Buckner International, Doing Good

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians 6, verse 9. Hi, I'm Rob West. One Christian ministry has been doing good for nearly 150 years and shows zero signs of growing weary. Scott Collins joins us today to talk about Buckner International and its ongoing efforts to support foster care, adoption and family outreach. 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. Well, it's a pleasure to welcome Scott Collins to the program. Scott is Senior Vice President of Communications at Buckner International, an underwriter of this program. And Scott, it's great to have you here with us.

Thanks, Rob, and what a joy to be with you and to share some time together. Scott, last month we reported on Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls program that, just like it sounds, provides shoes for at-risk kids around the world. But that's just one of many great ministry efforts of Buckner International. So we'd love for you to give us a brief history of Buckner, which actually started out in 1879, right? That's right.

So yes, this is our 145th anniversary, if you can believe it. We were founded by a pastor named R.C. Buckner, who moved to Texas, partly for health reasons, but we believe God used that move to really enlighten him to the needs of widows and orphans, James 1-27, in a post-Civil War era. He was a visionary. He was also a tremendous Christian businessman, really, running his ministry in a very efficient way. He started off with a vision from God to begin an orphan's home in Texas. And he went to the lay people of Texas, particularly deacons, and organized the deacons to help get behind this effort, believing that that was a job that Christ had commissioned deacons to do. And he eventually passed a hat. And out of that, they collected $27 to start the effort.

He launched it. They hired him. They formed a board. And then April 9th of 1879, they officially filed papers with the state of Texas. And then the first three orphan children were welcomed to Buckner Orphan's Home in December of 1879. So a long history there.

Yeah, it sure is. Well, let's fast forward to today. Give us an overview of what Buckner International is doing. We have held tight to our biblical principles. People ask, how have you lasted 145 years?

And my answer has always been, we've never had mission drift. We know who we are. Our mission is to follow the example of Jesus by serving vulnerable children, families, and senior adults.

And so today that takes different forms. We work to protect children. We work to strengthen families.

We want to transform generations. And then one of the things we do is we serve seniors. We offer foster care and adoption for children and for families.

It's been a tremendous part of our ministry really from the beginning, 145 years ago. But we also work in vulnerable areas to strengthen families through the Buckner Family Hope Center. And then several years ago, we started a program.

We asked ourselves, what could we do to ensure that children never have to be taken from a home where God placed them to begin with? So we do family strengthening programs. And one of those particularly works with single parents where they come and live with us, and we help them get an education while caring for their children. We teach them classes like faith and finance, actually. And we also provide Christian counseling and Bible study while they work to get a college degree. And then, of course, a key area for us is serving seniors. James 1-27 includes the widows as well. So we work hard to serve seniors through senior living communities throughout the state of Texas.

Well, you all have a lot going on. And of course, the real goal of all of this work is to lead people to Christ. How is the Lord using Buckner in this way, Scott? Last year alone, we saw over 275 people accept Christ through the ministries we do.

And many years it's more than that, close to 400. So just through the ministry we do of being the hands and feet of Jesus is a way to introduce them to Christ. That's powerful. Obviously, our listeners, I imagine, are going to want to learn more or get involved in this work. And how can they help you in these efforts?

Obviously, our website, buckner.org, and they can click on donate. And there are opportunities there to support our work. Excellent. We're grateful for our partnership. And thanks for your time today, Scott. Thanks, Rob. All right, folks, if you want to learn more, head to buckner.org. That's buckner.org. Click donate and learn more about the incredible ministry opportunities taking place every day.

That was Scott Collins, Vice President for Communications at Buckner International, a truly great ministry doing good all around the world. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Stick around. We'll be right back. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal, or other professional who understands your specific situation. I'm so glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We've got some lines open. We're ready to begin taking your calls here in just a few moments. If you have a question today, we'd love to tackle it with you. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got two of the most well-known housing updates in terms of the indexes that track the prices of the housing market. Home prices rose in March, which was the latest data based on these two indexes. Again, the most well-known, 6.5% over the last year and 6.8%.

