Most budgeting tools help you build a budget, but they rarely help you live it out. That's where the FaithFi app comes in. Every year, families begin with good intentions. But when life gets busy and motivation fades, the plan falls apart. That's why we built financial rhythms into the all-new FaithFi app.
Each day begins with a three-minute check-in. Review your spending, reflect on God's word, and listen to a short devotional that keeps your heart anchored in Christ. Each week gives you a snapshot of progress and one wise next step. And each month helps you look back, celebrate growth, realign your goals, and acknowledge God's provision. With FaithFi Pro, smart automation learns your spending habits, categorizes transactions, and saves you time while keeping you in control.
Try it free for 30 days and lock in 25% off by downloading the FaithFi app or visiting faithfy.com/slash app. Discipleship often sounds like a big program, but what if it really begins with one faithful conversation at a time? I am Rob West.
Sometimes a single intentional relationship is all it takes to shape the way we follow Christ in both our finances and everyday decisions. Today, Brian Holtz joins us to share how a simple commitment to walk with someone spiritually can create lasting eternal impact. And then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Our guest today is Brian Holt, CEO of Compass Financial Ministry, an organization dedicated to helping people worldwide know Christ more intimately in one of the most personal arenas of life: finances.
Brian, it's always a joy to have you with us. Great to have you back. Always good to be here, Rob. Brian, when we talk about discipleship, it's easy to picture large programs or big initiatives, but this vision really began in a much more personal way.
So how did that focus on one-to-one discipleship first take root for you? It really started with our founder, Howard Dayton. While many of your audience know him through the radio program, his heart has always been for small group discipleship.
So years ago, he committed to walking alongside one person each year. That's all, one person, reading a few Christian books and scripture together and talking about what God was teaching them. In return, that person made one little tiny commitment. to repeat the process with someone else. every year.
That simple idea is now what we call the One More program. Mm, yeah, that sounds just like Howard.
So, what kinds of resources or books did he typically use in those conversations? And I love this model, by the way. Yeah, the titles have changed over time. Right now they include Humility by Andrew Murray. Trusting God by Jerry Bridges, Financial Discipleship by Peter Briscoe, and The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman.
Along with those books, we'll read Scripture together, following wherever the Lord leads. Yeah, and we'll have the list of those titles in our show notes. That is a fabulous list of books. Why do you think those particular books stood out to him, Brian?
Well, yeah, with Discipleship, it's not necessarily a prescribed list, but these books in particular are deeply formative and invite a lot of reflection. Humility convicts us and puts us in our proper place relative to our Creator. Then trusting God invites us to be vulnerable as we learn to truly rely on Him for both the big and small pieces of our life. Financial discipleship helps us apply that vulnerability to our finances, and then Master Plan teaches us how to share it to grow God's kingdom the way Jesus instructed. But more than a great reading list, the shared discussions matter most.
The relationship you build, discussing what you've learned from the reading and how those things are playing out in your life to day, become the real treasure of discipleship. Yeah, no doubt about that. Uh now I know you experienced that season firsthand, Brian, so share just a bit about how that year of intentional discipleship shaped you personally. Yeah, it's hard to believe, but it was nearly 10 years ago now. My family had just relocated for work across state lines, and everything just felt unsettled.
Work, church, our kids, nothing was falling into place. And then I was invited to just read some books with a friend and a colleague who had just finished the program with Howard himself.
Well, during that year of discipleship, my view of money changed.
So did my relationship with the Lord, my marriage, my parenting, and eventually even my career, as I ended up following that friend over to Compass. God used that simple, faithful investment to reshape my life in lasting ways. And I've had the joy of walking many others through the same process. This could be a game changer for so many of our listeners today.
So, if someone is listening right now, Brian, and they feel called to disciple others, but they're not sure where to begin, what first step might you encourage? Yeah, I think the easiest first step is to decide to not read books alone anymore. I know that sounds simple, but it really does work. Whether it's scripture, a devotional, or a Christian book, invite someone to read with you. meet regularly to talk about what you're learning and then you do it again.
And if you do want to follow Howard's One More Plan, we've got free study guides available at compassfinancial ministry.org/slash one more. Oh, that is so good, and honestly, much simpler than most of us expect financial discipleship to be.
So, I have to ask: is he still walking people through it today? He absolutely is. One every year until the Lord takes him home, is what he says. Incredible. Folks, financial discipleship doesn't start with a program.
