This Faith and Finance podcast is underwritten in part by The Good Investor, a book by Robin John. This Faith and Work memoir hopes to inspire readers to view their work and investments as opportunities to honor God and bring blessing to the world. You can learn more now at goodinvestor.com. That's goodinvestor.com.
Some of the costliest financial mistakes are made in isolation. Hi, I'm Rob West. When big decisions come our way, pride and pressure can convince us we need to figure it all out ourselves. But God designed us to walk in community, and His wisdom often comes through trusted voices. Today we'll explore why seeking wise counsel is a key part of faithful stewardship.
And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Have you ever faced a financial decision that felt heavier than your confidence could carry? Maybe it was whether to buy a home. Perhaps it was changing careers, helping aging parents, navigating a difficult season in marriage, or deciding how to prepare for retirement.
In those moments, the questions come quickly: what if I get this wrong? What if I overlook something important? What if I regret this later? And often beneath all of that is the assumption that you should be able to figure it out by yourself. But God never intended for you to walk through life's biggest decisions alone.
One of the clearest themes in Scripture is that wisdom often comes through community. Proverbs 11:14 says, Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. That's not just a proverb about leadership. It's a principle for everyday life, including your finances.
Sometimes we think wisdom is found only in personal research, spreadsheets, calculators, or online content. Those tools can be helpful, but biblical wisdom is more than information. It includes discernment, humility, perspective, and the willingness to receive insight from others. That's why Proverbs 12:15 says, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. Notice the contrast.
Foolishness isn't always recklessness.
Sometimes it's simply refusing to listen. Wisdom begins when we acknowledge that we may not see the whole picture, and that takes humility. Proverbs 9.10 tells us, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To fear the Lord means we recognize that God is God and we are not. We submit our plans, our preferences, and even our financial assumptions to Him.
We stop asking only, what do I want to do? and begin asking, Lord, what would you have me to do? That humility also opens us to receive the people God may use in our lives.
Sometimes that's a mentor who has walked through a season you're now entering.
Sometimes it's a trusted friend who knows you well enough to ask hard questions.
Sometimes it's an older believer whose experience can spare you from avoidable mistakes. And sometimes it's a professional advisor who brings technical expertise shaped by biblical values, like a certified kingdom advisor. But ignoring these voices can have destructive consequences. Scripture gives us a sobering example in Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, in 1 Kings 12. When Rehoboam became king, the people asked him to lighten the heavy burdens placed on them.
At first, he sought counsel from the older men who had advised his father. They told him to lead with humility and serve the people, but he rejected their wisdom and turned instead to younger voices that echoed his pride and ambition. Their advice was simple: Be harsher, be stronger, demand more. He followed it. Then, as a result, the kingdom was split in two.
what began as a leadership decision became a national tragedy. Why? Because Rehoboam preferred affirmation over wisdom. He chose voices that told him what he wanted to hear instead of what he needed to hear. That temptation is still with us today.
When making financial decisions, we can look for voices that justify our desires, reinforce our fears, or even confirm what we've already decided. But wise counsel doesn't merely validate us, it helps us see what we cannot see on our own.
Sometimes those voices feel like guardrails.
However, it's crucial to remind ourselves that these voices keep us from drifting into the ditches of greed, fear, impulsiveness, or self-reliance. They help us slow down, think clearly, and align our choices with God's purposes. Ultimately, wise counsel leads to wise decisions.
So what decision are you carrying right now? Maybe it's time to stop carrying it alone. Ask God to show you who he has already placed around you. Make a list of trusted people you can reach out to. Invite wise voices into your decision-making process.
Don't isolate. Don't assume asking for help is weakness. Often, it's one of the strongest acts of stewardship you can make. And if you'd like to dig deeper into this idea, you can read more in my new devotional, Our Ultimate Treasure, a 21-day journey to faithful stewardship. You can order your copy today at faithfy.com/slash shop.
