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Hi, I'm Rob West. Are you and God on the same page when it comes to your financial plans? Today, we'll talk about achieving your financial goals and doing God's will. 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. Well, as you know, we're big fans of planning. That's because having a plan is the best way to meet your financial goals, or any goals for that matter. The question is how to make sure your plans line up with God's will for your life. That's important because if you're a Christian and Jesus is your Lord, well, you know His plans are the best. In fact, it says in Proverbs 19-21 that many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will succeed. The purpose of the Lord will succeed, so it's worth finding out what He wants.
How do you do that? Well, as word tells us, Micah 6-8 says, And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Proverbs 3, 5-7 is another passage that gives us a clue about God's will for His people. So, can submitting your ways to God help you plan for retirement, or save up for a car, or plan a vacation? Well, you might not receive a note from the Almighty telling you which car to buy, but if you're committed to living by Biblical standards, you will certainly experience greater peace and confidence about your choices.
Here's the bottom line. We focus on whatever has eternal value. In other words, seek first the Kingdom of God. When you're trusting in the Lord with all your heart, as you pray, read His Word, and submit your financial plans to Him, God will direct you into His will. That doesn't mean things will always be easy, but they will be godly. Sometimes when you're praying for God's will to be done and trusting for the Lord's guidance, you might still need a bit of practical advice from someone you trust.
After all, seeking wise counsel is a Biblical idea. Proverbs 15, 22 says, That said, we have some Biblical counsel for your plans in the area of saving, debt, and employment. First, saving. Paying for college or retirement or a home purchase can mean many years of diligent saving.
This takes patience and commitment. My advice is to set a target amount and figure out how much you'll need to put away each month. Put that money where it will earn the most interest and ask God to give you the discipline to stay on track. For retirement, be sure to max out any savings options offered by your employer or get going on your own with a traditional or Roth IRA. For college saving, I like 529 savings plans.
We'll talk more about those another time, but you can research them online as well. What if you're getting a late start with your saving? Well, you might be afraid you won't meet your goals because your timeline is shorter. My first suggestion is don't worry. The Bible assures us that we do not need to worry about having our needs met.
Our God is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, who cares for the sparrows of the field and even more for you and for me. Besides saving, another big goal you might have is eliminating debt. This is another area where you need a plan. Figure out exactly what you owe and make a plan to pay it off. Pay off one debt at a time, then apply the payment amount to the next debt. If you need more help, we recommend you visit christiancreditcounselors.org.
We do not recommend debt consolidation or debt settlement. Share your goals with trusted friends or family so they can encourage you and celebrate your successes along the way. Remember God's word says the borrower is servant to the lender and keep your debt-free goal in sight. Above all, don't get discouraged.
Ask the Lord to help you break any bad habits and get the advice and support you need. The third area you might need financial advice is employment. Are you unemployed or underemployed? To improve your earning power, you need a new job or possibly a promotion in your current job. One way to reach these goals is to get training and improve your skills. Be sure to network and talk to your job contacts often.
Your persistence and enthusiasm will earn you employment brownie points. Ultimately, as we said at the start, when you focus first on the things that have eternal value, the purpose of the Lord will prevail in your financial life. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. They're distributed by Foresight Funds Distributors, LLC, which is not an advisory affiliate, a registered investment advisor, nor do they provide investment advice. As a faithful listener of this program, you know that there's life changing financial wisdom in God's word, and FaithFi is here to help you and millions of others learn to be good and faithful stewards. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on help from monthly FaithFi patrons, supporters of this mission, to help us continue and expand our outreach. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry? If so, consider becoming a monthly FaithFi patron. Visit faithfi.com and click Give. Welcome back.
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. That's askrob.faithfi.com. We're going to head southwest to Denise.
Go right ahead. Yes. We have what our insurance agent called a balloon policy. At the time we got it, we were both working full-time.
Had our home and two rentals, and now that I'm retired and he's going to be retiring, now we only have two houses. And I'm wondering, do we really need a balloon policy? Yeah. Are you talking about an umbrella policy, perhaps? That's it. Maybe that's it.
Yeah. I like umbrella policies a lot. It's an inexpensive way to get good coverage for home and auto insurance beyond what would typically be available to you. You could make the case in your later years. I would say you even have more reason to have an umbrella policy because your net worth is greater than when you were younger.
And so let's say, and again, we don't even want to think about these things, but they happen. Let's say you were in a car accident and there was major harm to either somebody's body or property. Let's say you had a slip and fall on your property. I mean, there's any number of scenarios we could think about where the actual damages or claims could go well beyond the limits of your traditional homeowners or auto insurance policy.
And with assets that somebody could come after, that's where an umbrella policy would kick in for a relatively inexpensive amount of money annually to step in and cover that lawsuit. So I think that's the case for it, even in this season of life, Denise. Does that make sense?
