Should Christians Have A Prenup?

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 in 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. God's Word says a husband and wife become one flesh, but it doesn't say anything about prenups.

Hi, I'm Rob West. It's true, you won't find prenuptial agreement in your concordance. So does that mean a Christian should never have one? We'll talk about that first today, and then it's on to your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. A prenuptial agreement or prenup is a contract couples agree on before marriage. It outlines how their assets—money, property, and other possessions—will be divided if they divorce. Who gets the house?

Who gets the car? How will the finances be split up? All of these questions are answered in a prenup. Many argue that such agreements make practical sense, ensuring that difficult financial conversations happen while couples are still, quote, in love.

But as a Christian, should you consider getting one? Well, God's design is that in marriage, two become one. Genesis 2 24 lays the foundation for this principle. A man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Paul expands on this in 1 Corinthians 7 4, teaching that even our bodies are no longer our own in marriage, but belong to our spouse. In God's plan for marriage, everything is to be shared.

There's no mine or yours, only ours. The pursuit of oneness is central to a thriving marriage. Further, God views marriage as a covenant relationship. Paul compares the nature of marriage to the covenantal relationship between Christ and his church. In Ephesians 5 31 and 32, he writes, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. God's design for marriage is meant to be a picture of his love for his people, a relationship built on love, sacrifice, grace, and mutual respect.

When centered on him, it is a gift that reflects the message of the gospel to the world. Now while prenups might seem practical, it's essential to consider the potential harm one might do to the unity of a Christian marriage. Frequent faith and finance contributor Dr. Art Rayner shares three possible messages that come up from a prenup being brought into the equation. Number one, distrust in the relationship. A prenup often suggests someone feels the need to protect their assets, which can imply a lack of trust. This can hurt because it reveals that one partner may not feel fully comfortable in trusting their life to the other.

Number two, doubt about the marriage's longevity. Prenups can reflect concern that the marriage might not last, essentially preparing for a divorce before the marriage even begins. This uncertainty can undermine the covenant commitment God intends for marriage.

And third, one partner isn't fully committed. In a biblical marriage, everything, including finances, should be shared. A prenup may indicate that one partner is not fully committed to the oneness God desires, leaving room for mine and yours instead of ours. So now that we've established what a prenup can communicate when proposed, does that mean that a prenup always indicates disunity? Or are there ways that a prenup can actually foster unity?

Let's look at an example. If one or both spouses have children from previous marriages with inheritances at stake, a prenup can actually communicate to the children that you are pursuing marriage for the right reasons and that you seek their highest good when it comes to doing what's best for them. Of course, this decision should be made with much prayer and wisdom from godly counsel and advice to see if this legal arrangement suits your situation. This helps ensure that the hard questions are answered about the marriage and that the husband and wife's intentions are carefully examined before moving forward. Ultimately, marriage is a covenant that reflects Christ's relationship with the church, which is built on trust, sacrifice, and unity. While there may be legitimate reasons to use a prenup, it should never replace the trust and commitment that are foundational to Christian marriage. Both spouses should prayerfully consider their motivations and seek to align their relationship with God's design for unity and oneness in every area of life. The process should involve open conversations about finances and trust, ensuring that any agreement serves the marriage rather than undermines it.

As you both ponder whether a prenup is right for your situation, we hope that we've provided you with some things to consider as you pray about this decision. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. 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 in 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. We are grateful for support from Praxis Mutual Funds. Praxis Mutual Funds has seven impact strategies that are designed to create positive real world change. More information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. The fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses are contained in the prospectus and summary prospectus. This and other information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. Investments involve risk.

Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services LLC. Well, delighted to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. It's time to take your calls and questions today.

That number, 800-525-7000, that's 800-525-7000, you can call right now. We'd love to hear from you with whatever is on your mind in your financial life today. We're going to dive in here in just a moment, but first in the news today, Americans are feeling financial anxiety, you might say, over retirement savings. Four in 10 American workers say they're behind on retirement savings goals. According to a CNBC survey of 6600 U.S. adults, three reasons come to the top in terms of why that is.

