This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Christian Credit Counselors. If you're struggling with credit card debt but don't know where to start, our trusted partner Christian Credit Counselors offers a debt management program that can get you out of credit card debt 80% faster while honoring your debt in full.
Contact them to get out of debt today at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. Ecclesiastes 3.13 says every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor. It is the gift of God.
I am Rob West. The Bible calls work a gift. But if you have to work more than one job, it might not feel like it. Today we'll offer a few practical and spiritual insights for working multiple jobs. And 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 decisions. The work God gave Adam and Eve was a gift for another reason. Work in the garden was a partnership with God. He created the world, but he invited Adam and Eve to maintain and cultivate it, participating in the ongoing act of creation and flourishing. It wasn't a burden, but rather a meaningful activity that allowed them to reflect God's creative and sustaining nature. What does all of this have to do with your job today? Well, obviously we're a long way out of paradise, and the curse of sin makes work a constant struggle for people.
Read Genesis 1-3 and you'll see why. In spite of sin, the desire for meaningful, satisfying work is still inside of us. Nowadays when finances are tight for many folks, it's not unusual to find individuals working multiple jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 7.7 million workers are holding down two jobs. 400,000 of those are working two full-time jobs at the same time.
That data is from 2022, so the numbers are probably even higher today. We'll talk about the spiritual ramifications of working multiple jobs in a moment, but first let's get practical. Whether you're considering a second job to make ends meet or to beef up your savings, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, keep the job separate. Have a system for keeping track of the details, including job tasks, schedules, and contacts.
Whether you do this with an online app like Asana or Trello, or you keep track with a paper and pen day planner, it's important to stay organized. Next, communicate. Effective communication with your employers, coworkers, and customers is especially important if you're managing multiple jobs. That means check in with each employer and stay in touch with your team members about current projects and schedules.
Plus, expectations and deadlines need to be clearly stated in writing. Time management is the third element you'll need if you're working more than one job. Set boundaries for yourself so you get the jobs done without burning out. If you're working from home, set aside physical space for work and take appropriate breaks. Working multiple jobs doesn't have to be overwhelming. You can stay on top of it if you stay organized, communicate clearly, and manage your time. And don't forget to take care of yourself spiritually. It's critical not to allow your relationship with the Lord to take a back seat because of your busy schedule. In fact, your relationship with the Lord should be in the front seat, especially when you're busy. Try to do it all yourself and you risk turning your need to work into an all-consuming idol.
An idol replaces the Lord in your mind and heart, but has no power to satisfy you. Here are a few clues that your work might be an idol, whether you have one job or many. Your self-worth rises or falls based on meeting your income goals. You give up rest, family time, and church in order to put in extra work hours. You can't take your mind off of work tasks, emails, calls, and issues. You are stressed out, discouraged, and exhausted by working. You believe that financial security is the main reason for work. You are obsessed with productivity, success, income, and promotion. You believe your paycheck is your provider. And finally, a very telling indication, you make money, but you don't like to give money. If work is becoming an idol for you, rest and turn to Jesus instead.
Satisfying work isn't about you, it's about who. When you focus on Christ and follow biblical principles, your attitude towards work will change as well. You'll begin to see the opportunities God's giving you to reach others. You'll understand that difficult circumstances are sometimes God's way of helping you grow up as a Christian.
You'll recognize that God is your provider and you can trust him to lead you and take care of you. 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.
We'll be right back. Give, 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.
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Soundmindinvesting.org. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. The calls are coming in, but we've got a few lines open.
Whatever your financial questions are today, we'd love to tackle them with you. You can call right now at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Autumn is our call screener today and looking forward to taking your calls. We'll try to get you on the air quickly.
Again, 800-525-7000. Before we dive into those questions today, in the news today, here's the question. Are payday or paycheck advance programs by employers just another form of those infamous payday loans?
Well, the CFPB thinks so. That's the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and it's going after them. The program, sometimes called earned wage access, are popular among workers and allow them to get funds from their next paycheck, often by paying a fee.
