Rich Toward God: True Abundance

If you enjoy this podcast, you're going to love all the many different resources waiting for you at Faithfi.com and the Faithfi app. You'll find powerful wisdom, free podcasts, articles, videos, and more from leading voices such as Randy Alcorn, Howard Dayton, Ron Blue, and our own Rob West. Grow in wisdom and knowledge by connecting with a community of thousands of Christians striving to be good and faithful stewards at Faithfi.com or by downloading the Faithfi app. Jesus warned his followers in Luke 12, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

Hi, I'm Rob West. You might envy someone who is rich in material possessions, but that's a dangerous road since stuff can't really satisfy your deepest needs. Today, I'll dig into God's word to discover the source of true abundance. And then we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Covetousness is what happens when you see someone else's possessions and want them for yourself. It's part envy and part greed and completely sinful. But what's so dangerous about that kind of desire?

Well, like any sin, its first effect is to draw you away from a right relationship with God. Envy can also destroy your relationships with other people. When you're zeroing in on getting and keeping what you want, you're putting your fleshly desires in God's place. Selfishness obliterates your ability to love God and other people. You know, one problem with a materialistic mindset is that you start to believe more is always better and you never have enough. Ultimately covetousness is just a treadmill of frustration and desire. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon calls it chasing after the wind.

Jesus warns his followers against this sin, but he also gives them and us the key to a better way of living. One's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. In other words, you won't find lasting satisfaction in getting more stuff. Material things just can't give you the life you crave.

So what kind of abundance does produce life? Well, as Luke 12 recounts, Jesus gives the answer in a story we know as the parable of the rich fool. He tells of a rich man who is so enamored of his possessions that he decides to tear down his storehouses and build bigger ones, promising himself a long and relaxing retirement. Before the rich man can fulfill his selfish dreams, God comes to him and says, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? Now, Jesus' next words serve as a warning, but also a promise for those who have ears to hear. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. As always, Jesus is addressing the hearts of his followers. He knows we live in a physical world surrounded by desirable things, but God created men and women for more than just temporary worldly pleasures and achievements.

According to Ecclesiastes 3-11, he also has set eternity in the human heart. What we really want at our core is abundant life. What we want is God himself. To possess a relationship with the Lord is to be full of his abundance, to be rich toward God. Here's what Jesus says about this in John 10-9, Throughout the New Testament, and specifically in the parable of the rich fool, Jesus urges us to take the focus off of me and my stuff and put it where it belongs, on him. True abundance comes from a personal, intimate relationship with God through Christ. In John 15-5, Jesus confirms this. So, are you experiencing abundant life?

If not, here's what you can do right now to turn things around. First, get things right between you and the Lord. Surrender your life to Christ. Here's the promise from John 1-12, When your desires are getting in the way and pride and envy are making you miserable, tell the Lord about it and ask for help. Another action you can take to experience God's abundance is to read God's Word. Check out a Bible reading app like The Bible Project, read Scripture or Through the Word, or just pick up the Bible and read the Gospel of John. Finally, find a body of believers who can encourage you and hold you accountable.

The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. By the way, you can check out our new study called Rich Toward God at faithbuy.com. Just click shop. That's faithbuy.com. Click shop. Back with your calls after this.

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Find more information at kingdomadvisors.com slash get certified. Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's right. You can call right now. Lynn is standing by in our phone screening room today, ready to take your call.

800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. You know, as we think about our role as stewards of managing God's money, God owns it all. We're his money managers. That's a really high calling. And so we want to be found faithful. And I think part of that faithful journey of a steward is seeking wise counsel. God's word is clear about that. And that's why we recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation here at Faith and Finance.

Men and women now 1,500 of them across the US and Canada that have met high standards and character and competence. They've been trained to bring a biblical worldview of financial decision making and investing. And you can find a CKA in your area, perhaps interview two or three and find the one that's the best fit at faithfi.com. Just click find a professional.

