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dot com slash give. That's faithfi. dot com slash give. Now let's dive into the podcast. Money can tell you how much you have, but it makes a terrible answer to the question, "Who am I?" Hi, I'm Rob West.
Wealth is a gift to steward, but it was never meant to become our identity. Today, we'll see why Scripture points us towards something far more lasting, and then we'll take your phone calls at eight hundred five two five seven thousand. That's eight hundred five two five seven thousand. This is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.
Well, have you ever noticed what happens in Scripture when wealth becomes someone's identity? There's the rich fool, the rich young ruler, and the rich man who lived while a poor man named Lazarus suffered outside his gate. We know what these men possessed. We know how they related to their possessions, but we don't know their names. And perhaps that's the point the authors are making.
They looked to wealth for something it could never truly give. Them security significance even identity and in the stories themselves that's ultimately what they became known by. Consider Luke sixteen. Jesus introduces two men. One is extraordinarily wealthy, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasting lavishly every day.
Outside his gate lies a poor man covered with sores, longing for scraps from the rich man's table. And then comes a striking contrast. The poor man has a name. Lazarus, the rich man, doesn't. The world might have known the rich man's name and overlooked Lazarus entirely, but in Jesus' telling, it's reversed.
Lazarus is known by name; the other man is simply a rich man. There's something sobering about that. This man had built a life surrounded by the markers of earthly significance, but when Jesus tells his story, his wealth is practically all that identifies him. Then consider another story in Luke 12: a wealthy landowner has such an abundant harvest that he runs out of room to store it.
So he decides to tear down his barns, build larger ones, and tell himself, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years." Eat, drink, be merry. Again, we never learn his name. We know him simply as the rich fool. His problem wasn't that his farm succeeded or that he possessed in abundance. His problem was that his possessions had become the basis of his security.
Listen to his language. My crops, my barns, my grain, my goods. His entire world had collapsed inward around what he possessed. He had accumulated enough to believe that he had secured his own future. But God says in Luke 12:20, "Fool!
This night your soul is required of you." He had plenty of possessions, but they couldn't tell him who he was before God. Then there's the man we commonly call the. Rich young ruler in Mark ten, he comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. We learn that he has great possessions, and when Jesus exposes the hold those possessions have on his heart, the man walks away sorrowful. Again, we remember him largely by what he possessed.
You see the pattern: when wealth becomes your identity, it eventually reduces you rather than enlarges you, and our culture constantly. Instantly invites us to make the same mistake. We're wealthy, middle class, homeowners, investors, retirees, high earners, or perhaps we define ourselves from the opposite direction: struggling, broke, behind, unsuccessful. But none of those descriptions can bear the weight of telling you who you are. Money is something God entrusts to you.
It's a terrible place to seek your identity, because Scripture offers something infinitely better. Paul writes. In Colossians three, three and four, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Think about those words.
Christ is your life. Christians don't have to construct an identity from possessions, accomplishments, income, or status. Our identity is received. We belong to Christ, and that means the deepest truth about you cannot rise and fall with your net worth. Markets can fall, and businesses can fail, careers can end, retirement accounts can shrink, and even if your wealth continues growing for the rest of your life, events.
Eventually, you'll leave every dollar behind. But if you belong to Christ, the truest thing about you can never appear on a balance sheet.
So manage money wisely, save, invest, provide for your family, enjoy God's provision with gratitude, and be generous with what He has entrusted to you. Just don't ask wealth to tell you who you are. As John D. Rockefeller Jr. once put it, "The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money." Wealth makes a poor identity, but to be known by God, to belong to Christ, to have your life hidden with Him—that's a treasure no financial loss can touch, and no amount of money could ever buy.
I hope that's encouraging to you today. We'll be right back. We are grateful for support from Guidestone, whose diversified suite of investment solutions align with Christian values to create positive change in the world. More information is available at faithfy.com/guidestone. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal.
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Don't let debt hold you back from the life God has planned for you. Take the first step toward peace and financial freedom today. Visit faithfi dot com slash ccc or call eight hundred five five seven one nine eight five. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. Hey, if you want to find an advisor who shares your values, consider checking out a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area.
