What happens when we never define enough? For many of us, it becomes pressure, always pushing us toward more, yet never delivering on the peace that it promises. Here at Faith Phi, we want to help believers discover true contentment. That's why for a limited time, when you become a FaithPhi partner, you'll receive our first ever Faith Phi field guide, How Much Money is Enough, an interactive resource designed to help you define enough through biblical wisdom. Your gift of $35 a month or $400 a year helps sustain a ministry that's equipping believers every single day through radio, digital tools, and trusted biblical resources.
Give by May 31st to become a FaithPhi partner and help point hearts toward what truly lasts. To become a partner, visit faith5.com slash give. That's faithfi.com slash give. Is it possible to help your adult children in a way that actually keeps them from growing? I am Rob West.
It's not an easy question, but it's an important one because the way we offer support can shape not just their circumstances, but their character. Today we'll explore how to help your adult children in a way that strengthens them rather than sidelining them. And then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Well, for many parents, this is a tender place to stand. You love your children deeply, you want to see them flourish, and when they face a setback, every instinct says, step in and make it easier. But there's a powerful picture of why that instinct, while good, needs wisdom. If you've ever watched a baby bird hatch, you might think the loving thing to do is to help it out of the shell. But if you intervene too soon, that bird may not survive.
The process of breaking out, known as pipping, is essential. It builds the strength and coordination the bird needs to live outside the egg. The struggle isn't the problem, it's part of the preparation. And when we remove every difficulty from our children's lives, we may be stepping in at the very moment when growth is supposed to happen. Often, our help begins with small acts of care, covering a bill, letting them move back home, helping with a car repair.
None of that feels inappropriate. It feels like love doing what love does. But over time, those moments can accumulate. And almost without noticing, the question begins to shift. Not just, how can I help, but is this actually helping?
Are you helping them move forward or delaying lessons they need to learn? Are you offering support or carrying responsibilities that now belong to them? That tension is real, and often the hardest part is knowing when to step back. But there is a way forward, one marked by both wisdom and grace, where you can love your children well without losing sight of what they truly need. First, support your child in a way that moves them forward, not backward.
This is an act of stewardship, not just of your resources, but of their formation. The goal isn't to remove every hardship. Allowing them to struggle is often where maturity takes root and wisdom begins to grow. Consider tying your support to clear next steps, progress toward employment, education, and increased responsibility for their own expenses. Support like this doesn't replace responsibility, it reinforces it.
If your adult child is living at home, that isn't inherently a sign of failure. Multi generational living was common throughout history, including Biblical times, and remains prevalent in many cultures today. The key isn't whether they live at home, but whether they are growing in responsibility. Second, make room for maturity by encouraging responsibility. Real Help equips your children to stand on their own.
That might mean building a budget together, setting clear goals, or asking them to carry an appropriate share of their expenses. It also means, at times, allowing them to feel the weight of their decisions, not as punishment, but as preparation. Scripture gives us an important distinction here. Galatians 6:2 calls us to bear one another's burdens, to step in when something is too heavy to carry alone. But Galatians 6:5 says each one should carry their own load.
So, which is it? Do we carry one another's burdens, or do we carry our own? The answer is both. And wisdom is knowing the difference. In their book Boundaries, Henry Cloud and John Townsend explained it well: a burden is something too heavy to carry alone.
A crisis or a season of deep hardship. A load is something each person is meant to carry, their responsibilities, choices, and daily obligations. As parents, when we consistently carry what isn't ours, we may relieve pressure in the moment, but we prevent the very growth that struggle is meant to produce. Finally, protect your relationship, especially within your marriage, by staying unified. Before offering financial help, talk and pray together with your spouse.
Decide what you can give, what you can't sustain, and what patterns you want to avoid. Just like on an airplane, you need to secure your own oxygen mask first, because if your financial foundation isn't stable, it becomes much harder to help anyone else. Remember, supporting your adult children isn't about getting every decision right. It's about faithfully stewarding your role in this season, trusting that God is at work in their lives even more than you are. If you'd like to go deeper, check out the latest issue of our Faithful Steward magazine, which includes an article that explores this topic with practical biblical insight.
