What's most important to you when it comes to choosing your financial advisor?
Someone who is aligned with your biblical values. How about someone who will take the time to explain your options? Certified Kingdom Advisors are professionals who meet high standards in competence and integrity and have been trained to offer biblical financial advice. To find a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area, visit faithfi.com and click Find a CKA. What's most important to you when it comes to choosing your financial advisor? Someone who is aligned with your biblical values. How about someone who will take the time to explain your options? Certified Kingdom Advisors are professionals who meet high standards in competence and integrity and have been trained to offer biblical financial advice.
To find a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area, visit faithfi.com and click Find a CKA. 1 Samuel 16, 7 tells us that the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Hi, I'm Rob West. You might look like you're doing fine on the outside, but how's your heart these days? Perhaps it's time for a heart check and some reassurance from God's Word, 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, when you were a child, I'm sure your parents had to help you with an attitude adjustment from time to time. Now, as an adult, you're not under the discipline of your mom and dad, but you still may need the occasional attitude check, especially in the area of finances.
Here's what I mean. The Bible makes it clear that there are wrong attitudes and right attitudes when it comes to money and possessions. Your financial attitudes and actions are an outward indication of what's going on in your heart, your spiritual health.
Jesus explains the problem to his disciples in Mark 7, 21-23. Well, that's a pretty comprehensive list of evil, and what it tells us is that wrong attitudes about money also come from the heart. That includes things like greed, a selfish desire for more than you need, and envy, which is resentment about someone else having what you want.
Other serious heart issues spring from the sin of pride, where you consider yourself better than others because of what you have. Dishonesty, fear, and even bitterness are other money attitudes the Bible warns against. Satan tempts us into these attitudes to draw us away from God. If you're a Christian, choosing to give in to these sins makes you ineffective for God's kingdom.
But if you do struggle with attitudes of envy or pride, you're in good company. Even the apostle Paul faced temptations like these. Here's what Paul wrote in Romans 7, 21-24.
Well, then Paul solves the dilemma we all face. We've talked about the wrong attitudes about money and how they lead us astray. Right attitudes about money have the opposite effect. These include commitment to serving Christ, faithful stewardship, gratitude, and even a desire for wisdom. I could also add a long list of biblical virtues, including love, generosity, humility, and kindness, among others. Financial teacher Larry Burkett used to say these are spiritual values reflected through your finances because having the right heart attitude about money honors God.
Living with these virtues makes your financial life work better because you're putting God first and trusting him to provide instead of leaning on your own understanding. Righteousness isn't to guarantee that things will be easy or even that you'll experience material prosperity in this life. But what you'll have is peace and the opportunity to follow and serve Jesus. In John 10, 9, Jesus promised, Psalm 37 also promises a hopeful future for those who choose righteousness in Christ over sin. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath.
Do not fret. It only leads to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. And finally, Romans 8 10 emphasizes the key to living with godly attitudes.
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because of righteousness. So is it time for a financial attitude check? Remember, how much money you have doesn't really matter. It's your attitude about money and possessions that's important. Attitudes of pride, selfishness, greed, envy, and dishonesty are sin, leading to bad consequences, including fear, despair, frustration, and defeat. On the other hand, when you follow Christ, confessing your sins and pursuing godly heart attitudes, you will experience a closer walk with the Lord and the blessings of peace and hope.
If you're not sure how to change your attitudes, ask God for help. We can also help you here. Just visit our Faithfi community at faithfi.com. All right, your calls are next. The number, 800-525-7000.
Back with much more just after this. 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.
Absolutely free. We know you've learned to be suspicious of those words, but really, you can get biblical financial wisdom delivered to your inbox each week, absolutely free. Articles, videos, podcasts, and special offers on biblical resources. Nearly 60,000 people receive our free weekly wisdom email, and you can too. Create your free Faithfi account by going to faithfi.com and click Sign Up to begin receiving weekly wisdom in your inbox. Welcome back.
This is Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls today, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.
Let's go to Joliet, Illinois. Nancy, how can I help? Hi, thank you so much. Thank you for your ministry. Well, thank you. You are most welcome.
