Finding True Contentment

Do you feel weighted down by financial stress?

You're not alone. Money worries touch all of us. But Jesus tells us we don't have to carry that burden. That's why we at Faith Buy have written Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional from Faith Buy. Each day, you'll find scripture, reflection, and prayer to guide you through your journey toward peace. Request a copy of the Look at the Sparrows devotional today with your gift of $25 or more by going to faithbuy.com slash give.

That's faithbuy.com slash give. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. Are you feeling thankful yet? Or are you too stressed out by the cares of this world? Hi, I'm Rob West.

This is always a great time of year to count our blessings and give thanks. But sometimes fear and anxiety can get in the way, especially over money. We'll talk about how you can find contentment today. 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. Do you ever find yourself in the one-day mindset believing that one day I'll be out of debt, one day I'll have enough money, one day I'll be able to stop worrying about my investments, or one day I'll finally be able to relax? We yearn for contentment, hoping to find it someday. But is it possible to experience contentment in every moment of every day? Well, according to the Apostle Paul, it is indeed possible. Our mistake lies in seeking contentment in the wrong places.

When our contentment depends on our circumstances, it will always be temporary because circumstances constantly change. During his lifetime, the Apostle Paul went from worldly success to the depths of poverty. He had been a well-respected Pharisee but became an imprisoned and impoverished follower of Christ. Despite all this, Paul writes in Philippians 4 that he had discovered the secret to contentment. It was not in his circumstances but in the person and work of Jesus.

He writes from verses 11 through 13. Paul experienced both plenty and want, and neither affected him because his contentment was based on something far beyond this world, his relationship with Christ. Does this ability come naturally, suddenly appearing the day you pray the sinner's prayer and accept Christ as Lord and Savior? Well, that would be wonderful, but Paul stresses that contentment is a learned behavior.

You have to work at it. When we take our eyes off our circumstances and place them on God as Paul did, it changes our perspective. We begin to see that nothing in this world – not money, success, status, people, possessions, or even a booming economy – will ever bring lasting contentment. Only a deep, personal relationship with Jesus can offer what our souls long for.

Hebrews 13 5 encourages us to keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, this is Thanksgiving week, so we don't want to forget about the crucial role of thankfulness in the pursuit of contentment. When you recognize what God has already done for you, the incredible provision and blessings he's given you, you begin to form a heart of gratitude. Like my friend Dr. Art Raynor likes to say, when you realize that you're entitled to nothing, you become thankful for everything. If you're finding it hard to feel content in your current situation, practicing gratitude intentionally can help break through that negative mindset. It redirects your focus from what's missing to what you already have, reminding you of God's sovereignty and goodness.

He has promised to provide, and he is always faithful to his promises. If you're not feeling particularly thankful or content today, here are five practical steps to help improve your perspective. First, make gratitude a daily habit. Begin each day by listing three things you're grateful for.

This simple practice shifts your focus from what you lack to what you already have. Second, bring your needs to God. Share your needs, not once, with God, approaching him with a heart of thankfulness. Acknowledge all he's given you, and trust him to continue providing for you in the future. Find contentment in Christ. True contentment is found in Christ alone. Reflect on Philippians 4, 11 through 13, reminding yourself daily that Christ is sufficient for every need.

Appreciate the present. Take a moment to savor the blessings around you. Stop striving for more.

Take a deep breath and find joy in what you have right now. And finally, practice generosity. Generosity puts gratitude into action and fosters contentment. Giving to others reminds us of our own abundance and the joy of sharing those blessings. If you're struggling with financial fear and anxiety this season or know someone who is, I encourage you to get a copy of our 21-day devotional, Look at the Sparrows. It offers guidance and strength to help you find peace and contentment no matter the circumstances. You can receive a copy by visiting faithfi.com slash give and making a gift of $25 or more. That's faithfi.com slash give.

We'll be right back. Are you overwhelmed by financial fear and anxiety? At FaithFi, we hear it every day. People weigh down by worries related to wealth and money. But financial anxiety isn't about the size of your bank account.

It's about the condition of your heart. That's why we've created Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional that'll help you find peace through Jesus' teachings. Request a copy of the Look at the Sparrows devotional today with your gift of $25 or more by going to faithfi.com slash give. Paying too much for health insurance? Frustrated by high deductibles and increasing premiums?

There's a better way. Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a Christian community delivering a faith-based solution to the high cost of healthcare. Take control over your healthcare costs with a program from CHM that could save you up to 40%. Learn more and enroll today at chministries.org slash faithfi.

