Biggest Financial Mistakes

The following episode of Faith in Finance Live is prerecorded, so please don't call in.

But please don't call in today because we're prerecorded. This is Faith in Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Okay, once again, financial teacher and author and my good friend Ron Blue joins us. He's a busy guy, so it's always a treat when he takes time from his day to join us. Ron, great to have you back on the program.

Well, as always, Rob, I look forward to it. Ron, we're talking financial mistakes, so let's be honest. I mean, you're Ron Blue, the money guy. Have you really made a financial mistake? Well, see, this is Tuesday. I haven't made many yet this week, but I have made some.

I love it. You're always humble. Hey, you've written about these mistakes that you and I have both made, and let's look at a few of them today from your book Master Your Money, a step-by-step plan for experiencing financial contentment.

By the way, if you haven't read it, it's a must read. So Ron, what's the first financial mistake on your list? Well, really, the first one is to establish your goals.

You know, if you aim at nothing, you're in it every time. And goals help put boundaries around your spending and put priorities in the right order around your spending. So Judy and I used to take two goal setting weekends a year. I used to, because when we had the children, it was more important or more urgent than it is today. But goals would be the first one.

Yeah, that's really important. I know another one you mentioned, Ron, is having what you call a consumptive lifestyle. What is that and how do we avoid it? Well, a consumptive lifestyle is really one that is significantly beyond what you really need. And I was just reading this morning in my quiet time about greed. And all of us suffer from the temptation of greed. You know, for men, maybe it's a new car. For women, perhaps it's a new dress or something.

And they're not wrong. But we tend to overspend in many ways and have a consumptive lifestyle. And by consumptive, I mean you're spending it on things that are consumed. Therefore, they're not building any equity other than perhaps memories, but they're not building equity in your finances. So that's a biggie.

Yeah, it sure is. Ron, you mentioned greed. Just one thought on that. Do you think it's possible to attempt to redeem greed in the name of the American dream?

Oh, I do. You know, I haven't talked a lot about greed over my career, Rob. But for some reason the last couple of years, I've become more and more aware of the fact that greed really is existent. Tim Keller said, I've had every sin confessed in my study with the exception of greed.

We don't tend to look at things. And the motive is something other than perhaps spiritual or family or something that's more important. So not having a budget is the way to avoid that. Well, let's talk about that, because I know you say that's another one of those biggies in terms of financial mistakes.

Why is that so key? Well, a budget, people tend to think of it as something being constraining, and yet it's not. It's something that's freeing because it's pre-planned expenses. For example, I'm going to take a vacation. Am I saving for that vacation so that when it comes, I take the vacation, which is certainly okay, because it was in my budget? Do I have a budget for the emergencies that are going to occur? Car repairs, broken dishwasher, whatever it may be.

I need to have the contingencies built into my thinking also to be realistic. And very few people operate off of a budget. But I say a budget is really just pre-planned spending, and it's a freeing thing to have rather than a restrictive.

Ron, just a few seconds left. You say giving is one of the mistakes that we make. Why so? Well, people tend to think of giving as giving out of surplus rather than out of income. And I think that if you don't tithe, you're not experiencing financial freedom.

And I think God wants us to tithe, not because he needs the money, but he needs your heart. Well said, Ron. We're going to have to leave it there. Thanks for stopping by. Well, thank you for having me, Rob.

It's Ron Blue. He's been our guest today. You can read a lot more in his book, Master Your Money. This is Faith at Finance Live. And even though we're not here today and can't take your live calls, there's much more ahead on the program, so please stay tuned. Thanks so much for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Hey, our team is away from the studio today. We're not here, but we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance.

I know you'll enjoy those. Folks, have you checked out recently our website at faithfi.com? If not, I'd encourage you to do that. You'll find our community there where you can post questions and comments, hear from others that are on the stewardship journey as well. You can also access our content and check out the FaithFi app. It's at faithfi.com. Let's head right back to the phones. Rose in Texas, thank you for your patience.

