The Value of Moms

She looks well to you. But what if we did put a monetary value on what a typical mother does for her family, day in and day out? What would her paycheck look like if that were a quote, paying job? Well, we checked out the latest data from Survey.com to find out what mothers are doing in terms of a workload. The survey calculates how much a mother's efforts would be worth in salary, given all the hats she wears during the week. Apparently, working moms are putting in an average of 54 hours a week on the home front, just keeping things humming, in addition to their outside jobs. Other moms choose to stay home with their children, either working from home or homeschooling or being full-time moms. According to the Salary.com survey, the average stay-at-home mom is working up to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Her duties often include chief financial officer, media administrator, educator, cook, babysitter, driver, psychologist, loan officer, interior designer, hazmat contractor, nurse, laundry expert, event planner, and sometimes referee.

I know, it's a great list. For all that, the annual base salary of your typical mom should be, are you ready for this? $185,000, given all the jobs she does on a regular basis. Now, that does not include pay premiums that companies may offer to retain excellent employees, such as bonuses, overtime, and hazard pay.

Factor in those perks and your average stay-at-home mom could earn more than $200,000 a year, and I think we can all agree they're worth every penny. Still, some folks have asked why God included honor your father and mother in the Ten Commandments. It goes without saying that this is a very good thing to do and that it's natural to love, respect, and honor one's mother and father. But does the Fifth Commandment really carry the same weight as the other nine? Is it as important as not taking the Lord's name in vain, or stealing, or even murdering someone? Well, apparently it is to God, otherwise it wouldn't be in the Ten Commandments. So we should probably ask ourselves why. Theologians have come up with a number of reasons, and it's good to consider these when we head into Mother's Day on Sunday.

The first reason is because of life itself. God is the author of life. Genesis 1-27 reads, So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Life is precious to God, and mothers and fathers are the instruments God uses to bring new life into the world.

Mothers, of course, bear most of that burden in childbirth. In Psalm 139 we read, Another reason for the Fifth Commandment is relationship. God puts a high value on them. He wants a relationship with each and every one of us. He created the family and wants us to enjoy the relationships that only a family can provide. The full text of the Fifth Commandment, Exodus 20, verse 12, recognizes that unless children have good relations with their parents, rightly honoring them, the family can't prosper as it should. It reads, Now, what exactly does it mean to honor mothers and fathers?

Here's a clue. It's more than sending a card on Mother's Day. The term honor means to hold in high respect or treat with significance. To do that, children must obey their parents and care for them. The only exception being if a parent asks for something that goes against God's word.

Obviously, we must obey God first. To honor their parents, children must carry their name into the world in a principled and righteous way, not bringing shame or reproach on the family. So, as we honor moms this weekend, remember that we can never put a value on what they've done and continue to do for us because it's priceless.

We should really make it Mother's Day all year long. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back.

The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only. It's time again, Faith and Finance Live, where we answer your calls and questions and do that in light of Biblical wisdom. We've got lines open today. We had the opportunity to celebrate moms in our opener. Don't forget Mother's Day this weekend. How could you, given how important moms are to us, but a great opportunity.

Well, we should celebrate them all year, but certainly this Sunday. What a great chance just to tell the moms in our lives how much we appreciate and love them and value them. But now we're going to turn the corner and tackle whatever you're thinking about in your financial life. The number to call to get in on the conversation is 800-525-7000. Laura is our call screener today. She's ready to go. So call her right now.

800-525-7000. Let's go ahead and dive in. We're going to begin in Maryland today, but it's pretty in Maryland. Josephine, how can I help? Oh, thank you, Brother Rob, for taking my phone. I'm a little bit nervous. No reason to be nervous, Josephine. Just you and I having a conversation, so tell me how I can help you.

Okay. I'm just wondering, I did everything that I could to save on 401k when I was working, but something happened. I had a stroke, and then I'm going through a lot of challenges. So I don't have any more 401k, and then I retire early.

And I don't know, the only thing I have right now is that it's my home. And I received a letter from AAG asking me if they can help me to have a reverse mortgage. But I know one week I was listening to you and you were talking about the reverse mortgage. Do you think it will help me? It might.

It's definitely a tool to consider in this season of life. You are the right age for it. The question is how much equity you have in your home. Do you have a home mortgage? I have a home mortgage. I never touched the equity as it went up and down, up and down.

