Save a Fortune on Your Mortgage

You've heard the expression penny wise and pound foolish. Here in the States, we could say penny wise and dollar foolish.

Hi, I'm Rob West. A good example is when someone is more concerned about the interest they're getting on their savings account than the interest they're paying on their mortgage. I'll talk about that today, and 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 decisions. Now don't get me wrong, it's great to shop around for the best interest rates on savings. My point is that it's a whole lot better to pay attention to how much you're paying in interest on your mortgage because efforts to reduce it will pay off so much more. Just take a hard look at the amount of interest you'll pay over the life of a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, and it should be all the incentive you need to pay it off as fast as possible. Let's say you take out a $375,000 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 7.3%. That's the median sales price for a home these days and an average interest rate. At the end of that term, you'll have paid just over $550,000 in interest, making the true cost of the home closer to $925,000. So with today's higher interest rates, it's more important than ever to get your mortgage paid off as quickly as possible. So let's say you take out that 30 year mortgage but decide to pay an extra $300 a month on principal. You might have to make some sacrifices to do that, but again, it'll pay off big.

How big? Well, if you pay that extra $300 each month, you'll pay off the 30 year loan eight years and three months faster, saving you, are you ready for this? $176,000 in interest. So you see, paying off more of the principal amount each month is huge, and it really needs to be a priority in your financial decision making.

There are four steps to getting there. First, you need a spending plan, not just because it's a good idea and everyone should have one, which is true. You need a budget because you can't start the process of accelerating your mortgage payments without one. And setting up your spending plan is now easier than ever with the FaithFi app. It uses the envelope system to make budgeting easy and it'll track your spending and reveal things you can cut to free up more cash.

For example, cutting back on your streaming services, limit eating out, put a moratorium on new clothes purchases, even if it's just for a month or two. If you need more incentive to tighten the belt, consider that saving just $25 a month and putting it on your mortgage will net you $22,000 in reduced interest payments in the example we gave before. Now the next step is to determine just how much of that extra cash you can apply to your mortgage. You can even make it a budget category all by itself. The point is, anything extra you put on your mortgage now will be worth a lot more down the road, so make that number as big as you can.

Now the next step is something anyone can do. It's using money that comes your way outside of your budget, as with a bonus or a tax refund. Put that unexpected cash on your mortgage principal as well as the surplus money you've identified in your budget. Now if you haven't set up an online account with your lender, do that now.

Most lender websites make it easy to apply extra payments to the principal just by clicking a button or two. And while you're logged in, you'll be able to see the running balance of your principal, keep track of it, watch it go down as you make extra payments. That'll help you stay motivated.

And remember, celebrate your progress along the way. And the sooner you start, the more money you'll save that can be put to better uses. Proverbs 21 5 says, slow and steady plotting brings prosperity, so start plotting steadily towards your early mortgage payoff.

Now, while you're doing all of this, wouldn't it be great to know that you're actually helping to make the world a better place and expanding the kingdom just by paying your mortgage? Well, you can do that with Movement Mortgage, an underwriter of this program. This is a decidedly Christian mortgage company that was founded amid the housing crisis of 2008 to help Christian home buyers and to have a positive impact in communities in the US and around the world. Besides offering competitive rates, Movement gives its customers a chance to participate in, well, a movement of change.

In a little over 15 years, the company has donated, you ready for this, $377 million to projects helping local communities. Movement has 775 locations nationwide and can service loans in all 50 states. So if you're looking for a mortgage, we hope you check out Movement at faithfi.com slash movement.

That's faithfi.com slash movement. All right, your calls are next. The number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith in Finance Live. Stick around. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal or other professional who understands your specific situation. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance Live. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions here in just a moment. The question or the number to call, I should say, with your question is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. The lines are open, but they won't be open forever. So now is a great time to call to get in the queue, and we'll look forward to talking to you here in just a moment.

Let me also say in the meantime, Bob Dahl will be coming up a little later in our broadcast. He'll stop by in our final segment and give us an update on the markets and the economy. The NASDAQ actually closed at a record high today.

That's right, a never seen before level. The S&P 500 was barely positive and the Dow was down, although it's still bumping up against 40,000, which means we are sky high. What does Bob think about all that and where might the market be headed from here?

