The Message of the Widow’s Oil

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and how we can apply it to our lives today. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, it's definitely one of the highlights of the month when Sharon Epps stops by. Sharon is president of Kingdom Advisors and a frequent contributor to FaithFi. And Sharon, great to have you here.

Always love to be here. Sharon, I know you've broken down the story of the widow's oil basically into God's part and the widow's part, but I'd love to start today by just reading these passages from Scripture. Oh, I love hearing God's Word read.

Let's do it. So we're going into 2 Kings chapter 4 verses 1 through 7, and I'm reading from the New International Version. The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, Your servant, my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord.

But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elisha replied to her, How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? The servant has nothing there at all, she said, except a small jar of olive oil. Elisha said, Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars.

Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, Bring me another.

But he replied, There is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left. Wow, that's a powerful portion of Scripture.

Sharon, I know we're going to unpack this. Why don't we start with God's part in this story? Well, this is my favorite probably story on God's part and our part because it becomes so, so clear. God's part in this story was he was the provider of the oil. She had no way to get oil.

And he also provided the buyers to purchase the oil to pay off the debt. And so you see that she literally was totally relying on God for her increase, for her supply that she needed to meet her family needs. She was totally dependent upon God.

Yeah, that is very clear. What else can you take away from this? Well, I think that it's easy to think God doesn't do miracles like that today. And yet there's some key lessons on the widow's part too, because she didn't just sit still and wait for God to pour the oil into her hands. First of all, she asked for help from Elisha in the first place.

She then obeyed the instructions, she gathered the jars, poured the oil and sold the oil. So even though God's our provider, she had a huge part to play in gathering what he gave to her. And I think that's so important. And when we start to think about God's role and our role in our lives, we see that although he could just pour out what we need, he expects us to participate.

And yet the flip side is true too. We don't earn it on our own, it comes from him. What a wonderful picture of God's provision, and to your point, our role in that. Now, there's something in particular you and I talked about just a moment ago, and that was what we see in verse three. I love verse three, because Elisha said, Go around, ask all your neighbors for empty jars.

And he said, Don't ask for just a few. And so do you realize that the one factor that seemed to limit the oil that was given to the widow was how many jars she collected? He seemed to tie the amount of oil that would be given to the number of vessels she collected. The number of empty jars she collected could be seen as a physical manifestation of her faith. That is incredible. And I love how it says right there, when there was not a jar left, the oil stopped flowing at that point.

It did. Not too much or too little. Yeah, God always provides just the right amount. Well, Sharon, we're just getting started here. We've talked about God's part in this. You've touched on our part, but we want to continue to unpack this today as we talk about this powerful passage from God's Word found in 2 Kings 4.

It's the widow's oil. What can you take away and apply to your wise and faithful stewardship of God's resources and total dependence and trust in Him? Sharon Epps here today, she's president of Kingdom Advisors, will continue to unpack the story of the widow's oil just around the corner. This is Faith and Finance Live. We'll be right back. Stick around. I'm so thankful you're joining us today on Faith and Finance Live.

I'm Rob West. With me today, Sharon Epps, frequent contributor and president of Kingdom Advisors. We're talking about one of Sharon's favorite passages in Scripture.

You may know it well. It's the story of the widow's oil found in 2 Kings 4 verses 1 through 7. And, Sharon, we talked about how this is such a beautiful illustration picture of God's part and our part in stewardship. Let's begin to drill down.

What principles can we glean from the steps taken by the widow in this story? Well, first of all, I'd like to mention something that I alluded to earlier, and that is God doesn't work the same miracle in all of our lives. However, the same God is at work. And I think that's why we can safely take some of these principles and apply them to our lives.

So there's just a few. In fact, I'd love to hear others that people come up with. But one that's very obvious to me is God provides. And of course, we mentioned that. But I think sometimes we gloss over that and don't really recognize and understand that he even provides the energy we have to go to work.

So we certainly are reliant on him. I think the other part is our job, and our job is faithfulness to his instruction. And I think in today's society, sometimes it's easy to dismiss our part in all of this, be frustrated with our jobs if they're not perfect, or perhaps if they're slow coming and we are looking for a job, but realize that God calls us to be faithful with whatever he's called us to do right now.