Go ahead. Hello, I needed to know when is it a good time to file bankruptcy? How do you know that you need to file it? What are the advantage of it? And what are you supposed to accomplish? And what's God's biblical understanding of it?

Yeah, I appreciate that, Rose. I mean, I think we need to try to avoid it at all costs. You won't find the word bankruptcy in the Bible. Filing bankruptcy is not a sin. The Bible is clear the wicked borrows and does not repay, so we need to have an absolute commitment to repayment. But whether or not we take advantage of bankruptcy for legal protection as a part of that, prior to our desire to and ultimately our ability to repay as we're able to, you know, is just a modern legal mechanism that in some cases, you know, it makes sense to employ, you know, especially when it comes to a bankruptcy where you would reorganize the debt as opposed to trying to get it all discharged. We understand that things happen and through a series of circumstances, maybe it's poor choices, maybe it's just unforeseen, you know, life events, people can get into a situation where they don't actually have the ability to repay and they can be forced into bankruptcy just for protection.

But again, I don't think that's the issue. The question is your heart's desire to ultimately make good as you're able on your obligations and keep your commitments. And there's some wonderful examples, you know, that I can think of over the last hundred years where godly men and women have repaid significant amounts of money as the Lord provided, even in bankruptcy, and even where it wasn't easy to pay it back because those that, you know, had the debts that were discharged said, I don't even know if I can take this. But, you know, there are ways to get that paid back.

So I think that's the big idea. So the key for you here is to get some wise counsel, somebody who understands the counsel of Scripture, but who's also astute financially who can help you navigate this, to really think through where are you today? What are your income and expenses, your assets and liabilities? And are you able to, you know, lean into your creditors and try to negotiate a payback that fits within your budget so that you can make progress toward these debts and keep them out of bankruptcy and default and, you know, judgments that might come against you through a court?

Or are you actually to a point where you do need to file bankruptcy and then separate from that, you can think about trying to repay according to your ability. Do you have somebody that's walking alongside you to help you make these decisions? No. My adult children have asked me what I think about it. And I just wanted to know what kind of advice to give them.

Yeah. So I think the key idea here is that according to God's Word, we have to keep our commitments. And the Bible is very clear, the wicked borrows and does not pay back. So we need to have at the core of our thinking in this area, an absolute commitment to repayment. But the question is, how do we go about that? And we don't want to run from our creditors, we want to run to them, we want to open up dialogue, we want to try to work with them, we need to do our part in dialing back our lifestyle and cutting expenses wherever possible. And that's not just where it's convenient, we need to make the hard choices about cutting back so we can honor our commitments. Because our integrity, our commitments, our ability to repay is all on the line.

And it's a part of our witness as Christ followers. And so we need to have a commitment to repayment. And we can't see bankruptcy as a quick fix to get out from under it or, quote unquote, a clean start.

So I can just start over. No, we made a commitment to honor our obligations. And we need to do that.

Now, if somebody is forced into bankruptcy, again, that's where I'm saying I don't think that's necessarily wrong, as long as the preeminent idea is I have an absolute commitment to repayment. So that would be the counsel that I would give them as you respond to this. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate your help.

All right, Rose. Listen, if it's credit card debt, have them reach out to our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. You know, they may be able to help them get started in getting these interest rates down, giving them some godly counsel, helping them get on a budget and get these debts paid off once and for all.

ChristianCreditCounselors.org may be a great resource for you. Thanks for calling today. Let's head to Oklahoma.

Hi, Matthew. Go ahead, sir. All right, sir. Thank you so much for taking my call. Enjoy your show.

I'll make it quick. My wife and I, we have several children. We have six. And we are at a point right now where we have almost paid everything off completely, pretty much down to nothing. So all of our vehicles are paid for. We paid off some land and purchased some mobile, and that's paid off as well. And so we're getting to a point where we're trying to figure out when the right time would be to build.

