Many people are using the FaithFi app to help provide the wisdom, community, and money management to stay on track, financially speaking. To date, over 37,000 members are using its digital envelope system, participating in our community forums, and engaging in virtual workshops. And one of the most convenient features is the ability to keep all your accounts in one place for an easy-at-a-glance view.
You can choose from one of three options, depending on your management style, and it's available on desktop or mobile. Go to faithfi.com and click app to get started. Brian Holtz joins us today to talk about how we can do that. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Our guest Brian Holtz joins us for the first time today. Brian is the incoming CEO at one of our favorite ministries, Compass Finances God's Way. He's also the author of the brand new book, Financial Discipleship for Families, Intentionally Raising Faithful Children. Brian, it's great to have you on the program.
Thank you, Rob. It's a pleasure to join you and the faith and finance community today. Well, we're thrilled. Let me take just a moment and say congratulations on your new position that begins at the first of the year. You're stepping into some enormous shoes, aren't you? That I am.
Thank you very much. Absolutely. Well, you want to help parents raise faithful children, Brian. So why is your book about money? Isn't there a more spiritual approach for doing this?
Well, yes and no. You know, Jesus taught many spiritual lessons using money as the illustration. Whether directly or indirectly through things like parables, it's clear that he saw money as a topic that was relatable to everyone. He saw it as a direct path to someone's heart and taught that our relationship with God is aided or hindered by our relationship with money. I believe we can do the same as we teach our children and grandchildren God's financial principles, how to apply them in their lives and how to share them with others.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Now, you advise parents that training children needs to be done actively, not reactively. Share what you mean by that. Yeah, unfortunately, many parents and grandparents, including me not so long ago, have few, if any, explicit goals for what we want for our kids and grandkids. And the few goals that we have to find, we generally have no real plan for how we're going to help them achieve those things. I believe most of us naturally parent or grandparent reactively addressing issues only as they happen to come up, which is usually in a negative way. Being active parents or grandparents, on the other hand, means we not only help navigate past mistakes, but we're looking toward the future and helping prepare our kids and grandkids for the situations they will encounter in their lives.
We think ahead about what goals we have for them, what obstacles they may encounter, what they need to learn, and how we as parents and grandparents can help them gain those essential skills now so that they're prepared to make good and God-glorifying decisions when those times come. Yeah. Well, obviously, our listeners want to know how you do it. And you have a whole section in the book called A Simple Approach to Parenting based on three important elements.
So let's just quickly review those. Yeah, this simple approach was first articulated by our friend and Compass founder, Howard Dayton. It's what he calls MVP parenting.
M is modeling. Anyone who spent much time around kids has probably realized they are learning from us all the time, whether we want them to or not. And while that certainly presents some risks, we can use it to our advantage as well. Financially, if I want my kids to learn to budget, I should budget where they can see it. And if I want them to be generous, I should demonstrate generosity where they can see it. That's the core of effective modeling.
The V stands for verbal instruction. Once our modeling has their attention, we want to be ready to explain the what and the why of our actions. Offering an explanation even before they ask takes the guesswork out of their natural curiosity. Take, for example, the Sunday morning offering on their own. They may think we put money in the plate because we're required to pay rent to the church or something. Or as we text in our gift that we're just texting a friend because there's a break in the service by offering the what and the why behind our actions. We help them understand that these actions are actually God glorifying, which is different from paying the church rent or texting during the service.
Finally, the P stands for practical opportunities. In this step, we orchestrate and offer opportunities for them to join in. We give them meaningful but appropriate tasks for their ages and abilities. And since we're there, we can offer them encouragement and tips to help them be successful. Best of all, we get to celebrate them not only for their successes, but just their willingness to try. Erica and I let our kids budget and experience the joy of generosity firsthand. We let them save and spend on things they want, and we even let them make small mistakes while we're around to help them navigate the consequences and tradeoffs. That's MVP parenting. Yeah, it's so good and so important because we're training future adults.
We want them to be financially literate, but we also want them to understand God's heart as it relates to their role as stewards. Brian, where can folks pick up a copy of this? Yeah, you can pick it up at Compass1.org and you can learn more at the upcoming Kingdom Advisors Conference and Compass Global Conference in February in Orlando.
