Good Friday Reflections

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That's 888-201-5577. The sacrifice means to give up something valuable for the sake of something else. Today we pause to reflect on the greatest sacrifice of all, Jesus giving up his life on a Roman cross for our sake.

I am Rob West. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross opened the gates of heaven to all who believe and accept him as their savior. None of what we do here would make any sense without that event. We'll talk about that today, 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. Well, it's appropriate during this Easter season to reflect on the big picture of our Christian faith. Sometimes we just have our noses to the grindstone, so to speak, and we can lose sight of why we're here and how much God has done for us. You know, whether you're in a season of prosperity or facing hardships, you have to remember that God is still on the throne and that your circumstances haven't caught him by surprise. His plan for the redemption of humankind is still on track. Of course, on Easter Sunday, Christians everywhere will rejoice in the resurrection of Christ, who conquered death and made a way to restore our relationship with God.

But sometimes in that celebration, we might forget why Jesus had to die in the first place. The fact is humankind is completely corrupted by sin. The rebellion that stains our hearts says, I can choose for myself what is right and wrong.

I don't need God. God's Word confirms our sin nature. Job 15 16 declares that man is abominable and corrupt, one who drinks injustice like water. 1 Kings 8 46 quotes Solomon saying, There is no one who does not sin. The apostle John warns in 1 John 1 8 that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. God's Word in both the Old and New Testaments makes it very clear that sin has a price.

God's law requires that those who break it be punished and that the punishment should be terrifying, an eternity in hell. Hebrews 9 22 says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And Romans 6 23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sin separates us from a holy God, so mankind needed someone sinless to do what we couldn't do for ourselves, pay the price, which is death. In his love and mercy, God met our need by sending his only son to die in our place. Jesus, who is God made man, took our sins upon himself and carried them to the cross. His blood paid for our sins.

The good news in this familiar story is that it doesn't end with the cross and a grave. On Good Friday, we commemorate the love of God in sending his son to pay for our sin. We mourn with his followers who knelt at the foot of the cross in grief for their loss. And then there's Easter. On Easter, we celebrate the victory of the resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all. In John 11 25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. So we thank God for our present circumstances, good or bad, in his continued provision. But we must also have a deep sense of gratitude for God's sacrificial love.

We can also live in joyful hope of eternity because of his resurrection. Thanks to Jesus, our debt is stamped, paid in full, and our relationship with the Lord is restored forever. So as you contemplate the amazing love of God today, ask yourself this. How can you put your gratitude for Christ's sacrifice into action? I believe one of the best ways is by keeping your eyes and ears open for opportunities to help those around you who may be suffering. Ask God to show you those in your church and the wider community who might need your help. God's Word repeatedly tells us to help others in need. Just look at Galatians 6 2, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now, it can be difficult to be generous when your finances seem uncertain, but we know that giving breaks the power of money over us, so it's the perfect antidote to our financial fears and anxieties. Giving is also a source of joy because of the promise of heaven. Jesus experienced joy in his sacrifice, and we can experience it in ours. You see, Christians should act differently than non-believers, and now is the perfect time to show just how different we can be as we reflect God's love in a broken and confused world. So with gratitude, joy, and generosity, that's how we should respond during this Easter season and beyond. All right, we're going to take your calls next at 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. We're grateful for support from Movement Mortgage, who provides residential home loans in all 50 states. Guided by a mission to love and value people and a goal to redefine the mortgage process, Movement seeks to help others achieve their financial goals. You can find out more at movement.com slash faith. Movement Mortgage LLC supports equal housing opportunity. NMLS number 39179.

For licensing information, please visit nmlsconsumeraccess.org. So glad to have you with us today on faith and finance. We're taking your calls and questions today. All the lines are full.

So if you get a busy signal, just be patient. We'd love for you to get through, but sit back and enjoy these great questions that we have coming in. All right, we're going to begin today in Florida. Maria, we're delighted to have you with us. Go ahead.

