Kingdom Advisors equips Christian financial advisors to bring their faith into their practice with the industry-recognized Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. We bring those advisors together with other industry leaders to form a vibrant network. And through that network, we give them the resources, tools, and encouragement they need to serve clients like you, helping you align your values with your financial decisions and investments.
To learn more, visit KingdomAdvisors.com. A statewide network of Christian financial professionals fills that void. Sharon Epps joins us today to explain what is a CKA. And 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 journey. Well, if you're new to the program, CKA stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor, and there's more than 1500 of them now across the US and Canada. Sharon Epps is president of Kingdom Advisors, and under her leadership, that number continues to grow. Sharon, great to have you back.
Glad to be here. Kingdom Advisors is, of course, the brainchild of Larry Burkett and Ron Blue, who realized that God's people needed godly advisors to help them be faithful stewards of his resources so they might advance the kingdom. It's all based on members who've earned the designation Certified Kingdom Advisor, or CKA, the only industry designation for biblically wise financial advice. So Sharon, why don't we start today by giving you an opportunity to explain exactly what is a CKA? Well, simply stated, a CKA is a financial professional who's passionate and qualified to help families and individuals make faith-based financial decisions. It means they've been biblically trained, they've been professionally certified, and they can be financial planners, accountants, investment professionals, insurance professionals, and lawyers. It's the highest credential in financial services for biblical financial advice. And Sharon, you played a key role in the training that undergirds the CKA designation.
So explain what goes into that. Well, we want you to know that they take 90 hours of study at the college level, finishing with a five-hour proctored exam, and they work through a case study that's a real family, Bob and Debbie, that they go through planning decisions from a biblical worldview. Yeah, it really is key to not only helping them establish their own personal convictions around financial decision making through a biblical worldview, but applying that in the competent financial advice that they're giving to clients every day and sharing that 90 hours of study at the college level is rigorous training. You know, we find that financial professionals want to go through this because, well, CKA is highly valued in the industry, widely accepted across all industry firms. They want to establish their own personal convictions. They want to have an intentional process to bring this into their advice and counsel.
And of course, they want to serve God's people and help them to be wise and faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to them. And Sharon, I know one of the things you most enjoy is hearing the stories from advisors who have gone through the CKA educational program and how it's prepared them to bring this into the client relationship. Do you have a story you could share with us?
I've got a couple. One advisor recently wrote to us and said, My practice is no longer just about financial acumen. It's about integrating faith and finance, reshaping how I interact with my clients. This shift towards a more holistic, faith centered approach is not only a testament to my professional growth, but also to my deepening commitment to my faith. And then another one said, Becoming a CKA has been more than an educational pursuit. It has been a catalyst for spiritual growth and discernment. With each scripture memorized and lesson learned, I've gained clarity on God's calling and purpose for me as a leader and disciple maker. My hope is that this journey will not only enrich my own life, but also serve as a beacon of hope and guidance for those I'm privileged to serve. Now, wouldn't you want one of these advisors to be your advisor?
Absolutely. What an incredible opportunity for these advisors and for the clients that they're serving. You know, one of my favorite things is when I hear from advisors saying, Rob, this changes everything. I'm now going to work differently than I did previously. Sharon, as we wrap up today, for somebody who's listening and saying, Why should I choose a certified kingdom advisor?
What would you say? Well, remember that money is a tool and we want to sharpen our skills with money using a professional who counsels from the same biblical worldview. We want to be faithful in our finances and we want to be encouraged by prayer and the word of God. And that's what CKAs do.
No doubt about it. Folks, if you want to find a certified kingdom advisor in your city, just go to faithfi.com and click Find a Professional. That's faithfi.com and click Find a Professional. Sharon, thanks for stopping by.
Glad to be here. That's Sharon Epps, president of Kingdom Advisors, the parent organization of FaithFi. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. God has entrusted his finances to you and we at FaithFi have designed our FaithFi app to help you live, give, owe and grow with that perspective. Our FaithFi app is the leading biblically based finance app. You can manage your money, get top biblical financial resources and interact with a community of like minded believers where you can ask questions, get answers and share what you're learning.
Go to faithfi.com and click the word app to get started. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com.
