Managing Chronic Financial Anxiety With Steve Cuss

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John 14 27. I am Rob West. Do you occasionally feel overwhelmed by anxiety or is it more of a chronic condition and often about your finances? Today we'll hear from a powerful speaker about how to recognize and overcome anxiety. And then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, we had an amazing number of great speakers at the recent Kingdom Advisors Conference in Orlando, the gathering of the Christian financial industry, and we want to share some of their insights with you.

Today we'll hear a short message from Pastor Steve Cuss, the founder of Capable Life and host of the Being Human podcast from Christianity Today. He reveals the one sure way to overcome chronic anxiety by leaning on Jesus. So if acute anxiety is a huge dose of adrenaline, chronic anxiety is more like a drip.

You've got a little IV drip of adrenaline and it's just drip, drip, drip, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And this is the number one reason people burn out. OK, so here's the playbook for chronic anxiety.

It's generated by assumptions, expectations, false beliefs and false needs. But you can imagine why as a pastor I've given my life to studying the science of chronic anxiety or reactivity, because my job as a pastor is to help people connect to the truth, Jesus. And so if we can uncover some false needs we have, we can learn to die to them and relax into the sovereignty of God. And it's a really powerful way to grow in our relationship with faith. We can use our anxiety triggers to actually open our soul up to God's presence.

It's really something. So if anxiety is generated by assumptions, expectations, false beliefs and false needs, what is an assumption you hold about yourself that's unreasonable? Those of you who put your hand up as perfectionists, I say this without meaning to be funny. What I'm about to say, I mean, perfectionist, almost every assumption you hold about yourself is unreasonable.

I mean, think about it. When is the last time you looked at your work and said, that was well done? You're like, the point is to always chase a carrot I never reach. Here I am more relaxed in the Lord while you're on the treadmill to nowhere. OK. And what you can start to notice is the way anxiety has a gospel, has a competing gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ. I grew up unchurched. I was not raised in the church. None of my family are followers of Jesus, just my sister and I.

And when I discovered the gospel of Jesus, I couldn't believe it. The idea out of all of the gospels ever, this is the only gospel where the God pays and the human benefits. Every other belief system, the human pays and the God benefits. If you think about like the ancient sacrifice systems, even in the Roman Empire and the Egyptian Empire, back in the days of Moses, human pays, God benefits. In the Roman Empire, Caesar Augustus, his nickname was the Son of God. And the most profound confession of faith in Rome was Caesar is Lord and along come Luke and Paul and they say, nope.

And the people paid and paid and paid and Caesar got all the benefit. Those of you who are perfectionists, it will free you. This is deeper work, but it will free you when you realize that perfectionism is a gospel that makes you pay for its benefit. God is not asking you to be perfect. God is asking you to be human sized. You're expecting yourself to be perfect.

You are living out of a gospel of self. And then you start to realize, like for me, people pleasing. I'm not a perfectionist, but I'm a people pleaser. And then I start to realize I can never please people enough.

I can never please enough people. It is forever a carrot out of reach. Or you might say it's a treadmill. Chronic anxiety is like a personal trainer tapeworm.

Do you have lunch today, by the way? You know, a tapeworm, when you first get one, I don't know if you've ever had one, but when you first get a tapeworm, some of you are like, what are you talking about? I've never had a tapeworm in my life. When you first get one, you don't even know you have it. They're so small, but they feed off your energy. That's how they grow. That's what anxiety does.

It grows consuming you. And then you're like, why is that tapeworm a personal trainer? Because he has you on a treadmill to nowhere.

And he's pushing the go faster button all the way into burnout and you're not getting anywhere. Pastor Steve Cuss speaking at the recent Kingdom Advisors Conference in Orlando. A powerful message. God doesn't want us to be anxious, especially about finances. We need only to be faithful stewards and trust Him to provide because He always does. Your calls are next.

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That's faithandinvesting.com. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial, helping you see God as your ultimate treasure and money, a tool to accomplish his purposes.

