This Faith in Finance podcast is underwritten in part by Guidestone. Guidestone envisions a world transformed by Christian investing. Through screening, corporate engagement, and impact investing, our investment strategies allow investors to be more proactive with their investment dollars to make a meaningful difference in the world while preparing for their financial future. Learn more at guidestonefunds.com/slash faith. What happens when we stop drifting financially and start stewarding intentionally?
I am Rob West. When God's purposes shape our financial decisions, money becomes a tool for clarity, freedom, and faithful living. Today, Brian Holtz joins us to talk about why intentional, biblically grounded stewardship matters and to share an opportunity for believers to grow in that calling. 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 journey.
Well, our guest today is Brian Holt, CEO of Compass Financial Ministry, a ministry equipping people around the world to manage money God's way. Brian, great to have you back. It's always good to be here, Rob. Brian, we're talking today about Compass's global conference coming up in two weeks in Orlando, Money on Purpose. Help us understand the heart behind that theme.
Why is intentional, biblically grounded stewardship so important for God's people? Yeah, Rob, it's really rooted in two very common sayings that we hear. The first in the financial world is that money is just a tool. And when we say that, we usually mean this as a way to express that money isn't morally good or bad. It's guided by our personal motives for good or bad, but it's generally neutral.
But there's something deeper to understand in that expression that we really wanted to address at this conference. Tools, even though they're neither good nor bad, they're created with a purpose. And then that leads us to the second saying: to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And if we don't understand God's purpose for money, we're gonna think that everything looks like a wise stewardship decision.
So, this conference is really meant to take a step back and to learn God's purpose so that we can hear those great words: well done, good and faithful servant. Wow, that is really exciting. And we're just two weeks out, February 26th to 28th. Brian, give us the big picture. What will people experience when they come to Money on Purpose?
Yeah, so it's three days of incredible worship, discipleship, and fellowship. We'll have keynotes from thought leaders. Each will examine a specific purpose of money through a Bible story or a character, both from the New and the Old Testament. And then following those, we'll have a series of workshops that cover the application of those purposes that we can take home and apply in our lives. Very good.
One thing I've always appreciated about Compass is how you make biblical stewardship accessible at every stage of life. And this conference is really in that same spirit. It's for everyone, right? It really is.
So, if you're wanting to grow in managing money God's way, if you're a church or a ministry leader who's looking to integrate stewardship into the other discipleship pathways, maybe you're a parent or a young adult who's looking for biblical guidance, anyone who's looking to be intentional around stewardship, this is going to be the place they want to go. I looked through the schedule the other day and I was struck, Brian, by the range of workshops, everything from biblically grounded investing to making sense of economic uncertainty. What tends to surprise people most once they're in the room? I think first, really, how God's word does speak into every situation in life. You know, going back to who this is for and the breadth of workshop topics, as we brainstorm the different things we could cover, there really wasn't anything we thought of that we didn't get clear direction about in scripture.
When people come to a conference, any conference, and they actually get their questions answered, it always surprises them. Second, when you get in a room full of like-minded people, you get this shift from just information to transformation. The way people share their own personal perspectives and experiences, it creates so much enthusiasm and excitement. And when people leave knowing what to do, they have ideas on how to do it, and they're excited to see God work in and through them, they just leave excited. Yeah, no doubt about that.
Brian, for somebody listening today that's saying, you know what, I think this sounds like something I'd love to be a part of. What are they going to walk away with? It really goes back to Compass's mission statement. We want to see people grow closer to Jesus, be free to serve him, and help fund the Great Commission. We want people to better understand God's financial principles.
We want them to have a plan for how they'll live it out. And we want them to build a community of people who are like-minded, who can support them. That's really what God's true purpose for money is about. And that's what we want people to leave with. Yeah, that's wonderful.
Well, when we handle money on purpose, God's purpose, we discover freedom, direction, and more joy in the way we steward his resources. Brian, thanks for stopping by today. It's been a pleasure, Rob. That's Brian Holt, CEO of Compass Financial Ministry. All right, folks, if you want to register for this conference, Money on Purpose, just head to compassfinancialministry.org.
