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God has created every single person and every square inch with immeasurable dignity. And every day, businesses impact these people and places in powerful ways, either causing them harm or helping them flourish. Our trusted sponsor, One Ascent, exists to help investors consider who a business impacts and how they're impacted. You can provide for your family, put your kids through college, or prepare for the next stage of life. One Ascent believes your values can also inspire how you invest by directing your investment capital into companies that positively impact the world. Whether you invest on your own or work with an advisor, One Ascent's comprehensive values-aligned solutions seek to help you do well by doing good. To explore a new way of investing that aligns with your values, visit OneAscent.com. Click on Analyze My Investments on the homepage to tailor your portfolio to what truly matters to you. Have you started working on your New Year's resolutions yet? Are you including your investing decisions in the mix?
Hi, I'm Rob West. A new year always gives you the chance to make improvements, especially with finances. Cole Pearson is here today to talk about starting 2025 strong with values-based investing. 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 decisions. Well, it's a pleasure to have Cole Pearson on the program. He's president of Investment Solutions at One Ascent, a family of companies that help folks align their investments with their Christian values.
One Ascent is also an underwriter of this program. Cole, great to see you again. Thanks for having me, Rob.
Great to see you. Cole, how do you define values-based investing? And perhaps in addition to that, why is it important for Christians in your view to incorporate this into their financial decisions? We have a simple definition of values-based investing, which is deploying financial resources in a manner that aligns with a set of values or convictions with the expectation of generating a profit. So it's not all that different from investing in other ways, just incorporating our values. And at One Ascent, we actually believe that our values inspire why we invest in the first place. Whether that's to provide for our families, to educate our children, to be able to give generously.
And so values-based investing is simply letting those same values that inspire our why also inspire how we invest. And as Christians, we believe that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. That's Psalm 24 one. He created every single person and every square inch. And he's given us the role of stewards, not just over the financial resources, but over his creation. And so when we combine that reality with the reality that business impacts the world in powerful ways, we believe the result is that as Christian investors or stewards, we should then simply consider who the businesses we are investing in are impacting and what kind of impact they're making. Whether that's one that harms or one that brings blessing to the people and places God's given us to steward. Well, it's really exciting, Cole, that we have the opportunity as Christ followers to do what you just described. And that is to invest in a way that's God-honoring and values aligned with what's most important to us, but also seeking appropriate risk-adjusted returns and world-class investments.
And that exists today more than ever. And we're grateful for the work One Ascent is doing to really pioneer the way in faith-based investing. Now, I know you have a set of five steps Christians should consider in making investment decisions. So let's begin to move through them before our first break.
What's first on the list? Yeah, the first step is we call it milestones. We ask people, what's going on in your financial life today? Of course, we believe money is just a tool, right? That's something that you all teach often, Rob, on this program.
But money goes in motion as life happens. And so the very first step is to just understand that. At One Ascent, we've got a checklist to help people think through some of the big categories like marriage and family, career, health, what's going on in our lives. And so as a foundational step, it's essential to get clear on what life events, whether they've recently happened or they're upcoming, what may be relevant for good financial planning, which leads to the second step.
And that's perspectives. So once we know kind of what's going on, the second step is understanding how we think and feel about money. Again, those are foundational pieces to help us do good planning and good investing that ultimately aligns with our values and honors God.
And so perspectives is this. Every day we interact with money, right? Whether we're spending it, we're saving it, investing it or giving it away. And like you've taught many times, Rob, we believe money is just a tool.
And so that means that no one particular use of money is better or worse than another. But what is important is for us to have an understanding for how God's wired us, you know, what uses of money are natural for us, especially in relationships. For example, with my wife and I, my natural tendencies are towards investing and saving. But my wife, she tends to gravitate towards spending and giving.
That's easy for her to do. And so for us as a couple, having clarity on those unique perspectives, it gives us common language for healthy communication and dialogue, which is particularly important when we go into step three. Well, and I love that you all help people think through this in a really thoughtful way because, you know, so often we can start with goals. But unless we bring some of these other aspects in, including our perspectives, which is informed by our upbringing in many respects, but also how God has wired us.
And then when you put that together in the marriage relationship, if you don't really understand that, it can lead to conflict. And the role of the advisor is so key in that. So I'm looking forward to continuing to unpack this list of five steps Christians should consider in making investment decisions. Cole Pearson is here today.
