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. Well, church leaders who teach God's Word every week understand their responsibility to guide their flocks wisely. Sometimes they have to teach on tough topics such as sin, spiritual discipline, and maybe even the book of Leviticus. One of the most awkward sermon subjects, though, is money. Whenever a church leader mentions stewardship or generosity or tithing, you can almost hear the eyes rolling as the congregation takes a tighter grip on their wallets. It's as if churchgoers resent being reminded about their financial responsibilities. No wonder churches shy away from talking about money from the pulpit. Here are a few more reasons why money is a touchy subject for church leaders. According to growahhealthychurch.com, fear of failure and lack of financial training are two reasons pastors won't preach on money matters.
Other church leaders are reluctant to address the topic because their own personal finances are a mess. And sometimes pastors fail to teach about money because they think it will give the impression that the church is just after their money. Well, here's another reason for the lack of financial teaching in churches. According to growahhealthychurch.com, pastors can get skittish about raising money because they know that this money will be used to pay them a salary. False guilt can rule a pastor's mind and thus they avoid preaching on money. There are lots more reasons why church leaders avoid the topic of money, but as you might expect, we think churches should be teaching biblical financial principles. The Bible has a lot to say about money because how we handle our resources before God reveals the condition of our hearts. If Christians are going to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world, we need to know what God's word says about money and possessions. Topics such as stewardship and generosity do need to be taught from the pulpit, and not just one Sunday a year.
Here are a few more thoughts on this topic before we take your calls. First Timothy 5 17 reminds us that Christians are called to bring their tithes and offerings, to support the church and honor their shepherds. The elder who directs the affairs of the church are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Successful church ministries, and I don't necessarily mean those with a lot of money, are a function of the Holy Spirit's work in and through the body of Christ. People and leadership need to work together in faith, to follow God's will, build disciples, and reach the lost.
These efforts need our financial support. James 1 17 reminds us that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. When we gather as the body of Christ, we can acknowledge God's provision and respond in thankfulness and trust. While the church needs to teach biblical principles of stewardship and generosity to congregations, churches also need to be good stewards.
Church leaders must be transparent about the finances of the church, both for accountability and so that believers can step up to support God's work. This is a matter of integrity, and sets an example for the congregation. So if we understand the importance of biblical stewardship in the life of every Christian, we can see stewardship Sunday as a day, or days, to look forward to.
And here's why. The church family gets to hear about God's provision and express gratitude. It's an opportunity to joyfully anticipate God's work continuing. Talking about God's provision and the needs around us gives Christians another opportunity for cheerful generosity. Finally, when we're transparent about the needs of the church and the community, the body can pray together in faith for God's will to be done. We say it all the time, we're not owners, but stewards of God's resources. This goes for churches as well as individuals. Psalm 24 one says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. Stewardship demands transparency and accountability for the people and the organization.
So the next time your pastor, priest, or preacher brings up the subject of money, consider it an opportunity to be transparent and accountable to the Lord about your own finances as well, and support your church. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and we'll be right back with much more.
Stick around. We're grateful for support from Guidestone, whose diversified suite of investment solutions align with Christian values to create positive change in the world. More information is available at GuidestoneFunds.com. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of Guidestone Funds before investing. They're distributed by Foresight Funds Distributors, LLC, which is not an advisory affiliate, a registered investment advisor, nor do they provide investment advice. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. All right, it's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial.
Our team is standing by. In fact, Lynn, ready to receive your phone call today at 800-525-7000. That's right, you can call right now at 800-525-7000. Let's begin today in Michigan. Linda, you'll be our first caller. Go right ahead. Yes. Hi, Rob. I love your show and I've learned so much. Thank you very much.
I have a quick question regarding, I bought some term life insurance through my employer and I believe it's my bad as the expression is, but it's either John Hancock or Prudential. Okay. But regardless, yeah, I'm paying 160 a month, so roughly 2000 a year and I'm 63 and have no dependents, not married, just me. And I was just wondering or thinking, how stupid is that? I mean, should I, is there a penalty to cash something like that in? Is there a, or is it no hard, no foul?