Now, the CFPB is proposing a new rule that would designate these programs, both those offered directly by employers and those accessing them through apps as consumer loans that should be subject to the Truth in Lending Act. At least 7 million workers borrowed a total of $22 billion from their wages before payday in 2022, the most recent year that the data is available. How much are workers paying to get that money early? Well, the CFPB says a typical annual interest rate is almost 110%. But another survey by the California Department of Financial Protection conducted in 2023 found that the average user was actually paying 330% when you analyze it.
Now, that certainly does sound like one of those notorious payday loans you can get on the street. You don't want to take out either one of those and the way to do that is to get on a budget that gives you margin or excess funds each pay period to put in your emergency fund and then you won't need to borrow to get to the next payday. If you need help with that, we'd love for you to download the Faithfi app at faithfi.com. The app will help you set up that budget that you need and track your expenses. You can even assign a specific income amount to specific envelopes. So keep in mind, we're not actually moving money anywhere.
It's all done just in the app for your knowledge and helpful insight. But what you would do is you'd actually say, okay, I'm going to get X dollars in this paycheck on this date. And I want to go ahead and allocate that to specific envelopes. So you can decide in advance which envelopes to fund and how you're going to pay bills from each check, which just makes sure that you have the money you need to cover the bills because you're actually going through every bill and saying, all right, this check is going to cover that this check is going to cover this.
And the idea is hopefully, between now and the place where you've got margin, maybe even one month's cushion there in your operating account, you can get to a place where you don't need anything close to a payday loan. Again, to check it out, just head to our website, faithfi.com. All right, we're going to dive in today. And we're going to begin in Maine with Patty, you can go right ahead. Yes.
Hi. My question is, is that I have a property that I will be selling. And it's a home that was from my divorce settlement. And I was just wondering, what is the amount that should be tied from that sale of that property?
Hmm, yeah, it's a great question, Patty. So, you know, I love the fact that you want to honor the Lord by tithing on the sale of your home, whenever we're talking about a tithe, we're talking about the increase. And so the question is, what is the increase when we're selling any asset, including a home, and it's a fairly easy calculation, essentially, what you would do is you would take the original purchase price, so whatever you all paid for it originally. And then any improvements you made to the property.
Now, this is not just regular maintenance, when you know the roof wears out, and you have to replace it, or the AC goes out, and you have to replace that. But anything that enhanced the value of the property, adding a deck, finishing a basement, things like that, there are improvements, and then any costs associated with selling the property. So real estate agent fees, attorney's fees, those kinds of things. The total of those three, the original purchase price, the improvements, and any costs related to selling would be subtracted from the selling price.
So whatever that total number is, you would take the sales price that you know, when you when it's liquidated, when it's sold, and subtract those three that I just mentioned, and whatever is left over is your increase. And then the word tithe means a 10th. And so you would take a 10th of that amount. Does that make sense?
It makes perfect sense. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And obviously, if you're sharing that, then you would take the increase on your portion of it, if through the divorce settlement, you got the entire home.
Well, then, you know, 100% of the increase you would you would tithe on after you make that calculation. Okay. That's great information. I appreciate you happy to do that. No problem, Patty. Thank you. You too. And thanks for your call today. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's go to Glenview, Illinois. Hi, Karen, go ahead. Hi, Rob, thanks for taking my call.
I'm hoping this question you can help me with. At 55, I had to leave the job market and go on disability because of a medical crisis. And it's a permanent medical issue. So since 55 to 65, I was on disability and getting my health insurance through that channel. But at 65, I was automatically switched to Social Security. And I'm wondering if there's a way I can turn off the Social Security. I had initially intended to work until I was 72, which would be my normal period that I do it. But I don't know if because I turned on Social Security has been turned on that I can't turn it off anymore. I just have to live with that amount. I received the lowest amount because I had to leave the job market so early.