Back with your questions after this. Stick around. Imagine having biblical financial wisdom delivered to your inbox every week, helping you integrate your faith and financial decisions for the glory of God. At FaithFi.com, you can join a community of over 70,000 people who are already receiving our weekly wisdom email, filled with articles, videos, podcasts, and exclusive offers on resources that will deepen your understanding of biblical stewardship. Start your journey today by creating your FaithFi account at FaithFi.com.
Just click sign up. 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.
Uh Oh. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Taking your calls and questions today, you can call right now to get in on the conversation. 800-525-7000. You can call right now.
Let's hit to the phones. Tennessee is where Wendy is located. Wendy, go right ahead. Thank you, Rob. Your show, you such a blessing.
So thankful for your wisdom. Um about five years ago, my identity was stolen. And so in that five years, I have gotten lots of notices saying, hey, you bought three thousand dollars at T Mobile or hey, you owe us ten thousand dollars. And I have no idea who these people are. And when I try to call them and try to tell them that, they're just like, ma'am, we know it was you and this is how much you owe.
Well, I've worked with Experian and TransUnion and Aquifax. to freeze my credits. I have tried to challenge the fictitious charges to me. But they still keep coming and I still keep getting notifications like from banks and financial uh places that say, Hey, sorry, we can't loan you this money at this time and I don't know what to do. I'm at my wit's end.
Yeah. Boy, I'm so sorry. I know that's exhausting, especially when it keeps happening. You don't want to pay it just to make it go away. You really do want to fight it.
And if you pay fraudulent charges, it can actually make things worse because it signals the debt as valid. It encourages more fraudulent attempts, and you lose some of your legal protections. I'm not an attorney, but at the end of the day, you know, the extent to which this becomes a legal matter, you want to seek legal counsel. But here's the steps that I would take, Wendy. And this is obviously a growing problem.
More and more people are victims of identity theft, and especially as we become more and more of a digital society.
So, number one is if you haven't done this already, and you know, you may have done some of these, but let me just run through them. The first is to lock down your credit immediately.
So, you want to do a credit freeze with each of the bureaus. Have you done that yet? Yeah, I think that so you have the pin number on all three Equifax, Experian and TransUnion? I do.
Okay, great. I read an article actually on FaithFi about it.
Okay. That's honestly. Excellent. Great. I'm glad to hear it.
Well, that's going to stop them from opening new accounts in your name because the lender is not going to be able to access your credit report. Second would be to file an official identity theft report with the FTC. That website is identitytheft.gov. Have you done that? No, sir, I have not done that.
All right, I would do that. That's going to give you a formal affidavit. It's also going to give you a recovery plan and it gives you some legal backing when you're disputing charges. And then you want to dispute every fraudulent charge.
So anytime you get a call or a bill, you're going to want to tell them it's fraud. You're going to want to ask for a written validation of the debt. and then you're going to want to submit your FTC identity theft report. You are not responsible for debts that are not yours, but you need to follow those steps. Tell them it's fraudulent, ask for a written validation, and submit it to identitytheft.gov.
You can also place, in addition to the freeze, a fraud alert. on each of your credit files. It's a one-year fraud alert, and that's just going to tell lenders, or at least put them on notice, that you've been the victim of identity theft, and therefore they need to always verify identity before issuing credit. And then you may want to consider credit monitoring. This is, since it's happened multiple times, use a service.
Sometimes banks offer this free, but that's going to provide that added layer of just evaluation to see what's going on in the background, including out on the dark web. And then going forward, you're going to want to use things like strong, unique passwords. Don't repeat them. Check your credit reports regularly. Enable two-factor authentication.
Don't ever give out any information over the phone. But the bottom line, this isn't something you pay to fix. It's something you document, you dispute, and you shut down at the source. Does that make sense? It does make sense.
I have one question for you.
So if the first time it happened five years ago, would someone be able to use my identity And there'd be accounts out there, even though, like, I locked my account, my number, I'm not sure what the terminology is, but I did have those locked. But, like, I got a text this morning. saying, Hey, you know, we'll negotiate for you, pay this bill and I'm like, I don't even know who you are.
So, like, can it still be happening from five years ago? Like, there was an account set up, there was a debt, and now they're just now coming around to say, hey, Wendy. Yeah. Yeah. Couple of thoughts on that.