Very close. That's the gain that we've seen in housing prices over the last 12 months. Now, those are up just like everything else is up during this period where we had a loose monetary policy that led to inflation. Now, most economists are saying they expect price gains, despite the incredible run-up in housing prices over the last several years, to continue in the year ahead, although probably at a slower pace than we've seen over the past year and certainly slower than we've seen over the last two or three years. If you think about where housing prices have come from since February 2020, pre-pandemic, listen to this.

Those two same most well-known indexes of housing prices have prices up since 2020 through March of this year up 47.4% and the second one up 50.2%. So, a dramatic increase in the price of homes here in this country and again, we don't think that's going away. We're certainly not in a bubble situation like we had in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, largely because we have a significant increase in construction costs but also a severe lack of supply in the housing market. Homebuilders just haven't been making enough homes since the bursting of that housing bubble. Back in 2009 through 2015, this made sense because they were clearing the way of that excess inventory of homes that was built prior to that period leading up to 2008 and 2009. But that has continued largely because of post-COVID regulations, so government regulations making it more difficult, plus this increase in construction costs, all of that has led to fewer than needed home starts making the reality just that demand is outpacing supply. So, something to keep an eye on but I think the big takeaway is housing prices may rise a little slower and if we do see a recession, sales will slow as well but because of underbuilding, the housing market overall will likely remain more resilient in any downturn than it has in the past. So, we're probably if anything just going to see a slowing of the increase, not any kind of decline.

What do you do with that? Well, I think the bottom line is, again, just recognize these high housing prices are here to stay and so if you're ready to buy a home, make sure you have that down payment especially with these higher interest rates of at least 20%. Be very careful not to go over 25%, certainly no more than 30% of your take-home pay going to that mortgage payment.

That will ensure you have enough left for everything else. Interesting data coming out of the housing market. Alright, let's dive into some phone calls today. Again, we have lines open 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

Let's go to North Carolina. Hi, Sarah. Go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you so much for taking my call and I just appreciate your programs. You always have such good godly advice. Well, thank you.

I appreciate that. My question is, what's the best way for us to leave our home to our children by inheritance in order to avoid them having to pay capital gains taxes? Should we put it in a trust or put it in our will?

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, you could do either, Sarah, a will is perfectly adequate to transfer property to your heirs, but it does require the property to go through probate, which becomes a part of the public record and there are going to be some probate costs. The upside of a will is fairly easy to create.

Generally, it's only going to cost you around $500. Now, a trust is another way to transfer property to heirs and it works well for that. It's going to cost a bit more, perhaps as much as a couple of thousand dollars, but it allows that property to transfer without going through probate. So it remains private, but it's a bit more efficient as well because again, it doesn't have to wait for the probate court to get involved.

You also eliminate those court costs. Another way to go about this is a transfer on death deed. Think of it like a beneficiary designation for your home.

Unfortunately, it's just not available in North Carolina. So I like the way you're thinking. You do want them to inherit it and that's going to allow them to have that step up in basis so they don't pay capital gains upon the sale, or at least if they sell it quickly after your death. But you have to decide, do you want to go with the will?

The simpler, a little more cost effective in setting it up, but it will go through probate or the trust, a little more costly, a little more complex, but the house passes outside of probate, a little more efficient in terms of the transfer. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Yeah.

So I think that's the question for you, which sounds like is the better fit for you? Well, um, you said if we, uh, will it to them that we'd have to only pay, they would only have to pay the $500 probate costs. Is that what you're saying? No, I was saying that a will will probably cost you about $500. Now, do you already have a will?

Do we already have one? Yes, but we're getting ready to update it because it's done when the kids were little and they're all wrong. Yeah, I see.