That's chministries.org slash faithfi. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance. I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions here in just a moment. So we'd love for you to get in on the conversation today. That number to call 800-525-7000. Again, it's 800-525-7000. The calls are beginning to come in today. We'd love to get yours in the mix. So be sure to call right now. Let's head to Georgia right now. Sharon, thanks for calling.

How can I help you? I'm divorced and after 30 years of marriage, I wanted to see, do you have any benefits that I still have since I'm divorced in retirement from his retirement or if anything happens with him with any death benefits or have any benefits after that or is everything over after divorce? No, no, no, it's not over. As long as you were married for 10 years and the divorce was finalized before the death of the ex-spouse and you're at least 60 years of age and not, you know, you haven't remarried, then you would typically be eligible for social security survivors benefits when your ex-spouse dies.

So eligibility for those would depend on, you know, whether a qualified domestic relations order was issued during the divorce with regard to private pension survivors benefits, but with regard to social security, you should qualify as long as you meet the criteria that I mentioned. Okay. Both our names are on the mortgage, but he wants to sell it, you know, for the financial portion of it.

Do I have any rights to, if I want to keep it or what I just have to, only thing I can do is just refinance or do I have any other rights? Yeah. Yeah. Well, how, how was the house handled in the QDRO for the divorce? Okay. Well, he, he's the only one that's paid the mortgage, but both our names are on the mortgage. Okay.

And that was the outcome of the court in the divorce filing. You were given 50 50 ownership of it? Well, I have 65%. He has 65. I have, I have 65. I have 55.

He has 45. Got it. Okay. Yeah.

Very good. So yeah, with you all being joint owners, you'd have to make that decision together. And so if he wants to liquidate the asset, unfortunately you can't sell 45% of the house.

So yeah, you would either have to refinance it and kind of buy his portion out, you know, by getting cash out or you would, you know, typically then just allow the home to be sold and then you would get the proceeds based on your ownership percentage after any mortgage is paid. Okay. All right.

That's what I need to know. Thank you so much. You're welcome, Sharon. Thank you for your call today to Illinois. Hi, Chris, go ahead. Hi, my question is I'm going through a divorce. Hopefully it will be done in the next few months, but I have one loan for my car. It's like just under $20,000 and I do have some investments and I've wondered if I should, if it would be a good idea for me to pay off my car through taking some money out of my IRAs to get that debt that you know, that credit down.

Yeah, it certainly could. Uh, Chris, let's talk about this for a moment. So what is your age? If you don't mind me asking 70. Okay. So you're 70 years old and you've got about 400,000 in your IRA. Are you living off of that? Is that part of your monthly income?

No, it's not at this point. Okay. So you're just letting that continue to grow. And what is that invested in? It's invested in, I'm not sure of the accounts.

Okay. Stocks and bonds or CDs or cash, or what do you think? Stocks and bonds. It's stocks and bonds.

One of the accounts, you can take so much out of it without having to pay interest. Hmm. Okay. Like, you know, if you need extra cash or something.

Sure, sure. But it is inside an IRA, so it is going to be taxable to you when you take it out. So you just need to be aware of that. We'll have to factor, we'll have to factor that in because any, any money that's, as long as it, unless it's a Roth IRA, then it would not be taxable.

But if it's a traditional IRA, then as you pull it out, it's going to be treated like income from, from a federal and state tax perspective. Okay. So you're not touching that. So what are you living on? Just social security? Just social security.

And then I have a small maintenance that comes in every month. Okay. Very good. I don't know what, I don't know what I'll have after the divorce. I don't know how things are going to work out at all. Okay.

Are you, are you collecting social security based on your own work record or are you taking a spousal benefit? Do you know? My own, my own. So, so that won't change. So we know we'll have at least that. Now, do you believe that this 400,000 IRA is going to be split between you and your soon to be ex-husband or is that going to stay with you?

I'm pretty sure it's going to stay with me because we both have the kind of the same amount in our IRAs. Okay. So that, yeah. And do you believe that both of the car loans are going to be your responsibility as well as the furniture loan? I have one car. Okay.

Oh, I see. So you have two debts, a car loan and a furniture loan. Those are the two car loan and a furniture loan. Okay. And you're at 19,000 on those.

Do you happen to know what the interest rate is on either of those? I think the car was like 2.5 or something. Okay. All right.

