How Much Is Enough?

This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Christian Healthcare Ministries. Are you finding it increasingly challenging to find affordable healthcare? Christian Healthcare Ministries is a budget-friendly, biblical, and compassionate healthcare cost-sharing alternative that aligns with your Christian values.

And it's available in all 50 states and around the world. Learn more at chministries.org faithbuy. The great Christian apologist and author G.K. Chesterton once said, there are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

I am Rob West. How much is enough for you? Today, we'll help you figure out what enough looks like in your life and why you need to know. And then I'll take your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, a secular worldview tells us that more is always better. With that mindset, there's no end to accumulation. The Christian worldview turns that idea upside down. According to Chesterton, enough isn't about getting more. It's about wanting less. One way leads to frustration. In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon calls it chasing after the wind.

The other way leads to peace. So how much is enough for Christians? Well, if you're just starting out or struggling financially, how much is enough might seem like a silly question. The bottom line for you is that you just need more money at the moment. Why should you think about how much is enough when you hardly have anything?

And what if you're at the other end of things? If you're approaching retirement, you might be thinking about the size of your nest egg. But why put a limit on accumulating money in possessions? Based on these two examples, the definition of enough seems to depend on what stage of life you're in.

Well, let's look at what the Bible has to say about what's enough. In Luke 12 15, Jesus says, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Jesus is making a rather unexpected statement.

Getting more money is never the goal, no matter how old you are. The desire of every human heart is for life, which means satisfying, abundant, purposeful existence. So when Jesus says life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, he's pointing away from money as the source of life and to something else.

That something else is himself. Here's what Jesus says. John 11 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. John 14 6, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. And John 10 10, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So our deepest needs for relationship and purpose are met in Christ.

He is enough. But what about the things we need to survive day to day? Well, believers in Christ serve a God who promises to meet all our needs, according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. That's Philippians 4 19. In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds his followers not to be anxious about food or clothing or shelter.

Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? This means you will always have enough of what you need to live, and you can trust God to know what that is.

Anything beyond that is a gift. Following Jesus means acknowledging God's sovereignty and his ownership of everything. As the Holy Spirit works in your heart, your motivation to accumulate gradually changes from self-centered to God-centered. With Jesus as Lord of your life, your idea of enough begins to change too, because you're trusting God to meet your needs, and your desires start to line up with what God wants. You will begin to desire less of worldly things and more of Christ. All this is a part of the miraculous heart change that happens when God gets hold of you.

So while the worldly person is asking, How can I get more? The Christian asks, How can I love God more? As a loving father, God not only provides for daily needs, but he provides satisfying kingdom work for his children to do. James 1 7 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. Out of gratitude and a desire to be more like Jesus, we look for ways to serve others with what God has provided. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That's Ephesians 2 10.

So consider this. How much is enough may actually be the wrong question. For believers, the real question is, Who is enough? Following Christ is the way to peace, joy, and abundant life. No matter what your financial situation is, ask God to change your heart. He will change your desire for accumulation into a desire for less stuff and more Jesus, and then the rest will fall into place. All right, your calls are next at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance.

Stick around. Every day, Faithfi is working to meet people right where they are. Through our national radio program app and website, we're helping people put their faith in God and not in money and possessions.

And we're encouraging and equipping Christians to have a passionate pursuit for sacrificially living and giving the money entrusted to them. If you believe in and have benefited from Faithfi, would you consider becoming a monthly Faithfi patron? Learn more about the Faithfi patrons membership at faithfi.com and click Give. So thankful to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West, and I'm ready to dive into your questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

We've got some lines open that probably won't be the case a little later in the broadcast. So call now with whatever you're wrestling with in your financial life, and here's our promise to you. We'll be hopeful and encouraging as you invite us into your story, always pointing you back to Scripture so we can look at money through the lens of a biblical worldview, that we're managers or stewards of the King of Kings resources, that God has a lot to say on this topic. Now it's not that he needs our money, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but instead it's what he wants for us. He knows, and it's clear in God's Word that if we allow it to, money will compete with God for first position in our lives. Our culture reinforces this idea that our self-worth is equal to our net worth.