That's kingdomadvisors.com. I'm grateful you've joined us today on Faith and Finance. We've got phone lines open and it's time to turn our attention to your questions today. Whatever is on your mind financially, feel free to call right now. 800-525-7000. Again, that number 800-525-7000. We're ready to dive in today.
We're going to begin in Florida. Gail, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, how are you? I'm doing real well. I appreciate your call.
I appreciate your time. Born and raised in the state of Florida, I am considered an elderly individual because of the age at the age of 70. I've raised three beautiful sons and one of the beautiful sons got in a horrific car accident. And he too is a born and raised Floridian. He went through rehab coming out of a brain injury. It took him literally four years to get back on his feet because doctors said that he would never walk, talk, anything all over again.
And my husband and I vowed that we would put him back with the grace of God. He has been told by Florida rehab persons that once he gets back into the, and I'll go back, 2008 he had a job with a fast food chain. And because of the brain injury, he could not go back until he went through all the rehab. He had to learn how to drive all over again, everything. He's now back on his feet at the age of, in his early thirties. Can he keep his Medicare disability monthly payment if he collects and goes back to the workforce and gets a steady paying job?
Yeah. There's a number called a Substantial Gainful Activity. And that is the number by which if you're under that on an ongoing basis, you would not put your benefits in jeopardy. And so that would be what he needs to look at for SSDI benefits. I believe that's $1,470 per month you'd want to check on that, but essentially as long as he stays underneath that Substantial Gainful Activity, then he would continue to be eligible for his disability benefits. He can also earn any amount for nine consecutive months without losing the benefits. That's called a trial work period. Now, you would want to be in contact with the SSA because he would want to enter that trial work period. It gets a little confusing because the trial work period uses a different earnings amount. Whereas there's the Substantial Gainful Activity number where per month he doesn't jeopardize his benefits. But any month that the earnings go above $1,050, that will count as one of his nine trial work period months. But then he can continue on beyond the trial period so long as he stays under the Substantial Gainful Activity number. And so either way he's going to want to reach out to the Social Security Administration. So there's a limited amount that he would be able to earn.
But as long as he stays under that threshold, he could do that on an ongoing basis. If he goes beyond that, then he would begin to jeopardize his benefits. Okay, that's a very good helpful direction because even at Social Security, they didn't know. So I have to speak to the right person and being you walk in and you make an appointment, they don't know. So who is the person at Social Security that we need to make an appointment or get somebody to call us that knows and is knowledgeable of these things? Yeah, well, you just want to make it clear and they should see this based on his file that you need to speak to somebody who is really proficient in the disability portion. It's quite different with lots of different rules than the regular Social Security retirement benefits. And so just make it clear, you need to meet with somebody that is a specialist in the disability side and can explain to you, bring up his record and explain to you exactly what the rules are.
Hopefully you can get the meeting with that person and they should be able to lay it all out for you. I realize that it can be challenging. Just stay after it, Gail.
You'll get the right information. But I'm glad to hear that he's doing better. I'm sure that was just a lot that you all went through and obviously the Lord walked with you through it.
And I'm delighted to hear that he made the progress that he did. Thank you for being on the program today. I am grateful for your call. Let's go to Tampa. Hi, Nancy.
How can I help? Thank you for taking my call. I just had a question. Last month, we sold one of our investment properties and we got like two hundred thousand dollars. My question is, because we're three years from retirement, should we buy another investment property to avoid paying the capital gains or should we invest somewhere else? Yeah. Well, so you'd have forty five days to find one and then 180 days to close on it in order to do a 1031 exchange, which you may already be outside that window.
In terms of your capital gains exposure. So this was not this was an investment property, correct? Correct. OK. All right.
And would you do you all file taxes, married filing jointly? Yes. All right. And what year did you sell it, the property this year?
Yeah, just last month. It's not. OK, got it.
All right. And will your taxable income for this year be more than ninety four thousand dollars? Yes.
OK, so you'll likely be in that 15 percent bracket. So what do you think your gain is on it? Not the selling price, but the selling price minus your original purchase price. So I'm thinking, well, it was like one hundred and forty one hundred and forty thousand in profit. Yes. OK, so it looks like you could have and let me just check. Your income is not over five hundred and eighty thousand, is it?
