We'd like to think that our actions are always pleasing to God and certainly don't offend Him, but we also know that isn't always true. Hi, I'm Rob West. Christians are called to do good works so that the world will see them and God will be glorified.
So it shouldn't surprise us that God takes stinginess and generosity personally. Randy Alcorn joins us today to talk about it. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, it's a real pleasure to have my friend Randy Alcorn back with us. He's the author of a library full of books on Christian living and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. Randy, a joy to have you back with us.
Always a pleasure, Rob. Randy, for the last few weeks we've been telling folks about our new study, Rich Toward God, which of course is based on the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12. And I'd love to get your thoughts on this passage, and I'll start by asking from the end of that passage of Scripture, what does it mean to be rich toward God in your view? Well, I think to be rich toward God involves several things simultaneously. One is that God is the source of our true riches, our spiritual riches in Christ, but he's also the object of our riches. We should evaluate true wealth by what it means in terms of our relationship with him. Practically speaking, I think it means in this context in Luke 12, which is very close to the context of Matthew 6, about storing up treasures in heaven.
In fact, he mentions that later on in Luke 12. But I think what it comes down to is just to give lavishly, to give sacrificially. To be rich toward God is to not hoard, not to spend everything on ourselves without regard to others. That's what the rich man, the rich fool in the parable did. And God accepts our gifts to the needy as if they were given directly to him.
This is this incredible passage in Proverbs 19 and 17 that I think we do not ponder enough. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Now, think of that lending to God. God doesn't need to borrow from anybody, so this is not about his need. This is about our need and our opportunity for eternal reward. When we're generous to the poor, God says, I'm going to pay you back. Now, if we came up with that idea, that would be blasphemous. God should never have to pay us back for anything. I mean, it's completely a reversal of what we would think, but that's the nature of eternal rewards. I'm going to honor you, and I'm going to reward you.
I'm going to repay you for your deed of being generous to the poor. Wow. Yeah, that's powerful.
And Randy, I want to go back to something you said a moment ago, because you said God is the source. I mean, he is our provider, but he's also the object of our value. It's this idea that being rich toward God causes us to count God as greater riches than anything in this world, right?
Absolutely. And you think about this. He is the source of all of our wealth, but it's more than that. He is our wealth. I mean, it all comes from him, and there's the primary and there's the secondary. The primary is God himself. And sometimes we focus so much on the secondary that we fail to trace it back to the primary. Because yes, he provides us with maybe a wonderful marriage, a wonderful family, a wonderful business, whatever good blessings that God has given us in our life.
It might be our church, you know, whatever, our neighbors. But he's the source of that. It comes from him. So those secondary blessings are from his hand. And he is the primary. He's the source. That is so powerful. What if we were to handle God's resources because it all belongs to him in such a way that it was evident to the world that God was our ultimate treasure?
We're talking today with Randy Alcorn. He's the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and author of so many books, including the one that had the most profound impact on me other than the Bible, Money, Possessions and Eternity. When we come back, we'll talk about the good life. What is the good life?
What about materialism and how can that compete with our hearts for our devotion to the Lord? Much more just around the corner. And then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.
You can call right now at 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back after this. So delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West.
With me today, my friend Randy Alcorn. He's the author of a shelf full of books. He's the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries.
You can find EPM on the web at EPM.org. We're talking today about our devotion to God, counting God as our true treasure. We started today by talking about the parable of the rich fool and what it means to live rich toward God. Let's dial into that word fool, Randy. This man in the parable is, of course, described as a fool. In this context, what does it mean to be a fool? A fool is someone who is ignorant of the things of God or ignores the things of God, who makes choices based on his own kind of desires and intuitive, oh, this is right. But it's really not this is right.
It's this is what I want to do. A fool is the person who does what he wants to do all the time. And that to me is utter foolishness. And the thing that's interesting about this is that God calls upon us to do things because they are right. But that's not the only reason. He also calls upon us to do the right things because they are the smart things. They are the things that will pay off in life. So the fool is missing it on two levels.
One is he's doing the wrong thing. But the wrong thing is also the stupid thing. It's the foolish thing.