Thank you for your program and taking my call. In the past, we have made several real estate investments in Florida. We have been looking to invest in additional residential rental properties, but prices are too high. In the meantime, we have put some funds on high yield savings accounts.

We wanted to know what other investment options should we pursue while we wait or what should we do? Yeah. Well, Maria, it's a great question. And I can totally understand where you're coming from because you're exactly right. Real estate in Florida is very high. I'm delighted to hear that you've done that.

And it sounds like you've done it successfully in the past because you've repeated it more than once and you're looking to do it again. But what you also may find is that this is not the period right now, the season right now for you to reenter the housing market from an investment standpoint, primarily because, as you said, the real estate prices are high. That's going on nationwide because of largely a housing shortage. We're just the demand is outpacing the supply today with regard to homes. That problem is more acute or more pronounced there in South Florida because you've got so many people moving into Florida, fleeing these states for various reasons.

We won't get into those. One of those is high taxes, but also mismanagement and folks just feeling like the state they're living in is no longer the state they once knew. And so a lot of them are headed to Florida. And it's just a beautiful place because you've got so much water and you've got a very pro business governor.

You know, you don't have state income tax. And so it's a very desirable place to go. And they're not creating any more Florida real estate because it's so densely populated. All of that has caused the housing market to rise rapidly. The average home in this country is 400,000. It's even higher in the state of Florida. Now, you put that alongside the high interest rates that we're in right now, which I think are temporary.

And the fact that homeowners insurance is so astronomical there, it is a challenging environment. So I think what we need to do, Maria, is match up the time horizon of this money that you've set aside today in high yield savings with the expected deployment of that. And if we think that there's a chance you may deploy this in the next, I'll say, five years, I'd leave it right where it is.

Perhaps one alternative would be to build a CD ladder. So maybe you take a fourth of it and leave it in high yield savings. You take a fourth of it, you put it in a one year CD, another fourth in 18 months and another fourth in two years. And that way, every six months, you'd have at least half of it available.

And then you could keep rolling it forward. And that way you could say, OK, we're going to kind of wait out these high interest rates. We're going to try to maximize the return on the money. We're not going to take any risk with it, because if three years from now, we find a place we want to buy and interest rates are a good bit lower.

We don't want to have to sell stocks that may be at a loss because we don't know where the market's going in the short term. We count on it going higher in the long term. And that certainly has played out over many decades.

But I can't certainly guarantee that ever. And we certainly don't want to count on it over just a few years. And so I think that's where using the CDs alongside the high yield savings might be the better option to keep you still relatively liquid over a 24 month period. But maximize these returns that are available through the higher yields as a result of our high interest rates right now. And then just give it some time for those interest rates to come down. I don't think you're going to see a big decline in the housing prices because I don't think we're in a bubble right now. I think they're going to stay elevated. They may not grow as rapidly, but I don't think you're going to see any kind of meaningful decline in housing prices in Florida.

But I do think you're going to see interest rates come down pretty significantly over the next two years. But I've given you a lot of information, Maria. So tell me if that was helpful. Yes, very helpful. Thank you.

Okay. Hey, God bless you. And thank you for calling the program today. Please call us anytime if you have another question. Let's head to Chicagoland. Verna, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hi, how are you?

I'm doing great. I just heard, I heard about there's a company, well, there's a government program that you can use when you have credit card debt. You consolidate. You pay it back as a low amount with no interest. But I'm not sure how to get to that program. And I would love to pay off my debt.

It's run about 25,000. Yeah, I'm 70 years old. Verna, I got to tell you, I don't think there's any such program out there. I mean, if anything, it might have been something somebody was using as what they would call click bait to kind of get you to respond to something on the Internet or over the phone or through the mail. Because there is no, certainly no federal program or any program for that matter that's going to allow you to pay off credit card debt at zero interest.