We want to build like a metal barn house, you know, just something simple, but a lot of open space for our kids to run around in. But I have available to me a VA loan. But right now the interest rates are so bad. When is a good time to consider that?

And what other stipulations should we, because to be very honest with you, I really hate debt. That's part of the reason why I really felt like the Lord said specifically for me to sell our home. And we've made enough improvements to where it actually worked out well for everything to be. I mean, we, we did very well and paid everything off.

That's incredible new vehicle for my wife. Hey, the Lord's faithful, man. It's not me. Well, well done, though, my friend, I'll tell you, you've applied his principles and made the hard choices. And I'm delighted to hear that.

Matthew. So now that you are debt free, how much surplus do you guys have every month? Well, right now we, it kind of depends.

I work for the state. And so we end up having, probably, because we're having to rent a place right now until we finish off. I'm doing some changes.

We have in this home. We're almost there. So I guess the answer to that question, probably around 500 to 1000. Okay, a month.

All right. And do you have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses? We don't have it fully stocked.

We have probably 1000 right now, maybe 1500. So it's not huge, but it's a start. You know, normally, I would like to have one a lot bigger than that. But yeah, well, I think that's your first priority. And I love the fact that now that you are debt free, you've got this margin. So that should be able, you should be able to build that up quickly if you keep your lifestyle in check and really watch your spending. With regard to the the home projects, what's already committed to and then what are you wanting to do beyond that?

You know, sir, I think what I really love to be able to do is build my wife and my children this home. And I don't know, we bought like eight acres of land. And we live in the country. We eat a lot of deer, chicken and just I mean, we can basically we're trying to get to where we kind of have a small homestead. Yeah. And we live a pretty simple life. You know, we're not really, you know, not really extravagant people.

We just Yeah. So I guess that that would be the goal. I'd love to have, you know, probably a 40 by 60 home.

Okay, you know, something where it's got enough space for them to run around. Yeah, you know, I think the key is just thinking through what is it going to take for you, you know, to have a substantial down payment? What's it actually going to cost for you to build this house?

You know, construction projects and expenses are really high right now, because of the rapid rise in interest rates, the unstable global economy, production delays, supply chain, it's really a challenging environment right now. So let's do this. If you can hold the line, I've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll finish up on the other side.

We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on faith and finance live quick email before we head back to the phones. This one comes to us from Emily, by the way, if you have a question you'd like read on the air, we'd love to hear from you. Send it along to askrob at faithfi.com.

That's askrob at faithfi.com. Emily writes, I'm employed and currently receiving social security income. I tithe on my salary.

Should I also tithe on my social security income? I love your program and listen at work. Thanks.

And Emily, thanks for this question. Clearly, you're wanting to be a generous sower, be faithful in your giving to the Lord, and I appreciate that. Here's my perspective. First of all, the tithe is a great beginning point for our giving. We're no longer under the law of Moses, and yet I think we should give proportionately. We see that in the New Testament for sure.

We should give sacrificially. And so starting with this idea that we would recognize God's ownership and give in proportion to our income, the tithe is a great principle to apply to that. So you would give, in the case of a tithe, a tenth of your increase. The question is, is your social security increase? If you tithed on your gross income throughout your working life, clearly a portion of what you're getting from social security is a return of what you put into the system. The challenge is, it would take an army of CPAs to figure out what portion is yours, what portion was your employer's contribution, because remember, they paid half of the FICA tax, and then what portion was the growth that occurred while it was in there? And so I think for that reason, I would probably take the perspective that let's look at anything we receive from the Lord as a gracious gift from the Lord, no matter what its source was, whether it's SSI or social security or disability or an inheritance or a paycheck, and just say, Lord, I'm going to demonstrate my trust in you as my provider, knowing that your provision is complete, and I want to be partnered with you in giving in proportion to how you prospered me.

