This faith and finance podcast is underwritten in part by Soundmind Investing. For more than 30 years, do-it-yourself investors have relied on SMI for proven strategies and trustworthy guidance.
SMI helps people build wealth so they can provide for their families, prepare for the future, and give generously. Learn more at soundmindinvesting.org Christopher GK Chesterton once said, I know as much about the future as you do, which is nothing. I'm Rob West.
Only God knows the future, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't plan for it. Mark Biller is here today to help us do that. He's got your 10 most important financial moves for 2025. 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, Mark Biller is the executive editor at Soundmind Investing and underwriter of this program, and it's always a treat to have Mark with us, but perhaps even more so each December when he brings us SMI's take on your most important financial moves for the new year. Mark, great to have you back with us. Thanks.
You as well, Rob. So one quick clarification for listeners up front this article, the 10 most important financial moves for 2025. Yeah, it actually has more than 60 different options or action items that listeners can choose from, and they're spread over a half dozen different categories. The idea of it, Rob, is that each person can go through that list, and they can check their own personalized top 10. And then with each of these action items, there's a link to an article or a helpful resource, a lot of them covering the SMI newsletters of the past year.
So it's really supposed to be a personalized top 10 list. Yeah, I love it that it's not a cookie cutter approach. All right, Mark, as we dive into this, how about we take a dive a bit deeper into 10 of these financial moves, just as someone might do who's using this resource?
Yeah, that sounds great. Let's, let's start with the put first things first category. And one, all right, that's a helpful one to start with is develop a financial plan and stick to it. You know, planning is essential to managing your finances well. And in Luke 1913, while awaiting the Masters return, faithful stewards heed the Masters instructions, which are put this money to work until I come back. Well, we certainly need to do that God entrusts his resources to us so that we might multiply them all the while giving him the glory. Mark, let's stay in this category of first things first. What's another financial move for us?
Sure. So another option in that group is to build an eternity portfolio. You know, the financial resources that God entrusts to you aren't just for caring for your family.
Now that's crucial to be sure. But once your family's needs are met, then what then this option encourages considering exponential generosity, which involves increasing the percentage level of your giving as your income grows. So you'll be laying up treasure in heaven and your investments will compound overall eternity.
I love that idea. Now those are just two of the 10 or so great suggestions in that particular category. Let's move on to the next category strengthening your financial foundation. That's of course very important.
Yeah, it sure is. So in this category, how about we start with build a workable budget. Now I know budget sounds pretty basic, but most people won't be able to strengthen their financial foundation without one. You know, you can call it a spending plan if you prefer either way, it empowers you to make the most of your money. And I just encourage folks if they've struggled with budgeting in the past not to give up, you know, money management reversals and mistakes happen to everyone.
Just try to identify what went wrong before and learn from it. Creating a workable budget is going to make it a lot easier to make another great move in this category too. And that is to spend less and save more. You know, so many people spend too much on today and save too little for the future.
So we're trying to turn that around. We want to focus on keeping expenses low and making saving as painless as possible by setting up automated savings or retirement account transfers. Yeah, this is really helpful, Mark. We're of course talking today about the great article that's available at soundmindinvesting.org. It's titled your 10 most important financial moves for 2025. And Mark, this is a great time of year to take a step back and really look at your financial life and make these kinds of decisions, isn't it?
Yeah, it sure is. It's just a natural time to pause and reset. All right, we're pulling out 10 of these ideas for you to consider today. But again, that entire list of about 60 options for you to make your personalized list of your 10 most important financial moves for 2025 is available at soundmindinvesting.org.
A quick break and then back with much more with Mark Biller of Soundmind Investing right around the corner. Have you ever wondered where your money goes when you deposit it in a bank? Christian Community Credit Union believes in helping advance God's kingdom through everyday financial transactions. For over 67 years, they have provided values aligned banking solutions to thousands of Christians and ministries. Consider Christian Community Credit Union as your banking institution by visiting joinChristiancommunity.com. Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up to $250,000.
