Integrity Applying Honesty, Strength, and Dependability to Your Financial Life

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. The dictionary says integrity is being honest and having strong moral principles. God's Word says, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich.

I am Rob West. Are you living with integrity in your financial dealings? We'll check up on that today 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. You know, integrity has another definition besides being honest. It can also mean strength and dependability. When we say a bridge has integrity, we mean it's sturdy and consistently reliable.

No matter how much traffic drives over that bridge, it's not going to break up and fall into the river. Christians are called to be like that bridge. We represent Jesus Christ to the world, so it's our responsibility, and our privilege, to be honest, strong, and dependable in all we do. Of course, we're not always going to do everything right, but with God's help, we persevere. As it says in James 1-12, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Well, we're talking about financial integrity today, because your attitudes and actions around money reveal a lot about your heart.

So here's the question. Are you being honest, morally strong, and dependable in your personal money matters? We'll start with honesty, because it's the most important element of integrity. Honesty is one of the first things Jesus requires of new believers. When some tax collectors approached Jesus to be baptized, they asked, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, Collect no more than what you have been ordered to. That's from Luke 3-13. You need to be honest to be effective for God's kingdom work.

Titus 1-7 says, The overseer must be above reproach as God's steward. Communities are healthier when people are honest. Proverbs 28, 12, and 13 paints a vivid picture. When the righteous triumph, there is great glory. But when the wicked rise, men hide themselves. He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. Here's what honesty looks like in real life. It means doing what is right, whether people are watching you or not. It means always telling the truth on time sheets, tax forms, tests, and applications, and in your social media posts as well. Honesty also requires fair treatment of employees, clients, co-workers, and customers.

All financial dealings should be transparent and upright. The second element of integrity is moral strength. Moral strength isn't something we can come up with on our own. The power we need to live the Christian life comes from God.

He fills us with his Holy Spirit and leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake, as it says in Psalms 23. The more time you spend studying the Bible, the better you'll understand God's ways. The more you apply Biblical principles to your life and finances, the stronger your moral principles will become. As a person of integrity who belongs to Christ, you can be confident that God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. The third characteristic that defines integrity is dependability.

Dependability goes hand in hand with good reputation. Proverbs 22 29 confirms this. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings.

He will not stand before obscure men. You see, our goal as Christians is to point people to Christ, and a solid reputation gives you a platform to do just that. In light of all of this, ask yourself, can your family, friends, and co-workers depend on you to do what's right? Are your words and actions consistently godly?

As far as personal finances, are you sticking to a clear, manageable plan? Being honest, morally strong, and dependable is a challenge, and nobody does it right all the time. Selfishness and ungodly desires often get in the way of integrity. That's when we have to repent. Pray for God's forgiveness and ask for his help.

Then we can make things right with anyone we've injured and move forward. Remember, the only power Satan has is to accuse and confuse. He can't snatch you from the hands of your Heavenly Father.

Romans 8 1 reads, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So you can afford to pursue integrity in your personal and financial life, even if you fail from time to time. I hope that's been an encouragement to you today. All right, it's time to turn the corner and take your calls and questions on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

We've got lines open right now, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Stick around.

We'll be right back. We are grateful for support from Lightpoint Portfolios, which seeks out family and faith-friendly investments for 401K and 403B plans, integrating faith values and fiduciary duty. Lightpoint Portfolios offers retirement plans for a variety of organizations such as businesses, nonprofits, and churches. And we're grateful for their sponsorship of the Faith and Finance Program.

More information is available at LightpointPortfolios.com. Welcome back. Welcome to our calls. I'm excited to mention a new special offer during the fall season from our friends Ken Boa and Russ Crossan. Their book, Leverage Using Temporal Wealth for Eternal Gain, will give you some creative ideas to help fund God's work here on earth. Request your copy of Leverage with your gift of any amount at faithfi.com. All right, 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open today.

To Fort Lauderdale, Tara, thank you for calling. Go ahead. My question is regarding real estate investment, how does the real estate investment work? Because I just bought some shares with a company, a real estate company called Nada, but I'm not sure how that works.

