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That's faithbuy.com slash give. Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the U.S. today? Hi, I'm Rob West. You might assume that we have a major anxiety problem just by the number of commercials you see for new medicines to treat these disorders. But is anxiety really a new thing? We'll talk about it 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. Modern medicine breaks down anxiety into many different forms. These include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety, and any number of phobias. Data indicates that nearly a third of all U.S. adults will experience a form of anxiety sometime in their lives. The cost of treating anxiety disorders in the U.S. is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars and the loss of economic productivity due to anxiety may be much more.
We might ask, what's causing this? Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, the causes behind anxiety disorders aren't fully understood. However, they undoubtedly include any number of other physical and mental issues as well as negative life events.
Those might be the loss of a job or financial problems in general. Now, let's be clear about something. If you're experiencing anxiety that simply won't go away, you should see your doctor about it. Medication or counseling or both may be needed and they can make a world of difference.
Now, it might seem that anxiety is a modern disorder, perhaps brought on by today's frantic schedules, electronic bombardment from smartphones, and maybe even improper diet, but anxiety is not new at all. How do we know that? Well, because Jesus talks about it at length in Matthew 6 and Luke 12. Let's look at Matthew 6, starting at verse 25. It reads, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they? Now, it's not difficult to imagine that as the disciples traveled about Galilee and Judea, depending on donations for their sustenance, they might have been a little anxious from time to time about where they'd sleep and where their next meal was coming from. Jesus exhorts them to have greater faith. In verse 31 he says, Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. John Reinhardt, the founder of Gospel Patrons, says that Jesus wants to set us free from fear and anxiety, but with a purpose, to be different from the world. The world sees the love of money almost as virtue and chases after comfort and security. It builds bigger barns and puts a premium on financial planning. Now, we need to have a financial plan, but not with leisure as the end goal. John Reinhardt says the world wakes up in the morning thinking about wealth and goes to bed at night thinking about it. The world naturally moves toward money for its own sake, and that's dangerous for Christians. Jesus says you're going to be tempted to do that. You're going to be pulled to the love of money.
The cultural pressure is going to draw you in that direction. So how do you fight against it? Well, by understanding that you are valuable to God. He made you, and he has a purpose for you. Jesus tells us what to do to escape anxiety, or what we might call the cares of the world. He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things you need will be added to you. To be sure, we must participate in our own provision, but we must also have faith that God will do his part and provide as he's promised. If you know you're valuable to God, you'll go in the opposite direction of the world. You'll seek his kingdom first and want to boldly proclaim the gospel wherever you go, glorifying God as you do. That is your purpose. Glorify God as you carry out the Great Commission.
So we all have to make a decision. Which way will you go? Toward the world or toward the kingdom of God and his righteousness?
You can't do both. As Jesus says in Matthew 6 24, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Choose God over money and see what happens.
The cares of the world may just drift away. I hope this has been an encouragement to you today and caused you to want to go back to God's word to renew your mind, to remind yourselves of the promises of God, his care and love and provision for you, his child. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000. We'll be right back.
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We're going to go to Ohio. Jana, thanks for your patience. Go ahead.
Hi there. Thank you so much for your ministry and your outreach and your wisdom. Thank you. And I really appreciate that. I've been listening for a while and you just always have such sound doctrine and advice, so thank you. I appreciate that very much. My mom had passed away just recently and she's left some inheritance to the family and I'm the executor or whatever of the estate, and so I just want to see if there's a formula that is a godly formula that would just depict how to give to the church, to the missions, to that as far as and then save also for retirement and for investments.
So, didn't know how you manage that. Yeah, it's a great question. So, tell me a little bit more about the inheritance. So, you've received, it was in the form of cash or something else? Well, there would be insurance money, there would be some stock, and then there's a farm also. Okay, and roughly how much are you going to receive in cash? Maybe $125,000.