I think the third thing that might not be quite as obvious, but the importance of seeking counsel. This widow literally was destitute. She had no money, no job, and she reached out to the prophet for help.

And we need to do that as well when we're in a place that we are having a hard time seeking counsel and help from others is one of the ways that God takes care of us. And then finally, and this one comes from perhaps the man before he died, and that is don't bet on the future. I am sure that the widow was just overwhelmed by the debt that he left. And so as you think about your financial planning and the steps that you're taking, be sure and consider what could happen if God called you home and you left your spouse with debt, because I think that's a big piece to this is how she got there in the first place.

Wow. Just seven verses and so much there that we can learn from and apply to our financial lives. And Sharon, I can't help but think that this has to be an encouragement to somebody listening to our voices today that's in that desperate situation that this widow was. Well, let's think about maybe the top five or six things to do. First of all, rely on God. Look to him for guidance rather than your own abilities. I don't know about you, but when I'm in a tough situation, a lot of times I just start thinking about, what can I do?

What can I do? And looking to him and saying, what can you do? Secondly, seek wise counsel.

We mentioned that. But the importance of finding fellow believers that can encourage you on your journey and perhaps give you alternatives you've never thought of before. Third, do your part.

I just can't emphasize enough whatever he has put in front of you for today, whether it's going to a job that's not your favorite job, whether it is making a phone call to ask for a connection or a referral if you're looking for a job, all of those things are things that God uses to develop his plan in your life. And then this one's fun for me. Involve your family. I don't know if you noticed, but the widow involved her sons in filling the jars of oil. And I think often we kind of leave the kids out because we don't want them to be burdened by our situation. And yet it actually bonds the family together and they get to see the miracle of God's provision when you involve them in the process. Then borrowing can potentially leave my family in trouble if I die or lose my income. That's just an important thing to remember as you're evaluating currently where you are financially. And then what I always love to say is, what do you already have that God might use to meet others' needs?

So that's flipping it a bit. Maybe you're not the one that's in need, but do you have jars? Do you have jars that a neighbor might use to fulfill what God has for them in their lives? Oh, wow. That is so rich and there is so much there.

We could spend hours unpacking all this. Sharon, one thing that jumps out at me as we think about this idea of God being our provider, everything coming from him. We've been talking a lot lately about the parable of the rich fool in the New Testament. Right there in that passage, we see this rich fool saying, look what I did by the work of my hands. And it strikes me how clear the distinction is between seeing God as our provider and thinking that we do everything in our own efforts.

Absolutely. And somehow it really relieves the burden when I realize God's role in it all and my role. And I find so often I try to take on God's role if I don't specifically call it out.

Yeah, that's good. Sharon, I want to talk about the wise counsel piece of this for a moment, because clearly this applies to somebody in a desperate financial situation where they just don't know how they're going to pay their next bill. There can be folks out there listening today in an equally desperate situation that have an abundance.

Maybe they're concerned about the wealth being passed to the next generation and it could lead them or propel them away from God. And so it doesn't mean necessarily that I'm lacking in resources and I could still need that wise counsel. Oh, there's so many things that we just talked about that applies exactly there. For one thing, you may be the neighbor with the jars. And so as you're thinking about that burden of your wealth, think about where your jars need to go. Perhaps some of them go to your children.

But I bet there's other people in need that you could share them with as well. Oh, wow. That's good. Now, Sharon, we mentioned that you're president of Kingdom Advisors. And whenever I think of wise counsel, I think of Kingdom Advisors. So why don't we take just a moment and talk about the importance of seeking wise counsel that can align with your values as a believer?

Absolutely. So when we certify a Kingdom Advisor, it means that that person has been through rigorous standards to know how to apply God's financial teaching into your financial decision making. And they can help walk you through your biblical worldview so that your decisions can align with that. That's why we so firmly believe in the Certified Kingdom Advisor. Why don't we mention them so much on Faith and Finance?