But I still pay the same thing, so that's where I'm at. Okay. What do you think your home is worth today, roughly? I don't know. I think it's gone down. I got it at 220.

So I don't know, maybe 180. I don't know. What makes you think it's gone down? Because homes have been appreciating quite rapidly, especially the last several years. Yeah, but the only thing is I'm receiving a lot of people trying to make me sell the house. And my own mortgage company told me that I have an equity for $72,000.

So I don't know how true that is because I don't know anything. Yeah. So what do you owe on it today?

I think it's roughly like 130. You think you owe about 130? Okay. Yeah. So we are going to need to see how much equity you have in there and what it's actually worth. One way you could do that, this isn't a definitive number, but it could be a starting point, is are you comfortable using the internet, Josephine? No, because of my site.

I see. No problem. There is a website, maybe you have a friend or a family member that could check this out. There's a website called Zillow.com. You could go to that website and without giving them your email or anything, you could just type in your address and it would give you a rough estimate, what they call a zestimate for your home value.

And it would be by pulling all the comparable homes in the area and then coming up with a value. The key is, one kind of standard rule of thumb is that you need 50% equity in your home to qualify for a reverse mortgage. And so that would mean that if your mortgage today, you think you owe $130,000, you're going to need your home to be worth at least $260,000 to qualify for a reverse mortgage. Now, you do sound like someone who's a good candidate for it because typically what we see is, in this season of life, if folks are ill-prepared for retirement because they had a major medical event and had to deplete their retirement savings like you did, or they just started late, or just because of lifestyle creep, they were not able to prioritize saving, and now they're in this season of life, they're living off of Social Security, they barely have enough to cover their bills, certainly not any extra, but they're sitting on a large amount of home equity, I do like a reverse mortgage as a possible planning tool because unless you're going to sell it and downsize, and that has its challenges, if you're planning to stay in this home for the foreseeable future, a reverse mortgage will convert that equity to either a line of credit, but more importantly for somebody like you to a monthly income stream, and they would determine how much based on the equity in your home and your age, which would give them your life expectancy, and then they would give you a set amount for the rest of your life every month, and that could be the difference between you not really barely getting by and having enough to pay your bills with even a little left over, and the nice part about a reverse mortgage is, if it's what's called a HECM, a home equity conversion mortgage, which is a kind of reverse mortgage, then the Federal Housing Administration is going to guarantee the loan, meaning if for some reason you live to 150 and they paid you out more than your home was worth, and when you sold the home or you passed away, if you owed more than the home can be sold for, then the US government would step in and make up the difference. Your state would not be liable for it.

So that's a nice thing. It's what they call non-recourse debt. Normally when you borrow something, if the collateral doesn't satisfy it, they come after you personally. That's not the case with a reverse mortgage. But if you don't have 50% equity, you may not qualify at all.

So what I would do, Josephine, is normally I'd send you to our friends at Movement Mortgage online at movement.com slash faith, but because you don't use the internet, our team will get your information, and I'll have somebody to get in touch with you to do a little deeper dive and help you determine whether or not you qualify for a reverse mortgage. Okay? Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I really appreciate your call.

Listen, you were nervous, but you did great. So thank you for being on. Please call me back anytime.

And you stay on the line. We'll get your information and get somebody in touch with you. Okay? Thank you. May God bless you for whatever you're doing right now. Thank you. Thank you very much.

May the Lord bless you as well. Mark and Candice, stay right there. We'll get you guys after the break. By the way, we have some lines open 800-525-7000. Hey, some interesting data in the news today. The Biden administration is looking into ways to further restrict donor advised funds. So this is one of my favorite charitable planning tools out there. Think of it like a charitable checking account. Well, critics of donor advised funds, including the Biden administration, say it's a way for the ultra wealthy to take immediate tax deductions while allowing money to sit unused indefinitely. The problem is that's not what the data says. I mean, the average donor advised fund today, more than half of them have less than $50,000 in them. And it is a fabulous tool. So more than 70 people representing the charitable sector showed up in an IRS hearing this week to argue against the proposed restrictions.

Some testified that the changes would significantly reduce contributions to nonprofits. We'll keep you posted on this one. This is one to continue to watch.

