Many people are using the FaithFi app to help provide the wisdom, community, and money management to stay on track, financially speaking. To date, over 37,000 members are using its digital envelope system, participating in our community forums, and engaging in virtual workshops. And one of the most convenient features is the ability to keep all your accounts in one place for an easy-at-a-glance view. You can choose from one of three options, depending on your management style, and it's available on desktop or mobile. Go to faithfi.com and click App to get started. But how do we know we're doing that? Well, today I'll give you the seven marks of a good steward, 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. Now, when Christians hear the word stewardship, we tend to think of money or even tithing, and obviously those are important. But stewardship involves much more than that.
Jesus entrusted us with the gospel and gave us his immeasurable love by dying on the cross. As stewards of those priceless gifts, we're to share them with the world. So keep in mind that stewardship isn't just about money. So what are the marks or characteristics of good stewards?
Well, I've already mentioned the first. They acknowledge that everything belongs to God. They possess resources only temporarily to serve his purposes.
They don't hoard or covet more. They understand that even the skills they possess to earn a living are a gift. Deuteronomy 8-18 reads, You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth. In 1 Peter 4-10, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Next, good stewards fully understand the mission they've been given and how important it is. God has graciously given them a role to play in his plan, and they take it seriously but with humility.
They take comfort in Proverbs 16-3, commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. A third trait of good stewards is that they are faithful. Now, of course, this means they are faithful in following God's financial principles, earning, saving, investing, and most importantly, giving. They are persistent and persevering. Jesus gives us some powerful words to consider in Luke 16, 10, and 11 when he says, This leads to our next characteristic of good stewards, which is that they are trustworthy.
They're truthful and honest in all they say and do. Proverbs 12-22 warns, Next, good stewards are diligent. Jesus' parable of the talents in Matthew 25, 14-30 illustrates that diligent stewardship involves actively using what God entrusts to us for his purposes, rather than neglecting or mismanaging it. This diligence reflects a heart committed to honoring God and fulfilling his call in every area of life. As Colossians 3, 23, and 24 reminds us, The sixth trait of good stewards is that they spend time in prayer, seeking God's will and his wisdom. James 1-5 reads, Good stewards rest in the peace of knowing that God will provide, freeing them from the burden of constant worry. Philippians 4-6 teaches, And the final characteristic of good stewards is that they act when they feel the Spirit leading them. 1 Peter 1-13 says, So those are the seven characteristics of a good steward.
They set a high bar, and it's clear that we can't meet them perfectly in our own strength. But the goal isn't striving, it's faithfulness through dependence on God. As we surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow him to work in and through us, he empowers us to walk in obedience. God's Word reminds us that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
And it's his grace that enables us to do so. Remember, as a steward, you have responsibilities, not ownership rights. And so enter that responsibility with joy knowing that you've been given a high calling to be a money manager for the King of Kings. All right, we're going to take your calls next, that number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We'll be right back after this.
Don't go anywhere. We're grateful for support from Movement Mortgage, who provides residential home loans in all 50 states. Guided by a mission to love and value people and a goal to redefine the mortgage process, Movement seeks to help others achieve their financial goals.
You can find out more at movement.com slash faith. Movement Mortgage LLC supports equal housing opportunity. NMLS number 39179.
For licensing information, please visit NMLS consumer access dot org. Sound mind investing dot org. Great to have you with us today on faith and finance. Well, we've got room for you today. We're taking your calls and questions. We'll get to the phones in just a minute. So you have a financial question today. You'd like to be a part of the broadcast.
I'd invite you to do just that. Would you call right now? 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. We can tackle your spending plan questions. How do you get on a budget and stick with it? How do you find something that actually works for you? I can share some ideas on that.
What about paying down debt or giving generously? Whatever's on your mind today, we'd love to tackle those questions. Again, lines are open. You can call right now. 800-525-7000. Let's go to Texas. Eileen, thanks for calling.
How can I help? Thank you. I have a question. I'm getting ready to start taking payments from my annuity.