Uh, yeah. So, um, you know, you wouldn't really wouldn't cost you much of anything cause you've already got it and you're just updating it. So you'd make sure that it is up to date and valid. Uh, you know, an uncontested probate can run somewhere, you know, thousand to a couple of few thousand dollars. Um, and that would be paid by the estate could be as much as $3,000 for an uncontested probate. Um, and that would be a paid by your estate prior to distributing whatever assets are there in the estate, including the, the home sale. That's going to happen either way though. Um, if there's anything that's being paid, you know, out of your estate, even your personal effects. So, you know, that's probably going to be a sunk cost. Um, and so I think the will would probably suffice.

I don't know that I would create the trust solely to avoid probate unless that was just a real priority to you. Okay. Okay. But, uh, when you go into update that will, I'd talk to your attorney about it and he or she can kind of walk you through some decision making on that and just confirm that perhaps you don't need it, but they may be able to raise some things that might cause you to think that that's a better option.

So I think you're doing a great thing by getting that will up to date and make sure that it's a right in line with the laws of your state there in North Carolina. And I'd have this conversation with him, but we appreciate your call today. Sarah, thanks for being on the program.

Uh, well folks, we're going to take a quick break and we come back. Uh, we'll continue to take your calls today. We've got lines open. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. Also coming up a little later today, Jerry Boyer stops by. Among other things, Jerry will give us an update on the futures market related to the presidential election. What's going on in the futures market related to Trump versus Biden post verdict yesterday. Jerry will give us an update on that and a bit on the market and the economy.

That's all in the last segment today. Stay with us. Well, thanks for joining us today on faith and finance live. We've got a few lines open. We'd love to hear your question today and your financial life. 800-525-7000. Let's go right back to the phones to a beautiful West Palm beach, Florida. Hi Maria.

How can I help? Hi Rob. Um, I have two questions. One is I bought a condo. It'll be July 14th, two years ago. So I'm coming up on two years and I've had it on the market for three months, but I haven't had many showings.

There are several, there are about 50 of them in my community. So there's a lot of competition. So, um, I don't think I will sell before July 14th and I don't think I will make any money selling if I, you know, I think there'll be a capital loss. So my question is if, um, can I claim that on my taxes if I sell as a capital loss? Yeah. So you believe that you will end up selling it for less than you bought it for? Right. Okay.

Um, you know, unfortunately no. Um, and, and the reason is because it was a personal residence. So the loss on the sale of a personal residence is not deductible. You can only deduct losses on the sale of a property used for business or investment purposes.

And there are limits. So losses on your investments are first used to offset capital gains of the same type. Um, and then short term losses, although you know, you wouldn't have any short term cause you've been there more than a year.

So, uh, you would use that against any longterm gains and it would offset that. But that really doesn't apply here because it's a personal residence. So it would not be deductible unfortunately.

Right now, if I rent it out cause I'm considering renting, um, uh, but this time with a property manager, cause I'll be too far away to manage it. Um, and then I sell within, uh, you know, the three years cause I'll, I've lived in it for two and then as long as I sell within three years, if there's a gain, I don't have to pay tax. And if there's a loss, you're saying I could, then I could claim the loss. Right. Yeah, that's right. Uh, so it would have to be converted to a rental property, which it sounds like you're going to do. And in that case, then you could use it to offset longterm capital gains. Um, and you're correct.

So from the date of sale, going back five years, if you, uh, can establish that you lived in it, uh, for two of those five years and you haven't used the, uh, exemption for your primary residence for another property within two years, then yes, you'd have up to $250,000 in gains that would not be counted, uh, as a capital gain for tax purposes. Okay. I guess now I just have to, uh, decide if I want to rent because there's issues that come up with renting. Yes, that's exactly right. So yeah, you're just going to want, if you decide to do that, uh, you know, just check with your lender. If you do have a loan to make sure you can use the mortgage for a rental property, add that landlord liability insurance and, uh, you know, prep the property for it. And you know, you are probably, if you're an absentee landlord, going to want to get that property manager in place. I do some homework though, just to make sure, you know, that, uh, that that's going to make sense to you, especially given, you know, the community that you're in and perhaps there's several other rentals available. So just make sure that it is in fact going to be beneficial to you.