Yeah. And you can go to faithfi.com right there at the top of the page and click Find a Professional. Again, that's faithfi.com. Let's tie a bow on this, Sharon, and maybe finish with that last point, which I know is a topic that you absolutely love. And that is, look at what we already have and see how we can use it to meet the needs of others. And that's generosity, which is one of God's big ideas as it relates to our stewardship. I'm just amazed at how many times God has already placed in our hands what we can give to others, and we may have just categorized it a little differently. And so when I'm speaking with people who have a heart for generosity, I ask them to do a personal inventory first and look in not only their bank accounts, but their assets. I mean, oftentimes people have a second home they're not using.

In fact, we heard that story just last week of someone that sold a second home because they didn't need it and they had a heart for giving to others. Oh, that's great. Well, Sharon, I'm so thankful for your time today, your insights into this passage. I'm confident this has been an encouragement to folks and given them practical instruction on how they can take this and apply it to their financial lives. Thanks for stopping by.

So glad to be here. Folks, the reminder today, God provides. Our job is faithfulness to His instruction. Seek wise counsel and help from others, and don't bet on the future. I hope this passage from 2 Kings has been an encouragement to you today.

Well, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll be tackling your financial questions today on any financial topic, helping you apply God's word to those decisions and choices. The number to call 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. 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. Thanks for tuning in today to Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. Always great to have Sharon Epps here. I hope what you heard today was challenging to you, that you were refocused, perhaps looked at a different perspective on God's provision in our lives and just the importance of leaning into that and trusting Him implicitly. Not following the cues of this world, but realizing our ultimate home is in heaven and we're to see God as not only provider and sustainer, but really our true treasure.

And I know Sharon's thinking on this topic, one of my favorite stories in God's word was really profound and I hope encouraged you today. All right, we're ready to turn the corner now and take your questions on anything financial. Whatever is going on in your financial life, we'd love to talk about it with you. I've got lines open right now at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's dive in today.

We're going to begin in Fort Myers today. Hi, David. Go ahead. Yes. Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call.

Yes, sir. So I'm wondering, is it really necessary to have life insurance? And I've been with the life insurance company for a few years now paying about a hundred bucks a month. I'm just wondering what's the good of it?

Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. You know, so for any insurance, you're offsetting a risk. So with your car insurance, what is the risk? Well, the risk is you could have an accident or somebody could hit you and damage your automobile and you need to get it fixed. And they're more expensive now than ever to repair because it's hard to get the parts in some cases.

And you've got computer chips running these cars these days. And, you know, certainly I wouldn't wish this on anybody, but somebody could be injured. And then we have medical bills associated with it. The goal is never to have to collect on that. You know, if you ended up owning that car and carrying car insurance on it, and then five years later you sell that car to someone else and you move on and you might say, well, I just kind of threw that money away because I never got in an accident.

You'd be OK with that. That's a good thing because the insurance was serving its purpose. And that is for you to know and have the peace of mind that if something happened, you'd have your insurance company that could step in and cover those medical bills or repair your automobile. And I think in a similar way, that's true with life insurance.

What is the risk we're offsetting? Well, the risk is a loss of income. This isn't the only thing, but the primary thing is a loss of income when a breadwinner dies.

And so if someone is depending upon your income, a spouse most often or lifelong dependents or minor children, and the Lord were to call you home and that income goes away, that could create a hardship for them. And so the life insurance is intended to fill that gap and could be then that asset could be converted to an income stream to be able to maintain their lifestyle. And so for that $100 a month, you've got some death benefit there that could be a real blessing and could really be the difference between them being able to maintain some quality of life and standard of living after your death and not being able to do that because they just lack the resources to be able to maintain their lifestyle. And so that's where life insurance comes in.

The goal is not to have to collect because that means the Lord still has you here and you're serving whatever purposes he has for you, including providing for your family. Now, a lot of times folks will in addition to replacing that income, and typically we say you want 10 to 12 times your income in life insurance in order to offset that. So if you're making $60,000 a year, you'd want somewhere between $600,000 and $720,000 in death benefit. And the best way to get that is through term insurance.

And the idea behind term insurance, David, is that you buy it at the lowest cost possible. So you're just paying the mortality expense. There's people called actuaries that are running fancy formulas to determine what is the true cost of ensuring your life based on your age and your health primarily to determine the likelihood that you're going to pass away during the period of time that the insurance is there. And there's an associated monthly or annual premium that covers that cost of the death benefit and the most effective way to get the amount of death benefit you need that 10 to 12 times your income that I suggested is buying pure insurance, which is term.