He's with One Ascent, an underwriter of this program. And we've got a lot more just around the corner. We're just getting started.
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Well, a new year is just around the corner and we like to start strong in every area of our lives, but that includes our finances and specifically your investment strategy. What a great opportunity just to have a check in to say, how am I doing with my long term investing, realizing that we were created to be workers and that we take what God entrusts to us. And we, in part, put it to work in business that's creating flourishing for humans and advancing the kingdom and providing returns.
And that's all a part of God's virtuous cycle. But there is an opportunity to make sure those investments are aligned with your values. And that's what one ascent is dedicated to. Want to send is a family of companies that helps folks align their investments with their Christian values. And today, Cole Pearson, president of Investment Solutions, that want to send is talking about some steps you should consider in making investment decisions. First was looking at milestones, what's going on in your financial life today and how can money be a tool to accomplish those? Second, your perspectives, understanding how you think and feel about money, because that plays a big part in ultimately what you'll do with it. But Cole, continue to unpack the next few steps for us.
Sure. So once we've got milestones and perspectives as foundational, step three is our priorities. So identifying and prioritizing what matters most. And we would recommend if you're going through these steps, start with the bigger picture priorities first. We tend to kind of jump into shorter term goals, like maybe we want to get the car note paid off or we want our savings account to reach a certain dollar amount. But we would encourage you to step back a little bit even to broader priorities.
And we've got an assessment that we'd love to share with you. It's really more like a card game, if you will, and it helps individuals and families identify their priorities. So these could be things like one of an overall priority could be leaving a legacy or it could be removing burdens from your family or or giving generously or devoting time to loved ones. We have about 16 different priorities that we we help clients and people think through to come up with a family five. So if it's a family that we're serving, we have both the husband and the wife go through this assessment individually. And then they have to work together to identify a top five for their family priorities. And so once these are in place, it helps provide the framework for future financial planning decisions like getting the car note paid off or putting a certain amount in a savings account. A quick example on the priorities is we had a client who wanted to buy a lake house and they called their adviser and asked them, you know, can I afford it?
What do you think? And the adviser was able to quickly affirm that, yes, you could afford this lake house, but let's look at your priorities. And one of their top five priorities was spending time with loved ones. And so when he when the adviser asked the family, you know, what is the purpose of the lake house that it was to gather?
They had family from out of state and around the state that they wanted to gather and have a place that they could spend time together and make memories as a family. And so it was an easy yes to yes, we can afford it. But yes, this is why we have these resources, what we want to use them for.
And that's creating time with loved ones. So getting clear on priorities is step number three. Step number four now is the values, making sure that our portfolio aligns with our values.
And we we talked about that at the top of the program. It's important that we take time to consider what are our values? Are there companies that we should avoid investing in, maybe because their products or practices are causing harm? On the flip side, what do we want to elevate in our portfolio? We are going to be investing somewhere. We're going to own companies or funds. And so what types of companies do we want to own? How can we leverage our capital into businesses who are a blessing to the people and places that they serve? So that's step three and four is getting clear on priorities and making sure that our values are aligned.
Yeah, that's so helpful. I love that example of the lake house because it really does clarify the why. If money is a tool, what are we ultimately trying to accomplish? And is that in alignment with where we believe God is leading us as a family and in alignment with scripture?
And clearly that makes for a different decision in many cases. All right. You saved the best for last year. What is step five? Yeah. Step five is generosity.
All right. Being a joyful giver. It's the natural byproduct of viewing our financial resources as faithful stewards. We're aligning our priorities, our investments, and the byproduct is to give. Where with joy, we get to reflect the generous Heavenly Father who first gave to us.
Right. And so a few questions I might leave you with is first, maybe think about how do you approach stewardship intentionally, not just from a standpoint of minimizing taxes, but with intentionality, thinking about being a steward. And what does generosity look like for you and for your family? Are we training up the next generation to have generous, joyful hearts?
And finally, a practical question could be what problem in the world has God laid on your heart that you want to be a part of solving? And that's part of that intentional approach of where there's lots of things we could give to. Of course, we need to be tithing and giving to our local church. But where has God laid on our heart that we want to deploy, again, his resources back into his kingdom to bring blessing to people? And so giving is obviously the natural byproduct of integrating our faith all the way through our finances, from our planning to our investing to our giving.