It starts with one intentional relationship, faithfully walking with someone toward Christ and trusting God to multiply the impact. Brian, thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me, Rob. That was Brian Holtz with Compass Financial Ministry. To learn more about this simple, relational approach to discipleship, go to compassfinancialministry.org/slash one more.
We'll be right back. If budgeting feels like a second job, the new Faith5 Pro was built just for you. It learns your spending patterns, categorizes your transactions, and helps you build a budget based on your real life. Plus, scripture readings and biblical devotionals help you manage God's money God's way. Try Faith Phi Pro free for 30 days and lock in 25% off a pro subscription.
Download the Faith5 app from your app store or at faith5.com/slash app. That's faithfi.com/slash app. We are grateful for support from Movement Mortgage, who provides residential home loans and reverse mortgage options in all 50 states. Guided by a mission to love and value people, Movement seeks to help individuals and families make informed financial decisions from buying a home to planning for retirement. More information is available at faithfy.com slash movement.
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So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We're taking our calls and questions today. All the lines are full.
So if you get a busy signal, just be patient. We'd love for you to get through, but sit back and enjoy these great questions that we have coming in. Let's go to Angie in Texas. Go right ahead. Hello, thank you for taking my call.
My daughter is nineteen and Um We just her father and I just want to Get her set up on the right track on managing her money well. You know, as she becomes more independent, I mean, she's living with us right now, but we want to set her up for a fixed. when she no longer lives with us.
So we want to get her on a plan like, okay, Jewel pay us. A certain amount for rent every month, but we will keep it in a savings account for her. And then when she does plan to move out, we will give it back to her. But just not sure how to set that up. Like what percentage of her income should that look like?
And also, a budgeting tool she can use to keep track of her income and her expenses. And also, like, where should we put uh that money that we collect from her each month, like, so it can earn interest and she can use it in about a year or two? Gotcha. Yeah, that's really helpful. And, Angie, are you all covering the cost of her education or is she expected to pay that?
Uh we are asking her to pay that. She's been paid in so far.
Okay.
So how much does she have left after the auto insurance and then her school expenses? Oh, for school expenses. Um I'm not sure exactly how much. It's a community college, so Uh Good. But but she is paying the tuition out of that five hundred every two weeks.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. And then your plan is to have her start offsetting some of the expenses at home with a you know a fixed amount.
But you all would set that aside to give back to her once she moves out. Would you let her know that? Would that be something she would be aware of? Or is that something you surprise her with? What are you thinking?
No, uh we're just gonna let her know up front. Yeah. This is gonna you're gonna get this back. Yeah. And have you all had that conversation yet, or are you just thinking through and planning for it now?
We have had this conversation and she's actually on board with it. She's kind of excited to get started. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a forced savings, and I like that a lot. I mean, I think the key is, you know, whenever we do something like this, we want to, you know, have good, clear communication, being transparent.
You know, I think the idea would be to put it in a separate savings account, maybe even, you know, link that to, you know, her money management app. And we'll talk about what to use there so she can see it grow, which would be encouraging. You know, I think it's going to give her a win later when you give her the full balance and she can use that for a security deposit or an emergency buffer or something like that. I think the key at this point is to work on that spending plan, which will be a really important process for her to understand as well. You know, I'm thinking you're not looking for market rent, of course, even for one room.
You're probably saying, you know, we're going to charge somewhere between 10 and 25% of your take-home pay, which builds responsibility without crushing the momentum. But I think the key factor is how much of that $1,000 a month is being, needs to be allocated toward tuition at the community college. And that's got to factor in to see if something like my suggestion of 10% of her total income gets paid out to you guys $100 that you then put into that savings account. But I think the idea is right. I think it makes a lot of sense.
And I'd be happy to give you six months in the FaithFi app, which would allow her to have the ability to connect her checking and savings account. All her transactions would download automatically. She could set up different envelopes to be able to build a basic budget.
So even where she's allocating that money for the insurance every month, so that when that bill comes every six months, she's got that money. Sitting there and she can write that check because she's been saving $133. And you can even link the savings account that you guys are using for the rent payment, if you will, so she can see that growing. And I think that would really get her started. Plus, inside the app, all the content that's there, I think, will be helpful to her.