Call right now, 800-525-7000. We'll look forward to hearing from you today so you can get involved in the conversation. You know, as we think about managing God's money, one of the things that we want to address is just this importance of teaching our kids to prepare for their financial future. You know, as we look at the principles that we want to communicate to our kids, there's some big themes there. And yes, we want to be teaching them to be financially literate. But we also want to start with some of these big themes we see in scripture from a biblical worldview, starting with God as our ultimate treasure. You know, that we were created for an abundance and the world would have us to satisfy that in the creation, not the creator. But we can help to overcome that and help our kids understand that their self-worth does not equal our net worth.

It's a tool to accomplish God's purposes. We can teach them what it means to be a steward, not an owner, and that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. And the way the steward effectively manages the master's resources is by understanding the master's heart. So we have to go back to God's word and understand what it looks like to manage God's money wisely, starting with living within our means, within the provision that God has provided. And then, of course, we get into all of the money management principles of the dangers of debt and the importance of giving and goal setting.

And, you know, as we're intentional in that and modeling it first, recognizing more is caught than taught, we'll be well on our way to preparing those future adults for a lifestyle of God-honoring money management. Well, if you want to talk about that or anything else today, we'd love to tackle it with you. Again, we've got a few lines open and we're headed to the phones right now. 800-525-7000. Coming up in just a few moments, we'll talk to Paul in New York. He wants to find out how to get out of credit card debt.

Also, Hank in Illinois has a challenge with a life insurance policy, wants to know where to turn. But first, let's go to New York. Michelle, you'll be our next caller. How can I help? Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. My husband recently retired from the military with over 20 years of service. He receives a small VA pension in his retirement. I work full time and we're able to live off of that. He was lucky enough to find employment in his field.

We're excited. And so he'll be getting that income right now. We have forty seven thousand eight hundred and seven dollars on our mortgages at two point five. I recently completed my doctorate. And to do that, I had to take out three student loans and their interest rates vary from five point to six point six and six point. And I owe forty five thousand thirty two dollars. So our question is, where do we start the income that he'll be getting from his employment?

We're hoping to just kind of put it in one area. OK. Yeah. So this would really be surplus because your bills are covered before even considering this income he'll be receiving. Is that right? Yes, sir. OK, great. And what is the interest rate on the mortgage? Two point five.

OK. Yeah. So you have a great rate there, obviously, and it looks even better now that rates are quite a bit higher. But in any environment, two and a half percent is phenomenal. You know, I like the idea of you all attacking that student loan debt. I mean, obviously the interest rates are at least double, if not in a little bit more than that in the case of a couple of these loans.

And, you know, you get that knocked out, you're going to save from a financial standpoint, you will save money. And then it would give you the ability to snowball this, where you take what you were sending to the student loans and you just roll that right into the mortgage and accelerate that payoff. But just given the ability to eradicate these student loans at a significantly higher interest rate makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, I love the idea of you all being completely debt free, including your home and knowing that you have it free and clear. But I suspect you've got quite a bit of equity there, which is great. And given that low interest rate, I think, you know, for me, going after the student loans makes a lot of sense.

But give me your thoughts on that. And what have you and your husband talked about in light of this? So my husband and I, what we talked about, that's what I was thinking. But he was saying that if we attack the mortgage, and by the way, I called the rep at the mortgage company and they laughed. Why would you want to pay this off?

You have a great rate. And I don't know how to respond. So he is thinking that if we attack the mortgage, the income that we receive from the mortgage could then be, could help us with the three student loans. Yeah, no, I certainly understand that. I think, though, the key here, I mean, there's not a right or wrong decision here, whenever you're paying down debt or paying off debt.

That's a good thing. And to answer the question of the mortgage servicer, I mean, I think at the end of the day, there's the financial side of this. And then there's the non-financial side, the financial side is just the dollars and cents of, okay, you're paying two and a half percent. So what could you do with that money elsewhere? And he would probably say, well, you could go out and invest it. And even if you did only six or eight percent, you're still doing quite a bit better than the mortgage. You've got the money there. You could pay it off at any time, but you could get a better long term rate of return. And that's true.

You know, if we look historically, you know, that would be a, an appropriate way to look at this. But then there's the non-financial side, which he's not considering, or she, and that is that there's just a lot of peace of mind that comes from knowing you're unencumbered, that you own your home. And that, you know, if we look at scripture, although borrowing is not a sin, there's a lot of warnings about debt. And I think we should pursue the idea of being debt free over time. So when you factor both of those in, I think it's perfectly appropriate to say we're going to get out of debt, including paying off this low interest rate mortgage, just because we want to be out of debt. Now, somebody else who says, no, I like that two and a half percent rate. I'm going to take that money and put it to work for me. I wouldn't argue with that either.

