What's in Your Digital Wallet?

The Coronavirus pandemic forced us to practice social distancing in almost all of our affairs. Six feet of separation became the rule for just about everything except our credit cards.

And you can add cash to that list of things not practicing social distancing as well. You know, it's no wonder why so many of us have embraced digital transactions like never before. Kingdom Advisors President Rob West talks about that first today. Then we take some calls from all across the country. However, today's edition of the program is not live. We are pre-recorded.

I'm Steve Moore. What's in your digital wallet? That's next, right here on MoneyWise Live. Okay, Rob, using cash or swiping credit cards really did expose a weakness in the idea of social distancing, wouldn't you say? Absolutely I would because you never know where cash has been or who's been using a credit card terminal. So the chance of picking up germs is ever-present and it's really advanced the idea of the digital wallet. Which is probably a lot thinner than the one I'm carrying around today. So what exactly is a digital wallet?

Well, it's pretty much what it sounds like. A digital form of your credit and debit card accounts and they're held on a secure third-party platform. A digital wallet isn't just safe as far as avoiding germs. It's also convenient, reducing the time required for online and in-store purchases.

These would include Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Amazon Pay and PayPal, just to name a few. What a lot of folks don't realize though, Steve, is that if they have a smartphone made during the last few years, they probably have one of those apps on their phone already. All right, besides the obvious, not having to handle cash or credit cards, what are the advantages to using a digital wallet and where do I find the one that you claim is on my phone? Well, a lot of people have gotten used to using peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and CashApp to send money to friends and family, but they may not realize that you can also do that with a digital wallet.

Usually you just need an email address or a phone number for the transaction. But then there's also the convenience factor. Not only are the transactions faster, but you don't have to carry your cards around with you.

All you need is a form of identification and your phone and depending on which type of device you have, you could just do a quick Google search to find out exactly what your app is called. For instance, in the Apple ecosystem, it's just called Wallet and it makes it very easy to attach your credit cards. All right, so the digital wallet store is all my credit card information, but what about all these other cards making it hard to sit on my real wallet?

Right. Well, you can store a lot of other card information in your digital wallet to use in your transactions, things like restaurants and store cards and even frequent flyer reward accounts. Give us an example of a typical digital wallet transaction.

Let's say I'm out, I decide to treat myself to a nice bagel with a schmear carryout, of course. How do I pay for that with my digital wallet? Well, your favorite bagel chain probably has its own app, so you'd use that to pre-order. Then you'd use one of the digital wallet apps like Google or Apple Pay to make the transaction. So when you get up to the cash register, they just hand you your order. And I can do all that while waiting in line, not having to touch anything.

Amazing. But I think a lot of folks are wondering just how secure this is. You mentioned a third party that stores my financial information.

What do I know about those folks? Well, and that's understandable. But these apps don't use your actual card number for transactions. They replace it with an encrypted number for each transaction, which is really a critical security feature for these.

You know, I've seen people waving their phones around to pay for things. How does that feature work? Yeah, well, at the heart of it is something called radio frequency identification or RFID. You set that up first with your digital wallet app entering your card number and security code, which is that three or four digit number on the back of your card or perhaps even on the front in some cases.

You'd also enter your home address and phone number. It just takes a couple of minutes. And when you're finished, you only have to put your phone near an RFID point of sale reader to complete the transaction. And more retailers are adding those readers every day. You don't have to touch the reader and you don't even have to wave the phone.

Just get it near it. I should point out that digital wallet systems have a lot of additional security features beyond just using a different encrypted card number. Some require you to unlock your phone with a password or fingerprint to complete a transaction. Plus, you can erase your data remotely if your phone is lost or stolen. I don't think it's for everybody.

No doubt younger folks are gravitating toward it. But if you're comfortable with this type of technology, it can make things easier and more secure. Okay, thanks, Brad. This is MoneyWise Live.

