Managing Chronic Financial Anxiety

... ... ..... ... ..... ..... ..... . ..... .... .... ....... ... .... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000. Again, that number is 800-525-7000.

We've got some lines open today. We're ready to dive into your financial questions today. Whatever's on your mind today, financially speaking, we'd love to look at it, help you with it through the lens of biblical wisdom. By the way, it was great to start today with Pastor Steve Cuss as we talk about anxiety. You know, Larry Burkett would say that often we play the what-if game and that it's about the loss of things that will most often leave us anxious. And yet that's a spiritual trap because that what-if leads to fear. Fear leads us to a place where we take our eyes off the goodness of God and place them on our circumstances. And so often that will leave us then anxious and overwhelmed. And we need to know that ultimately God is our ultimate treasure. He's our provider.

He can be trusted. Now if you find yourself in a position where you have severe anxiety or depression, no doubt you need to seek out professional help. And yet some of us, you know, just kind of lose sleep periodically and we just live anxious or concerned. And we want to direct you back to Jesus, to God's Word, so that you can understand God's promises are true. And certainly this area of finance can often trip us up. I hope we're an encouragement to you in that journey each day on this program.

That's certainly our objective. But we also want to tackle your very specific questions, those things that are on your mind today in your financial life. You can call right now with lines open 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. All right, let's dive in today. We're going to begin in Missouri. Hi Virginia, go right ahead. Hi there. Thank you for answering my call.

Sure. A lot of people, and myself especially right now, there are so many needs. And it would be nice to go to websites that would help me to decide on how to spend my money, how to get, you know, how much, how to give. I mean there's a great organization, I think, maybe, Tunnel to Towers. It's a veterans organization. There's Paralyzed Veterans of America. And there's several other paralyzed, not paralyzed, but veteran organizations. But, you know, what are you going to do?

Give $10 to each? Or, you know, it's just decisions, decisions, decisions. And it would be nice to go to websites to see how the various organizations spend their money. And I would like that information.

Yes, very good. Well, Virginia, I think, you know, it is incumbent upon us as stewards of God's resources to use God's money wisely. Clearly generosity is on the heart of God. We see that throughout the Old and the New Testament, that we are to be givers. Remember Jesus celebrated the most famous giver in the New Testament, who gave out of her poverty to the local church treasury, her two copper coins.

We don't know her name, we just know she was a widow. And, you know, we also see areas that are on the heart of God. I had a friend recently, David Wills, who is the president emeritus of the National Christian Foundation, just give a framework for that. He said, you know, I think we need to think about the where of our giving. And we might think of Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth as kind of a model, giving locally, starting with our local church, giving perhaps in our state or domestically, and then thinking beyond that, so geographically. But then in terms of the where of our giving, you know, you might think in terms of the three greats, the Great Commission. So we want to spread the gospel, we want to think of the great commandment, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And so how do we do that? Well, we do that through the ministry of God's Word, and the ministry of God's mercy, you know, widows and orphans, the ministry of God's justice, the oppressed. So I think we need to be strategic about our giving in terms of the where, but we also need to be looking at who are wise stewards of those resources, which organizations are using those funds wisely.

And let me direct you to a couple of places to go to begin that process. Number one is an organization called ECFA, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, because you made mention of something very specific, how they use their money. And really the role of ECFA through the ECFA certification or seal of approval, if you will, is that those organizations that are ECFA certified, ECFA, and you can find more information at ECFA.org, it means that they've simply met high standards with regard to transparency and accountability. They have audited financial statements from an audit, you know, an independent audit from a tax or an audit firm.

You know, they have met certain leadership requirements. You know, here at FaithFi and Kingdom Advisors, we have the ECFA certification. Moody Bible Institute does as well.

And so that would be, I think, a starting point. A second place to go would be a website called Charity Navigator.org. Charity Navigator. I just put in Tunnel to Towers and it popped right up, the foundation, and it gave a four-star rating, which is their highest rating, around their fiscal or financial responsibility.