Even the new daily rhythms that we're building in that allow her to see her transactions for the day before, but also be reminded of just a 60-second devotional thought around stewardship will hopefully begin to instill some of these key principles in.
So I like the path that you're on. Is that helpful at all? Absolutely. She was also considering getting a credit card. Just to uh get her credit score on the right track or establish one.
Yeah, is that why? I like that plan. I mean, you've got a couple of ways you can go there. One is you could take one of your cards and add her as an authorized user. But just keep in mind, the good data flows to her credit report, so does the bad.
So if you happen to miss a payment or something goes awry, that would spill over to her credit report too. But a lot of people use that strategy of an authorized user to be able to build credit. The second option, and this is what we've done with our son, he started out with a debit card, and we taught him how to build a basic plan in high school and use the debit card and tracking his expenses. And then when he went off to college, we did, you know, he got a credit card, which is easy to do these days. It's a Capital One card, and he uses it for one budgeted charge every month, something he was planning on that he's paying in full.
It hits the account. He pays it off by the due date. In fact, he has it set up as an automatic payment, so he's never going to miss it. And then that gets reported back to his credit file. With him being an on-time payer.
The only risk there is that you've got a child who's undisciplined and they don't use it just for that one budgeted item that they pay off every month. They see that $300,000 or $500 or $1,000 limit and they start charging it up. But I think if they've exercised discipline, they're able to kind of keep it just to those few budgeted transactions that get paid in full, that's a good thing to start teaching responsibility, but then also to your point, to start building credit. And I think Capital One has the best options right now for students. Got it.
Okay, thank you. All right. Very good.
Well, listen, let's do this. You stay on the line. Our team will get your information. We'll get her a six-month pro subscription of the FaithFi app just to get her started and see if that works for her. And if we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out.
Angie, thanks for your call today. We appreciate you being on the program. Let's tackle some emails today. By the way, Jared sent this recently. He said, We recently discovered some stock certificates from 1970 that my grandparents owned.
How can we find out whether these certificates have any redeemable value? Let me tell you, Jared, first, you just want to check to see if the company is still traded on a stock exchange. You can do this at many major financial websites. You can also try to contact the certificate transfer agent, which should be listed on the certificate itself.
Now, if the transfer agent no longer exists, you'll want to contact the state agency that handles incorporation where the company was established. That office may provide a way to search online for information on that company. Many public libraries also have reference materials for old stock certificates. If all that fails and you have a brokerage account, you can ask your broker if they can help you determine the value of the certificates. Provide that QCEP number, that's C-U-S-I-P.
You'll see that printed on the certificate, and hopefully, they'll be able to help you. I think you'll get there. It may take some legwork, but thanks for writing to us. By the way, if you have a question, send it along. Askrob at faithbuy.com.
A quick break and back with much more on Faith and Finance. You all stay with us. We'll continue to apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices just around the corner. 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. Poverty's roots run deep in African villages, affecting one generation to the next. It doesn't have to be this way. FaithPhi 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. Um Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We'd love to take your calls and questions: 800-525-7000.
Let's go to Texas. Hi, Rod. How can I help? Um Quick question. We had a property that we lived in for close to 20 years.
We bought a property with acreage. We moved out of that property five years ago. converted it to a rental. We haven't had it rented for close to one year. It's been vacant.
Renovations going on. And if we sell it, I'm trying to avoid capital gains tax.
However, I'm wondering since it hadn't been a rental property anymore, Is there a length of time? It doesn't need to be a rental property, so we can take the proceeds. and roll it over into a new home we're trying to build on our current property. Mm. Yeah.
And would that new home also be a rental property, or would that be a personal residence? that would be a personal residence. That's our forever home, if you want to call it that.
Okay, yeah. Unfortunately, the timing is working against you here. Number one, you can't do a 1031 into a personal residence. It has to be a similar type property, which would be something held for investment or business use. Personal residence doesn't qualify.
And with this being over five years ago, that it was your primary residence, you no longer qualify for the primary residence exclusion, which is where you could get up to $250,000 or $500,000 in gains. But you had to have lived there as your primary residence for two out of the preceding five years prior to the sale. And if you can't meet that rule, then it would be a long-term capital gain.
Now, most people fall into the 15% bracket. Because if you're married filing jointly, that's for gains of well, total taxable income between $98,900 and $613,000. would put you in the 15% rate, and that includes the gain itself.