You'll find the full details on sessions, workshops, and the schedule. Again, the website compassfinancialministry.org. Back with your calls after this, 800-525-7000. Stick around. We're grateful for support from Guidestone, whose diversified suite of investment solutions align with Christian values to create positive change in the world.
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That's ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Let's Manage God's Money Together. We're going to be taking your calls and questions here in just a moment.
So, if you'd like to be a part of the conversation today, we would certainly invite you to do just that. When you call 800-525-7000, again, that number is 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We will look forward to tackling whatever you're thinking about in your financial life. And let's do that right now.
We're going to begin in Ohio today. Anna, go right ahead. Yeah. Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call.
My husband and I are debt free, and our retirement is already being started through mixed accounts, including a Roth and some traditional investments I'm a state employee, so I have access to deferred compensation options.
So we think these are healthy starts, that they have room to grow, or we have room to do something else. We're trying to be intentional about two things, strengthening our retirement and also planning for our children's future. A friend in the financial industry is strongly suggesting that we look into a whole life insurance investment paying a higher premium so it eventually supports itself. and could be borrowed against in the future, et cetera. I'm asking, is this a wise investment or maybe we're being scammed or being misled?
Yeah, I wouldn't go as far as scammed or misled, but I don't know that this would be my first choice for you, just given what you've described here. I'm delighted to hear that you're putting some of those key building blocks in place. You're debt-free, you're making wise decisions, you're preparing for retirement, you're doing that in a systematic way. I love the idea that you want to get ahead of planning for the future, not only for yourself, but to the extent you have the ability beyond saving for retirement and giving currently and remaining debt-free, setting something aside for the kids. All that is a good thing.
The question is, how to go about it? And usually, I like to, with some exceptions, keep insurance for offsetting a risk, not making it a savings vehicle. And that's usually when it's being proposed in a whole-life fashion. We're mixing the insurance, the death benefit, which is very necessary, with a savings vehicle, which is often looking to a product that was not intended. For savings to do something that it really wasn't created to do, I would prefer you do that through other means, namely retirement accounts, a Roth IRA for each of you.
And if you have the ability to do more, perhaps just some straight investments where you're not mixing your insurance in your savings. But what specifically was recommended to you? What type of insurance policy? It was through Northwest Mutual. I guess maybe where I'm having some doubts is, I don't fully understand it.
And that's where we're struggling a little bit, is they're asking for quite a bit of money up front. And then basically telling us that, you know, we would pay a large premium for 10 years or so, and then we would be able to, you know, borrow against it or use against it, that type of stuff.
So it's a life insurance, it's a whole life insurance policy. Yeah, got it. Yeah. So this is what's called a 10-pay often where you kind of, it's paid up life insurance where you have a large premium for 10 years. It locks up a lot of cash.
And a large portion of that's going to go to a commission and early costs, not growth.
So you may end up having a lower cash value than you expect in the first five to 10 years because you're paying now for benefits you may not get for a long time.
So that'd be the first downside is just the high upfront costs. I think the other issue is the cash value is not free money. Borrowing against the policy sounds appealing, but you pay interest. On your own loan, it reduces your death benefit if it's not repaid. If the policy underperforms, the loans plus the interest can erode the value.
And in some cases, the policy could even lapse and trigger a tax bill.
So loans aren't, quote, risk-free. And then I think the biggest issue is just the returns are often lower than the alternatives.
So people often compare these to a stock market or an index return, you know, or a Roth IRA invested in a properly diversified portfolio. And permanent insurance, which is what whole life insurance is, is usually not the best growth vehicle unless you absolutely need the insurance and other tools are already maxed out.
So I guess that would be the only remaining question: do you have the ability to do more in your other investment vehicles or have you kind of maxed all those out? I think we have a little bit of room to do more. I think the long and short of it is, is that investments is not necessarily something that my husband and I feel greatly strong with. It's something that we're learning a lot about for the last 15 years it was all about save everything possible so we would have money to invest. And now we've reached that point and now we're almost just stuck in like not always knowing where to go.
And my husband is self-employed and so we're a little leery about like wrapping absolutely everything up in a ROS or some of the Ohio like deferred compensation programs because then we feel like it's completely untouchable. Until we're retirement age, and just kind of that we're, you know, have a have a an emergency fund if something were to happen, but just kind of that like We got a little bit of flexibility, but we also want it to grow. I guess we want to take and eat it too. Yeah. So, do you would you consider your emergency fund fully funded at this point?