That would be the approach that I would take as opposed to trying to figure out what portion falls into which bucket. But at the end of the day, Emily, I realized that the heart behind this is that you want to honor the Lord. And so I would just be on your knees if you're married, you and your husband, just asking the Lord, what would you have me to do? And I think as long as you follow the leading of the Lord, you give cheerfully out as an act of worship.

I don't think the percentage or checking a box is really the most important thing. So hopefully that's helpful to you as you think and pray through this. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're going to begin today in New York. Hi, Mary, go ahead.

Hi. So my question is this. My husband is nearing retirement. He's about four years away. We started late in life savings, but looking to potentially do what we would refer to as high risk, that of low risk, just for some of the money that we have saved, just to try to earn some extra more quickly, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know, I think we have to be careful. I mean, I understand the urgency and y'all are feeling like you're behind. And so you're saying one of the ways we can kind of make up for lost time is taking risk beyond what we normally would as, you know, let's say 60 year old investors.

I'm not a big fan of that. I mean, I think there is a place to perhaps take on slightly more risk than what may be advisable, partly because assuming the Lord tarries and you're in good health, we're living longer. And so even once you hit retirement, let's say at age 65, and I have a different perspective on retirement than than the world, I'm sure you do too. But this idea that we'd want to transition to whatever God has next that may or may not involve compensation, you know, we need to look at this like, okay, we still have even at 65, the potential for this money did need the last three decades or more. And so we're still long term investors, even though we're transitioning into a retirement season of life. So we may take a little bit more risk than perhaps we would have encouraged 10 or 20 years ago.

But even then, I think, you know, as a 60 year old, I'd probably say, maybe you're 5050 stocks to fixed income, if you want to be slightly more aggressive, maybe it's, it's 6040 stocks to fix income, you know, at age 60. Just because again, you know, hey, we're in it for the long haul, we're okay with the ebbs and flows of the market. Even if we hit a major recession, you know, next year, we're willing to stay the course. And so even if the market was down 25, or 30%, which is possible if we had a major recession, not that economists are calling for that, but let's say in the next 10 years we did, you'd have to kind of prepare yourself ahead of time that okay, for that stock portion of the portfolio 50 60%, we're not going to touch it, we're going to take the long view, we're going to let it ride.

You know, so many people and COVID was a great example. You know, we had the fastest decline to a bear market in history when they with the onset of the pandemic, the people that got scared and sold missed the fastest rise to a bull market in history as well. And so we just have to be careful on trying to time the market. But if you guys say, Listen, we're going to stay the course we're going to dial up the risk level appropriately.

I could get on board with that. I think the question is just what does that mean in your mind? Are you going to, you know, allocate much more heavily to stocks than even I'm describing? Or are you going to look at more highly speculative investment categories, maybe like crypto or, you know, some of the other kind of high flyers? And and I would be a little concerned about that. So just give me a little bit more definition, if you will, about taking more risk. So my husband is specifically been watching people talk about buying gold.

I don't know, that just doesn't make sense to me. If the economy tanked and kind of went nowhere, you can't trade a bar of gold for a loaf of bread. He will be 67 when he retires. I am nine years behind him. We do have a year of saving for an emergency fund. We have $1,000 emergency fund. We have about 500 in his 401k. And I have I'm self employed, I have a Roth. So that, you know, in the grand scheme of things for starting much later in life, just due to health reasons and different things like that saving, God has been very, very gracious and has been wonderful. We have probably about six years left to pay on our house with about 21 years left, but we'll pay it off in about five years. So again, we've done wonderful and all those things, no debt outside of the house, pay everything in cash, and he fully expects to continue to work.

He'll take Social Security at 67. But just kind of wondering, like, okay, is gold a thing to do? Yeah, it's a great question. Well, that was all really helpful background information, Mary, and I would agree, you guys are blessed God has provided and you've been faithful. I love the fact that you've got this half a million, you've got your one year of emergency funds, and you're going to be debt free before you both retire, including your home.