There's likely one in your town. There's two thousand of them around the country, and even if you don't have one in your area, many of them will work remotely. Maybe you visit together in person once a year, and the rest of the meetings are virtual. But you can take a look when you had to find a CK. a dot com.
That's find a c k a dot com. We've got three lines open, taking your calls and questions today. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand. You can call right now. Let's head to North Carolina, Denny.
How can I help you? Thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir. I just have a question. My wife and I received a small inheritance.
To us, it's huge, but to most people, it's probably small. We are both retired. We don't have a lot of retirement, just because of circumstances in our life. We have under hundred thousand between the two of us as far as retirement. We are not using it.
It's just sitting there growing at the time. My question is: our inheritance. Was roughly sixty thousand dollars, which is what we owe on our mortgage. Should we pay off our mortgage? Yeah.
So the balance is roughly sixty thousand, which is equal to the inheritance. What is that interest rate? Four and a quarter.
Okay, four point two five percent, and yeah.
So as you look at this, so you have your just under two hundred thousand, but you said that's not in a retirement plan; that's just like in a savings account or something. Under a hundred thousand, and and they are in retirement accounts.
Okay, what is that invested in? Um, it was just for both of us, just a plan that was through our jobs.
Okay, and is that in stocks and bonds, mutual funds, or is it sitting in money market? How do you have it invested? Do you know? Oh, stocks and bonds.
Okay, yeah, got it.
So you know, I think I wouldn't necessarily. I mean, listen, let me back up. If you have a conviction to be debt free. I would pay off the house and not look back. I mean, I think the starting point is for you and your wife to come together and say, based on our values as Christ followers and and the convictions we have, and as we prayed about it, if you feel you know clear that the Lord is directing you to pay off that house, and you know that would give you some more peace of mind to own it free and clear.
Obviously, the fact that you can pay it in full is a big deal because then you could recoup the monthly payment every month. If you you know. Just pay toward the principal, but you don't pay it off. It doesn't affect your monthly expenses. But if you can pay it off, obviously that mortgage goes away, and now you free up that payment to redirect to additional savings or something like that.
But if any of those are true, I would say go for it, and I would never say that's a bad decision. But if we just look at this purely from a financial standpoint, you know, and and you're able to cover the mortgage with your cash flow, you know. Perhaps a bigger concern isn't the mortgage, but the lack of retirement assets.
So, if you pay off the mortgage with the inheritance, yes, you eliminate that four and a quarter percent debt, but you have very little in the way of liquid assets outside of that retirement account, and you lose flexibility if an unexpected, you know, expense or let's say healthcare need arises in retirement.
So, you know, perhaps another. Approach would be to say, okay, we're going to use this to shore up our emergency fund of six, maybe even up to twelve months worth of expenses as you head into retirement, or if you're already in retirement, and then consider investing some or you know all of that inheritance if you already have the emergency fund to strengthen your retirement reserves, and you know you could do that through an IRA or or something else. You know, we could look at what those options are. If either of you have, you know, any work that you're still doing, and you have a retirement plan available, and if not, you know, the IRA is really going to be your best option. But you know, again, the non-financial side says, if really either there's a conviction there to be debt-free, or if you have peace of mind by paying it off, you know, you could go that route as well.
I think that four and a quarter percent fixed-rate mortgage. Is relatively manageable, and you know you could. Fairly easily with a properly diversified portfolio, do better than that. Even after you pay some taxes, if you can't get it all into a retirement account, just with a you know a really well diversified, high quality portfolio of investments, and you'd keep the money, so it would no longer be illiquid, which is what would happen when you drop it into the house. But let me stop there and get your thoughts on that.
Those are all things that I I have considered. I I even spoke with my wife and said, you know, what if we tried to pay off, you know, seven thousand dollars a year for you know how however long until we pay it off, or maybe ten thousand dollars, something like that, and kind of like what you said. Having cash on hand in case of an emergency. Yeah.
Um.