We'll find out a little later in our broadcast. Also in the news today, have you heard of Spaving? That's right. It's the new name for an old advertising gimmick trying to make you believe that you can spend more to save Spaving. Some experts are saying that as inflation cuts into retail sales, companies are beefing up ads that essentially say the more you spend, the more you save. But you have to be careful with ads like that, because the truth is you can never save by spending. Clearly, it's important to live on a budget and spend within that budget, but that's still spending. The only way you can ever save is by not spending.

So draw up a budget and stick to it. And by the way, the new FaithFi app can help with that. FaithFi 4.0 came out last week with a brand new design, new features that you've been asking for.

And it's the way Julie and I stay on budget every month. You can download it in your app store. Just search for FaithFi. You can also get it from our website, faithfi.com.

Just click app. It will be a big help to you and it can help you avoid being a Spaver. All right. We're going to take your calls today. Calls are coming in quickly, but I've still got a few lines open. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand is the number to call. Let's head to Wisconsin and welcome Catherine to the broadcast.

Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. Just one quick note on the saving. My grandfather used to joke when my grandma would come home with something that she had not intended to buy. But oh, look how much money I saved.

He would say he couldn't afford for her to save him so much money. That's great. I love that. It sounds like he sounds like a guy I would have gotten along with very well. Thanks for sharing that.

He's a great guy. OK. My question. We're looking at buying a used minivan. It's about four years old. It has about 50000 miles.

No known issues. It's about thirty two thousand dollars. We have the cash in hand, but I know that sometimes dealers will give like discounts for financing. So I'm wondering what the best way to go about getting the best deal is, whether to finance and then just pay it off really fast or just to go ahead and pay cash or what? Yeah.

You know, it's a great question. And there's no doubt dealers make money in all kinds of ways, expensive upgrades and maintenance and extended warranties and financing. So, you know, the latter is especially attractive to the dealers. And so they they know if they can get you on a loan, then they're more willing to cut you a deal on the price of a car. You know, what I would prefer you do is you just don't disclose to the extent that you can whether you have a trade in how you're going to finance anything like that until you have a deal on the price for the vehicle, because the ultimately, you know, that question of buying for cash or financing, you are absolutely going to pay less for a vehicle overall if you're paying in cash.

Certainly, if you're assuming the price is the same, but even if the price is a tad higher, you just have to count the cost on what that financing is going to run you. Now, if you have the ability to pay cash, I think that's what you're getting at. You know, the idea as long as there's not a prepayment penalty that you could kind of negotiate to your advantage that better deal and then pay it off as soon as possible. You know, that's certainly a way to go. I would rather you not, you know, deal with the fees associated with it. And again, try to get in and not necessarily talk about whether you're financing or not, just get that out the door price, negotiate as best as you can.

And you know, the way I have typically done it, Catherine is once I find the make and model and the year that I'm looking for, and I've done all my research, and I've looked at consumer reports and the reliability ratings and safety and all of that, I'll take in some cases a month or two just to scour the web. My last car I bought three states away, I jumped on an airplane, I flew up there, I got a cheap hotel, got up the next morning, bought the car, drove it home and saved three or four thousand dollars. So I think I would rather you not finance it and just do your homework at the very best deal you can. But if you discover that at the end of the day you can do better and there's not prepayment penalties and you've counted all the extra costs and you can come out ahead, then I wouldn't be opposed to that so long as you don't get into it and just say, well, it's kind of nice to hang on to the cash and this payment kind of fits in our budget. We'll just stick with it.

I mean, you've got to be committed to paying that thing off if that makes sense. Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome. We appreciate your call and thanks for that fun anecdote about your granddad. Let's go to Illinois. Hi, Renee.

How can I help? Hi, Rob. Thanks for calling. Yeah, sure.

Thanks for being there. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should take my credit cards. I've got four credit cards. I've got about $6,500 in debt, and I want to get rid of that debt. Should I go through, like, the Trinity finance program, consolidate that and save some of those penalties and things and get that paid off, or would it be better for my credit just to go ahead and do the best I can, make the payments, you know, this summer I will be able to make some extra payments on that because I make a lot more money in the summer. Which way would really be the best for my future?

Yeah. Well, usually kind of that number that's the tipping point for me is around $4,000. If you've got more than $4,000 in credit card debt, I like you using a debt management program. You'll hear us recommend Christian credit counselors just because we've worked with them for years and they've served hundreds and hundreds of our listeners.