It's really a personal conviction. But at the end of the day, you know, you're, when you pay off either of these loans, you're going to have more money available because not only will you have your husband's income, but you'll have what you would have been sending to service those loans at a minimum. So in the case of the mortgage, that's your mortgage payment based on the amortization schedule, but the student loans, that's the monthly payment that you're going to have. And in either case, you'll be able to add those minimum amounts to his surplus income to go after the other debt.

So again, there's not a right or wrong here, but I think just given that the interest rates are at least double on the student loans, that's where I would probably prioritize my attention. Thank you. Do you have time for another question?

Yeah, go right ahead. We have two children, six years old, and then we have two foster children who are free for adoption and we're considering adoption. Our children have a savings account and a CV in their name. We're wondering how to financially plan for all four children. Yeah. And are you thinking specifically for college, Michelle, or just generally? Just generally, right now.

They're all very young. Okay. Well, you know, a couple of thoughts. Number one is your ability to just be financially sound for you and your husband is the best thing you can do for your kids. And so making sure you're out of debt, you're following the Lord's leading and you're giving, you know, you're saving for the long term.

I mean, all of those things are really key. Now, in terms of your ability to set something aside for the kids, you know, if you wanted it more generally available rather than putting it in a custodial account where it automatically becomes their money at the age of majority, usually 18, where they might not be and they let's pray they are, but they may not be spiritually or financially mature enough to handle it. I just like the idea of you guys setting aside a separate joint account for each of the kids in your name, but just earmark it for the kids and then just set up an automatic transfer into that and then invest it in some index funds like through the Schwab Intelligent portfolios. Or you could buy some faith based investing funds and you could find the list of those at our website, faithfi.com.

But I think that'd be the approach that I'd take. Michelle. Hey, thanks for calling today. Back with more questions right after this.

Stay with us. It's available on desktop or mobile. Simply go to faithfi.com and click app to get started. If the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind, Christian credit counselors can help. We're a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80 percent faster while honoring that debt in full. To learn how Christian credit counselors can help you visit Christian credit counselors dot org.

That's Christian credit counselors dot org or call 800-557-1985. You know, as we think about our role as stewards of God's money, it's a high calling. You see, we're money managers for the King of Kings. What an opportunity we have to be found faithful as we turn to God's word to navigate every facet of our lives, including our role as managers of God's money. Well, the good news, there's all kinds of principles, in fact, 2300 verses that deal with money and possession. So when we look at the big themes of scripture, our goal, our aim is to live rich toward God.

That's right. It comes from Luke 12, the parable of the rich fool, where we're to value our eternity, to value God over everything else. He is our abundance, not just the access to our abundance. He is our abundance. And now money is not our aim.

It's not an end. It's a means to an end to glorify God, to provide for our families, to meet the need of others. Well, that's the opportunity we have and what we want to encourage you in each day on this broadcast as we gather together to mind the scriptures and apply God's principles and wisdom to your daily financial choices. By the way, if you want to check out more on Faithfi, our ministry here that's listener supported, you can do so at faithfi.com. All kinds of resources. You can jump into the community, post a question, answer someone else's question, provide encouragement, and check out our Faithfi app.

It's all at faithfi.com. All right, let's head back to the phones today, awaiting patiently Hank in Illinois. Go ahead, sir. God is good. You know, Rob, I like your show.

I've listened to you, started listening to you about three months ago. Here's what I've got. I'm 69 years old and I bought a life insurance 20-year term 20 years ago, and I had the cash surrender value option. And the 20 years is up. I've got a check for $16,945 from the life insurance company. But when I saw what they were doing, I should have been getting $17,600. So I called them up and I said, hey, where's the rest of the money at? And they said that I automatically went into a extended term insurance when mine canceled out. But I dot my I's and cross my T's and I called them a month before this term insurance was canceling and stop the check. So they couldn't get the money out of the out of the account anymore. And I also told them to cancel this policy as of the date. And then they still got the $514.22 for the extended term. They went through it.