That's fabulous. So let's do this. I'm going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'll address gold and then perhaps where you go from here. This is Faith and Finance. We'll be right back. You're listening to Faith and Finance live and you can find us online at faithfi.com. However, today we are not live. So if you hear that phone number, please don't call. But do stay with us.

There's lots of good information ahead. For the break, we were talking to Mary in New York. She and her husband are still several years away from retirement.

She's nine years younger than him. They've got 500,000 in a 401k plus some Roth IRAs, a year's worth of emergency savings that's liquid. They'll be completely debt free, including their home in about five years. And just wondering, should they dial up kind of the risk allocation in their portfolio to make up for lost time? I was saying I'd be cautious before you do that, perhaps be slightly more risky than you would with a typical portfolio, just because I think all of us need to look at that opportunity, you know, because people are living longer, as long as we can weather, you know, the storms, if you will, with that portion of the portfolio that's going to have more volatility and we're not inclined to pull out during a recession or a bear market or crash.

If we were to have one, they do occur, but we've always recovered historically speaking. And so, Mary threw out the idea of perhaps making a bigger allocation of gold or husband's been talking about that. Let me just clarify some ages. Mary, did you say he's 67 today or that's when he plans to retire? That's when he plans to retire. He's 63 currently. He's 63 currently.

All right. And at that point, when he retires, have you all run your retirement budget? So, you know, the biggest thing that would change for your retirement budget would be, you know, if we can get five years or maybe you speed it up slightly and you have the house paid off, you know, that mortgage payment's out of the equation now. You know, maybe you're eating out less because you're not out working.

Maybe there's less transportation costs. I mean, have you guys run through what your monthly expenses might look like when you get to that point? Yes.

And the biggest expense at that point would be my health care, just because, you know, right currently we're covered by his employer. I see. Okay.

And you're self-employed, so you all would have to be going out on the open market, although you could look at something like Christian Health Care Ministries, one of the health cost sharing ministries as an option, correct? That started doing that, correct, started doing that just to gain some insight and information on that currently. Yeah. Good.

Yeah. So that'd be a way that you could keep those costs relatively low. And just based on what his retirement or his Social Security full retirement age benefit will be, what kind of gap will exist when you all get to that point and what your monthly expenses are and what he'll have coming in? So he plans on continuing to work just something local.

Currently, he drives truck over the road and doesn't want to be gone, obviously, because he's been doing it since he was 18. So I guess to a degree, there wouldn't be a gap because we would have his Social Security and then, you know, whatever he decided to do local. And then you're working as well with a small business, is that right? Correct. Okay.

And how much are you bringing in that would offset that as well? I guess what I'm getting at is, first question is, could he delay taking Social Security and just rely on his perhaps part-time income or local income and yours? We could. I actually never thought of that. We could. The thought process was, at least in our head, if we took the Social Security, lived off of my income, which we very much could do, and then saved, put that income, that Social Security into savings, into an investment so that it would continue to grow so that we made money instead of the government making money.

Yeah. I think the only difference is that if you wait to take it, it's going to increase by 8 percent a year and there is no guaranteed 8 percent return you can get by investing it on your own. But you are guaranteed an 8 percent increase on Social Security. So essentially, what would happen is, if he waited till age 70 because you all were able to piece together other sources of income, yours, his part-time, now your mortgage is gone, now all of a sudden you're getting a check 25 percent higher for the rest of your lives from him or for him.

That's a meaningful difference. He'd have to live another 12 years to be able to be paid back for what you gave up between 67 and 70. But once you get to 82, now you're in the money, so to speak, for the rest of your lives with a check 25 percent higher. So I think that's one consideration. Keep in mind, if we just get a 7 percent return on this half million over the next six years, that's going to all of a sudden be 760,000. And so that could be at 4 percent withdrawal rate, that could be 30,000 a year or 2,500 a month. So I guess what I'm seeing is, and then we're not counting your Social Security down the road, which you've got a ways to go, but that will be there at some point.