That's why he's a fool. And so the interesting thing is that to do the right thing is always in our best interest. So when it comes to materialism, when it comes to storing up things in the barn and eat, drink and be merry and, you know, I've accomplished all this and here it is, it's not just that it's the wrong thing to do. It's the foolish thing to do because God's going to take it away from you. I mean, you're going to die or before you die, perhaps it'll all be taken away from you. But one thing is certain. You're not going to have an eternal relationship with your possessions in this life. I mean, that's just obviously true, but it's not obvious to the fool. And so what God is calling upon us to do is to direct those treasures toward God and to invest in the lives of other people and to do with those things, what will count and last for eternity so that we will not only be righteous, but in being righteous, we will be wise.
Yeah, that's so good. You know, I was thinking about this, you know, when we think about this fool, Randy, you know, this rich man in the parable, he's saying, you know, his security comes without considering God. He's using his wealth to provide for his own security, leisure and identity without acknowledging any need for God and his grace. You know, when I look at this passage, I'm reading right from Luke verse 19. He says, And I will say to myself, you have many goods stored up yourself for many years. And he just keeps saying, I and me, this is what I will do.
I will tear down my barns. And it's just clear that he's not acknowledging God for any of this, right? Right. I mean, he's acknowledging his own wisdom skill, or maybe mother nature that provided these things, but it's just not about God. And when you don't see God as the source, then that's where everything goes wrong. And that's why any time at any conference related to money-giving finances, if it's from a Christian perspective, something's got to be said about God owns it all. You know, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. That's Psalm 24.1.
Haggai 2.8, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty. I mean, he just makes emphatically clear that it all belongs to him. And I actually was speaking at a conference one time where somebody said to me, I hope you guys aren't going to say that thing about how God owns it all. And I said, well, why? Because we all know it. And I said, well, we've all heard it, but that doesn't mean that we know it in the sense of we own it and we're living that way.
And I felt like the very fact that he didn't want to hear it said suggested that he doesn't really believe it, or maybe he believes it in theory, but does not live like it's true. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Well, to take this one step further, let's talk about materialism, which of course is a huge problem, especially here in the West. And in a sense, Randy, we're the victims of our own financial success. What is the real danger with materialism? Well, materialism is the love of money and things. And the problem with money and things is or one problem with them is the more of them we accumulate, the more mass they have in our lives, the more they become our center of gravity. So then we orbit around them.
And God calls upon us to orbit around him. The only thing that can break the back of the hold of materialism really is giving. We have to part with our stuff in order to be freed from the hold of our stuff. And the great thing is that God has built the world in such a way that when we part with it, not only does it honor God and benefit him in that sense, but it benefits other people who need what we and our abundance can help provide. And it's also in our best interest, because it frees us from the bondage of materialism. Yeah, that's well said.
And let's dig into that a bit more, because you're headed where we want to go. And that is the antidote to money having a grip on us. What is the good life look like for us as believers?
And how do we find it? Well, I think the good life is interesting. I had a conversation with someone a few years ago, and they were telling me how their life was miserable. And think about what the word miserable comes from. That's the word they used. It's related to, at least, the word miser. So a miser is one who holds onto everything, and a miser is miserable. He is miserable. That's the nature of it. So you would think, okay, he's doing this so he can be happy.
He's being selfish so he can be happy, so he can live the good life. Well, this particular man went through a litany of things that happened with him that were just awful things. And he had been sexually immoral. This had happened.
This had happened. He lost his marriage. He lost his children, or at least the respect of his children. So many things he lost.
He brought shame to the name of Christ, to his church, all of that. And then he said—and this is, I'm going to say, we were on the phone, so, you know, when I say he did it with a straight face, what I mean is it sounded like he was doing it with a straight face—when he said, and so I was living the good life, and as a result, all these things happened. And even as he said those words, I was living the good life. I thought, what an irony, he doesn't even—I don't think, I couldn't see him, but I don't think he was doing air quotes when he said I was living the good life. We're so used to thinking of that as the good life, that even when it ruins us, we're calling it the good life.
