Escape the World’s Money Trap

My eyes are ever toward you. And what's really interesting is that it's not really determined by how much money we make, is it? It's really not. It might surprise you to know that we can feel trapped whether we're struggling, stable, or even if we have a surplus. If you're living beyond your means, you'll be trapped in the fear of the unexpected. But if you're living right at your means, you may be worrying about the future. And if you're living beneath your means, believe it or not, you can still worry that you might not ever have enough. In fact, this weekend, I was talking with an older relative in my family, and she was concerned she didn't have enough.

And I literally did a calculation, and she has enough reserves for 48 additional years of life, which would take her to about 120. I'm sure that was reassuring to you. Hopefully it was. Yeah. And so, in John 17, Jesus says, I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you've given me, for they are yours. I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but you protect them from the evil one. They're not of the world, even as I'm not of it.

Yeah, that's a powerful passage. So we're in the world, not of the world. Sharon, why don't you connect that to what that means with our finances?

Well, it doesn't mean that we stop going to the store, that we live off the land. But God's word does tell us how to escape the world's money trap, the things we were just talking about, with three life-changing concepts. And we like to call it God's economy versus man's economy.

So the first one is lordship. We need to surrender to the fact that he owns it all. We've quoted this scripture a lot, Psalm 24, 1. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. The second concept is stewardship, and that is we want to use God's resources to fulfill his purposes.

Genesis 2 15 says the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and care for it. And then finally, the third concept is generosity. Sharing releases the world's grip on us. Let's think about the Macedonians that we find in 2 Corinthians 8. In fact, verse 2 says, out of the most severe trials, their overflowing joy and extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

Oh, that's so good. I love how we can simplify God's economy into lordship, stewardship, and generosity. Now, of course, the next question is, how do we apply this practically, these spiritual concepts, in our practical financial lives?

Well, there's really three very practical ways that I've found to escape that world's money trap. First of all, is to transfer ownership to God. Our friend and mentor, Howard Dayton, actually created a deed where you list all the things that you have and sign it over to the Lord. Just as a practical exercise to say, God, this is yours in the first place. I'm giving it back to you. Second thing is to create financial margins so that you're able to fulfill God's purposes.

Without margin, we are really trapped. And then the third thing is to grow in giving and in sharing. Let's talk about that for a moment. For folks listening today wondering, how do I be more generous?

What does that look like? Well, first of all, we need to realize that money is a tool. We talk about that a lot here on Faithfi. It's a good servant, but a terrible master. And as you know, Jesus says we can't serve two masters. It can have power over us unless we use giving to break the power of money. And it's the only area where God says we need to test him to know that he will provide. I like to say money is powerful, but generosity is more powerful. Oh, that's so good. Well, Sharon, you've given us such great practical wisdom, but rooted in God's word. And we know that when we look to Scripture, we'll get wisdom that's always right.

It's always relevant and it will never change. Well, we're out of time for this segment of the program, Sharon. But can you stick around and help with some calls today? I would be delighted to. All right. That's going to be a lot of fun.

And I know folks always love to hear your point of view. So, folks, this is the time for you to call 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West with Sharon Epson. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. 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. We're so thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. With me in the studio today, Sharon Epson, president of Kingdom Advisors. She's also a frequent contributor here at Faith and Finance. And Sharon and I will be taking your calls and questions today.

Calls are coming in quickly, but we still have it looks like two lines open. So if you have a financial question today you'd like to get in the mix, we'd love to hear about it. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Sharon, I love where you started today with this idea of lordship and then stewardship and then generosity and then looking at the practical handles of those. I'm struck by the fact that there are spiritual issues underneath each of those. For instance, lordship is really a spiritual issue. When we think about stewardship, that's ultimately a self-discipline or self-control issue and generosity can be a contentment issue. But underneath our money decisions are really heart level conditions, right? Well, at the end of the day, all of our financial decisions, really all of our life decisions are spiritual decisions because they're all about how we relate with the Lord of the universe who made us and owns everything we have.

Boy, that changes everything when you understand that truth. Well, folks, let's apply that thinking to the practical decisions and choices you're making in your financial life today. We'll dive in now. We'll begin in Indiana. Danielle, you'll be our first caller. Go right ahead.