Number one, what does a credit freeze do?
Well, that stops new accounts from being opened in your name and it blocks lenders from pulling your credit report. That's powerful and it's your best defense. But here's what it does not stop: it does not stop someone from using a compromised account.
So you may want to look at, you know, changing passwords. You may even want to, you know, to the extent you can identify which accounts have been compromised. If they haven't already been changed with a new account number, you may want to do that. And then, you know, they can commit non-credit identity theft.
So medical identity theft, tax refund fraud, employment fraud. Those don't always require a credit check.
So the credit freeze is not going to be helpful there. I would also say that it's very likely that some of the text messages you're getting are unfounded. These are just people fishing for you to respond and getting you to either pay a bill that is not yours because they're using fear tactics, or just get you to give them your personal information and there's no validity to them. The only things you really need to be concerned about are not things you hear about by text message or email, but things that come to you in the mail from an official source. You need to investigate that.
And things that show up on your credit report. because that's directly tied to your social security number, not somebody just trying to act like they're a debt collector to get your personal information.
So that's why, especially in your case, I'd be pulling credit reports at least four times a year from all three bureaus.
Okay. Do you think it's safe to have a passwords for financial institutions saved in a smartphone? No, I don't. I would have an encrypted password manager.
So you could use LastPass, you could use OnePassword, the number one password. And then now, you know, Apple has their own secure password software, but I wouldn't just put it in like an Apple Note or a Google Note. I would put it in something secure that has encryption like the Apple Password app or one of those other encrypted apps. I wouldn't just keep it in a typical Note file that could be accessed and compromised.
Okay, great. Thank you so much for your wisdom and sharing it with all of us. We are very thankful. I'm especially thankful.
So, God bless you.
Well, and you too, Wendy, hang in there. And if we can help further along the way, don't hesitate to reach out. Lord bless you. to George Adell. Thanks for your patience.
Go ahead. Yes, I receive Social Security and I receive a pension. And my concern is how much. Am I supposed to give to the Lord in tithes and offering. Yes.
Yes. I love that question because it comes from a genuine desire to want to honor the Lord. You know, Social Security and pensions reflect years of contributions, often combined with growth.
So there's really two approaches. One approach is the simple approach, and it's just tithe on it as income as it's received, whether monthly or sporadically, without separating principal from earnings, and just give as unto the Lord. The second is to try to separate the growth from the principal. And a good rule of thumb for Social Security and pensions, because You, what you're receiving often exceeds way, you know, significantly the total payroll taxes paid. Is just to say half of it represents my increase and I tithe on it, and the other half is just being returned to me what I paid in.
50-50. I hope that helps. Thanks for your call. Back with your questions on any financial topic after this. Stay with us.
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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. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance.
Let's get right back to the phones. Let's go to Georgia. David, go ahead. Thanks for having me on the program, Rob. I listen regularly and I'm starting to learn that not only do you address finances, but you address issues of the heart from a business perspective.
I want to state the questions first and then give you the background. The question really is, should I forgive My wife, a little over 400K, excuse me, yeah, 40K, not 400. forty K of indebtedness that she owes, and the term of the loan was zero percent. for two years And uh she's not asked for forgiveness. But I can afford to I can afford to forgive the loan no problem if you just ask and the question will be, should I forgive it anyway, even if she doesn't ask.
The background to the question. Uh my wife and I conduct our finances separately, have always since the start of our marriage. Her mother died, leaving her a house And my wife had limited income. She was not able to make the mortgage payments House went into foreclosure. I worked with the bank to pull the house out of foreclosure and paid off the entire debt using my thrift savings plan.
with a written agreement with her that she would pay it back in two years and using the house. as collateral for the zero percent loan. Two years have Right. Since passed. And I've reminded her of it.
her idea was to wipe out her thrift savings plan, and she just barely has enough to be able to pay me back. That displeases me very much to see her wipe out uh her TST And like I said, I've I'm getting along. I've I'm living on less than 4% pulling out of my retirement savings. And I'm doing fine. I could forgive the loan.