Back with much more after this. Stay with us. Our vision here at Faith Buy is that all Christians would seek God as their ultimate treasure.

We do that by helping you each day think about your financial questions and your role as a steward of God's money in light of biblical wisdom. We're going to head back to the phones. By the way, we have a lot of lines here at Moody Radio and every one of them is full. So let's get to as many questions as we can.

We'll go to Florida next. Hi, Mark. Go ahead. Hey, how are you? I'm great, sir. How are you doing? I'm working and I'm retired.

Okay. Anyway, my question is I am a retired air reserve technician, so I had dual status. I worked as a government employee and on the weekends I worked as a reservist. Anyway, I retired two and a half years ago and I have a TSP account with a roughly $200,000 in it, maybe a little bit more. And my question is, should I take that money out of the TSP account and reinvest that in a money market or something like that?

Or should I just leave it be? Yeah. Well, I may have a third option for you. I mean, because I like you rolling it out, I guess I'm just wondering why the money market. So give me a sense of what is your total investable retirement assets?

I think it's $210,000. Right. But that's your TSP. But do you have other retirement savings? When I turn 67, I'll draw Social Security. I'm pulling in for my government and military retirement about $2,500 a month. Okay.

And my part-time job, I'm bringing in about $2,000 a month as well. Okay. And then what other assets do you have? So you don't have any IRAs or any other retirement funds, correct?

That is correct. All right. And what about emergency savings?

About $30,000. Okay, great. And are you able to live within your means on that roughly $4,500 a month before Social Security? Yes. I'm doing quite well, actually.

Okay, that's great. All right, so tell me why are you thinking money market? Why not get that invested? I work on airplanes. I don't know anything about investing, so that's why I'm calling you.

Yeah. Well, when I get on an airplane, I rely on people like you to fix them and pilots to fly them, which is why, you know, if you work your whole life and you save a couple hundred grand, which is a lot of money, I like the idea of you hiring somebody to manage that. And here's why. I mean, what is your age, Mark? I'm 62 and a half.

All right. So let's say you lived age 95. I mean, we don't know if we have another breath, only the Lord does, but if you're relatively healthy and the Lord tarries, I mean, you could live another 30 plus years. And so if you did, we want this money to last. And even if you're able to live comfortably on your two retirement checks prior to Social Security, you're going to have even more when you get Social Security. And that's great, which means you could continue to save and maybe even start giving some more away. But I love the idea of this two hundred and ten thousand continuing to grow into the future because, you know, if you needed long term care, I mean, you know, maybe you rely on the V.A., but, you know, depending on what your needs are, you could end up needing to tap into these assets. And so I think, sure, there's something to be said about protecting it, especially while rates are up where they are now, where you could get five percent in the money market.

But that's not going to last. And I think the idea would be that, you know, typically we'd say somebody who's roughly 60 years old, you know, we'd probably say you should probably have about 50 percent of this two hundred thousand in stocks and maybe the other 50 percent in fixed income like bonds and CDs and then maybe a small portion in money market. But I think because this is not your area of expertise, just like airplanes are not mine, I'd hire an advisor to manage that for you.

I would roll it out of the TSP. And once you separate from your service to the government, then you can do that rollover from the thrift savings into an IRA. And then that advisor could take over managing that money with an eye toward protecting it, but also growing it to offset the effects of inflation. How does that sound, though?

That sounds good. My wife says she wants to do the same thing with roughly 80 thousand dollars she's got in savings. So we would probably combine that money. And our home is paid for.

We've got about four hundred thousand dollars in equity on it, but we're not going anywhere because of that. So we're just trying to figure this thing out. Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you're doing a great job. I mean, you've got plenty of income sources. You got some retirement assets that you built up. You wouldn't combine them.

You'd need to keep yours separate from hers because retirement accounts are individual, not joint. But a single advisor could manage all of this for you. And I think that would be a great way to go. So what I do is I'd head to our website at FaithFi.com. That's FaithFI.com. And right there at the top of the page, it'll say find a professional.

And I would interview two or three advisors there in Florida and find the one that's a good fit. But I think that's a great plan for you as you think about the future. Sounds good. Thank you so much and God bless. Hey, God bless you, Mark. Thank you for your service to our country, sir. We're grateful. Thank you.

