Every day, FaithFi is making a profound difference in the lives of thousands of Christians. We help them integrate their faith and financial decisions, all for the glory of God. Our resources, including Bible studies, devotionals, the faith and finance program, articles, videos on faithfi.com, and the FaithFi app are instrumental in this transformative journey. We are so grateful for your faithful love and support of this ministry, and we'd like to invite you to partner with us in this work. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry? If so, please consider becoming a monthly FaithFi partner by visiting faithfi.com and clicking give. That's faithfi.com and click give. So you'd like to give more, but you don't know how. Good news, if money's scarce, it doesn't mean your giving has to be.
I am Rob West. Hebrews 13, 16 reads, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. It doesn't say unless you're broke. Today I'll give you some ways you can give without money 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. One of God's financial and spiritual principles that isn't talked about enough is that God gives an extra measure of blessing for sacrificial giving.
Listen to Luke 21, one through five. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. And he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. This reveals an opportunity to be even more generous. Even if you don't have another dime to spare, you can give sacrificially in any number of ways without money.
And here are several suggestions that barely scratched the surface. Obviously, the first is to give time to your local church. There are any number of ways to serve. Is there a missions committee you might serve on? Maybe you can teach a Sunday school class.
If you don't feel confident teaching adults, how about a children's class? Or you could weed flower beds outside the church or rake leaves. One sure way to find something to do at your church is to ask a deacon what they need help with.
You'll probably get a long list. Another way to serve your church is to visit members when they're in the hospital. An hour of your time could be the highlight of someone's day. Another idea is volunteering to babysit for parents in your church who need a break from the kids. You can also do volunteer work in your neighborhood and community. Are there elderly shut-ins in your area that would enjoy a visit?
While you're at it, ask if they need any work done. You could help out around the yard, shovel snow, or maybe pick up groceries for them. Use the opportunity to advance God's kingdom and offer to take them to church if that's possible. You can also have a positive impact on the lives of people even without leaving your home. Set up your own ministry of sending cards and handwritten letters to folks who need a few words of encouragement.
Include a scripture verse that shows the love of Christ. Take a look in your closets, garage, or basement. Do you have items that you haven't used in quite a while? If you don't need them, donate them, preferably to a Christian charity like the Salvation Army. And by the way, you may be throwing away things that some ministry can use. A food bank or thrift store can recycle your plastic shopping bags, saving them money. Do you have a van, truck, or trailer? Use those resources God gave you to help others by doing some volunteer hauling. Maybe someone you know or hear about is moving. Show up and offer to help.
To say they'll be surprised is an understatement. You can also donate unused Bibles and other Christian books. There are several international ministries that accept and distribute these materials in places where believers are starving to read and learn God's word. Love Packages and Christian Resources International are two ministries that will take and distribute your unused Bibles and Christian materials globally.
We'll put links to them in today's show notes. But also check with local homeless shelters, many of which accept Bibles and other Christian material. Now, here's one way you can give to God's kingdom that you never thought of. Give blood. How does that help the kingdom? Well, they say that every pint of blood donated saves three lives. Those are three more people who will live another day for the Holy Spirit to touch their hearts with the truth of the gospel, saving them for eternity. Visit redcrossblood.org for details on where and when you can donate blood. God has given each of us special skills.
Are you good with computers? Maybe you're a graphic designer, an electrician, or a dentist. Donate your skills and talents, first within your church to folks who need help, then in your community. And again, use the opportunities this presents to share the gospel.
Do you keep a garden? If so, you may have extra fruits and vegetables to give away. Make care packages of your extra homegrown foods to share with folks in your church, friends, and neighbors. Never let anything go to waste. Now, perhaps the most important way you can give to the kingdom is to pray.
If your church has a prayer group, show up and participate, but also pray individually for your church, your world, friends, and neighbors. Okay, so those are ways you can be generous, even if you're broke. We hope you'll take advantage of them. And again, we'll put links to several of them in today's show notes. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000.