I know Trinity is an underwriter at Moody Radio, and so I would have no issue with you going with Trinity whatsoever. The key is, I think, debt management, the combination of that level payment plus the ability to add more as you're able, plus the massive reduction in the interest rates is going to help you get out of debt, then do it in a way that establishes the right disciplines and behaviors. So hopefully once you're out of debt quicker because of the lower interest, you're going to stay out of debt.

So that's the key for me. In terms of your credit, it's not a part of the credit scoring algorithm, so there's not a one-to-one relationship between you going into a debt management program and your score coming down. It could be noted when these accounts are closed that you're in a debt management program, a lender pulling that report might see that. Also, closing the account is going to change your credit utilization, so that could bring your score down. But unless you're going out to buy a house or a car in the next six months, I probably wouldn't worry about it.

I'd be more inclined to you to go through debt management and save a whole bunch of money. Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely. Thank you. All right. You're welcome.

God bless you. Folks, we're going to take a break. All the lines are full. We've got some great questions coming up. We will get to those just around the corner. This is Faith and Finance live here on Moody Radio. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'll be right back. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance live.

I'm Rob West. Hey, as we head toward the end of June, what's so important about that? Well, it's vacation season. The kids are out of school. Sun's out.

It's a little warmer. It's also the end of our fiscal year here at Faith Buy, which just means that at the end of our year, we true up our budgets and we get ready for another year of ministry. And boy, God has been so good to us.

We've seen so much life change as people are applying these principles and being freed up from debt and going on the mission field and giving generously and just enjoying the blessing of living according to God's principles. And we only do that each day because of your generous support. And this is a really important time for us to hear from you. And so if you would be interested in making a gift to Faith Buy between now and June the 30th, that would be an incredible blessing to us. We are working toward our year end goal. So starting April 1st, we said our goal was to see one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in listener support come in.

Would you know, we're already bumping up against one hundred thousand of that. So we've got about seventy five thousand to go over the next forty one days. And so if you would give a gift of any amount, whether you give one time or monthly, we'd certainly be grateful. You could just head to our website at Faith Buy dot com and click Give.

That's Faith Fi dot com and click Give. And thanks in advance. Let's head back to the phones to Chicago. We go. Hi, Bob. Thanks for calling, sir.

Go ahead. Thanks, Rob. Hey, I'm in Chicago helping my mom go through my dad's stuff. And I was she was showing me some of her financials and she had the John Hancock Safe Access account. I think this was my dad's life insurance policy that they paid out when he passed away.

And it's in the amount of one hundred sixteen thousand five hundred. And what it looks like is they're paying her one percent interest. It's like a checking account.

They gave her checkbooks to use. It's really uses it to pay the tax and the mortgage. At this point, I was wondering, can she move that money somewhere else to get a better interest rate or I mean, she's collecting Social Security. She gets like thirty two thousand with Social Security and her pension or my dad's pension. Yeah, absolutely, Bob. And I'm glad you're asking this question, because this is essentially when you have proceeds from a policy at John Hancock, they essentially take those either the claim or the surrender request and they deposit that money into that safe access account.

That's just their name for it. And it's essentially a personal checking account that earns interest, but not very much interest, because, as you said, it's only paying one percent and she's got checkwriting privileges on it. She can take that money out at any time. Are there places she could put that money with just as much safety but getting a better rate of return?

Absolutely. Now, do you handle her finances, Bob, or does she do everything herself? She does everything herself with my sister's help.

OK, listen with her. OK, well, would she be open to using an online savings account with FDIC insurance if your sister set it up and linked it to her checking account? Or would she rather only do business with kind of brick and mortar credit unions and banks that she can walk into? No, she's OK with doing that online. She has a bank, Chase, that she uses as well that has money in there and she goes to the bank from time to time to take cash out.

Yeah, great. You know what I would probably do? I mean, you could check and see whether Chase has a high yield savings account that is competitive. I'm not sure if they do or not, but you could probably or what I would recommend is your sister goes to Bankrate.com and just click on high yield savings, see who's paying the highest yields right now with FDIC insurance and a five star rating or something close to it.

And what you're going to find is that she can do a lot better than that. I mean, there are high yield savings accounts paying five percent right now. So somewhere between four and a half and five percent with the full FDIC insurance, no minimums, no fees. And once she picked one, she'd open that account online. Once it's set up, she could then write a check out of her safe access account and mail it in or connected electronically and move the money electronically. And then once it hits that account, I mean, she's going to earn five percent on her money.