Yes. And I wanted to do the giving from the annuity. If I do not reach the maximum standard deduction for a single person, do I get the tax benefits from taking that out of my annuity and paying it directly to a charity? No, because when you take that money out of an annuity, if this is a pre-tax annuity, so was this funded with before tax dollars, meaning it's a qualified annuity? It was out of a 401.
Okay, yeah. So this is what's called a qualified annuity, which means that there was not any tax paid on the money that went into the 401k that's now in the annuity. So typically what happens is when you take a distribution from an annuity, those are typically taxed as ordinary income. And then you can claim a charitable deduction if you turn around and give that money away, but only to the extent you give, and you acknowledge this, above the standard deduction. So you have to give enough to be able to itemize for this year. So that's the only way to do it. You can't give directly. Now you could transfer the ownership of the annuity to a charitable organization, and then the charity could receive the future payments, and then you'd get a tax deduction for the fair market value of the annuity.
But apart from that, you would have to take the money out, it would be taxable, and then it would only be a deduction if you can itemize and get above that standard deduction. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And that is a perfect answer to my question. Excellent. Lord bless you, Eileen. Thanks for your generous heart. We appreciate it, and call any time.
To Chicago, Michelle, go ahead. Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call.
I have a question. I am charged, or rather charged, on withdrawals from an indexed annuity. So every month I'm charged, is there any way to avoid that? I have seven more years, because it's a 10-year annuity. I have seven more years.
Do you have any suggestions? Yeah, I'd ask for a little more clarity on that. Typically, an annuity rider, Michelle, is a benefit that's added to an annuity contract. So there's a variety of annuity riders. It could be a long-term care rider, where it helps to pay for long-term care services on top of the ability to annuitize. It could be a return of premium rider. So this is a particular rider that's kind of like the death benefit rider that says that the remaining value of the premium will be given to a beneficiary, or an accidental death or disability income rider. What it sounds like to me is there was a rider added to the policy as a policy enhancement, and then there's just a charge that's being applied monthly for that rider.
These riders typically are anywhere between 0.5% and 1% of the annual premium, but it really just varies widely depending on what that rider is. Does that sound like what's going on here, or are you thinking there's something else? No, it sounds like that, but I have this statement in front of me, and I have the amount. It's called the liquidity rider charge. That's what it is.
Okay. Yeah, so that could be what they call a surrender charge. I mean, I've not heard it referred to as a rider, but essentially a surrender charge is a percentage that you pay that declines each year for taking your money out, and generally it only applies to the first seven years or so. That would typically be what it is, but it always comes back to the fine print.
So I would call the company and just ask for clarification on what that rider charge is that's somehow connected to, it seems like, your withdrawals and ask them to explain that further because there would be no way to tell without getting into the fine print and understand exactly what they're charging you. Okay. All right, Rob. Thank you very much. I've learned a lot from your program, and I've also told a lot of people that they really need to tune in to Faith in Finance. Thank you again. God bless you. You're welcome, and thank you for being one of our big fans out there and telling others about the program. We appreciate it. God bless you. Let's go to Illinois. Hi, Ellen. Go ahead. Hello, Rob.
Thank you so much for taking my call, and I appreciate your show so much. My daughter and son-in-law have approximately $35,000 in debt right now, which is mostly for home repairs and a vehicle payment. They have a 3.5% mortgage on their home right now, and they are being advised to bundle all of that debt, the mortgage and the other debt, into a cash-out refinance, which would then take them to about a 6.5% or 7% mortgage rate. And when I heard that, I just got kind of sick because that 3.5% mortgage sounds so valuable.
Is there anything else that they could do besides bundling all of that, or is this the way to go? Yeah, I don't think so, but let me just make sure I understand the situation. So the current mortgage, what's the balance on it?
I think about $120,000. Okay. And you believe that's at about 3.5% interest? It is. Yes, it is. Okay.
All right. And what is the other debt? Break that down for me. They had to have repairs done on their air conditioning system. They have put in new windows, and they have a vehicle payment. Okay. So you've got lenders that are the contractors that extended them loans to do the work, or how did they get the money for the ACM loan? They talk about having it be a financing company. Okay. Finance company. And then they've got a car loan, correct? Correct, yes.
