Every day on Faith and Finance, we hear from believers who are trying to follow Jesus faithfully with their finances. They're not calling for quick fixes. They're looking for biblical wisdom they can trust. Because of faithful partners, FaithFi reaches millions through radio, books, and the FaithFi app, helping people see that money issues are really heart issues and God's wisdom changes everything. When you support Faith Vi, you make these conversations and transformations that follow possible.
With a gift of $35 a month or $400 a year, you help sustain this ministry and receive ongoing resources to support your own stewardship journey. Visit faithfi.com slash give to become a partner. That's faithfi.com/slash give. You can't serve God in money, but you can serve God with money. Hi, I'm Rob West.
Most of us don't wake up wanting to serve money, but it's easy for financial pressure and financial goals to quietly shape our lives. Today we'll look at how scripture frees us to see money not as something to chase, but as a tool God gives us to accomplish His purposes. And then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
One of the most common questions I hear is: what's the biblical approach to money? And it's a great question because the Bible talks about money a lot. More than 2,300 verses touch on wealth, possessions, generosity, and stewardship. And one of the clearest principles is this: money itself is not the goal, it's a tool. First, scripture reminds us that money is a gift.
Ecclesiastes 5.19 says, Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, this is the gift of God. In other words, God isn't against provision or enjoyment. When he provides, we're meant to receive his gift with gratitude. We see this clearly when Jesus feeds the 5,000 in Matthew 14. Not only does he meet their immediate need, but scripture tells us there were 12 baskets of leftovers.
The point isn't excess. It's that God's provision is generous. He delights in caring for his people. But here's where things get tricky. Money may be a gift, but it also carries spiritual weight, it reveals what we trust.
Paul warns in 1 Timothy 6:10, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Notice he doesn't say money itself is evil, it's the love of money when we look to it for security, identity, or peace that leads us astray. Money is morally neutral, but how we use it is deeply spiritual. Every spending decision, every saving decision, every act of generosity asks a question, what am I trusting right now, God or money? And that leads to the third truth, money is meant for kingdom impact.
Ephesians 4.28 tells us we should work so that we may have something to share with anyone in need. We don't earn simply to accumulate. We earn so we can provide, plan wisely, and bless others. Think about that shift. Work isn't just survival.
It's participation in God's generosity. Saving isn't fear, it's preparation. Investing isn't greed. It can be stewardship when it supports future generosity and responsibility. And practically speaking, this can show up in small everyday ways.
Choosing generosity when budgets feel tight, planning ahead so you're not burdened by debt, or creating margins so you're ready when God places a need in front of you. Over time, those small decisions shape both our finances and our hearts. In other words, money becomes powerful when it flows outward rather than being hoarded inward. Jesus himself said in Luke 16, 13, you cannot serve God and money. But notice, he doesn't say money is useless.
Instead, he makes clear that money must be placed in its proper role, servant, not master. In his sermon, The Use of Money, John Wesley said that money is an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it's food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked. It gives to the traveler and the stranger where to lay his head. That's a beautiful picture of money redeemed, money used for eternal purposes.
And here's the freeing truth: money is temporary. 1 Timothy 6:7 reminds us, We brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. Every dollar we manage is temporary, but how we use it can have an eternal impact. When we remember that, we hold money loosely. We enjoy God's provision without being controlled by it.
We plan wisely without placing our hope in wealth, and we give generously because we know God is the true provider.
So, before your next financial decision, whether it's spending, saving, investing, or giving, try a different question. Lord, how can this money serve you and others? Because money is never the destination. It's simply a tool God places in our hands to accomplish something far greater than ourselves. This is a key theme I explore in my new devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure: a 21-day journey that helps you use money as a tool rather than a treasure so it finds its proper place in your life.
You can get your copy or order copies for your church or small group at faithfine.com/slash shop. That's faithfi.com slash shop. All right, your phone calls are next. The number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.
Or if you'd prefer to email your question, send it to us at askrob at faithfi.com. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com.
Faith in Finance is grateful for support from Sound Mind Investing. If you have money in an investment account, you know sometimes the stock market can seem like a roller coaster. But it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind as a do-it-yourself investor, no matter what's happening in the market. A short video webinar about that is available at soundmindinvesting.org. Financial Wisdom for Living Well.
Soundmindinvesting.org. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance.
Well, we're taking your calls and questions today. The rest of the program is yours.
So, if you have a financial question, something you're wrestling with in your financial life, call right now. We've got some lines open. 800-525-7,000. That's 800-525-7,000. Let's head to Alabama.
John, how can we help? Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Of course. I've got a question about my credit rating.
I previously had a high credit rating, I thought, around 803, 823, something in that range. Then I moved to southern Alabama, retired and moved. During the process of getting insurance quotes, and I think that's where the problem lies, they may have made a couple. Of hard inquiries of my credit score by mistake as opposed to a soft inquiry due to some of my searching. But my credit rating overnight.
drop from the low mid to low eight hundreds To mid, to low. Six hundreds. I got an advertisement of spam About, let's see, credit cards, check your credit score.
So I did, and that's when I found out. Then my credit score was, I think, eight fifty.