Okay, how much in stock? Maybe something close to that too. Okay, and then what about the value of the farm? And we're going to sell that within the family, which is we're going to do a family deal, so that will be, you know, I'm not even really sure on that yet, but it's going to be handled within the family. Okay, do you think it's worth several hundred thousand dollars?
Probably. Okay, all right, and are you going to sell it below market or are you trying to sell it, you know, at market value? It's below family deal, a family below market, yes. Okay, all right, so you're just going to need to talk to your CPA about that because if you're selling it below market, a portion of that is going to be considered a gift. That's not a problem, you're just going to need to let the IRS know that on the gift tax form 709, that will chip away at your lifetime gift exclusion of which sits at more than 13 million dollars. So again, it's not going to be taxable, I'm not trying to scare you, but you do want to handle it properly and if you're selling it below market, that portion is going to be considered a gift, so just be aware of that because this is your asset that you received through the inheritance. So if you're selling it to someone, the IRS is going to say, well, was it arm's length? The answer is no because it's in the family and then they're going to say, okay, what was the true market value of that and why did you sell it below that?
Well, because we were essentially making a gift to a family member, so you just need to account for that properly. All right, so let's say you end up with, I don't know, a half a million dollars, I'm going to use round numbers, but let's talk about the rest of your financial life. What is your age, if you don't mind me asking? 68. All right, and are you working? No, retired. Okay, and are you married? Yes. Okay, and so you and your husband are both retired? Yes.
Okay, and so what is... Go ahead. Teacher income, so that's a teacher income for, you know, our life. Okay, do you also get social security or just the teacher pension?
He does. My husband does get social security as well. Good. All right, yeah, so you've got the teacher pension essentially or teacher retirement and then his social security, so all in, what is your monthly income roughly, do you know? I'm not really sure, I'm sorry.
No, no problem. Do you feel like you have a little bit left over at the end of the month? Yeah, I think we're, yeah, we're doing okay. Okay, and then what other assets do you have besides the roughly half million between the, you know, all the inheritance pieces? Just, I have some investments, well, we have some investments and we own our home and no debt. Okay, got it. Yeah, so do you have an emergency fund of at least six months worth of expenses?
Yes. Okay, good. Yeah, so I mean you're in great shape, I love this, and what a blessing this inheritance is, and so let's say you end up, and again I'm just using estimates here because we don't know what the farm's worth, but let's say it's a half a million dollars, so you're already in good shape because you've got income for life, you're living modestly, you've got a surplus, you've got some investments, you own your home free and clear, and you've got some emergency funds, so now we're in a position where we have some additional assets, and I think the starting point is always to start with just asking the Lord for wisdom, and so you pray about it. Second, you talk about your values. What's important to us in terms of generosity and just the simplicity of our lifestyle and being able to bless our kids if you all have kids, and just thinking about those things that are really important that'll line up with your values as a Christ follower, and let that inform your goals, because there's no right or wrong decision here. I mean you could enjoy some of this and spend it to make memories and travel and do things like that, maybe improve a home, you could give a portion of it or a significant portion of it, you could sock it away and invest in and have it for the future, because your biggest risk in this season of life is probably the need for long-term care, which could run $100,000 a year if you needed nursing care, and that could erode these assets in a hurry, and so I think balancing all of that, and where most people probably come down is maybe you think about, okay, maybe we're going to take 10% of it and we're going to give it right off the top, so we want to make a $50,000 gift, and if you don't know where, you could put it in a donor advised fund, which is like a charitable checking account, that would allow you to deduct 100% of the contribution to your donor advised fund in one year, which means you'd get up above the standard deduction and you could get a tax benefit for that, and then you could give it away over time if you didn't know where you wanted it to go, so you could give a little bit to your church and then maybe sometime next year all of a sudden a ministry opportunity comes up that's really you're excited about and you could give it there. Now if you know where you want to give it right away, just give it, but if you don't, that donor advised fund could be a great tool in the National Christian Foundation, could be a great place to set that up, ncfgiving.com. You could set it up online with a few clicks in about three minutes, and they call it a giving fund, but essentially it's a donor advised fund, so I would say maybe think in terms of what if we gave 10% of that right off the top.
