Everything in this world fades, possessions, accomplishments, even financial security. But scripture reminds us that true riches never fade. In my 21-day devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure, I want to help you reorient your heart from what's temporary to what's eternal. Through daily scripture, reflection, and practical application, you'll explore what it means to steward God's resources with wisdom, generosity, and trust so your financial life reflects what you truly believe. Whether you're just beginning your stewardship journey or longing for deeper alignment between your faith and finances, my hope is that this devotional gives you a clear, hope-filled path towards seeing God as your ultimate treasure.
You can get your copy or place a bulk order for your church or small group at faithfi.com slash shop. That's faithfi.com and click shop. It's one thing to thank God before a meal. It's another thing entirely to thank Him before sending off a tax payment. I am Rob West.
But for Christians, gratitude doesn't end where the deductions begin. Today we're taking a surprising look at taxes, not as an interruption to our finances, but as evidence of God's provision. And then it's onto your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Yeah.
For Christians, few topics unite us, quite like our dislike of paying taxes. We may think, if I could just keep that money, I could do something far better with it. And when government policies clash with our convictions, or when waste and corruption make the headlines, the resentment can rise even further. But scripture gives us a different lens, one that shifts the conversation toward gratitude, humility, and trust in God's sovereignty. In Matthew 22, the Pharisees tried trapping Jesus with a political question.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? We find that in Matthew twenty two seventeen. Jesus asked for a coin, pointed to Caesar's image, and replied, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. This was remarkable for several reasons. First, taxation in Jesus' day was deeply unpopular.
Rome was an occupying force, using tax revenue to support a system that oppressed God's people. Yet, Jesus didn't call for revolt or avoidance. He affirmed that paying taxes fits within God's ordering of the world, while also clarifying that our ultimate allegiance is to God. We may hand over coins stamped with Caesar's image, but our lives, stamped with God's image, are his. The Apostle Paul echoed this during Nero's reign, hardly a golden age for righteous government.
He wrote, For because of this, you also pay taxes, pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, honor to whom honor is owed. That's in Romans 13, 6 and 7. Neither Jesus nor Paul grounded this in governmental perfection, but in God's sovereignty. When we pay taxes, we're not expressing confidence in a human system, but in a God who rules over every nation.
This means paying taxes isn't just about compliance. It's about a recognition that God has established governing authorities, and honoring them is one way we honor Him. But there's another layer, one that believers often overlook. Taxes assume something profoundly theological. Before you pay a dime in taxes, God has already provided.
One of my mentors, Ron Blue, says this every year-around tax time: Taxes represent God's provision. If God wasn't providing income, you wouldn't be paying taxes. Therefore, you should plan wisely for taxes, but you should pay your taxes with gratitude as a reminder of God's provision. Think about that for a moment. You don't pay taxes without an income.
Taxes are, in their own uncomfortable way, evidence that God has provided. They indicate that work was available, income was gained, needs were met, and that God supplied daily bread. Christians rooted in gratitude see provision before they see loss. We don't merely ask, How much am I paying? But what does this reveal about God's faithfulness?
Gratitude always lifts our eyes from what's taken toward what's given. And gratitude is deeply subversive in a culture discipled toward discontentment. That doesn't mean governments always get it right, far from it. But it means that our posture as believers isn't one of avoidance, it's one of integrity. In a world full of loopholes and justifications, your honesty reveals your desire to follow Jesus.
Finally, paying taxes can become a spiritual discipline. Every time you pay taxes, let it be a reminder to pray. Ask God to guide leaders with wisdom, justice, and humility. You may vote against them or even campaign against them. You may even grieve their decisions.
But remember, they are people made in God's image who desperately need his help. Taxes, therefore, become a prompt, not to complain, but to pray.
So how do we put all this together in a world eager to grumble? Remember the owner. God owns it all, including the income from which taxes are taken. Recognize the provider. Taxes reveal God has provided enough for you to render something back.
Respond with integrity. Honesty in hidden places. Transforms Christ-like character in visible ones. Reframe with gratitude. Thank God for provision rather than resent what is owed.
