Trusting God with Your Money Matters

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.org. Well, I'm sure you've heard the term the bottom line. In business, it's the final total on the balance sheet. Once the income is counted and the bills are paid for you and me, the bottom line is what's left in the bank account after our obligations are met.

Sometimes it doesn't seem like enough, does it? If you're concerned about your financial bottom line today, let me remind you of another kind of bottom line, a spiritual one. For believers in Jesus, the true bottom line is our identity in Christ.

This is where our peace comes from. Maybe you know the old hymn that says, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. When we belong to Jesus, our spiritual balance sheet says we don't owe a thing for our sin. He paid the price in our place, so we can relax knowing God is our protector and provider, and yet we still worry about money problems sometimes. Jesus understood this tendency we have to worry about the future. In Matthew 6, Jesus reminded his followers that fretting about material things is unnecessary because of who God is.

Your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? Jesus told his disciples and us that we can be confident in God's love and provision, no matter what our circumstances are.

After all, is your worry really helping you accomplish your financial goals? You can trust God to take care of you and your family. It's a fact that people will let you down, but God never will. That's because God is completely trustworthy. Numbers 23 19 puts it this way, But God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? Human beings can be changeable, unreliable, and untruthful, but the Lord is unchanging, as well as loving and good. He always fulfills his promises according to his word. When he promises to protect, guide, and provide for his children, we can believe he means it. In addition to being trustworthy, God is all powerful.

God is for us, it says in Romans 8 31. Who can be against us? There's a memorable example of God's power in 2 Kings 6. Back then, Israel was at war with Syria. Things were going badly for Syria because the prophet Elisha was revealing their battle strategies to the king of Israel. This annoyed the Syrian king so much that he sent an army to find and kill Elisha. Elisha's servant woke up one morning to see a horde of enemies surrounding the town where they were staying.

He was understandably terrified. Now, let me pick up at 2 Kings 6 verse 15. In the end, the Israelites captured their enemies, and the Syrians pretty much left the Israelites alone after that. Now, as you can see from this story, our God is a powerful savior. Judging from the visible circumstances, Elisha's servant assumed they were outnumbered, surrounded, and doomed. When his spiritual eyes were opened, he understood that God's greater army was right there the whole time. Like Elisha's servant, when we take our eyes off our circumstances and focus on the Lord instead, our confidence and peace are restored. Jesus said in John 16 33, I have told you these things that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart.

I have overcome the world. So remember that your spiritual bottom line is your identity in Christ. Your financial bottom line shouldn't be a source of worry, but an opportunity to put your trust in an almighty God. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. They're distributed by Four Side Funds Distributors, LLC, which is not an advisory affiliate, a registered investment advisor, nor do they provide investment advice. As a faithful listener of this program, you know that there's life-changing financial wisdom in God's Word, and FaithFi is here to help you and millions of others learn to be good and faithful stewards. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on help from monthly FaithFi patrons, supporters of this mission, to help us continue and expand our outreach. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry? If so, consider becoming a monthly FaithFi patron. Visit faithfi.com and click Give. Welcome back to Faith and Finance.

I'm Rob West. Before we dive back into the phones, let me just mention, you know, unless you have a plan for managing God's money and then a system to control the flow of money in and out, you will never be able to accomplish fully what God has for you because having margin is the key to funding every goal, whether that's increasing your giving, paying down debt, saving for the future. If you're living right up to the edge every month or beyond it by taking on debt, you'll never be able to accomplish those goals. Well, having that plan and then being able to control the flow of money in and out, making course corrections throughout the month as you spend down your various budget categories and perhaps delay purchases or curtail spending when needed, you've got to have a system to do that. Now, whatever system works for you is the best system for you. I would suggest if you don't have a system, you ought to take a look at the FaithFi app. We've built in three approaches to managing money and I'm confident one will fit your money personality. You can have a hands-on approach with the digital envelope system.

You can have more of a hands-off approach with just our tracking system and everything in between. You can download it today at faithfi.com. Just click app or just head straight to your app store and search for FaithFi, Faith and Finance. Check it out today.