She's not asked for it. I have suggested to her, you know, look, just ask have you thought about asking me And So I've asked her to go back and reconsider all of this. But Rob You know, like I said, it's more about maybe biblical forgiveness than just the money. Darjeels forgiver anybody. Mm.
Yeah. Wow. I really appreciate you giving me all that background. You know, I think the overriding principle that we can anchor all of this to is the starting point from my perspective: marriage is about unity, not two sides. Genesis 2:24, the two shall become one flesh.
And so, even if accounts are separate, biblically, you're not two creditors, you're one household. And, you know, I think the idea here is that, you know, holding formal debt inside a marriage. I just think is really problematic. It introduces imbalance, it creates pressure, it affects trust and openness. I realize it's all been agreed to, and there is a sounds like a written loan agreement here.
And so I get that piece of it, but I think this is much bigger than that. And, you know, I would love for you guys to move in a direction. And I realize you've established a practice of handling your finances separately. And there's a, you know, kind of a long-running tradition of how you've approached that in the past. But I would love to see you all kind of move to a place where you're considering all the resources that don't belong to either of you, they belong to God, that are now entrusted to you.
And in his eyes, as one flesh, I think you, along with the Lord, the two of you, are really managing God's resources. And to do that with togetherness and to do that with unity. As you really pray and ask the Lord to drive you toward what He has for your family, as you all steward the resources He's given you, is really important. And I think that's God honoring. And, you know, does that mean you can never have separate accounts?
I wouldn't go that far, but I would say I think it's very problematic. And I think in this case, especially when there's debt involved, and we know what God's word says about a lender and a borrower, it's a master-slave relationship, which means it changes the relationship. And we just don't want that kind of situation in marriage. I don't think that's part of God's design.
So I would say I would, as a strong act of grace and to remove any potential tension and to drive toward unity, my recommendation would be an absolute forgiveness of debt and let's get out of that change in relationship. But let me give you a chance just to respond to that, David, with any thoughts you have. I'm so happy I called it. They almost got me in tears. Oh.
That's good. That's good biblical. Advice. Thank you for helping.
Well, David, I appreciate your tender heart and your receptivity here. Listen, clearly you want to honor the Lord, and that's the purpose for your call today. And I think this could be a beautiful moment for you in your marriage as you sit down to talk about where God is taking you as a married couple, which is so much bigger than the issue at hand here. But I think a tangible expression of your desire to move forward in the future in unity with togetherness and oneness that includes the resources that, again, let me just be clear, don't belong to you or your wife. They belong to God.
And that's true for all of us. And the act of saying, We're going to tear this up. I'm going to cover it, and we're going to cover it together because what's mine is yours, what's yours is mine, and we're going to move forward toward what God has for us in the future. I think this could be a really critical moment for your marriage and for what God intends to do through both of you now and in the future.
So, listen, Lord bless you, my friend. And I believe God will honor your desire to drive closer to Him and to one another in the marriage relationship by way of the way you manage your finances.
So, thank you for your call today. And if we can serve you further in any way in the future, don't hesitate to reach out. Lord bless you, David. Let's go quickly to Muskegon, Michigan. John, go ahead.
Yes, thanks for all you do, helping us with our finances. My question is. What is the difference between a living trust and a will and which one is better? Yeah, it's not better or worse. They're just different.
So a will is really important for everybody because it's going to make sure that your wishes with regard to your assets and your personal effects and even a guardian if you have minors is named so that, you know, your wishes can be honored at death. The difference with the trust is why some people will use a trust in addition to a will is either A, they want to try to pass their assets outside of probate, which can be expensive and time consuming. Maybe they have several pieces of real estate. They want their estate plans to be anonymous rather than public. You know, those would be the main reasons why you would have a living trust.
So I think at the end of the day, you just need to talk through your specific situation with an estate attorney.
So I would connect with somebody in your area. And if you don't have one, a CKA in Michigan can make that referral. John, I'm sorry we're out of time. I hope that brief information helps you, though. Thanks for calling today.
Folks, thanks for being along with us today. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a great rest of your day. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