You know, nor in my opinion should there be. Now, there is an option to get that interest rate down and it's through something called credit counseling. Or you might hear it referred to as debt management where every credit card company has what they call a credit counseling rate, which is a lower interest rate. If you're willing to close the account and pay through a nonprofit credit counseling agency, they'll drop that interest rate. And the combination of that lower rate with one steady level monthly payment is going to help you pay that debt off 80% faster. And the credit counseling agency will even help work with your budget to make sure that, you know, this can fit in your budget and this is sustainable.

But as to a program that's going to allow you to get that to zero, it just doesn't exist. And if you find it, feel free to pass it along, but I'm pretty confident you won't. If you want to check out a debt management program, we recommend ChristianCreditCounselors.org. They've worked with hundreds if not thousands of our listeners. They're wonderful, godly people and I think they'll really be able to help you with this 25,000 in credit card debt. Again, ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Thanks for your call. Let's go to Rob in Arkansas. Go ahead, sir. It's great to be Rob, isn't it?

It sure is, yeah. Yeah, so one thing I want to focus on is I work for a company and I've been working them for about four years now. I've been invested in their stock program and I contribute about $300 a month. Recently, they split their stocks three to one. Should I invest more or wait to see what the market does? You know, the challenge is, and just let me preface this by saying I don't give individual stock recommendations, so I wouldn't be able to weigh in on this particular stock, but let me just talk generally for a second. You know, the way I like to approach this is so often when we're investing in our company stock, and often this is unavoidable, but when you have the option, I would just be careful at getting too highly concentrated. I mean, the book of Ecclesiastes is pretty clear that, you know, we ought to spread our risk by not putting all our eggs in one basket. And so that's why you'll hear most advisors say you probably want to avoid putting more than 10% of your portfolio in any one stock, including company stock, just simply because, you know, you're relying too heavily on one company's sales and earnings and profitability, and they happen to be in one sector of the economy, and if that sector gets out of favor or they have a misstep, you know, then it just increases your risk because you're not properly diversified. So I would say regardless of the split, and I'm seeing the name of the company here and I like the company a lot, it's a big name that everybody would know, but I just don't want you to get too highly concentrated there.

So I would think in terms of what is my overall percentage, I recommend no more than 10%. Thanks for your call, Rob. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance.

I'm Rob West. We're so glad you're along with us today. We're taking your calls and questions today. We've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000.

You can call right now, 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're going to get to as many questions as we can between now and the end of the program to Cleveland. Hi, Drew. Go ahead. Hey, Rob. Thanks for taking my call. I enjoy the show.

Thanks. So I enjoy hearing about the faith-based alternatives and I've investigated some of them and it seems like the fees, whether it's the sales charge or the expense ratios, are fairly high compared with a product from Vanguard or Schwab or something like that. And sometimes they're also not nearly as diversified. So I'd be curious to kind of get your perspective on that.

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I think you need to compare apples to apples in the sense that, you know, you've got to look at managed mutual funds versus index funds. You know, I would say anything that's under one and a half percent is in the reasonable range. There's no question that fees have been coming down. And so there's been a lot of pressure on fees to come down. We know, you know, Fidelity, for instance, came out with their first free ETF not too long ago and others are following suit. But at the same time, when you have an actively managed portfolio, you know, you're going to pay for it. And, you know, the good news is that the studies and one just came out recently, Tim McCready of Bright Light, who's really taken an interest in this whole faith-based investing space. The studies will show that you don't have to give up performance, even net of fees with the faith-based investing funds, which is good. Now, you need to look at a share class.

So that would be one thing I would tell you. And the share classes that, you know, don't have the front end sales charges in some cases are going to have higher minimum investments. In some cases, that'll go up as high as $100,000 for a minimum investment. But that's where you're going to get the lowest, you know, net expenses, you know, around 1.2% for probably, you know, most of these funds. So I would factor in fees, no doubt.

You don't want to just discount it completely and ignore it. I would always look at the various share classes to find the one that's the best fit for you. And if you have the capital to buy the institutional classes where you're going to put in higher minimums, that's going to give you the opportunity to get those expense ratios down much lower. But at the end of the day, what I would say to you is that the performance is there in this category versus their peers. And that includes net of fees.