Hi. So I recently went through a terrible divorce and in the divorce decree, it stated that my husband was to take over one of the debts to which we had purchased a timeshare in Mexico on our honeymoon. And I have submitted to the collection agency, the divorce decree, and they are not willing to settle with me. They're not willing to even, if I were to pay the total amount, take my ex-husband's name off of it. And they told me that a joint debt supersedes any court order.

And I now am being affected. My credit's being affected terribly. And it's literally the only thing that I have in collections, but it's affecting my ability to do anything financially for myself and my daughters. And I kind of don't know if there's alternatives in a way to be able to get this out of collections and off of me.

Well, Danielle, first of all, we're really sorry to hear about the divorce and know that's so painful from a practical standpoint. Really, it is now the court with your ex-husband that needs to help. And so I understand what the timeshare is telling you, that they're not going to honor a court order. It's your ex-husband that needs to honor the court order.

And so that involves going back to the court and asking the judge to enforce that order. I would really recommend that you get an attorney to help you in that and to assess the likelihood of that happening. I think the other thing we want to be sure and caution you about is there are all kinds of companies out there that say that they can get you out of a timeshare and most of them are actually scams. So I think this is one of those instances where we need to seek wise counsel. And I would start with back with your attorney and see if the court can step in and help to get your husband to comply versus the timeshare people.

Danielle, this is a difficult situation, as Sharon said, and I wish we had a quick fix for it. Unfortunately, that timeshare is going to do everything they can to collect from anybody that they could possibly collect from. And because your name was on that initially, they're not going to be likely to let you out of that unless the court intervenes and requires them to do so. And then just know that you can get this cleaned up on the credit report. It will rebuild itself over time.

The key is to ultimately come up with a remedy that can be enforced in the meantime, and then there'll be time to remedy that credit report on the back end. But we'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom in that. We appreciate your call today and certainly keep us posted. We'd love to know how this one resolves. Let's go to Ohio. Hi, Valerie. How can we help? Hi.

My name is Valerie, obviously. My question is about giving and generosity. My husband and I have about a $2,800 living expenses.

We have two small girls. His job is he owns a nonprofit, and so he basically works contractually. So whatever he makes that month is what we put towards bills, and then whatever he gets in addition is automatically going towards the next month. I want to give more. He does as well, and we just don't know how that looks practically when we work on such a slim margin.

I don't have any extra expenses. Like, we keep it down to, like, we cut as much fat as possible. But let's just say, for instance, I've been brainstorming. We start giving, we just start giving $100. Like, if a little extra comes in here, a little extra comes in there and just sort of test that out and see what the Lord does with it. I really want to give. Oh, I love your heart for that, Valerie, and I think you're exactly on the right track. First of all, the Lord wants our heart first, and he's got that from you.

And then second of all, I think being created fits here. I would encourage you, even if it's a very small amount, to determine a small amount that you'll give off of anything that you get. But then there's also those opportunities when you might get more than you normally do that you might say, you know what? The first five percent, the first 10 percent of those. But I think there's kind of two pieces. One piece is what for every dollar I get, could I give five cents?

Could I get three cents? And then the second piece is, well, if it goes above X amount, then we want to give a certain percent. And then that way you're regularly giving, but then you also, when the Lord blesses you above what you expected, then you're also responding in the same way. Oh, it's so good. You know, it reminds me, Sharon and Valerie, of what our friend Ron Blue often says in this area of giving.

He talks about the should give, the could, the would give, or excuse me, the should give, the could give, and the would give. So it's this idea of let's exercise that giving muscle now, Valerie, where you say, I'm going to give a systematic amount that's proportionate that I can work into the plan. I'm going to do that every month. I'm not going to miss that opportunity to do something, even if it's not as much as I'd like to do. And then I'm going to say, OK, now I could give this amount if we reorder our finances. And I realize it's really slim. But then you're kind of deciding in advance, you know what, as the Lord blesses, we're going to trust that he's going to continue to provide.

And here's what we we plan to do down the road. We would do this if we see more come in the door and make this an adventure with God and see him respond. And it may not be financially.