So I guess what I'm seeing is you guys, even though you feel like you're behind, I think you've done well and I don't know that you have to take unnecessary risk. In terms of the thought around gold, I would just say, you know, I like gold. I think I'd take a 5 percent forever allocation with physical gold that you could plan just to keep.

Maybe you pass it down. You could buy gold coins that are more divisible than bars. And then if you want to dial it up to 10 percent, I use probably one of the gold tracker ETFs. So these trade like a stock. It moves in direct sync with the price of gold, which is near all time highs right now.

And it's backed by real gold in vaults. But you trade it like a stock. So if you decide you want to lower your allocation, you put in a market order and it's sold immediately. You don't have the markups on the buying and the selling through dealers and all that kind of stuff. But I probably wouldn't go more than 10 percent or let's say your total investable assets with the 401K plus the Ross. And we didn't talk about that. But let's say it's $600,000. I wouldn't put more than $60,000, you know, in gold and I'd split it 5 percent physical, 5 percent tracker. Does that make sense?

It does. I'll do a little more research on that. We do have a financial planner, a Christian financial local Christian financial planner and can chat with him about that. Again, it's just that nervousness of, you know, the what ifs, you know. I totally get it. And I think that's where ultimately we've got to put our trust in the Lord. You know, I don't think this is a house of cards. I mean, we have some big macro problems in the U.S. national debt, two trillion dollar budget deficits. We've got a demographics issue where we're having less babies, not enough to replace the workers that are retiring. We've got a host of issues.

And yet we know God is in control. Ultimately, we don't need to bury our heads in the sand. But I do think we're still the biggest and largest economy in the world. Yes, I'd like to see us make some changes with regard to how we're, you know, policy decisions and how we're handling our economy. But I don't think we're going anywhere by God's grace. You know, and when we look in the rearview mirror, you know, there's not anywhere anywhere close to us.

I mean, you could call China, but they've got their own issues. So I think, you know, overcoming the effects of inflation still says we're prudent, wise investors with proper diversification. And we do that through having a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio with an allocation of precious metals.

But we don't get highly concentrated in any one category, including gold. And, you know, when we do that, we have the very best chance to grow our wealth. And then what passes through our hands in terms of our own economies is ultimately our role as stewards. So and you all have done that.

You've prioritized saving, you've prioritized getting out of debt, you know, you're being wise in terms of, you know, how you steward your resources, you're living modestly, you're, you know, hopefully you're giving generously. I mean, those are the things that we do as faithful stewards. And then at the end of the day, we trust God for the rest. But hopefully that's giving you some things to think about. I love the idea that you have a Christian financial advisor to walk with you.

I would let him, you know, guide you through that. But hopefully this is some food for thought for you today. So much for your time.

All right. Thank you, Mary. Well, folks, we're going to head to a break. But let me remind you, we're out of the studio today. Our team is not here, so don't call in, but much more to come just around the corner on Faith and Finance Live.

Stick around. Thank you for joining us today on Faith and Finance, where we want God to be your ultimate treasure, helping you understand a biblical worldview of money and finances, realizing that money is one of God's good creations. However, it can become the object of our affection. The world would tell us that our longing for abundance and fulfillment can be found in the things of this world, money and the things that money can buy. And we know that based on God's word, that's absolutely untrue.

It will not satisfy. Only God should be the devotion of our ultimate affection. And he is our eternal treasure. And money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Well, when we see it that way and we realize that our calling is to be found faithful as a steward or a manager of what God has entrusted to us because everything belongs to him, well, then it puts money in its proper context. And so then our goal is to not only understand that and live with contentment within God's provision to exercise self-discipline, to give generously as an act of worship, but also to make daily decisions in light of our understanding that God is the owner. And so we're to understand the heart of the master in order to manage the master's money.

So we go back to God's word to find those principles and big ideas on how we manage money. That's what we want to help you do each day on this program. Let's head right back to the phones to Oklahoma. Hi, Jacob. Go ahead. Hello.