So that gain that you would have Is a part of that taxable income alongside your other taxable income. If you went over $613,000 married filing jointly, then you'd be in the 20% rate. Does that all make sense, though? It does. I do have a question in relation to this.
We're wanting to tithe off the sale of the property and Is there some form that we need to file prior to the sale to help alleviate some of that tax? or just sell a property And um Send it to our CPA? What do we need to do, if anything, prior to the sale so we can tithe off of it for the most tax benefit? Yeah. I think that's great.
And I love the fact that you're thinking about doing this prior to the sale because that's going to be the most cost effective. You can give a percentage of a property to a donor advised fund If it's done before the property is sold. And then once you do, that portion, that fractional ownership interest that the donor advised fund has, is not subject to the capital gains. And so, you know, that could be really helpful by avoiding that on the donated portion.
So, what I would do is reach out to our friends at the National Christian Foundation, ncfgiving.com, ncfgiving.com, and you'd open a giving fund, and then they could walk you through how that's done. You're going to want to get your CPA involved. You're going to want to talk to the donor-advised fund sponsor, in this case, National Christian Foundation, ahead of time, because timing mistakes can eliminate the benefit entirely. But if you do it right and everybody's on board, and you get it done soon enough, prior to the sale, then you could avoid the capital gains on whatever portion you're intending to give away. Then, at the sale, that portion funds the donor-advised fund, and then you'd be able to grant it out in whatever timeframe you want.
Perfect. All right. Well, I appreciate it, and I appreciate what you do for the Christian community.
Well, thank you and guiding us. We appreciate you very much, brother. Absolutely. Thank you for saying that, Rob. That means a lot.
Lord bless you. Let's go out to Louisiana. Hi, Ruth. Go ahead. Yeah.
I have my daughter and son. on my checking and savings account. and the daughter and her husband have a business. it's not doing very well. And if it winds up in bankruptcy, Is there any way my daughter being on my account.
Would that affect my money? Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I would get some legal counsel on that just to talk through all the implications there. You know, when a person files for bankruptcy, the court trustee looks for assets to pay off creditors. And because your daughter's name is on the account, a trustee may legally presume she owns 50% or even 100% of that money.
And there are ways to, you know, kind of push back against that. And you could prove the money belongs entirely to you. And there would be a process there. But I wouldn't just automatically take her name off the account just before she files. The court could view that as a fraudulent transfer.
And so I would, you know, reach out to an attorney and get some counsel on the best way to handle this. What are the implications of it? Could it be attached to this bankruptcy? And how do you need to proceed from here? And that legal counsel, I think, will be really critical in making sure you follow the right steps so that.
you know, you can protect yourself, but but uh do everything according to the law as well. But it hasn't been done yet.
So do you think it would be wise? just take her off on my account. Yeah, I would get some legal counsel on that. I am not an attorney, and so I'd be hesitant to advise you on that just because the sequence of all of this is really important. Obviously, her intent is to file, and it could be that the attorney says, yeah, you're in the clear to just go ahead and remove her.
That was not the desire. Really, her name was on that account just for efficiency purposes, and it was never her money. And you could kind of... establish that. But I would want to make sure in terms of how you go about this, just given that she's headed toward filing and there wouldn't be a whole lot of time between you removing her and her filing, I just would want you to know the implications of that before anybody does anything.
Well, I don't think anything like filing or anything. I think that's just what might happen down the line.
So I was trying to be You know, do what I should do. Got it.
Yeah. So that's not imminent. She's just considering that that may come down the road.
Well, I am more so thankful. Ah, got it. Hurt, I think, you know, I just thought, oh, goodness, I hadn't thought of that. Yes.
Well, I think just getting some counsel from an attorney To advise you, you know, if that does happen down the road, what are the implications of that? And given that this is not imminent, you know, that attorney may say, no, you're in the clear, just go ahead and take her off. And, you know, that was the intent. You're going to need to get her to sign off on that if you do, just because she's legally entitled to this account. But I would imagine, just given what the intent was there, she'd probably be glad to do that.
And that might just clear this up for the future. Ruth, I appreciate your call today. I know this can be a sticky situation when it involves money and family members. And so we'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you navigate that. Thanks for being on the program.
Folks, that's going to do it for us today. Big thanks to my team today. Grateful for Patty and Sandy and Devin and Taylor and everybody that makes this possible each day. We'll see you tomorrow. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