But you could read through all of the decisions that went into giving them a four-star rating. But I think those two, ECFA, do they have that certification, and then Charity Navigator, which has a very easy to use search tool at Charity Navigator.org, could get you pointed in the right direction. Is that helpful though? Very helpful.

Good. CharityNavigators.org and ECFA.org. So ECFA.org, you can get all kinds of charities, like everything, right? Yeah, so ECFA.org is what you're looking for, is that the ministry or the charity has attained the ECFA stamp of approval, their certification, if you will.

And they have very high standards, and you know, the organization has to adjoin it, and then they have to not only reach those standards, but then they have to comply with them every year, and then every year they're recertified. So you could just ask the charity, are you ECFA certified, ECFA? Charity Navigator puts out a rating up to four stars, and that's available through a search tool on their website. Let me just mention one other thing before we wrap up here, is National Christian Foundation is a wonderful resource with your giving as well, and what you could do there is say, is call NCF or go on their website ncfgiving.com, ncfgiving.com, and you could say, here are the ministries, or here's the category of giving area that is on my heart. Maybe it's, you know, spreading the gospel, maybe it's caring for orphan children in underdeveloped countries. I mean, you give them a category, providing water to those who don't have access to clean water, and then they could give you a list of some charities that they've vetted in those categories, and their website is ncfgiving.com.

That was founded by Ron Blue and Larry Burkett, among others. So hopefully that's given you some things to think about, Virginia. God bless you for your generous heart. We appreciate you calling today. This is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. Before we head back to the phones, let me mention our FaithFi partner program. You know, if you find value in this program, maybe you listen with regularity, you've been encouraged by the broadcast, and you'd like to be a part of what we're doing here. You'd like to be informed on a regular basis about the developments here at FaithFi. You'd like to get a pre-release copy of each of our studies and devotions as they come out throughout the year.

We'll produce four of them this year. We just came out with Rich Toward God, our four-week study. This summer, we'll come out with our 21-day devotion called Look at the Sparrows. It's a 21-day look at God's Word around the topic of fear and anxiety related to finances, which we started with as our opening topic today.

In the fall, we're so excited about our new study on the book of Ecclesiastes related to the money themes. We'll send you a pre-release copy, plus keep you informed on the ministry on a regular basis. If you're a FaithFi partner, you do that by heading to faithfi.com, clicking Give. And for those of you who support the ministry at $35 a month or more, we will make you a part of our FaithFi partners and keep you in the loop and send you all these great resources as they come available. Again, that's faithfi.com.

Just click Give to learn more. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're gonna go to Illinois. Emmanuel, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hey, Rob. Thanks for taking the call. Can you hear me? Yes, sir.

Uh-huh. Yeah, so I have a situation wherein I'm looking for an investment opportunity. I found a property which is on a downtown strip of Decatur, Illinois, and it's occupied currently with the mixed units, which has got a residential plus retail units on a two-level thing. It's a very old building, so I'm getting a loan to get this property. So the question is, like, would it be a right investment because of the interest rates, which are currently, because I've spoke with a couple of banking opportunities where I could get a loan, and the loan rate is around 7.75 to 8.5 between. So is it the right time to do this investment in real estate?

Having the Decatur as a place, which is, like, how would be the future of Decatur, Illinois? As you know, it's a diminishing CTE, kind of. Yes, okay, very good. So you said the purchase price is around $650,000, is that right?

Yes, yeah. The lease price was $695,000, and I've gotten negotiated with offering of $650,000 is what I'm in contract with. And how much of that are you putting down? Yeah, so the ask is, like, 30%. Okay, do you have the ability to do that?

As of now, I have in cash around $100,000 and $50,000 I have to remove from my savings. Okay, and do you know what the what they call the cap rate is, the capitalization rate? 8.85 is what is listed in the offering memorandum.