I am a gentleman that just recently got married. We struggle. We live paycheck to paycheck. But now we're in a situation where I don't know how we're going to make it. And I've put all my faith in God, but I still want to know if there's any other way that I might be able to make money.

Since we got married, my fiancé lost her Social Security disability that was through her father's survivor's benefits the moment she became my wife. And now we're to the point that I'm looking at our finances. And when I'm pulling 40 hours a week, it's going to put me right at the border. So if I can't pull 40 hours a week and with me being in the restaurant industry, that is easily, easily, easily happen, you know. So I'm looking at the fact of is there any way that you know of that I might be able to make an extra $400 per month to help us make it until her her disability is reapproved through Social Security?

They've already said because she has proven she has disability, she'll get it again. But it takes up to nine months to do. Yes. Well, I know that can be challenging. Jacob, I realize this is something that's just weighing on you.

I so appreciate your call. And we'll ask our Faith and Finance Live community to be praying for you. You know, ultimately, we recognize that God is our provider, not the US government, not your employer. God alone is our provider.

He can be trusted. And so I think this is an opportunity. And I realize this is easier said than done, but an opportunity to go on an adventure with God and say, Listen, I trust you, Lord, for your provision, I'm going to do my part, I realize, you know, I need to work not with an idle hand, but diligently as unto you. And so I'm going to do that I'm going to give, you know, every bit of my effort, but I'm going to trust you for that provision.

And let's just watch him provide as we know that he will. I think the good news, Jacob is you're not calling saying I need 4000 a month, you're saying I need 400 a month. And you know that, even though that's not an insignificant amount of money, that shouldn't be difficult to pick up a perhaps even a part time job that would net after taxes $400 a month, an extra 5000 a year. And the good news is this should be temporary. Because as you said, if those Social Security disability benefits are restored, I mean, you know, it can take some time. And I realize working through that process is not simple.

But it will happen, I'd say stay diligent, maybe make an in person visit if you need to, to see if you can find somebody who will help you expedite the disability benefits. But the key is to stay the course and not get into debt in the meantime. Now, the good news, I think also is that a great many small local businesses continue to suffer because they can't find workers. And so I think the the opportunity even on a temporary basis is to really look for perhaps a part time job that you could pick up realizing this is temporary. The other way is not only increasing income, but obviously decreasing expenses. And so I think you've got to really go back to that budget and perhaps make a budget overhaul to find things that you can cut even temporarily.

Could you suspend contributions to your retirement account if you're making them? And maybe you don't have one and that's okay, let's move to the next thing. You know, what other things could you cut, cancel cable or streaming services, again, for a period of time. You know, I think when we get into a situation like this, we need to keep the big four in place, we need to keep a roof over our heads, we need to keep food on the table, we need to keep the utilities paid, and we need to keep gas in the car to get to work, but everything else is negotiable. And you know, again, that's not easy, it can be painful, you got to make some hard decisions, I realize you're newly married, and you are wanting to enjoy this season of life. But, you know, you're doing it together, knowing that you're working towards something, it can be enjoyable, even the idea that, you know, we're going to work together to find ways to save money. I mean, you know, it can be something that you all really put your heads together on, trust the Lord, and then watch him provide.

And I think it could be even really meaningful for your faith as you walk through a challenging season. But give me your thoughts on all that. I do agree with all that. Right now, we have cut out our internet, we've cut out our streaming services, we've cut everything that is not needed. Okay, we do have help through through food stamps, because whenever that happened, we call DHS and they said that we could get food stamps.

So we're good food. Yeah, it's just the bills itself. And as for vehicle, the van is broke down. Okay, well, I've got all the parts purchased, I just have to get it fixed.

And I know of one place that, it's a local church that does a mechanical service for free as a ministry. And I'm going to be contacting them. Good. Two things. One is, have you looked for some part time work that you could pick up temporarily? No, honestly, I have not yet. I have been working as many hours as I can here.