We appreciate you. In a nutshell, as my husband and I approach retirement, we are streamlining our finances, and we have been slowly, according to your advice, cutting out some of our credit cards and things like that. We don't carry a balance on any of them, but we have kind of accumulated some more over the years. And my main question is, for me as not the main breadwinner, what is the best way to maintain my own credit? I did purchase a vehicle several years ago, and thankfully I put like $10,000 down and got 1.9%, and that I'm sure has boosted my credit score. At that time, they said in my particular, I had bought it in just my own name.
My score was perfect, but I was surprised to hear. Anyway, and our general score together is over 800, but should I just keep one credit card in my name and one in his? Is that sufficient, or what would you suggest? Yeah, so if you're specifically thinking about your credit score and not access to the credit card if he were to pass away, which is a whole separate issue that we can talk about in a moment, but specifically related to the credit score, you don't even need to have one in your name as long as you're an authorized user on his, because it'll be reported to your report at the same time it's reported to his with you as an authorized user. So if you didn't want to have more than one card, you could have him as the authorized user or you as the authorized user and him as the primary, or you could hold it jointly. In either case, it would be reported to your credit file. And with regard to your credit score, having that active account, even if it's just a small charge every month, it's a budgeted item that you pay off in full, that ongoing regular activity of you showing yourself to be an on-time payer is really key. The other key is the credit mix, which is 10% of your score. So the idea that you would have a revolving account, which is a credit card, and an installment account like a car loan, that helps your credit mix because it's two different types of credit.
So that would be all you need to do. Now to my second point, though, the only issue with that, and this catches folks by surprise in some cases, if something were to happen, let's say the Lord calls your husband home and you're an authorized user, now that card can't be used any longer. And although you can go and get one in your name, it's going to take some time and it may cause a disruption. So there is a case to be made about you each having a card in your name with perhaps the other as the authorized user, even if you just use it on a very minimal basis every month.
Does that make sense? Okay. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. So that would primarily be enough.
We're not planning on taking out any loans or anything as far as we're not particularly concerned about the level of our credit score right now. But yes, that was my concern because I just realized that I wouldn't, as an authorized user, I would not be able to use any of the credit cards that are mainly in his name, which are the higher credit limits as him being the main breadwinner. You mean if he were to pass away? Yes. Yes, correct. If I understand you correctly, as long as we each have one in our own name, that would be sufficient.
It would because that would mean if, again, we're talking about something we don't want to talk about, but we got to be well planned, right? So, yeah, if he were to pass away, you would have a card that you could continue to use on an ongoing basis. If we're just talking about the credit score, you being an authorized user is sufficient because that will be reported to your report. But as you said, in this season of life, probably not a whole lot of concern about your credit score anyway.
I mean, anything above 740, you're going to qualify for the very best credit rates and terms out there, and you're probably not looking to borrow a lot of money in this season of life. So it's really a non-issue, but, yeah, not a bad idea just to be mindful of it and make sure you've got a sufficient score on your own. Hey, all the best to you, Nancy. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.
Let's go to New Jersey. Hi, Carmen. How can I help? So I have a – my husband's FICO score – we have a credit card with a Citibank Costco card, and his FICO score under their program is reflecting like a 598 score, and so we immediately went to the three credit bureaus, and Experian is reporting that there are no – there have been no changes to his credit score. He has always had like a high 800 score.
Right now he's at 826, but when they – when they – Uh-oh. Carmen, did we lose you? Hello? Yeah, you're back. Go ahead.
Oh, I'm sorry about that. Did you get any of that? Should I repeat it? I did.
No, no, you're good. So I heard that you went and pulled the Experian. It said no changes. Did you pull any of the other credit files?
Yes, all three of them are reporting that there have been no changes. We currently do not have a mortgage. We don't have any car payments. We pay everything to zero balance, so we've always had really high credit scores in the 820s, 830s.
All right. Since September – since September, Citibank Costco card that we have – we've had for years is all of a sudden reporting that his credit score has dropped to like 598, and I spent like a month or so trying to figure this out, going in between Experian and going in between Citibank Costco card, but they're saying that that is what Experian is reporting, and Experian is telling me, no, that's not what we're reporting. There's been no changes to your husband's credit score. So I'm in the quandary.