Okay, yeah, and you'd want to check that. I mean, that's, of course, you know, they just take the net operating income divided by the purchase price, the challenge is the cap rate does not consider the impact of the mortgage financing. And so although that's a pretty attractive, you know, cap rate, you'd, you know, something in that range, you know, you would want to see at the, you know, very minimum 4%, but I think somewhere between 8 and 12 is really what most folks are looking for. But given that you're gonna have such a substantial mortgage on the property, and you've got, you know, higher than average financing financing costs just in terms of the interest rate on it, that could significantly eat into your ability to see this turn a profit. And I think that's what concerns me, you know, I often like to see, whereas we want 20% down on a property that we're buying for our personal residence and the mortgage payment principal interest taxes and insurance, no more than 28% of our take-home pay, I like to see for rental properties would go in with 50% down. So in your case, I mean, that'd be, you know, three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, you're saying you've got only got about a hundred to a hundred and fifty, you know, that just tells me that you're perhaps not quite ready for this, even if it's an attractive property.

And obviously you've got to look at the location, and you've got to look at kind of what is going on in that, you know, area around that area. I'd get a professional involved in that, you know, real estate can be a great investment, and that sounds like at least at face value that cap rate sounds like a pretty good return, at least it's in the range for you to say, okay, this is something worth looking at, but I think just given how much you're looking to finance and the fact that we'd be, you know, pushing eight percent on that loan is, you know, potentially making this something that you're not quite ready to do in my estimation. So I'd probably go slow, I'd love for you to have that thirty to fifty percent down, and then make sure you can cash flow the property. You're gonna want to look at, you know, the rental rates as well, the occupancy rates, just to see, you know, in that part of town how hard has it been to keep it fully rented out, those six units and those six stores. Is this something you have any experience in? No, because I'm not in the area, so I'm thinking to hire a property management company, and that would eat away my expense, it would add to my expense. Yeah, and where did you say if you got an additional $50,000 apart from the hundred you have saved, where would that come from?

In stocks, I have, yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, you know, I would probably, you know, pass on this at this point simply because I'm not saying it's not a great property or not something you should consider. I think the key is just, you know, your financial readiness, and I just want to make sure you don't put yourself in a real bind. I mean, what happens if a year from now we're in a recession that's a little deeper than everybody thought, and you're having trouble, you know, to keep those places rented, and then you've got retail there as well, which is a whole other animal.

We've got higher interest rates, you don't have the 30% at a minimum to put down. I think for those reasons I'd probably pass and maybe start smaller, maybe you start with a duplex or something like that, Emmanuel, but I appreciate you calling today. Certainly worth talking about, but I think based on what I'm hearing, I'd go slow and perhaps pass on this one. God bless you, my friend. Thanks for being on the program. We'll take a quick break, folks, and then back with more of your questions. 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Great to have you with us today on Faith & Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions with several lines open. 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

We'll see if we can help you think through what's going on in your financial life through the lens of biblical wisdom. Let's go right back to the phones to Sunrise Beach, Missouri. Tanis, thank you for calling. Go ahead.

Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I just retired four weeks ago and I wanted to get my investments, my 401ks that I have out of these woke companies. So I inquired with this investment company and they called me yesterday and they have these gold and silver IRAs that are supposedly like right in the coin in the bullion. It's not on paper and I have between 700 and 800 thousand to invest.

Well this guy called me yesterday and he was kind of pressuring me and they're a conservative company. I did some research on them but if I were to invest in these gold and silver IRAs what percentage of my retirement accounts that I currently have should I move over to there? Yeah and so what do you have right now in your total investable assets?

Probably around 700-750 thousand. Okay and did you say you're fully retiring or you've just separated from your company and you're going to continue to work? No I just retired. Yeah I'm fully retired.

I'm doing some quilting that's on the side. But he told me that I could have this 800,000 or 750,000 and I could have 1.2 to 1.4 million in a year. Yeah I hope you misunderstood him because if that's what he said I'd run for the hills.

You know here's what would it take to do that. In order to get 1.2 million out of 800,000 in a year you'd have to have a 50% return. To get 1.4 million you'd have to have a 75% return.