It may, but it may be in other ways. But I think you'll feel a lot better as you just give as an overflow of just worship and trust and dependence on God for your provision. Even if it's not the level that you would like to be able to do someday, you're doing something every month. But then you're looking forward to that day where you can do more down the road as he provides. How does that sound, though? Sounds like a plan. I totally subscribe. Let me ask you this.

Do you think it would help you if we had a Christian financial counselor that would be able to work with you and your husband just to perhaps give you some creative ideas on how you could reorder your finances to maybe have a better plan that with some things you overlooked? Would you like that? I'd love that. OK, let's do this. So we're going to cover the cost of it.

It's a certified Christian financial counselor. You stay on the line. We'll get your information.

And this person will actually work with you to just try to take a look at your budget, give you some creative thoughts, maybe help you put a plan in place that allows you to squeak a little bit more out that maybe just what you're looking for for your giving. So stay on the line. We'll get you connected. Thanks for your call today.

Sharon Epps with me. I'm Rob West. This is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. Well, welcome back to Faith and Finance Live on Moody where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. I'm Sharon Epps and I'm in the studio today with Rob West and we are taking your call. So let's just jump right back to it. Sunithia, thank you for holding. You're from Stockbridge, Georgia. How can we help you today?

Yes, thank you for taking my call. My question is I'm a homeowner. I have a mortgage and I was wondering if it's necessary for me to put a will in place. I have an adult grown married daughter. She said she doesn't live with me. She's on practically all of the benefits of all my assets. And also, I put her on the POD for the bank accounts and things of that nature. Do I need to put a will in place? And secondly, how do I put her as the deed of the house? Yeah, I think the first question is do you want to do that?

So let me back up. I love the fact that you are well planned, Sunithia. It sounds like you've got your PODs in place payable on death and beneficiary designations. Any accounts or assets that do not have a designated beneficiary like a payable on death or a beneficiary designation will require your will for the court to know where you want them to go.

Otherwise, they'll make that decision for you. Well, somebody who's on a deed with you, that's ultimately going to come down to how the ownership is presented. So if it's joint tenants with right of survivorship, that means that you own the property equally. But when one of you passes away, the other has a right of survivorship. So it automatically the rest of that share passes to the surviving owner without going through probate. If it's instead tenancy in common, then their portion would stay with them and at your death, the remaining portion would then pass according to your will.

So always a good idea to have a will in place. But let's talk about whether it makes sense for her to be on the deed at all. Is she currently or are you the sole owner of this property? I'm the sole owner of the property. Okay. And are you thinking about putting her on the deed solely to transfer the property to her efficiently? Yes. Okay.

I think there's a better way to do it. And I will always say we're not attorneys, so it's always good to get legal counsel. But just in general, Sanithia, I think it's important to know that when she if she were to receive this home as an inheritance, one of the benefits of that is there's tax advantages in the form of what's called a step up in basis. So currently, if you sell this property, you'll pay capital gains tax based on the difference between your selling price and your original purchase price, your gain. Well, if you put her on the deed, she inherits your cost basis. So she'll play that capital gain as well upon the sale. If instead of you, though, gifting it to her by putting her on the deed, she inherits through your will at death, then she gets that step up in basis. So there's a benefit there. So I think what you would probably rather have is what's called a transfer on death deed or a trust.

And in that case, she would get it through an inheritance could also be a will where she would enjoy that tax advantage without you putting her on the deed now, which would be a gift and she would inherit your cost basis. And I realize this can get slightly confusing, but does that make sense? Yes, it does. It makes lots of sense.

Thank you. Okay, so I think the key for you is it sounds like you have an attorney that has prepared some of this in the past, perhaps your existing will. Is that right? Well, a sort of we haven't quite completed it. And I'm just kind of wondering if this is necessary for me to proceed with that.

Yeah, I think it is. And I think a visit to that estate attorney to say, let me finish out this will make sure I have a valid will in place. And let's talk about the efficient transfer of my real estate, whether that's just through the the will or if you want that to happen outside of probate, then you would look at perhaps adding a transfer on death deed if that's available in your state or a trust. And your attorney could talk you through all of that.