But it's not. Yeah. Wow. So good. Randy, we're going to have to have you back. We've just scratched the service, but profound thoughts and ideas about what the good life really is. We appreciate you stopping by today.
Hey, great to be with you, Rob. That's Randy Alcorn, founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. You can find out more at EPM.org.
That's EPM.org. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. And if you prefer not to call, keep in mind, you can always send us an email at AskRobAtFaithFi.com. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back after this break. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance here on Moody Radio.
I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. I've got some lines open, although the calls are coming in. So we'd love for you to get in the queue. The number to call is 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.
You can call right now. I'm just sitting here reflecting on some of what Randy Alcorn just shared. So thankful when he stops by. I love just his rich perspective and digging into God's Word and really looking at the heart behind the money decisions we make every day. You know, if you think about it, money issues are heart issues. Jesus talked about this when he said, where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. We know underneath living beyond our means is a self-discipline issue, and underneath debt is a discipline issue. And you know, there's heart issues underneath all of the outworking of that. You might think about it like an iceberg. You know, only about 10% of the iceberg is above the water line. That's probably most akin to the how of financial decision making, those actual decisions you make each day.
But that 90% below the water line is the why. It's our values and priorities. It's our heart condition.
It's how we let sin enter into the decision-making process and let greed or covetousness or comparison take over and really take us away from God's design, which is around contentment and faithfulness and ultimately generosity, open-handed living. And when Randy Alcorn challenges us to think about the impact of materialism on our decisions, well, I know it's convicting, but it's also encouraging. All right, let's turn the corner and take your questions today. We've got lines open.
We'd love to hear from you. Again, that number 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's begin in Savannah, Georgia today. Hi Donna, go ahead.
Hi, how are you? Thanks for taking my call. You're welcome.
Thank you. So I'm 64 and I recently applied for Social Security and got my first check on Valentine's Day and I went to work part-time at a local hospital, just like 25 hours a week. Then they offered me a position doing what I had done before I retired at a substantial increase, much more than the $23,000 I could make with Social Security. So my question is, I know I have to call Social Security and tell them what I'm doing, but do I just let them do the penalty or do I stop my Social Security and I know I have to pay like the eight grand back, which I don't have eight grand to pay back. So I'm really just not sure what to do.
Yeah, well, you're exactly right. I mean, you are in this kind of perfect window of time, if you will, because you just started to suspend your Social Security benefits and pay back what you've already received, and then you would continue to increase your benefits by that one-twelfth of eight percent or roughly eight percent a year for the years that you wait until you restart them up to age 70, and you'd have to contact Social Security to do that. You have to have been receiving benefits for less than a year to be eligible for this, and you can only do it once. But if you don't have the money available to do that, then that would kind of take that option off the table.
What are you thinking in that regard? Well, I mean, I don't know if they let you make payments back or I'm just not really sure, but if we just take the penalty, from what I understand, because this is going to be substantially, it's going to be way, way over, like about $40,000 over what I can make. So they just suspend my, they just don't pay me Social Security. From what I'm reading, they don't pay me Social Security because I'm over, and it's like $2 for every dollar or something of that nature. Yeah, what is your age? 64.
Okay, so you took it this year. You took benefits early. Yeah, so they're actually going to reduce your benefit by a dollar for every $2 you go over the limit. And so there's an earnings limit for Social Security, and when you get above that, and for 2024, that earnings limit in the year that you turn full retirement age is $59,000. Prior to that, it's lower than that. It's $22,320. But here's the reality though, Donna. You will get, whatever they reduce it by, so the dollar for every $2 you go over that limit, you will eventually get that money back at full retirement age in the form of a higher check.
Are you aware of that? Yeah, that's what my husband was saying. He said, you don't lose it, you just don't have it right now. You don't lose it.
And that's what he was saying too, but it's like, I'm going to call and find out. Yeah, so you definitely don't lose it. You will get it back later. It'll be over a period of time, over a number of years in the form of a higher check, but that's different than you paying the Social Security back and restarting the growth of that check.