Well we just know that's simply not true. Our identity is rooted in Christ. God is our ultimate treasure, and money, well it's one of God's good gifts that we can use to provide and enjoy, but also to bless others around us, and that comes through our generosity. But I realize you have practical daily decisions that you're wrestling with in your financial life, and so each day on this program we tackle those together. So call right now. What are you waiting for? 800-525-7000. I'd love to talk to you today. Let's dive in.

Thomas in West Palm Beach, your first up. Go ahead, sir. Thank you very much for taking my call. I collect Social Security disability right now, and I was wondering if I should stop that and go straight to Social Security, or can I collect both Social Security and Social Security disability? You can't collect both of them, Thomas. So what happens is Social Security disability benefits automatically change to Social Security retirement benefits when you reach full retirement age, whatever that is for you.

The law doesn't allow a person to receive both retirement and disability benefits on one earnings record at the same time. Okay, well I'll be 64 the end of March, so I guess it'll be another year and two months before I'm 65, and that's when it'll kick in automatically? No, you said what year were you born? 1960. All right, if you were born in 1960, that's going to put you at 67.

So if you were born 1960 or later, your full retirement age is not until 67, so you will stay on those disability benefits until it converts to retirement benefits at 67. Oh, okay, okay. I didn't know what the year was that changed.

Yes, sir. It has changed a few times over the years for sure. Yeah, now when it does change, will I go decrease or will I get an increase or will it stay the same? Yeah, that's going to be based on your earnings record, so I would pull up your benefit statement at myssa.gov and it'll tell you exactly what you should receive based on your work record at full retirement age.

So the Social Security Administration's website, ssa.gov, you could get your benefit statement there and that should give you the information you need. Okie dokie, thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thomas, thank you for your call today. We appreciate it. Let's go to Cleveland. Hi, John. Go ahead, sir.

Hey, thanks for taking my call, Rob. Me and my wife are debt free minus our mortgage, and we're kind of curious what we should be investing in now. Should we try and finish off that mortgage? It's got a 3.6 interest rate. I mean, it's about 136K remaining. Or should we just kind of hit our retirement fund and investments strong?

So I guess some numbers for that. I'm maxing out my personal Roth IRA. I don't have a company matched by any means. And then I have 18,000 in an individual investment account that's managed by a financial advisor. It gets between 10 and 15 percent. We have about 7,000 in a money market account that gets 5 percent right now. And then we have about 16,000 in a high-yield savings account.

That's about 4.3. And we're kind of sitting just investing here and there. We just want to know if we should really get after our mortgage or keep the path and keep investing.

Yeah, very good. Tell me about the mortgage again. Did you say the interest rate was 3.6? Yes.

Okay. And what do you owe on it? One like 136K. Okay, 136,000. What is it worth?

Probably between 350 and 400,000 with all our renovations. Okay, got it. Yeah, that's helpful. So in terms of one last question, what is your age? I'm 30. Okay, 30 years old. Yeah.

So you got a good bit of time. You know, I think for you guys, I mean, you're not having any trouble making this mortgage payment, right? Just based on your spending plan? Yeah, no, not at all. Okay. All right.

Yeah. I mean, so, you know, typically what they say is, you know, by 30, you want one times your salary put aside. And these are just ballparks. One times your salary put aside for retirement by 40, you'd want three times your salary by 56 times. And then ultimately, you want 10 to 12 times your salary put away.

And that plus social security, you know, should make up at least 70 to 80% of your pre retirement income, which is what most people live on. Now, some people may be listening to me right now saying, wait a minute, I'm not 30. I'm 60. And I'm not anywhere close to that. I understand that.