Something I'm sorry, six fifty something. And uh so I called the credit people or and I c well, I called everybody. And nobody can tell me anything, and I don't know. I don't know what happened, how to correct it or anything. The my credit history, where you go back and you look at for any delinquent payments, foreclosures.
Anyway, my history is perfect. I don't owe any bills. I don't I own my home, own my vehicle, own my boat. Pay my credit card in full every month. I have no debt at all.
and a sufficient income, retirement income. But I heard your show that you are able to discuss credit issues, so I thought I'd give it a try, and here we are. All right.
Well, I'm so sorry to hear about it. I understand why that would be concerning. Let me just say: a drop like you're describing from 800 to call it 650 almost never happens without a major negative item being added to the credit report.
So, a common reason for a drop that significant would be a missed or late payment. You're saying you looked, you don't see any. An account sent to collections, a really high credit utilization.
So, that's a large balance reporting 50 to 90 percent of a credit limit. You know, that's often temporary, but until balances are paid down, but it could result in that dramatic of a drop. An account closed unexpectedly that affects credit utilization, some sort of derogatory remark. Those would be the kinds of things that would result in that kind of drop.
Now, One of the things you need to look at is: are you comparing apples to apples? Because there are different scores that are pulled using different algorithms and also different bureaus. And one bureau might have different information for you than another. It could be different information in the form of one of them has something negative on it that may not even be accurate, but it's there. And it's flowing into a different scoring algorithm because there's the FICO algorithm, but there's several others.
And so, depending upon which one was used when you saw the 800 plus versus the one that was used by Credit Karma when you saw 650, it may be two completely different algorithms, and/or they may be pulling from different bureaus. And so, that would be a key.
So, you really need to get your full credit reports. From all three bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. I would do that at annualcreditreport.com. That's the only website run by the government that's free that allows you to get all three Bureau reports: annualcreditreport.com. And you're going to want to look for anything that has just hit any of three of those files: a late payment, a new collection, a new or closed account, and a balance that spiked.
Again, it may be inaccurate, but if it's there, you need to know. The other thing is that credit scores, when they're generated, have to produce something called reason codes. And so you're going to look for messages on that report like recent delinquency, derogatory public record, high utilization. These are clues that are going to point to the cause. And then you want to identify when you look at these reports, anything that has changed in the last 30 to 90 days.
And that's going to obviously clue you into what might have changed that resulted in this dramatic decrease. And then, if you have errors, you want to dispute it with the Credit Bureau, and they have 30 days to either verify that it's accurate and produce the proof for you or delete it, which will obviously automatically increase your score. I will say, just kind of going back to your initial question about you shopping around for insurance rates, in almost every case, insurance companies check what's called a credit-based insurance score, not your regular FICO, and that is a soft inquiry. It does not impact your FICO credit score, and they may see changes in your insurance score, but that's a separate model used specifically for pricing insurance. And it might feel like it might end up being a timing coincidence that the score change may have occurred around the same time as the insurance quotes, but it's usually not causal because again, you know, most insurance quotes are soft pulls.
You could, if you've already quoted it, you could go back to the insurer and just say, was this a soft or a hard credit pull? But even if it was a hard credit pull, there's no way it would result in a 150-point drop anywhere close to that. I mean, we're talking somewhere between five and 25 or 30 points typically, and then it'll bounce right back up. But I've thrown a lot at you there. Does that all make sense?
Yes, that's a lot of information to digest, but a lot of it, too, I hadn't considered before. I had not purchased anything. I haven't had any gibbets in my credit score. There was no reason for this. I've retired, and pretty much my subsistence is flatlined.
I got X amount coming in and less than X amount going out.
So I'm actually gaining in my net worth.
However, this occurred about the same time as the insurance thing is the reason I prompted the question to you from my insurance question. I'll look into it. What was that? Website. Reading agency again.
Well, you want to go to annualcreditreport.com. And you want to pull your full credit report, not your score, your full credit report from each of the three bureaus, and they'll be listed there at annualcreditreport.com: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Those are the three major credit bureaus in the United States. You're going to want to get all three, and you're going to want to see if any of them have any negative information.
Now, one of the things that's working against you in this season of life, none of this would result in a very short-term 150-point drop, but what's working against you is even though you're living as a faithful steward, managing what you've been entrusted very well, you're not active in positive credit generating activity. And so that might be something to look at. A lack of credit in the current environment is working against you. And so you may want to, if you're not using a credit card right now, you may want to put a budgeted recurring charge on your credit card and then pay it off every month in full. Just so you have new on-time regular credit being reported to your report each month.
John, I hope that helps. Thanks for your call. Back with more questions after this. Stick around. What happens when we never define enough?
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Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. We've got time for more questions today.
Something going on in your financial life you want to talk about? Give us a call. We'll help you process it through the lens of scripture, but help you make a practical decision. Whether it's your lifestyle and your spending plan, reining in your spending, balancing that budget, maybe it's investing for the future given all the uncertainty. How do you save effectively, build up that emergency fund, pay off debt, improve that credit score?
Whatever it is, call right now: 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open. Let's head to Ohio. Hi, Mary. Go ahead.