Your host is Rob West. I'm Steve Moore, back with more after this. If you're investing for retirement or any other goal, you may be wondering if it's possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind, no matter what's happening in the market. Soundmind Investing has a short video webinar on that topic at soundmindinvesting.org. SMI has helped tens of thousands of Christians learn to be wise and faithful stewards in the area of investing.

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That's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985. If you're listening right now, please don't try to call. Today's program is an encore broadcast with lots of interesting information still ahead, so please stay with us. We begin by going to Iowa City, Iowa, WDLM.

Great folks working hard up there. Diane, what's on your mind? Hello.

Yes, I have a problem. I helped a young lady. I co-signed a car loan, and this was several years back. But if it was just the car loan, that would be okay. But I would say over that two-year time, I probably gave her more than $6,000 to help her because she was in a halfway house and was coming to our church.

And I pick up people from there to come to our church, and that's how we met. But when I co-signed for the loan, I said, You can't default on this. I've helped you so much. And she says, Oh, I won't.

I won't. Well, she moved from Iowa City area, and I had her phone. Her phone's now been disconnected. And I am now, because I didn't know that she didn't pay, I got a phone call saying, Hey, you co-signed the flow, and she hasn't paid. And so since that time, I've been paying, and it's a $3,000 loan.

If I continue to pay on this loan, can I take possession of that car? I don't know. Yeah, well, let me say a couple of things here, Diane, and I can certainly appreciate the challenging situation that you're in, especially given that your desire from the very beginning was to be of help, because she's obviously in a difficult spot, regardless of the circumstances. You wanted to be of help, and you obviously have demonstrated that in the giving of resources and then also in co-signing. I think one of the challenges here is that when it comes to co-signing, first of all, if we start with God's Word, we see that clearly the Bible discourages us. I would even go further than that and say the Bible tells us not to co-sign Proverbs 22, 26.

Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts. If you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you. Well, what God's Word is saying here proves out every day when we see that the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, tells us that 50% of those who co-sign end up having to participate in payment.

And so we realize that God's Word obviously brings a very important point to light. If we ever co-sign, we need to be willing and able to step in and make the payments and almost assume that they won't. Now, regardless of how you got here, you're in this situation. So what legal recourse do you have? Well, I'm not an attorney, and so you could get some legal counsel here. But in general, if you are both co-signers on this loan, again, your two options are to ask that the asset be turned over to you because you're the one now making the payment. And my understanding would be that that other party would have to do that voluntarily. You could then sell the asset and use at least the sale proceeds to recoup perhaps a portion of what has been put up here or what will be owed over the balance of the loan. The second option is you allow it to be repossessed, but you have to recognize the impact to your credit for that decision, given that you are an equal party to this as a co-signer.

So the third option would be exactly what you're doing right now, and that is to continue to make the payments. I think moving forward, what you have to recognize is that you are a steward of what God has entrusted to you. I love the idea of giving. In fact, we affirm giving just about every episode here because it's on the heart of God. We see giving throughout the Old and New Testament. We were created in the image of God and He's the ultimate giver.

And so we should be generous. We should live with an open hand and look how we look out for opportunities to meet the needs of others, especially those in difficult circumstances or situations. But I think that has a limit and it's a part of a plan that you put together saying of what God has entrusted to me, how do I want to live according to His principles?

Living well within my needs, providing for myself and my family, but also being generous. But I think we don't need to do anything out of guilt or compulsion. We should do it joyfully because we feel like we want to. We want to participate in God's activity in someone else's life, but never because somebody makes us feel like we need to or because we feel guilty about it. So I think moving forward beyond this situation, I think you just need to prayerfully consider the support you're giving and heed the Council of Scripture as it relates to principles like the principle of staying out of a co-signing situation.

I think in this situation, you're just going to have to pray that the Lord would give you wisdom. If you had the ability to keep paying on this loan, I would do that to protect your own credit and see if perhaps this car could be turned over to you to be sold to satisfy the rest of the debt. Where would, whose name is on the title, where would that come into play? Any idea, Rob? Well, it's probably titled in both of their names, but regardless, there's a loan that they have both co-signed on, they're both responsible for, and the collateral for that loan is the car.