So what's to expect? I only receive an email saying that I own a piece of property now. I see. Well, I'm not familiar with that one, but you've got a couple of different types of real estate investing. Number one would be a very simple way is to buy what's called a real estate investment trust. You may have heard of the term REIT, R-E-I-T, and that allows you to invest in real estate without the physical real estate. So it's kind of like a mutual fund. These are companies that own often commercial real estate like office buildings or retail spaces or apartments. They pay higher than average dividends, which is the income that you would receive while you own the investment. They're often used with retirees because they're income generating and investors who don't need or want the regular income can automatically reinvest those dividends to buy more shares in the real estate investment trust. They can be good investments, not always.

There's some risk there, of course, and they trade on the stock market like a stock. You can also buy real estate through a real estate investment platform where that connects real estate developers to investors who want to finance projects either through debt or equity. You can actually buy a rental property. So you could buy a piece of property and you need to be careful with that. I encourage folks when they're buying a rental property to go in with 50% down if you can. Be careful not to get overextended there and be able to cover a mortgage without a renter for some period of time because you could have that situation. Other folks who are more handy, often those who have experience as a general contractor or doing a lot of work themselves will buy investment properties to flip them, improving them and turning around and selling them in a short period of time. And then finally, you can rent out a room in a piece of real estate that you own.

Perhaps you have an extra room or a space over a garage. So there's a number of ways to go with real estate. I do some research.

I like real estate as a way to diversify away from the traditional asset classes of stocks and bonds. But you need to be careful, do your research and then go slow before you make any moves there. Hope that helps, Tara. Thanks for calling today. West Palm Beach is where we're headed next. Hi, John.

Go ahead, sir. I am calling because my sister is about to retire. She was widowed. I was wondering if she is able to collect her Social Security starting at 62 and then when she gets to the maximum age, 67, to start collecting her husband's because his would be a higher amount or did you just start collecting his now at 62?

I'm just not sure how that works. Yeah, that's a good idea. She can absolutely file for her own benefits as early as 62. She would lock in that roughly 30 percent reduction on her own benefit and then she'd have the ability to switch to a survivor benefit at full retirement age now 67 and if that's higher than her benefit that she's taking now at 62, then she'd be able to take the higher of the two and that's a very common and effective strategy. So I like that a lot. Okay, fantastic. I just want to make sure though, I know they can't collect both at the same time, but I just want to know if she could start collecting hers early so at least she can reap the most benefits of both.

Yeah, that's exactly right. We want to get that check up as high as we can so she can lock that in for the rest of her life and the ability to hold off on taking his and switching to that survivor benefit later makes a lot of sense. So thanks for checking on that, John. We appreciate you calling today. 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open today.

We'd love to hear from you whether it's your spending plan, maybe it's insurance like Paul wanted to talk about, maybe it's your long-term retirement savings or perhaps debt repayment, whatever you're thinking about today, we'd love to hear from you and tackle that with you. The number again, 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

To Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hi, Dave. Go right ahead.

Hey, thanks for taking my call. I have a retirement account that is professionally managed and have had for years and then I also have a 401k with my employer. My professional account is, I have really great returns with him. My 401k, not so much.

And I didn't know if there was a way to transfer funds from my 401k to this other account without penalty. Yeah. Are you still with the employer where the 401k resides? Yes.

Yes. I'm still employed and I still make regular contributions to that. It's rather large and I was thinking, well, if I could move $60,000 or $70,000 out of that account into my other account, I would make a greater return on that and keep my regular paycheck.

I totally get that. The challenge is most 401k administrators will not allow you to roll that out until you separate from the company. So you're going to typically need to leave that right where it is. The only exception to that might be if they have what's called a brokerage window, which typically in a 401k, you just have a menu of investment options to choose from. With the brokerage window, you can actually invest in any stock bond or mutual fund and you could likely authorize somebody to do that on your behalf.

