This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Hope for Zambia, empowered by Family Legacy. Hope for Zambia, empowered by Family Legacy, is a ministry providing holistic care for over 14,000 vulnerable and orphaned children spiritually, intellectually, physically and emotionally. Whether distributing five million meals each year to children and young adults, or by empowering students to graduate from high school and go on to pursue trade school or a university education, Hope for Zambia believes that when you educate a child, you transform their world. Go to HopeforZambia.com slash faith to give and change lives. Truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Matthew 25, 40. Hi, I'm Rob West.
That verse describes what happens when Christians give of themselves with no expectation of earthly return, helping the helpless. Today I'll talk with Brad Guffey about a way you can do that for Zambia's orphans. 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, we're delighted to have Brad Guffey on the program today. He's a medical doctor and chief medical director at Family Legacy Missions International, where he specializes in treating infectious diseases. You may recall that Family Legacy is the ministry that's changing the lives of around 13,000 orphans in Zambia. They do that through a four-part program helping children grow academically, physically, emotionally, and of course spiritually. Brad, it's great to have you on the program today.
Pleasure to be with you today, Rob. Brad, I mentioned that the program has four parts, but we're going to focus on the physical or healthcare services that Family Legacy provides these Zambian children. It's grown quite a bit in the last 10 years. Tell us about that. Well, we're pragmatic. We are as efficient as we can be, and we believe in being faithful in the little things. And God has done an awesome work in my life, our team, the lives of so many children who are being helped and healed. We started off in a tent in a shipping container about 10 years ago, and now we are in a lovely, high-quality healthcare facility, and we are actively serving several thousand families at any given point in time.
Well, I've seen it firsthand, and it's incredible, Brad, what you and your team do. Just give us a snapshot, help our listeners understand what medical care looks like in Zambia. It's a bit different.
We can start with the country, you know, 20 million people, two-thirds are under the age of 25. It's like healthcare in many places. We just work as hard as we can to keep the kids from falling through the cracks, but there are differences.
First, there's fewer prior authorizations to fill out, but we still have our paperwork. But, you know, we have rainy season flooding that certainly makes getting to homes differently. We do lots of home visits, and, you know, medically speaking, when we hear hoofbeats, it's frequently the sound of zebras, not horses. We have opportunistic infections and cancers from advanced HIV and AIDS. Tuberculosis is one of our most significant contributors to mortality. You know, we have frequent cases of rheumatic fever and heart valve disease. You know, I've seen 10-year-olds with liver cancer from environmental toxins from spoiled food. We also have those unusual things you study about in America, the lymphatic worms that cause Elephant Man syndrome and blood flukes and those kinds of things. But, you know, we have plenty of routine medical problems too, and these are sometimes complicated by lack of resource. You know, you know, severe protein and total calorie malnutrition are both things that we see frequently stemming from poverty, and it's one of the commonest diseases we treat. I can imagine it is. And, of course, health care is absolutely essential before these amazing children can take on any other challenges, right?
Yeah. You know, we have 13,000 children in our program, and we love the way we have a comprehensive approach to helping and caring for children. You know, our mission is to glorify God, and we do that by empowering the vulnerable and orphaned children of Zambia so they can live up to their God-given potential. But, you know, they need their health. You know, we are seeing kids get better unlike ever before.
Our team's fantastic. The children are accessing the services by the droves for modern medicine and a lot of tender, loving care. You know, but even after living in Zambia for 15 years and seeing many things improve and modernize, I still have kids come to my clinic in a wheelbarrow. But with God's grace, we get to see transformation every day, like Lydia. When I met Lydia, she was a 15-pound five-year-old. Fifteen pounds is the size of a five-month-old.
Severe malnutrition, tuberculosis in her brain that causes seizures, underlying HIV. But, you know, Lydia, she smiles. She's well-grown. She laughs. She goes to school.