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That's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985, 800-557-1985. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. You know, doing this program for many years now, I've seen firsthand how money can serve as both a blessing and a burden no matter how much or how little you have. The reality is it's not about the money at all. It's about a heart attitude because we recognize money is a good gift from God. But as author Paul David Tripp reminds us, this good thing can become a bad thing for you when it becomes a ruling thing. You see, we were created with a longing for abundance and life that only God can satisfy, but the world will tell you that money can provide the fulfillment, the significance, the protection that we're all looking for.
Well, it's a lie. The deceitfulness of riches will choke out the Word of God from bearing fruit in our lives if we allow it to become the object of our affection and our devotion. But when we recognize our role as stewards of God's resources and the role of money as a tool for God's purposes, well, money becomes a powerful force for good because we can provide for our loved ones. We can give to those in need. We can use it to spread the Gospel and invest in ways that even promote human flourishing. Well, here at Faithfi and the Faith and Finance radio broadcast, we want to be an encouragement to you, enabling you to integrate your faith with your financial decisions for the glory of God.
And that's our objective each day. We love to hear from you with your testimonies of God's faithfulness in your life, how you've applied these principles from His Word, and with your specific financial questions. So if you'd like to get in the mix today, you have a financial question, we've got lines open, we're ready for you. You can call right now 800-525-7000. Let's go to Virginia and welcome Sherry to the broadcast. Hi there. Well, thank you for taking my call.
Yes, ma'am. My question is, if your spouse is accumulating credit card debt and your name is not on a credit card, if he should die, would I be responsible for that debt? Yeah, it's a good question. As long as the other spouse, not the one who took out the credit card in the first place, but the other spouse does not sign a credit agreement, that spouse is not legally responsible for the debt. The surviving spouse would simply notify that the account holder has died. Now, when the estate goes through probate, creditors are able to make claims against the estate and can receive payments that way, and the executor is obligated to pay those debts. If the estate lacks the funds to pay the debt, the creditor takes the loss, but the surviving spouse would not be personally liable. But it does get a little bit fuzzy because, you know, depending on what the laws of your state are with marital property, obviously, you have shared assets. And so, theoretically, an estate that's paying the creditors for the obligation of the one spouse that passed away would potentially take money away from the other spouse that would otherwise, you know, be available for that spouse to hold on to. So, technically, no, there would be the liability would stop with the spouse that opened the account and took on the debt.
But through the probate process, they could get paid back, if that makes sense. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Okay. Okay. That was my question.
That's all I needed to know. Very good. Thank you, Sherry. We appreciate your call today.
Let's head to Georgia. Patricia, thanks for calling today. How can I serve you? Thanks for taking my call.
Yes, ma'am. My husband died last year. He was a vet and never wanted to purchase a home. And I always wanted a home for my children, especially. And my children obviously are grown, but I would still like to have a home. I'm wondering, should I get a home, a foreclosure home, or a new home?
I have someone looking for me right now. And they are talking, trying to talk me into getting a new home, which I feel I should, I would like to get a foreclosure home. What's the difference?
Yeah, well, it's a great question. And essentially, when you're buying a home out of foreclosure, there are some things to be aware of. I mean, the pros are that you got a, you know, often they're sold below market value, because of the situation that the home was being taken over under duress.
And the lenders just understand they have to sell to move them quickly. There's usually a faster closing process because they want to get out from under it. So they're willing to negotiate on the closing costs, the escrow length. But the downside is there's a lot of unforeseen costs in these, Patricia. One would be that, you know, there's often back taxes, property taxes, or liens or legal fees associated with the property.
You know, you could be responsible for some pretty major repairs that may go unknown to you until you get it. Often they've been sitting vacant for a long time and therefore neglected, which can lead to vandalism or pest infestations or, you know, things like that, that would, you know, require you to have a good bit of money. And there's a good bit of demand for foreclosed property. So you're competing with other buyers. So often where it's most effective to buy a foreclosed property is if you're an investor and you're buying foreclosed homes, you know, on a regular basis, and you've got a portfolio of them, you know what you're doing, you've got good working capital. So you can deal with these issues like liens and major repairs as they come up.
I think it's a little more challenging. And I would almost go as far as to say I discourage it for just individual buyers, not investors, but individual buyers buying a single home, just because there's so many unknowns. And I don't want to get you in a situation where, you know, you end up having to spend a lot more than you expected. And it puts you in a financial hardship.