That's faithfi.com. Let's dive in. We're going to begin in Missouri today with Brian. Brian, you can go right ahead. Hi, Rob. I have a question.

I'm looking at buying a property for business use, and I was wondering if I could use 401k funds without penalty to make that purchase. Hmm. Yeah. So does your plan allow for borrowing?

It does. Okay. Yeah. I mean, were you thinking about taking it out as a loan or were you thinking about just taking this straight withdrawal?

I would like to do it without penalty. So I've been looking into purchasing different businesses and I've come across some some literature that indicates you can potentially use 401k and roll it into a loan to yourself and then pay it back. Yeah, yeah. So there is a way to do that. I mean, there would be certain limitations on it, I believe, you know, the max you could take out would be 50,000 or half of your vested balance, it would be limited to five years, the interest rate would be set by the administrator, comparable probably to a five year business loan, and then you'd pay those payments to yourself. Obviously, you know, the money is no longer in there. And so, you know, the downside of that is, you know, you're missing out on that compounded growth. But obviously, if this is for a business, I don't think it'd be the worst reason to take it. I'm just not a big fan, typically of borrowing from your plan.

Apart from that, you are going to have, you know, a straight withdrawal, which would have that penalty if you're under 59 and a half, and then it would all be taxable. So I don't love that it's expensive money. What are you looking to do with it? What is the business use?

It's the property is frontage property on a highly trafficked highway and it would be right now there's a landscape greenhouse and I would keep it along those lines and and tweak it a little bit. Okay, very good. And do you have a business structure set up? Are you an S Corp?

What do you have? That would all be in process. I do not have it set up yet.

Right now I'm a consultant. So I work under an LLC. Got it. Okay.

Yeah. So unfortunately, at this point, the only options you would have just based on what you've got here would be taken a loan against the 401k. And obviously, the downside to that is if you were to separate from the company, you'd have the early withdrawal penalty and it'd be taxable. You don't have the money in there. So it's no longer growing for you.

And, you know, so those would be the primary issues. If you take the withdrawal, you know, obviously, you've got, you know, the penalty plus the tax liability, which could bump you up into a higher tax bracket for at least that portion of it. And then, you know, your future earnings on that are, are going by the wayside, at least while it's out of there. So I think, you know, I would look to try to save outside of that 401k, even if that meant you wanted to temporarily kind of reduce what you're putting in there in terms of new contributions.

So you can save up in a separate account that you would earmark for this purpose. But, you know, it doesn't sound like you have a great option related to the 401k. Okay, it's actually not a current 401k.

I'm no longer with the company. Oh, I see. It's more like an IRA at this point. Yeah, yeah. So at that point, I mean, the only other thing you could look at would be something called a self-directed IRA. Are you familiar with that term?

Yes. Okay, so self-directed IRA can be invested in real estate, and it would stay in the IRA structure. And so you'd have to use a self-directed IRA custodian.

They're not all the same. Self-directed IRA custodians are a special type of IRA custodian. And then that would allow you to, you know, take that money and put it into real estate and keep it inside the tax deferred environment. So that may be the next thing you want to explore if this is something you want to potentially do. Okay, do you have thoughts on that?

You know, I don't have a problem with it. I mean, I think the only question would be, you know, so tell me a little bit more about your plan. So would you be buying this, fixing it up and trying to flip it? Or are you going to rent it out? What are you doing with it?

No, no, it's a career path change for me. I would like to operate it. Okay, and tell me what it is again. It's a greenhouse and landscape company. Ah, got it. Okay. And so you're purchasing the business, not just the real estate, right? I would purchase the real estate and inventory. I see.

Okay. And so they have an existing client base that you would be buying as well? Or would you be starting from scratch? I would be starting from scratch, but they would refer their clients to me. I see.

I wouldn't purchase it. Okay. And they're not, they're not starting up, you know, at a different location. They're going to shut their business down?

They're retiring. I see. Okay. Yeah, very good. Yeah.