This institution is not federally insured. Faith and Finance is grateful for support from Soundmind Investing. For more than 30 years, they've offered financial wisdom for living well. SMI provides step-by-step guidance for do-it-yourself investors, from those just getting started to those getting ready for retirement. More information, including a short video webinar on profit and peace of mind, no matter what's happening in the market, is available at soundmindinvesting.org. So glad to have you with us today on Faith and Finance.
I'm Rob West. With me today, Mark Biller, executive editor at Soundmind Investing and underwriter of this program. And we always look forward to the addition of the SMI newsletter where the team comes out with the article, Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2025. Now, there's more than 60 options or action items for you to choose from as you make your personalized top 10 list to get your financial house in order as we head into the new year.
Mark's helping us explore just 10 of these options today. We've covered the first four, develop a financial plan and stick to it. We talked about building an eternity portfolio, building a workable budget and of course, spending less and saving more. Mark, let's move to the next category and that is developing your investing plan.
What are some of the financial moves in this section? Yeah, well, Rob, job number one here is going to be to create a long term investing plan if you don't already have one. So just like a spending plan helps guide your day to day finances, an investing plan is going to lay out the pathway to your long term financial success. An investing plan helps you allocate appropriately and then creates a framework for making sound investment decisions and another really timely one that goes along with that is don't allow your investment decisions to be overly influenced by current events like what's going on in Washington.
You know, everybody's focused on this new administration in the White House, a power shift in Congress and that does mean that next year is likely going to see significant changes in economic and tax policy. But rather than rushing to judgment about what exactly those changes are going to mean for better or worse for the markets, we suggest staying focused on your long term plan instead. Alright, now there's another category called broaden your portfolio and I'd love to go a little deeper into this category.
What are some possible moves there? Yeah, there are many opportunities for broadening your portfolio that are listed in this article. We've got links to helpful articles for all of them, but here's one in particular and that is improve your understanding of economic and market trends that affect your investments. So technological innovations like AI, interest rate expectations, international conflicts, domestic elections, all these types of things have implications for the investing markets. Typically, those implications aren't immediately clear. So it's helpful to start learning about how those things impact the markets and your investments. And this is the kind of thing that SMI provides its members with all throughout the year while avoiding speculation and predictions as these events occur.
Yeah, that's really helpful. Now, of course, a lot of our listeners, Mark, as you know, are thinking about retirement, whether it's right around the corner or a bit further down the road. And that's the next category that we come to on this list looking toward retirement.
What do you have for us? Yeah, well, I'm sure you can appreciate this one, Rob, because I know you're asked about it almost every day. And that is have a plan for when to claim your Social Security retirement benefits. You know, claiming as early as age 62 can make sense in cases of bad health or financial extremity. But most people likely come out financially ahead by waiting until their full retirement age, which is typically age 67 or maybe even a little later. And determining the best approach for each individual requires considering their health, their marital status, earnings history, projected living expenses and their overall financial condition.
Yeah, that's exactly right. Now, also in this category are decisions about paying for health care costs. I know the next one has to do with that.
Share that with us. Yeah, it's it's educating yourself about what Medicare pays for and what it doesn't and then planning accordingly. You know, it's a big mistake a lot of retirees make is assuming Medicare is going to pay for all their health care costs in retirement.
And it doesn't. So a lot of people need to consider additional coverage by either a Medicare supplement plan that's Medigap or a Medicare Advantage plan. And, of course, before making an important choice like that, you want to do your homework. Yeah. We also, of course, encourage our listeners to check out Christian Healthcare Ministries as an option in this season of life. Becoming a CHM member can also help you cover medical expenses, not just in retirement, but really any time.
All right, one left. And I love this category. It's called the hodgepodge category.
What do you have there? Yeah, that's our children, college and miscellaneous category and lots of great suggestions for financial moves in the new year. One of those is start your children on the road to becoming lifetime investors. And that's simply because a long time horizon vastly improves the odds of investing success. So this is one where we talk about how no commission trades and fractional share purchases of exchange traded funds can make the cost of entry lower than ever for young investors to get started.