And that's okay. You know, so then we make some other approaches to that we might work longer than we expected to, we might dial back our lifestyle, we may work part time when we transition to whatever God has for us in in that season of life and not, you know, completely step away from paid work. Yeah, we were created to be workers. So I'm not even starting with the assumption that we need to transition away at 65, you know, this artificial age that our culture has given to us. But given that, john, I think the key for you guys is with that low interest rate mortgage, you know, what I'd love to see you do unless you just have an absolute conviction from the Lord, you or your wife that you need to be out of debt as soon as absolutely possible. Apart from that, I'd say, let's just keep paying on the mortgage, the interest rate is low. Maybe we send an extra payment a year, maybe not.

The goal is to certainly try to have it paid off by the time you retire, but you're 35 years plus away from that. And I think your biggest opportunity right now is to just get as much money as you can going into long term compounded growth investments. Now, we'd love to do that as best you can in a tax deferred environment.

So if you've got a Roth yourself, I mean, the second option it would be, which would be very easy to do open a spousal Roth. So now you can double what you're putting away there. And then I think beyond that, we'd want to look for other options. But I think the key is, you know, let's get as much as you can growing for the future. Just given the fact that, you know, right now, it sounds like you've, you've got about 18,000.

And at 30 years of age, you know, I'd love for you to be a little bit further along than you are. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does.

I guess I maybe didn't explain I do. I have been maxing out a Roth IRA for myself for a couple of years now. And my wife does have also an investment.

It's not maxed, but I guess that's a clear path to get those maxed out as well. Yeah, I think that's the next step. So is there any prospect of you having a company sponsored plan in the future? I'm currently not right now. You know, I work for a small business as just being the owner and that's it.

Okay, yeah, no problem. So you may want to you guys may want to look at adding a simple IRA. It's, you know, very little overhead and it might help you attract other employees when, when that time comes and it would give you a vehicle that alongside that Roth, you could put some more money away. You could also use insurance to do that. You know, if you run out of tax deferred vehicles, that's where whole life insurance.

That's one of those limited cases that I would like to look at it. But I think the big idea is let's keep money going into investment accounts to grow for your future and not necessarily prioritize the mortgage at this point. Thanks for your call.

We'll be right back. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm your host, Rob West.

The number to call is 800-525-7000. All right, let's head back to the phones to Lincoln, Nebraska. Hi, David. Go ahead, sir. Thank you, Rob, for taking my call.

I have a neighbor who wants to buy 20 feet of a property I own, which I'm willing to do, but I have no concept of how to determine fair market value for the property and how to determine if I made an income and what income tax implications that has. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. So a couple of thoughts here. Number one is, do you have a mortgage on this property?

No. Okay, that's good. So it would need to be mortgage free in order to do that. I think the next step is to consult a real estate attorney and really follow all the legal steps to properly sever and then ultimately sell a parcel of land, even a small one, because you're going to need to investigate local zoning laws and land use restrictions before subdividing it. And then, you know, there is tax implications. You need to check with your CPA. But that portion that you sell that doesn't involve your home would now probably no longer be able to be counted toward the primary residence exemption, and therefore it would be subject to capital gains. So for that portion, you'd establish a cost basis and then determine how much is the gain and then you'd pay capital gains tax on that. So you'd want to get your land appraised by an independent appraiser. And then, you know, the county would have to be involved in subdividing it because you're gonna have to make sure that you ensure that, you know, you have clear property boundaries through a professional survey. And then you want to just factor in any implications long term of, you know, the effects on your remaining property after the sale, just making sure it's not creating any ingress and egress issues, things like that. So I think you got a little homework to do, starting with a real estate attorney about the proper steps legally to sell off that parcel with local zoning with regard to use restrictions. And then ultimately, you know, with a getting a survey and an appraisal to establish the value and the clear property boundaries and then ultimately with your CPA.

So you're gonna have to be the quarterback on a number of folks that will be involved in this just to make sure you've got all the I's dotted and the T's crossed. Does that make sense? Yeah, so to figure out the value, the appraiser will be able to do that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

So they'll be able to give you a land appraisal and then, you know, be able to separate that out for the parcel that you want to sell. Right. Thank you. Okay, absolutely. We appreciate your call today.

Let's go to Arkansas. Hi, Ann. Thank you for your patience.