Yeah, that's so helpful. That's why we talk all the time about having a certified kingdom advisor, an advisor who has that alignment, who understands the heart of God in Scripture around the role of money, who understands the importance of holding it loosely and giving it generously. And I think so often even just permission from your advisor to be able to give perhaps beyond you ever thought you could, but do it in a way that makes sense in terms of your overall plan is so key. And that's obviously a key part here.
Cole, as we wrap up today, we've got just a couple of minutes left. I want to go back to step four, ensuring your portfolio aligns with your values. You know, you and I are familiar with a study that just came out from Pinkston that talked about how 88 percent, I think, of the the Christians in this study who said their faith was very important to them and they had investable assets, said that if given the opportunity to invest in a way that aligns with their values, they'd absolutely do it. And yet we know that the amount of money, even though it's growing rapidly, the amount of money in the faith-based investments like One Ascent is still just a drop in the bucket versus what's in the hands of Christians today. Where do you feel like is that gap for Christians on taking that step to truly move their money into faith-aligned investments? Yeah, I think the first gap is simply awareness.
Part of that study that you referenced, Rob, one of the next stats was that 63 percent had never talked about values-based investing with their financial advisor or their advisors, whoever they were seeking counsel from. And so I think that's just a byproduct of awareness. And so thankfully, your audience is aware. They're hearing about it.
They know that it's an option. And I think the second step would be solutions. How do we actually take action now that I've thought about my investments and my values?
Who can help me? And so you've referenced the CKAs who are out there, the advisors and the solution providers who are bringing solutions to help investors truly align their values with their faith and investments and to do it in a way that's world class. So we need awareness. We need solutions. And over time, we pray that the Lord continues to allow that to be done with excellence where there's not a sacrifice.
There's not a trade off. You can earn market-like returns while incorporating your values. Yeah. I know a great, easy first step is just to analyze the investments that you currently have in light of your values. As we wrap up here today, Cole, share with us about the tool you all have on your Web site.
Yeah, we have a simple tool. You can go to one ascent dot com and click analyze my investments. And it's a simple form where you put in some of the things that you'd want to make sure you avoid in your portfolio and things that you're passionate about. And we deliver back a report giving you clarity on where you stand and maybe even some recommendations to go forward.
Excellent. Well, that's Cole Pearson with one to send a leader in values based investing. And if you want to check out your investments, just go to one ascent dot com.
That's one word, one ascent dot com and click analyze my investments. Cole, thanks for stopping by. Thanks for having me, Rob. Back with your questions after this 800-525-7000.
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This institution is not federally insured. So thankful to have you with us today on faith and finance. We're going to head to the phones here in just a moment. But first, let me mention a great opportunity for you to come alongside us here at FaithFi. You know, we're a listener supported ministry. And here at the end of the year, this is a critical time for listener support because we're headed toward December 31st, trying to close out our ministry budget and do that on budget.
You can help us get there. And here's what's exciting is some donors have come alongside us and said up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, we're going to double everything that's given gifts of all sizes. Twenty will be forty, fifty will be one hundred, gifts of a thousand will be two thousand and on up from there.
And so it's going to take a lot of folks who love this program coming alongside us to help us meet our goal. Now, still a ways to go a little more than one hundred and twenty five thousand between now and December 31st to close out our ministry budget for the year with regard to listener support. So if you'd prayerfully consider a gift and perhaps even head right now to FaithFi.com, that's FaithFI.com and click give on the top of the page. You'll see our impact report that just chronicles some of the things the Lord has allowed us to do this year, but also gives you a form where you can make a secure donation.
And again, every gift between now and twelve thirty one doubled. And you'd be a real blessing to us if you'd prayerfully consider that. All right. Let's head to the phones today to Chicago. We go. Carrie, you'll be next up. Go ahead. Hi, Rob.
Thank you for taking my call. I just started a new job. I'm fifty five years old. I'm finally getting a 401k match again. It's a five percent match. And the company offers tiers. So you have conservative, conservative, moderate, moderate, moderate, aggressive and aggressive for your tier. And I'm just wondering, as a fifty five year old woman, what here do you think I should be at in my 401k?
Yeah. So you would probably be looking at a moderate allocation because at fifty five, you know, what we do is we we used to do the number one hundred minus your age. And that would be the amount that you would want in stocks. And then you'd put the rest in bonds. But because people are living longer lately, financial planners have said, well, let's use one hundred and ten minus your age. So if we did that, that would say, OK, one hundred ten minus fifty five is fifty five. So you'd roughly one.