Now, some people will add to that maybe the cost of your mortgage, the value of your mortgage to pay that off or the kids college education. So we know that's paid for if you were to pass away and that obviously could all be added there. But another idea behind term insurance is that when you get to the end of your working years and you've built the assets because now you've got Social Security and you've been funding your 401k for 40 years and you've got assets there to live on.

Well, there's no longer that risk. If the Lord calls you home, there's plenty of assets there for your wife to maintain her standard of living. And so that life insurance is no longer necessary. And so ideally, you'd you'd keep putting term policies in place, kind of stringing them together throughout your working years. And then when you get to retirement, you drop it, you no longer need it. And that expense goes away, which is part of how most retirees live on 80 percent of their pre-retirement income, not 100 because there are certain expenses that come off the table.

And I would suggest for most people, one of those is life insurance. Does that help in answering that question, though? Yes, it does. Thank you very much. That was great.

Very good. I think the bottom line here, David, is that if you get to the end of the the working years and you never collected on that life insurance, that means the Lord's not done with you. That's a good thing. But it doesn't mean that money was thrown away because that that expense that you had every month was there to protect your family in the event of your untimely death.

And just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it wasn't a worthwhile expense. I think that's part of our stewardship responsibility. Thanks for your call today. Back with faith and finance live just around the corner. We've got the lines filling up some great questions coming up.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. I'm Rob West. And this is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Stick around. It's great to have you with us today on faith and finance live.

I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. Before we head back to the phones, let me mention this is the last week of June. Why is that an important week? Well, it's important for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that it's the last week of our fiscal year here at FaithFi, which is faith and finance live. So we bring you this program each day only because of your generous support as a listener supported ministry. And as we round out our budget for the year and try to finalize the year and reach our goals, we're twenty five thousand dollars away for reaching the listener support goal for the entire year.

But we've got just about four days to do it. So this is a really important time for us to hear from you. Now, the good news is that we've had some friends of the ministry step up and say we're going to fund or match every dollar of that. And so every gift is doubled between now and Sunday.

One hundred dollars is two hundred, two hundred, four hundred. If you have the ability to do a thousand dollar gift, that would become two thousand. And again, before June 30th, all of that goes to us closing out that gap and reaching our goal to finish the year strong and prepare for another year of ministry. So if you could help us in that regard, this program has been a blessing to you. We just invite you to be a partner of ours by making a gift before June the 30th when you go to faith by dot com.

That's faith f i dot com and click give right there at the top of the page. Again, every gift doubled and thanks in advance. All right. We're going to head back to the phones. We've got looks like just three lines open.

Eight hundred five, two, five, seven thousand. Let's go to Chicago. Hi, Christine. How can I help you? Yes, good.

I wanted to say, thank you for your program. I have a question. I have a trust in a will, and I need to do some updates. And I went to an attorney and a lot of the language is difficult to understand sometimes if you're not an attorney, but when they were finalizing things, they put themselves down as a trust protector.

And I'm not sure exactly what that is and not sure if I should like move forward with them making the amendments because they didn't really explain what that was. And they just put themselves on as trust protectors. Their firm. Yeah. Yeah.

Very good. Well, here's what I would say. First of all, I'm not an attorney. And so I think, you know, asking that question to the estate planning attorney to get them to explain that to you would be important.

But what I will tell you, Christine, is that it's not uncommon. So this is basically just the overseer of the actions of the trustee. Now, why would you want that? Well, this is going to reduce the possibility that a trustee, the person you named in the trust to carry out the trust at the appointed times, if you're incapacitated or at your death and so forth. It's going to reduce the possibility that that trustee would not live up to their fiduciary duties, the responsibility they have to carry out the objectives of the trust.

What could that look like? Well, in a drastic sense, it could prevent embezzlement. You know, so if somebody were to, you know, fraudulently take advantage of the situation, if the trustee withheld distributions from beneficiaries, if they misuse the trust assets or neglected to manage the trust. That's where the trust protector could then step in and say, wait a minute, you're not doing things the way that they should be done or you haven't released funds as you were supposed to.