So instead of making eleven hundred dollars over the next year, you know, she's going to get about well with the one hundred and fifteen thousand, she's going to get fifty seven hundred dollars, which would be great. So, yeah, there's no reason not to do that. OK, appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Did you have a second question? No, no, no, I know she has an IRA that is being paid down as well with R&D. So and I'm not worried about that. That seems to be going fine. So, OK. Yeah. The only thing I would say on that, Bob, is if she's doing any giving, any charitable giving out of cash, so out of her checking or savings account, and she wants to replace that same giving with charitable distribution out of her IRA, she can satisfy that required minimum, get it all to the ministry or charity and not have it added to her taxable income for the year.

So she could save a little bit on taxes and get more into the kingdom and again, not give any more if she doesn't want to, because she could just replace the giving she's doing out of cash. Does that make sense? Yes, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely, Bob. Thanks for calling today. Well, folks, we're going to be taking more of your questions.

John and Fox Lake will be coming your way and Jeff's in Ohio. Let me mention, if you are having trouble staying on budget, we would love for you to check out the FaithFi app. But also in the app, in addition to the money management system, is our FaithFi community. And it's been so much fun just to watch the conversations that are going on inside the FaithFi community as stewards like you are posting questions and getting answers, providing encouragement to each other and giving each other tips and ideas. And you can access it on our website at faithfi.com. All it takes is a free account. It's also right there in the app. So when you download the FaithFi app, you've got the money management system, you've got all the articles and the content and the broadcast archives, which you've also got right there in our community, the ability to ask questions.

And if you want to send a question along to us to be read on the air, maybe you don't want to call in, well, you can do that at moodyradio.org slash finance. So there's a lot of ways to participate with us. We'd just love for you to engage with any questions.

All right, a quick break and back with much more just around the corner. Hey, coming up just in the next segment, Bob Doll will stop by. Bob is chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

A lot to talk to Bob about. We've got more inflation data. Is inflation cooling?

We'll find out. Also, over the last 12 months, listen to this federal interest expense. So that's the interest we pay on our national debt is up by 39 percent to an all time high of over eight hundred billion dollars. The CBO, that's the Congressional Budget Office, projects that publicly held federal debt will reach an all time high in 2029.

That's surpassing the level reached following World War Two. We'll find out what impact all of that is going to have on the markets and Bob's view just ahead. But in the meantime, we're taking your calls and questions. We've got it looks like all the lines full. So let's head right back to the phones.

Fox Lake, Illinois. Hi, John. Go ahead, John. Hey, Rob.

First, I appreciate everything you and your team does on a daily basis for press people trying to learn. I'm 60 years old. I hope to retire somewhere between five and seven, maybe eight years. I'm putting twenty three percent of my all income into my 401 and my Roth. But I have a mortgage that's about 170 thousand, probably still twenty five years to pay off as we bought this house late in life. And my interest rate on mortgages, two point one. So I've been maxing out the 401, but I don't know if I should be you know, obviously when you retire, you want to have no debt. Yeah. And I don't know if I'm making a smart decision because my 401 certainly doing better than two point one percent. I just like to get some thoughts on that.

Yeah, it's a great question. And wow, what an interest rate you got there. That's unbelievable. You know, I think as we look at this, I mean, this is more and more common now used to be that half of retirees would enter retirement completely debt free, including their homes.

Now it's about a third. And so, you know, that biggest expense is not off the table, which means we've got to have a higher income. You know, with that said, I think there's something to be said about you taking advantage of these next eight years to continue to to sock money away. So apart from you just really have a conviction to be debt free. And if you did, I'd say go ahead and pay it off and don't look back.

But apart from that, I mean, I think you're exactly right. The idea that we're living longer means that we need to keep a larger mix of stocks than maybe we would have 20 years ago. So, you know, today they typically will say take one hundred and ten minus your age. Well, with you being 60, I mean, that would say you should still have probably 50 percent in stocks, which means you've got a portion of your portfolio, you know, even eight years from now when you retire. I mean, you're probably going to want a good 40 percent in stocks that could be continuing to grow because you need this money to last decades and you don't have a high bar to overcome with your interest rate being so low on that two point one percent. So I would say the idea that during the peak of your earnings years, you could continue to get a deduction as that money goes in or to sock it away with tax free growth in the Roth and you hopefully not needing to touch that. Obviously, at any point, especially with the Roth money, you could pull that money out and pay off the mortgage.