Those are two different things. You see, for every year you take it early before full retirement age, which for you is probably close to $67,000, you're getting a reduction in that benefit by about 8% for every year you take it early. And by paying it back and suspending it, you essentially restart that clock that's going to keep your benefit growing toward ultimately your full retirement age benefit that you can see at my SSA. That's different than the reduction you're going to get by working beyond the earnings limit, because by taking it early, you've locked your benefit.
You're not going to ever get those increases. That's separate than the reduction by earning more than the limit, which you eventually get back. Do you understand the difference between those two things? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I do.
Yeah. So I would prefer that you just suspend and pay it back and wait and take it closer to Social Security. But if you can't do that, then that's not an option. So then the second piece of this is, okay, just recognize you're going to see a reduction and that's going to be as a result of you earning more than the limit, but just know that's going to come back to you down the road in the form of a higher check. Once you're paid back for everything they reduced you by, that will stop and then you'll get that benefit check plus cost of living adjustments that was locked in at age 64. So hopefully that's helpful to you Donna. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.
800-525-7000 is the number to call. A quick break and back with much more just around the corner. Stick around. This is Faith in Finance Live on Moody Radio. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today.
800-525-7000. Before we head back to the phones, just to let you know, FaithFi 4.0 is out. Now you might say, I didn't know there was a FaithFi 1.0. Well, FaithFi is our app. You'll find it in your app store when you search for FaithFi at Google Play or Apple. And what you will find is a community of stewards really on this journey to be found faithful together. You'll find our FaithFi community where you can post a question, get an answer. You can find all of our content and broadcast archives. There's no charge for it. It will encourage you in your journey.
You can even dig into topics that interest you, but all from a biblical perspective. You will also see our money management tool. The late Larry Burkett really popularized this idea of managing money using the envelope system. Now, back in Larry's day, there was a physical envelope that you would use and you'd cash your paycheck and stuff those envelopes. And you would typically use them for your discretionary categories like eating out or clothes shopping, or, you know, maybe you have one for entertainment that you'd grab when you head out, you know, on the Friday night with your spouse for date night or whatever it is. We've taken that and put it into a beautiful digital interface and a smartphone app. So think of it like encouragement on your stewardship journey in your pocket on your smartphone.
And it is world class, especially with the brand new edition 4.0, a beautiful interface that's simple. You connect to all of your checking and credit card and debit accounts and all of those transactions download automatically, securely, and they automatically are then put into each of your envelope. So at any point during the month, you can see exactly where you stand in your budget, and you can make course corrections. So you're not getting to the end of the month and then looking back and saying, oh, yeah, we missed it there. And oh, wow, we went over there. No, you're seeing it in real time. So you can make the changes to curb your spending, even transfer money in one envelope to another.
All of those things can be done. So I'd love for you to check it out. Julie and I use it daily. You'll find it in your app store.
Just search for Faith 5. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're going to head to Chicago next. George, you'll be our next caller. Go ahead, sir.
Thank you for taking my call, Mr. West. Real quick, I have a mortgage of $181,000. My wife and I owe $181,000.
Wondering if it would be a smart idea to take out a HELOC on the mortgage, use the HELOC to pay daily expenses, and then throw my paycheck towards the mortgage completely, anywhere from like, let's say, $4,000 a month, and try and pay that mortgage off in about four years, and then obviously pay the HELOC back. Just wondering what your thought would be. Yeah, it's a good question. Are you being, is somebody proposing that you buy a software package to do this, or is this something you were wanting to do on your own?
On my own. Okay, all right. Yeah, normally when I hear this kind of idea of infinite banking, it involves a pretty complex and expensive sort of thing, but it's complex and expensive software package. You know, where this comes down is, you know, in how the interest is calculated. With most mortgages, interest is calculated monthly.
With a HELOC, it's often calculated daily. And, you know, a lot of it comes down to whether the interest rate is higher or lower on one or the other. It typically involves, you know, somewhat of a complicated process where you're having to manage your cash flow and watch it very carefully.