You can get a 30-day free subscription and learn more about it, but I think it might be the solution you're looking for. Again, faithfi.com. All right, let's head back to the phones. We're going to get through as many questions as we can before the end of the broadcast. Lynn, you've been very patient there in Huntington. How can I help? Hi.

Boy, am I grateful to be speaking with you, Rob. Thank you so much. My 16-year-old recently started her first job.

It's been about the past six months. She's a straight-A student. She's in the top five of her class. She's very driven in all that she does. So with her paycheck, she's spending every dime she has. She's mainly buying gifts for her friends and for her animals. And this is just such a critical point for me to be able to step in and guide her as a parent, but I don't want to completely take control of her money.

What would you do? Yeah. So you said she's actually earning this money, right? She works for it? Correct. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, that's the key, is learning the value of hard work and how long she has to work for the things that she wants to buy. Oftentimes, the missing piece is understanding that, wait a minute, that out-to-dinner trip that I just made required me to work for three hours at my job.

I might rethink that next time. Now, obviously, she values the things that she's doing, and I love that she's a gift-giver. Obviously, God has kind of hardwired that into her. But we need to balance that with the reality of money is a limited resource, and we need to have a plan if we're ever going to accomplish our goals. Often, it starts with taking a step back and really having a values conversation. What's important to you?

What do you want to be able to do now and in the future? We're talking about the importance of generosity, which is all throughout the Old and the New Testament, that we're to be generous as a reflection of the generosity God's extended to us. And so, we've got to take that right off the top and give as unto the Lord. We have short-term needs for her that's enjoying time with her friends and giving gifts, but there's also longer-term goals. So, does she eventually want to be able to buy a car or get an apartment or do some things that are going to require her to save and not consume all that she has? Well, making plans around those, talking about those, and really unpacking what they are and then putting a spending plan together that really reflects that. Because the way we spend our money is a reflection. It's really the clearest indicator of what's going on in our lives spiritually and what we value. And so, does the way she's spending her money value in total what's important to her?

Well, obviously giving gifts to her friends is important and it reflects that, but what about giving to the Lord? What about saving for the long term for some of these other goals? I think that's key.

And so, perhaps you helping her to really understand that, it's more difficult now for you to model that, you know, just given her age, but obviously it's, you know, you still have some time while she's under your roof. I think there's also another tool that could be helpful. There's a wonderful resource that we ran across a few years ago and I'd be happy to send you a copy of it. It's called Open Hands, Open Hands Finance. And basically it's a money course for college students and older teens like you've got, basically young adults, to really teach them basic skills, cultivating a stewardship mindset, building a life of generosity, creating a budget.

Setting up automatic savings, making a plan for debt, investing for the future, building good financial habits, all of these things. And in each one of the lessons, there's a podcast by the author and she's just phenomenal. She's a lot of fun.

She's obviously, you know, younger and so she speaks the language of young adults. And I think could be, perhaps if she's willing to do it, something that could be a real game changer for your daughter. And I'd be happy to send you a copy of this, the workbook, and then with the workbook, she could access the podcast.

But give me your thoughts on all that, Lynne. I think this is going to be exactly what we need. Thank you so, so much. Well, you're welcome. We can tangibly watch and that we can do together. Yeah, exactly. I think that's right. And I think it's done in such a way that it'll really speak her language.

It's not geared toward, you know, somebody in their 40s and 50s and 60s, but really kind of caters to somebody in her season of life. So listen, you stay on the line. We'll get your information and we'll send this resource, Open Hands Finance, out to you to give to your daughter. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Orlando. Hi, Leo. Go ahead.

Ron, how are you doing? Thank you so much for taking my call. Yes, sir. Thank you.

I have a question. So I inherited a condo with two siblings where my parents live and the condo is rented. It's worth about $130,000.

