Missed Open Enrollment, No Problem With Lauren Gajdek

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 slash faith buy. Open enrollment is over. Did you miss the deadline and now you're without health insurance?

I am Rob West. The good news is there's a terrific alternative to health insurance that will make you glad you missed that deadline. Lauren Gydeck is here to tell you about it, and then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's always great to have Lauren Gydeck on the program because she always brings good news. Lauren is Vice President of Communications and Media at Christian Healthcare Ministries, an underwriter of this program. And Lauren, it's great to have you back. Yes, thank you, Rob, for having me back.

Appreciate it. It's always a joy. Lauren, why is Christian Healthcare Ministries a lifesaver for folks who might have missed that open enrollment deadline?

I love that question. We are a health cost-sharing ministry, not an insurance company. So that means, you know, your listeners can join Christian Healthcare Ministries at any time of the year, and they don't have to wait for an open enrollment season. That's great. There's a sign on the building that says, Always Open.

So yeah, you can come right in. Now, you say you're not health insurance. So what is CHM and how does it work? Yeah, so CHM is a medical cost-sharing organization.

Like I said, we're not an insurance company. And it's a biblical concept. We're based on Acts 2 and 4, where all of the early church, the believers all gathered together and shared what they had with each other so that there was no one in need. They pooled their resources together.

And then, you know, nobody was left out in the cold. So that's what CHM does with medical bills for our members. And we've shared over 10 billion, billion with a B, $10 billion in our members' medical bills since we started 40 plus years ago. Wow. Yeah, CHM is the oldest in this space.

That 10 billion number is staggering. Now, Lauren, of course, this is not just for people who might have missed that open enrollment deadline, right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, we have a lot of folks who find themselves in life transition, so they might have lost their job and their employer provided health insurance, or they might be changing jobs for a different reason. And then we have a lot of entrepreneurs who they don't have insurance through their employer, and they find that CHM is a great fit for them.

Yeah. Now, I mentioned at the top of the program that folks might be glad they missed the deadline, and that's because of the cost of membership in CHM. So would you compare CHM to health insurance from a cost standpoint?

Yeah, sure. So in a nutshell, CHM has different programs ranging from $92 to $267 per month for an individual. And none of that is based on your health history, your age, your weight, anything like that. It's the same charge depending on the program that you choose, and we have several you can choose from. And then we have what's called personal responsibility. So, you know, that's not exactly like a deductible, but it has to do with out-of-pocket costs. And for most families on our gold program, that is no more than $3,000 a year.

So if your listeners know anything about high insurance deductibles, it was really quite affordable compared to that. Yeah, that's helpful. Now, of course, the first word in your name is Christian. So there's also a spiritual component to CHM.

What is that? Yes. So our flagship versus Galatians 6-2, which is carry each other's burdens. And in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. And that's the whole reason we exist. We are here to help financially, but we are also here to help support each other spiritually through prayer, through encouraging emails and cards and letters, and just being the extended body of Christ to the people that we serve. Yeah, that's great.

And obviously, with inflation high, folks really feeling the squeeze in their budget, and this area of health costs just seemingly rising all the time. CHM can be a real blessing. I'm sure you hear that from your members all the time, right? Oh, yes. Yes, we do.

They very much appreciate that. All right, Lauren, for those folks who want to learn more and maybe explore this for themselves or their family, where do they go? Yes, you can go to our website, chministries.org.

That's chministries.org. Or you can give us a call at 800-791-6225. Awesome. Well, Lauren, we appreciate you stopping by, as always. Thanks for being on the program. Oh, thank you again so much.

Appreciate it. All right, folks, go check it out, chministries.org. That's chministries.org.

That was Lauren Gajdek of Christian Healthcare Ministries. Now, your calls are next. What are you thinking about financially? Call right now at 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. If you enjoy this radio program, you're going to love all of 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. What's most important to you when it comes to choosing your financial advisor? Someone who's 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. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions now on anything financial. We've got some lines open. The number to call, 800-525-7000. All right, let's dive in.