And again, this is not for everyone, but this is at least a starting point. You'd want roughly fifty five percent in stocks. You'd want, you know, forty five percent in bonds.
And then as you get closer to retirement, you know, those would eventually flip. And the closest allocation to that for the typical moderate portfolio is about that. So the typical moderate portfolio would have about 60 in stocks and 40 in fixed income. If it was a more of a slightly more moderate, it might be, you know, fifty five, forty five, which is exactly what we are looking for. So I think, you know, something that's roughly 50 50 or 60 40 is really going to fit into that moderate bucket.
So unless you want it to be a bit more aggressive than what that rule of thumb says, then I would probably use the moderate for you. And how much if I have extra like I'm doing the five percent match automatically, I'm matching what they're going to give me. If I can put more in, how much do you encourage people to put into their 401k or should I be putting it elsewhere?
Yeah. You know, you could flip once you fully subscribe the matching portion to a Roth IRA, especially if you don't have a Roth option at your employer. Do you know if you have a Roth 401k option?
I don't think I do. OK, so you could open a Roth or you could just keep it simple and put it all into the 401k. You know, typically we'd say you'd want to get up to 10 to 15 percent of your income going into your 401k. Now, another step, just given that, you know, let's say you're 10 years out from, I'll say retirement, even though we look at that a little differently than the world in terms of your calling doesn't ever expire.
The question is just what does God have for you in different seasons? But to the extent he redirects you away from paid work or you're unable to work, we want to save toward ultimately being able to replace a good portion. That in a retirement season of life. And so I would say, you know, getting with an adviser to determine, OK, how much am I going to need to live on if I wasn't working anymore? Most people live on about 80 percent of their pre-retirement income. So whatever you're making today, let's say you're going to live on 80 percent of that.
Then the question is, how are we going to generate that? Well, Social Security would typically play a part, but your 401k is going to play the other part, perhaps the biggest part. And you want to build it up high enough where you can pull out a, you know, an annual withdrawal rate of, let's say, four percent. And that way, through the investments in there, you'd never impact the principal. So no matter how long you live, you've always got money to continue to fund your income. That would be ideal. Now, you may look at that and say, Rob, I just can't get there.
And that's OK. But I think doing that, planning with an adviser to determine, OK, what are the income sources I'm going to have and what is my ultimate goal? So then I can determine, am I on track? Am I ahead?
Or maybe I'm behind. And then, you know, here's what I need to put in per paycheck to have the best chance of reaching that ultimate goal. I think that would be time well spent if you did some retirement planning with an adviser. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. You're welcome. Kerry, thanks for calling today. Lord bless you.
Let's finish up quickly in Ohio. Judy, you'll be our final caller. Go ahead. Hello, Rob.
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I have a quick question for you. When a married couple invests in a car, is it better to put the loan in one person's name or both persons names and why?
You know, I would generally say yes. It's better to put it in both names. And the reason is because as a young typically a young couple just starting out is looking to build their credit. And the benefit of putting it in both names is, is that it will be reported to their both of their credit files because you don't have a joint credit file as a married couple. You each have a credit file based on your Social Security number. And so by putting that loan in both names, it will be reported to both credit files. The other reason why you might want to do that is if they're both working spouses, then you may get not always, but you may get more favorable terms because if it's in both names, they're able to include both incomes in terms of determining the debt to income ratio, which may allow them to qualify for a better rate. So those would be the two primary reasons why, in my view, you'd want to do that.
What if it's not a young couple? Okay, well, even then, I mean, I think the benefit is, is really from a credit report. If that's not a concern in terms of who would own the property, it would come down to what type of state you're in, whether it's community property, and this would be joint tenants with right of survivorship or not. So you could check with your estate planning attorney, whoever did your will just to see if there's any benefit there.
But I would say there's really not a huge difference one way or the other, especially if one spouse is going to inherit that at the passing of the other. Hope that helps, Judy. Thanks for your call. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us.
We covered a lot of ground today. Let me finish with this. You know, when we think about a biblical worldview of money management, it starts with lordship, God owns it all, and then stewardship. Money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes. I think right behind that is generosity.
Giving breaks the grip of money over our lives. I hope you think about that today as you think about your role as a steward. A big thanks to my team today.
Couldn't do it without them. Autumn on Phones, Devin, my producer, Jim on Research, and everybody here at Faithfi. If you want to support our work, go to faithfi.com and click Give. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.
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