Number one, too much debt. Here's something interesting and discouraging is that in the last decade, we saw about 50% of folks entering retirement with a home mortgage. Today it's about two-thirds entering retirement with a home mortgage. That's on top of other debts, of course, and so that's one of the key reasons.

Second, too little income, and third, perhaps the biggest factor, getting too late a start on saving. Now, not surprisingly, older respondents regret starting late more than younger generations who have more time to put away money for retirement. Now, somewhat counterintuitively, individual retirement balances are up significantly. They saw their third highest level ever in the last quarter. Meanwhile, Fidelity reports that the average retirement contribution rate for employee and employer contributions is now 14.2% of earnings, and many advisors, including myself, will tell you that 15% is a good target for retirement savings if you start early enough.

So that's an encouraging sign. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, through the power of compound earnings, the earlier you start saving, the easier it will be to meet your retirement savings goals. Let me also add that it's really important to define enough. Now, I realize you might say, Rob, that's not even in the cards, and I get that, but thinking through this from a planning standpoint to determine how much will I actually need. If Social Security was intended to cover, let's say, 35 to 40% of pre-retirement income and I'll need perhaps 80% of my pre-retirement income to maintain my lifestyle because hopefully the house is paid off by then, the kids are off the payroll, and maybe I'm spending less on food, eating out because I'm not going to work or clothing or gas. There are expenses that will come down even though there's a few, namely medical expenses that might increase in that season of life. Often folks will live on between 70 and 80% of their pre-retirement income.

So how are you going to solve that gap between Social Security and what you need to maintain your lifestyle? Well, you're able to actually compute that number and determine what do I need in savings ideally that I could generate a sustainable rate of return so that I could pull an income stream and not deplete that over time even if I live a long time. Well, you can get to that number, and I think doing that planning so you know what your target is will really be advantageous.

Here's another thing it does for you. It allows you to establish a financial finish line so that if you happen to be in a position that you reach that or you know you're well on track to reach it, you don't necessarily want to over accumulate. And the idea there is we say, okay, maybe I can accelerate my giving right now because I know I'm on track or I'm on pace to well exceed my retirement goal.

Remember, it's not a matter of just a mindless accumulation of wealth. It's really around how do I use what God has entrusted to me, his resources to accomplish his purposes that align with my values. What's most important to me as a Christ follower, and certainly that includes providing for my family and enjoying what God's given me, but it also includes giving and generosity, being a part of God's activity, not only in Judea and Samaria, but Jerusalem and to the ends of the earth, right? But you also want to think about the great commission and loving your neighbor, the great commandment and thinking about loving the Lord, your God with all your heart. Well, how do you do that through your use of God's resources? Well, it's aligning it with the ministries and activities of God through our generosity. So something to think about as we kind of put all of this together and think about what is a biblical worldview of retirement? What is an appropriate way to look at God's resources and my role as a steward and how much is enough in terms of my lifestyle and my accumulation, and might I be over-accumulating? And if not, what do I need to do right now to be putting something aside, perhaps even dialing back my lifestyle so I can free up more margin to be able to get back on track, perhaps in terms of what I ultimately need? Lots to think about there, and I think a lot of these require us to start with, if not all of them, prayer and inviting God into your financial life as you consider all of these factors.

So hopefully that's an encouragement to you today. If you want to talk about that or anything else in your financial life, give us a call. We're ready to dive into those questions. We've got lines open today. The number 800-525-7000. Again that's 800-525-7000. Let's begin today in New Jersey and you'll be our first caller.

Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. It's about Social Security. I am divorced and started drawing my Social Security benefit at 62 and within a few months I was notified by Social Security that I could possibly get a higher benefit. So I went and talked with them and they gave me a slight increase because half of my former husband's benefit was higher than what I was receiving. However, I'm wondering now that if I would be eligible for survivor benefits in the future if my husband happened to pass away before I did.