So my siblings, I have to take care of their head, you know, pay them off. I don't want to sell the condo because it has income and, you know, in today's world, it's good to have a source of income. So my question is, I have a 401k with about $375,000. I turned 65 already, so I have no early withdrawal penalty. So my question is, it would be good for me to take money out of my 401k to pay them off.

It would be around $60,000 or so. Or try to get a loan, which may be a challenge because the age of the condo at the owner occupancy level, I'm told that the unit, I might not be able to get a lender to lend in the condo. So would taking money out of my 401k be a good idea?

Yeah, I don't like that option. I mean, I hear what you're saying about wanting to hang on to the condo. It's cash flowing.

It's something you'd like to have as a part of your portfolio. And I happen to like real estate as an investment, Leo, but borrowing from that 401k is not good. If you separate it from the company, it'd all be taxable. Plus it's out of your 401k and the whole purpose that's there is to grow and you're not doing that while that money's redeployed elsewhere. You said that the condo is worth 130, is that right? Yeah, it's about 130, but I wouldn't borrow. I would just withdraw the money.

Okay. When you have a big income influx like that, you'd need to send an estimated payment. So that's a pretty big haircut. You're going to take off that money and now you've paid the tax on it. So the portion that goes to the government is not compounding to retirement down the road. One option would be to look at a hybrid where you take a smaller mortgage and pull only half of it. So you're only adding, in this case, 30,000 to your income. But I'd probably start and see if you've got good equity, which you would, 30,000 or 60,000 on a 130,000 dollar property, you should be able to get a mortgage. So I'd check on that first. You could check with our friends at movement.com slash faith or any other conventional lender before you make this decision. But I'd look at that before you withdraw from the 401k.

We'll be right back. More information, including the short video webinar on profit and peace of mind, no matter what's happening in the market, is available at soundmindinvesting.org. 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 Rob West. Hey, if you haven't checked out the FaithFi app, you can do that on our website, faithfi.com. Just click app or head to your app store and search for faith. The FaithFi app will help you set up that spending plan that you need for 2024 to track God's money, make sure that it's going where you intended it to.

So you can ultimately have that margin, that cushion at the end of the month that's going to be key to funding those longer term goals and objectives, whether that's saving your emergency fund, paying down debt, giving more generously. I would submit you really can't do that effectively without a spending plan. And we've made it quick and easy for you to do that. So head to the website, faithfi.com.

Just click app and you'll be off to the races. All right. We've got three lines open, 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

To Indiana we go. Hi, Keith. How can I help you? Hello.

Can you hear me okay? Yes, sir. Okay.

So my question is that I know you normally say only 5% in precious metals, but in comparing the last couple of years, if I had done like 50% in stock and 50% in precious metals, I would have came out ahead. And I wanted to see what your opinion was on that. We give a lot to, we give over 20% to faith-based charities where you have a full, in case we need an emergency fund, we have that all funded and everything, and we're completely debt-free.

So I just wanted to hear your opinion on that. Yeah, very good. I love the fact that you're giving generously. I'm thrilled to hear that you're debt-free. Tell me a little bit about your current stock portfolio. What do you have right now in the way of retirement assets and how is that money allocated in terms of stocks and bonds? So we were, I was in pretty much, with my 401k, I was in pretty much 100% in stocks. And over the last year, my 401k has really crashed over the last couple of years. And so I'm about at 120,000 left in the 401k, and I was looking to put that into an IRA that I could do precious metals with.

Okay, yeah, very good. Yeah, I mean, the challenge is that, you know, if you look historically, it just doesn't do as well. And you know, any, you know, shorter period of time, you could prove that theory wrong, but I'm just talking over the long haul. There's a couple of things that work against the precious metals. First of all, I like owning the precious metals, in particular gold.

The reason though, I wouldn't overweight in them. And you're right, I would say, you know, a forever allocation of 5% in physical gold makes sense to me. And then dialing that all the way up to 10%, perhaps that second 5% using maybe one of the tracking ETFs where you don't have to take possession of it makes sense, because it's it's uncorrelated. So you've got, you know, it helps you to be properly diversified.