Absolutely. You know, Mark mentioned something. He said he was debt free. And by the way, I love the idea of setting a goal to have all your debts paid by the time you retire. Fewer and fewer people are in that ideal situation.

Listen to this study I came across today. Twenty five years ago, half of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 were debt free. It's about a third now. And debt hems us in, especially when the economy slows down like it is now and the stock market declines. And that's going to happen if we get into a recession. It certainly has happened before.

It'll happen again. And so if you can get out of debt by the time you retire, like Mark and his wife have done, you'll be glad you did, because here's what that's done for them. It's put them at a position where with these guaranteed income checks they're getting through his retirement and his part time job and eventually his Social Security. By getting the house payment off the table, it takes that biggest expense out of the equation. It just makes the ability to balance the budget so much easier. So really work toward that, even if it means you've got to work a little bit longer to kind of sync up your retirement date.

When you switch to whatever God has next for you with your pay off of your mortgage, it'll make all the difference in the world. All right. We're going to take a quick break when we come back. We'll talk to Kansas.

Excuse me, Candace in West Palm and George just down the street from her in Boynton Beach. We'll be right back. Hey, I'm so glad you're joining us today for Faith and Finance Live.

It's our privilege to serve you each day and answer your questions. Thanks for inviting us into your stories. By the way, if you have a story, we want to hear it. We love to hear when God is on the move in your financial life and where this program played a role in helping you to understand his timeless truths.

We were just reflecting on some stories we heard recently. We heard from a listener recently named Charles who had previously been incarcerated. He was an addict and the Lord has is now out of prison. He has cleaned up his life. He is beyond his addiction and working on that. And he's now a faithful giver. But what was great was he called the show and he said, listen, I've gotten free from my addiction and the Lord has saved me. And, you know, now I'm giving regularly. I'm tithing. I love that. But the Lord convicted me.

I was behind on my taxes. So we got him connected to one of our good friends. Kevin Cross is a Christian certified public accountant. Kevin said, you know what, I just want to help him.

Not going to charge him a penny. Well, Charles called the other day and he said, Rob, I want you to know I paid my taxes and I've never heard somebody so joyfully telling me that they paid their taxes. He was so grateful that he was current and that he was in compliance with the IRS. And what a blessing that we could help him in that way. And the Lord is on the move in his life.

That's what it's all about. And so, hey, if you have a story of how God has been at work in your life and how there's a dotted line connection back to our program, would you tell us about it? You can call 800-525-7000 or just shoot us a note to askrob at faithfi.com and we will make sure our team gets in touch with you because we'd love to hear it. By the way, if you have a question today, we might have room for one or two between now and the end of the program. 800-525-7000. And if you want to share a testimony live on the air, you could call that number as well. We'd love to hear from you about that also. All right, let's go to West Palm Beach. Beautiful West Palm Beach. Hi, Candace.

How can I help? Hi. It actually is very beautiful.

I am doing that as well. I was just there at Palm Beach Atlantic. I was a few blocks from Worth Avenue and it is just spectacular. I was coming over the causeway there. Beautiful.

Yeah, it's great. Anyway, how can I help you? Okay.

So I wanted to get your thoughts. I currently, Michael and I currently have a three bedroom, two bathroom and we're looking to upgrade because my parents are planning on moving in with me. And we have 260, we're planning on selling, so we'll be having 260 in a deposit towards somewhere. But, you know, our ballpark was 500, but it's a little tricky finding a four bedroom at that price point. I mean, worst case, we'd be willing to, I mean, not ideally, but probably going to like 540, but that's going to probably be about 30% of our take home. And I know 25% is the ideal.

I kind of just wanted to get your thoughts on that. We do have about 30 in emergency savings and that's cool on top of. So we still would be doing our 401k contributions and we do type.

So I kind of just wanted to have. Yeah, I'd be comfortable with that. I mean, I think, you know, between 25 and 30% of your take home for principal interest taxes and insurance, and then another 5%. So if you're at 25, you know, add 5% to that, or if you're 30 add five. So you go up as high as 35% with the other categories as well.

So that's going to include home maintenance and utilities and homeowners association, that kind of thing. So I think you're right in the ballpark there. And I think given that, you know, you're making, you're using the guideline as a starting point, but then it's ultimately about how does the budget work itself out with real numbers. And if you're telling me that, yeah, we can continue to give, we can continue to pay, you know, put money in, in our 401ks and make the budget balance by going up to 30%.