Go ahead. Yes, my question has to do with checks and credit card contributions made to 501c3 in December. But they, the check doesn't clear the bank until January, or the credit card bill doesn't come through until January or later. So which year are those legitimate deductions for?

Yeah, it's a great question, Ann. And this can be a little tricky. The IRS rules say that you get the deduction for the year in which you gave up control of the check. So if you put the check in the mail on December 31, you technically get the deduction for that year. The challenge is how do you prove that you put in the check in the mail on December 31?

And that's where a postmark can help. But the charity would have to have noted that on the written receipt, not all charities will do that. If you want it for last year, and you did it by December 31, I'd encourage you to ask the charity if they can somehow verify the postmark date, hopefully they have either the envelope or a either the envelope or a picture of it. In the future, I think a last minute donation might be verified by using either making an online gift where you get a confirmation that it's been made, or by using certified mail or Express mailing, where you have absolutely a postmark. Bottom line, you should be able to declare the donation in the year you gave up control. But unless you can prove that with the paperwork from the receiving organization, it's best just to claim the deduction in the following year. So I think I'd get back on the phone with them and see if they can help you nail that down.

I hope that helps. Paul wants to talk about paying back some credit card debt in Arkansas. Paul, go ahead, sir. Yeah, I got about 12 grand in debt, and I'm trying to figure out if I should flip it to another credit card and do the zero interest for 21 months or go the route of getting a loan and doing like seven percent interest.

Yeah, it's a great question, Paul. I'm going to offer a third alternative. I mean, I can understand why you may want to try to play the balance transfer game.

And I realize on paper that can make some sense. My experience is that when that pressure comes off, when you make that jump to the new card, you just don't solve the problem that got you there in the first place. And often you will find yourself in a deeper hole as you add more cards to the mix.

So my recommendation is this. It's debt management, which is different than debt consolidation, where you take out a new loan and try to roll all the debt under one new lower interest rate loan. Debt management means you leave the debt right where it is. So you have let's say you have four credit cards that makes up the twelve thousand dollars.

You'd leave it right with those four creditors. We'd go through our friends at Christian credit counselors dot org. We've worked with them for years. They've worked with thousands of our listeners. They're all believers.

It's an incredible program. And here's why each of those creditors you're with currently have a what's called a credit counseling rate, which is a lower interest rate if you work through a nonprofit credit counseling agency. Now, you have to close the accounts. You don't have to put all of them in, but any of them that go into the program will be closed. But at that point, the interest rate will be dropped to whatever the prevailing credit counseling rate is for that creditor. It varies. And the combination of those lower interest rates plus one level monthly payment, the payment is not going to drop as the balance has come down like it does with a credit card minimum payment.

It's going to stay level for the length of the program. The combination of those two will help you pay this back 80 percent faster. And here's my experience, Paul, is that when you do the hard work on the front end to right size the budget, assuming it was lifestyle spending, kind of lifestyle creep, if you will, spending beyond your means that got you there and not just a single isolated event. But you do the hard work to put the budget in place, right size your spending, get on the credit counseling program, drop the interest rates. In my experience, and I've been doing this a long time, that's the very best way for you to get out of debt and stay there once and for all. My experience with debt consolidation and balance transfers are that the debt will return.

But give me your thoughts on that. Does that make sense? It does, but I was fixing to come into some money. That's why I was thinking the balance transfer might be the best way to go. Yeah, well, with the credit counseling, you are able to prepay it, so you would be able to there. But if it's imminent and you really are going to be able to pay it off quickly, you could do the balance transfer or you could just leave it there because you're going to be paying it off very, very soon.

Either way, I think would be fine. Well, folks, thanks for tuning in today. We're so thankful for you inviting us into your story and asking your questions for your kind remarks about the program. I couldn't do this without the amazing team. We had Dan Anderson today, Amy Rios, Gabby T. and Jim Henry, plus the entire team here at Faithfi that makes this happen every day. On behalf of them and so many more, I'm Rob West and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.