They would do it through the existing platform wherever your assets are custody based on that 401k plan administrator, but you'd remove the blinders, if you will, from just looking at those investment options in the 401k to essentially anything. But in terms of rolling it out, you're almost certainly not going to be able to do that until you separate from the company. All right. Thank you very much.

I appreciate the input. All right, Dave. We appreciate your call today.

God bless you, my friend. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today and we'd love to hear from you. We've got room for your questions again, 800-525-7000. Let's head to South Dakota.

Hi, Gary. Thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead.

Appreciate you taking my call. Sure. The question I have for you is I've had a whole life insurance policy for probably 30 years and I paid on that, so I've built up quite a cash value.

I'm wondering how I can disperse that cash value without getting hit a high tax on that. Yeah. So this is a whole life insurance, not an annuity. Is that right? That's correct. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So if you want to just try to get it out altogether, you could borrow against it through a loan, but if you are going to just pull it out, what is it that you want to do with it from here?

Do you know? I actually would like to reinvest it if I could. I talked to the agent that handles my policy. He said about half of it would be taxable and half of it would, and he suggested putting it into an annuity that would save me from being taxed until I'm ready to retire. I'd be able to draw it out of there.

Yeah. I'm just not a big fan of annuities. I might rather you pay the tax. I mean, typically cash value, the cash value life insurance is generally not taxable as it grows within the policy, but then when you take withdrawals or surrenders that exceed the premiums you made, that's where taxes will often kick in.

So you certainly could keep it in an insurance product and roll it into an annuity, but I kind of like the flexibility, even if you have to pay the taxes on a portion of it, of you getting it out of there and then just being able to invest it in whatever you want, whether that's on your own or you get the help from an advisor, I'd probably stay away from an annuity just because of the complexity, the cost, and you're going to limit your upside potential. That's just my best advice, but you do want to count the cost on the taxes. We'll be right back.

Stay with us. My grocery bill went up 11% this year, gas, utilities, rent, all went up, but my paycheck the same. I also pay for my own healthcare, a huge expense. A friend recommended Christian Healthcare Ministries as an option to insurance and CHM helps pay for medical needs while allowing some breathing room in my budget. Christian enrollment is here, so make the switch today with potential cost savings up to 40%.

Christian Healthcare Ministries at chministries.org slash faithbuy. 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.

This is Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls today, 800-525-7000. Let's dive in. I'm ready to go.

Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Kathy. Go right ahead.

I'm looking at $500,000 to invest in, and I have my emergency fund, and I'm looking to build some interest. What would you suggest would be a good way to do that? I'd just put it all in Tesla and call it a day, Kathy.

No, I'm just kidding, Kathy. Don't do that. Don't do that. Call it a day.

Don't do that. Tell me where this money fits in your overall financial picture. I appreciate that you have your emergency fund. Is this money you just want to try to grow for the future, but you're looking five years, maybe even ten years plus? Yeah, five to ten years, I'd say, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, so I think that makes it a candidate to invest. I wouldn't put it all in one stock, despite what I said a moment ago. I would properly diversify it.

So I think you've got a couple of options. You could use an actively managed fund, mutual fund, which is just a basket of stocks if you wanted to use a faith-based investing fund option. You could go to our website, faithfi.com, just click on the show, and you'd see some great mutual fund companies like Inspire, and you'd see their Guidestone, and you'd find Crossmark Global, and Praxis, and Eventide, and some great fund families that you can invest in, and those would be aligned with your values as a believer. A second option would be just to buy an index ETF. So ETF stands for Exchange Traded Fund, and these indexes are just the broad market indexes, and I'd probably use one of the robo-advisors, and that just means it's an automated investing solution that would build a portfolio after you answer a series of questions.

So they'd want to know your age, and your risk tolerance, and how long the time horizon is, and what the purpose of the money is, and all those things, and then it would use indexes to start building a portfolio for you. The benefit is it's turnkey. If you wanted to add more money to it, it's very easy to do.