And you know, if you do have a mortgage and we didn't talk about that, so you may not, but if you did, I just want to make sure that, you know, if we were to get into a recession and let's say you had a little trouble getting a renter in there that you're not going to put yourself in a financial predicament if you know you need to carry this property on top of what else you'll be buying out of state. No, it's a cash. I paid for it. Okay. Okay, great. Yeah. So that makes it a little easier.

So obviously anything you get would just go to help offsetting the, you know, any kind of HOA or property taxes and insurance, which I know is expensive down there in West Palm, but without debt service, that should make it a lot easier to cover your expenses and let this thing hopefully continue to appreciate. Why do you, how long have you owned it? It'll be two years, July 14th. Okay. And why do you think it, you haven't seen any increase? Do you think maybe you just paid a little bit more than you should have or what, what's going on?

I think because there's so many on the market now that the price has dropped. Got it. Yeah. But you know, I could wait a few more months and see what happens. I'm thinking, what I'm thinking of doing is my, uh, my, my, uh, contract with the realtor, my agreement ends the end of June.

So I thought I'd, you know, wait and then take it off the market a couple of months and then put it back in September, October, you know, as a fresh property, maybe that'll help. Yeah. Very good. Well, all the best to you, Maria. We appreciate you checking in with us and if we can help further, don't hesitate to reach out. May the Lord bless you.

Let's go to Tennessee. Hi, Tim. How can I help?

Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. Uh, I have a mother, she's 83 and she had to place my dad's passed away. If, um, and at one time me and my other two brothers were on the deed to the land because my mom thought she was going to get him poor health and then the place would have to go in through a bunch of stuff. But, uh, about a year ago, one of my brothers had me and my other brother took off the date and I was wondering how that changes the wheel because I know at one time my mom and my dad had a wheel drawed up, leaving it to us three.

Yeah. But now that he's solely on the deed, does that change the wheel? Well, it doesn't change the will, but it does change, uh, you know, how this property is going to be distributed because, uh, do you know how it's titled? Is it, is it joint tenants with right of survivorship or is it tenants in common? Uh, that I'm not sure.

Okay. Well, so if it's joint tenants with right of survivorship and they're both on the property, then at her death he owns a hundred percent of that property. Um, and then whatever's left other than that property would be distributed according to her will. And let's say her will says a third, a third, a third to you and your two brothers. Well, you'd get all the other assets, not including the home. If it's tenants in common, he's entitled to 50% of that property. And then the other 50% would be a part of her estate. And then that portion would be distributed, uh, according to the will.

So you've got to figure out how it's titled and then you need to make sure that that was the intention, uh, by removing two of you and not the third, because he owns at least 50% and potentially a hundred at her death. Stay on the line. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today.

I'm Faith at Finance Live. I had a chance to visit with Tim off the air during that break. Tim had called and his dad passed away. His mom's alive and he and his two brothers were on the deed to the home. And it sounds like that deed was changed. Um, he's going to try to get to the bottom of why and how that was done. And you know, the, the key is to make sure that the way things are legally titled and the way the estate is set up accurately reflects what's going on. But it's challenging when there's family members involved, especially given his mom's health condition and she's got some cognitive impairment and that obviously makes everything difficult. Tim's desire above all else is to be a peacekeeper and, uh, to allow the relationship to Trump everything.

And that's certainly the right approach. So let's just take a moment and pray for Tim as he navigates this. Father, we just ask you to give Tim wisdom.