But I think at the very least, you want to make sure you have that will in place in addition to those beneficiary designations. Wonderful. That's great. Thank you so much. All right, Sanithya, thank you for your call today. Sharon Epps and I are taking your calls today. Let's head to St. Louis. Hi, Derek. Go ahead. Hey, thanks for having me on the show today.

Sure. Okay, so my wife and I, we currently own our home and we wanted to upgrade. So should we use her 401k and borrow money from it? Should we get the money outright or should we just get a home loan to do any repairs on our current home so we can sell it so we can upgrade?

Great question, Derek. I think in general, we wouldn't recommend that you use retirement assets to take care of home improvements. And I think part of that is even if you can do what feels like a loan, you're actually taking a distribution out of that 401k and you're giving up the opportunity costs for the earnings in the 401k during the time that the loan is out. So typically, we'd recommend that you keep those assets earning money in your 401k and then take a look at how you pay for the home improvements. What's the value for home and what's the level of home improvements that you're anticipating? The value of our current home is $180,000 and the home that we were interested in purchasing was like $283,000 maybe. Okay.

Very good. And were you thinking, Derek, just to clarify that the upgrades would be to the existing home prior to the sale? Yes, it would be to our current home, yes, to get it up to par, you know, for buyers to be interested in purchasing it.

Yeah. So I think Sharon makes a great point. Let's not use the 401k for that. But I think the other piece of this is I would get a real estate professional in there to help you evaluate what to do and what not to do. Because what you'll find is a lot of things you think need to be done may be better served for you not to do because you're not going to get the money out. They may not help you get it sold. You really only want to focus on those things that are going to help you maximize that value and somebody who's a real estate professional that does that every day is going to help you distinguish between the two. And perhaps you'll find you need to borrow a lot less. But I think in order to get those done, once you all agree on what you're actually going to repair prior to the sale, probably thinking about a home equity loan would be the best option.

And then you could just pay it right back as soon as you sell the house. Hey, thanks for your call today, Derek. God bless you. This is Faith and Finance Live on Moody Radio. We'll be right back.

Helping you see God as your ultimate treasure. This is Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West with me in the studio today. Sharon Epps, we're taking your calls and questions. And here in the final half of our program, we've got some lines open room for your questions today at 800-525-7000. You can call right now. We'll get to as many of those questions as we can. Before we head back to the phones, let me mention here as we head toward the end of June. That's right. We're about to turn the month from May to June.

Hard to believe. But June 30 represents the end of our fiscal year here at FaithFi. So as a listener supported ministry, this is a really important time for us to hear from you with your gifts of any amount. So if you found value in the program, maybe you listen regularly and we hear from you all the time.

You say, listen, I count on this program on my way home from work every day or I've been able to apply this principle or idea. And it's really allowed the Lord to move in my life. If that's you, we'd invite you to be a supporter of our work here at Faith and Finance. Just head to FaithFi.com and click Give. That's Faith Fi.com and click Give. You'll find ways to give online over the phone or you can mail in a check as well. And a gift of any amount before June the 30th would go a long way to helping us reach our goal. You can track our progress right there at FaithFi.com.

Again, just click the button at the top that says Give and thanks in advance. All right. Let's head back to the phones. We're taking your questions today. We've got lines open. 800-525-7000.

To Park Rapids, Minnesota. Hi, Mark. Go ahead.

This is Mark. Yes, sir. Yeah, I have a question about fiduciary versus an investment advisor. Currently, through job dislocations, I guess you'd say, I've ended up with three people that are advisors, three different sums of money that they're watching. They've all been three been told that, hey, if you do the best investment plan or any plan for me, you'll probably end up with the whole amount. And neither one of those three have given me any sound advice. And I do watch the market. I am retired and wondering if I combine this into one if going through a fiduciary type investment advisor advisor makes sense.

Yeah, it's a great question, Mark. And it's one that comes up often, especially as this term fiduciary has gotten a lot more awareness in the last decade or so. You'll hear us on this program recommend the certified kingdom advisor designation.

And that's usually as a starting point that we will recommend. And the reason is that it's the only industry accepted designation like CPA or CFP. But this one, CK is specifically for those men and women who've met high standards and character and competence and really have been trained and demonstrated in themselves to be able to give biblically wise financial advice.