Things are different for her now. Oh, Brad, that's incredible. And imagine that happening hundreds and hundreds of times over. And that's the work that you and your team are doing every day. Well, we've just scratched the surface, but thanks for the incredible work you're doing there in Zambia through Family Legacy and for stopping by today. Thank you. That's Brad Guffey with Family Legacy Missions International. If you want to get involved, go to HopeForZambia.com slash FaithFi. That's HopeForZambia.com slash FaithFI. We'll be right back with your call.
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Welcome back to Faith in Finance. I'm Rob West. All right, we've got a few lines open today.
We'd love to hear from you and whatever you're thinking about. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got just four lines open. Let's head to Miami. Celina, thank you for calling. Go right ahead.
Hi, Rob. I have term life insurance and I want to close the insurance, but I also want to pull out a loan on that. My question to you is, will that loan, pulling that loan out, will that count against my credit? Well, term insurance policies don't offer loans. Do you have a whole life policy? Yeah, I think maybe it could be whole life. Okay.
Yeah, it probably is. I mean, the loan is not available on a term policy. So if you have a whole life policy and it's got cash value, you can take a loan against it. I don't recommend it. What is it that you're looking to try to accomplish?
Well, what I want to do, I want to just close it out altogether. I want to calculate the policy altogether. Okay. So, why would you take a loan on it then? Because I like the idea if you don't need the policy or you're replacing it with a term policy, I like the idea that you would get out from under this whole life policy, which is going to get more and more expensive, take the cash value, use that according to your values and your goals, but make sure you've got, if you're still during your working years, enough pure insurance, term insurance, to cover or offset that risk that if you or another dependent were to go home to be with the Lord who's providing income to your family, we could replace that. But if you're looking to cancel this policy, how does the loan factor into that? I just was talking to someone and they said it's best to just take a loan out and then after I take the loan to go ahead and call and cancel the automatic withdrawal.
Yeah. Now, that wouldn't work because that wouldn't be the way to go. The way you'd want to do it is you'd want to just go ahead and find out how much cash value is there and then if you don't need the policy, then you'd cancel it, get that cash value back. You wouldn't take a loan against it. If though you're still needing life insurance, make sure that you get a replacement policy in place prior to canceling it so you still have that death benefit, but you wouldn't take a loan out if you're canceling the policy.
You would just collapse the policy, tell them you want to close it and have them send you a check for whatever that cash value is. Okay. All righty. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Selena. Thank you for calling today.
To Missouri. Hey, Nancy. Thanks for your patience. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. My question is this.
I am interested in changing the title on my property, my real estate, and presently I have it listed in my name. Should I pass on? Should I die? It would go to my daughter. I am told that without a will, it would have to go through probate.
Is that correct? Well, with a will, it will still go through a probate. So I would not put your daughter's name on the deed before you die.
And here's why. If she inherits the property when you die, she'll get what's called a stepped up basis for the property. So that means if she sells it, she won't have any capital gains to pay because her cost basis for tax purposes will be the market value of the property as of the date of your death, which means if she turns around and sells it, she's got no gain and therefore no taxes. If you put her name on it, the portion that she receives now through a gift from you will retain your original cost basis and then she'll have to pay taxes on it.
So what would I do? Well, this is always something you want to get legal advice on. I'm not an attorney, but here's something to consider. In Missouri, you can file what's known as a beneficiary deed or a transfer on death deed. And basically with that, you would ensure that the transfer of the property to your daughter will bypass probate, but she will still get the stepped up basis, which will benefit for her for tax purposes. So you'd want to have a real estate attorney help you draft that transfer on death deed, and then you'd file that with the recorder of deeds in your county. You'll hold title while you're alive and you can sell the property or revoke that at any time, but at your death, it would pass outside of probate directly to your daughter.
And I would just contact a real estate attorney in your area who could help you put that in place, and then they would tell you what to do to get that filed so that it's handled properly. Thank you for calling today. One line open. 800-525-7000 Oak Lawn, Illinois. Hi, John. Go ahead, sir.
