3 Biblical Principles for Debt With Sharon Epps

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Go to faithfi.com and click App to get started. They say that money is a good servant, but a terrible master. And that's especially true when it comes to debt.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Surveys show that taking on debt ranks near the top of the list of financial regrets. Debt can make profound changes in your life and have spiritual consequences. Sharon Epps joins us today to talk about 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 decisions. Well, just in case you didn't know, Sharon Epps is president of Kingdom Advisors, the organization dedicated to training your financial advisors on the biblical principles of managing money. Sharon, always a delight to have you on the program.

Thank you, Rob. Well, we like to keep things simple whenever possible, as you know, Sharon, and you have a great way of doing that when it comes to using money. In fact, it comes down to just four things, right?

Well, I hope we can remember this. It's live, give, owe, and grow. And as you know, I like to talk about live, give, owe, and grow as a pie.

The reason for that is a pie is a limited amount, and when you make one slice bigger, the other slice has to get smaller, and that's what happens with our money. And so today we'll be talking about owe, and of course that means debt. Yeah, and there's often some confusion about biblical principles when it comes to debt, so let's start with what the Bible tells us, or maybe we should say doesn't tell us. Well, I think we need to think about this in high-level principles and ask this question, does the Bible say it's wrong to borrow money? And the Bible does not say that borrowing is wrong. Debt isn't sinful or evil, but it is enslaving. It redefines a relationship between two people. One is indebted to the other, and it can be cumbersome, and it even begins to dictate decisions of the one that's enslaved. Well, Sharon, as you well know, principles can help us make wise decisions, so what biblical principles guide us on debt?

Well, I'd like to focus on three today. The first one is that we are clearly called to repay what we borrow. Psalm 37 21 teaches, the wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.

Second one is we want to free ourselves from debt as quickly as possible. In fact, Proverbs 22 7 carries this warning, the rich will over the poor and the borrower is the slave to the lender, and so we don't want to be enslaved. And then finally, the third one we'll look at today is that we're to serve God and not money. Matthew 6 24 says, No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Yeah, that's really helpful. And those are, of course, great reasons to get or stay out of debt.

But Sharon, is there a better one? You know, my favorite one is we want to be free to serve God. And if I'm enslaved to debt, then I don't have the freedom to make decisions like that.

And just a real quick story. My friends, Matt and Lisa, they got married and there was a ton of college debt involved when they first got married. They were actually so dedicated to serving the Lord that they took second and third jobs to get out of debt. And now they are free to serve in their giftedness.

I love that. Well, what would we tell someone then who's struggling with debt to do first? Well, first of all, we want them to pray. We know that when we tell God our heart's desire and it's in line with his will, he helps us to do that. And so we want to commit to do what he asked us to do and ask him to provide. The second thing is we want to save money. Now, wait a minute. Aren't we talking about debt today?

We are. But we call the emergency fund debt insurance. If nothing else, save a thousand dollars. The biggest mistake I've seen is people decide to get out of debt, pay aggressively down and then have to borrow again because they don't have the savings. And then third thing, we want to pay off all of our credit card and consumer debt first.

Wow, that's exactly right. And I'm really excited to announce a brand new tool from our team here at FaithFi. It's our new debt assessment that will actually give you a clear picture of where you are with your debt and the best way to pay it off. You'll find it at faithfi.com forward slash debt. That's faithfi.com forward slash debt. Sharon, thanks for stopping by.

It's been great to be here. I'm a Sharon Epps, president of Kingdom Advisors. Folks, check out this debt assessment tool.

It'll really help. Again, faithfi.com forward slash debt. When we come back, your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. 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 and 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.

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This is Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls today. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. By the way, you don't have to call, just send an email. AskRobatFaithfi.com. That's AskRobatFaith, the letters F-I dot com.

To Cedar Falls, Iowa. Martha, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Thanks so much. I really appreciate your program.