I would also say that the type of loan matters. So you mentioned your husband's service to our country, and I'm sorry to hear of his passing. Are you planning to use a VA loan, Patricia? Yeah.
All right. So that's another factor here, because a VA loan can be tricky when you're purchasing a foreclosure, they have tighter guidelines for purchasing a home than with a conventional loan. And so I think that is another kind of strike against this approach. So I would probably encourage you not to go that direction for the reasons I mentioned.
So where do you go from here? Well, you know, I don't think there's a problem buying a home at 871. I think the question is just your financial readiness to do that. Now, you mentioned instead of buying a foreclosed on buying a new home, and I don't know whether you mean new construction or not. I mean, certainly you could look at that there are some incentives out there right now from builders trying to move new construction homes, but I wouldn't, you know, discount the idea of just going out and looking for an existing single family home. I think the key is, we just don't want to get you too overextended. So I'd want to make sure you have at least 20% to put down. And I'd want to make sure that that principal interest taxes and insurance mortgage payment is no more than 25 at the max 30% of your take home pay. Because I just don't want you to get in a situation where you stretch to get it, things don't go your way, or you have some unexpected things come up.
And now you're just really putting yourself in a bad spot, especially in light of the fact that interest rates are still very high right now 7% plus, and the housing market is very rich right now as well. But give me your thoughts on all that. I'm listening to you. I'm going to take your advice. My thoughts are great.
I'm totally satisfied with what I heard. Okay, very good. Well, listen, I'm going to ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you navigate this. I'd start with your budget. And let's figure out how much you can afford to spend. Let's take a hard look at that down payment.
Find a really competent realtor in your area who can help guide you. And we'll just ask the Lord to give you just the right decision as you move forward from here. May the Lord bless you, Patricia, and we appreciate you being on the program today.
Well, folks, we're going to be taking our next break here in just a moment. But we do have some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you taking your calls and questions on anything financial today at 800-525-7000, whether that's getting your spending plan in place. What are some strategies to do that? Maybe you're on a variable income.
That can be really challenging. What about debt repayment? What about your credit score, your investments, the economy? We can talk about anything. 800-525-7000.
You can call right now, and we'll be right back. Every day we hear life-changing stories from listeners just like you who see money and possessions as tools to invite more people into God's kingdom. Instead of chasing wealth, you've chosen to embrace God as your source of love and provision. At Faithfi, we're passionate about meeting people where they live and work through our national radio program, app, resources, and website to influence widespread positive change in our culture.
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Soundmindinvesting.org. Thanks for joining us today on Faith in Finance. Let's head right back to the phones. We'll get through as many questions as we can here in this final segment. To Chad Anuga. Hi, Bob. Go ahead, sir.
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I am calling to ask a question for my parents. My parents are around 85 years old and have just recently, my dad has had a stroke years ago.
He's not mobile anymore. And so my parents are needing some in-home assistance. My brothers and sisters, we live out of town. And so they need some in-home help for my dad. And so what they've done is they have sold a duplex that they had to increase their, they were doing fine on their income before this extra need. But this duplex was, they received it from my great grandmother when she passed away. It was in her will, she gave it to my dad. So I have a two-part question, and that is the home sold for about $215,000. And so I was wondering how they find out how much in taxes that they will owe on the sale of that property.
I think they, I can't remember if I said, they've had it about 30 years now. And then my mom was wondering, she's going to need to hold money out for these healthcare expenses and maybe hold a little bit more money out to have some repairs done to the home. And then she's wondering what to do with the leftover money as far as investing.
And right now she's a retired teacher, so she's considering putting that money into CDs at her credit union. Yeah. All right. And what were the proceeds of the home sale?
About $215,000. Okay. Yeah.
So the first question is what to set aside for any long-term capital gains. So the cost basis was stepped up to the date of death when he inherited the property, but you said that was 30 years ago, correct? Right. Right.
Okay. So you'll need to establish, and a realtor or broker could help you do this, but you'll need to establish the market value of the property as of the date he received it, your dad. And then you'll want to then compare that to the selling price. And that would determine the capital gain that was there. Now the capital gain rate has to do with their income. So if they're married filing jointly, is their income above or below $94,000 for 2024? I do not know.