And respond with prayer. Use tax season as a moment to pray for leaders, systems, and justice. By the way, if you want to explore this kind of stewardship more deeply, this comes from my new 21-day devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure. You can find it at faithfy.com/slash shop. Back with your questions after this.
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Start your journey today by going to kingdomadvisors.com/slash get certified. 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 Good Investor.
Goodinvestor.com. That's goodinvestor.com. Um Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We're taking your calls and questions. If you have a question today, go ahead and call right now, 800-525-7000.
Let's go to Illinois, Alberta. Go ahead. I have just inherited some money and I don't, you know, I want to know how to invest it.
Okay. Uh do you mind me asking your age?
Okay, and so uh you're retired, correct? Yes, that's correct. All right. Any uh debt? Yeah.
Okay. And do you have any other liquid assets, like an emergency savings account, before you get the $100,000? No.
Okay. So you're kind of living paycheck to paycheck only on Social Security or do you have other income sources? Pitching. Pension, okay. And social security as well?
Yeah. Okay. And then do you typically have anything left over at the end of the month after your your lifestyle spending on expenses? Yes, I do have some left over.
Okay, what do you typically have in a normal month? About $500. I see.
Okay. But that really hasn't you haven't been able to build up anything over time. Whatever you've been able to save through that excess, you've had to spend for other things, it sounds like. Is that right?
Okay. And what do you typically spend in a in a month's time? Oh, I don't have a lot of bills.
So um Oh about fifteen hundred dollars.
Okay, yeah.
So if you were to put six months of expenses aside, you know, that'd be $9,000. If you wanted to put a full year, that'd be $18,000.
So I think, you know, I would definitely carve out at least six to 12 months worth of expenses and put it in a high-yield savings account. You could maybe even put half in a savings account, half in a couple of CDs. But I think that would be great. Then the question is: what do I do with the rest, somewhere between 80 and 90,000? If you wanted to keep that in the most conservative end of the spectrum, Alberta, you could just yourself, you know, put it in a mix of maybe CDs and perhaps some treasuries or a short or medium-term bond mutual fund or ETF and just keep it up very safe, earn some money on it, and do it yourself.
The other option is you could reach out to a certified kingdom advisor there in Illinois and have someone manage this for you, the portion. That you want to put to work. You know, at 75, I mean, I could see you putting 25 or 30 percent, or an advisor putting 25 to 30 percent in stocks just to give you some growth. And then the bulk of it, seventy percent to eighty percent in fixed income type investments, high quality bonds, treasuries, C D's, money market, things like that. But give me your thoughts on all that.
Well Now, tell me about this C D. I would like something so maybe I can take some money out of, you know, for whatever I need. Yeah. And the only downside with the C D is you would you would lock up your money for a period of time.
So a lot of times what people will do is do maybe like a C D ladder where they might do a third of their money in a one year, a third in a two year and a third in a three year. And then every 12 months you kind of roll it over and that way you're only a year away from having money come and due. But the bulk of what you might need in the next year, you'd keep it in a high yield savings account so it's always ready and available. If you didn't want any lockups on any of it, then you could not use the C D and just keep everything in high yield savings or money market, things like that that are liquid, safe, but also give you a little bit of yield on the money, a little bit of interest. I kind of like this high yield in.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
Well, you've got a couple of options there. One option would be our friends at Christian Community Credit Union. They're the biggest credit union in the country for believers. And I could give you the website to get there if you're comfortable on the internet. Otherwise, we could give you a phone number.
But basically, you could get somewhere between 4% and 5% on your money in their high-yield product, and you could link that up to your current checking account wherever you bank for your checking. That would be one option. You could find a local solution, maybe walk into a credit union down there, where you live in Illinois. The goal would be to get somebody who's going to offer you a better rate of return because the big brick and mortar banks with the big brand names, they might be paying 0.1% on their savings, whereas you could get 4% at an online bank or credit union or Christian Community Credit Union.
So there's quite a big difference. Big difference there, but it would require in most cases that you open a new account because the bank you're with, if you're with a local brick-and-mortar bank, probably doesn't have a yield that would be very attractive. You say you have a phone number that you can give to me? Yes, let's do this. I'm going to have you hold the line and my team will get that to you.