Yeah, no, there's not. And I think, you know, the key is first of all, whether or not you need the death benefit, whether this is something that you need as a part of your overall financial plan, if we take a step back for a second, the purpose of life insurance is really to offset a risk. And in the case of life insurance, as opposed to other forms of insurance, that risk is that you pass away and your income goes away. And therefore somebody who's depending upon that income is left without it. Or, you know, in the case of, let's say, a stay at home spouse where, you know, they're taking care of small children and, you know, that spouse were to pass away and all of a sudden the working spouse is having to pay for, you know, five day a week daycare.
I mean, things like that, where there would be a hardship created for a loved one or dependent upon your death. And if that's not the case, which it sounds like it isn't, then there's really not a need for this life insurance, especially one that only has a term to it. And it's not doesn't have a savings vehicle with it, although I'm not a fan of that either, because I'd rather you be saving outside of an insurance product. So if it's term life, there's no cash value, you've been paying for the death benefit.
And because you haven't collected, you're still alive. All you would do if you determine you didn't need that death benefit is drop that policy, you'd call the HR department or whoever handles, you know, your benefits and just tell them that you're no longer going to take advantage of that employer benefit of term life insurance that you've been paying for at $160 a year, which by the way, you know, a couple of thousand dollars a year is an expensive policy at 63. You can actually, you know, get well as a healthy 63 year old, you could get a half a million dollar death benefit for $129 a month on a 15 year term policy. So, you know, it doesn't sound like it sounds like first of all, it's very expensive. And secondly, it sounds like you don't need it. And as a result, you know, this is $160 that you could add back into your budget on a monthly basis to do some additional giving, maybe take that pay down debt.
Maybe save it for the future or something like that. Does that make sense? Oh, totally. Well, I feel like a total like a total idiot.
I don't know what compelled me compelled me to buy it. And yes, I my parents. I know that'll be moot there.
They're in their late 80s. And yeah, not married, no children. So yeah, totally stupid. Well, no, don't don't feel like that at all. Listen, we, we there's complicated decisions here related to money. And, you know, if we've all done things, we look back and say, Now, why did I do that again?
But hey, we've all been there. But nevertheless, this is a great opportunity for you to recapture this money on a monthly basis. And I'm confident you have a good place for it to go. So, Linda, thanks for your kind remarks about the program. And we appreciate you calling today.
Thanks very much. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. Again, 800-525-7000. You can call right now with your financial questions.
Let's head to Rome, Georgia. Hi, D. Thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Yes, I had a question. How are you first? I'm doing great. Thank you.
Good. I had this question I always wondered about. Can you pay on your credit cards before they are due and pay the majority of say all of it except the dollar?
And like, like two or three days before is the due date. Can you just pay that dollar? Do they help your credit at all?
Yes, it actually could. And just there is actually not even a benefit to leaving a dollar. You could pay the whole thing off.
And here's where the benefit comes in. Now, keep in mind with a credit card, as long as you're paying it by the due date, which is beyond the closing of the cycle. So credit cards are on a one month cycle, and you have a date every month that that cycle closes.
And then you have a due date beyond that, where you can pay the minimum payment, or you can pay the balance in full, we of course say that if you're going to use a credit card, you should be able to use it only for budgeted items, which means you should be able to pay it in full. The moment you can't, I would tear it up because you know, at 20% interest plus, that's going to be a very expensive way to support your lifestyle. Now, let's say you're paying it off in full. As long as you pay it by the due date, you're not going to pay any interest. So why would you back up and pay it not just by the due date, but before the end of the closing of the cycle? Well, the way the only reason you'd want to do that is for your credit score.