You need to get that done. So think about them as just kind of another layer of protection. Now, in the same way that you would want that trustee to be a trusted individual that you know and to be in high regard and to have the ability to carry out kind of administrative functions and be financially literate. You would want to make sure that the trust protector is also somebody that's trusted that would be the overseer. But I don't have any issue with you having a trust protector.

And I would say if you want to know whether it's necessary or even required, you could talk to the attorney in greater detail. Does that make sense, though? Yes, it does. And I appreciate that insight. Thank you. OK, thank you for calling, Christine. I'm delighted to hear that you're getting your estate in order and we can help you further along the way. Don't hesitate to reach out. Eight hundred five to five.

Seven thousand is the number to call. Let's go to Boynton Beach. Hi, Michael. Go right ahead, sir. How are you doing, Mr.

Rob? I'm doing great. Really well.

All right. So I kind of have a little bit of a predicament right now, though, just wanted to seek your advice. And it's really funny because I just had turned on the radio in my apartment and you guys are talking about this and it spoke right to my situation, I feel like. But nonetheless, kind of a little bit about me right now is that I got laid off my job on May 8th, which was about a month ago, a month and a half, however long ago, and I'm getting married in two weeks. And I'm just in a really, really tight financial situation. And I would want to get your perspective on what to do, how to stay faithful in a time like this, because I had like a severance payout and everything like that and it got worked out. But now that's coming to an end and I don't have a savings and there's still a few things to pay for the wedding. There's still bills, there's rent coming for the next month, you know, and all this is happening within the next week, week or two. You know what I mean? So what's your perspective on like how, you know, maybe ask people in the church, what do you think I should do in a way of earning some money?

Because I've been applying to jobs like left and right, you know, all around the area, making some calls and it's just nothing yet. But the Lord has provided. I'll tell you that.

No doubt. He's continued to provide. But yeah, that's well, I appreciate that, Michael.

And I realize that can be concerning. And I don't think it's by accident that you turned on the radio today and we were talking about the message of the widow's oil, because this is such a profound verse and maybe the first thing to do is for you to pull out God's word when we're done here today and turn to 2 Kings 4 and just reread this story. But I think what Sharon shared today is very appropriate in your situation and I think you mentioned it. But the first big idea that comes kind of right off the top here is that God provides, that he is our provider.

You know, God's part in this story in 2 Kings was that he provided the oil. And so we realize that we can trust him implicitly, your employer, the US government, none of those are your provider. God alone is your provider.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Secondly, we need to invite him into this situation. I would make this a matter of prayer.

I'd be very transparent with your fiancé and I think I would be pleading and asking the Lord, Lord, we need you to intervene. We trust you and we're going to try to stay faithful to you in the process, even though we don't know where the provision is going to come from. I think the second thing is that, as Sharon said, we need to do our part. You know, our job is faithfulness to his instruction and that's what we see in this passage is that the widow did her part. She followed the instructions. She obeyed Elisha in this story. She gathered the jars. She poured the oil and she sold the oil. And so, you know, your job at this point is to go out and find your next job.

And so I guess that's what I would ask you is, apart from trusting the Lord, praying through this, being transparent with your fiancé, are you out there full time looking for that place of employment? Yes, sir. You know it. Okay. Yeah, I'm sure you are. The good news is we're in a pretty good job market right now. Now, that doesn't matter until you find your job. I get that.

But at least the environment is right. So let's do this. I want to pray for you. I also want to provide you with a tool, a career assessment, that perhaps could even open up your eyes to, you know, where the Lord may be leading for your next place of employment.

I'll tell you about that off the air. But we're going to ask the Faith and Finance Live community to be praying for you as well. God bless you.

Hold the line. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance Live. You know, let's take just a moment and pray for Michael who called before the break. Michael's just a short time away from getting married. He's lost his job.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any savings. And so he's just trusting the Lord here. He's finding his next place of employment, his full time job.

We had a good conversation off the air. We're going to provide him with some career assessment and guidance with a career coach. Just a way to bless him right now.

We talked about the fact he may need to make some hard decisions even delaying the wedding. But let's just ask the Lord to intervene here. Father, we're just going to pray. And we tell you that we trust you're his provider today.