It really does. And it is, like you said, a small amount of money, but I just, I've talked to numerous of my friends. Nobody even knows what they are. And I thought, well, maybe we don't need this thing.
Okay, well, you've answered my question. They are underutilized, I would say, but it's a very effective tool, again, just to offset a risk. Let's pray that you never have to claim on it.
And it's just money you're spending every year, but if you ever did, then you'll be certainly glad you have it. Thanks for your call today. We appreciate it.
To Boynton Beach, Florida. Hi, Jennifer. Go ahead.
Good afternoon. I have been seeing advertisements and even actually received an email about the US government giving a debt relief to people who you'd say worked during 2020 or stuff like this. Are these legitimate or is this kind of just, you'd say, scammers giving us quick money the way it looks like? Yeah, these are scams, most of these, so you got to be really careful. I'd just be really on your guard there, especially somebody saying there's government money available.
That's a very common strategy and tactic. What kind of debt do you have that you're looking to pay off? Well, I'm actually in the middle of a very contentious divorce right now, and so my debt has actually ballooned up to almost $70,000. Okay. All right. And how does that break down? What type of debt is that?
I have a $32,000 vehicle loan, and then $13,000, about $20,000 is student loan, and then the rest is credit card. Okay. All right. And is any of this going to go away once, or is it all still an open matter in terms of the divorce settlement? Most of it is very much an open matter, unfortunately, but I would say probably a minimum of 50% of the debt should disappear with what I feel I should be getting through the divorce.
Sure. Well, first of all, I'm sorry to hear that you're going through that. I think I wouldn't be making any big changes right now until this all plays out and you understand kind of where you find yourself. We want to obviously keep that car payment current.
Hopefully, it's in good working order, and it's what you're using to get around, get to work, and so forth. Student loans, let's just keep... Are you in deferment currently, or are you paying on those? 8,000 of it, I have been paying on them. 13,000 of it was kind of on hold with zero interest because of the debt issue. Sure. So my assumption is that obviously come September-ish, I would have to start paying on them, but based on the circumstances, I would probably put that one into deferment or income-based payment plan right now just to not overstrenuate myself financially. Yeah.
That makes sense. The other option is for this credit card specifically, I like debt management in terms of credit counseling, and perhaps what you do is take whatever portion of those you expect would ultimately be your responsibility, and maybe you could put those cards or card into a debt management program just to get the interest rates down to give you more progress to where you're going. I wouldn't put them all in just given the uncertainty of the divorce settlement, but you may want to put a portion of those in just to get those rates down from whatever they are now to hopefully something more realistic, and our friends at christiancreditcounselors.org can help you with that. But I think apart from that, let's just keep doing what you're doing on the student loans, keep paying down that car, let's get that paid off as quick as we can, and then we'll just get through this season, let's see how everything shakes out with the divorce, and then we can make some other decisions once you know exactly where you find yourself. Okay, so then, so I understand correctly, and it kind of fed into this, so my kind of second question was, would it be to my demise to do Christian credit counseling during the divorce process, and it kind of sounds like it'd be more to my advantage, because I'm paying off debt and I'd be showing the state-of-court system that I'm being responsible for my bills at this point, even if parts of them are ultimately his financial responsibility. I would tend to agree with that, however, I would run that by your attorney, just to make sure that he or she is in agreement with that.
Obviously, I don't know the inner workings of whether or not something like this would be frowned upon, given that this is an active and ongoing situation, so perhaps run that by your attorney, but I think as long as they give you the green light on it, anything that's going to help you pay this off quicker at the end of the day is a good thing. So, Jennifer, listen, all the best to you, and we'll pray the Lord will just walk closely to you during this difficult season, and you're going to get through it, and the Lord has a plan, so just trust him implicitly, and thanks for calling today, we appreciate it. I'm Rob West, you're listening to Faith and Finance, and we'll have more of your calls and questions on the other side of this break. The number to call is 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. 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.
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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 head to Mike. Mike is in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Did I say that right, Mike?
Yeah, you said it right. Hey, Rob, I'm 54 years old, no wife, no dependents. I just bought a house not long ago, so I depleted my emergency fund and all of my savings doing that, and I'm thinking about getting a $100,000 life insurance policy to take care of things whenever I pass. But I'm kind of wondering at my age, which would be better, a term or a hole? And the second part of the question is, if an emergency arises down the road, can I borrow from the term like you can the hole?
You cannot. The question is, why do you need the insurance? So what would be the purpose of the death benefit once you're gone?