And so that loan is going to need to be paid or the lender is going to repossess it and there are going to be implications from a credit standpoint. Yeah. And Diane, I think you mentioned that her number is no longer working, so you're probably having difficulty even contacting at this point. Is that correct? That's correct. That's the main problem. Even the bank has had problems trying to contact her. And that's not unusual in a situation like this, especially since you're continuing to pay the bills and she's continuing to drive the car. Correct. And the bank will not give me, they were able to connect to a different number, but it's a different number and left a message, but they, of course, they said they can't give it to me because of privacy. Yeah.

Probably the only thing you could do at this point, Diane, strange as it may sound, you know, if you hired a private detective, they could probably track her down in that regard. But obviously that would cost you money, not to mention stomach acid, maybe some more sleepless nights, not that you haven't already had some, but we will pray that God opens up a way. We appreciate your compassionate and generous heart.

And nonetheless, the Bible does discourage a co-signing. So I know you won't ever do this again, but if any of our listeners are pondering it or considering it, typically not a good idea. Diane, we appreciate your call today.

Thank you very much. Hey, you're listening to Money Wise Live with Rob West. Today's broadcast is prerecorded, so we won't be taking any calls, but we have some calls lined up and some great information coming your way that I think you'll find usable at the very, very least. This is Money Wise Live. I'm Steve Moore.

We'll be right back. Many people adopt an attitude toward marriage and finances that it'll all work out somehow, but sadly, it often doesn't. Financial woes can devastate a marriage, but there is a better way. God's Way. Money and Marriage God's Way by Howard Dayton will help you discover God's approach to growing your finances, strengthening your relationship with your mate and cultivating Godly joy. Money and Marriage God's Way is available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org. Hebrews 4-12 says, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Here's Beth Moore with a quick word. And when the time had fully come, in God's patience, he is able to wait as he looks down as a day, this is a thousand years, in a thousand years, this is a day. God sits upon his throne completely patient to watch the timing come to fruition for everything he has planned on the kingdom calendar. And everything is that when this time is full, this will happen. When this time is full, this will happen. When this time is full, this will happen. So when the time of the Gentiles is completely full, in other words, when every single one of us of Gentile heritage who are coming in this age to know the Lord Jesus Christ, when it's complete down to the person and the name, boom, it's time. And that is the point when God will begin the day of the Lord and all things will come together in the culmination of the plan of the ages. And through that process, after the greatest battles that history will ever record, all Israel shall be saved in the same exact way we've been saved.

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The workbook edition will release in January 2021. Either way, Beth would love to have you in Bible study. Many people adopt an attitude toward marriage and finances that it'll all work out somehow. But sadly, it often doesn't. Financial woes can devastate a marriage. But there is a better way. God's way. Money in marriage. God's way by Howard Dayton will help you discover God's approach to growing your finances, strengthening your relationship with your mate and cultivating godly joy.

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But you can find us online at Money Wise Live dot org. Rob, I think you had something you wanted to share with our listeners. Well, you know, Steve, we hear from so many listeners each day, really. So many of them talking about how long they've listened.

Some of them just finding us recently. All just so encouraging about the chance we have together to learn God's way of handling money. And so just appreciate so much those of you who tune in each day and would like to invite you to participate with us, perhaps to partner with us to keep this program on the air. We have a wonderful team here and look forward each day to bringing you God's truth as it relates to money.

And if it's beyond your tide, you have the ability to give a gift to Money Wise Media. We would be incredibly grateful, whether that's a monthly gift and you want to partner with us as a Money Wise patron or give a one time gift, however little or however much you would be able to bless the ministry with. We would be grateful. And so I just want to thank you in advance for those of you who are already partnering with us and those maybe for the first time who want to step up and give a gift. Want to say thanks.

Yeah, thank you very much. Let's continue on up to Ohio. Curtis, we appreciate your patience, buddy. What's on your mind?

What do you have to share with us? Well, this has been going on for almost a year now. I have a 31 year old daughter living in a house that we own and hasn't paid rent. And want to object.