Yes. And the answer is generally you are as long as you meet the requirements. So you would have to be at least 60 years old. You would have had to have been married to the deceased at that point for your marriage would have to have lasted at least 10 years and you would have to not be eligible for an equal or higher benefit on your own work record and you would also need to be unmarried at least unmarried prior to the age of 60 you could marry remarry after 60. So if those things do apply to your situation then yes the Social Security Administration will automatically switch you and if they don't you could contact them to survivor's benefits once they receive notice that your ex-husband has passed away and then the amount of the benefit would increase depending upon your age and that would be you know whether you wait until full retirement age or you take it early would determine how much you get.

Okay because he was he's not drawing his own as of yet but I guess that doesn't matter. No that's correct. So you know it's really what his it's based on his full retirement age benefit and you would be able to get those survivor's benefits and then you'd have to decide do you wait until full retirement age and get the full benefit and you do as a survivor's benefit have the ability to be selective as to when you choose to move over to those benefits so you could continue to earn yours if you wanted to and then switch over at a later date or you could begin taking it right away. Okay so that slight increase that I got won't affect that at all. It does not.

Okay all right that's whatever. This is only based on his work record and his benefit record and your age are the two criteria that affect you know when you what you will receive when you begin collecting survivor's benefits at that point. So it absolutely will be available to you and if you want to get into the kind of nuts and bolts of the actual numbers and comparing what you will receive down the road versus what you're getting now I'd recommend you schedule a meeting with the Social Security Administration they can go through the numbers with you but the bottom line is as long as you meet those requirements you should be able to collect those survivor's benefits. Hope that's helpful to you Anne. Thanks for calling today. We've got some lines open we're taking your calls and questions on anything financial. Whatever's going on in your financial life will help you think about it in light of biblical wisdom and make a practical decision to move forward. The number 800-525-7000 we'll be back with much more just around the corner.

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Let's go to Georgia. Hi Trey, how can I help you? What I was calling in reference to and I came in on the tail end of it the other day is that I'm paying for my mother's life and death insurance and she is 96 years old. Would it be feasible to cancel that insurance and get the cash value and take the money from the cash value and go ahead and give a check to the funeral home, do the cash value and continue paying on insurance or just cutting insurance period because at 96 years old I don't think he's going to grant any more money on it. Right. Yeah, very good. So is the cash value declining or are you all continuing to pay premium?

What's the status of it? Continuing to pay premium. Okay. Like $120 a month.

$120 a month. Okay. And is that level or is that increasing over time?

Level because at 96 years old when she bought it, it probably during the time when she bought it was years and years ago, she was born in 1928. Okay. But that premium, they're not raising it on you. It's the same amount every month.

No, no. Okay. And what is the death benefit? Now that, I don't have it in front of me, but I think it's supposed to be up to $10,000. Okay. And what is the cash value today? It's like $5,000. About $5,000. Okay. So a little less a year.

Okay. Well, I mean, I kind of like that. I mean, if she's in relatively good health, you know, you're spending $1,500 a year on premiums. And so, I mean, you've got a couple of options. One is, you know, depending on the current status of her health, you know, it could make sense just to go ahead and wait and when the Lord calls her home, collect the $10,000. If she's in relatively good health, despite her age at 96, you know, adding $1,500 a year in premium to that policy probably doesn't make a lot of sense. And so you could take that $5,000 in cash value. You need to understand if there's any taxes due on that. There may not be just because of how much premium you've paid in. And then you could take that into your point. You could at the very least do some pre-planning for funeral expenses.

So all of that's done. You could even do a prepayment so that you don't have to think about it at that time. So I could probably go one direction or the other. I think it would involve, as a next step, you looking at what is the death benefit and, you know, just obviously you have no idea when the Lord's going to call her home. But I think if she's in relatively good health and the difference is $5,000 cash value, $10,000 death benefit, it probably makes sense just to go and unwind that, take the cash and do the pre-planning now. If she's not in good health, you may want to just wait and collect the $10,000 death benefit and use it for the same purpose.