No. OK, so if you're at 15 percent capital gains, you're looking at about a twenty one thousand dollar tax bill at 15 percent. Now, you could further reduce that gain if you had any substantial improvements to the property, not maintenance, but things that improve the value of it. So you may want to just check and think through that. So I think the question is, do we want to write that twenty one thousand dollar check to the IRS or do you all want to continue to be a landlord? And I think that's a pretty significant decision. I mean, yes, there's some potential tax savings, although you're just going to push that down the road. You're not going to eliminate it. You're just going to kind of kick the can.
Number one. Number two is there's real talk that capital gains rates, if they're going anywhere, they're going higher. So if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires, I mean, President Biden, depending on what happens in this next election, was talking about higher capital gains rates. So we're probably in the lowest capital gain rate environment that we will be in.
If they're going anywhere, they're going up. So I think the question is just how long do you all want to be landlords and having investment properties? If you're really looking to get out of it, you may want to just go ahead and pay that tax.
Now, if you think you may want to stick with it even well into retirement, well, then it might be worth considering buying another property. But again, you have to identify it within forty to five days and you've got to close on it within 180 days and you're not eliminating it. You're just pushing it further down the road. Does that make sense?
Yes, it does. OK, so I think that's the question for you guys to think through is, listen, if you're like, I think we're done with this. We're looking to kind of simplify our lives. You may want to just go ahead and pay the tax. If you're comfortable continuing to be a landlord and it makes sense in light of your overall investment strategy. I love the idea of you owning real estate and then it may be worth it to kind of kick that can down the road. The other thing is when you sell it the next time, if you were to put it into another property, you could give a portion of it away to a donor advised fund before you sell it.
You'd miss the capital gains on that. And then you could give it to charity or ministry. So you guys think and pray about that. Hopefully that helps you, Nancy. We appreciate it. Well, folks, a quick break and back with more faith and finance just around the corner. Eight hundred five to five. Seven thousand is the number to call.
Just a couple of lines open, but we still got a lot more to come right around the corner. Stay with us. We are grateful for support from the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing. ECFI is an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management that seeks to help Christians understand and practice biblically faithful investing.
They do this through their podcast and online journal featuring articles from industry thought leaders and their course. Called Discover God's Story for Investing. More information is available at faithandinvesting.com.
That's faithandinvesting.com. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance here in our final segment. We'll get to as many questions as we can.
Let's head to Tampa. Hi, Sam. How can I help you?
Hi. My question is, I bought some savings bond 27 years ago for my sons and obviously they're adults now. They know about it.
It's been in the safe and we've kept it all these years. I have no idea what to do with them now. I want to give it to them or should we just hold on to it? I don't know.
Yes. So what is your plan? Were you intending to wait until they mature at 30 years? Or would you like to just go ahead and give it to them now? What are you and your husband thinking? We were thinking to wait for 30 years.
By God's grace, we'll still be around by then. But they are aware of it. We kind of have everything set in case anything happens, but they know about it. I want to leave them in place. But people are saying that it's not going to be worth anything in a few years.
So maybe just give it to them and let them cash it out now. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
I mean, you could take either approach. So these are paper bonds, is that right? Yes, sir. Okay.
Yeah. So if you go into treasurydirect.gov, that's the Treasury's website specifically for bonds and other bond related instruments, treasurydirect.gov, you could type in the QSIP numbers and find out what they're worth. You could even go through the process of sending in the bonds and getting them put in there electronically, which is ultimately the easiest way to handle them. Because then if you decided to gift the bonds, you could do that very easily whenever that time is. Now, you don't have to redeem them until 30 years. And so you absolutely can just leave them there for three more years.
They will come due at that point. Have you been paying the taxes along the way or will it all be taxable at the end? It'll probably be taxable at the end. Okay.
Yeah. So that's typically the way it happens. You know, folks will, when they cash in the bond or when the bond matures, if you wait until 30 years, then you're going to have all the interest credited at that time. And then that will be taxable. And so you could then pay the tax on that and then gift it to them. Or you could decide to go and make a gift of those bonds to them now.
That's really entirely up to you. They're not earning probably a whole lot. And so they may be thrilled to have that money now and either invest it in a way that's going to perform a little bit better. Or they might have other uses for it if you're okay with that, where they could pay down debt or something like that. But it's really entirely up to you whether you wait until the 30 years where they just will mature on their own.