But wife is totally against it with a four month old baby and significant other living there and not knowing what to do. Asking the Lord your wisdom. Yeah. Well, you certainly need that.

James one five. If you lack wisdom, let him ask. And certainly this is an area where you need great wisdom because clearly, on one hand, you don't want to enable bad behavior and almost reward someone who's not following God's plan with regard to their finances and honoring their parents. On the other hand, we realize you want to provide for your family. And we've got a little one in the equation here as you have not only your daughter, but her baby. And so I think this is very challenging as you just assess her ability to care for herself and the baby. What is your assessment at this point of her situation? Well, six days after having the baby, she had a brain bleed and went to ICU.

So she's lucky to be alive and she's a miracle that she's alive, but she hasn't been released to go back to work. And but this not paying rent was previous to having the baby. So, yeah.

Yeah. OK. Well, I think the first thing is, again, for you and your wife to make this a matter of prayer. Second thing is to make sure that you both are on the same page about the plan moving forward. And that's going to take open and intentional communication. So you are of one mind with regard to how you approach the situation, whether you decide to exercise tough love or whether this is a time to be lavish in your generosity toward your daughter.

I think one step I would certainly take is to sit down with her face to face and say, listen, we love you. We want to support you and your baby, your child, our granddaughter, and we need to come up with a plan here. And so part of our continued assistance in this situation is going to be predicated on several things happening. One, you learning God's way of handling money to you progressing in your demonstrating.

You understand how to handle your finances, which includes you getting on a spending plan, showing that to us, beginning to manage your money wisely, including some rent in that plan and making good on that. And to the extent you're not willing to take these steps while we continue to provide assistance, there are going to be consequences and then lay out those consequences, whatever those might be. But again, I think you all have to have that plan going into it. A couple of additional thoughts. One is you could involve a third party if you feel like that would be more helpful. And so you could say part of this plan is you getting with a Money Wise Live coach who is going to walk with you. And over the next month is going to help you put a plan together that you're going to present back to us. And so it gets you out of the details of that.

But it does have someone who's godly who can help put a plan in place, walk alongside her. That would be one option. The second option is you give her a period of time where you say we're going to be willing to help for X number of months. And at that point, our support is going to stop unless we see the following things. And so I realize it's difficult, especially when there's a child involved. And so this is a time for you all to be prayerful and as husband and wife, communicating very clearly as you develop this plan. And we'll certainly ask the Money Wise Live community to be praying for you in that.

Yeah. Curtis, thank you very much. I like your advice there, Rob. Obviously, the baby does complicate things. The other question you have to ask yourself, husband and wife, is, is it a situation where they won't pay or that they can't pay? And you're right, sitting down and trying to work out a budget, having a conversation with them. As parents, sometimes the dynamics make that difficult. So involving a third party, perhaps a budget coach would be a good thing there. And again, you can find out how to contact a budget coach when you visit our Web site, Curtis, which is MoneyWiseLive.org.

And there's no charge for that. And perhaps that would help the situation. We're glad you called and we'll pray that God works that out. Thanks very much.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand Indianapolis, Indiana. Hey, Terry, what's on your mind today? Well, first, let me say I really appreciate your program and biblical wisdom that you share on a regular basis.

Thank you. Secondly, the reason I called, I've been a general contractor for over 30 years, done work for many wonderful people. However, it's been my life experience that some claiming to be Christians simply don't feel any responsibility to pay their bills.

Yeah. And case in point, one particular individual I did work for five thousand dollars worth of work. They never had the money yet. They were able to buy three new cars, take their family on great vacation and, you know, go out to dinner on a weekly basis.

But, you know, they they just never had the money to pay the bill. Totally happy with the work. Yeah.