There's just no way and if somebody's promising you that that tells me that they're not acting in good faith. I mean if you look at the historical return of gold you know between let's say 1970 and you know today it's a it's less than 8% around you know a little more than seven and a half percent. And so you know what what that would say is that should we have an allocation of gold in a typical portfolio?

Absolutely I like gold. Gold sitting near all-time highs. It's what's called an uncorrelated asset meaning it typically does better when other asset classes are doing poorly and so it's a way to spread your risk, have a good diversification.

Some people will call it the fear trade because again it tends to perform better when there's a lot of uncertainty or you know economic decline going on. It's less gold in particular is less susceptible to the economy and you know the what's going on in terms of you know business because you know silver for instance is used so much in any manufacturing and other businesses that when the economy is doing poorly it can pull it down whereas gold is not quite that way. So I think there's a place for it but I would say on a you know $800,000 portfolio you know five to maybe 10% at the most so somewhere between 40 and 80 thousand. Now how should you approach physical gold versus let's say the paper gold which is like a tracker stock? I like the idea of you having a 5% allocation and again you've got to look and make sure this makes sense for you.

I'm just talking generally here. I like the idea of a 5% what I call forever allocation where you're buying you know gold coins or even you know small gold bars. You're storing that, you're keeping it forever, maybe you're passing it down and you know it serves that purpose and then if you want to dial that 5% up to 10 but you know you want to be able to take that percentage up or down the best way to do that I think is through the paper gold which is the tracker ETF. So essentially they've got actual physical gold in a vault.

The price movement of that ETF moves in direct correlation with the price of an ounce of gold but it trades like a stock so you could buy and sell it long as the stock markets open in a in a few seconds whereas with the physical gold you've got to find a dealer and you might have a premium in terms of marking it up on the buy or the sell and then you have obviously the the fact that you have to store it and secure it. So I certainly wouldn't put a large sum of money and go overly concentrated in gold because remember gold doesn't pay any income like a Treasury you know note or a bond so take the 10-year Treasury today it's paying 4.6% for the next 10 years backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government so you get income you know while you're holding it you don't get that with gold and it tends to be a little bit more volatile Tanis than than a stock and bond portfolio over a long period of time. So given the the lower performance and the more volatility I just don't think there's a case for over weighting there beyond that 5 to 10 percent and again anybody who's promising you anything that involves a 50 or 75 percent return on your money in 12 months I'd run for the hills but give me your thoughts on that. Yes I agree and that's why because he immediately asked me when he could call me back and I said well Monday afternoon and he seemed kind of a little you know like oh he wanted to call me tomorrow get my application started today you know yeah and I ready and I said no I need to research that I've been investing for 40 years and I'm pretty savvy with my money and I've done very well on my I've done better on my own than having financial advisors so I yes I agree I I don't want to jump headfirst into this. Well remember King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 11 to give a portion to seven or even to eight for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth and the idea there is we don't want to put all of our eggs in one basket we want to spread our risk out we want to take the what the Bible calls the steady plotting approach not the get-rich-quick and so we want to be slow and steady not fast and flashy and anything that involves that kind of return I think is certainly high risk and just unattainable so I think from this point forward whether you manage it yourself or you get an advisor to do that you know I'd be looking you know at the age of 65 at you know maybe a 40% in stocks maybe 50% in bonds and fixed income I mentioned you know what you can get in the 10-year Treasury today and then maybe 10% at the most in gold.

Okay I appreciate your advice. You're welcome thank you for calling today we appreciate you being on the program. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some great questions coming up here we'll be headed to Palm Beach in a moment and talking about the difference between a trust prepared online versus one prepared by an attorney a great question also what to do with a 401k when you leave your employer we'll dive into that and room for perhaps one or two more questions as well at 800-525-7000. By the way if you're looking for advice from a financial professional and you'd like someone who shares your values and who has met high standards and character and competence and ethics well we trust the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation the only financial services industry designation out there that is around biblically wise financial advice pastor and client references annual continuing education experience character and ethics requirements all having been met you can find a CK in your area and I'd interview at least two or three just go to faithfi.com click find a professional that's faithfi.com.