For everybody else, if you'd like to go online, you can go to faithfi.com/slash banking. That's faithfi.com/slash banking. But if you hold the line, my team will pull up the Christian Community website and give you the phone number, and you can give them a call. Wonderful. Very good.
I appreciate that. Happy to do it. You stay right there. May the Lord bless you. Thanks for calling today.
All right, let's go to Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Gina. Go ahead. Hi, how are you? I'm doing great.
Thanks for your call. Awesome. I love the program and thank you for taking my call. I have a question. My husband and I are separated.
And he's retired and received Social Security. and a pension. I'm still working, but Can I apply for spousal benefits? Also, says Social Security. And if I can, would it decrease the amount he gets and cause a financial hardship for him?
Because I don't really want to do that. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I'm sorry to hear that's the current situation. Let's pray that the Lord brings you all back together. But in terms of eligibility for spousal benefits while separated here, no, as long as you are still legally married, not divorced, you can apply for spousal benefits based on his Social Security record.
Now, you're going to need to be at least 62, and he must already be receiving his benefits, which it sounds like he is. And you don't need his permission to apply. And to your further question, no, your spousal benefit does not in any way reduce his benefit. The Social Security Administration calculates your benefit separately. They use his work record only to determine the amount you qualify for, which is up to 50% of his full retirement benefit, so long as you wait till your full retirement age.
If you take it before that, it's going to be reduced.
So, for instance, if you took it at 62, you know, it could be as much as 25 to 30 percent less. But bottom line is: yes, as long as you're legally married, you can absolutely take it and it will not affect him. I'm sixty-eight. Oh, okay.
Well, then you're beyond full retirement age, so you're going to get up to 50% of his full retirement age benefit.
Okay. I just don't want him to get a decrease, you know? Yeah, no no impact on him. The only reason they use his is just to calculate your benefit, but it's a separate benefit that has no impact on his whatsoever. Got it.
Okay, appreciate that. Thank you so much. If you were to divorce. And the marriage was lasted at least 10 years, then you can still receive divorced spousal benefits. Again, with no impact on his payments.
But yeah, of course I'm Unfortunately, well not unfortunately, but we've been married for 40 years.
Okay. Well I'm so sorry. And we'll be praying for this situation, but hopefully, that at least answers your question so you understand kind of what the implications are financially. It does. I appreciate it so much.
Yes, ma'am. Lord bless you. Thanks for calling today. Back with more after this. Have you ever started a budget only to watch it fall apart a few weeks later?
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Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Taking your calls and questions today at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's go to New Hampshire. John, go ahead.
Just looking for your advice on what you think of this situation.
So I am fifty six, my wife is fifty five. We have two different 401ks. One is from a job that I had many years ago that's been sitting. Idol. Over the past eight years, it looks like it's grown about twelve point five percent.
and it's up to three hundred ten thousand at this point. I still work, and in that 401k with my current job, I have 268,000. Um my question to you is I was I'm concerned with the way the market's going up and down and just wondering if that three hundred ten thousand I could pull out And I've heard you mention the annuities through Gainbridge. And I checked into that yesterday. And wondering at ten years It looks like I could increase that by two hundred sixteen thousand And then at least I know that it's guaranteed as opposed to maybe the market crashes.
in the next ten years And at least I have something.
So just wondering what your thought on putting that into an annuity for ten years would be. Yeah. And what is the value of that right now? Right now, it's three hundred ten thousand in that account.
Okay. Yeah. So at a 5% return, I mean, we're talking about $16,000 or so per year, roughly. And then, you know, that would increase over 10 years. I think the key is looking at your overall goals and objectives, the fact that you're still working, and longevity risk is probably the biggest risk you have.
My preference would be for somebody in your situation, especially because you're still building your retirement assets. I mean, I understand your thought around the potential for market risk, and that's always real. But I would prefer you manage that through a diversified portfolio, perhaps dialing up your fixed income portion, but keeping it in that 401k, or perhaps for that one that's with the previous employer, rolling that out to an IRA. You know, annuities can be used effectively, you know, if you're really looking for guarantees that pay a fixed amount, you know, but over time, inflation is going to erode that purchasing power. And I just want to make sure that you can keep up with it.