And I'm trying to figure out a way I can recoup it. Yeah, you can suspend your Social Security benefits to earn delayed retirement credits if you've reached full retirement age. So they can be suspended for any length of time after you reach your full retirement age, which you're there. You can only suspend your benefits until you reach age 70. After 70, you would have to start receiving your benefits again if you haven't already. But once you reach full retirement age, you can suspend those benefits and get delayed retirement credits.
Okay. And would you know, so I was born in 57. So I'm not sure what the tax laws are, but I'm pretty sure that I do know because I received a letter from Social Security that now I'm on Social Security. So if I contact them and say I'm going to suspend Social Security, do I also lose my health insurance and then I have to find a private health insurance? No, no. You would still be able to have Medicare even though you suspended your retirement benefits.
Okay. So how would I go about this? Would I contact the Social Security Department?
Yes. You would want to go to the website SSA.gov and perhaps schedule an appointment to go down and see them. You could try to catch them on the phone. But the bottom line there to that second question is Medicare is a separate program from Social Security. So suspending voluntarily your Social Security retirement benefits does not apply to Medicare.
So, yeah, you're going to want to reach out to them SSA.gov and either schedule a meeting or, you know, get through over the phone, which you need to be patient. It's not always easy to do, but you'll definitely be able to make contact with someone. Karen, thank you for your call today. Absolutely. May the Lord bless you. Well, folks, a quick break and back with our final segment. I've got room for perhaps one more question.
800-525-7000. Stay with us. We'll be right back. If you enjoy this radio program, you're going to love all of the many different resources waiting for you at FaithFi.com and the FaithFi app. You'll find powerful wisdom, free podcasts, articles, videos, and more from leading voices such as Randy Alcorn, Howard Dayton, Ron Blue, and our own Rob West. Grow in wisdom and knowledge by connecting with a community of thousands of Christians striving to be good and faithful stewards at FaithFi.com or by downloading the FaithFi app. If the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind, Christian credit counselors can help. We're a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300,000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80 percent faster while honoring that debt in full. To learn how Christian credit counselors can help you, visit Christiancreditcounselors.org. That's Christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985. Helping you see God as your ultimate treasure and money a tool. I'm Rob West.
This is Faith in Finance. Let's go right back to the phones to Lakeland, Florida. Hi, Clinton. Thanks for calling. Go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call.
I'm calling because I really needed your help. It's more so about the whole life insurance policies that I've been introduced to and I've been told that there's a whole life insurance policy that you can buy and also use it to save. And as you save on it, you're able to basically with time, you're able to even borrow against it. So it's like it's a two in one.
What do you think about that? Is it a legitimate thing? Well, it is legitimate, but I'm just not a big fan of it for most people. I mean, there are some situations where you need permanent insurance. It could be for a buy sell agreement, for a business that you have, could be for a lifelong dependent. But for most people who are just looking to save and invest and also make sure they have appropriate life insurance coverage in the event that you pass away and you have somebody who's depending upon your income, who would face a hardship in the event that you at your death, your income goes away. You can solve for those things separately, I believe more effectively than you can in a combined product like whole life insurance, because whole life insurance is life insurance with a savings vehicle.
And you're correct, it is two in one. And you are correct that you do have the ability to borrow from these policies. However, they tend to have higher costs, smaller death benefits because of the higher costs and lack of investment control.
But a lot of folks like them because they're permanent. And if you have a reason to have a permanent policy, you know, that can make some sense. And then again, you can borrow against the cash value.
So what would I prefer for most people? Well, when you separate these two things, then what you would do is you'd say, okay, for my insurance coverage, I'm going to buy life insurance, I'm going to buy pure insurance. And that's really term insurance. It's the most cost effective, it might be one fifth of the premium of a whole life policy. And you're just you're just offsetting the risk based on the mortality tables of your age and health status and the amount of coverage you need. And the idea is that you never collect on it. And you only have it during your working years. And then when you stop working, because you've saved enough in the way of assets, you drop the policy, and you don't need it anymore.