I could get on board with that, which would allow you to go, you know, up to 540. And I love that you're starting with the budget, not starting with the shopping, because you know what happens is you get out there and you say, well, somewhere in the five to six range. And then all of a sudden you find yourself at 650 because you found the perfect house and you're trying to back into how you can do it.

And that's just a losing battle. And so I think once you establish you're not to exceed price, then we just trust the Lord that he's going to provide something and it may be in his timing and not yours. You may want to find it on the first weekend and it might take a little while, but I think just be vigilant in trying to stick to your budget once you establish it. But bottom line is, am I comfortable with you going up to 30% of take home pay for your mortgage payment as long as you've run the numbers and actually put it into a budget that is realistic and you can make it work? Yes, I'm comfortable with that.

Thank you so very much. It made sense. I'm like, I don't want to miss out on an opportunity because I'm being too. Yeah.

No, I think you're being really thoughtful about this Candace. So well done and we appreciate your call. God bless you. You're welcome. All right. To Boynton Beach, Florida.

George, go ahead, sir. Thanks for taking my call. I tied. We tied to a church last year and then changed churches. We didn't receive documentation of giving from the church we left. We've tried to contact the church but haven't got a response.

And I'm wondering what documentation the IRS needs from a church in order for me to claim a deduction. Yeah. Do you itemize your deductions, George, or do you take the standard deduction? Itemize. You do. OK.

So if you do itemize, I mean, ideally you would get that contribution statement. And is this a church that's out of the area or something or is it right near you? You just don't attend there any longer.

It's right near me. OK. Because what I may do, I mean, is it a very small church? Yes. OK. So they don't have an online giving platform where you could log in and try to print off a statement, correct?

No. OK. Well, I mean, hopefully they have a business office or at least somebody that's the business administrator. And I might just drive by there and just stop in during normal business hours, maybe on a Tuesday through Friday. A lot of times on a Monday, maybe the business office is closed or Friday. But I'd go by there and just say, hey, I just need to pick up a giving statement.

And this is not going to be uncommon. They're undoubtedly have other people asking for the same thing if you're having trouble getting them on the phone, because really, ideally you want to have that contribution statement from the church. Now, the other option is you just kind of add up your canceled checks or electronic transactions and, you know, you submit that as the deduction. And then if you're audited, you can explain that the church wouldn't provide the documentation and you can show your your transactions on your end through the canceled checks or the print off of your statement.

But I'd probably take one more step to try to get that print off on their letterhead of a contribution statement, even if that meant you have to drive by and see if you can find somebody that can help you. OK, well, thank you very much. You're welcome, George. I appreciate your call and I'm delighted to hear that you're a faithful giver and and also that you're taking full benefit of the tax deductions that are entitled to you. I think that's a great idea. Let's go quickly to North Carolina. Hi, Carrie.

How can I help? Hi. Yes, I was just wondering, I'm semi-retired. I do get a little bit of money. I'm almost 67 and my husband's not alive for me to ask him how to tithe because he was in charge of all the tithing. So I'm just trying to decide if it if it would be your recommendation to tithe off of maybe something he already tried, which would be his income.

The Social Security I'm getting from. Yes. Did you all tithe on the gross? Do you know? I know he handled that. But do you know if you all tithed on the gross amount that you received before the taxes were taken out or anything like that?

I believe that he taxed that he took money out. OK. Hi. Yep.

That's helpful. All right. Let's do this.

I'm going to give you my answer on the other side of this break. Stay with us. It's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live.

Our goal that you would see God as your ultimate treasure and money, a tool to accomplish God's purposes. In just a moment, we're going to talk to our good friend Jerry Boyer. He's our resident economist.

He's going to bring an update specifically on a shareholder meeting, annual meeting that he was a part of this week that I think you'll be interested in. But first, before the break, we were talking to Carrie in North Carolina. She is semi-retired. Her husband has passed away.

He handled the finances. She stepped into that role. And sounds like, Carrie, you're doing a masterful job in that. And I appreciate your giving heart. You're wanting to honor the Lord with your giving. But you're feeling the pinch of not having as much available and wondering how to think about a tithe. That is a tenth on the increase following the Old Testament principle of the tithe as a guideline. And I love that as a way to think about our systematic and proportionate giving.