So I would, you know, love for you to have the opportunity if this is a conviction to be aligned with your values, get great performance, and yet, you know, still be mindful of the fees at the end of the day. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate it. And it's a great question, Drew. I'm not dismissing it at all. And I do think we've got to look at that as one piece of the equation. But just make sure you're looking at the whole picture before you make the decision.

Let's talk to Jacob in Indiana. Go ahead, sir. Yes, sir. I had a question about my pension. So I left an employer about five years ago and I had the pension in there. And right now I have an IRA, but my wife and I have been talking about pulling that pension since it's not gaining anything, really, whether to pull that and put it in my IRA and make some more money or to cash it out and pay off some debt. Yeah, I like getting it out of there and rolling it to the IRA because that way you've got more control over it in terms of how it's invested.

And, you know, you certainly want to make sure that it's growing appropriately without taking unnecessary risk but has the opportunity to increase in value. As to the debt, what kind of debt are we talking about? What type of debt and how much? So we have two vehicle paint or two vehicles. Those are a total of about $50,000.

And then she has a school loan, which is technically $40,000, but half of that is through the school and the other half is through Sallie Mae. All right. Very good. And how much do you have in the IRA today? The IRA is about $18,000. All right. And how much would the cash value of the pension that you would roll over be?

It'd be about $14,000. Okay. So we're talking about roughly $22,000 and you've got about $90,000 in debt between the two, right? Yeah. So my wife is now working technically for the school, I would say, and they're going to pay off that part of it. Okay, good.

She's working for them for like three years or four years, something like that. Perfect. Yeah, that's a great opportunity. And what are your ages?

I'm 33 and she's 30. Okay. Yeah. So I wouldn't use this for debt repayment. I mean, that's going to be expensive money because you're going to add it to your taxable income and you're going to pay the 10% penalty on top of it. So you could be playing 30% off the top of that money. So what I would do is just roll that out to the IRA, get it invested properly, keep contributing to that IRA. Or if you have a company sponsored plan that makes more sense, that's great too. And then let's just focus on paying down that debt, you know, starting with whichever of those has the higher interest rate between the cars and the portion of the student loans that is not going to be paid by the school.

And let's just pay the minimums on everything, but let's truly try to dial in our lifestyle spending and budget to free up cash flow and attack that one with the highest interest rate. Right. Okay. All right. Hey, God bless you and thank you for calling the program today.

Please call us anytime if you have another question. All right, let's finish out today with a testimony. Guy is in Missouri and I understand, Guy, you want to share about how God is at work in your life.

Go ahead. Just as an addition, in my younger years, I made some very bad financial decisions and I did it without the counsel of godly people. So I would just throw that into the mix that if someone's facing some financial decisions, they need to be seeking godly counsel before they jump in, even though their spouse may be on board. It's just always good to have another person there listening. Oh boy, that is such good advice and such a great way to end today. Proverbs 11 14, where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.

And you are exactly right. You see, Guy, we can't hold ourselves accountable. And unless I have an advisor who can ask my wife the hard questions, a lot of times they won't get asked. And the opposite is true with me, you know, and her. So that's really great advice.

By the way, we have a solution for that. And Guy, thanks for calling today, sir. God bless you. Just go to faithfi.com and click find a professional and we can connect you with a certified kingdom advisor or a certified Christian financial counselor to be that wise counsel to walk alongside you.

Faithfi.com, click find a professional. Folks, that's going to do it for us. I'm so thankful that you join us each day on this broadcast. Thanks for your kind remarks about the program, for calling, for being involved.

We're so thankful. By the way, we just came out with a brand new study. It's the first in our Faithfi study series. I would love for you to check it out. It's called Rich Toward God. It's a four week study on the parable of the rich fool, which has some amazing connections to our heart and our management of God's money. Check it out at faithfi.com.

Click shop. Thanks for listening and sharing. And 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 Faithfi and listeners like you.