You can receive it each quarter by becoming a Faith Five partner by giving $35 a month or $400 a year. Learn more at faith5.com slash partner. We'll be right back. 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. 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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Well, each day we gather together on this program to make much of God and to talk about our role in managing his resources. We're stewards, you and I. We don't own anything. God owns everything, and that's a game changer in terms of our money management. Our goal: well done, good and faithful servant.
Faithful management of God's resources over a lifetime.
Now, we're all going to make mistakes along the way, and we put that at the foot of the cross. God is in the business of restoration, but we surrender, we hold it loosely. And yes, we choose contentment. We find contentment in Christ, not money. And when we do, when He is our ultimate treasure, well, we live within His provision.
It doesn't mean we don't try to get a raise and improve our situation and earn a little bit more. Because remember, part of God's design for the money He's entrusted to us is our enjoyment. That's not a bad thing. This is not about necessarily choosing to go without, it's really understanding that it's the Glorification of God, bringing God glory through our money management is our ultimate goal. And wow, what a powerful opportunity we have when we give to the causes on the heart of God, when we invest strategically to promote human flourishing and to create a virtuous cycle of economic expansion and flourishing and giving back to the Lord that created all of us.
That's the big picture we want to paint each day and encourage you in as you join us on this broadcast. And so let's do that together. And we'd love to hear from you with your questions today. Anything going on in your financial life, whether it's you want to talk about paying off debt, giving wisely, investing for the future. What about gold?
Should you have an allocation of gold in your portfolio? Any of those questions and more. 800-525-7,000. That's 800-525-7,000. Let's begin in Illinois today.
John, go ahead, sir. I got a question about um when should I back off on my four hundred one K far as aggressive versus conservative. A little background, I am debt free. We own our house outright. I make roughly one hundred ten, one hundred twenty thousand depending on the year.
for the last four years I've maxed out my four hundred one K Every year.
So I'm just trying to Figure out when should I back off on the and go more conservative? Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. What is your age right now? I'm fifty five going on thirty six.
Okay, great. And just as you think about your roadmap here, John, you know, do you have a date or a time horizon around which you might transition to what God has next for you that might involve you taking either a reduction or in pay or your pay going away altogether? No, I I know that um a year from now I know that I'll be I drive truck.
So a year from now, my plan is to be home a lot more. Um, so that might take me down to 75,000 a year.
Okay. Uh that's my guess. Um But still, you know, I mean, it's still a very, very good wage. Yeah. And so I would imagine just because you're debt free, which by the way, congratulations, that's amazing, you would still be able to cover all of your expenses without dipping into any of your savings or investments.
Yeah. Correct. Yeah, 'cause we've we got our uh We have our expenses down. I should say my wife. I mean, she does such a great job.
Um She's got it just right under $500 uh a week. That's she pulled that's money for all of our bills, including our Um Uh Health health care. Excellent. Yeah, very good. Anyway, yeah, so yeah, she's got it down very, very, very reasonable.
I love that.
Well, it sounds like she's doing a fabulous job, and you are as well. You guys have a good rhythm going here. In terms of what you're going to need in retirement, it sounds like you probably could just continue to roll on like that, you know, living very modestly. And so, you know, that will make it a lot easier to balance the budget even once you decide to maybe stop driving altogether and focus your time and energy elsewhere. How much have you been able to accumulate in your 401k?
Well we have uh right at two hundred fifty thousand.
Okay. And do you have any other investable assets? Yes, we do. Altogether, we're right at three. 360, I think it is.
365, somewhere. Excellent. Yeah, and that includes, of course, the 401k, right? Correct. Correct.
And what percent does your company match? twenty five percent Which is absolutely Absolutely crazy. It's incredible. Let me make sure I understand what you're saying, though.
So they'll give you a dollar for dollar up to 25% of your pay, or they give you a quarter for every dollar you put in. Quarter for every dollar I put in.
Okay, got it. And that's unlimited or up to a certain amount? Up to the max, the 31,000 I put in there.