You're all of our providers. Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. We will claim your promises today, Lord, as well. You know his need. And we just ask that you'd come alongside him. You'd give him wisdom as to how to navigate this situation. We ask that you'd step in even miraculously and provide the provision that would allow him to meet his obligations, get on a stronger financial footing, prepare to enter marriage. But also, Lord, to honor you as a steward in every step. And so we just ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amy, I know this can be a tough situation. And I know you were praying along with me. And we hear from so many folks that have seen God work. And yet when you're going through the storm, it's challenging. Yeah, it definitely is. But we just have to put our trust in him and just know based on what he's done for us in the past that he's going to always be faithful.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, I'm glad you've joined me today. Each Wednesday, folks, we take some of your e-mailed questions that have come into us throughout the week. Amy, my producer, joins me and we tackle those questions. So, Amy, why don't we do that now? OK, well, first up is Michelle. And she says, I have some debt I want to get rid of, but I'm struggling because I'm my mother's sole caretaker, so I can't get a second job to increase my income. I want a loan to pay off the debt, so I'll only have one payment. What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions?

Yeah. So debt consolidation is not the best approach in terms of getting rid of your debt, Michelle. You can end up doubling it if you don't stop the behaviors that led to the debt in the first place generally.

And I'm not saying I don't know your situation, but generally that's lifestyle spending beyond your means. So what I would do to get out of debt is contact first our friends at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. They can put you on a debt management plan that's different from consolidation. Your debt stays right where it is. They drop the interest rates. You send one level monthly payment. And on average, you'll pay that back 80 percent faster.

Again, ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Well, and you know that I was my mom's caretaker for quite a few years, and so I know what a struggle that can be. So I do hope that Michelle is feeling the comfort of the Lord today. Absolutely. Okay.

Next is Sharon. I will be retiring in the next month or two. I have a Medicare Part A, and I will need to sign up for Part B. However, I've also heard about different kinds of health cost sharing programs, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this type of insurance supplement. Yeah, we're big fans of the health cost sharing. Here at Faith in Finance Live, we've had a long-standing relationship with Christian Healthcare Ministries, and they have something called Senior Share, which does step in. It is ideal for individuals with Medicare Part A and B because it alleviates the medical bills not paid by Medicare. The amount per unit in terms of a monthly cost is very low, $27 per person. So this can be a great option.

You can check it out at chministries.org. It's called, again, Senior Share. I would also say to you, Sharon, if you've been under your company's health plan to this point, you'll need to sign up for Medicare Part B within eight months of losing your coverage at work, or you'll have to pay a permanent monthly penalty when you eventually enroll. So just be aware of that.

Okay, thank you for that. And then finally today, Carolyn asks, or she writes and says, my husband and I are 68, and our life insurance premiums will soon increase five-fold. We need new policies, and we'd like to purchase enough to pay off our $180,000 mortgage and cover our funeral expenses. With that in mind, how much life insurance should we purchase?

Yeah, it's a great question. So life insurance should only be used to replace the lost income of a deceased breadwinner or could be a stay-at-home mom or dad if there's a cost for childcare that would be added at the death of the spouse. If you have no dependents, typically you don't need life insurance because you don't have a spouse if you don't have a lifelong dependents as children. In that case, what I would say is what we generally would say is start putting that money you'd spend on the premiums into a savings account for funeral expenses and pay down the principal of your mortgage with any extra. That allows you to be able to build up something that you can take advantage of as opposed to paying for expensive life insurance during this season of life.

That's generally the best way to go for most people. Okay, well that was it for today. And if you want to send an email note to Rob, just go to moodyradio.org and forward slash finance, and you'll find a form there where you can do so. Very good. Thanks, Amy.

Appreciate you joining us. Let's head back to the phones and we'll go to Chicago. Zeta, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Zeta, you're breaking up just a little bit. Let's see if we can get you to move one direction or the other.

Maybe that signal will clear up. Go ahead. That's better. Yes, ma'am. Okay.