And here's why. If you pay it after the cycle closes, but before the due date, even though you're not going to pay any interest, they're going to report the credit card company, they're going to report to your credit bureaus the balance as of the end of the cycle date. Okay, so even though you're paying it to zero, it's going to hit your credit if you have a $3,000 balance before you pay it off with a $3,000 balance. Now, that wouldn't be a big deal if your credit limit was, let's say, 20,000, right?
Because that's a very small percentage. But if that balance every month that's being reported prior to you paying it off is above 30% of the limit on the card, then it's actually pulling your score down slightly, not in a significant way, but it is affecting your score. And the way to avoid that is to pay it the day before, let's say, the end of the cycle close. And that way, when they report it to the bureau, they're not going to report the balance, they're going to report it as zero, because you just paid it off.
And then you wouldn't have to pay anything on the due date because you would have just done it early. Does that all make sense to you? Yeah, I mean, this stuff is kind of confusing to me.
I mean, I got a good credit score and actually it went down because of a new loan I got. Okay. It was like 792 and then it went down to 787. Yeah.
And so I was trying to see about how to get it back up and how long will it take. Well, let me tell you this. Let me just encourage you. Anything anywhere close to the credit score you have, you're already qualifying, Dee, for the very best top-tier credit. So anytime you go out to get a loan, let's say you were going to buy a house or you needed a new car or a new used car and you wanted to get a loan or you wanted to apply for another credit card because it has better rewards or something, you're automatically, over 720, going to qualify for the very best rates and terms out there. So whether that thing bounces around between 770 and 790, I wouldn't worry about it. You can't get above 8%, but you're so close to it, anywhere over 720, you're fine.
So I would say probably just keep doing what you're doing and not worry about the 20, 30, 40 points that it's going to vary among in the upper 700s. Okay? Okay. Well, thank you so much. All right, Dee.
God bless you. Hey, we've got a lot of calls coming in. Some great questions. Bev, Chris, coming your way.
Perhaps your question as well. Two lines open. 800-525-7000. Stay with us. We'll be right back. When you educate a child, you change their world. Go to HopeForZambia.com slash faith to transform a life. 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. Welcome back to faith and finance. I'm Rob West. Let's head to Colorado. Hey, David, thanks for calling, sir.
How can I help? Yeah, thank you. I bought some I bonds a year and a half or so ago. Two of them are beyond a year old.
Another one is about six months. And I see that the interest rate on I bonds looks like it's gone down if I'm looking at it right. And I wondered what your recommendation would be to protect that money a little bit from all the craziness that's going on.
Yeah, very good. You know, I was a fan of I bonds back when they were at 9.6%. I was still a fan of them at 6.8%. But I was telling folks, it really should be for that bucket of money that's one to three years in time horizon. Because, you know, if it's money that's beyond three years, certainly beyond five, you know, we would rather you buy into the stock market despite those attractive returns, we knew it was temporary and money that was less than a year. Well, obviously, that doesn't apply because you've got to leave money in I bonds for at least 12 months.
And if you take it out in less than five years, but beyond one year, you're going to pay a three month penalty. So given that the current composite rates at 4.3%, I really think you can do better elsewhere. So for the money that's been in there for at least a year, I would say go ahead and pull that out. Then again, we need to go through the same process here, David, to determine what is the time horizon on this money and what is its purpose. If it's money that is five years great or greater that you're going to use it certainly 10. Well, then you can start to look at should we take some risk with it and invest it in a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio.
If not, you want to keep it completely safe and guaranteed by the US government. Well, now we're looking at, you know, high yield savings or CDs. Good news there is you can get five and a half percent right now, a point plus better than an I bond in a CD. So you've got options, but continuing to buy the I bonds or even holding the I bonds beyond what you have to really doesn't make sense anymore because that rates already down below the CD rates and it's going to come down again when we get the new rate November 1.
All right, I'll cash in those two that are over a year old and the one that's less than a year still getting over 6%. So I'll, I'll take care of that on it gets a year old. There you go. I think that's a great plan. Hey, thanks for calling today, sir.