And it's interesting because it's very easy to do when we are thinking about maybe a gift that you receive or income. You and your husband were faithful tithers and you said he tithed or you all tithed on the gross amount, meaning before the taxes were taken out. And so when it comes to Social Security, in a sense, you've already given on a portion of that money. Why a portion? Well, half of it was paid by you.

Today that's 7.65%. The other half of it was paid by your employer. So you wouldn't have tithed on that amount. And then there's some growth component built in because depending on how long you live, they're likely going to pay you back more than you paid in through those monthly benefit checks. So how do you think about that in light of the fact that you were a generous tither on the gross amount through your working years?

Well, I think there's a couple of approaches. Remember, this is not meant to be legalistic. We're not kind of paying God. We do this out of a glad heart, as an overflow or an expression of our worship to Him. I like systematic giving clearly.

We see that modeled in Scripture. And so I think when you consider the tithe, you can take the one approach is just to say, everything I received from any source is a gracious gift from the Lord. And so I'm just going to return to Him a tenth on that amount. But I think you could also say, listen, because things are tight and out of a recognition that I've already been, we together, tithed on this money throughout our working years, I think probably a rough rule of thumb would be to say I'm going to tithe on half of it because the other half is either my employer portion and or the amount that's part of the growth in that that's going to be returned to me over the rest of my life. And so that's another way to think about it is maybe you just take that Social Security check, cut it down the middle and say, I'm going to continue to give a tithe on half of this money.

Does that make sense? Yes. I was just wondering, what about when I get my IRA, when I can take money out of that, do I tithe off at that? Yeah, that's a great question.

So right. So that money went in pretax. And so, you know, the question would be typically the way we would do that when you have an investment account is you would tithe, not necessarily on the the money that is coming out, but you would tithe on the gain. And so that's your increase. So what you might want to do is say, OK, on an annual basis, do you manage that money yourself? Do you make those investment decisions or you have an advisor? Right.

I have my son helping me and I do make a little money off of money market, you know, like putting it into the bank and I get some. Yeah. Yeah. I get the interest. Yeah. So the withdrawal from your retirement account is the same with your savings.

You would. That's not your increase. Your increase comes from either interest paid or realized gains, which is when you take a stock or a mutual fund and you sell it and you're selling it at a profit. That's your increase. So what you could do is say to your son, hey, will you calculate over a year's time how much gain I had in my investment accounts? And then you could give as unto the Lord on that increase. But it wouldn't just be a withdrawal from the account.

It would really be tied to appreciation of the investments that were sold and therefore realized, if that makes sense. You know, that makes perfect sense. OK, good. Well, listen, Lord bless you, Carrie. I want to send you a book just as our gift to you.

It's called Wise Women Managing Money and a good friend of ours, Miriam Neff, when her husband Bob passed away, she wrote this book for widows who were all of a sudden finding themselves in a role of managing the family household finances. And I think it'll be an encouragement to you. I think it'll also give you some practical guidance. So I'd like for you to stand the line, if you don't mind. We'll get your information and get that book out to you. OK, so gracious of you. Thank you so much, Rob. Happy to do it.

God bless you. Hey, before we go back to the phones, let's talk to our good friend Jerry Boyer. Jerry, how are you, buddy?

Well, I'm better now than I was when I called in. When I hear a story about a widow trying to figure out ways to be more generous and tied. Yeah. I mean, there's a story in the Bible about a widow stretching to give.

Right. May the causes she give to be worthy of her sacrifice. But, you know, to have to have you kind of analyzing with her, you know, how she can tithe.

And, you know, she's a widow, you know, which is a tough financial position to be in. I mean, you know, I sometimes I can kind of despair for the future of our country and then I hear a conversation like that and I feel a lot better. Isn't that a blessing?

Yeah. And there's just so many wonderful people who are just trying to honor the Lord as faithful stewards. And I know that's certainly what you're doing is you're helping folks show up in these boardrooms and advocate for Christian values. And we each do our part. And, you know, I think that's what God has asked for us is faithfulness to opportunity. Right, Jerry?