Yeah, that's great advice. We get a lot of questions about that from our listeners, for sure. All right.
Those are 10 possible financial moves for the new year out of the 60 or so in the article. But Mark, we've got a little time left. So I'm going to ask you for some bonus suggestions, maybe some of your favorites from the various categories in this article.
Yeah, glad to, Rob. How about treating every day as a gift from the Lord? You know, life is fragile and fleeting, so treasuring the days that we have and using them wisely as a faithful steward of God's blessings. And another one that's related is deepen your prayer life by learning to listen to God.
You know, discerning God's voice from other voices is a challenge for all of us, but it gets a lot easier if we have a clear, biblically informed understanding of who God is and what he desires for his children. Another one would be if you're married, commit to managing your finances as a team. You know, we know that opposites tend to attract, and a lot of times that means husbands and wives have offsetting strengths and weaknesses, and that includes regarding money management.
But by understanding each other's temperaments, we can kind of capitalize on our combined strengths and hopefully minimize our weaknesses. And here's one final one, Rob, and that is review your estate planning documents. Not necessarily a fun note to end on, but making sure that those that are designated to act on your financial or healthcare behalf and making sure that they have up-to-date planning documents is really important because laws and life circumstances change, so you really need to be reviewing your will or trust every five years or so, if not even more than that, and making sure you've got current power of attorney, perhaps HIPAA waivers, all those important documents to make sure that these important bases are covered. Mark, that was great advice. These are financial moves for 2025. You can read all about them and the other 45 or so that we didn't get to.
In this article, it's titled Your 10 Most Important Financial Moves for 2025, and you can find it at soundmindinvesting.org. Mark, just a few seconds left. Tie a bow on this for us.
Yeah, well, we're called and equipped to be a faithful steward of what the Lord entrusts to you, and hopefully these will help in that process. I love it. Mark, thanks for stopping by. We'll see you in the new year. Thanks, Rob.
Happy new year. That's Mark Biller, executive editor at Sound Mind Investing. You can learn more and read this article at soundmindinvesting.org. All right, your calls are next. The number, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is Faith and Finance.
We'll be right back. You can find out more at movement.com slash faith. Movement Mortgage LLC supports equal housing opportunity. NMLS number 39179.
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More information is available at oneascent.com and by clicking Analyze My Investments. It's great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. All the lines are full, so we'll be headed to the phones here in just a moment. But here at the end of the year as the listener supported ministry, our team at Faith Fi relies on your support to be able to bring you this broadcast every day. Our Faith Fi app, our new Faithful Steward publication. We're so excited about it. It launches in January, a new quarterly, beautifully designed publication that's going to encourage you in your walk, our studies and devotions. We just released Look at the Sparrows. We have our study called Wisdom Over Wealth on the Book of Ecclesiastes coming out in the first quarter of next year.
All of these tools just to help you be a wise and faithful steward. But the only way we can do it, in large part, is because of listener support. So here at the end of the year, we're about $115,000 away from finishing out the entire year's worth of listener support. And to encourage you to help us close that gap, we had some of our couple of our major donors come alongside us and say, listen, every gift that comes in up to $150,000, we've got $115,000 left, we're going to double it and just use that as a blessing to encourage your team at Faith Fi. So every gift you make between now and December 31st will be doubled.
Gifts of all sizes doubled right away. And up to the amount remaining, $115,000 between now and December 31st. So if you'd consider a gift to the ministry, this would be a really important time for you to do that. Just head to our website, faithfi.com, click Give, that's faithfi.com, and click Give. And you'll see a little tracker there so you can follow our progress between now and the end of the year.
Thanks in advance. All right. Let's get to the phones.
Florida is where we're headed next. Hi, Harold. Go ahead.
Shalom, Mr. West. Hi there. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. How are you?
I'm doing great. The question I have is I recently retired. I have a 401k and I just want to get some advice.
It's only $47,000, but I would like to get some advice as to what to do with it. I see. Yeah.
So Harold, give me a sense of what you and your wife have in the way of other investable assets aside from this 401k from your previous employer. None. Okay.