Again, you may decide to do a lot more than that, you may decide to do less, that's between you and your husband and the Lord. Then secondly, maybe you want to enjoy some of it, maybe you take 50,000 you say we're going to plan some trips or we're going to improve the house, and then maybe the bulk of it, in my example 400,000, you invest it and put it away. Maybe you connect with a certified kingdom advisor who then begins managing that in some faith-based investing mutual funds, so they're aligned with your values, but the idea is to protect it and grow it modestly in the future so that you've got something to both pass on as an inheritance or to give away to ministry at your death, but also some more substantial assets that could be there if you need them for long-term care. That would be probably the way I would think about this, so again just to summarize, if you wanted to give a good portion of it away, I'd set up that donor advised fund with ncf. Second is enjoy a part of it, and then third, connect with a certified kingdom advisor if you don't have an advisor and get that invested so you have something for the future.
How does that sound though? That sounds very good, and I love the fact that you want to teach our grandkids the importance of modeling and godly giving. I mean that's where my heart is, to tell you the truth, that's my heart. Well you know what, a couple of things you could do with that, I love that you mentioned that, and one is with that donor advised fund you could actually get them involved in giving it away, which would be a lot of fun, so you could put it in there and get them to be a part of it. So there's some fun things you can do to begin to stoke that giving muscle, if you will, and get them to experience the joy of giving.
Another great option is the compassion catalog, where they can give money to buy somebody in some other part of the world a goat that could produce milk and chickens that can lay eggs just to solve a real need in some part of the world. That would be fun as well, but hopefully this has given you a few ideas, Jana. Thanks for your call today. Folks, we're going to take a quick break, but back with much more just around the corner.
Lines are open, 800-525-7000. Stick around. Are you overwhelmed by financial fear and anxiety?
You're not alone. At Faith Buy, 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's teachings. Replace your financial anxiety with peace today.
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That's chministries.org slash faithbuy. Really great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions. Here in our final segment, I've got room for a few more questions today. If you want to call right now, you've got to get in quickly, 800-525-7000.
Any financial questions today? 800-525-7000. You can call right now. All right, back to the phones we go. Let's head to Fort Lauderdale and talk to Linda. Hi there. Hi, thank you for taking my call.
Yes ma'am. Okay, my question is, I am in the midst of losing my job within the next probably two or three weeks, and I have a condo, and it's paid for. However, I'm in my 70s, so to find another job is going to be maybe difficult. So I was thinking about, since my HOA is going up again, and we may get assessed again, and I don't have a lot of money in my savings, just very little, and I only have social security coming in, not a lot. So I was thinking about either taking out a line of credit or a home equity loan. I may be looking to move, but that's going to take some time, as in Florida everything's pretty expensive. So I was thinking about taking out a home equity loan so that I'd have money to put down on a home and then decide whether to rent this out or to sell it, or to have a little bit of nest egg if I needed it.
So I just wanted your opinion on that. Yeah, well, I appreciate that. You know, I'm not a big fan of you funding this with the home equity loan, just because there's a cost to put the home equity loan in place. Interest rates are high, they're higher on a home equity line of credit. And, you know, you're going to have that monthly payment, which is going to put a further strain on your budget. The only type of loan that would not put a strain and could actually be helpful is a reverse mortgage. But again, if you're thinking of moving, I would hate for you to put the cost into putting any kind of loan in place, whether it's forward or reverse. So I think the best option would be, let's try to find something part time just to make ends meet. And let's move toward getting the house or the condo sold, even if maybe you have to rent it back for a period of time, maybe you put in the contract that, you know, they'll give you a certain number of months where you can kind of rent it back from them while you look for your next place and, and purchase it and then get moved. Just because this really isn't sustainable, and we need to come up with a plan moving forward, depending on what you're going to do from this point forward with working or not working, we need to come up with a plan that's sustainable. And it sounds like even though you own this free and clear with the assessments and other costs of the the condo association, this just doesn't fit into your budget. So I'd hate to try to right size all of this with debt, especially just given the cost here.