They're going to be great. Awesome. You can get more information at Compass1.org. Brian, thanks for stopping by. Thank you, Rob. That's Brian Holtz, incoming CEO at Compass Finances God's Way. We'll be back with your calls just around the corner.
Stick around. Using temporal wealth for eternal gain is our thank you. That's faithfi.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 go to Lakeland and talk to Kathy.
Go right ahead. I'm 18, and I have some things like a car and insurance now, and I'm the one paying for them. I'm also going to school as well, and I've heard of some things for students to do while they're young, which is, of course, invest their money and, of course, get a credit card, but stay out of debt. I was just wondering what type of investments, because I've heard of things like 401K. I've heard of Ross IRA. I've heard of the IUL through life insurance and things like that.
And I was like, OK, well, which one's the best? Things like that. If you could give me some helpful tips, that would be amazing. Well, I'd be delighted to, Kathy. First of all, congratulations on starting to think about this at 18 years old. I mean, this is a great time for you to develop some really important disciplines with regard to how you handle money that will not only protect you from really the deceitfulness of riches that you can slip into when you get caught up in the world's way of handling money where our possessions become our goal and money is an end as opposed to a means to an end, meaning a tool, which is ultimately how it should be viewed. And you will also set yourself up really well by thinking about this now, because you just have so much time ahead of you. If the Lord tarries, you could make some small systematic investments starting at 18, and it would blow your mind, which you could have in retirement 50 years down the road, which is just incredible to think about.
So with time on your side, you can really do some powerful things. The other thing I would just really encourage you to do is lean into the whole area of giving and generosity, because ultimately, giving is what breaks the grip of money over our lives. And so being able to take God's money and enjoy it and save it appropriately, but also give it to help those in need and support the work of our local church is just one of the great privileges that God gives us as we steward or manage his money. Now, you're asking about investments, and I think that's a great thing for you to really think about of what you have today, both in savings and in what's coming in, assuming you're working. I would, first of all, carve out what I call an emergency fund. Typically, for somebody who's working, we would say, okay, take the total of your expenses and multiply that by three or even six. Somewhere in that range is what you want to have in emergency savings. So that way, if you had a disruption in income, you lost a job, you have an unexpected expense, you've got three months or six months worth of expenses there in a liquid savings account ready to go. I would add to that any medium-term savings goals.
So if you knew, hey, in two years, I want to buy a car, or four years from now, I need to get an apartment and I'm going to have to furnish it. So you set a goal for the amount that you need to have in savings, and I'd set up a separate savings account for that and start funding that maybe a little bit out of every paycheck as you're able. But I think you're exactly right in starting to think about investing here as well. Now, you mentioned several types of accounts, Universal Life, you mentioned Roth IRA, you mentioned retirement accounts at work.
Those are all good things. For you, somebody who's young, with time on your side, I really love the Roth IRA. That's the only one, either a Roth IRA or a Roth 401k, where you're going to put in after-tax dollars. So you work, you make wages or get tips or whatever it is, you pay taxes on it, and then you make the contribution to the Roth. So it goes in after tax, no tax deduction. But here's the beautiful part, if you leave it in there and you take it out after 59 and a half, you're not going to pay any tax on, in your case, those 50 years of gains or 40 years plus. And so all those gains in the investments are tax-free, and then you can convert that to an income stream and start pulling it out a little bit every month in retirement to supplement Social Security and pay your bills. So that's where a Roth can be great. Now, that's just the type of account that has to do with the tax treatment. You can put essentially any investment you want inside of it. And that's where you're probably going to want to look at either what are called exchange-traded funds, which are basically indexes that mirror the stock market indexes, or mutual funds, which typically are more actively managed, where you're hiring a money manager with a specific skill set and performance that is trying to deploy a strategy that's defined in the objective of the fund and outperform the markets.
And there's all kinds of mutual funds, and there's even faith-based investing funds that, as a believer, will ensure that you're investing in things that aren't misaligned with your values, if that's a conviction of yours. I'm going to stop there, though. Give me your thoughts on that and let me know if you have any questions. Okay.