But at least for now, you can take advantage of, you know, whatever the market has to offer, not only for the next eight years, but for the next several decades when we factor in that a portion of this will probably need to stay in stocks to overcome inflation. So I probably wouldn't be rushing to pay it off if it were me again, unless you and or your wife just really wanted to be debt free and unencumbered. And I would understand that. OK, that makes sense. And you bring up an interesting that I could down the road take the Roth money to pay off or pay down the mortgage as well.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, so at any point after fifty nine and a half, as long as that Roth has been open at least five years, that money comes out tax free and you'd have the ability to pay it off. You know, obviously we could have much higher tax rates down the road. And as that traditional IRA or 401K money comes out, it's going to be taxable. Now, you could do some giving through that and not pay the tax so long as the qualified charitable distribution is in place. But yeah, if you keep the mortgage at this low interest rate, you have options down the road, namely through the Roth money, even tax free options to go and pay it down. And maybe, you know, by you guys keeping your lifestyle at a minimum, you know, even beyond you fully maxing out your retirement plans, maybe you still have two or three or four hundred dollars extra a month or every couple of months that you could throw at this thing and try to accelerate it. So maybe it's not twenty five years, but maybe it's, you know, more like 15 or something like that. And then that way, by the time you hit retirement, you know, maybe you've cut that balance in half. And now we're talking an 80 or 90 thousand dollar balance instead of 170. OK, makes sense. Yeah.

I hate to get rid of that two point one interest. Man, that's incredible. You must have hit it on the right day at just the right moment, John. That's amazing.

I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are envious of you. Hey, thanks for calling, my friend. May the Lord bless you.

Let's go to Ohio. Hi, Jeff. How can I help you? How are you doing?

I'm doing I have a question. My mother in law is in a nursing home and she needs around the clock care. And we are trying to manage her finances for her. We wanted to take some of the money from the sale of her condo and invest it into something to help, you know, help pay the costs of the care for her in the nursing home.

I'm just asking, what would you recommend that we take? What kind of investments we would use to invest into that maybe for a short period of time and then be able to draw out from it, maybe in like 10 years from now? Yeah.

Yeah, that's helpful. What what were the proceeds of the condo sale? They made one hundred eighty five thousand. We had to pay commission on it, but we mean was one hundred and seventy that we have.

We have one hundred and fifty left right now. She's been in there since September and we want to avoid capital gains tax as well with that. Well, did she live in this property in this condo? Yes. OK, so you.

Yeah, you are you sure you're going to have capital gains because from the date of sale going back five years, if she lived in it for two out of those five years prior to the date of sale, she gets at least a quarter of a million dollars that she can exclude from capital gains in profits. OK, OK. Well, yes, she lived up until up until the time we had to take her to the nursing home. OK. Yeah. And what was the gain that you had?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Yeah, no problem. So the selling I mean, it was less than two hundred fifty. So there shouldn't be any capital gains on this whatsoever. So you've got one hundred percent after commissions and expenses to be able to invest. Now, did I hear you say you're not needing to draw anything out of this in the immediate term that you have other resources to pay her expenses?

And this would be more like 10 years down the road. Yeah, well, we currently the cost is just over five thousand dollars a month to take care of her. And she has money that comes in regularly that puts it about four thousand.

So, you know, we just want to take some of the money that she has and invest it into something to help, you know, to prolong the cost of taking care of her. Yeah. OK, good. Unfortunately, I'm up against a break.

You and I can talk a bit more off the air. But bottom line is I would get this invested and put it in a really conservative portfolio with a goal. I mean, the challenge is, you know, if you guys need a thousand a month, you're going to need to make eight percent a year. And so that's more than I would be wanting to make in a portfolio like this.

So it's going to be declining over time. But stay on the line. We'll talk more off the air and we'll be right back with much more.

Stay with us. Hey, great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. In just a moment, we'll head back to the phones and talk to Nancy in Port St. Lucie and Carlos in Portland, Tennessee. But first, here on a Monday, it's time to check in with our good friend Bob Doll.

