through the. the uh workforce development and uh Yeah, I've I've been applying and stuff, but right now I now I'm a skilled craftsman, a welder.
So But it's like and my insurance is through my I've been with that employer for twenty one years.
So it would be real tough to change. I know if I changed over to another company right now, I would get all the terrible jobs for the first few years. I certainly understand that. What is your credit score? Do you know?
I think it's six. thirty or six forty maybe might be even more yeah might fifty or six hundred seventy. I know it's I've been getting alerts that it's going up You know, by paying things off and keeping payments up and everything, which I've been doing really well at for a few years.
So I haven't really checked it, but it might be closer to seven.
Okay. Yeah.
I mean, that's good. And obviously, you know, your income situation could be a little problematic because what you would probably want to look for here is a personal loan. And I would start with a local credit union, or you could head to Christian Community Credit Union, faithfy.com/slash banking. But unlike the big banks, federal credit unions legally can't charge more than 18% interest on most loans. That would cut your rate in half.
And if you have good credit, you could also look at some of the other options like SoFi or Marcus or Lightstream. You know, they off they offer loans up to $50,000 for medical debt consolidation between 8% and 15%. You obviously have to qualify both from an income and a credit score standpoint, but you could use one of the aggregators like BankRate or Nerd wallet and use their pre-qualify tool just to see. The other option is you could call, or alongside that, you could call and ask for hardship forbearance with your current lender, see if you could get a temporary payment reduction or an interest rate reduction or a fee waiver just while you get back into full-time employment, your income is restored. And we'll trust the Lord for that.
But give me your thoughts on all that and any follow-up questions you have. I really appreciate that because if I could get the interest rate drop down and I appreciate your prayers. Like I said, I'm seeking seeking work. I've been with the company for 21 years, but I'm ready to start with a new company if that's what's necessary. Yeah.
And especially the Christian Credit Bureau and different things, I'm going to try them and. Lord will provide s something will work out. Yeah.
He's always been good to me, and I can't complain.
Well, I appreciate that. And we're going to ask the faith and finance community to be praying for you. And let me just put this out there: we don't do this very often, but I just feel led to ask: if anybody's out there today hearing Jeff's story and you want to be a blessing to his family and provide some of those resources, we have a way through a partner ministry called Helping Hands to verify the need, get all the documentation, and then for any gifts given, pay them directly to the lender so nothing passes through the recipient's hands. It all goes to meet the need 100%. And if somebody's hearing Jeff's story today and you want to be a blessing and step in and help them pay this down, just given the situation they're in, just call 800-525-7000, let our team know, and we can make all the arrangements to get that done.
Jeff, Lord bless you, my friend, and we appreciate your call today, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
God bless you. I love your program. Thank you very much. Let's see. We're going to go to Illinois.
Diane, go right ahead. Hi.
Okay. I used to be poor. It was like 25 years ago. I was extremely poor. I filed bankruptcy for $3,500.
Now I get my ex-husband's Social Security, and I would like to see about possibly paying that back. Yeah, and who are you trying to pay back? Is it the creditors that were discharged under the bankruptcy or somebody else?
Well I filed bankruptcy with the credit union. I mean, that's What it went through, I believe. It's been a while, I'm sorry. That's okay. Yeah.
And so I appreciate that you are now in a much stronger position. I'm just trying to understand exactly who it is that you're trying to make whole. What were the debts that were not paid that you're trying to pay? The ones from like 25 years ago, I'd have to go back and look at my papers exactly. I believe it was just a credit card with the credit union, but I'd have to go back and double-step that.
Yeah, the challenge is, boy, I so appreciate your desire to steward this money well and to honor your obligations. What's going to happen is they're going to tell you: listen, number one, it was charged off. Number two, we probably can't even accept that payment against that account because it's so long gone. In fact, they probably collected a little bit of insurance on it anyway because they insure these accounts.
So, you could reach out to them and say, Listen, I just feel convicted that I want to honor this obligation from a bankruptcy 20 years ago. I suspect they're not going to be able to take it, but you could at least try, Diane. And maybe what you find is you just end up giving that money to the Lord as because you're not able to pay it otherwise. I'm out of time today. Thanks for calling.
Big thanks to Lisa, Jim, Dan, and Dorena. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithBy and listeners like you.