It's been almost two years since I've had the car. The furniture loan is one that you pay off in, you know, no interest for 15 months or 18 months or something. That's what the furniture is. All right. And what portion of the 19 is the furniture loan? The 19 is all the car loan. Okay.

Furniture's on top of that. All right. And then what's your primary motivation to get these paid off? Is it just kind of simplify things and be out of debt or is there some other reason driving your desire to get these paid off? Just to get out of debt. Okay.

All right. And have that extra money in case I need it for, you know, car medical or anything like that. And then I realize things may change after the divorce decree, but let's just say all things being equal, if you continue to pay on these debts just on the regularly scheduled payments to pay them off, do you have anything left over at the end of the month, assuming you don't touch the IRA or are you kind of right up to the edge? No, I do have, I've set my budget to where everything that I have to pay off for the month, I've budgeted and it's a separate account. So everything that I've budgeted comes out of there and I do have money in there because I don't want to run short. So I do put, you know, all the budgeted money is in one account. Okay.

So you just based on you living off of your social security alone, you can pay all your bills and then you usually have something left over at the end of the month. Yes. Yes. Okay. And so I care of my, you know, I haven't put my medical in there, my medical bills or my car, like dark gas and, but I did put gas in there, but like oil changes and stuff. That's all in my personal spendable account. Okay. All right.

Well, here's my thought. I mean, certainly if you want to take it out and pay it off, you certainly can do that. And if that just gives you more peace of mind, then go for it.

I don't have a problem with that. I guess, you know, I think I'd probably, you know, try to pay off the small furniture loan just out of your cash flow, because it sounds like you have a little extra and you don't need to create that taxable event by pulling it out of the IRA. You already could, but given that you've got plenty of savings and you've got a surplus every month, I'd probably just try to pay off the furniture loan first, because that car debt interest rate is so low, just out of your current cash flow, out of your surplus every month. Now, if you got to the end where the interest rate was going to jump up, because you're at the end of the 18 month promotional period or whatever it is, and you don't have the ability just to write the check out of savings, or that would deplete your savings account, then you could pull it from the IRA. But I don't know that I would rush to pull that money out of the IRA. I might just let that continue to grow. And because the car debt interest rate is so low, and because you're living so modestly and you've got a surplus, I'd probably just try to fund those out of your current cash flow, so long as you get the car, the furniture loan done by the time the interest rate jumps. That's just my perspective. Now, if you just feel a conviction to be out of debt, well then go for it. And I wouldn't have a problem with that. Hang on the line. Let's talk a bit more off the air.

We'll be right back. Do you feel like your hands are tied with debt preventing you from serving God? If you have credit card debt, Christian credit counselors can help.

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This is Rob West. You're listening to Faith and Finance. All right, here in our final segment, we've got room for one or two more questions. If you have a question in your financial life, you can call right now. 800-525-7000. Our team is standing by and would love to hear from you today. Let's try to get in an email or two. These come into us all the time and I don't get to them as often as I should.

You can send emails to us at askrob.faithfi.com. Let's see, Connie writes to us, my dad has a HELOC. That's a home equity line of credit with an interest rate of 9.49%. We want to get rid of it. And we're wondering if a zero interest credit card might be a good option to do this. Is there another option you'd suggest?

I don't like that at all. You know, here's the reality is, you know, a lot of folks will have a HELOC on their house just because they want to know that if they needed to as a last resort, they can tap the home equity, either because they know there's a project coming up renovation or just as kind of a fallback access to funds. I would much prefer that than having just a credit card sitting out there because the problem is that that zero percent interest rate, first of all, is just introductory. And then the interest rate is going to shoot up to probably 20% or higher based on today's rates.

That's going to make the problem even worse. The other thing is this HELOC interest rate is pegged to prime. And so typically what we see with these is they're variable rates.

So they're not fixed with a line of credit, not a home equity loan, but a home equity line of credit, otherwise known as a HELOC. Typically, they're linked to prime and you're going to have prime plus a margin. So they're typically prime plus one, all the way up to prime plus five if you have poor credit score. But if you're 760 or higher, you're going to probably be at prime plus one. Well, what is prime? Well, today, prime is sitting at eight percent.

And so you'd be at nine. You know, if it was prime plus 1.5, that is probably where this 9.49 rate is coming from, from Connie. But prime is going to be coming down with the fed funds rate. So that prime rate is going to be dropping. Now, the big question here for Connie is, you know, you want to get rid of the line, I would say just close it out.