And do you have any experience in this? I do. Okay. And do you have any working capital apart from what you might use in the self-directed IRA? Yes.

I have another $200,000. Okay. All right.

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, I don't disagree with you starting a business, especially if you have some experience. It looks like perhaps this is a great opportunity.

I think the only potential risk is just getting overextended. So, you know, clearly being able to buy the greenhouse and that existing operation, you know, would probably make sense if it's priced fairly. I think you just really need to think through your business plan. If this 401k allows you to go ahead and acquire the property and then you've got the sufficient working capital to weather, you know, let's say the first year while you're getting up and running, you know, under new management, you're starting your marketing.

Would you have to buy a lot of equipment as well and trucks and so forth? There's some that's available with the property and that's where I would start. Okay. How much is in your IRA? $360,000. All right. And what is the total purchase price of all of the assets, including the property?

It's about $475,000. Okay. So the difference would come from the $200 you'd saved? I'd like to do a debt-free, yes. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, so the only downside there is, I mean, that would obviously get you up and running. The problem is, you know, you'd only have, you know, when it's all said and done, let's see if you had 360, you've got 360, let's say you put 100% of that toward it, that would leave still 115 that would come out of that 200,000.

So you'd still have, you know, you'd only have 85,000 left. And I guess that's the only issue is just that so often new businesses struggle because of lack of working capital. And so the question would be kind of, do you have immediate income that would come in from the clients that would move over to you? How much cash flow support would you need? And would you burn through that 85,000 that remained before you could get it up and running and cash flowing positively? So that's my only concern. The business plan, making sure you really understand that and having enough working capital to stay the course until you get this thing up and running and cash flow positive.

Those would be the two things I would dig into a little bit deeper. Hey Brian, we appreciate your call today. This is exciting. I don't mean to be negative on it. I'm not.

I just don't want you to go in prematurely and risk your financial future. Thanks for your call, sir. God bless you.

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Back to the phones. We go to Brenda in Oklahoma. Go right ahead. Hi, I'm getting ready to retire around 62 and I have multiple four ones or annuities. I'm not real familiar with the names of those. But should I combine those and put them into one or keep them separate? Yeah, it's a great question. I like the idea of combining them, Brenda. You know, it just keeps things more simple. It's less accounts for you to keep up with. And, you know, it's easier to manage them because you've got one investment strategy inside the plan. And then you don't have to wonder, you know, am I overlapping?

Am I too highly concentrated? You know, just kind of looking at one account, you know, I think makes it a little easier to manage. And, you know, it's just one account you have to log into to kind of keep tabs on it.

But let me drill down a little bit further, though. So are all of these with former employers, with the exception of maybe your active 401K with your current employer? Is that right? Yes, you got it correct.

Yeah. And how many do you have in total? I want to say five.

Okay. And what would you say roughly is the total of all of it? Somewhere around 120,000, 150,000.

Okay, yeah, sure. And what portion of that roughly 120 to 150 is in your current 401K? Oh, off the top of my head, I honestly couldn't tell you. I want to say like 50,000.

I honestly couldn't tell you. No problem. But you have potentially 75 to 100,000 between the others that are not with your current employer, which is enough for you to hire an advisor. Now, you wouldn't meet every advisor's minimum, but many advisors will take assets going all the way down to 75,000, certainly over 100,000. So that does give you an option to say, okay, for all of those former employers, I'm going to roll that out to an IRA, an Individual Retirement Account. That would not be a taxable event.

It would stay in a pre-tax environment, and then you could hire an advisor to manage that money for you and make those buying and selling decisions. The other option is you could roll all of those into your existing 401K so you've got everything in one place inside your current plan. Assuming your plan administrator allows it, most do. What we know, though, is you can't roll out the current 401K plan with your current employer. You'd have to separate from employment to be able to do that.

So I wouldn't leave them there scattered across those other plans. What I would do is either roll the four of your previous employers into a new IRA or into your current 401K. And if you wanted to hire an advisor so you wouldn't have to make the buying and selling decisions on the new ones, because as soon as you get into an IRA, one of the benefits is you get unlimited investment options.