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. So I think in the past, sometimes the church's conversation about wealth has not been super redemptive. It's wealth is dirty. Don't talk about it except on, you know, once a year on Stewardship Day when you raise money.

Right. As opposed to wealth as a tool and you use it. So you just had a conversation with how someone can use it as a tool to help fund the kingdom.

But so the part she doesn't give away, she owns probably ETFs or mutual funds or stocks directly. Well, you can still make that an offering to God in the sense of you've got votes associated with it and you can vote or you can, you know, attend an annual meeting. All you have to own is one share. Seriously, just one share of a company. And you can, you know, log on to an annual meeting and you can ask questions.

This week there was an annual meeting. There was a pro-family Christian ministry that used its shares to talk to the giant telecommunications company called Verizon. And, you know, Verizon had de-banked, I think de-banked I guess is the wrong word, de-platformed some conservative outlets.

It has some vague standards about when it can block somebody that aren't very helpful. A lot of these banks and telecommunications and tech companies have standards which basically say, well, you know, we like to respect the viewpoint diversity. We like to respect the views of our clients or our customers, except if they promote hate. Well, of course, you and I both know that everybody is always accusing the other side of hate all the time, right? I mean, we don't really debate anymore.

We just say you're a hater, you know, conversation over. So that leaves companies the ability to basically block whoever they want to block, and that's not fair and that's not right. And it's also not fiduciary to shareholders because you shouldn't be firing customers just because you or your staff don't like their politics. Companies should, you know, they should want to keep customers. And so this ministry put a proposal on the ballot and they challenged this company, you know, saying hate speech is not enough.

It's not a clear enough designation because it's vague and you can pretty much do whatever you want. So we want clear standards for when you're going to deplatform someone. We don't want to take your word for it anymore. There's a lack of, you know, Christians and conservatives really have a lack of trust now for major corporations.

We gave them a benefit of the doubt for a long time and frankly, they abused it. So we're going to these companies and saying, we want it in your code of conduct. We want it in your terms of conditions. We want clear standards that protect your employees and your customers from discrimination based on religious or political viewpoint. And perhaps you're better at making telecom work and building towers and maintaining those than you are making policy decisions, huh?

Well, that's that's it. And I don't know what has convinced these CEOs or maybe it's not the CEOs. Maybe it's their DEI departments or the human resources departments or just the activist groups that come along and push them into taking positions.

What has convinced them that they have superior moral knowledge to the electorate of the United States? I mean, if we wanted to have national laws or whatever that says, you know, boys should be able to use girls locker rooms just as long as they identify as girls or be able to compete in women's sports or, you know, or we want to get rid of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because we think it interferes with certain groups that don't like it or we want to decarbonize the economy, then win an election. But until then, the electorate has spoken. And I don't think the electorate I don't think the citizens are perfect, but we're the citizens. It's our decision.

And corporations should not be overriding with their personal private agenda the policy objectives that we've set to our elected officials. Well said, Jerry. All right, we're going to have to leave it there. I've got to get to one more call today, but grateful for you and showing up and having these conversations. Have a great weekend, my friend. You too. All right. To Chicago, Ken, quickly, I apologize.

We don't have a lot of time, but how can I help? My spouse refused any reconciliation process and it's led to a contentious divorce with over $50,000 of legal fees with all her motions. And we're just in the early stages and I have no more liquid funds at all. So should I be looking to drain my 403b with the tax penalty and the early withdrawal or eventually look for bankruptcy because there's no insight? Wow, I'm so sorry, Ken, I know this is challenging. Have you approached them about a payment plan?

I mean, just what whatever is possible in your budget, even if it's just a drop in the bucket. Have you had that conversation? I have not, but I am concerned with no end in the side and the legal fees are going to go over $100,000, I fear. Yeah, I mean, here's the reality is you can only do what you can do. I don't like the idea of you tapping into your retirement account. Could you be forced into bankruptcy, possibly for protection?

You won't find that word in the Bible. The key is to pay what we owe. You can only do what you can do. I'd say, listen, here's what I can send you every month and that's all I can do and just see if they'll take that. I know this is a difficult situation. Hang on the line, we'll talk a bit more off the air.

Folks, Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Buy. Thank you to my team today, Laura, Tahira, Amy and Jim. Have a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day. See you next week.