At the very least, you're going to want to do the planning ahead of time so you all don't have to make those decisions at an already difficult season when you're facing the loss of a loved one. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And she's in good health. Okay.

Considering that she's good. Okay, good. Well, having a grandmother that lived to 104, I know what that's like. And so I think that can make a lot of sense, Trey, the direction you're headed where you just go and collapse the policy, take the cash value, get as much of those pieces in place as you can right now. And you don't have to continue to pay that premium any longer. So hopefully that's helpful for you. Thanks for being on the program today. All the best to you, sir. We're going to go to Arkansas next. Hi, Scott.

Go ahead, sir. I had a question about consolidation or whether it's best to consolidate different traditional IRA and 401k accounts. I've worked for different companies over the years, and I have actually two different 401k investments and a third that's my own private Roth IRA and traditional IRA account in different companies. Is it best to consolidate these all into a single traditional IRA and or Roth IRA? Yeah, I like that option, Scott, just because it reduces the complexity and the oversight that you have to bring. I mean, when you have multiple accounts, you've got to keep track of multiple accounts, which means you've got to make sure that you have a consistent investment strategy. And anytime you make changes to the investment strategy, you have to do it in multiple places. So anytime we can consolidate that, not to mention the fact that if you've got some accounts that are very small, it just limits the investment options you have available to you versus consolidating it in one place, which means you have more in the way of total investable assets, which does open up additional options.

Certain mutual funds, for example, will have minimum. So I like that idea that you would consolidate. I'm not concerned about having everything at one firm. I'm not even concerned about having everything under the guidance and oversight of one advisor.

Should you be delegating that away from yourself? So I think that does make some sense and it's fairly simple. As you collect all of those accounts, get the paperwork, you can just do rollovers right into that new IRA. And then the key is just to give regular oversight to the investment mix that you have to make sure that it's appropriate for your age and goals and objectives.

But any questions on that? Well, I guess the only complexity in some of that is that my contributions were all Roth IRA, but the company contributions were traditional IRA. And I have both Roth and traditional IRA accounts of my own. So just consolidate into those accounts and then hopefully I want to pay taxes and convert some of the traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs. Does that sound like a good way to do it? It does.

Yeah. So when I was saying consolidate, I was saying consolidate the traditionals to the traditional IRA and the Roths to the Roth IRA, not necessarily combining them through a Roth conversion. So if you have Roth 401ks hanging out there, those would roll into the existing Roth IRA. Or let's say you have multiple Roth IRAs, you could combine them and then the same would be true with the traditional 401ks into the traditional IRA. So I think that one's a no brainer just to get everything in essentially what would become two accounts, one Roth and one traditional.

Now the idea that you would convert a portion of the traditional over to a Roth, you could certainly look at that. The good news is tax rates are low. We don't know obviously the outcome of the election.

We will come this November. If nothing changes, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from Trump expires and we know tax rates are headed higher. So there is the opportunity for you to go ahead and convert now. I think the key would be is there enough reason to do that in the sense that yes, the tax rates are one factor, but the other factor is the Roth really shines when you have time on your side and you can get the benefit of that tax free growth.

And then of course on top of that, you have no required minimum distribution. But I think just kind of working with your CPA and making some of those decisions on does it make sense to convert and if so, what portion of your traditional? You certainly wouldn't want to do too much where it's pushing it up into a higher tax bracket in any one year.

But it is something to consider I think in concert with your other professionals. Great. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Yes, sir. God bless you. Thanks for being on the program today. That's going to do it for us today, folks.

Jim, Robert, couldn't do it without him. Hey, check us out online at faithfi.com while you're there. Perhaps support the ministry by clicking Give. Thanks in advance for that. 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.