We appreciate it to Indianapolis. Hey, Jeremy, how can I help you? Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I had a question about borrowing from a 401k. I will debt free, we don't have no bills or mortgage or nothing, just utilities. We've got a good emergency fund, but I monitor my 401k pretty regularly and it's not getting much over a 4% return. And I was wondering, does it make sense to borrow like 50 grand, put it on a CD, get five and a half percent return and then I pay myself back interest.
Does that make sense? No, I don't like that approach because here's why, you know, in that 401k, you should have the ability to build a portfolio with a long term perspective that outperforms that, you know, even that five and a half percent on average. I mean, keep in mind that S&P 500 since its founding in the 20s has done greater than 9% a year. So what is your age right now? I'll be 41 in about a couple weeks. Okay, so let's say you work for the next 25 years. You know, you should be in a portfolio that's targeted, you know, to your retirement date, perhaps even one beyond that.
So I guess my question would just be why is it that you're only getting four and a half percent and is it perhaps just because you've been in largely stock mutual funds inside that 401k that have just not been performing as well, which the market hasn't been doing well. It's done better this year. But even with the broad market indexes showing, you know, decent results, a lot of that has been pretty narrow in terms of the number of stocks affected. It's only broadened in the recent past.
But this is also an unusual time. We're on the heels of a pandemic. We've, you know, we're looking at a possible recession. We've had 11 rate hikes.
I mean, this is one of those tough environments. I would direct you back to the previous 12 years before the pandemic. Where we were in a raging bull market. And let's say we were to enter into one of those, you know, next year or the year after, you know, then we have another run. That's what you want to be in those kind of long term, upward trends that we have, you know, typically, every 10 years. And because you've got time on your side, I'd much rather you keep that money in the 401k with a long term perspective, with the right investment mix, appropriate to your age and risk tolerance, as opposed to the 401k. You know, taking a shorter term perspective, and that would be to pull it out on a borrowing basis and drop it in the CD. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it does. I guess it sounds like I kind of need to call Vanguard and see if they can maybe realign some of its work and get a better return. I think that's right. Perhaps connect with one of their advisors there. If there's not one you're happy with, you could connect with a certified kingdom advisor and just say, Hey, listen, can I pay you for your time just to analyze my options and help me pick, you know, allocate this among some good mutual funds that are high quality, that have good long term performance that are appropriate for my age and risk tolerance, let them do that one time, and then just let that thing go.
But yeah, I would encourage you as a first step, absolutely to take a look at just reallocating that to some different investments, as opposed to trying to borrow it out. Hey, we appreciate your call today. I hope that helps.
To Plainfield, Illinois. Hi, Donna. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.
Thanks for taking my call. My husband and I are traveling to Europe in a little bit. And I wondered, where should we exchange our money for euros?
Yeah, very good. Hey, before we talk about that, tell me where you're going. This sounds like a great trip. We fly into Budapest, and then we get on a river cruise that we go all the way up to Amsterdam. Oh, that sounds fabulous. Wow, what a great trip.
How cool. All right, yeah, I would love for you to do it ahead of time. So at a bank or credit union is usually your best option for where you get your money before you go. Because it's a familiar option, they tend to offer the best exchange rates. They may charge a conversion fee.
But it'll be much, much less than other options, certainly less than the option that would be presented to you in the airport, either here or there. Then when you get there, I think the key is to try to use ATM machines. And some have some banks have in network or affiliate ATMs in other countries. So you want to familiarize yourself with that, because there's even some institutions that reimburse you for ATM fees.
So doing a little homework on that before you go. Also checking on your credit cards. A lot of credit cards will waive international card transaction fees. So you might want to say, which credit cards do I have, give them a call and see which one might be most advantageous to use while you're there.
And then your bank should be able to buy that currency back from you as well. So I think that's going to be your best option. Do it ahead of time.
Do it at a bank or a credit union. And listen, you guys have a wonderful time. That sounds like a fabulous plan.
You be careful, but enjoy yourselves as you get out there and travel abroad. We appreciate your call today. 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.