Okay, great. I put in 31,000. They put in 7,750 last year. Yeah, that's incredible. Yeah, so take full advantage of that, obviously.
Did you say you are currently maxing that out? Yes.
Okay, great. Yes.
As well as a 2% profit sharing every year, which comes out to about 3,000.
Okay, got it. Yeah, so obviously if you were to put, you know, just continue on that track for the next 10 years, plus the growth in the market, I mean, you guys are going to be pushing a million dollars, I would imagine, somewhere between, you know, at least $800,000 and $900,000, if not more, just because the contributions alone over a decade would be about another $350,000. Um, you know, on top of what you've already got, so that's 700,000. If we were to have 10 years of market appreciation, you know, you could have 900,000 plus.
So, I think the key for you is to define enough because you know, you've already decided what your lifestyle enough is.
Now, you may want to spend a little bit more in this next season of life. I don't know whether you have kids and/or grandkids, but you know, there's obviously some spending that can go up there. You guys may want to travel a bit, or you know, you may have increasing medical expenses. But the reality is, most people live on 70 to 80 percent of their pre-retirement income, and so you know, you guys may be just fine on Social Security alone, but you're obviously going to have a sizable nest egg if you continue to move in this direction. You know, I would say at this point, typically, I would say you'd want more like a 60-40 portfolio at 55, 60% in a good diversified stock investment, and then.
40% in fixed income because you're on track to, I think, over-accumulate just based on how modestly you're living. And the fact that when Social Security, you know, plus, you know, if you were to take a 4% withdrawal rate on $900,000, and I'm assuming you're planning to work and be able to contribute, you know, $35,000 a year for the next 10 years. And you may say, no, I'm not planning on that. But let's say you did get to 900,000. I mean, 4% a year is $36,000 before you even touch your Social Security, and you're not going to need that much.
So I think you may even want to go to a 50-50 mix right now, 50% in stocks and 50% in more fixed-income type mutual funds inside that 401k. But give me your thoughts on that. No no, that sounds right up what what I was thinking. You know, the and truly the the whole investing is somewhat new. I've only been doing it about seven or eight years.
Okay. Um so Let's do this. Let's you and I finish off the air because I'm headed up to a break here that I've got to take. But I want to chat just a bit more about that piece of it.
So stay right there, John. More of your questions after this. Stay with us. Managing money isn't just a financial decision, it's a discipleship journey. And the FaithFi 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. 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 goodinvestor.com. That's goodinvestor.com. We want God to be our ultimate treasure and then put money in its proper place.
It's a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Helping you do that on this broadcast each day is what drives us here at Faith and Finance. All the lines are full, so let's head right back to the phones. Joy has been waiting patiently in Mississippi. Go ahead.
This is Joy. I'm 74 years old. I'm single. I retired in January of 2022. And I have a question about Annuities.
Okay. currently am well diversified in my investments. I receive my Social Security monthly checks. And I also receive a IRA Lifetime Guarantee Check. monthly.
I have invested in two nonqualified fixed annuities, five year fixed annuities. One will mature in 2028, another will mature in 2030. I was thinking about taking Some out of the first annuity. Uh Early withdrawal without penalty. to avoid having to pay for the entire amount of the gains at the end of five years.
However, My adjusted gross income has increased to $27,400. I will be put into a higher bracket. But I'm still not. Technically, I'm in the twenty two percent tax bracket. Yeah.
My accountant is saying that he's not so sure I need to do this because it could put me into Irma. Mm-hmm. Help me with. Yeah. Well, thank you for that really helpful and thorough description of your situation here.
It sounds like you've got a lot of moving pieces, but you're on top of it. Yeah, so you're dealing with three moving parts here: any required minimum distributions, although with the non-qualified annuity, there's no RMDs there. The Medicare IRMA brackets, and then the Social Security taxation thresholds, which has to do with how much of your Social Security is taxable based on your modified adjusted gross income.
So let's think about each of these in terms of how you access that annuity money without triggering anything here.