No complaints. I'm just curious how you feel that situation like that should be handled. Well, I think you've got two situations going on. One is where we give to someone and the other is where we're in business with someone. In the case of giving, we just have to be prayerful and decide as the steward of the money whether the Lord is leading us to do the giving. And then we've got to leave the rest to him regardless of what they do with it or how they're living their lifestyle in a business situation. We have to know our customer. We've got to be prudent. We're stewards of the business in addition to the resources that God has entrusted to us. And part of that is making wise decisions. Now, we may decide to be gracious and give or not collect in certain situations because we want to bless someone.

But in other cases, we have to collect in the right way. And Terry, with that, I'm afraid we're going to have to say goodbye, but we're glad that you called today. Thanks so much. Well, that music reminds us it's time to take a brief break.

It will be also brief. So please don't go anywhere. This is MoneyWise Live. Find us on the Web at MoneyWiseLive.org.

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That's moodypublishers.com. Money and life run on the same track, but unfortunately, sometimes it seems like your money is heading in a different direction from your goals. In Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment, author Ron Blue helps you to break down all your financial options to a basic four, and then shows you how to keep it all chugging along in the right direction on the same track.

Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment, available when you click the store button at MoneyWise Live. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. The first presidential debate tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern in Cleveland, the 90-minute debate on national television. President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, has been on Capitol Hill for a day of meetings with Republican senators in preparation for her confirmation.

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This indeed is MoneyWise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore, and we go to Rapid City, South Dakota. Hey, Alan, we appreciate your stick-to-itiveness and your patience, sir. How can we help you? Well, I'm 61 years old.

I'm a self-employed professional. We have grandkids in another town, Oklahoma City. That's a big magnet for us.

We've looked at buying a second home there and want to transition there eventually. I was wondering about the advisability of taking some money out of my 401K to try to pay a greater proportion of the principal down on that house, that second home, so that we could save interest. I wondered what you would think about that. Yeah. Alan, were you looking at taking a loan from the 401K or just a distribution? Well, I thought I could probably take a distribution without a penalty, but I would have to pay the tax on that money, right?

You would. And what is your age? Sixty-one. Okay, yeah. So you would not have a penalty, but you would have to pay the tax on it.

So tell me about that. How much were you looking to pull out? Well, we're looking at homes in the 400 range, so we would pull out about $100,000.

I have about $100,000 cash that I could put down. Okay, so you'd put down 50% loan to value. A hundred of it would come from the 401K, a hundred in other savings. Is that right?

That's correct. Okay. And what is the total value of the 401K?

The 401K is probably only worth about $200, and I have a second investment account that has about $200 in it. Okay. And is that the extent of your retirement savings, about $400,000? That is, yes.

Okay. And as you look at retirement down the road, have you done some planning and some projections just to say, based on what we know today and what we feel God has called us to and our lifestyle and expenses and how long we want to work and how we're going to serve Him and be near family, which I realize is part of the reason for the second home. Tell me how you feel like you're doing just in terms of the overall savings goal you have, what you've been able to put away to this point, what you intend to put away in the future. Do you feel like you're on track ahead or behind?

I feel like I'm behind some of my peers, but I think that's okay. We've taken time out to do some missions work. I took two months out last year out of my job and was in Africa doing work, and I'm happy about the fact that our business income actually, we made $50 more this past year than we did the prior year, and that's with me being gone for two months.

Yeah, great. Well, it sounds like you've prioritized serving the Lord, and certainly it's not all about the amounts in our accounts, and I wasn't saying that at all, and I'm grateful to hear the work that you've done. I think the key, though, is that we recognize that saving is affirmed in the Bible, and although we shouldn't adopt the cultural view of retirement in the sense that we accumulate as much as we can during our working years to retire to a life of leisure, does nothing wrong with leisure, but we realize that our calling is throughout our entire lives, which you know full well as evidenced by your service to the Lord. And so we save, but we save primarily because we want to be able to focus our energy during that season on whatever God has for us, and there may come a day, will likely come a day for all of us where we can't work.