And that's great. We obviously want to get into a situation where he's living on a balanced budget, and he has an emergency fund that we would tap for the unexpected not taking on additional debt. But if you need something out there that's accessible, I'd rather have the HELOC with that rate declining. And I'm not talking about for consumer spending, we don't want to put that on the house. But if there was like a renovation or some kind of major event, I would certainly prefer that especially with that rate coming down. Let's stay away from those credit cards.

I hope that helps. Lutz writes, we recently sold our house and have around 350,000 sitting in a bank that earns practically nothing. My husband is suspicious of moving it into a high yield savings account because it's not a brick and mortar bank. Are there any concerns we should be aware of? If not, how can we go about finding a good bank online?

You know, this is a great question. And Lutz, what I would say is, online banks are insured by the FDIC, just like brick brick and mortar banks, and they're just as safe as any brick and mortar bank. The difference is they just take the money that they have to pay for the people at the brick and mortar banks, not to mention the leases and the land and the buildings and the water and everything. And they redirect that in back to you as the depositor in the form of higher interest rates.

That's a good thing, not a bad thing. And you can look at their rating alongside their FDIC and protection. But that FDIC insurance, or NCUA in the case of a credit union, or even private insurance is going to be the backstop that you need so that the either the full faith and credit of the United States government or the insurer is the one backstopping any kind of failure on the part of the bank, which just very rarely happens.

So I would say this is a great opportunity, especially when you've got this sum of money. I mean, we've got 350,000 there. And you know, think about where rates are right now. I mean, you can still get four and a quarter with FDIC insurance. Now you'd have to use two institutions to get the full 350,000 because the cap is 250 on the FDIC. But you can either use two banks, or if you have different titles, maybe one's titled in his name, with you as the beneficiary, another accounts titled jointly, that could give you 250,000 on each of them.

But you know, just think about four and a quarter. I mean, that's 15 grand over the next 12 months on that $350,000. That is not an insignificant amount of money. The other thing I'll throw out here is that our friends at Christian Community Credit Union could be a great option where they have some very attractive rates. And you know that you're partnered with an institution who shares your values. So not only are they doing crazy things that are against your values with the money in terms of supporting initiatives and so forth, but they're actually taking a part of the profits, the proceeds and supporting incredible kingdom building ministries around the globe. So that might be something to check out at JoinChristianCommunity.com. We're finding that more and more of our listeners are saying, I'm just tired of doing business with people that are misaligned with my values. Who can I partner with that is aligned with my values as a Christ follower? Well, that would be, among others, Christian Community Credit Union. Again, JoinChristianCommunity.com.

So I hope that helps you, Lutes. Thanks for writing to us. And folks, if you have a question, feel free to send it along.

You can do that at AskRobAtFaithFi.com. All right, let's head back to the phones. We'll go up to Tennessee. Hi, Phillip. How can we help you? Hey, Rob. Thank you for taking my call.

And thank you for what you do. My wife and I, we're senior citizens. We're 68, 69.

I'm still working. And we recently have gained custody of our 10-year-old granddaughter. Her father passed away and her mother is not in her life. And we're just wanting some direction and understanding as it relates to setting up a trust for her for later in life. And so we're obviously brand new at parenting again.

And so any advice you have would be appreciated. Well, first of all, Phillip, I'm delighted you called. Secondly, God bless you for stepping in and providing this needed caretaking role in this little one's life. And man, that's on the heart of God. I know that's making the Lord smile.

So kudos to you guys. Two things immediately come to mind. One is to make sure you update your will, because that's how you're going to name a guardian in the event you and your wife were to both pass away. You want that guardian named as to who would be the next guardian after you. And that comes through just your basic will.

Beyond that, you're right on. I would be putting a revocable trust in place. That's going to basically dictate how you will pass along assets according to your wishes when you die and in whatever time frame you set. It's also going to allow you to place conditions on that. So the money may be distributed over time.

It may happen at certain triggering events, you know, specifically for college and at certain intervals throughout her life. Plus, you'd also name a successor trustee to execute your wishes once you've gone to home to be with the Lord and be that trusted person to oversee the trust and distribute the assets accordingly. So I think your next step is to visit with your estate attorney.

If you don't have one, I'd head to our website at faithbuy.com and any one of those CKs could refer you, but you want to update your will with the guardian and you want to get that revocable trust set up. God bless you, Philip. I'm sorry I didn't have more time, but thanks for being on the program. A big thanks to my team today, Taylor Stanrich, Devin Patrick. We're also grateful for Pat Montague and Adam Suddath as well. And we'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.