About the stock market part, that is something that kind of goes over my head. Yeah, a couple of thoughts on that. Do you like to read? I like to listen. Okay. A couple of things. Here's what I want to do. That's funny.
At least you're honest. I want to send you a book that actually has a podcast that goes with it that I think will get you started in the right direction. It's called Open Hands Finance, and it's put together by just a wonderful couple, the graduates of Taylor University, and it's for college students, and it will help you understand the dangers of debt, how to set up a budget, but it will also explain to you just the importance of investing and how investing works, and in addition to some simple reading, it won't be too much, I promise, there's some podcasts that go along with it that you'll listen to each week, and I think that will get you started in the right direction. Stay on the line. We're going to get your information. I'm going to put Open Hands Finance, this course, in the mail to you.
I think you'll really enjoy it. We'll talk to you soon. Let's see.
Kokomo, Indiana is where Sean's located. Go ahead. Well, hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. I have a quick question.
This may be a simple question. All my vehicles are paid off, but they are very unique in the fact that they are older vehicles, like I've got a 2002 Buick Park Avenue, only 80,000 miles, and on all my vehicles I'm very particular about them, take very good care of them, but I have full coverage on all my vehicles, and I was wondering how to get your opinion as to whether or not I should just get PLPD and not full coverage. I wanted to get your thoughts on that, Rob. Yeah, so I'll give you the rule of thumb, and then at the end of the day you've just got to decide how much protection you want. The standard rule of thumb used to be that car owners should drop collision and comprehensive when the car was five or six years old or when it reached 100,000 miles. Now, these days cars are so expensive and replacement parts are so expensive, I would probably go a few years beyond that, because cars, if you take care of them, can run 200,000 miles plus, and they can be very expensive to maintain, of course.
The formula would be you'd take the car's value, you'd subtract the deductible, and then you'd take away the cost of the six-month policy, and then if you get a negative amount, chances are it's not worth paying for a comprehensive policy, and so you could contact your insurance company to cancel your payments. But I think at the end of the day you need to be comfortable with that, just kind of given how expensive cars and car repairs are. Does that make sense? That certainly does, and Rob, I certainly appreciate it. All right, absolutely, sir. We appreciate you calling today. Thanks for being on the program. We're going to be back with much more just around the corner.
Stay with us. Because of my past health history, finding affordable healthcare was nearly impossible. But then I found CHM, where costs are not adjusted based on medical history. Christian Healthcare Ministries even provides the freedom to choose my own providers, and the best part? CHM members pray for me. Too good to be true?
It's not. I'm a proud member of Christian Healthcare Ministries, and if you think it could be right for you, learn more at chministries.org slash faithfi. We are grateful for support from Praxis Mutual Funds. Praxis Mutual Funds has seven impact strategies that are designed to create positive real-world change. More information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. The fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses are contained in the prospectus and summary prospectus. This and other information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. Investments involve risk.
Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services, LLC. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm your host, Rob West. The number to call is 800-525-7000. I'm looking forward to hearing from you as we take your calls and questions from across the country.
In fact, let's head out to Chicago. Maria, go right ahead. Hi, so I'm calling because I'm curious what should I do? I'm the kind of person that when I use my credit card, I pay my bill all at the end of the month. And I'm curious, should I continue to do that or should I leave an amount in my statement so I can bring my credit card higher?
Yeah. I can appreciate where you're going. Your goal is to keep your credit card paid in full. You don't want to pay any interest and that's the primary consideration. And then secondly, you're trying to ensure that you have a good credit score.
Here's the reality. Just the fact that you have those recurring transactions going on on your credit card every month. So the idea behind credit cards is that we should use them only for budgeted items, so planned expenses. And therefore, we only put things on the credit card that we can pay off in full at the end of the month.