It's very low cost. The annual cost might be a quarter of 1% a year, and you're just going to capture the broad moves of the stock and bond market. You're going to not try to pick the winners and losers. If you wanted to do that, I would go to probably Charles Schwab and use their Schwab Intelligent portfolios. Then maybe a third option would be visit with our friends at soundmindinvesting.org, and they could help you find a good mutual fund, more of an actively managed type mutual fund that would be a great solution for you. So I think any one of those three would be good. They're all going to be widely diversified, different approaches. One's faith-based investing, one's a robo advisor with indexes, and one's actively managed mutual funds.

But it would give you at least three options to choose from. Is that helpful? It is very helpful, appreciate the advice. Yeah, so check those out, faithfi.com, click on the show, you can find those faith-based investing fund families. You can go to the Schwab Intelligent portfolios and read up, and then you could go to soundmindinvesting.org. I'd also love to send you a copy of the Soundmind Investing Handbook, Kathy.

I think it might be just helpful reading as you begin to familiarize yourself with investing. So you stay on the line, we'll get your information, and we'll send that out to you. It's our way of saying thanks for being on the show today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Ellington, Florida. Tracy, go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. My question is about pension funds. My husband retired after 35 years, and he has the option to take a lump sum pension or an annuity. He also has the option, if he's taking a lump sum, to leave it with the retirement program until the GATT rate gets lower. And we just want to understand what we should be looking for if we should decide to postpone taking the lump sum. We know that it's tied to the 30-year Treasury, and it does move with interest rates. But right now, the GATT rate is higher than it has been, and of course, the goal is for a lower GATT rate to get the most amount of pension possible. So there's a risk in leaving it and a risk in taking it that we may be missing out. So we just want to know what to look for and to see if there's any way to forecast what's going to happen. Yeah.

Yeah, very good. Well, as you said, it's pegged to the 30-year Treasury bond interest rate. It's basically a benchmark set by the guarantee corporation, the pension benefits and guarantee corporation for calculating that lump sum distribution from a defined benefit plan, which is what your husband has.

Right now, it's just under 4%, I think at 3.8%. When interest rates are higher, the lump sum payment will decrease. So if the 30-year Treasury rate is low, then you'll get a bigger lump sum. If rates are higher, you get a smaller lump sum. So that's why it could, if you have the ability to do so, waiting until those rates come down, which they will probably starting next year and as interest rates fall, would allow you to maximize that lump sum payout over time.

So do you have the ability to be flexible on when this is set? We do have that ability to say we can wait if we want to. Okay.

Yeah. So if you wanted to wait, I think that and you're going for the lump sum option, which is often, I think, a great way to go. If you're healthy and you prefer a consistent income stream or perhaps you're concerned about the reliability of your retirement income, a lot of folks will take the annuity. But if you're comfortable assuming that risk and investing that as you see fit or hiring somebody to do so, I like the option of having that lump sum, especially if you can maximize it, just because then you have the ability to access that principal balance. If you need it down the road, you'd also have the ability to have something that you could pass on either to charity or to heirs.

So I think giving that lump sum payout often is a great option for you unless there's just a gap in your income and you just want the peace of mind to know that you've got that payout for your life plus his, and that allows you to sleep a little better at night, then that's where folks will take the annuity option. Does that make sense? Yes, it makes sense. Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. All right, Tracy. God bless you. We appreciate you calling today.

And that's going to do it for us today. I really appreciate your taking time to listen to this program and to committing the principles we talk about each time to your financial life. You see, God's plan isn't difficult, but it does take discipline and I hope we can encourage you along the way as you listen to this program. Incidentally, if you've been helped by what you've heard here, would you mind helping us? This broadcast, the Faithfi app and the other great resources we provide wouldn't be possible without the financial support we receive from listeners like you. We offer a lot of our resources for free and even have a free version of the Faithfi app. And that's only possible because of the generous gifts from listeners like you. If you're not yet one of our financial partners, but would like to be, would you visit our website, faithfi.com, that's faithfi.com, and then click the give button to sign up. We'd certainly be grateful. In the meantime, please set an alarm on your phone and make plans to join us again next time. I'll be here and I hope you will be too for another edition of Faith and Finance. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.