I'm not a big fan of this strategy. I mean, mathematically it can work, but I just find that the complexity of it and an absolute commitment to the process, especially if you had a disruption in income or a job loss unexpectedly, could create some real problems where you have to have a lot of excess flow. And you're kind of flowing everything through this HELOC with the idea that you would, you know, reduce that principal balance for as many days as you can. And then you'd have to, you know, borrow it back, especially with these higher interest rates right now. I would rather you go more of a plain vanilla approach, George, which is just simply let's dial in our spending as much as we can. Let's free up as much margin. And then if you have the ability to send maybe a consistent extra payment beyond your scheduled monthly mortgage payment directly to principal and it's applied immediately, I just find that's a lot less complicated and it has a much quicker off-ramp if something goes awry than something as complex as this. Not to mention the fact that if you don't already have this home equity line of credit, there's expenses just to originate that new loan. So I think for me, even though, again, I understand that it can make some sense on paper and in your spreadsheet, my preference would be that you not take this approach because of the complexity and because of the things that can go wrong more so than the things that can go right.
That's just my take on it. I hope that's helpful to you. Thanks for calling. Let's stay in Chicago and talk to Marlene. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. I love your show.
Thank you. I'm 54 turning 55 next year and able to pull out my annuity of $215,000 and I'm a teacher, so I'll be retiring in about five years. So I will be pulling about 85 to 90,000 a year for a pension. So I have a mortgage right now of $140,000 and I'm wondering, is it smart to use?
I'd like to use my annuity to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible. Okay, so let me just make sure I understood what you said here. How far are you from retirement? Five years. Okay, and are you not able to collect social security because of your job as a teacher? No, I'm not. Yes. Okay, right. And so you've got this annuity and you're telling me that the cash value of that annuity is at $215,000? Yes.
Okay. And I also have a Roth. Okay, and how much is in there? Right now for $40,000. Okay, and you said you owe $140,000 on the mortgage, correct?
Yes. Okay, now what are you planning to do in five years with the annuity? Are you going to annuitize and start taking a monthly check or were you going to try to roll the whole lump sum over to something else? And that I wasn't, I don't know, I really don't have any smarts about that. I was just thinking of just a monthly getting, you know, taking it out along with my retirement, my pension retirement.
I'm not very savvy. And yeah, that's okay. Yeah.
And when you you were talking about 85 or 90, what was that? With regards to that is going to be my yearly pension from the from the union. Okay. Okay. So you so you're going to get $85,000 to $90,000 in the form of a pension and then this this annuity is on top of that the $215,000? Yes. Okay.
And would that would the pension be enough to cover your bills every month? Yes, for sure. Yeah. Especially since I would pay off my mortgage. Yeah.
Yeah. I guess the only thing I don't like about that is, you know, that you're going to create a pretty big tax bill. So I would rather you certainly I want you to wait until you're 59 and a half because I don't want you to pay the early withdrawal penalty of 10%. So I think at this point, at least between now and age 60, you're going to want to just try to prioritize paying down that mortgage out of current cash flow as best you can. And then once you get to retirement, you're beyond 59 and a half, then all of a sudden we've got some options, you're going to have some surplus every month, because you don't need the $85,000 to $90,000 coming from your pension. And so maybe it's a combination of whatever's left at that point. Because remember, for the next five years, we're trying to accelerate the pay down, whatever's left, maybe a divide it some between withdrawals from the annuity and some just out of that excess cash flow.
But that's five years down the road. I wouldn't do anything today, if that makes sense. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome, Marlene. Thanks for your call today. We've got lines open call right now.
800-525-7000. Back with much more after this. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.
I'm Rob West. Hey, before we take some more phone calls today, and by the way, we have some great questions coming up, we also receive questions electronically. That's right. You submit those when you go to moodyradio.org slash finance. And there's a form there that you can type those in and send them along.
And guess what, we don't let those just go off into cyberspace. My producer Amy collects those. And Amy, is there actually a physical box that you print those off and put them in like a fireproof safe or something? Or are they on a hard drive somewhere?
They're on my they're in my inbox in my email mixed in with all the other emails that I get every day. Yes. So are you ready for these questions today? We do take them on Wednesdays. Yes.
And I'm absolutely ready to dive into whatever you have today. Okay, perfect. So first off, Jenny writes, I'm a single mom with a low income and I'm working towards paying off credit card debt. I give regularly but it is nowhere near the amount of a tithe. How can I move toward giving 10%?