I think so, yeah. Yeah. So and you know, with him being self-employed, the other option you have is something called a SEP IRA SEP. Are you familiar with that term? No, I don't think so.
Okay. Yeah. So this is what's called a simplified employee pension, and it's used by self-employed individuals and small businesses. You can put in up to 25% of eligible compensation up to $72,000 for 2026, and that would be tax deductible. Let me just recommend you get a second opinion on this.
Maybe somebody who's going to be less prone to use an insurance product to solve the questions you have moving forward. I'd recommend a CKA. You can go to findacka.com to find somebody in your area. Thanks for calling. Let's go to Oregon to Betty.
Go right ahead. I am calling on behalf of a friend in Colorado, and she is in desperate need of cash flow, and she has equity in a home. She's single. And my thought was: why can't she get a reverse mortgage? And she's telling me, and in Colorado, that's not an option for her because she's a senior.
And so I'm just, I'd like more information about a reverse mortgage. And is it different between the states and whether or not you're a senior? And who can I contact on her behalf? Yeah, very good question there. You're eligible for a reverse mortgage as long as you're 62 years old.
Generally speaking, you live in the home as your primary residence and you have sufficient equity in the house, which would typically be 50% equity or more. No reason there in Colorado, she shouldn't be able to get that. And so there's a variety of reverse mortgages. What I would recommend is that she look for what's called a heckum, which is a home equity conversion mortgage. It's another name for a reverse mortgage.
But what's important here is that the home is the only collateral for the reverse mortgage.
So if she converts that equity to an income stream and lives to 150 and the house declines in value, let's take the worst case scenario, and she ends up borrowing more than the home will satisfy, the Federal Housing Administration, the FHA, will step in and cover the difference.
So, this is a great option for her as a planning tool to increase cash flow. Here's where you go: go to our friends at Movement Mortgage at movement.com/slash faith. Movement.com/slash faith. She can put in her information and somebody will give her a call. Thanks for your call, Betty.
We'll be right back. Stay with us. What if your money struggles aren't really about money at all, but about what your heart treasures most? That's the focus of Our Ultimate Treasure, a 21-day devotional written by Rob West. Through daily readings grounded in scripture, he invites you to discover the freedom that comes when God, not money, becomes your source of peace, security, and joy.
You can pick up your copy or place a bulk order at faithfi.com and click shop. Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Sound Mind Investing. For more than 30 years, they've offered financial wisdom for living well. SMI provides step-by-step guidance for do-it-yourself investors, from those just getting started to those getting ready for retirement. More information, including a short video webinar on profit and peace of mind no matter what's happening in the market, is available at soundmindinvesting.org.
Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's head back to the phones.
Pennsylvania, Scott, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Yes, I'm a retired military guy, and I have a side business, and it generates over my income generates over one hundred thousand a year. I live off of half of that. And so I'm living pretty well.
But my question is on I was possibly going to pay off my house and possibly purchase a second house. Is that the ingredient, or is it okay to buy a vacation home or even rent out my first home? Yeah. Well, I appreciate the question. And let me just be clear.
I mean, scripture doesn't forbid owning more than one home. But what it consistently addresses is what we talk about all the time here on this program. And that is the idea of stewardship. 1 Corinthians 4.2. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
So a second or a vacation home can be a wise decision if it's financially sustainable and doesn't create anxiety or debt pressure for you and doesn't distract you from obedience to the Lord and even from generosity, which I would submit is one of the primary reasons God entrusts to us what he does. In addition to enjoyment, which is not unbiblical, that's clearly referenced in numerous places in the Bible, including 1 Timothy. God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
So I think it really does stem from what is our heart's desire. We need to make sure that the things of this world don't compete with our affection to God, who is our. Our ultimate treasure. And we need to be wise as stewards in managing what God has entrusted to us.