Hi, yes. My husband died about six years ago. And I had taken care of his estate between myself and my three adult sons. And recently Just over the holidays, we were looking through some of his stuff and realized that he had all these containers of coins. And my my one son was looking into it, and they might be worth like quite a bit of money for the silver that's in them and didn't realize that.
So now we're thinking we should probably go ahead and cache those in So I'm wondering about taxes and um how to do that exactly. And then like the inherited, and I didn't list that as part of the assets because I didn't even think about them. Yeah, so just don't know where to go from there.
Okay, very good. Yeah, so it really requires that you clarify who owns the coins now, because this will matter for taxes.
So you said you divided everything among your children. That usually means the children now own the coins, not her. And then each child would be responsible for deciding when to sell and reporting any taxes due. If you still legally own them, the tax treatment changes. But most often, in these cases, the kids would be the sellers, which means they would have been inherited with a stepped-up.
basis To their fair market value. Do you know kind of how that went down? What do you mean, how that went down?
Well, are they a marital asset, or were they owned solely by your husband? And at his passing, you said they were not a part of the estate. Is that right?
Well, I just we were married and everything, and they were just sitting in the house, and I didn't really even think about those as being worth anything. And I didn't even think about including them. They were just coins that he had, you know, collected, actually got, I think, from his uncle years ago when he had died and never did anything with them. And uh yeah, so I mean my three sons So they would have to take those, I guess, to an appraiser and get them appraised and see how much they're worth and then go back until the date when my husband actually died. And then the appreciation from then to now would be what they would pay the inherited taxes on.
Regarding capital gains, I mean, huh? You would want to check with a CPA on that and an estate attorney. I mean, because Ohio is a common law property state, not a community property state, it probably means that at his death, His share passed through his estate to you. And so now you're the 100% owner of the coins. And then, if your intention is to ultimately gift them to the children at your death, they wouldn't own them today, you would.
And so you would just have to determine, you know, what whether 100% of these, I mean, it could be that his portion was stepped up and your portion isn't. That's where you'd need to get some tax advice. But your plan, I assume, is because everything that was in, you know, that belonged to your husband is now yours.
So therefore, they don't belong to the kids until you pass away. And I'm assuming your will or trust says that they would go to the kids at that point. Is that right?
But seeing my husband in his will, He had everything go to the kids. And so everything went to my sons, our sons, but There was an issue with my husband and myself. We didn't get along. He really just had everything going to the boys. But the boys share it with me, so they didn't feel like that.
So when we did all the assets, my sons got everything. but they divided it with me on their own.
So Um I would assume then the coins would go to them, they would cash them in, and then they would give me Like they would divide that up and give me a portion of that as part of being in the family. We kind of kept everything just that way.
Okay.
Well, so yeah, again, this is where you're going to need some guidance here. And I'm just talking through this with you. But given what you're describing here, you know, in a marriage, many of the assets are marital, but that doesn't mean the deceased owned 100%.
So even if his will said everything goes to the kids, He could only give his half of the marital assets. Your half was already yours. And you know, didn't pass through the will, potentially. And if that's the case, if it was a marital asset, then his 50% would have passed to the children, your 50% would have remained yours. That's likely the way it is, because it's a common law state.
And then the portion that went to the kids, they would have received the stepped-up basis. But again, that's where you're going to need to sort it out. In terms of where you go from here on, you know, how you liquidate it, regardless of how the tax portion gets sorted out based on the estate and how that was handled through probate, you really want to think about these. These are going to be in terms of best practices, you're going to want to have a good inventory of everything you've got.
So you'd list each coin, the type, the quantity. You're going to want to get multiple valuations.
So you never want to sell to the first buyer. You're going to want to probably get two to three quotes from reputable local coin dealers or well-known national dealers. You want to avoid shops that say we buy gold or something like that and read a lot of reviews. And then you wanna kinda match the selling method to the coin type.
So, you know, if it's uh a rare or collectible coin, an auction house may get more than another, like a just a dealer. And you may want to sell gradually if needed. You don't have to sell it all at once, especially given what you uncover about the tax implications.
So, I think you want to talk to your CPA and try to sort out kind of the ownership structure and then the potential taxes so that doesn't catch you by surprise. And then start doing some research on local coin dealers or auction houses that get good reviews that could potentially help you liquidate these. I think those are the next steps from here. Mary, I hope that helps. Thanks for calling.
Well, folks, that's going to do it for us.
So thankful that you were along with us today. It was fun to be able to tackle your questions and hopefully just bring you some encouragement from God's word around our role, our high calling of managing God's money as stewards, seeking to be found faithful. That's our goal. Let me say a big thanks to my team today. I certainly couldn't do this without my producer, Devin Patrick, handling our call screening today, Sandy Dickinson, and providing me great support and reaching.
Research Mr. Taylor Stenrich today. Also, thankful for everybody here at Faith Vi. Listen, if you want to check out more on Faith Five or consider becoming a partner, we're listener-supported. That'd be huge.
Just go to faith5.com/slash partner, and we'll come back and see you tomorrow. God bless you. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith By and listeners like you. Yeah.