Um, just allow him to approach his brother in the, in the spirit of love, which is his desire that he'd be able to communicate clearly and that there'd be just a real, uh, sense of unity in that conversation that as they take steps forward to perhaps make changes in her estate plan, that it would be reflective of what she ultimately desired as the steward and trusted by you with these resources and that there would be family harmony and unity that would be the outcome in this, that you'd be glorified and that relationships would actually be strengthened, not harmed in the process. So we're going to ask that and, uh, for you to intervene in Jesus name. Amen. Tim, uh, thanks for your call today. Uh, we've got some lines open today, folks, uh, taking your calls on anything financial, 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go out to Missouri. Hi, Tina.

How can I help you? Hi, I just discovered your show today. I'm so glad. Well, I'm thrilled to hear that. Right.

Anyway. Um, my hubby died a few years ago and, um, he used to control everything, the money and, and that was fine with me because I'm not real savvy in that area. My, uh, conundrum right now is my, my credit score was excellent at that time.

And now it's definitely not perfect. So I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of my credit card debt. And someone mentioned to me, because I do own a home, a home equity loan, and I don't know much about them at all. I called a couple of banks and my mortgage company said, no, you got to call a bank. And then I called a bank and they were like, no, you got to call a mortgage company.

I'm like, does anybody really know? And also I did not know that there was a second mortgage taken out a few months before my husband died. So that was a surprise to me. And I'm, um, actually working with a lawyer to try to help resolve that. So right now I just want to get this credit card debt out of my life. And I don't know if that's a wise idea. Yeah. Well, I'd be happy to weigh in on that Tina.

First of all, I'm thrilled that you found us and that you called today and I'm so sorry to hear about your husband's passing and obviously that realization of that second mortgage. And that's challenging. Let me just ask on that and then we'll get to the credit cards quickly. But what's the status of that?

If you didn't know about it? Is it in is it in a delinquent status? What's the second mortgage?

Yes. No, it's not. And that was my concern because I was paying on it. I thought, I don't know, I don't understand why I'm paying on this.

I knew nothing about it. So I took it to a lawyer. Of course, the payments stopped because the lawyer is going to communicate with them, but he's going to try to help me. I see. Very good. Right. Yeah, no, that's good.

Well, I'm glad you've got somebody involved there. You know, that's going to make it more complicated to get a HELOC because they'd be in third position. But when I say HELOC, home equity line of credit, but I wouldn't do that anyway. So let's talk about this credit card debt.

How much do you owe? Gosh, I should know that, shouldn't I? Roughly.

I would guess about 12 to 15,000. OK. Or no, maybe I've got four big ones and then a bunch of little ones. OK. Yeah.

Maybe. And I should know that we don't. That's OK. No problem. So it's somewhere between, you know, 12 and 20,000. It sounds like what what are your income sources, Tina? Social Security and a part time job. I don't get many hours. So I need a better job. OK. And oh, and then tiny little teeny tiny little pension checks, which is another conundrum because it's through insurance companies and I'm not getting that either. And they're not giving me the money I'm supposed to be getting. So I'm fighting with them.

All right. Now, I know that's a lot. Do you are you able to cover your bills, including the minimum payments on the credit cards and the mortgages and all the things you have on a monthly basis and and make it to the end of the month without adding to the credit cards? I've been able to make it pay my mortgage, but I used the first year after he died, I kept thinking these insurance checks were going to come in and they never did. And I went through all my savings, which was twenty five thousand, which was really stupid. So I don't have that money anymore. But my credit cards are being paid on time for 20 years. I've always paid them on time every month.

And then all of a sudden he died and nothing. I have not been able to pay them in the last six months. Oh, so the credit cards are six months past due. Yes. OK. All right. So let's do this, Tina.

Here's here's where I'd like to go from here. We have a team of what we call certified Christian financial counselors that are a part of our ministry. These are men and women that have been trained to work with individuals and bringing not only biblically wise advice, but helping them with budgets and debt repayment and getting on spending plans and just kind of sorting through some of the confusion around money management. And I'd like to connect you with a certified Christian financial counselor. We're going to pay for it.