The only downside to that is you have unlimited investment options, and so you're having to look across all stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs to decide what do I invest in. And if you don't have the time, the expertise to do that, I think that's where an advisor could be really helpful. And you could find a certified kingdom advisor there in Oklahoma on our website at faithfi.com.

Just click find a professional. That's faithfi.com. Does that all make sense, though? It does.

It's starting to make sense. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. You are very welcome, Brenda. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate you being on the program. Let's go to Memphis. Hi, Helen.

Go right ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I have a question about a friend that is very deep in debt. A Christian friend. And I try to get this person like, you know, it's great being debt free.

I want that for you. And he spends, kid you not, two hundred dollars a month on bank fees, you know, withdraws from ATMs or things that have bounced or whatever. And I just he makes a good income. I just can't seem to impress on him how great life would be if he didn't have any debt and he didn't have to throw his money away. I was wondering if you could help me in some way to encourage him.

Yeah. Well, a couple of thoughts here, Helen. Number one, at the end of the day, he's going to have to make that decision for himself. You can't do it for him.

But I think there's a couple of things you can do. Number one is just by way of you living out the joy and the peace of mind that you have from being unencumbered, I would imagine would be somewhat contagious for him. So as you all interact and you have an opportunity to celebrate, not in a boastful way, but celebrate God's faithfulness and just the peace of mind that you have by living simply and owing nothing. You know, I think over time, especially if he has some mounting bills and it has some concern over his ability to pay, you know, that life that God designed when we follow his principles and we follow his ways is contagious.

And so I think you just kind of living that out over time will take care of some of that. But secondly, perhaps you give him a gift of a book that would really help him to uncover God's design for money. And so I'd love to send you Howard Dayton's book, Your Money Counts, I think could be a great one. It certainly addresses this topic of debt from a biblical perspective, but it covers a host of other issues from lifestyle and spending plans to, you know, even talking about generosity and just really kind of is a great primer for biblical money management, Helen. And perhaps you give him that as a gift, you know, next time you see him and just say, hey, I found this to be useful. I want to pass it along. And if he's a reader, maybe it'll be something that blesses him.

But I think beyond that, you know, there's probably very little you can do other than praying for him that God would grip his heart around the opportunity to be faithful in money management. I agree with you. It just stresses me. I'm debt free and it is a blessing. The Lord has really blessed me.

I know it is. And I'm delighted you shared that with our listeners today. And I appreciate your burden for your friend, and I'm confident that your presence in his life will be an encouragement to him.

And as you live out the ways of Jesus, hopefully he will be impacted by that and want to pursue that in his own life. So, Helen, stay on the line. We'll get your information. I'll get a copy of your money counts from Howard Dayton in the mail to you. It'll be our gift to you. We appreciate your call today. Quickly to Texas. Greg, we've got just about 45 seconds.

How can I help? Hello there. My quick question is, other than a 401K, is there any other type of avenue that one can reduce their taxes? I guess I'm in a great position right now paying about $1,000 a week in federal taxes. Yeah.

Yeah, very good. So you mentioned the retirement accounts. I mean, an HSA can be helpful using a qualified charitable distribution, you know, when you're over 70 and a half, itemizing. So, you know, maximizing your deductions and getting above that standard deduction. Tax loss harvesting, which is where you have losses, you know, potentially in your investments. That could be another one where you're, you know, in harvesting capital gains.

So always a good idea to check with the CPA to see if you're taking full advantage of everything available to you. But hopefully that gives you some ideas. God bless you, sir. That's going to do it for us today, folks.

Thanks to my team, Devin, Jim, Robert, couldn't do it without them. Hey, check us out online at faithfi.com while you're there. Perhaps support the ministry by clicking Give. Thanks in advance for that. I hope you'll come back and join us again next time for another edition of Faith and Finance. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.