And so having somebody who shares your values, who can help you think about financial decision making and investing through the lens of biblical truth, aligning those decisions with your values as a believer, we believe is really important. Now, beyond that, different advisors will take different approaches. They will have different methods of compensation, and some of those advisors will be deemed as fiduciaries. That's just a term that means they're legally and ethically bound to act in the client's best interest. So they're bound to put the interests of their client ahead of their own. So they have to disclose all material information and have full transparency and act with a higher standard of care.

Now, you might say, why would I choose anything but that? Well, certain advisors don't have that mandate that rises to the level of fiduciary. They have a lower what they call suitability standard, which is basically where they may be able to recommend products that although they think are suitable for you, there may be a conflict of interest, meaning they may get paid more in commissions from one product over another. Yet they still think it's the best option for you. But someone could question whether that particular investment was selected because of the compensation that was paid out. And so the fiduciary removes all of that because that fiduciary standard rises above suitability to say, I always have to act in the best interest of the client regardless of the impact on me as the advisor.

So I think that's just something to look at. I like that option. And many certified kingdom advisors, in fact, most will be fiduciaries. But I would just add that to the list of questions you would ask as you make that interview. I hope that helps you, sir. We appreciate your call today. May the Lord bless you. Let's go to Pennsylvania. Hi, Lori.

How can we help? Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. I'm calling because I currently owe fifty eight thousand three hundred on my mortgage and our interest rate is very good at three point two five percent. We pay twenty seven hundred dollars a month. My husband just started collecting Social Security and he's wrapping up a contract right now and then won't be working. I'm working part time. I think it would be best to pay this off as soon as possible with extra payments as we're able rather than just continuing the life of the loan, which probably will be for three three and a half more years.

And I just wanted your sound advice on that. Well, Larry, I'm excited that you are wanting to be debt free. I would say that your three point two five percent interest is a good rate.

I think what I would look at is what your options are for your money. One and then number two, are you feeling convicted to be out of debt? And if you're feeling convicted to be out of debt, then look at what you could pay extra towards the principal. But one of the things I'd like to be sure of, especially since you're in a shifting income situation, is that you have a good emergency fund in place so that you don't find yourself so quickly paying on the principle that your liquidity or the cash that's available to you go down and you don't have enough should an emergency come up.

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about where these funds would come from if you were to accelerate the payoff and what is the status of what we call your emergency fund or your emergency savings right now. We're in good shape. We have six months emergency funds saved. The money would just be coming from the money my husband's getting from Social Security and the income I'm making, which is about two thousand dollars more than our debt every month, you know, with paying off bills. So I was thinking of paying off like an extra thousand dollars per month. Just I am convicted to be debt free and my husband is not.

So it's just kind of like two different ways of looking at this. Sure. Well, I think that's Sharon brings up a great point, though, because you've got some changes coming up in your financial life, that two thousand dollars surplus or cushion that you have every month right now. How will that be affected when his job situation changes?

We will still have that based on my income and based on what he will be bringing in from Social Security. Okay. And are you guys putting anything away from to to retirement on a monthly basis? Oh, yeah. Both of us. Our employers have programs for us. Okay.

So fully funded emergency fund, plenty of cushion and retirement. What do you think? I think the main thing is that the two of you agree. So we want you to be in unity. So I would encourage you to have some further conversations and just talk about the goals and share those convictions and see if you can come to agreement.

Yeah. It could be that maybe as you talk it through, he doesn't fully understand your level of conviction. Maybe there's a little bit of give there.

Maybe you can more fully understand his desire to have a little bit bigger cushion and what's driving that. And maybe you guys end up meeting in the middle where you're continuing to accelerate savings or maybe even giving. But on top of that, you are absolutely continuing to accelerate the mortgage in hopes that you can be debt free well before that planned schedule says. Thanks for your call, Laurie. We'll be right back. We are so glad that you are with us here on faith and finance live on media radio. I'm Sharon Epps and delighted to be in the studio today with Rob West and we are enjoying taking your call. So let's just jump right back in. Rob, how about Esther in Indiana? How can we help you today?