I have no idea how to handle it or where to go next. Yeah, so what I would probably do is go back to whoever gave you that 500 credit score and find out what – I'd get them on the phone and find out what they used to determine that. There's the Vantage score. There's the FICO score. There's three different credit bureaus. So there's a lot of different ways to get to your credit score. You don't just have one credit score. Your credit score is just based on the information in the bureau that was used running through a formula or an algorithm, and they're not all the same. So depending on which of the three bureaus they used and depending on which company ran that score and what scoring algorithm they used can produce different scores. And so there's probably one of those three that has some information on it that's either inaccurate or there's a fraudulent account on there or an account you forgot about or didn't know about that's in arrears. There's something there that is triggering that low credit score and you need to find it. So I would go to annualcreditreport.com. I'd pull the three reports.
Don't pull the score. Pull the reports from the three bureaus and just look at them. And they'll tell you at the top of the report the three most significant things that are causing your score to drop. And you'll be able to see right there on the report what it is that the bureau is saying is working against you, if anything.
And they have to give you the three factors that are working most significantly against you on the report. It's a part of every credit file. So I'd pull those files, not the score but the files at annualcreditreport.com, get one from TransUnion, one from Equifax, one from Experian and just see what they're saying in your file is the most detrimental to you at this time.
And if there's nothing there, then don't worry about it. Because at the end of the day, if your FICO score is over 800, you're in great shape. If you want to do a little bit more digging beyond pulling those three bureau reports, I'd find out from whoever gave you that 500 number, how do they go about pulling your credit file and get them to give you more details on the process that they used. And that may help you narrow down the options.
At the end of the day, you might find that it was just an erroneous score and maybe they just gave you bad information. But I think you'll find the answer to this, Carmen, if you do a little bit more digging. Hey, thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.
I'm Rob West. You're listening to Faith and Finance and we'll have more of your calls and questions on the other side of this break. The number to call is 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. We're grateful for support from Eventide Investments on the Faith and Finance program. Eventide's approach to values-based investing is grounded in the belief that humankind was created in the image of God with intrinsic dignity, value and worth. Eventide calls this investing that makes the world rejoice. More information is available at eventideinvestments.com. That's eventideinvestments.com. You're listening to Faith and Finance, where we talk about how we handle God's resources.
How are you using God's resources? We're talking about it and the lines are open to take your calls and questions. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Ohio. Michelle, you've been very patient.
How can I help? Thank you for taking my call. Me and my husband sold our home and our proceeds are coming in a couple days of $450,000. We're in our late 50s and we have no children at home. We just couldn't find another house to buy, so we decided not to buy, at least not now. We're not sure what to do with the money until we need it. Michelle, the good news is you're going to get paid a fairly attractive rate of return while you're waiting just because of where interest rates are right now. I would concur that given that this is going to be a change for you all as renters versus homeowners, you're going to want to give yourself some time to figure out, first of all, what's happening with the housing market. Second, are we happy with our new situation here or are we going to be itching to buy something?
And third, where is the economy headed and what has God had for you as you all head into this next season, which obviously have some significant changes ahead. So I think given all of that, I'd like for you to keep this money fairly liquid, safe, but earning a good rate of return. So that means staying out of the stock market and really even the bond market until you get a little bit more direction about what the future may hold. Now, if you all determined that as far as you can tell, for the long term, you're not going to buy anything, well, then you could take the opportunity to begin to invest this in a properly diversified portfolio that would be consistent with your age and risk tolerance. Probably, you know, a majority of it in high quality US and corporate bonds with a smaller percentage in stocks, it gives you some growth component. But I wouldn't do that just given the uncertainty around whether you may turn around, you know, six months or a year, even a couple of years from now, and want to have this money to buy something, at least until you get a little further along and determine that you're pretty comfortable with the idea that you won't. So then we'd be looking at things that really are guaranteed in the essentially risk free category, nothing is risk free, but as close to it as you can get. And that's where you'd either want to go into something that's completely liquid, like a high yield FDIC insured savings account, where you can get four and a half percent a year plus, which, you know, is a significant sum on 450,000, we're talking 20,000 a year that you could earn.