So so it all it all sounds good to me. I'm quite honestly I'm ignorant when it comes to investing. I, um, I'm I'm not good at that. I yeah. And I suppose I need to speak with a financial planner.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that would be a great move.
Somebody who could help you do some planning, just to forecast out, you know, what the future is going to look like. I mean, nobody knows the future except the Lord. But you know, this idea that you're perhaps your greatest risk in this season of life is what we call longevity risk. You know, as we are living longer on average, you know, the question is, will we run out of money? And you know, what are you all living on right now?
Just so.
Social Security alone. Yeah, my my wife she she works one one day a week.
So so in addition to her retirement, for her is about a thousand bucks. I'm a private contractor, so I I can still do side jobs and you know make a certain amount of money. Yeah, and do you have any Social Security? Great, and do you have any what I would call emergency reserves apart from this, roughly sixty thousand worth of inheritance? No.
Okay, yeah.
So I think that's the biggest concern right now because you know if something came out of left field, you know you could maybe work a few more hours or do something to try to cover it. But the the lack of reserves outside of a retirement account is, I think, a bigger deal than you getting rid of this four and a quarter percent mortgage.
So I would probably hang on to, you know, this money, get it and you know put it into at least a high yield savings. For instance, our friends that. You know, Delphi Christian Banking, the largest Christian banking credit union in the country, is offering four percent right now on their money market. You could go to faithfi dot com slash banking. I mean, that's an example of something you could do where you are essentially not taking any risk; it's insured.
You are getting a nice rate of return, almost equal to what you are paying on the the mortgage, but you also have now liquidity. You have access to funds if you need it, and then I think. The key would be going back to your point. You know, could you all take some of your surplus through your work, and maybe even if you have the ability to do a little bit extra, and all that goes to prepaying the mortgage, so that as you guys transition into you know full retirement without pay, if that comes down the road by necessity, now the mortgage is gone. We've got a plan to get there, but in the meantime, we're hanging on to the liquidity.
We're still funding retirement plans. Either at her work or in IRAs, and I think we're positioned you well for the future.
So, hope that helps, Denny. We appreciate your call. We'll be right back with much more. Stay with us. Managing money isn't just a financial decision; it's a discipleship journey.
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Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance. Here in our final segment today, we're going to get to as many calls as we can. We have some great questions lined up here, Pennsylvania Charles. Go right ahead. Yes, my mother is taking her name off the family farm, and it will be passed to my two my brothers and myself.
And so, how should we structure it? Right now, it's just privately owned. Should we go with an LLC or a corporation? Basically, to make it easier on ourselves in the future, because we're all in our fifties now. And we'll be passing it on again in a decade or two.
Yeah, yeah, great question. Yeah, I would encourage you to get the ownership and management structure settled before your mom transfers the farm, if that's possible.
So, an LLC may be a good option for three brothers who will jointly own an income-producing property. But it's not automatically the best choice.
So, the bigger issue is really making sure you all agree. On how it will be managed, how the income will be divided, and then what happens when a brother wants out if that happens.
Now you may say, "Well, no, we're all kind of in this for life, maybe." But things change, and circumstances change, and needs change, and you want to define that exit ramp in advance. How will you value it? How will you create the liquidity?
So now, for a farm that's already leased and producing income, you'd probably want a farm. A state attorney and a CPA to review the transfer before changing the deed. And again, you may benefit from an LLC, but the transfer itself could have significant tax consequences. Most notably, this idea of a gift versus an inheritance. Because if your mom gives you the farm now, you are going to receive her existing tax basis.
If you inherited at death, the basis is going to be adjusted to the date of death value. And that difference could be substantial, so I'd probably get with an attorney and a CPA. You probably want to consider a family LLC with a written operating agreement that's going to cover who manages the lease, how the rent and expenses are divided, how much cash stays in reserve. Again, when a brother decides to sell, what happens at death or disagreement? An attorney is going to want to review that existing lease and insurance and any debt that you have before.
The transfer of the ownership. Does that make sense, though? Yes, our names are already on it.