Yeah. Well, first of all, Jenny, I mean, Amy and I would be the first to say that it's wonderful that you want to give back to God's kingdom. But God's not an accountant. He doesn't need your money. It's more important that you begin to become a percentage giver in my view and do it cheerfully, not out of legalism.
Like everyone else, you need to live on a budget, ideally one that gives you a little margin at the end of the month. But I would ultimately say that we are to be givers, we're to be generous. And I think for you to continue your systematic giving, given that you have other priorities, you want to continue to pay off this credit card debt, and that certainly aligns with Scripture that we would get out from under debt, especially debt that is creating a hardship like this for you, and yet continue to give. So I wouldn't stop giving, but I think the idea that you're working up toward what you'd ultimately like to give using the tithe as a guideline, but not an ending point. I mean, the goal may be that you continue to move up beyond a 10% tithe when you're able.
I think the key is continue to exercise that muscle and know that God sees your heart and knows that you want to honor him. Thank you, Rob, for that. So next, Paulette asks, I have two private student loans that total $70,000 and they have interest rates of 9.5% and 10.5%. Would it be wise to try to get a lower interest personal loan or to refinance the existing loans? Yeah, I mean, you clarified that these are private loans, Paulette, and so what I would say is if they were federal loans, I definitely wouldn't consider this. But even with this being private loans, you're really not going to find a more attractive interest rate out there just because of where rates are right now.
I wouldn't want you to, you know, take out a second mortgage on the house because then it attaches it to your home. And so really the only opportunity I think you have to get these down is when interest rates are lower than they are today and that's probably still a year to two years away from this making sense just because of the cost involved. So I would say as much as I don't like those interest rates, I certainly know you don't, this is not the time to try to refi. Okay, and then finally today, Don asks, two years ago I invested $10,000 in I-Bonds specifically for my daughter's college.
Since the interest rates have dropped below 5%, is there another investment that I could transfer the I-Bond money to that would have a better return? I have already maxed out my 529 contribution for this year. Yeah, well I would go back to that and just make sure you double check that contribution because there really is no contribution limit federally. Now anything you put in a 529 for your child or grandchild is going to be subject to the gift exclusion.
So you can put in up to $18,000 a year. If you go over that, it's just going to chip away at your lifetime exclusion of $13.6 million. So there really is no federal contribution limit. Now state by state there are contribution limits for 529s, but those range between $235,000 to more than half a million dollars before you reach any kind of limit imposed by the state. So I suspect unless you put in just a significant amount of money, you probably have not reached the limit for the 529. And so I'd revisit your state's 529 plan and just see what is in fact that limit. And if you've gone over the 18,000, that's okay. You just file that gift tax form. There won't be any tax due.
The IRS will just note that you went beyond it, but you should still be able to add money to the 529. Okay, thanks Rob. I'll let you get back to the phone calls. Very good. Thanks Amy. Appreciate it.
Let's go to Illinois. Hi Terry, how can I help you? Hi Rob, I really appreciate your program. Thank you so much for doing what you do.
I have a question. We did pay off our house. The title company still has our title for our home. I was wondering, do we leave it with them as a safe spot or do we take it out and put it, I don't know, in a safety deposit box or what do you do with your title once you pay off your home? Yeah, well once the mortgage is paid off, the lender is required to provide what's called a deed of reconveyance regardless of when you pay it off.
And basically that just puts the deed back with you now that the lien has been satisfied. Generally that happens through the mail, so what I'm afraid happened is perhaps they sent it and maybe you didn't realize what it was and it got tossed or maybe they just made a mistake. But the fact that this has gone on so long, I mean usually this takes 60 days, so something is definitely wrong that you haven't received that paperwork in two years. All states have deadlines for sending these papers back to homeowners and there's penalties if they don't do it in a timely manner. So what I'd probably do is just call the mortgage company and say, listen, I paid this off two years ago. I didn't get the the deed of reconveyance.