So there would be no cost to you. And this person will work with you, you know, over the over Zoom or, you know, the phone and help you get everything in place to get this organized, figure out what are your income sources, get a listing of all of your debts and your assets. You know, typically my recommendation is consumer credit counseling.

What the organization is actually Christian credit counselors, because what would happen is they would cut those interest rates a half or more. And then you'd get on a level monthly payment, probably about three percent of the balance. And that may be challenging, which is why we need to start with the counselor, because, you know, if you have fifteen thousand in credit card debt, I mean, that's four and fifty dollars a month.

And so, I mean, that's a lot. But we've got to start somewhere. And that would be my preferred way. Now, if you can't do that, then we're going to have to look at other options.

But I'd like to start by just having somebody help you get your budget nailed down, dial into your income sources, assets and liabilities, and then I think you guys will be able to figure out a path forward. Does that sound OK? Is that something you'd be willing to do? Yeah, but I'd rather have you.

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm not able to do that. But I'm here for you each day. So if you ever need anything, you can call back into the program. But let's do this. I'm going to I'm going to put you on hold. My producer is going to get your information. We'll get a certified Christian financial counselor in touch with you. I'm also going to send you a book, Tina, that I think will be a blessing to you. It's called Wise Women Managing Money.

There's a wonderful lady, Miriam Neff, and her husband Bob was a long time part of Moody Radio here, actually. And when he passed away, she started a ministry for widows and wrote a book called Wise Women Managing Money specifically for people, for ladies that were kind of found themselves in the position you're in where all of a sudden I'm making all the financial decisions and I didn't necessarily ask for this, but here I am. And so I think it'll be an encouragement to you and give you some practical help.

And then I think that counselor will take you a long way toward getting your financial house in order and get you on a on the right course. You got this. You can do it. And I don't think it's an accident that you found the program today. And so we're grateful that the Lord led you here.

Listen, may the Lord bless you. Call any time. And we look forward to talking to you again, hopefully real soon. Well, folks, quick break back with Jerry Boyer and hopefully a few more of your questions today before we round out the program. A lot to talk about today with Jerry.

So don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Well, our goal here at Faith and Finance Live is that you would see God as your ultimate treasure, that we would put money, one of God's good creations in its proper context. That is a tool to accomplish God's purposes so that we can be freed up to pursue all that God has for us in our financial life.

We do that by taking you back to God's word, hopefully be an encouragement to you, but also offering you practical biblical counsel. Now, each Friday in this segment of the broadcast, we're joined by our good friend, Jerry Boyer. Jerry is president of Boyer Research. He's our resident economist here at Faith and Finance Live.

He also is a frequent contributor at World News Group. And Jerry, we've got a lot to cover today. We're going to start with something called presidential futures. Today's a particularly interesting day to look at those futures.

Tell us what they are and maybe give us an update. Presidential futures are basically investments that you can make. You know, you can invest in oil futures or soybean futures or pork belly futures, and you can invest in presidential futures.

Well, what does that mean? What it means is that you buy a contract, which if the terms are fulfilled, which means the candidate that you bought the contract on wins, then you get money. And if the and if it doesn't happen, then you don't get any money.

So, for example, let's say you spend fifty three dollars or fifty one dollars. I'm just updating the information on a contract for President Trump. If he wins, you get one hundred dollars. If he loses, you get no dollars. You get nothing at all.

You lose it. So what does that fifty one dollars mean that that's set by the market as people are buying or selling these futures that prices moving around? What that means is the market thinks there's a fifty one percent chance he's going to win the election. And the market thinks there's a forty eight percent chance that Biden will win the election. And then there's a leftover percent for who knows what. Right.