Where would that go? Yeah, it would go to my brothers to help take care of my final things to happen, you know, whatever, because I don't have any kind of savings or anything, and like I said, I'm 54 years old. I know it's going to be, I plan on living a while, but still I would like, you know, to have something for whenever I'm gone for them to take care of me and whatever. So are we really just looking for funeral and burial expenses, or are you looking to go beyond that? Well, I don't know how much of my house I'll have paid off, and I would like that to be taken care of, so I don't pay on it for 20 years and then it'd be gone, you know what I mean?
Yeah, however, when you pass, your home could be gifted to your brother, let's say, and at that point he's going to sell it, and that would pay off the mortgage and then he would keep what's left, so why would you have insurance to pay off the home? I didn't even think of that. I'm not very good here. Look here, Rob, I am financially illiterate, just to be honest. No problem, no problem. This is all new stuff to me.
I called a couple of years ago and I'm the guy that had spent 32 years in prison and bought the car and was upside down in that, so I'm still learning stuff. Hey, listen, Mike, you've come to the right place. We're all about encouragement here.
I'm not pointing fingers. Listen, we all have giftings and there's going to be more areas than we can count that you've got a leg up on me, so let me help you with this one. Here's the key. It really boils down to you being a wise and faithful steward of God's money means you've got to live within your means, so we've got to have a budget, and you've got monthly income coming in and we've got to have a plan for your expenses. Those things you get a bill for, those things that you don't, and your spending has to be less than your income because that margin, which is just a fancy way of saying whatever you have left over at the end of the month after the bills are paid, there needs to be something there or you're never going to be able to accomplish your goals, whether that's building up some savings so you've got some emergency funds when the unexpected comes, being able to do some additional giving, pay down debt if you've got it. So living within your means is number one. Number two, let's avoid debt. Let's try to eliminate debt. Let's try not to borrow wherever possible and let's over your lifetime try to become completely debt free if you're not already. The third is that surplus that I mentioned. That's really key. The fourth is to set some goals and the fifth is to give generously because giving breaks the power of money over your life.
And those five things really, if you do those for a long time, you'll be set. Now in terms of life insurance, really the only purpose for the life insurance is to take care of a dependent that is going to have a hardship at your death. So typically when we have a married spouse during our working years, if I die, my wife loses my income and now she's in a really difficult spot in terms of paying off, you know, continuing to pay on the mortgage and put food on the table and pay the utilities. So we have insurance on my life that replaces my income during our working years. But once we get to retirement and we've saved and we've got social security and we've got some retirement assets, we don't need insurance anymore because in the event of my death, she's not counting on me for anything.
The assets are already there. If you don't have a spouse who's counting on your income and you don't have children who are at home and need somebody to provide for them, then you really don't have a need for insurance. So you could prepay your burial expenses and it'd be a lot more cost effective to do that by paying the funeral home directly or just putting that money in savings and preplanning as opposed to prepaying than it would be to try to buy a life insurance policy that would cover that cost because that's going to get really expensive. If the Lord tarries and you live another 30 years, that life insurance policy is going to be astronomical. Well, why not just put that money right in savings so your brother has what he needs to bury you at death? Because anything you leave to him, he's going to sell it and it's going to pay any of the debts or notes that still exist. So I think you don't need life insurance at all.
What I would focus on is getting that budget to balance, having some surplus so first you can build up an emergency fund of three to six months expenses and then second, we can start funding those burial expenses so you'll have the peace of mind to know that whenever the Lord calls you home, your brother can bury you and have a funeral according to your wishes and then he can inherit whatever's left. Does that make sense? Yeah, see that's why I called you.
Somebody can show me this because I would have thought nothing about all of that stuff. See, I'm thinking I don't want to be a burden on my family. I did it. You know, I spent half of my life, over half my life in prison, so I'm not going to have a retirement. Social Security, you know, I'm not going to really have any of that so I'm going to work as long as I can work and do that but yeah, hey, that was a great help, man. I appreciate that, Rob. Well, Mike, you call back anytime, my friend. I'm grateful for you and may the Lord bless you. Thanks for being on the program today.
Quickly to Indianapolis. Alan, I understand you have a question about paying back Social Security, is that right? Yes, that's correct. Yeah, so here's the deal on that. If you change your mind, so you take your Social Security benefits, let's say you take it early which locks in a reduction of 8% a year about for every year you take it prior to full retirement age.
If you change your mind within 12 months of signing up for Social Security, you can repay all the money you received without interest and withdraw your Social Security application and then you can reapply at a later date and the monthly payments will then be larger due to the delayed claiming. And you can do this one time in your lifetime. So I think that's the information you were looking for there.
If you did it for more than a year, then you're no longer eligible to start over but as long as you've done it within 12 months, you can reset that. I hope that's helpful for you. Thanks for calling my friend. Thank you to Amy and Mara, Dan and Jim and Marty. I hope you'll join us again next time right here on Faith and Finance.