Can you check your files and tell me, you know, what the status is, whether it was sent and if so or if not, can you resend it or even if it was, I need a copy of that. And then, you know, you would store that in a fireproof safe or a safe deposit box at your local bank typically because that's a really important document. Does that make sense? Yes, it's a deed of recon, what is it? Yeah, reconveyance.
Deed of reconveyance is what you're looking for and the lender is required to provide that once the mortgage is paid off in a timely fashion. Okay, thank you so much. I really appreciate this. Absolutely. Thank you for your call today. Let's go to Indianapolis. Hi, Steve. Go ahead. Okay, here's my situation, Rob. I am going to retire first quarter next year, at which point I'll be 61.
I've really been blessed. I have quite a bit of assets and I want to use them optimally and efficiently. I don't know, I'd like to run my retirement plan through either a CPA or a planner.
I don't know which is the right one. I could give you more of my details if that would help. Yeah, okay. And so what is it you're looking for in particular?
Well, the interaction between required minimum distributions, Roth conversions, donor advised funds, and when to start Social Security, because I know they all interact with each other. And I do have a high amount of assets. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly right, Steve.
Well, that's very astute of you, because you're exactly right. I think, you know, given the fact that you do have substantial assets, you are going to want to think about the best way to do that. I mean, we've got a number of factors converging, not the least of which is and we don't know, of course, the outcome of the election, we will after November. But, you know, currently, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is due to expire. And so that's going to drive tax rates up.
It's also going to drive the gift exclusion down substantially from the 13 million back to 5 million where it was. You're right, you've got when to take Social Security, when to take Social Security, I love the donor advised fund that can be really effective, especially with appreciated assets, but also once you're 70 and a half to satisfy your RMD. So yeah, I think what you need is an advisor who could take the lead on this, who has a CPA that he or she works with very closely, that could put a plan together for you considering all of these factors. And I'd prefer for it to be somebody who shares your values.
That can really bring a biblical perspective of this. I know you mentioned the CPA specifically, but do you have an advisor that you work with on the asset management piece of this already? No, I do all that myself. And I, I have worked with a CPA, but they want to use assets under management. Got it. Yeah, that model.
No, I get that. And there's plenty of advisors out there, Steve, whether it's a CPA or maybe the, the financial advisor, the planner becomes the lead on the relationship. And then he or she pulls in the CPA can go both ways. But what you're looking for is, is based on an engagement, either a fee based generally, this would be a set fee to do the comprehensive plan.
And then you might go in and update that and, and pay along the way as, as things change in the future. It could also result in an hourly engagement once the initial plan is done. But there's plenty of advisors that can do that.
And many of them do work on an assets under management percentage. But what you're looking for is somebody who can just do a specific planning engagement. I have a couple of thoughts on that. I mean, you could look up, go to our website and search for the Certified Kingdom Advisors there in Indianapolis at faithfi.com and just ask them as you inquire with them, you know, how they're compensated and whether they can do just a planning engagement. If you stay on the line, though, I'd be happy to get your information and get you connected with some folks specifically that could serve in this area. That'd be great. Okay.
Absolutely. Steve, stay on the line. Our team will get your information and I'll get in touch with you. Thanks for your call today, sir.
You know what? We're going to finish. Well, I think we're out of time. Unfortunately, John is in Seattle. John, I'd love to tackle your question.
I wonder if you could stay right there and our team will get you scheduled for tomorrow, but we appreciate your call today. You know, folks, we covered a lot of ground today. I'm so grateful for, again, the visit from my good friend, Randy Alcorn.
We'll certainly get him back in the near future. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we want all Christians to see God as their ultimate treasure and to be equipped to make wise decisions in managing his money. And here's what's exciting. We hear this in the stories of our listeners every day. When you do that, when you do that, boy, it's just incredible to see what God can do as you're able to follow the leading of the Lord and the Holy Spirit by not being encumbered by debt and just being free to serve and maintaining an eternal perspective. If you want to support our work, this is a really important time. As we head toward the end of our fiscal year at June the 30th, we'd invite you to be a giver at faithbuy.com slash give. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith Buy. Thank you to my team today, Jim, Dan, Amy, and Anthony. Couldn't do it without them. We'll see you tomorrow.