And so that and that's basically what it's saying right now. So for most of the basically when Alvin Bragg brought the indictment against President Trump, he pulled ahead in the futures market. In other words, it helped him. People saw him as a victim. OK. And then, you know, later on, it sort of switched around when President Biden raised a lot of money and Obama and and Clinton came together and supported him.

Twenty six million dollars. Then it flipped around. Biden was on top for a while. Then Biden said, I'm I challenge thee to a presidential debate. And Trump accepted right away. And then the Trump futures were up again about 50 percent. Basically, the market said, OK, Trump's going to win the debate. Then when this when this conviction came down yesterday, for a few hours, it shifted to say, oh, Biden's going to win the election. Americans will not elect a convicted felon as president. And then what happened is since then, it's come back in favor of Trump, because I think that market participants have seen that the reaction is not, oh, Trump supporters now are against him because of the conviction.

But instead, Trump supporters are now more in favor of him than ever because he's seen as a victim of political persecution. By the way, I'm not giving opinions one way or the other. I am emotionally detached from this. I'm an economist. It's my job to give you data. So in essence, markets are saying that this conviction will not stop Trump from winning the presidency, whether they're right or wrong.

Only God knows the future. But that is people with skin in the game who are following this more closely. It's not just people registering their opinion.

It's registering their opinion with money at stake. Yeah. Which is historically, Jerry, a pretty good predictor, isn't it? It really is.

It's not perfect. It for instance, it didn't have Trump as winning the presidency in 2016, but it had a lot closer than any of the pundits when pundits were saying there was no chance futures market was saying there's a 40 percent chance. And I was saying that there's a 45 percent chance because I saw so many Trump signs in my neighborhood. I thought, hey, there's something there's something that the people on CNN are missing that I'm seeing in my neighborhood. Giant Trump signs all over my neighbor, not a single Biden sign. And I live in a Democratic controlled neighborhood. I'm in I'm in Steel Valley. This is Pittsburgh area, baby. There's a union Democrat and all those Trump signs.

And I thought something's going to happen anyway. Did futures market have them at 40, which is a lot better than most of the pundits? And it's it's generally made the calls right on presidential on all the other presidential races. And it had Biden winning, by the way, last time, you know, so interesting that so so I mean, make of it what you will.

Yeah, well, we'll continue to watch it. A fascinating metric that a lot of our listeners may didn't know, didn't know they didn't know existed. Jerry, let's talk about the markets for a moment. Obviously, the market's been under some pressure, even though the Nasdaq has been making new highs. The big board has been pulling back today. Not so I think the only change today, at least was some inflation data. But give us your assessment. Yeah, so I think what made what generally drove the markets this week was that the head of the Minneapolis Fed, who has tended to be a little bit dovish, dovish is technically someone who would kind of favor easy money, historically said, Yeah, I really think that maybe you all should adjust to, you know, not expecting the rate cuts that you were looking for.

Basically, hey, kids, Christmas isn't going to be as great as you think it is. So, you know, and he's, he's more than nice, you know, easy money fed. So for him to say, you know, we really haven't beaten inflation yet, I think we're gonna have to hike rates more, not hike them, but keep them high longer than expected. So again, here's another futures market, there's a futures market that that's on whether rates are going to go down or not. And that shifted and said, No, we're probably not going to have any rate cuts, we're going to keep it high, which means not easy money. And we don't have easy money, you don't have easy money pushing up bubble valuations in the stock market. And again, this is something we've talked about so many times before, it's not supposed to work this way. Stock market should be moving on the fundamentals of business, not on some throwaway comment by the Minneapolis Fed chairman, that they shouldn't have enough power to move markets. But because the Fed is the largest single investor in the world, what it hints at what it's going to do now drives how markets react. Yep.