Yeah, and I get that. I think maybe, maybe that's the next step. I mean, could you look for something that you could do, you know, on the weekends? Maybe you're already working on the weekends? Could you do pick up something that happens in the evenings? You know, I realized with the restaurant industry, that may be your prime time.

So maybe it's something first thing in the morning. But I think the key is what can we do during this season to increase income? The last thing I'll say is, and then I'd love to pray for you is, you know, reach out to your local church.

Hopefully you guys are involved in a great Bible believing church. Let them know about the season that you're in. That's difficult. I know that can be difficult to, you know, make that known appropriately. Maybe you feel like, well, you know, you know, there's other people that need it more, but that's what the body of Christ is for.

And so I would let them know that you're going through this. Maybe they could help with utilities through a benevolence ministry. You know, maybe they, somebody in the church, you know, could, has a mechanic shop that would be willing to donate their services.

I mean, there's any number of opportunities there, but I think we've got to lean into the body of Christ during this season so they can play their role in being the hands and feet of Jesus. Let me pray for you, Jacob. Father, we lift Jacob and his wife up to you.

What a blessing that they've just joined together in marriage. They want to honor you clearly with what they are, how they're handling your finances, that you've entrusted to them. Lord, I just pray that you would provide miraculously, that they would just be unexpectedly just overwhelmed by how you've provided, perhaps in a way they've never considered, where we can see clearly it's your hand of faithfulness.

Thank you for what you're already providing. And Lord, would you just give them wisdom? Would you draw them together during this challenging season so they can look back and give testimony to your faithfulness?

Would you bring people around them that can encourage them, that even could provide for them financially? And we just tell you today, we trust you, and we know that they are in your hands, and we just commit them unto you, Lord, and ask that you would once again just continue to provide in Jesus' name. Amen. Jacob, thank you for your call, sir, and please let us know how this turns out, and we'll certainly be excited to walk alongside you.

Let's go to Oklahoma. Hi, Sheila. How can I help? I have a financial advisor, and through him I got a CD, and I got the interest on it, but rather than taking the interest, I just reinvested. So I don't get, you know, I'm not getting any money, it's just reinvested. Do I pay tithes on the interest that I got?

Yeah, so a couple of thoughts. Let me answer the question and then back up and give you some thoughts on the tithe, which I love the principle of the tithe. But I would just say your tithe, if you're giving a tithe that's on the increase, and so yes, you know, what you're getting in the way of interest is your increase. Now, you're reinvesting it, and so you haven't realized that increase yet. At some point when you redeem that CD, you will get the money you put in back plus the interest, and that's the time when you actually have the cash in your hands or in your account not reinvested in the CD that you can't get to. That's the time to say, okay, every bit of interest I received while I own this CD is my increase. I'm going to apply the principle of the tithe. I'm going to take a tenth and give it as unto the Lord.

So it's really not today, it's once you redeem that CD that you'd want to do that. Now, as to the principle of the tithe, I love it. I think it's a great guideline. We see it clearly under the law of Moses. We're no longer under the law of Moses, but I think clearly New Testament giving is still proportionate and systematic, starting with the local church. So I think giving a tithe, a tenth of your increase is absolutely appropriate, but we should be looking to go beyond that for those of us who have seen the cross giving freely and sacrificially and giving certainly cheerfully as well.

So Sheila, I hope that helps you. I'd wait until you redeem that CD and then give as unto the Lord. Well, folks, it's been a joy to be along with you today. Thanks for inviting us into your story. What a joy it is to encourage you with God's word as you seek to be that wise and faithful steward. Our goal that you'd see God as your ultimate treasure. Let me say thanks to my team today. I couldn't do it without them. Amy, Dan, Gabby, T and Jim faith and finance lives, a partnership between Moody radio and faith by have a wonderful day and come back and join us next time for another edition of faith and finance live.