Hi. Thank you both for taking my call. We are seniors considering buying a rental property for cash, but we are concerned about the upcoming election, the state of our economy and inflation, of course. And the question is, do you think it's a good time to buy? And do you think that the cost of property will come down that maybe we should wait till later date?

Well, we certainly aren't prognosticators on the economy, and there are a lot of uncertainties. I would look more towards your personal goals and what you're looking to accomplish with the rental property. Tell me a little bit about your financial situation, your savings and fundings, and then what your goal would be to have the rental property. Okay, well, we have savings and we own our own home. We're on social security, so we don't make much coming in. Most of our savings are in CDs, so we're collecting interest at this time. Of course, it's a good interest, but that will change. It's kind of a two-fold need, extra income.

Like I said, we have no margin. Everything that comes in goes to our bills. And in addition, we want to kind of have a little bit of an impact on our income. Our house is very large, and we want a smaller house later. Right now, my husband has a shop and so forth, so we want to stay here, but in the future, we'd like to downsize. So would this rental property be that home that you'd ultimately move into, or would that be a different home? No, it would be the same home, something we would move into.

So you're just buying it early and renting it out, and then eventually you'd move into it? Yes. Okay.

And you said you'd be paying cash. Tell us about your liquid investments that you have. Is it just the CDs? Yeah. Okay. And so what do you have in CDs today? Roughly?

Roughly about 700. Okay. And what would you be looking to spend on this property? We're looking at a property right now for, comfortably, I would say 200, but this property is 215. Okay.

Got it. So you'd pull that from the 700, which would leave you a little, maybe $450,000 after expenses. And are you pulling anything from the 700? Are you living on any portion of that interest to supplement your Social Security? Not really. We did when we first bought, so we did pull out of savings to redo things in the house, but not really. We're basically living on our Social Security. Okay.

So that interest is continuing to accrue. And in terms of this property, does it need much work, the one that you're looking at? No.

It's actually a townhouse. Oh, okay. Nice. And how do you guys feel about being landlords? Well, we've done it in the past. I don't really wish I didn't have to do it, but it's nice to have a little money coming in. Okay, great.

Sharon? Well, Esther, I think it sounds like a good potential for you. I think the other consideration I would just have you look into is make sure you know the rental rates in your area and the demand. Now, most of the country is still in a strong market where there is a strong demand for rental property, but I would make sure that you also have that locked in before you make a final commitment. But overall, it sounds like a good investment to help diversify your income and perhaps boost what you're earning off your CDs.

I think that's right. And I think, you know, the idea that you'd be buying something you'd ultimately moving into makes a lot of sense. I was just reading a report last night from a respected economist about the housing market and, you know, they were saying that although we expect the rate of increase in housing prices to slow, they're not expecting a dip simply because the home builders really dialed back after the financial crisis of 2008-2009. We just don't have enough homes in this country to meet the demand.

So even with these higher interest rates, which we expect will come down and fortunately won't have any effect on you because you're buying with cash, the housing market is expected to remain strong. So I think all of that plus your goals plus your financial condition support this idea of you all going ahead with it, as long as you go in with your eyes wide open and understand what you're getting into. So hopefully that helps you, Esther. We appreciate your call to the program today.

May the Lord bless you. Let's go to Ohio. Hi, Annette.

How can we help? Hello. Hi. Hi. How are you doing? Great.

So good. My question is, I owe I have a mortgage on my home and I'm looking to downsize in my area. It would sell pretty quickly. And the only thing is, is if I wanted to buy a small home, those are out of reach as far as price is concerned for the equity that I currently have. So I was thinking about a mobile home, but then I'm concerned about the landowner of the park raising lot fees without notice.

I've heard some horror stories about that. And then I would be trapped there. I'm just not sure which way to go. I'd like a smaller house, but I don't want to have a mortgage because at my stage in life, I wouldn't be able to afford it. If I were to ever be able to retire, I'd have to be able to pay off whatever living arrangement I had. So you have a mortgage on your current home?

I do, but I have a lot of equity in it. I probably have at least one hundred and fifty thousand, but I don't have much as far as retirement. I was a single parent and I worked a lot of low paying jobs, so I don't have much as far as retirement. Social security would basically be hardly anything. And then I have an annuity and I have a 401K, which is probably only about fifteen thousand. I don't have much money at all.