So, given that this is a non-qualified annuity, only the gain portion is taxable when withdrawn. The return of principal is tax-free. And again, it doesn't have any required minimums.
So the IRMA happens when your modified adjusted gross income crosses certain thresholds. You know, and then it's a cliff system.
So even $1 over increases the premiums. And then Social Security is taxed based on the amount of income you're receiving.
So if you are in the accumulation phase, Are you within the surrender period where you're going to have surrender charges? No, no, not the not to my knowledge, no. Once it matures then then I paid cash to open the annuities up. Yes.
Okay, but yeah, you're saying it's going to mature, so you wouldn't take it out until it reaches the end of that period. But I was thinking about. Withdrawing. A portion of it without penalty.
So I can do that at this point. Yeah, great. The first one doesn't mature until 2028. Got it.
Okay. But I just wanted to make sure, but it sounds like you're on top of this. I wanted to make sure you had thought through any potential charges by taking it out early, but you're saying you're going to stay under what the allowable amount is to ensure that you do not have that. Correct. So then we have to look at taking potentially only the gain needed to stay under IRMA.
So, since this is non-qualified, the withdrawals come out gains first. And only the gains are taxable. And so you can calculate how much room you have before hitting the next IRMA tier based on your modified adjusted gross income and your current IRMA bracket, which basically says, you know, I believe the number is, you know, like $109,000 to $137,000. You add $14. And then when you get over $137 to $170, you're going to add $37 a month.
And it kind of goes up from there.
So you could work with your advisor or your CPA to say, how much gain can I take out to stay under the next threshold? And then you could kind of push it right up to that edge but stay below it, if that makes sense. Correct. But as we all know, none of us have a crystal ball, and he's saying that we won't know what. the government is going to do next year.
Yeah. Yeah. Because of the standard deduction that is allowed for me and being retired and my age in my age group. Yes.
But if you take it this year, you're going to be subject to the rules for this year because the year in which you take it is the year in which they're going to apply it to, you know, the IRMA thresholds.
Now, it won't trigger it until down the road based on your income this year, but we know what those income brackets are for a single filer in 2026. And so, you know, I think the key would just be as long as you stay under that right now, then you should be in pretty good shape. And the thresholds continue to be adjusted for inflation.
So they're indexed to CPI each year. That's been the case since 2020, meaning that the thresholds tend to increase annually to keep up with rising prices and incomes.
So would it benefit me to take out the amount that my financial advisor Would say this year, a portion of it this year, to avoid having to pay. For all the capital gains at maturity, the total amount. Yeah, I think that does make sense. If you can stagger that and then, you know, not pay a higher tax rate, but stay under the IRMA, there's probably a sweet spot there where you can kind of minimize your ultimate income tax burden, not trigger a situation where more of your Social Security becomes taxable, and stay under the IRMA threshold to avoid an increase in your Medicare premiums.
Okay. And what was the question I need to ask my financial advisor?
So I think it's just that. It's can you work with me based on this year's tax laws to maximize the amount I should take out this year? Avoiding any uh surrender charges. Staying in the current tax bracket so I don't pay any more taxes or cause more of my Social Security to be taxable, but stay under the IRMA threshold so I don't add to my Medicare premium. And they're going to be able to help you determine how much should come out to kind of stay in the sweet spot between all three of those things.
Okay. to stay under the IRMA threshold, to avoid Social Security being taxed more, And to make sure you don't take a portion of this up into a higher tax bracket.
Okay. And I have $109,000 to $137,000 in that tax bracket. Is that correct? I don't have that right in front of me, but I think you're talking about the Irma threshold. But he or she should be able to give you both the tax bracket thresholds and the IRMA thresholds and then calculate the amount of gain to take out of that annuity.
Joey, I appreciate your call. I hope that helps. Call anytime.
Well, that's gonna do it for us today, folks. I have an amazing team that does an incredible job each day of making sure. We can bring you this broadcast and do it with excellence. Dan, Tahira, our call screeners today, couldn't do it without them. Plus, Taylor and everybody here at FaithFy.
Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you. No.