Okay. Do you know the rates on the finance company and the car loan? The only rate I do know is that for the windows, currently they're paying 12.99%.
The windows they've had in for a couple of years, and I'm sure this was all done back when they finished that project, I don't know that amount, and I don't know the vehicle amount, I'm sorry to say. Gotcha. No, that's fine. But the total between the finance company and the car loan is $35,000? Yes.
Okay. And are they having trouble making those payments right now? No, but my son-in-law is having a really difficult time, I would say stress-wise, just having to pay all of those different bills every single month. And he sees it as, wow, one payment in a month, I can do that.
Yeah. No, that's not the solution because it does two things. Number one is the vast majority of that debt, when you roll it all together, $155,000 plus all the expenses, keep in mind it's going to probably cost 4% just for the new loan. That's $6,000 that's probably going to be rolled in. So now all of a sudden you've got $156,000, three points higher.
You definitely don't want to do that. The answer to this is not a new loan. The answer to this is dialing back lifestyle, freeing up margin, and focusing on the highest debt first, which is probably the finance company, throwing every available dollar at that to get it paid down.
I realize that can bring some stress, and yet this is not the easy fix because it's going to extend the debt, raise the interest rate, and that's going to result in a lot more interest over time. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit off the air.
We'll be right back. Financial fear is real, but so is God's promise to provide. At Faithfi, we know the daily stress of money can overwhelm your heart, but Jesus reminds us to look at the birds of the air.
They don't worry, and yet our Heavenly Father feeds them. In Look at the Sparrows, a 21-day devotional, you'll find peace by focusing on God's faithfulness as you discover how to overcome financial anxiety with faith. Visit faithfi.com slash sparrows and begin your journey with Look at the Sparrows today. We are grateful for support from Praxis Mutual Funds. Praxis Mutual Funds has seven impact strategies that are designed to create positive, real-world change. More information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. The fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses are contained in the prospectus and summary prospectus. This and other information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. Investments involve risk.
Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services, LLC. Great to have you with us today on Faith in Finance. All right, let's take as many calls as we can here in this final segment helping you manage God's money wisely. 800-525-7000 is the number to call with any financial question today. We've got room for a couple of additional questions, so if you have one, call right now. Let's go to Texas. Hi, John.
How can I help? Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. Yes, sir.
Yeah, just a little background here. I'm 74. I'm still working full-time, and I have a 401k, plus I also have a company-funded pension. Now, I just want to know, on the 401k, I have roughly about 500,000 in the 401k. Now, I was wondering whether I should roll that 401k over now or wait until I actually get close to retirement. I'm thinking about retiring by the end of next year. Yeah, John, in the vast majority of cases, nearly every case, you cannot move that 401k anywhere until you separate from service from the company. So you will need to leave that right there. But here's what you can do now, even though you can't roll it out yet. You can start to prepare for it, and you've accumulated a significant sum of money there, more than a half a million dollars.
And so, the last thing we want to do is, once you transition to whatever God has next for you, we don't want to leave this on autopilot. I would recommend that you have an advisor that can help you manage this, and now is the time, unless you already have somebody, for you to start looking at who that's going to be. And so, we would recommend that there in Texas, you go to our website, faithfi.com, click find a professional at the top of the page, and do a zip code search for a Certified Kingdom Advisor.
You could find a number of them in your area. I'd probably interview two or three, find the one that you feel is the best fit for you, where you have a good rapport, you understand their track record, how they get compensated, kind of how you fit among their other clients, how they're going to communicate with you, the investment strategy that is best for you, all of those things. And once you land on that advisor, you can go ahead and establish that relationship so that as soon as you retire, that money gets rolled to an IRA, and the advisor would then be able to take over the management.
So, there's not anything to do right now with the money, but you can start preparing for who ultimately will manage it once you separate from the company. Okay, great. That answers my question, Rob. Thank you so much for your advice on that. You're welcome.
Lord bless you, my friend. Thanks for being on the program today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got room for a couple of additional questions here in our final segment today. So, if you have a question, we'd love to hear from you and tackle whatever is on your mind. Again, you can call right now 800-525-7000. While those calls are coming in right now, let's tackle a couple of emails.