Because if you were to pass away, it doesn't create any hardship at all for any kind of dependent like a spouse. And then with your savings, you save in other vehicles, namely company sponsored retirement plans, or IRAs, or real estate, or all three of those. And you do that without limiting your upside. Yes, you assume some downside risk, if the market declines the housing market, the stock market, the bond market.
But what we see is that over the long haul, that is 2030 4050 60 years, you're going to do really well. By taking advantage of the high highs, even counting the low lows, you know, you should grow your wealth over time, and not pay as much in the way of fees have more control over the investments have greater access to the money. Whereas with an insurance product, you know, you're going to have not as as good of options in those three areas, cost, flexibility and access to the funds.
So for those reasons, Clinton, unless you have an unusual situation, you know, like I mentioned with a needing a buy sell agreement on a business or a lifelong dependent, I would not advise whole life insurance for the average person. But I've given you a lot of information. Does that make sense to you? I mean, it does very much. So yeah, I think you've blown it out of proportion that I appreciate because it opened up more for me to understand where someone will come from to say they do not.
They are against it. So I understand it. So I appreciate it so much.
Absolutely, Clinton. Well, God bless you. And thanks for calling. If I can serve you in any other way in the future. Don't hesitate to reach out.
Let's go to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Hi, James. Thanks for your call, sir. Go ahead.
Yes, I was calling. I have a mortgage and have four years to pay less on it. And the balance is about $25,000. The mortgage payment is about $1,000 a month. I said how can I pay it off in two years or less?
Yeah, yeah, very good. What I would do, James, is I would just go to your internet search engine and type in mortgage payoff calculator, and you'll find 100 of them. Bankrate.com has a good one, by the way. And what you can do is you can put in your current balance, and you can put in your current interest rate.
And you can put in the length of payback that you want. And then you can solve for, when you click the button, what do I need to send every month? And it will actually calculate the amortization to tell you here's exactly what you need to send every month in order to pay this off in however many months or years you would like to do that. Now, the only question I would have is once you have that information, let's just make sure that's the best place to use your excess surplus. And the only thing that I would say comes before that is one, if you have any high interest credit card debt, I'd pay that off first. Number two is if you don't have an emergency fund of, I'll say, a minimum of three months worth of expenses, I'd probably put that before the house just because as soon as you put that money on the house, it's not very accessible. And if you have an unexpected expense, I don't want you to have to fall back on the credit cards if you don't have any emergency savings. But assuming you're putting money in and taking advantage of any matching in your 401k, assuming you don't have any high interest credit card debt, assuming you've got some emergency fund in place, then I love the idea of you getting this $25,000 on your home paid off because that's going to eliminate that $1,000 a month and put that back into your budget. That's great. You're going to save the interest on the money that that you still owe.
And that free mortgage calculator, any one of 100 of them that you'll find online will help you determine exactly what you need to send every month in order to accomplish your goal. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Awesome. Is there any other questions you have?
No, that was it. All right. You're very welcome. May the Lord bless you. Let's head to Mississippi. Hi, Dan. Go ahead.
Hi. I retired at age 62. I just turned 65. My retirement age is 66 and 10 months. And I'm drawing Social Security. I pastor two rural churches, and they are paying into a retirement plan about a total of $300 a month. And I was considering maybe seeing if it's okay to give money into a Roth IRA or some other type retirement plan also. Oh, no doubt. As long as you have earned income, Dan, up to the amount you contribute and not beyond the annual contribution limit, you absolutely could continue to contribute to an IRA.
There is no age limit so long as you have earned income up to the amount you're contributing. Okay, that's great. All right.
That's what I needed to know. Excellent. Well, thank you for your service to the Lord. I'm sure you're a real blessing to those rural churches, and we appreciate you being on the program today.
May the Lord bless you. Well, folks, thanks for being along with us today. A big thanks to my team today. We're grateful for Sandy and Jim and Devin.
Couldn't do it without them. Have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you next week. Lord bless you. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.
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