Thank you. I am 73 years old. I live alone. I live on Social Security only. I don't have any outstanding debt. I have a two year old car, Subaru cross check that I bought in August of 2021. So it is a 2021. I have about 26,000 miles on it and I have a balance on it of 17,291. I'm wondering at what point, I'm wondering whether I should consider selling it and buying another one or if I should just keep it until the end. I don't know why I asked that question necessarily.

I don't need all the bells and whistles that are on a 21 cross check. But it's a good vehicle. I just don't know if I should keep it.

Yeah. You know, unless there was something specific you were trying to accomplish, such as you had a really high interest rate, you were trying to get it down. You wanted to go with a different type of car. You know, the cheapest car you are ever going to own is the one typically you own right now. Just because there's costs related to buying and selling, typically you'd want to buy a newer used car. Well, the problem there is, you know, you know how this car has been maintained because it's been yours. You really don't know how another car that you would purchase has been maintained and that may lead to more maintenance. So if this is a good quality car, you've maintained it well, you have, you know, a good interest rate on it. And if you don't, you could refinance it. And, you know, then I think you just continuing to drive this car with a goal of paying it off and just continue driving it. I mean, these days, $26,000 is really low mileage.

I mean, this car, this Kia should easily run you 200,000 plus miles if it's maintained well. So I don't really see, Martha, any reason for you to sell at this point unless there was some specific thing you were trying to accomplish. No, not really.

And the interest is low. It's a 0.90. Wow. Yeah, that's great.

0.90, yeah. And so, no, I just didn't know if I should make that change. I just wanted some advice. Yeah, I think you're in a great spot here. I mean, Howard Dayton, my good friend and mentor, the former host of this program, says he always buys cars and drives them until the wheels fall off. And that's where you get the most bang for your buck, if you will. You know, so I think the only issue here is just whether you have any issues with it in terms of maintenance.

You know, you could look up, I think you said it was the Subaru, and they have been known to have transmission problems. You know, the bottom line is if you're maintaining it well and you've got a really low interest rate and the unknowns of buying a newer used car, I just don't think you're going to get enough benefit for that. So I would say let's just continue to drive this car, maintain it well, and hopefully it'll carry you for a long, long time. But I appreciate you checking with us, and thanks for being on the program today. May the Lord bless you, Martha. Let's head to Indianapolis and talk to Nancy. Hi there. Go right ahead. Hi, Rob. My husband and I have an annuity.

It's about 14 years old. And I was wondering if a Certified Kingdom advisor would be able to review that and tell us if there's a better product out there or if our fees are too high and explain it to us a little bit more clearly. Yeah, I think that's a great idea, Nancy. You know, these annuities are complex. There are a lot of fine print.

They're not all created equal. The good news is you've been in it a while, so all the surrender charges and penalties are probably gone. Now, what you may find is this is the very best solution for you in terms of what you and your husband are trying to accomplish in this season of life. But if there are other options where rolling it out of that annuity into another investment account that could be managed in such a way to minimize risk but get you a little better rate of return or something else may be an option. And yeah, absolutely.

A Certified Kingdom advisor could review this policy, the annuity, and then give you a counsel. And there's some wonderful CKs there in Indianapolis. All would be available for search on our website at faithfi.com. Wonderful. Thank you so much. All right, Nancy. Let's go to Miami. Cindy, go right ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. My question is, I'm a young person in my early 40s and I've been listening to everybody and I realize how financially illiterate I am. I've been a stay-at-home mom for the past 12 years, so I'm just getting back into the market and also just recently divorced.

So I'm wondering how do I, I guess, build financial security for the long run, given that I haven't worked. I've relied on my husband because, again, I was a stay-at-home mom with a disabled child. And now that we're no longer together and I'm taking care of my baby and getting back into work, it's like, oh, wow, how do I do this? I completely understand, Cindy, and I want to be a help to you. I can understand this might be overwhelming and you're trying to do now everything on your own and save appropriately and care for your child.