So this is really my only asset. So if I were to purchase something, I would need to pay it off in order to be able to live. Yeah.

So you're preparing for retirement that's upcoming, trying to right size your budget and have your living situation covered at the same time. Yes. And I just wondered if a mobile home is a good idea.

It would be brand new. But like I said, I've heard some stories from people saying that these investors come in and they buy these dilapidated parks and they fix them up and then they get you in there and then they raise the lot fee and then you're kind of trapped. Yeah. You know, I think one thought is, I mean, you certainly could go that route and we have plenty of callers to this program that are in mobile homes that love it. So I think you'd obviously need to do your homework there.

Look at the history. Who is the owner? Maybe do some due diligence talking to some of the others that are in that current mobile home park. Another option would be a reverse mortgage where essentially you would go into a property, use your equity, try to buy something small and as reasonable as possible. But if you bought it with a reverse mortgage and we wouldn't just use anybody. And that's why our friends at Movement Mortgage have been really helpful partners here, because I wouldn't just go to somebody who's off the television who's advertising, but somebody who understands how to do what's called a home equity conversion mortgage. The opportunity there is you could use your equity going in, get a reverse mortgage for the balance, and then you wouldn't have the monthly payment.

Now, that balance that you start with that you're not able to cover on the purchase price from your equity of your previous home would continue to grow at the prevailing interest rate, plus some fees and ultimately would have to be paid at your death when the home is sold. But at least you wouldn't have a payment. And so it would allow you to get into a smaller home without a mortgage payment through that reverse mortgage, which would allow you to balance your budget.

And where it can work, I mean, this is not the first tool we would use in our toolbox for most people. We would rather you be debt free. But I think for somebody where their only major asset in their overall financial plan is the equity in their home, this is where you can leverage that tool. So you have a place to live for the rest of your life that's modest, but you don't have to take on that mortgage payment, which is ultimately going to be problematic, just given the rest of your expenses.

Does that make sense? Yes, but say if I died and the house has a value more than what I would owe still, what happens then? So that's the beauty of the home equity conversion mortgage or the reverse mortgages. The Federal Housing Administration is guaranteeing it. So you can never owe more than the home would satisfy.

And if you ever had a difference there, meaning you ultimately the loan grew to more than the value of the home, then the U.S. government would step in and pay the difference. So what I would do is I'd head to movement.com slash faith and at least check that out. I think the other option is a good one.

And you should probably look at that again. This is not a one size fits all opportunity here. So I think considering the the mobile home could be a great option as well, because that would allow you to keep your investment at a minimum, buy with cash with the equity you have available and keep your budget really lean. Because we realize, you know, as you head into this next season of life without a lot of retirement assets, that's your goal.

And I love that you're planning for that now, but at least maybe as a second option, the reverse mortgage could be considered. Again, that website is movement.com slash faith. We appreciate your call today. Thanks very much. Lorraine, Valerie, Valjean, I apologize we didn't get to your calls today. We'd love to see if we can get you scheduled for tomorrow's broadcast.

We are unfortunately out of time today, but we'll see if we can get you up first tomorrow. You know, Sharon, as we return back to where we started today and talking about financial traps, there's one other trap that comes to mind. And it's what the late Larry Burkett used to talk about. He would say that one of Satan's favorite tools is to discourage God's people with the fear trap.

It was this question, what if? And Larry would say that often our anxieties around money are not about the lack of things, but the loss of things. And that's very real, isn't it? Well, it really is. And I think what we have to look at is all that we have has been given by God. And when we can think of it in that way, we can hold our hands open loosely and realize that he's our true provider, whether we've lost something or we've gained something, it's all from him.

That's exactly right. I hope what we've shared today has been an encouragement to you and practical that you've been able to find something to apply to your financial life. Sharon, I always love it when you spend some time in the studio. Thanks for stopping by. Always enjoy being here. All right. That was Sharon Epps, president of Kingdom Advisors.

If you want to learn more about Kingdom Advisors, just go to kingdomadvisors.com. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Mooney Radio and Faith Five. Big thanks to my team today. Of course, Sharon Epps, Taylor, Lisa. I want to say thanks to Gabby T and Amy as well. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.