And so we want to have the ability to provide for our families, ourselves, and a spouse, any other dependents during that season. So I think the key here is if you can afford the debt service on this second property, if you feel like clearly the Lord's leading you to take on this second property, then I'd rather you keep the money there invested for the long term and not pay the tax now, and not give up the growth, the tax deferred growth that you can have over time. That's assuming that you can cover the debt service on this second property and continue to do the things you need to do with additional retirement savings and giving and things like that. If you can't, I think you've got a decision to make on do we really feel like this is where we need to go with this second property, and if so, we just realize that by taking this money out, not only are we going to have a big tax liability, perhaps you could spread it over two tax years, that may make some sense, but also we're going to have less that's growing for us and working for the future, and we're going to have all these additional expenses from this second property, property taxes and maintenance and upkeep and those kinds of things.

So I think those are the decisions you need to make, but my first choice would be if you feel like this is the direction you want to go, let's try to leave the money there and let it work for you and see if you can fund this additional home out of current cash flow. Yeah, that's probably doable. I suppose I'm giving away the fact that I'm a bit of a bear with respect to the current market, and so my 401k investments are tied to the market. Sure. Well, hopefully you've been rewarded over the last decade in your 401k, and I think that the stock market has been, over the last hundred years, the very best place for us to be with a greater than 9% average annual return going back that long. So time is on your side.

You're still young for all intents and purposes, even though you should be getting more conservative now, but I think the key is really praying through and thinking through that decision. Alan, we hope that helps you. Thank you very much for calling in today. Keep us posted. We'd love to know how God works that out for you. Thanks. Rob, what do you say we try to do a couple of emails here, all right?

That sounds good. All right, let's begin with one from Skip. He says, Dear Rob and Steve, I have $125,000 in cash. How can I invest it in a CD, a bank, or Vanguard?

Yeah, he's probably been listening to the program. Skip, you can invest this in a CD very easily. In fact, over $25,000 going into a CD, you're going to get the very best rates. I would start by going to bankrate.com, bankrate.com, and put in the amount of the CD, the duration you're looking for.

You're looking for 18 months, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, and then see which banks with FDIC insurance are offering the most attractive rates. You'll find a number of them and shouldn't be any problem linking that new bank, probably an online bank, to your checking account. You'll be able to just ACH transfer the money in, initiate the CD, set up your online account, and you are off to the races.

Now, he has an interesting follow-up here. He says, Won't depositing $125,000 in cash create Homeland Security questions? Well, there are some new rules that came out several years ago, actually a number of years ago now, related to know your client, where when you're making certain deposits, they have to ask questions. But these questions aren't going to be voluminous, and it won't create any problems.

You'll just have normal questions that any financial institution would ask when you're opening an account. Okay. Next email is from Kim. She says, We just sold our house and paid off all our debt. When we tithe the profit from the sale, does it all go to our church or can we, quote, spread it around?

Yeah, Kim, great question. The key is here, the profit from the sale, when we're talking about a house, make sure you're looking at the true profit after the expenses. Of course, subtract out the initial purchase price and any improvements.

But then I would see this as your increase, so I'd treat it just like any other income you get and tithe 10% to your local church. Okay, sounds good to me. It always sounds good to me because Rob West really knows his stuff. He's the president of Kingdom Advisors, and he joins you each weekday at this time, taking your questions at 800-525-7000. Something I always forget, thanking those behind the scenes, Amy Judy, and particularly Rich for his assistance today. We'll be right back.

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And it's available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org. This is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded. Thanks so much for being with us today, and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of the program. Boy, we are having fun today. It's like a barrel of monkeys here. I'm Steve Moore. He's Rob West, Chief Monkey. Wow. I'm sorry about that, Rob. Thank you. I'm fired, aren't I? No. Let's go to Muncie, Indiana. Hey, Bill, thank you so much for holding and your patience.

What's your question for Rob West? Okay, so I'm the executor of my mom's estate. Yes. And she's 80 years old. She's not died. And she wants to go over the different things that need to be done. And I'm not exactly sure to say, okay, where's this?

Where's this? Yeah. You know, so I mean, she's more than willing to talk all through all this. She's been throwing away tax forms from 1955 and electric bills from five years ago. So she's clearing a lot of this stuff out.