And you're doing this without the working knowledge of how all of these financial matters work. So I want to do two things. I want to send you a book that I think will be an encouragement to you. It's a book called Wise Women Managing Money. And I think it will give you some of the just understanding that perhaps you've been missing to give you a little more confidence in taking a biblical approach to financial decision making.

So stay on the line. We'll get your information and I'll get that out to you. I'd also like to connect you with one of our certified Christian financial counselors here at Faithfi. We'll cover the cost for it.

It won't cost you anything. But this will be somebody who could come alongside you, help you get all of your assets and liabilities in one place, at least on paper so you know what you have, and help you look at your spending plan and just give you some fresh perspective on some things you might be missing to help you get everything in order. And when we get your information, we'll get both of those out to you.

You'll hear from one of our CERT CFCs and you'll get that book in the mail. Listen, God bless you. Thanks for calling today. Stay on the line. We'll get that right out to you. If we're taking your calls today, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Let me also mention, folks, that if you haven't checked out the Faithfi app, we'd love for you to do that. Here's the reality. Folks are going into the Faithfi community both online and through the app every day and posting questions, sharing ideas. It's really this vibrant community of men and women who are just wanting to be faithful stewards of God's resources. It's just one of the many benefits you can access through the Faithfi app and participating in the community, accessing all the content. It's absolutely free. So why don't you download the Faithfi app today and join our community of stewards when you head to faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com.

Just click the app button. Let's go to Rome, Georgia. Hi, Greg. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.

Thanks for taking my call. This is an estate planning question. My wife and I are looking to redo our will. We have four children and between 401Ks and pensions and home assets, we have just under a million dollars in there.

Of the four children, we have one that we don't want to just give a lump sum to because she doesn't have experience with managing money and we're afraid that she would just lose it all. What would be your recommendation? Yeah, that's a great question. Let's do this. Quick break, Greg. But when we come back, I'd love to tackle that.

A few lines open. We'll be right back. Stay with us. We'll be right back. For more information, visit KingdomAdvisors.com.

That's KingdomAdvisors.com. It's great to have you with us today on faith and finance. I'm Rob West. We've got some lines open today. Taking your calls and questions. 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000.

Just before the break, we were talking to Greg in Rome, Georgia. He and his wife have a little under a million dollars. They're wanting to do some estate planning and plan to divide those assets among their four kids.

One in particular, perhaps the youngest or just one of the children, they don't believe at least today is either financially mature or perhaps spiritually mature enough or both to handle a lump sum payout and just wondering how to approach that. Well, a couple of thoughts here, Greg. Number one is Ron Blue literally wrote the book on this topic and I'm going to send it to you as my gift to you.

So when we're done here, stay on the line. It's called Splitting Heirs, H-E-I-R-S. And it's not about the how of estate planning with all the tools and strategies. It's really on the why. How you go about making the decision on what to leave to your heirs, what to leave to ministry or your church or charity, and then how to go about that.

And really can have some thought-provoking questions, including what's the worst thing that could happen? Because we have to recognize that dropping a large sum of money in a child's lap could lead them to reinforce poor lifestyle decisions, could lead them away from the Lord. Ron talks about a son-in-law whose dad had really just instilled in him the importance of being able to provide for his family and he didn't want to take away his ability to provide for the family by just dropping a large lump sum in their lap.

And so they gave careful consideration to that. At one point, they had a daughter who was divorced and a single mom and she had a lot more financial need than another child who was an attorney and had a really healthy income and was building his net worth quickly. And the principle that he talks about in the book, or one of them, there's many of them, is if you love your children equally, you will treat them uniquely.

And it's the idea that we don't have to treat our kids necessarily the same. Now, you and your wife may conclude that you want to treat them the same and divide it equally, but how you go about doing that is really a part of the estate planning process. In terms of the tools and strategies, this is where a living trust can be helpful. And you'd want to talk about this with an estate planning attorney, but essentially, it's where rather than through a will, just them inheriting a lump sum equally divided from the estate at your death, there would be a trustee that's then named in the trust documents that for the portion that's going to that child who's a little younger, maybe a little less financially mature, it would be spelled out how the money is distributed over time. Maybe it happens at them reaching certain ages, so a certain portion at 25, a certain portion at 30 and 35. It could be that rather than it being paid as a lump sum, it's paid out monthly.