Hey back with more in our final segment right around the corner stick around. Thanks for joining us today on faith and finance live I'm Rob West your host this is where we apply the wisdom from God's Word to your financial decisions and choices helping you manage God's money wisely. Hey coming up on the broadcast tomorrow my good friend John Cortenez stops by. John is over the generosity initiatives at the McClellan Foundation he's the author of the book God and Money How We Found God and Money at Harvard Business School. John is just a wonderful Christ follower and tomorrow he's going to be sharing some work he did to explore the interactions Jesus had with the wealthy. I think you'll find some of his insights on Jesus encounters with the wealthy fascinating and perhaps an encouragement to you that's coming up on tomorrow's broadcast be sure to tune in. All right let's head back to the phones up home beach Florida's where we're going next I was just there a couple of weeks ago.

Hi Trish go ahead. Hi thank you for the opportunity so I used to be a fan of Suzy Orman and I am still one I believe she's also a believer and she proposes a program it's 99 bucks and you have the ability to fill in these documents sticking to another and they'll serve you as part of the state planning. These four mass documents a wheel is health surrogate and I live in well and I forgot which is the other one but here's my question what is there's other attorneys that obviously go online whatever offering their advice and it all depends on your assets and how much you have how much you own all these things and but what is the difference between filling out something like what Suzy Orman proposes for 99 bucks which sounds extremely affordable and reasonable as opposed to an attorney to tell you you need a revocable trust and we need to go over all of this and you looking at $2,000 swap right right would you know the validity of one or the other? Yeah it's not that it's there it lacks validity I mean clearly you can do this online there's some wonderful tools online that can help you with that there's one that I've been seeing that's been doing a ton of advertising lately online that you know is offering a simple solution for online wills and trusts and I think it's certainly better than nothing I would say Trish because I want to make sure you have a valid will that's up to date and that's going to be better than you kind of scribbling something out on a piece of paper I think it's also important for you to have the health care surrogate and the power of attorney and the living will and you know the health care directive so that you you know have those decisions already made and that you know there's not a lot of questions at a difficult period of time I think the real benefit comes by having an attorney involved you know it's just like any other professional service if you're selling your house you can do it yourself but a realtor can help you you know navigate some of the pitfalls and make sure that you negotiate that contract appropriately and provide some protection when people are coming in and out of your house and help you stage it and you know an investment advisor you can manage your money yourself but they're gonna bring a particular expertise to the table and make you know decisions with an arm's length not emotional when you're buying and selling stocks and in the same way I think an attorney will ask different questions and perhaps even raise questions to help you think through even before you get into the actual papering of the documents you know some of the questions that will help you make the right decision you know for instance I think you know when we think about this last stewardship decision that we'll make the question is is the next steward chosen and prepared and by asking that question from a godly estate planning attorney he or she can help you shift the decision away from the quantity of the inherent inheritance as the primary driver to the heart condition and life trajectory it envisions for your heirs and so you move from the right amount or percentage to a more profound exploration what is what do I hope this inheritance is going to do and what do I expect it will do and even what do I fear it will do so I just think there's something to be said about those questions that are asked the ultimate plan that you arrive at through those questions and then you know obviously just making sure that the documents are done properly and in accordance with the the laws of your state which estate planning is all state-by-state there are differences state-to-state now these online tools will bring that to bear I mean they're they're obviously aware of that I just think you're gonna get a more trustworthy better outcome you know with an attorney but you're gonna pay for it and so in the absence of that is an online solution as long as you've done the reviews and looked online and you know made sure you considered whether you know they were getting good reviews is that better than nothing absolutely so I'm not completely against it my preference is just with something this important that you have the thoroughness of a competent estate planning attorney is that helpful yeah absolutely do you happen to have a referral from a Christian you know I don't but here's what I recommend in the absence of that is I would contact a certified Kingdom advisor there in Palm Beach which you can do on our website if you go to faith phi comm faith fi comm click find a professional