All right. If I were to cancel my term life insurance after retirement, I heard you talking about that on the radio and I was thinking how would I pay for my, or not myself, but how would my family members? I don't have children, so it would be my nieces, nephews or siblings, whoever, you know, was here after me. How would they pay for my services, my funeral costs and so forth if I cancel my term life? I just assumed I kept that life insurance, you know, until I no longer needed it and then my beneficiary would take it for that purchase and whatever's left, it would go to them. Yes.

So it's a good question. I mean, the typical funeral cost today is going to run you, you know, somewhere between seven and fifteen thousand dollars, maybe on the high end. So the question is, is there another way to cover that? And so typically someone in this season of life might have an emergency fund where that those funds are there in savings.

They would be available. You could even put them in an account with a beneficiary that's named, which would be the person that would be responsible for carrying out the funeral. You could do the pre planning, which would alleviate some of the decision making during an already difficult season, but make sure the funds are there to be paid. Or you could even prepay and then you get rid of that that expense for the life insurance. If you don't have those funds available and you're just concerned that there won't be anything at all and you want to make sure that that's covered, then you could have a very small life insurance policy, what's typically known as a burial policy that would cover only your funeral expenses.

Now, there tend to be pricey for the amount of coverage. So it might be fifty dollars a month for a ten thousand dollar policy. And again, this is where I'd rather you have that in savings and keep that fifty dollars a month in your budget. But if you just felt like, you know what, it's just not there and I just don't want to take the risk that my loved ones wouldn't have access to the funds to pay for it, then that would be another option. Does that all make sense, though?

That makes sense. So I have term life and I've had it for quite a while. I'm not looking to retire for maybe another five years, maybe six. But I was thinking maybe I should take your suggestion and just I have a high yield savings account. I could add it to that, you know, which would increase the amount of money. Yeah, because here's the reality. As long as you have that money available in savings and folks can get to it, you know, relatively quickly and that's where a beneficiary designation could come in.

If there's nobody depending on you for your income, then at your death, there's not anybody that has any kind of hardship and therefore the life insurance really isn't necessary. Oh, I see. Okay. Something to at least think and pray about. Yes, ma'am.

I hope that helps to clear it up, though. We appreciate your call today. Let's move quickly to Iowa and we'll finish up with Jolene.

Go right ahead. Yes, my husband and I are dairy farmers. My husband is 60 years old. And we have an operating line of credit. We have a capital line of credit.

And those you use as you need. And, you know, at times we are able to pay some off, but then we end up with having to borrow back just with the nature of dairy farming. Yes, we've not been able to make progress on those lines, as we should the last last couple years. Now years ago when a couple years when things are good, we did put some money in a Roth IRA under his name. It's not a whole lot of money. But right now, especially with our lines of credit, our interest rates are now eight and a half percent. We were thinking of taking those Roth IRAs out and taking that money putting it against our line of credit.

So we have a couple questions about that. The first is, with it being a Roth IRA, there should be no tax consequences to that. Are we correct in that? That is correct. You can always take your original contributions out at any point without any tax or penalty because you already paid income taxes on it. So they're delighted for you to take it out and not get the tax benefits in the future. Now, with the con with the growth, the portion that beyond what you put in, because the market has grown with that, as long as that account has been open for five years, and you're over 59 and a half, you can take that also. Tax free and penalty free.

Yes. OK, so then even from a regular IRA, we could take our original amount put in? No, that's only for the Roth. With a traditional IRA, you got a deduction when you put it in. And so even the first dollar, you're going to pay tax on it as income when it comes out. The only question is whether you pay the penalty.

You would not have the penalty because you're over 59 and a half. Unfortunately, I'm out of time today, Jolene, and I realize we may not have gotten to your full question. So let's do this. I'm going to ask you to go on hold. And if there's another part to this question, I'd be delighted to talk about that with you, perhaps on tomorrow's broadcast. So stay right there and let's just make sure we got your question answered fully. May the Lord bless you.

Thanks for calling today. Again, folks, June the 30th, our last day of the fiscal year here at FaithFi, $25,000 away from meeting our goal for the year and every gift doubled because of the generous match up right now. $100 is $200.

$200 is $400. FaithFi.com. Just click give Faith and Finance Live's a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. Thank you to Amy, Lisa, Dan and Jim. We'll see you tomorrow.