He's chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments, and he joins us each Monday with his market commentary. And Bob, you know, here we are to another all time record on the NASDAQ today. Dow Jones off just a bit, but we're still bumping up against 40,000. So I guess investors are telling us that they still like what they see, huh? That they are. There's no question, Rob, we are in an environment where the path is higher as individuals, frankly, with a lot of cash are saying the economy's OK, I'll buy some stocks and that's what's been driving this puppy to new highs. There's no question about it.

We lost you there for a moment, but I think I got most of what you said there. What about first quarter earnings, Bob? I know you were talking about earnings again in your comments this week. You know, the good news is first quarter earnings are almost finished.

We will be this when retail finishes its reporting. They've been slightly above expectations, but I'm going to pick on it. Rob, the full year numbers have not moved up. So when you when a quarter surprises to the upside, you think the whole year be moved up, but not so. I think analysts are realizing their numbers for the balance this year, particularly in the second half or too high. Yeah.

All right. What about the consumer, Bob? I mean, I know we're kind of teetering on that edge where there's plenty of optimism, although I know you said consumer confidence is starting to to turn over and we've got these delinquencies on the rise, right with regard to debt. Yes, the consumer is two thirds of the US economy, so it's pretty key. And we see now for quite some time, low in consumers struggling, as you know, Rob, some evidence that they're taking credit card balances to pay their bills, et cetera. But in the Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey of two Fridays ago, we began to see mid level consumers struggle. That's the first time.

And that's a warning shot. We can make it with low end consumers struggling. We can't make it if low and mid income consumers are struggling. That will create some economic weakness. OK. Now, Bob, I mentioned a moment ago to our listeners when I said you were going to join us, that we'd talk about what was your comments in this week's commentary about federal interest expense. Give us an overview of that and just how we need to be thinking about that. You know, so as you know, Rob, in the last decade, as debt went up, interest rates came down.

So it wasn't such a big deal. But in the last couple of years, the debt's gone up and interest rates have gone up. So interest expense has gone through the roof, up nearly 40 percent year over year and up to now on an annualized basis, over eight hundred billion dollars.

That's a big number, Rob. And eventually we, America, are going to have to deal with it. Otherwise, we're going to have massive problems. And so far, there is no sign from either political party that they want to engage in austerity to fix this problem that we have. So keep your eyes fixed on this one.

Yeah, it's going to be painful either way. Dealing with it, not dealing with it seems like sooner rather than later would be better. But who is going to step up and make that case? That remains to be seen. Bob, what about let's finish with inflation. Any signs at all from any of the latest data that this thing is starting to turn over?

Not really. I should give the optimists a good point. We had three disappointing inflation monthly numbers in a row. The one reported last week was not bad.

It wasn't good, but it wasn't as bad. So there's some hope on the part of the optimists. We need a couple of more months like that to have any possibility of witnessing interest rates coming down.

We're stuck with inflation in the in the mid to high threes, just shy of four, which is not anywhere close to the fifth two percent target. And that's a problem. Yeah, it really is.

And we're feeling that every day. All right, Bob, we appreciate it, my friend. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good one. Bye bye. All right. That's Bob Doll.

He's chief executive officer at Crossmark Global Investments. All right. Let's finish out with as many calls as we can get to. Nancy, thank you for waiting patiently there in Port St. Lucie. Go ahead. Hi. First of all, I want to thank you for all the years of advice that you have given us, Christian and non-Christian. I am so thankful for you and I'm thankful for this call that I finally got through.

My questions were both answered with previous guests, but I want to get your opinion. OK. I owe twenty four thousand dollars in credit cards and I want to stop that. And I contacted Trinity Council and they told me that instead of twenty something, whatever I'm paying interest, they can lower it to 12 percent. But I would have to pay five hundred and forty dollars a month. But I want to reduce that because I really cannot afford five hundred and forty. So I asked her if I would put get six thousand dollars out of my Roth account. I'm over fifty nine. My income is not really high. So I know that I'm not going to pay any taxes on that. If I take six thousand and put it towards those twenty four thousand, reducing it to eighteen, how much would I pay? And she said four hundred and fifteen. Now that I can do.

So I'm thinking I've really never done this before, but I what do you think? Yeah, I'm not opposed to it because the key is you don't want to go into a debt management program when you can't afford the payment because then it's not sustainable. Even though debt management is my preferred way, there is a set amount you'll need to send every month as a minimum.