So right now, it's just going to be changing from being a four-way split to a three-way split. Is that going to impact anything that you've already said? Yeah, that I mean that's that's significant.
So that removes this decision around inheritance versus gifting because you guys are already on it. You already own interest in the farm.
So the immediate issue now is your mom's fourth interest and how will that be transferred? And then how you're going to manage the property afterward? Maybe some of that's already settled. Again, you don't necessarily need an LLC just because ownership is changing from. Four to three, but I would again have an attorney review the current deed before your mom signs anything, because the deed determines whether the owners hold separate interests or have survivorship rights, and that affects what happens when your mom starts the transfer of her share.
And then you are going to want a CPA to review the tax consequences of transferring her interest now rather than at death. For the ongoing rental income, I. Think you know you can continue owning the farm individually and just use a written co ownership agreement, or this may be the time to go ahead and put the LLC in place, which would make management and succession easier. But it does involve legal, tax, and lending considerations when you do that transfer.
So you know you you really need to get all these things ironed out. If any of them are unclear regarding who manages the lease, how the profits and expenses are divided, reserves for repairs, and then again this big one of what if one of you want to sell.
Okay, thank you very much.
Okay, Charles. Hey, I appreciate your call today. Lord bless you, my friend. All right, let's head along here today to Daniel. Hi there, first time caller, long time listener.
Excellent question about endowments versus just a cash contribution. Kind of looked at this, and you know, if you put, let's say, you have five thousand dollars, you want to contribute to. Organization, you can give them five thousand dollars cash or put in an endowment, and they'll get a few hundred dollars a year. What are your thoughts on endowments versus go ahead and just give them the cash money to use right now? Yeah, it's a great question, Daniel.
I appreciate you asking it. You know, here here's what I would say. First of all, Scripture doesn't explicitly condemn the concept of an endowment fund. The term endowment is not found in the Bible, but I think there are principles and examples that we can pull from that might provide some insight into a biblical view on the topic. I think, first of all, maybe the first principle is that God provides resources to meet future needs.
And we see that clearly in Scripture. I mean, in the Old Testament, in Genesis, God gave plants and trees yielding seed as a renewable provision for humanity's needs. Joseph was inspired to store grain during the years of abundance to provide for the future years of famine.
So, I think these examples and others will illustrate the principle of setting aside resources from times of abundance to meet future needs, which is the essence of an endowment. But There are potential concerns, and I think that would be another principle we see in Scripture, which is this idea of hoarding wealth instead of meeting current needs. I mean, we see plenty of examples of that. We've talked a lot about the story of the rich fool in Luke twelve, which warns against hoarding wealth selfishly instead of being rich toward God. James five one through six condemns the hoarding of wealth while neglecting the needs of others.
So I think these past. Messages and others certainly cause caution, or should cause caution against stockpiling resources excessively while ignoring present needs. And so, I think you've got to be careful, you know, in that regard. And you've got to then manage an endowment with wisdom and generosity at the forefront.
So, I think you know, there's also this case to be made that large endowments can lead organizations to stray from their original. Gospel-centered purpose over time, we certainly see that with some organizations. I could point to a number of examples there, and so I think at the bottom line, we've got to use discernment. We've got to you know pray and ask the Lord to give us wisdom there. And I think in summary, I would say while Scripture doesn't directly address endowments, it provides these principles that can guide the establishment and the management in a way that honors God through wise stewardship and generosity.
But there are Risks, notably, mission drift of an organization. One and number two, neglecting current needs and taking God's resources and getting into circulation in God's economy now versus later. Which, for such a time as this, the fields are ripe under harvest.
So, wouldn't we want to get God's money into the kingdom as soon as possible? But does that help at all, Daniel? That's great insight. I appreciate those examples, and I think that's very good wisdom. You know, some of these companies—they like to say—they get the endowments, and they—they're not depending on God.
That's right. You're exactly right. God bless you, Daniel, folks. That's going to do it for us today. We covered a lot of ground.
Thank you for calling and for inviting us into your stories. And we always love for the opportunity to be alongside you. Thanks to my team today, Taylor, Devin, and Robert. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.
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