On on your money while you're waiting. And as long as you put it in two different institutions, both FDIC insured, you can have the government essentially guaranteeing that money that you could get it back. And it would be liquid when you need it, even if the bank failed.
And I'm not saying that it will. But it's just nice to know that you have that protection. If you wanted to get a little bit more yield, and you're willing to take, you know, a period of time where you know you're not gonna have access to the money, you could build what's called a CD ladder. So maybe you put, you know, a fourth of it in a high yield savings, it's completely liquid, maybe you put a fourth of it in a six month CD, a fourth in a one year CD and a fourth in an 18 month CD. And then every six months, you roll it forward, that might allow you to get an extra percentage point, which again, is not an insignificant amount of money. That's another 4500 $5,000 a year that you could earn if you get an extra percentage point. And it would mean that you don't have ready access to the whole thing.
But every six months, you know, you'd have access to at least half of it, you know, in the scenario I described. So how do those sound just in terms of what you're looking to accomplish? Those are, I believe, really good options. I feel comfortable with those. Yeah, you mentioned we, you know, it is a big adjustment, not being homeowners and changing that whole living situation. So we, yeah, I guess we would need some time to see if that feels right, or that's doable.
Yeah. Well, the nice thing is you could open so I'd go to bankrate.com, that's bankrate.com. And if you click on the button right there, it says high yield savings, what you will see is that there's a lot of options out there right now, for banks that are FDIC insured, you know, that you would recognize that are offering, you know, four and a half to five and a quarter percent. And I don't have any problem, you know, with you all being in an online bank, you know, as long as you have that FDIC insurance and bankrate actually offers a five star rating system as well that you could factor into your decision making.
So for both the CDs and the high yield savings, bankrate.com would be a great place for you to start. So hopefully that gives you at least something to think about, talk about as you pray through this. And if we can help further, let us know. Thanks for your call, Michelle.
Quickly to Chad Anuga. Hey, Rod, how can I help? Thank you for taking my call.
I appreciate it. Because of TV commercials, I've got two questions. If I have my credit account or credit, you know, score is all frozen, is it still wise to get something like that lifelock thing or is it even necessary?
You know, I'm not a big fan of that, Rod. I mean, if your information was compromised somewhere and they offered to pay for lifelock for you, you know, just as a way of trying to make good on the fact that they allowed somebody to come in and access your information, I'd certainly take it. But if you're having to pay for that yourself, there's just not a whole lot more there, in my opinion, that they offer. Yeah, they may offer you some insurance if you need to, if you have identity theft that harms you financially.
But apart from that, I think you, you know, doing what you've done and that is, you know, freezing your credit, which means nobody can open an account fraudulently in your name, because they won't be able to allow the lender to access your credit file without that PIN number. And then if you regularly pull your credit file just to monitor it, you're watching your financial accounts, your credit cards, you're looking for erroneous transactions, you know, you're changing your password regularly, you're not getting on public Wi-Fi to log into your bank or your credit card, those kinds of things, you're not clicking on links in emails or giving out your personal information over the phone. You know, those things are free. And they're probably, you know, the best things you can do to protect yourself. For me, just, you know, based on my experience, taking that extra step of paying somebody to do essentially the things I can do myself free is just unnecessary.
That's kind of what I thought. I thought if I had my account frozen, I didn't see a sense of spending money for something along the line of lifelock. The other thing is I've seen advertisements also for home insurance, title insurance, so no one can take your title, whatever. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't do that one because there's really nothing they can do. Keep in mind, if somebody goes into the county records office and fraudulently changes the deed, and then they try to foreclose on your home, that was fraudulent conveyance, and they have no claim to your property. And you can probably contact your county records office. A lot of them are doing this now and ask them to put an alert on your account that if anything changes with regard to your deed, you're automatically notified.
So this idea that you would have some sort of title lock insurance, which is a misnomer, I think is a waste of money. Hey, Rod, thanks for your call today, my friend. We appreciate it.
Well, that does it for us today. I'm Rob West. Thanks to our amazing production team and to you for listening. I hope you'll join us again next time right here on Faith and Finance. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