Yes. But I don't know if there's like a checklist or somebody, okay, you need this. Where's this at?

Where's this at? And then in what order, you know, when she passes, what order I do all this stuff. Well, I certainly understand that, Bill. And I appreciate you thinking about this ahead of time.

And it's nice that you're in a situation where your mom is willing to engage in this discussion. And so now's the time to certainly do that to make sure that you can serve her well. As you probably know, an executor, which is basically a personal representative, it's the person named in the will to carry out the terms of the will. So you'll oversee the settling of the state, paying any estate, not the state, settling of the estate, paying any debts or taxes on behalf of the estate, making sure the people named in the will that are beneficiaries, you and perhaps anyone else, receive their inheritances. And your duties don't officially start until her passing.

However, there are things you can do to be prepared. And I think that's the genesis of your question. First thing I'd want to know is where is the will located?

So you're going to want to make sure you know that. And if it was created with the help of an attorney, what is the attorney's name? What's the law firm?

What's the contact information? You're going to want to know any professional advisors that you should work with to settle the estate. Not only attorneys, but accountants, financial planners, investment professionals. And then does the person that named you as the executor, in this case your mom, have any general wishes for her estate that aren't laid out in the will? And then you'd certainly want to ask any questions you have about your responsibilities ahead of time. You could even talk to the attorney if there was one.

And I think those are kind of the big rocks, if you will. I mean, of course, you could, in addition to talking to her attorney, go online and do a Google search for questions to ask as an executor. Things like that.

You'll find just a number of resources out there. Hopefully, she has a listing. But perhaps one of the things you could do now is go ahead and make sure all the important papers and information are in one place so that you can access them quickly. I mentioned the will earlier, but things like bank account information, credit card accounts, any mortgage info, any other debts. And then, as I mentioned, wishes that aren't in the will, things like what would she like for funeral planning and how should she want the funeral to be carried out, things like that.

So those are probably the lion's share of them. And then I think beyond what we've talked about today, calling her attorney, seeing if there's a checklist or something you can read up on, and then just doing some general online searching. If you do all of that, I think you will be prepared to handle this, assuming things aren't overly complex. How's that sound, Bill?

Here's my big problem. She's got a credit card that she charges up, and once she starts getting paid and she can't pay it, she'll do something crazy and pay it off. Like, one time she cashed out a whole life insurance policy and paid off her credit card.

And then three years later, it's back up to the point where it's driving her crazy. She took a loan against her remaining life insurance policy. So her house is not worth that much money. Now the only income she has is Social Security. So sometimes when something major breaks, she has to use the credit card to fix it. One of my major questions is, if she ends up with a balance on this credit card and there's not enough money in her estate to bury her, and me and my sisters and brothers are going to have to pick up money to pay that burial fee, what happens when MasterCard comes to call us? Unfortunately, the creditors are going to be out of luck in that situation. So when somebody dies, the estate pays the credit card balances and other debts.

But when they die with more debts than assets to pay them, generally speaking, the creditors just don't get paid unless there's somebody else attached to those accounts. So I think one of the things, though, that you can do to help her finish well and manage the resources God has given her has come alongside her to help her do some planning. Now getting her on a budget, helping her understand how to control the flow of money and making sure she doesn't go on these kind of wild up and down, charging up, paying down and making poor decisions. So if you can lean into that and she's willing to do that with you, that'll go a long way.

And to answer the question you may be thinking or wondering about, not that Rob didn't, but Bill, you and your sister would not be obligated to pay off her debts, MasterCard or whatever, after she passes, if indeed they're just her debts. You sound like a good son, so hang in there, do the best you can. We understand that this isn't always easy when it comes to parents. Thanks so much. Beth is calling from Grayslake, Illinois, and we appreciate you holding on. Beth, how can we help? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Happy to.

I'm so grateful you're there. I've had four very difficult financial years. I had a job where I was underemployed, so I had to really pinch pennies. But I started amassing credit card debt in late 2015, and I have not been able to get out of debt.