And then you could give the money to them or you could do it ahead of that time. It's entirely you and your husband's decision. Okay. Well, thank you so much for your advice. I really appreciate it. Thanks again. God bless you all. Thank you, Sam. I appreciate it. Lord bless you as well. Let's go to Cleveland.
Hi, Sharon. Go ahead. Hi, I want to know about if you have information about CD on how I can go into one location and get the rate for the different banks that offer the CD. Is that something that you have available? Yeah, there's a couple of websites I'll direct you to. You could go to bankrate.com and just click on CD right there at the top of the page and you'll see a list of the online banks that have the most competitive CD rates right now. Another one is called nerdwallet.com.
Kind of a silly name, but they do the same thing. You could get a listing of the most competitive interest rates for CDs. You can even search and sort by the specific durations of CDs you're looking for and it will tell you who has the very best interest rates right now.
So those would be the two that I would go to. Okay, now is there a certain amount you have to do for a CD or each one offers? It just depends. Yeah, right there on the listing it will tell you what the minimum is. Sometimes in order to get the best rates, they will have a minimum of $10,000 or as much as $25,000. But right there at bankrate.com you will see what the minimum is and I'm seeing a minimum of $500. I'm seeing about 10 of them that have a minimum of $0.
The highest minimum I'm seeing here is $10,000. So it's somewhere between $0 and $10,000 with most of them being at either $0 or $500. Okay, what do you mean by $0? You don't put anything? No, no, the minimum deposit is $0. They'll take a dollar if you want to put in a dollar, but essentially there is no minimum.
You just decide how much you want to put in. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome, Sharon. Thank you and you as well.
To Calhoun, Georgia. Hi, Diane. Go ahead.
Okay. I had just recently retired and I wasn't sure what to do with my 401k. I'm not in the need of it right now, so I didn't know to leave it in where it's at or move it to an IRA.
I'm just not sure and I thought I could Calhoun get some advice what to do. Yeah, very good. Are you wanting to manage this 401k yourself once you move it out or are you wanting to hire an advisor to do that? Yeah, I don't even know. Okay, how much is in there?
I think it's going to end up being about $130,000. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I would recommend, Diane, that you consider hiring an advisor who could take over management of this for you. It's a significant sum of money. You worked a long time to build up this nest egg and you certainly wouldn't want to put it on autopilot. This is not an area of expertise for you.
I think entrusting this to someone who can make sure that it's invested appropriately to protect what you have, but also to grow it reasonably in light of your age and goals and objectives, I think would be a great thing for you to do. We recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation here at Faithfi. So this is the only financial services industry designation for biblically wise financial advice. So these advisors have met an experience requirement. They've had a pastor reference, a client reference, a statement of faith, a regulatory review. They've passed a training program and a proctored exam. And it's all around, you know, giving advice that aligns with the values and priorities of Christians. That's, of course, competent.
So there's 1500 of them across the United States. And what I would do is head to our website, faithfi.com right there at the top of the page. Click find a professional. You can put in your zip code.
You'd get a list of CKAs in your area. You could interview several of them, find the one that's the best fit. And if you did that, what would happen is the advisor would open the IRA in your name wherever he or she custody's their client's assets. So it might be at Fidelity or Schwab or, you know, one of the other big firms like that, LPL or Mariprise, Merrill Lynch. And then once they open the account, then you would roll that 401k into the IRA.
And the advisor would then begin managing that money and making the buy and sell decisions for you. How does that sound? That sounds good. Yeah. Okay. So just head to our website, faithfi.com.
Click find a professional and you'll be on your way. Thanks for calling today, folks. So thankful for you and the opportunity to be able to come alongside you each day and hopefully be an encouragement to you, point you back to God's word and really point you toward God as your ultimate treasure. You know, the opportunity we have to manage God's money is a big deal. We'll ultimately give an account for it someday. And so we want to help you live as that wise and faithful steward. We'll gather together tomorrow to do it all over again. In the meantime, big thanks to my team today, Taylor Standridge, Pat Montague, Devin Patrick, and all the team members here at FaithFi. We'll see you tomorrow. Faith and Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.