Well, it continues to be that way without question. All right, Jerry, let's quickly hit on some corporate engagement. I know you've been working with a couple of the biggest companies in the world the last week or so give us an update on those. Yeah, I think the really big news this week was there was a battle for control of the board of Exxon, the largest energy company, largest private energy company in the world. Exxon basically, I've sat through so many Exxon and Chevron meetings, and these meetings are dominated by anti-oil and gas activists who are somehow trying to convince the shareholders and they never win, or trying to convince the shareholders that Exxon would be a much better company, be much better for shareholders if they didn't do oil and gas, which of course doesn't make any sense. It's an oil and gas company. If you think solar is the future, pull your money out of Exxon and put it into solar. But instead they invest in these oil companies and then do activists to try to shame them or cajole them out of the oil and gas market and out of that business. That's their core business model. So eventually Exxon said enough already. You're using a little technicality in the federal regulations to force your way into the meetings.

We don't think it's valid. Most of you aren't even real investors. You borrowed just enough shares to put a proposal on the ballot. You've admitted that you're not even trying to make money on this. You've admitted that you're trying to shrink the oil and gas sector.

We don't think we should have to put your proposals on the ballot. And they sued these activists and the activists kind of probably realized that Exxon was right about the law and they pulled out. But Exxon said, we're continuing with the lawsuit because we want the courts to speak to this.

Can tiny fringe groups with an agenda that's contrary to the business interest of the company basically commandeer half the meeting with these anti-oil and gas speeches? Well, the blue state pension managers got very angry about this and they said, that's it. We're going to punish Exxon. What's CalPERS, which is the California one biggest public pension plan in America, said vote against the Exxon board. And they launched an attempt to get BlackRock and Vanguard and all the big asset managers. We're going to vote against the board of Exxon.

Well, we had the meeting and here's what happened. Last year, the Exxon board was reelected with 96% on average support. This year, the entire Exxon board was reelected with 95% in average support. So all of that crusade against oil and gas by these giant blue state pension asset managers amounted to pushing down the support level 1%.

This was an utter humiliation for the activist community and for those public pension plans, which have been using their money for activist purposes. If they think oil and gas is a bad idea, they shouldn't invest in Exxon. But of course they did because it returned 93% over the past three years.

So it helps keep these pension plans afloat. This was a huge vindication for people who think that really oil and gas companies are allowed to be oil and gas companies. They ought to focus on that. And solar companies can be solar companies and activists should turn your attention to normal politics. You want to get rid of oil and gas, win a presidential election, win control of the Congress, and then you can have regulations to get rid of oil and gas. But the American public has not voted for that.

And that's why we still use oil and gas. Fascinating. Well, Jerry, we covered a lot of ground today. Well done, sir. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next week. God bless. All right. That's Jerry Boyer, our resident economist. Let's finish today.

A quick question out of Cleveland. Hi, Ro. Thank you for calling.

How can I help? Hey, Rob, thanks for taking my call today. Sure. Absolutely.

Yeah. So I'm 23 years old. And my question is, a lot of people my age believe that Social Security won't be around by the time I retire. And so my question to you is, why do you think we still pay that tax if by the time I retire in 2066, it won't be around anymore? Yeah, it's a good question. And there's somewhat of a myth associated with that.

And yet there's some reality, too. And here's why. The latest data says that in 2034, the so-called Social Security Trust Fund will run out of money.

Why is that? Well, there's more going out as the baby boomers start, you know, are collecting Social Security than is coming in from workers that are paying FICA taxes. So when that happens, it's estimated that Social Security will be able to pay about 77 percent of benefits. So the trust fund hit zero with the revenues coming in FICA taxes. They're still paying 77 percent. What's going to change between now and then? Well, I think what's really likely, Hi, Ro, is that Congress will fix that for a shortfall, either by extending the full retirement age, increasing FICA taxes or both. They just can't not shore up that system, in my view. So I don't think it's going anywhere.

It's a great question, though. Thanks for being on the program. Faith and Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Faith. Big thanks to my team today, Amy, Jim, Tiara and Tahira. Hey, if you want to support our work, go to faithbuy.com and click Give and have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.