I have a very good credit score. I'm always one who pays my credit card off as soon as I get the bill, so this has been a nightmare for me. I've had so much interest payment, so finally, in the beginning of 2019, I got an interest-free credit card.

I thought that was really going to help, and it did. But unfortunately, I've had things happen, and unfortunately, between November, December this year, I had to work $3,000 in bills that I just had to use as a credit card. So now I'm back up near $5,000. I'm trying really hard to pay. I'm not putting a single penny in my savings account because I just want to get out of debt. And every time I start to get out of debt, something comes to take it away. So my current interest-free credit card has about two months left on it, and so I talked to my bank today and asked them about getting one, and the banker said, you know, the interest is pretty high on these credit cards.

They're going to be over 20%. He suggested that I do a home equity loan. I do have a town home.

I have 11 years of equity in it, I think somewhere around there. But I do have equity. I just can't stand being in debt, and I'm just trying to find the quickest way to pay this credit card off and just try and get myself out of debt and be able to save again. I have a house that needs so many repairs that I've had to put off because I'm just trying to rob from Peter to pay Paul, basically. So I would really appreciate your advice.

Yeah, Beth. Well, listen, I realize the frustration and the weight of all of this on you, and clearly you're trying to do everything you can to honor the Lord, be a good steward of what he's entrusted to you, and I can certainly appreciate your desire to be completely debt-free. I've got to say, though, I don't like the idea of converting this unsecured debt, which is what credit card debt is, to secure debt, and at that secured by your home. I realize the cost of funds may be less, but that's not my primary concern. My primary concern is kind of solving the underlying issue, which I realize is not easy, but it's going to come down to what can we do in the budget to try to get the bills paid, to create enough margin so we can pay, at the very least, the minimum, get a little bit going to emergency savings every month on a systematic basis, and it might be a small amount. If we can free up $50 or $100, that'd be great, trying to get to $1,000 as an emergency fund. So when the unexpected comes, and it will, that the first place we don't have to go to is the credit cards. We've got that $1,000, and we can really focus on keeping the credit cards declining.

I also don't like the balance transfer game for the reasons you mentioned. It does take the pressure off, but inevitably the unexpected comes, and then the time runs out, and then we're back up to these high interest rates, and over time that's going to cost you, not only because you'll pay the higher rates, but every time you do it, as you probably know, there's typically about a 3% fee that they impose just to make the balance transfer. So my preferred approach here, Beth, would be to look at a debt management program using a nonprofit Christian credit counseling agency, and we use Christian credit counselors.

They're wonderful, godly people. What would happen there, and I realize you may be concerned about your credit, but the fact that you're in credit counseling doesn't go through the credit scoring formula, but you do have to close any of the accounts that go into the program, and it will be noted. So if you were seeking additional credit, which I hope you're not anytime soon, they could use that information that they see there, not in the score, but just on the report, however they want. So you just have to recognize the implications of that, plus the fact that it's now a closed credit card. But the benefit is these folks will help you take another look at your budget, help you get on a plan, help you establish a monthly payment to the creditors with a drastically reduced interest rate. It's going to be the same payment every month through the life of the payback.

It's not going to decline with the balance, and the combination of that with the lower interest rate is going to help you pay this off 80% faster, and we're not going to attach it to your home, where if something happened and you couldn't make the bill, now all of a sudden your home's at risk. So that's going to be my preferred approach on where you go from here. I'd visit with them on the web to get started, let them know that MoneyWise sent you their way, ChristianCreditCounselors.org, ChristianCreditCounselors.org, and that's going to be my preferred option for how you proceed from here, and we'll certainly ask our MoneyWise Live community to be praying for you as well. We will indeed. God bless you, Beth. Thanks very much.

Trust God will bless you as you forge ahead and move ahead and get this debt paid off once and for all. This is MoneyWise Live. Thanks so much for being there. Thanks for telling others about us. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media, and you are listeners. For Rob West, I'm Steve Moore, hoping you and yours have a wonderful remainder of the day, then join us again next time.