That and that you don't lose access to the money. I realize you're talking about just a 10-year annuity, but you know, the reason you could do something like this is because you can keep it in a tax-deferred environment if your primary objective is peace of mind and a stable return. You know, there's something called a sequence of returns protection where if retirement is near or already started, you know, that shields a portion of your investments from a market downturn. And those early market losses can hurt retirees and certainly more than workers, although you are continuing to work.
So that's maybe the strongest argument for the annuity alongside the simplicity and the tax deferral preservation. But I think the reason against it would be: number one, there's concentration risk.
So having 60% of your retirement assets in one annuity means you're heavily relying on one insurer. Know you're in a one-interest rate environment with limited flexibility. You have that lock-up period, which is a loss of liquidity. I realize you're limiting that to 10 years, but it's still there. I think the biggest risk is probably inflation risk.
So, at a 5.1% nominal rate, that may look good today, but your purchasing power is eroding over time. And unless that annuity has an inflation rider, which is often not the case, then that's not going to look as attractive in the future. And then you've got the opportunity cost, which is that money is no longer participating in market growth and equity recovery. And so, it reduces your long-term upside, which I realize, yes, with that, you're taking risk, but I think that can be managed with a portfolio that's properly diversified with an appropriate allocation to fixed income.
So, you know, my preference would be. You know, for somebody in your season of life who's still working, you're still looking to grow your retirement nest egg because you're not where you'd ultimately like to be, despite the fact that the market could dig a downturn, we could hit a recession. Most economists feel like we're in a pretty good place, even though we have some long-term issues around debt and the demographics. With technology enhancements, with the deregulation that's going on, the low tax environment, we're probably going to see this economy continue to charge forward. In fact, the early signs are that growth is headed higher.
That bodes well for corporate earnings and ultimately the stock market.
So I think having an advisor where you would roll that old 401k to an IRA that could then build that portfolio, manage the risk, but also give you more upside potential is a little more attractive to me than dropping it into a guaranteed fixed annuity at this point. That might be something you would consider down the road when you're fully in retirement, but I would. probably advise against it right now. But let me stop there and get your thoughts on all that, John. Yeah, okay.
That wasn't what I was expecting to say. I hadn't really considered the inflation erosion.
So you're basically saying maybe go visit a CKA Yeah, I think so. And primarily, just the idea would be that you'd have an advisor that you'd sit down with, you'd do some planning around what is your ultimate, you know, retirement nest day goal? What do you need to get to so that it could be converted to an income stream at an appropriate withdrawal rate? That alongside your other retirement income streams, namely Social Security, maybe other things, I don't know, at least you know you have a plan for how you're going to fund your retirement lifestyle, whatever that is, when that time comes. And that I think will give you some peace of mind to know: okay, here's what we ultimately need to get to.
And then it's just a matter of managing the risk and return to make sure that you're not unnecessarily risky in terms of your portfolio mix, but you're still giving yourself that upside potential beyond what you might be locking into in that guaranteed fixed annuity, especially without the inflation rider.
So, I think that's at least worth considering. At the end of the day, you need to decide what's going to give me the peace of mind. And you are the steward, so you've got to make that call. And I wouldn't say that this is something that would be foolish, I just think there's other factors to consider. But it does mean you being willing to bear a little more market risk along the way.
So, the good news is you've got time on your side. I mean, we need to probably be thinking about this portfolio lasting another three to four decades.
So, that's good news in the sense that even if we were to get into a recession, you had a major market pullback. That portion of the portfolio that was open to stocks or invested in stocks, you wouldn't touch it. You wouldn't draw that income out. You wouldn't sell any of those stocks. You'd wait for them to come back.
And at least historically speaking, the market always does recover, regardless of how bad the situation was that led to the pullback or even the crash. Anyway, I hope that gives you a few things to think about. John, if you did want to reach out to a couple of Certified Kingdom advisors there in New Hampshire, you could go to findacka.com. We appreciate your call today, sir. Lord bless you.
We're so thankful for our team here: Devin, Sandy, and Jim. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you next time. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFy and listeners like you.