I'll have to check. Okay. So the capital gains tax is based on their income. Right. So if it's below $94,050, if they sold this in 2024, capital gains rate is zero. If they got income between $9451 and $580,000, then it'd be at the 15% capital gains rate. And that would apply to the capital gain, which is the selling price minus that adjusted cost basis of the property as of the date he inherited it, the date of death. And then that portion would be subject to either that 0% or 15% capital gains rate.
Now, once that is set aside, if there is tax due, and there may or may not be, then I think it's a matter of saying, okay, how do we think about this money? And I'd probably have several buckets. Bucket one is the costs of the in-home health care for the next one to two years. I'd probably keep that portion in a high yield savings account. The good news is right now you can get 5% on that. You could go to bankrate.com and find an online bank that would offer an online savings account with FDIC insurance. And then in addition to that one to two years of in-home health care costs, I'd have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses in a separate account for unexpected kind of general living expenses if they don't already have that. And then beyond that, for the remaining portion, you probably want to have relatively short term investment. So I like the idea of laddering CDs, you could look at some additional high yield savings, you could even look at some Treasury bills, you know, everywhere from four weeks to a year and look at those options as well.
You could even, you know, depending on the time horizon of this, look at adding, you know, a portion in stocks, but it'd probably be a very small portion, especially if you think all this money is going to be exhausted in the next 10 years or less. But does that make sense? Yes, it does. Yeah. Thank you very much. And I just want to let you know, I really appreciate your show, and the advice you give to people. Well, thank you, Bob.
These different financial decisions can be tough. Yeah. Bob, would we want to make sure that you've got some some good assistance? I know you're walking alongside your dad.
And man, I appreciate just your your heart and in affirming what we're doing here, but also just in wanting to serve him. Do you all have somebody that you could lean on that could give some counsel and an advisor or somebody to help navigate all this? We don't mind talking to my mom this weekend. She made they do have a family friend that may be able to help them. And that was kind of the first place she was going to go is to call and talk to them for advice.
And I told her I would call your show, but no, not specifically. Okay, well, if you think a financial counselor would be helpful to help them get their budget in line, I'd be happy to offer that at no cost just as our gift to you all. But if you think an advisor would be better, you could connect with a certified kingdom advisor on our website at faithfi.com.
But do you feel like they have some need and just trying to get their their budget straight and making some of these basic decisions? All right, well, let's do this. I'd love to help with that. So that'll just kind of be our gift to you, Bob. And if you stay on the line, we'll get your information. We'll get one of our trained certified Christian financial counselors in touch with you.
And if your mom and dad are interested, then they can just schedule a virtual meeting to kind of go through all the numbers and maybe just provide some added peace of mind as they make these decisions. So, listen, appreciate your kind remarks about the program. I hope that'll be a blessing to you, sir. And may the Lord bless you. Call any time if we can help you. Let's go to Missouri.
Hi, Dennis, go ahead. I'm in my 70s. I'm retired. I don't have much money saved. I'm divorced. And sure, my income goes for alimony. But what I'm wondering about in my age is I have a good enough income.
I want to try to balance things, save money for emergencies. And then at the same time, I want to start giving more to the Lord's work because I believe that that's a better reward given to the Lord's work than saving a bunch of money down here. Does that make any sense? It makes a lot of sense, Dennis.
And I'm delighted you got on the program today because I can't think of a better way to finish our program today than to say, you know what? We have to realize that, yes, God entrusts His good gift of wealth and resources to us for our enjoyment and for provision of our family. But I would say even bigger than that is our opportunity to hold it loosely and give it generously and send it on ahead and get it into circulation into God's economy and holding on to everything God gives us and waiting to give a death. I don't believe is the right way to go. I think we should always actively be looking for ways to get what God has entrusted to us into circulation in God's economy, to bless others and to spread the gospel. And I think you're right on my friend.
So I would say yes, yes, and yes, you go for that. Let's see what the Lord does. Thanks for being on the program and for your kind remarks today. Lord bless you. Well, folks, a big thanks to my team today. We're delighted to have you along with us today and we'll see you next time. Thanks to Devin and Taylor and Pat. God bless you. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
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