It is that fear trade that will do well if things, you know, get very difficult. But when you just look historically at the performance of gold, it doesn't match that of a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio. And it has more volatility.

The other issue with gold is you've got the, you know, premium on the buy and the sell, you've got to store it, and it doesn't generate any income, which stocks and bonds can, you know, if we just take the return, though, over the shorter period, you know, I mean, think about this. So gold was at $2,070 an ounce in August of 2020. And we're not even back to that level today. I mean, it's at $2,034, the spot price today.

So we're still below where we were three years ago. So you know, I think and again, that's a very short period of time. So I wouldn't base my whole case on that. But I'm just saying, you know, when you look over, you know, a longer period of time, you know, it's a very short period of time. So I wouldn't base my whole case on that. But I'm just saying, you know, when you look over, you know, a longer period of time, yes, there's a case to have it.

But I don't think you can make the case that you should overweight there for the reasons that I mentioned, but give me your thoughts on that. So my thoughts were, you know, by 2020, my stocks were up at, you know, 135,000. So if I would have bought partially precious metals, I would have stayed pretty close. But because of the stock market, you know, the crashing and everything with the changes that have happened, I've lost quite a bit. So that's what I was thinking it would at least been stable versus I wouldn't have made a lot of money, but I would at least been stable in the sense that I didn't lose a lot.

Yeah. That's why we we diversify and we say, Okay, you know, perhaps we hire an advisor to manage the stock portion of the portfolio. And, you know, that doesn't mean they're always going to get it right either. They may be in a sector of the market that's not performing as well as another clearly, although the breadth of the rally was stronger and wider at the end of last year until the last couple of months of 2023. It was still fairly narrow, you know, the the magnificent seven note tech giants, you know, were the ones that were driving a lot of that performance. And I realized that's a fairly narrow swath of the overall stock market, if you will.

But it did expand, you know, at the in the strength and the rally at the end of the year. So what do you do with all of that? Well, I guess, you know, what I would say is, let's make sure you're getting wise counsel. Let's have a really thoughtful and disciplined approach to the investments, not looking at short term moves, but taking a long time horizon. Because if we're in a properly diversified portfolio with, you know, somebody who can manage it, and we're looking over decades, because remember, even once you reach retirement, if the Lord tarries, and you're in good health, you need that money to last, let's say, 30 plus years. So you still are able to take that long term perspective, even though you know, you're you're transitioning into a retirement season of life. So what I would say is, let's get wise counsel, have a rules based approach to investing, don't jump in and out, based on the movements on a short term basis. And let's be properly allocated stocks, bonds and precious metals.

So that would be my best advice to you, my friend, but take that, pray about it and you make that call. We appreciate you being on the program. Let's stay in Indiana to Indianapolis. Jim, you'll be our final caller, sir.

Go ahead. I have got a what I would consider a dead 401 from a past employer. It's, it's got a rather large sum in it. I'm now employed with a new employer. But the caveat in this is they don't have something for me to transfer into into this 401. But in 18 months, I'm going to be also retiring from the Army Reserve. So I'm going to be drawing a check from that. And I'm trying to figure out what the best plan to take this, this dead 401. Yeah, that I just put in an IRA or a Roth or Yeah, that's a great question, Jim. What is what's the amount roughly in there?

About 70. Okay, yeah. Yeah, you're gonna want to roll it out to a traditional IRA, not a Roth, because that would require you to convert it and then it all adds to your taxable income for the year. And then you're probably going to want to engage with an advisor if you don't have one somebody who can manage that for you. I would if you are going to do that, I'd make that advisor selection before you touch the 401k. Because the advisor will tell you or then they'll actually do it for you, they would open the IRA for you at whatever custodian they use. But if you are going to make that decision, and that way this person could actually make the investment selections for you. I'd interview that person first.

You can look for a certified kingdom advisor on our website at faithfi.com. Jim, hope that helps you serve. Thank you for your call today. Grateful for my team, Lynn, Amy, Tahira, Jim, couldn't do it without him. Thank you for being here as well. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.