We're going to begin in Indiana. Hi, Donna. Thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hello. Do you want my question? I would be happy to take your question.

Yes, ma'am. I don't know if I should start with that. I have a $79,000 annuity with an insurance company. I have the opportunity to roll this over into my IRA, and I don't know if that's a good idea.

It seems like a good idea. I'm only getting one and a half percent on the $79,000 annuity. This would be four to five percent if I roll it over.

Yeah, very good, Donna. So, absolutely. As long as you keep that in a tax-deferred environment, whether that's keeping it in an annuity structure, but no reason to get, you know, just over one percent, even if you were to leave it there, I'd roll it into another annuity paying a much better rate of return. You can get five plus, maybe even six percent in some cases. But rolling it into an IRA is good in the sense that it's a non-taxable event because it's going to take or it's going to remain in that pre-tax environment. The question is, what are you going to do with it to invest it? So, are you talking about putting it into CDs once it gets into the IRA? I didn't know I had an option of that. My financial advisor at the bank just made me aware of this opportunity. So, when I heard, of course, I was excited about it, but I came home and thought about it and thinking about stressing over it. I just, I was afraid to do anything. I'm 85 and actually the age for this opportunity to roll this over was supposed to be limited to 85.

So, I need to make this decision now. Yeah. See, that's the part that's a little confusing to me is I don't know what investment he's recommending because the IRA is just the account type, which just makes sure that the money, the 85,000 stays in a, or 79,000, I think you said, stays in a tax-deferred environment. So, therefore, it's not creating any taxable income for you. But inside that IRA, the 79,000 can be invested in anything.

It could be invested in a CD, it could be invested in gold, it could be invested in stocks and bonds. So, do you, are you able to describe what it is that he's going to invest it in once you get it into the IRA? No. Okay. It's actually a female and she didn't tell me that.

I just, when I heard the 4 to 5, I think it's around 5%, I didn't even realize that I do have an IRA. So, it would be the same. Okay. Yeah.

I would probably get a second opinion. At the very least, I'd get for her to explain a lot more. The other part that doesn't make sense to me is this idea that you have to do something by age 86 inside an IRA. I can't really think of many investments, if any, where there would be any kind of age requirement like that. So, there's a few things that just aren't adding up.

I'm not saying she's doing anything wrong or there's any kind of problem, but I just would want you to understand what you're investing in and the fact that you can't describe it tells me you're not quite ready to do it because I'd want you to be able to explain it before you go into it in terms of what type of investment is it, how much risk is involved, is there what's called liquidity, meaning, okay, she's saying you're going to get somewhere between 5% and 6%, but is the money locked up for a period of time? What if you needed to access some of it? Could you? And so, I'd want you to know those things, Donna, and there may be great answers to all of those. I just want you to know what they are before you do anything like this. So, I would do a couple of things and ultimately it's up to you and the last thing we want is for you to be anxious about this whatsoever. So, you know, I want whatever you do to give you a lot of peace of mind, not have you, you know, any kind of concern.

So, I'd probably get a second opinion and I'd reach out to one of our certified Kingdom Advisors there in Indiana and the easiest way to do that is on our website. If you're comfortable using the internet, you just go to faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. And then right there at the top of the page, it'll say Find a CKA and that stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor and this would be a financial professional that has met really high standards and character and competence, but they've had a pastor and client reference and they've signed the statement of faith and all of these high standards really speak to their desire to help you apply biblical wisdom to professional financial advice and that person could not only evaluate what's being recommended to you by the bank, but they could also maybe give you another opinion on what other options are available that meet your goals and objectives and that's obviously the key. You're the steward and the goal is not to get the best returns possible. The goal is to minimize the risk and invest this in such a way that accomplishes your goals. So, that would be the way that I would go is to go back to the banker and ask her to give you a bit more understanding of what it is that it's going to be invested in and then get a second opinion from a Certified Kingdom Advisor.