No problem. That's fine. And are you transitioning into retirement or are you just moving to another employer?
Well, what it is, I was pretty much forced to retire from an injury. And so I'm going through with that with the workers comp thing right now. Okay. See how that goes.
But I just want to get some advice from a Christian perspective on. Yeah. Yeah. And do you all have what I would call an emergency fund that's fully funded at this point?
Yeah, not really. Okay. All right. And so what is your income source today apart from you getting some disability? Social Security is $19.31 a month. And mine is $800. And my wife's is $800. Okay. Like I said, we own our home. So you've got $2,700 a month total coming in.
And is that enough for you all to meet your bills every month? Yes, sir. Okay. Good.
Yeah. So the nice thing is you're living modestly and you guys have a good handle on your expenses. And I love the fact that you're debt free and own your home outright. And so I think the thing for this $47,000 is we want to keep that growing for you because right now, if it just sits there idly, it's going to lose purchasing power because of inflation. And so I would probably think about putting it into a balanced mutual fund where the vast majority of it is in bonds. And then there's a smaller portion in stocks. You could do that in a way that aligns with your values in one of the faith-based investing mutual funds to make sure that the investments are screened.
So anything that would be counter to your values as a Christ follower would be eliminated. That would be one option. The other option is you could put it into something more stable if you were concerned about the volatility and you just wanted guaranteed growth on it and the ability to convert it to an income stream down the road. And if you wanted something like that, you could look at what's called a guaranteed fixed annuity. They're not my first choice, but if you all are really concerned about just hanging on to this money and preserving what you have, that would be a way for you to transfer the risk away from the markets and to an insurance company in exchange for an appropriate and reasonable rate of return.
Which sounds like would be a better fit for what you and your wife are looking for? Probably the mutual fund with bonds. Okay, very good.
Yeah, so here's what I would look at as a next step. If you wanted to do a faith-based investing fund, I'm going to give you a website to go to and you can download a PDF that has a listing of all of the faith-based investing fund families and you could begin to explore some of those. The website is faithandinvesting.com slash faithfi.
I'm going to say it again. It's just faithandinvesting.com and then put a forward slash on it, faithfi. And that's going to give you a list of about 15 fund families that are all screened for your values and any one of them would have a good balanced mutual fund that you could explore. The other option is what's called a robo-advisor and I would probably recommend you look at the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. So if you're comfortable on the internet, Schwab meaning Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is their robo-advisor product.
And basically what would happen is you'd answer a series of questions about you and your wife, your age, your risk tolerance, your goals and objectives. And then when you rolled the 401k over to an IRA in your name, it would just automatically invest it for you. But it would do so in very low cost indexes using bonds and stocks and they would be appropriate for your age and risk tolerance. And anytime you added any money to it, if you got another job and you had earned income, you wanted to put a little more money in, it would just automatically be reinvested. And that would be a very low cost, kind of hands off approach that would, I think, also accomplish your goals. So one of those two, either directly into one of those mutual funds on the listing that you're going to download or the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, I think would get you going in the direction that you need to look. What are T-Bills?
It certainly could be. I mean, T-Bills stands for Treasury Bills and that would be a debt instrument of the United States government and would allow you to earn the coupon, which is essentially the rate that's being paid right now. And the place to buy a Treasury Bill would be at treasurydirect.gov. That's the government's website and you can buy them in increments of $100 and that would be something you could look at.
Now, in this case, you would be in an IRA, so you'd roll it out to a Fidelity or Schwab and then you could buy the Treasury Bills at that point inside the account. So hopefully that helps you. If you want an advisor to walk alongside you, Harold, during this process, I would reach out to a Certified Kingdom Advisor there in Florida. And you could pay somebody for their time and just have them walk through all of these options with you and give you some godly counsel.
Just go to faithfi.com and click find a professional at the top of the page. Lord bless you, sir. Thanks for calling today. Big thanks to my team today, Amy, Taylor, Dan and Gabby T. Check us out at faithfi.com. We'll see you tomorrow. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.
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