Hey, Rob. Appreciate you. I've got a house with my brother here, and basically we've got about 125,000 equity, but it's tricky because value is about 200,000. My mom got involved with a program that was deferring, which was fine because the house has been paid for. Since my dad went to be at the Lord 44 years ago, but now since my mom went home as well about five weeks ago, we've got to make a decision here. Am I better off just selling it or getting the 200 and the county takes the 75 grand, or do I try to get the 75 grand some way, which my brother and I between us don't have, and then stay in the house because there's no expense.
The house is in a great area, great neighbors, and a good place to be right near the rest of my family. Sure, sure. Have you requested an installment plan to pay that back with the county? No, I haven't.
Okay. We just did an inheritance to air when my mom was in a nursing home so that we didn't have to pay the taxes when she went into the nursing home, and a godly lawyer from our church instructed me to do that, but I just ran into them. I think it was a coincidence last night at a barbecue, and I estimated, yeah, you better find out real quick, and you better take care of deeds, you know, get the death certificate and get it to the county and find out how much time you've got. I mean, they got to give us time to sell the house and get it ready to sell, but that's what I just thought, you know, that's what we're up against. Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. Well, basically, you know, an installment payment agreement would be a contract between you and the county where you'd be responsible for a monthly payment amount and a certain number of installment payments under the agreement.
So if you want to hang on to the property, and you all have the ability to do this, not in a lump sum, but over time, the key is just communicating with the county as to the status, let them know that you've inherited this property, you want to get this back tax bill taken care of, but you're not able to do it all at one time, and they'll likely work with you to set something up if you all would be willing to do that. Okay, hey, I really appreciate that. Thank you very much. God bless. Yeah, you too, John. Thanks for calling. I hope this works out for you. I realize there's a lot to that that you've got to work through. Mike, Baron, John, we're coming your way in just a moment. We've got to take a quick break here just around the corner, but first, a quick email. These come to us from askrob at faithfi.com, and this one just simply says, I googled the best way to start saving money for our grandkids, the oldest is seven, so they can have money for college or whatever is best for them when they're adults. This comes from Marie.
What are your thoughts, she says. Well, the best thing you can do, Marie, in my view, without knowing any more, is set up a 529 education savings plan for them. That way, you can invest the money in a wide variety of investments inside the plan. The money will grow tax-free. You don't get a deduction when it goes in, so it's after tax dollars, but it grows tax-free as long as you withdraw it for qualified education expenses. Also, you could get the money back or transfer it to another child if they get a scholarship or grant, or in the next couple of years, you'll have the option to transfer it to a Roth IRA with certain limitations if they don't need the money.
Go to savingforcollege.com to find out which states 529, Marie, is the best one for you. We'll be right back. Stay with us. 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. We've got a few lines open today. The number to call is 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's head to Florida. Izzy, thank you for calling. Go right ahead. Well, thank you for taking my call.
This is first time calling. The question is about trying to get some home improvement as well as trying to catch up with some bills. We want to be debt-free. One of the questions is, would it be better to do a home equity line? We have a lot of equity in the home over probably close to $200,000 or refinance, except the question is, we have a 2% on our home right now, on our mortgage. Yeah, and it's going to be on the upper end of that range for sure.
Let me ask you a couple of questions, Izzy. First of all, what is your home worth today, do you think? Yeah, it's close to 580. Okay, and what do you owe on it? About 280. About 280. So you have $300,000 in equity and you've got an interest rate down in the low 2s, which is phenomenal.
You don't want to touch that. So we definitely don't want to refinance because you would dramatically increase that, perhaps triple it. So let's talk about what you're trying to accomplish with the equity in the home. You mentioned renovation, is that right? Or repairs to your home? Yes, a few repairs as well as the goal is really to get debt, to be debt-free. We've got about $10,000 in credit card. Okay, $10,000 in credit card. And then how much are you looking to spend on the house?
Probably around 30 to 40. Okay, here's the thing. I definitely wouldn't refinance the house. I'd leave that alone. You've got a great interest rate. Secondly, I would definitely not pull money out of the house to pay off your credit cards.