How does that sound though? Well, that sounds wonderful and when I didn't look at anything at first, I just wanted you to know I listen to your program every day and I realized pretty much knew the answer, but I do feel comfortable with this advisor I've had. She's been my advisor for several years. Okay. So, I knew I needed to talk to her again, but I know all she said was to get back to her if I wanted to do it and it was an age limit 85 and also a minimum amount, I believe. Okay. Well, if you'd like if you know and I'm not trying to ask you to leave that advisor, if you've got a great relationship, that's great and then you stay right there and maybe what you do is you go back to her and say, listen, I like the idea that it's going from the annuity to the IRA because I understand that means it's not going to be taxable.

There's no taxable event, but what I'm unclear on is what are we going to invest it in that's going to generate the five to six percent and why the age requirement and I think once you understand those two things, that will be helpful and then if you want to give me a call back next week and just explain to me what it is she's going to do, I'd be happy to give you my opinion on that as well. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you so much. All right, Donna. God bless you. Have a wonderful weekend. Promise me you're not going to be anxious about this. It's going to be fine.

Let's just get a few questions answered before you go in because I want you to be able to explain it to somebody if they ask you about it. God bless you. Looks like all the wines are full, so let's keep moving through our questions here to St. Louis, Missouri. Hi, George. Go ahead. Hey, how you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks. I'm curious about that consolidation.

Is it worth it? You know, and if you have any recommendations, you know, I've talked to National Debt Relief and Trinity. Yeah. But, you know, I keep listening to your show and I thought I'd call in today.

Yeah, thanks, George. There's three approaches to paying off debt if you're not just going to snowball it yourself. One is called debt settlement.

I don't like that. That's where you get behind and then, you know, stop paying. It goes into collections and they try to negotiate a reduced payment.

Don't touch that. Second is debt consolidation, where they take out a new loan, pay it off, and then you have a new loan, hopefully at a lower interest rate. I wouldn't do that either because usually that's a longer payback. I like the third option, debt management.

Trinity does this. Our partners here at Faith and Finance is ChristianCreditCounselors.org. They'll get your interest rates reduced. You'll pay one level monthly payment through them and you'll pay it back on average 80% faster because of that level payment and the lower interest rates. Head to ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Thanks for your call.

We'll be right back. My grocery bill went up 11% this year. Gas, utilities, rent, all went up, and CHM helps pay for medical needs while allowing some breathing room in my budget.

Open enrollment is here, so make the switch today with potential cost savings up to 40%. We are grateful for support from SoundMind Investing in the Faith and Finance Program. SoundMind Investing has sought to offer financial wisdom for living well. SoundMindInvesting.org.

Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today, 800-525-7000.

We've got two lines open to Texas. Hey, Reed, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Yes, sir. I'm a military veteran.

I have a head injury and I can't remember stuff very good, so I'm going to take a lot of notes. Okay. My wife just passed away in March and everybody's telling me I have to file a special tax return. I have no clue what I'm doing.

I've called H&R Block and other places and they're not in service yet, so what am I supposed to do? Yeah. Well, so have you generally or you or your wife, and by the way, I'm so sorry to hear about her passing. In prior years, Reed, have you all filed your tax returns yourself or did you have a preparer?

Ourselves. Okay. And this last year, I did an electronic thing. My daughter helped me do it online. Yeah, yeah. So generally what happens is the taxpayer, when you're married, the spouse generally files a joint tax return for the year of death, claiming the full standard deduction and using the joint return rates.

That's typically what happens, but I concur. I think you getting a tax preparer would be a great idea this year, especially with some of the health challenges you have, just make sure that that's done properly and somebody that could help you prepare that each year and just make sure you're getting the full benefit of any deductions and paying what you owe, but not any more than that, certainly. So where I would head, Reed, if you're open to filing through a tax preparer or a CPA is to our website to look for a certified kingdom advisor. So what you would do is just head to our website, faithfi.com, faithfi.com, and right there at the top of the page, it'll say, find a CKA, and that stands for certified kingdom advisor, and you can do a zip code search for your area and then again, just ask for a referral. Okay, looks like we lost that call. So Reed, I hope that's helpful to you again, faithfi.com, find a CKA is the link you're looking for and just ask for a referral.