These come in to us regularly at askrob.faithfi.com. Here's what Sandy wrote to us. She said, my mother is 89. She just sold her house for about 300,000 at this stage in her life. How should she invest the money? Should she consider putting some of it into an annuity? I'd like her to have easy access to it.
Well, I think the key is what you said there at the end, Sandy. Liquidity or access to the money is going to be a key part of the decision on what you do. Is there anything necessarily wrong with an annuity?
No, it's not my first choice, but they have their place. If she's not wanting to take any risk with it, and she wants to transfer that risk to an insurance company in exchange for a monthly income stream or just a guaranteed rate of return, that's where an annuity can be a tool to consider. But the problem is when you say I want her to have easy access to it, like, let's say she would need to get to a big chunk of it if she needed long term care for a period of time or something like that. That's where it's going to be challenging because the annuity is illiquid. So what I would probably do is similar to what I just shared with John, our last caller, is find an advisor who could manage that money. Because she's nearly 90, it's going to be a very conservative portfolio. Probably more than 80% of it might be in bonds, which by the way, will do well over the next few years as interest rates come down. They've been out of favor for the last three, but she would still have complete access to the money even though there would be a nice rate of return on it. So that would be what I would suggest. And if you want a certified kingdom advisor for your mom, just go to our website, faithfi.com, click find a professional.
Let's see one more email. This one says, I was raised in a wealthy home and as a result, I've never learned proper financial principles. Now I want to learn how to be financially responsible and properly steward God's provision in my family and in my business. Do you have any suggestions on how I can get started with this? Well, Kelly, first thing I would say is listen to this program regularly.
Perhaps you already do and that's great. But we try to come at every angle of how you can think about money management through the lens of scripture each day on this program. Second would be pick up a great book that really just unpacks these themes. A light read might be Howard Dayton's Your Money Counts. That would be a good primer to biblical money management. A little bit thicker book would be Ron Blue's Master Your Money. If you want something more in depth, you can pick up Randy Alcorn's Money Possessions and Eternity.
I think any of those three would be a home run depending on kind of whether you're an avid reader and you like something a little deeper or perhaps a lighter read just to kind of get you started. Hopefully that gets you pointed in the right direction. All right. Back to the phones we go. By the way, I have room for one more question before we round out the program today. Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Back to Texas.
Michael, how can I help? Yes. Quick question. I am 52 and retired. My wife is 62 and retired.
We're doing pretty well, but more is always better. Would my wife be able to start claiming my Social Security benefit, my spousal benefits now? No, she would not. And the reason is that the way that works, Michael, is you have to walk through your door first before she can walk through it after you. So essentially, you have to begin claiming your benefit in order for her to get access to and have the ability to claim the spousal benefit.
And because you're 52, if I understood that correct, you're not eligible even to take an early benefit at this point for another decade. Right. Exactly. Okay. Very good. Well, thank you so much for everything you do. All right, Michael, thanks for your call today. I appreciate that. Lord bless you. Eight hundred five to five seven thousand is the number to call.
How about one more email? This one from Carl. I was told that I might be eligible to receive a pension. That was my brother's. Do you know of a Web site where I can search for a lost pension?
Yeah, absolutely. First of all, let me just say, though, that siblings are rarely eligible for survivors benefits from a typical pension. It's possible that you could receive a lump sum payout, but only if your brother named you as a beneficiary. But if you're unable to reach your brother's former employer or the pension plan administrator, you could check with the National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits.
You would find that at unclaimed retirement benefits dot com, unclaimed retirement benefits dot com. Carl, thanks for writing to us. By the way, folks, again, if you have a question for us, don't hesitate to send along those questions.
You can, of course, call at eight hundred five to five seven thousand at any time. But you can also write to us with your questions. Ask Rob at faith by dot com.
That's ask Rob at faith by dot com. Big thanks to Amy, Jim, Dan and Anthony. Enjoy the rest of your day and come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye bye. Faith and finance is provided by Faith by and listeners like you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-23 04:17:56 / 2025-01-23 04:27:45 / 10