So it doesn't thwart their ability to get a job and work or their need to, but it still provides helpful assistance to them. So all of these things can be done through a living trust, but it requires a lot of prayer and thinking ahead of time as you're making those decisions. Give me your thoughts on all that, though. Well, I think the living trust really sounds good because we definitely want to do it one thing differently for this one. And a living trust sounds like probably the right thing to do because I don't expect that person to come to a place of maturity just based upon the projection right now. Yeah, yeah. Well, and certainly the great thing is that these things do change over time.

So Lord willing, five years from now, the Lord's tarried. He's not done with you and your wife yet. He hasn't called you home, and that's changed, and you could go in and update the trust. So these aren't one-time decisions. We're not talking about an irrevocable trust. We're talking about a revocable trust, which just simply means you can revoke it or change it at any time.

And as situation and circumstances change, including the trajectory that this child is on, those things could be changed as well. So I think your next step, in addition to you and your wife reading through this book that I'm going to send you, is to schedule a meeting with a godly estate planning attorney. If you don't have one, you could contact a certified kingdom advisor in your area and ask for a referral. They would all have one or more that they work with.

And to find a CKA there in Rome, you can head to our website, faithfi.com, faithfi.com, and just click find a CKA. Does that sound good? That sounds wonderful. Thank you.

All right. You stay on the line, Greg. We're going to get your information, and then we're going to send you a copy of Splitting Errors. Thanks for your call today.

To the Twin Cities. Hi, Mary Ann. Go ahead. Hello, thanks for taking my call.

Great program. You know, I have called before, and I am looking on finding a financial advisor. I haven't had a lot of good luck, just not feeling the connection at all. But I will say real simply, I'm looking at an annuity. A personal advisor had mentioned that with $250,000 kind of at my disposal, about $450,000 equity in a home, I'm still working, I'm 72, I plan on retiring about 75. I'm just wondering if an annuity in that percentage when you reach my age, is that a good vehicle? I know they're complex, I know there's many different types, but I'm kind of honed back from that. I don't know why if I'm just afraid to move forward with it, but is there like 30% in this and 40% in that?

I mean, is there some kind of a general rule of thumb? Yeah, so there is with regard to stocks versus bonds, but your question is really about annuity versus what? Versus an advisor investing this for you? I think that's, yeah, I'm not sure if I should do, you know, that annuity and tie it up for 10 years, or maybe just scale back the amount I would do. I mean, I've got money in a 401k as well, not a ton, but 250,000 is what I have at my disposal to do something with. And I only have it in a high-yield savings right now. Okay, yeah, I mean, I would, I mean, annuity is a great option if you've got money in a taxable account, which is what that savings account is, because it can provide some tax benefit and give you peace of mind to know at least for that portion, and you'd have other assets in the 401k, you've got some guaranteed return if you go with a fixed annuity or with a variable annuity, you'd get at least a portion of the upside, and you could lock in and eliminate the downside.

I mean, there's some benefit to that for you to know that, you know, you don't have to worry about the stock market, and there's some tax advantages to that. But again, as you said, not all annuities are created equal. So I do think you need to find the advisor who can help you make the decision on what annuity to go with. I'd rather you not be sold an annuity. I'd rather you have somebody who's objective, who can go out and find the right annuity for you based on what your needs are. And I still think that does lead back to a certified kingdom advisor. So that would be my next step.

But I do think what you're describing makes sense in terms of putting this in an annuity that fits your objectives and then having the 401k to continue to invest. And a certified kingdom advisor can help you with that. Well, we're almost out of time. If you like today's program, why not share it with a friend? And while you're at it, share the Faithfi app with them as well. Help us get the word out. Thanks for listening and sharing. And I hope you'll come back and join us again next time for another edition of Faith and Finance. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.