And that's going to ensure that you never pay any interest or late fees or over limit fees, but most notably any interest. Now, how does that benefit your credit score? Because to your point, you're paying it off at the end of every month. Well, what's happening is that the statement balance that you have at the end of every month is being reported to the credit bureau. So actually, if you pay it off after the period closes and you pull your credit report, even though you're paying it down to zero, it's not going to show a zero balance. It's going to show your balance as of the end of the statement period because that's what's reported to the credit bureau. But what's most important is that you have an active account and you're paying it on time. And as long as you're an on-time payer and as long as your balance isn't above 30% of the limit, then you're getting all the positive credit history you could want. So I definitely wouldn't leave an unpaid balance at the end of the month because now you're paying interest. The question is just, is that balance that's reported, the statement balance that's reported before you pay it off, is that higher than 30% of the limit? If it is, you may want to consider paying it before the end of the statement cycle because then you're going to have a zero balance reported. But again, it's going to show that you're an on-time payer.
And that's really the key as far as the positive credit history. I realize this can get a little confusing, Maria. Does that all make sense?
Yeah. So pay it if you have 30% less, then pay before the end of the cycle. Do you know what your limit is, for instance, on that credit card? It's like $3,000, $4,000. Well, that's how much you're charging or that's the limit? No, that's the limit. I only use about $1,000 a month or less. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's great. I would be surprised if your credit limit was only $3,000 or $4,000. Usually it's $5,000, $10,000, even $20,000.
But that's the key. If you're going above 30% on your monthly charges before you pay it off, then you may want to back it up. You could call them and say, when's the end of my cycle or my billing statement period?
And they'll say, well, it closes on the 26th of the month. Well, if you go online on the 24th or 25th and you pay it off, then actually it's going to be reported to the credit bureau that, first of all, you're an on-time payer and that's the key. And second of all, that you have a zero balance and that's great. That could actually boost your credit score, but I definitely wouldn't leave a balance.
That's not going to help you and it's going to cost you some money in interest. Okay? Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you very much. All right. You're welcome, Maria. Thanks for your call today. God bless you. Let's head to Indiana. Hi, Dan.
Go ahead. Hey, my biggest, so I'm looking at perhaps quitting or changing my full-time job and losing my health insurance. And I'm looking at alternatives to that. I do have an HSA that's fairly substantial, over $100,000 in that. And I'm wondering, can I use the proceeds from my HSA or the money in my HSA to pay one of these sharing plans, one of these Christian sharing plans, if I chose to get something like that. And then as kind of a follow-up, I'm wondering, I read a bit about proposals, rule changes, legislation to make the contributions to these health sharing plans.
Is it tax deductible or some sort of tax advantage? I'm wondering if you could address both of those issues for me. Yeah, well, in order to have an HSA, obviously, and be able to continue to contribute to it, you're going to have to have a high-deductible health plan in place. Now, because a medical sharing plan is not a health insurance company and you don't pay health insurance premiums, using an HSA to pay for medical shares is not expressly excluded.
However, my understanding is that that's going to create some challenges. So what I would do is, I would just contact our friends at Christian Healthcare Ministries and just get them to walk through your options with you. I love the idea of using a health cost sharing ministry. I think it can be a great option for you. And the nice thing about that HSA is that there's real benefits to that down the road in retirement to be able to fund actual medical expenses and other certain things that qualify under the medical expense requirement in that plan. And so you can invest it, you can grow it, it'll be there to supplement those expenses over time. And having that alongside something like Christian Healthcare Ministries, I think could be a great option. So what you would do then is you'd drop your high-cost insurance, you'd go with the medical sharing plan alone, and then you'd just use your HSA for qualifying expenses.
Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess I was reading how I could use my HSA if I wanted to. I'm just four years from Medicare, basically. And I was reading some of the benefits, like you can reimburse yourself for your Part B premium payments.
It was kind of interesting. You can't pay it directly, but you can make your Part B payments if you wanted to. But depending on that, those membership fees for the faith-based healthcare sharing is not HSA eligible.
So that would not allow you to do that. But you could have the Health Sharing Ministry in place for your medical expenses, like per incident, going to the hospital, going to a doctor for an incident that goes above the threshold, and then use your HSA for your other medical expenses, which I think would ultimately be the best solution. So let's do this. I would just reach out to our friends at chministries.org, talk through all of your options with them, and I think at the end of the day, that'll give you what you need. We appreciate your call today, Dan. God bless you, my friend. I hope you'll make plans to join us again next time for another edition of Faith & Finance. Faith & Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