I think this will be a really important year especially and even moving forward for you to have a professional handling this for you so you're in compliance and not paying any more than necessary. Thank you for your service to our country as well, sir. God bless you. Let's go to Colorado Springs.

Hi, Samuel, go ahead. Yes, thank you, Ralph, for taking my call. My question is about my roof. I had a hill damaged and this roofing company came around my community and asked to look at the roof. After they looked at the roof, they said it was damaged and needed a full replacement. They asked me to give my insurance information, my home insurance, so they can contact them. I did, but my home insurance sent an adjust and they came in today and they did everything. They're going to send me the estimate, but it looked like the roofing company, I've told them that I do not have my deductible of two thousand dollars and I wanted them to offset that amount as an assistant, but it looked like they don't want to do that.

So my question is, I mean, is this proper or legal for me to find maybe one or two other companies to see who can offset that deductible? Yeah, so what I would typically do is find a reputable contractor in your area. You could go to Angie's list at angie.com, A-N-G-I, or any number, Better Business Bureau. You could ask around to friends or family or church members to find out who's got a roofing contractor that you can trust, somebody that somebody's worked with before. You can look at a lot of online reviews and make sure you're dealing with somebody that's reputable, especially because the insurance company is gonna be paying most of it.

So let's certainly get somebody who's licensed and insured and has really good reviews. And then what you'll want to do is have them give you an estimate for the repairs or the replacement of the roof. And I would submit that to your insurance company as a claim and get them to approve that estimate. And then what's going to happen is if you decide to go ahead with it, they're going to send, the insurance company is going to send you a check for the amount of the roof repair or replacement minus your deductible, and then you will pay the contractor. And I would make sure you get everything in writing and again, that you have the guarantees and you don't pay for the work in advance, but it does require that you come out of pocket for that deductible because that's the way that's going to work. I mean, the insurance company is only going to give you the amount that's equal to the actual cost of the job, but they're going to subtract their deductible from that, which means you're going to have to come up with the deductible portion as you pay the contractor the full amount.

So you need to work through your insurance company, get it approved and figure out who you're going to work with, but you might need to delay this until you can come up with the amount equal to your deductible. I hope that helps. Thanks for your call.

Quickly to Indiana Gregory, you'll be our final caller. Go ahead. Yes. I own my own home. I'm in my eighties. I just sold some real estate. I have been investing in real estate since the early seventies. Okay.

And I sold some properties for about 750,000 and I wish I would have given it more thought before I sold it because I've found some other investment properties that I'd like to get into, but I didn't file the proper form to qualify for it. Okay. How long ago did you make that sale, Gregory? It was in August.

In August. Okay. Yeah.

I'm afraid that window has passed. So it's called a 1031 exchange and it's where you take the proceeds from the sale of a property with capital gains and you roll it into another like kind property. So another investment property. So another investment property. And then you can essentially defer the capital gains by rolling a hundred percent into this next property. And then at some point you'd have to pay the capital gains, but if you keep investing it in a like kind property, you can defer that recognition of the gain. The problem is the rule says you've got to declare your intention to do this within 45 days from the sale. And you have to complete the sale for the new property within 180 days.

And if you're beyond the 45 days, then you wouldn't be able to declare that intention, unfortunately. Okay. Does that make sense?

The gain on this, if you held it for a period of time, in my case I've held it for years. Let's do this. I want to help you answer the rest of your questions, but I'm out of time. So you stay right there. We'll talk off the air, Gregory. Thanks for your call today. Folks, that's going to do it for us. I want to say thanks to Lynn, Tahira, Amy, and Jim. I'm Rob West. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.