So I think at this point, I'd love for you to really kind of look for an option to continue working, especially, you know, if only to get you through from now until when you can sell it and find that next place, you know, that fits within your budget all in, including, you know, any kind of HOA or something like that. Does that make sense? Yeah, most condos, they don't do reverse mortgages.
Yeah, some do, but some do not. But again, I wouldn't even entertain that. I mean, you're gonna have a 2% fee up front right off the bat with a home equity conversion mortgage that I don't want you to pay if you're planning to move.
So this is not a good solution long term. Now, if you do the reverse mortgage, and that allows you to stay here, and this is the place you want to stay, because now you've got a monthly check coming in, which you could use to cover those assessments, give you some additional income, you know, that might be one thing. But yes, you're right, you would have to look and see whether your condo would qualify for you to do that. Now, also, for a line of credit, I called my credit union, and they said it's 4.9%. And that would be only if I take the money out, but I would have that option that I would have that as an estate if I needed to pull the money out if I get it approved while I'm working. And there's no closing cost or any any cost.
Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a temporary raid or some sort of special offer. I mean, the average home equity line of credit right now is eight and a half percent. So that might be, you know, for the first three months or the first six months, I'd be a little surprised if that was, I mean, because there's no home equity line of credits really that are fixed. So it's variable. And so variable tied to what and usually it's, you know, prime plus something, you know, prime plus one or prime plus one and a half. And, you know, the prime rate today is sitting at, let me just see here 775.
So if it's prime plus one, I mean, that's eight and three quarters. So, you know, I'd want to know a little bit more about that. But again, my preference would be you don't try to solve this problem with debt, I'd rather you work toward a longer term solution, which I think your best option there is start moving towards selling and try to find another job even if it's part time. Hopefully that's helpful. And I know there's a lot on you and you'll get through this.
We'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom and I would seek his counsel as you move forward. Thanks for your call today. Quickly to Virginia. Hi, Louise. Thanks for calling. Go ahead.
Thank you for taking my call, brother. My question is very simple. Equity. I've been in this house for 18 years.
And I'm thinking about selling. But I'm hearing about equity in the home. So what number one is equity?
Number two? How do I use that for my benefit? Or can I in selling this house?
Yes. Well, the equity of Miss Louise is the difference between what the value of the home is, and what you owe on it. So let me just give you a real simple example. Let's say the home is worth $200,000. And you have a mortgage of 100,000. Then you the difference between those two is your equity. And that would be in my example 100,000 because the 100,000 in equity plus the 100,000 you own the mortgage equals the value of the home, which just simply means if you were to sell the home, which the home is an asset.
And that just simply means it's something of value. So stocks are assets, cash is an asset, a home is an asset because it has value. And when you sell that asset, your home and pay off the mortgage, so you sell it for 200,000, you pay off the mortgage of 100, the equity is what's left $100,000. So the reason you want to increase the equity is you're increasing the amount you have available to you in that asset that's not encumbered by debt. And over time, the goal would be for you to have no debt. So your equity is equal to the value. Because if you have no mortgage, then if the home's worth 200,000, then you have 200,000 in equity, which means if you sell the home, you get the full 200,000 to go buy your next home, or to do anything else you want. So the goal is to increase equity over time, which means you're moving closer and closer to full ownership of the property without any debt involved.
And the reason you would want to do that is because now you have an asset that's unencumbered, which means it's free to do anything you want with it when it's sold, whether you turn around and invest it in stocks and bonds or buy another piece of real estate. Does that make sense? Yes. Thank you so very much.
That's what I was looking for. All right. Very good. Thank you for your call. You sound like a sweet, wonderful lady, and we're delighted you were on the program today. Folks, that's going to do it for us. Big thanks to my team today.
Devin, Taylor, Sandy, Pat, couldn't do it without them, and everybody here at Faithfi. Enjoy the rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.
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