So, you know, renting your current home and purchasing another can be prudent if the numbers work and you have plenty of margin. I think wisdom asks: will this limit my ability to give, serve, or respond when God calls? And the answer to that, I think, can ultimately be a piece of, maybe a big piece of you answering this question. But again, I think. At the same time, Jesus is reminding us that enjoying what he's provided is certainly.
within his framework of why he entrusts to us what he does. I think he's also reminding us clearly that we're to store up treasures in heaven. We see that in Matthew 6.
So, you know, perhaps a helpful framework is. Provide wisely, enjoy gratefully, and give generously. And if your plan supports all three and you've prayed through it and you've sought some counsel, clearly you're doing that today. I would say move forward in faith, trusting God as your ultimate security. Does that make sense, though?
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah. I was just wondering if if there was a thin line between greed and I mean, I guess generosity and self satisfaction, I guess I was over the pens of how much is too much to be generous with and how much is too much to, I guess, be happy with myself or to contribute to myself. Yeah, and it would be great if God's word said, Well, anything beyond, you know, living on 68.2% of your income is moving from enjoyment to something that's beyond that. It's not there.
And so, what do we do with that?
Well, we ask God, and He will provide that wisdom. You know, we see that clearly in James. If we lack wisdom, we should ask God who provides it richly to us.
So, you know, I think perhaps taking the next couple of weeks and maybe you just start the day on your knees saying, Lord, what would you have me to do with what you've entrusted to me? But I think, again, at the end of the day, it's striking this balance between understanding that, you know, in part, God provides to us so that we can bless and serve others, be participants in God's economy. He also provides it to us for our enjoyment. And so we have to, in prayer and, you know, through seeking his word. Word and meditating on scripture, I think, find that place that we feel like is appropriate where we can be God-honoring, where we can be wise stewards, where we can enjoy appropriately what He's given us, but not allow that to stumble into something that either creates anxiety or pressure or limits our ability to respond to the leading of the Lord when He prompts us to give generously.
And I think in the tension of those two is a really healthy place to be where we're just seeking God's wisdom at the end of the day. Does that make sense, though? Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely.
Okay, yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. All right. Thanks for your call today.
Call anytime. Let's go to Cleveland. Lorena, go ahead. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Question.
Once I pay off my credit card, do I just refrain from using it and just keep it? Or do I just close it without affecting my credit score? Yeah, great question. Yeah, I think, you know, when we close a card, it can temporarily cause your score to drop slightly. And the reason is often either it's an older card.
And so by pulling that history out, history is one of the five key factors that drives your credit score. And so by removing that from being an active account, in many cases, you lose the history associated with it. And then secondly, it does have a tendency to change what's referred to as your credit utilization. And so your credit utilization is the total credit available to you versus the amount of debt you have outstanding. And if that goes above 30%, your credit score starts to come down dramatically.
And so here's where that would play out. And this may not apply to you. But in some cases, people are carrying balances on other cards. And even if this one's paid off. If you pull this one out of the equation and the total available credit is now comes down by the amount of credit that was available on the card you just closed, those balances you're carrying are now a higher percentage of the total available to you.
And if that trips over 30%, that can start to pull your score down. But at the end of the day, if this is just one card and you've got several others and you've got active credit and you're an on-time payer and you're not going out and looking to qualify for a loan to buy a house or a car in the next, you know, 90 days, I would say it's probably in your best interest to go ahead and close it out. It's one less card that has the ability to be compromised. And so, by closing it, you no longer have to keep up with it, and any erosion in your credit score would be temporary and it would come right back. Does that make sense?
Yes, but now what if I'm scared that I'm gonna get the annual fee? Do I just pay it?
Well, that would be another reason why you'd want to close it. I mean, if there's an annual fee associated with this card and it's not one you're using, even if it is, I would be looking to get rid of this card and move to a different one.
So, yeah, I think again, unless you're right on the heels of going out and trying to qualify for a loan and you need your credit score as high as possible, I'd say go ahead and close this, simplify your financial life. And if this is a card that has some sort of annual fee on it, I would absolutely get rid of it because that's just a fee you're paying unnecessarily.
Okay, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Absolutely. Thanks for your call, Irena. Thanks to my team today: Amy, Dan, Clara, and Jim.
Thank you for being here as well. I hope you have a great rest of your day and come back and join us next time. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
Yeah.