And clearly it's beyond what you have available. I like the idea that you're over fifty nine. The Roth money is able to be pulled tax free.

That's great. What would that leave you with? Are you drawing from any of these retirement assets currently or are you just living on Social Security? I'm living on Social Security and I'm still working. OK. All right.

And what would that leave you in retirement accounts altogether? Well, not enough. I need to up it somehow.

But God's going to have to give me another job. Sure. You answered my question that that I feel better now that I can trust them. And yeah, I think the only thing you will think in it.

So let me just say one quick thing. And that is, you know, I'd love for you to get to the place where you have a plan for if you were to have to stop working, how you would cover your bills. And obviously one key to that is the ability for you to pay off this debt, because then that would get rid of 400 a month and maybe that would do it. But I think, you know, the extent to which you can work as long as you can so that you can get out of debt completely and let's start working on that nonworking budget, that retirement budget.

If that's part time income goes away, I'd love for you to have a plan on how you're going to balance that the budget from that point forward. So thank you for calling in for your kind remarks about the program. Please call back anytime. Let's finish up today in Portland, Tennessee. Hi, Carlos, how can I help? Yes, sir.

So, Mike, thank you so much for taking my call. My question is I there's I just moved here from California. I just started a new job here literally about a week ago. There is a home for sale that I just happened to come across this morning. It's right up the street from where I'm running. It's only 154,000. I really don't have a whole lot to put down for a down payment. And looking at it based off of what it says on Zillow, and I know it can be misleading as far as like monthly payments and so but it would be about what I'm paying for rent. This new job is very promising. I mean, it's very stable.

It seems like Lord willing, that'll be the case. But I just wanted to know being that I don't have a whole lot to put down as a down payment. Is it a smart move to get into a house right now, even if it is only 154,000? Or what?

What would you say would be my best? Yeah, because it seems like it checks off all of the boxes as far as what my family I have a wife and a daughter and as far as what our needs are, it checks all the boxes off and maybe even potentially to be a rental home down the road when we get something a little bigger, but for a startup, it's good. So yeah, no, I hear you in that. And you know, I mean, I think the rules of thumb we use and that's all they are. I mean, they're starting point is we want 20% down.

Clearly, you don't have that yet. And we want to make sure that payment principal interest taxes and insurance is no more than 25% of your take home pay. Now that's challenging in Nashville, because this is one of those market, I mean, the entire country's hot right now, Nashville, and, you know, a few places in Florida, and, you know, a few places like Austin, Texas and California, I mean, they're really hot.

And so you're in one of those markets that you know, the housing prices are just up. And so I don't want you to rush that, especially in light of these interest rates, that is just really going to make this challenging. And so my preference would be that you all wait, let the interest rates come down and you save but let me ask, I mean, are you able to put anything aside every month after the bills are paid?

Oh, yes, absolutely. We're we don't, we have very minimum, we don't have any debt. I mean, I'm the only one that works, but I have a very good job, or I just got a very good job. So we definitely are able we have been in the habit of saving for a while. So what would you say the your average monthly surplus is? So putting away, we're probably looking at around, and it's because I haven't made a whole lot of my past careers that I've had, but I were able to put around like 1500 away monthly, so okay, great. Well, I mean, you know, with $154,000 home, I mean, we're looking ideally for you to have 30 grand. And you know, what do you have today that you could put toward a down payment?

I only have about probably $3,000. And would that deplete your entire emergency fund? No, sir, it wouldn't.

It wouldn't. I have we have two accounts. I had more I had about 7000 earlier this month, but I had to use a bunch to move out here. So okay. Well, I mean, here's the thing. I mean, in 18 months, you'd have your 20% at 1500 a month. So I think I would prefer especially if you don't have a fully funded emergency fund, you're new to town. You know, you're still trying to get your feet wet there in Nashville, you might even not even sure on what part of town you want to settle in.

So I'd probably as much as you want to be a homeowner, my preference would be you save, keep your expenses low, save that 1500 a month and somewhere between 12 and 18 months from now, get it at a lower interest rate with a full 20% down payment. That's my best advice. God bless you, Carlos. Thanks for calling faith and finance lives a partnership between Moody radio and faith five. Thank you to Jim, Lisa, Dan and Amy. We'll see you tomorrow.