Have you heard that before? You know, I'm not, but I'm not surprised. I mean, obviously, you know, this is unfortunately your word against theirs. Do you have any documentation? I mean, obviously you went in and pulled the ability for them to continue to draw out the premium. But do you have any documentation on your notice that you gave to them at that point?

I do. And then they just sent me a surrender cash value letter maybe about three weeks ago after I talked to them for an hour. And they sent me and it said seventeen six. But when I got the check from them, it was sixteen nine forty five.

So they did get the premium. OK, well, what I would do is try to escalate this to another department, just see if you can make sure you've got all your documentation in one place so you can talk them through what transpired. Hopefully it's just a clerical error and somebody with some authority to override what the computer screen says can make a decision in your favor to give you the full amount. Obviously, if you need to go beyond that, the place you would file a complaint would be with the Department of Financial Services there in the state of New York who oversees the insurance companies. And, you know, you would go to their website, dfs.ny.gov slash complaint, and you could file a consumer complaint at that point and you could do the letter of authorization and basically share your concern and then somebody will follow up with you.

But I'd probably try to avoid that and at least take one more step to see if you can escalate this to somebody who'd be willing to take another look at it and see if you can get the full amount. OK, the bottom line is I just got another 20-year term from the same company. OK.

Does that help me any? Well, sure. I mean, I think the fact that you're an existing customer, I mean, you know, you've already done you've already put the policy in force, so they're not going to benefit further. But the fact that you're an existing customer never hurts with your, you know, making the case that they should, you know, award you this full amount and find, you know, take your word for it and hopefully make good on it. So, yeah, I think you've done all the right things. Now it's just a matter of finding the person that can help you.

And if you can't, let's hope it doesn't come to that. Then I think your next step is to file a complaint with the DFS there in New York. So all the best to you, Hank.

I hope this works out, but I'm confident if you stay at it, you'll probably get them to take some action for you. Thanks for being on the program, sir, and for your kind remarks about the program. Let's head to New York, actually, and talk to Paul. Thanks for calling, sir.

Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I have some family members who they're kind of in over their head a little bit. And they were just wondering if there's a credit financial agency that you would recommend. Yeah, Paul. So is this credit card debt? Most of it. OK. Yeah.

Yeah, there is. So what we generally recommend in this, you know, there's not any kind of magic number, but just in our experience, kind of the number there is around 4000. If you've got less than 4000 in credit card or consumer debt, you know, usually just snowballing it yourself is the best way to go. And that's just a term that simply means you start with your spending plan or your budget, you eliminate all opportunities for unnecessary spending to free up margin. You pay the minimums on all the accounts, but you focus on the one with the smallest balance, not the highest interest rate, the smallest balance. And you take all that surplus you freed up and you apply it to that smallest balance.

And the reason is that the studies show that the plan that you'll complete is the one that you'll actually continue to make progress on without giving up along the way. And that snowball approach where you focus on the smallest balance allows you to see some early wins by paying one off in full, which gives you the motivation to keep going. If you've got more than 4000 in total credit card or consumer debt, our friends at Christian Credit Counselors would be the place that I would recommend you go. You'll find them on the web at christiancreditcounselors.org. What will happen is through a debt management program, the debts won't be paid off and replaced with a new debt. That's debt consolidation.

They'll stay right where they are. And then through the credit counseling agency, in this case, Christian Credit Counselors, each of these creditors have a credit counseling rate that's lower than their prevailing rate. So let's say it's 22% today and it comes down to 8% or 10%. You'll in many cases cut these interest rates in half and then you'll pay one monthly payment through Christian Credit Counselors.

They'll then send it on to each of the creditors and the combination of that level payment plus the reduction in interest rate will allow you to pay this off on average 80% faster. We've got hundreds and hundreds of listeners that have used them very successfully and I have complete confidence in the team there at Christian Credit Counselors. So check them out online, christiancreditcounselors.org. And Paul, we appreciate you being on the program. Hey, thanks for being along with us today, folks.

Remember, we want God to be your ultimate treasure and money, the tool to accomplish his purposes. I'm Rob West. We're so thankful you were with us today. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.