That's not a good idea because you're taking unsecured debt and you're securing it to your home, not to mention the fact that even though those interest rates are high, you'd be probably having a much longer payback period. And it doesn't solve the problem that got you that most likely led to the credit card debt in the first place, which is usually overspending, lifestyle spending. And so we've got to correct that, which means you've got to start with the budget. Do you all typically on a monthly basis have anything left over at the end of the month after all the bills are paid, including the minimums on the credit cards? Yeah, we do. How much do you usually have left over?
A good thousand. All right, so have you been putting that thousand a month toward the credit cards or where's that been going? Yeah, we're saving and emergency. We want to make sure we finish building that up. We have at least three months. We want to build up up to six months. Okay, well now that you've got three months, I would stop right there and I would focus on paying off that credit card debt.
What I would do is not attach that to the house. I would get into a debt management program. It sounds more complex than it is. Basically, you'd contact our forensic Christian credit counselors. They would get you to pay through them. And when you did that, they drop the interest rates to whatever the credit counseling rate is for your creditors. And then you could still prepay it. So you could send that extra thousand a month and get that paid off quicker, but you'd have less toward interest because you'd have lower interest rates. I wouldn't continue to fund that emergency fund now that you've got the three months expenses until the credit cards were at zero. But I wouldn't think about taking out a new loan for that your house or otherwise.
I'd either do it on your own and just stay laser focused on taking 100% of what's left at the end of the month, and maybe even take another look at the budget and see if you can trim your expenses and send that directly to the credit cards or contact christiancreditcounselors.org and pay through them with a lower interest rate. So that would take care of the credit cards. And then once you're done, then I agree, let's get that emergency fund up to six months expenses. Then I might look at not doing the home renovations now.
I'd get some more clarity on when you're moving. Because if you guys are moving, let's say in the next three years, you really want to approach the renovations much differently than you would if you're planning to stay in this home indefinitely. Because you'd want to talk to a realtor and say, which renovations make sense, where I can get at least what I put into it back out at sale. And they'll likely say to you, well, there's certain things on your list I would do.
And there's other things that I wouldn't do. And therefore I would not, you know, certainly not borrow money to do renovations that you may or may not, you know, get the full value out when you sell it. So I would focus on getting the credit cards pay off, build up the emergency fund, delay the renovations, make the decision on whether you're going or staying. If you're staying or if you're moving in the next three years or so, I'd hire, I'd get a realtor to come in and look at your list of projects and help you decide what makes the most sense to do and not do. If you decide you want to stay indefinitely, then I might wait, try to fund as much of it as out of current cash flow as you can, and then go to get a home equity loan sometime next year, maybe in the second half of next year when rates are lower.
If you really wanted to do some things right away, then you could get a home equity line of credit. And that would allow the interest rate to come down as rates fall, which again, I would expect to happen sometime next year. Does that all make sense?
Yes. So in other words, you're saying it's better that I can wait if I could write it on. And one of the things that really sounded attractive is if we were to get 100,000 for home equity, I would be able to pay off our car, which is about 20 something thousand. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that.
Here's why. The cost of the home equity loan, there's going to be expenses related to that. The interest rate is probably not going to be any lower because that home equity loan interest rate is probably going to be six and a half percent.
It might even be seven percent, which is a high rate. And now, instead of just being collateralized by the car itself, which would be bad enough if it was repossessed, now if something happens in your financial life and you refinance that, you refinance that car with your home, now you're putting your home at risk. So let's not see that equity in your home as something to use. Let's see it as something to grow because we eventually want you to be debt-free, I see. So that as you and your wife head into retirement, you don't have a mortgage payment. You own your home free and clear. And if at that point you guys want to sell it and downsize, great. You buy it with cash, the next place, and you take what you have leftover and you put it into investments that can generate an income. But let's try to get you out of debt with your cash flow, which the good news is it sounds like you guys are controlling your expenses because you have a thousand dollars a month or more left over. So let's leave that home equity alone.
Contact Christian Credit Counselors and focus on paying down debt out of current cash flow. God bless you, my friend. 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 Faithfi and listeners like you.
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