and choose financial planning or investments put in your zip code you'll get a list of CK's I would pick any one of those CK's and call them and say listen I listen to faith and finance live I'm looking for a godly estate planning attorney and every one of those certified Kingdom advisors will have an attorney or a couple of attorneys that they refer to and if they know you're looking for somebody who's a believer I would guess that you know as a 99% chance they'll be able to give you a name great would you mind if I ask another quick question yeah go ahead there are then tied in so I am a firm believer in Titan I see the the return the eternal return is simply amazing what God does but so if you have a family member in need and wouldn't you help them first before you tied is a part of Titan or is that two total different separate things yeah you know are they both good things absolutely and you know I think it's clear that God's Word says we are to you know provide for our families and certainly for our parents that that's clear in God's Word but I think this idea that we should be generous and helping those in need it's clearly affirmed in Scripture we see the principle of the tithe in Scripture as well so under the Old Testament we saw there was actually three tides one of them was every third year so it was 23 and a third percent the Israelites were giving and then there were was other giving on top of that and it was around giving off of your increase so as God provided whatever that looked like in an agrarian society it was typically a harvest the giving back a tenth the first and the best you know to the temple was what was done and so I think as we pull that forward we say okay for those of us who have seen what Jesus has done on the cross Jesus raises the bar in about every situation and I think that includes giving he says you know to whom much is given much is required and he celebrates the widow giving out of her poverty and so I think we shouldn't use the principle of the tithe as a starting point and I think the pot the model in Scripture is that that a tenth which is what tithe means off of the increase goes to the local fellowship and so I would start with the local church but I wouldn't in there I would order your finances in such a way that you can begin to and it's gonna take time perhaps to give more than that and I think that's where family members can come in and other giving opportunities that are on the heart of God that we see in Scripture as well so I would try not to put these two things against each other give to my family or give to the local church I would say you know what I'm committed to supporting systematically out of my increase the local church and I want to give to those in need and I see a need in my family and so how can I order my finances to do that but you know I wouldn't do it out of obligation I would do it out of an act of generosity and overflow of your worship to the Lord which clearly you articulated but I would I would try not to put these two things as competing priorities if you will okay excellent thank you so much all right Trish god bless you thanks for being on the program today let's finish up quickly in well we'll stay in Florida hi Wilford go ahead hi thank you mr. Rob to taking my call I was my previous employee I had a 401k with them however I quit that job and get another one it's just a month you know since I started but unfortunately with the one that I'm started now they won't do anything with any 401k until I am one year with with the company so I'm asking you what should I the one that I had with my previous can I leave it there all right all right I have to move it I don't know no you you can leave it there and in fact you know if you do you're going to avoid the extra paperwork involved with you moving it to the IRA and so if your intention is to roll that old 401k into your new 401k the one thing I would do while you're waiting if that's what you choose to do and there's no problem in you doing that is I would contact your new plan administrator for your new employer and even though you're not at the one-year mark just ask them do you allow me to roll old 401ks from previous employers into this 401k once I reach the one-year mark not all of them will take 401ks from previous employers but so long as they say yes once you reach one year you can absolutely roll it in then there's not any problem with you leaving it right there does that make sense yeah okay very good thank you Wilford for calling today we appreciate it my friend may the Lord bless you well folks great questions today so appreciate you being a part of the program hey coming up tomorrow I mentioned John Cortinez on Jesus and the wealthy is where we'll start but we'll also have Jerry Boyer stop by and we'll be interesting to get Jerry's take on the GDP data you know the markets selling off today we're seeing Dow Jones for instance off about 1% and the Nasdaq off a little more than a half a percent why is that well it's because of the data we got about the gross domestic product the economy is slowing and the data came in slower than was expected about 1.6% so we'll get Jerry's take on that what does that mean for the markets moving forward and what can we draw from that in terms of the economy in the future folks thanks for being with us today faith and finance lives a partnership between moody radio and faith five so thankful for my team Len Amy Tahira Jim Henry couldn't do it without him see you tomorrow bye-bye