Not to Miss Giving Opportunities in 2020

2 Corinthians 9-6 poses both a warning and a challenge to Christians. It reads, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

No one reaching the end of life says, you know, I wish I'd given less. We all want to be generous toward God's kingdom as he calls us to be. Today host Rob West sits down with Matt Haynes of the National Christian Foundation to find out why that's easier to do this year than it's your calls at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore. Not to miss giving opportunities in 2020. That's next on MoneyWise Live. Rob, Matt Haynes is Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at the National Christian Foundation, a nonprofit that's helping over 25,000 families maximize the impact of their giving. Well, Matt's also a good friend. Delighted to have him here today.

And Matt, good afternoon. Welcome back to MoneyWise. Well, thank you guys for having me.

I'm thrilled to be here. You know, we were talking about the giving opportunities that are present here in 2020 specifically. And as we got into the year and realized this was going to be anything but a typical year in the midst of a pandemic, giving was probably for many people the last thing on their mind. And yet we said very early and very quickly, no, we need to lean into that. It's a time to really think about accelerating our giving if we have the capacity, isn't it?

You know, it really is, Rob. And these are conversations that you and I have had throughout the year at other times and other places. But it's been a real encouragement for us to see the givers that work with National Christian Foundation really press in, like you said. I mean, we've got this opportunity to respond to the environment that we find ourselves faced with, an attitude of abundance and not scarcity, just being reminded that God owns it all. It's his and he's given it to us to steward. And how can we be faithful during this season that may be a little more complicated and confusing with those things that he's given us?

Yeah, there's no question. And we want to be clear, there are many that are going through really challenging times, whether that's personally, a job's been eliminated, hours have been cut, maybe they've been furloughed. Perhaps we have a business owner where a small business has just been decimated. And those are realities of a very difficult time. And yet I think, Matt, that underscores even more the idea that those who have more than they need should be leaning in during this season. Yeah, for sure.

And that really is the reality. We're hearing a lot of stories. We're working with a lot of givers who have been in one circumstance or situation coming out of 2019 and now find themselves in a different environment now.

But yeah, most certainly, if you find yourself in a situation this year where it's wound up really turning out differently than you thought it might have, as you sat in late March, early April, there are some opportunities for you. Well, one of my predecessors and a good friend and peer of Steve Moore's is the late Larry Burkett. And Larry was one of the founders of the National Christian Foundation. Before we dive in, Matt, to some of these specific scenarios that you're seeing this year, frankly, some compelling giving opportunities that have been in part brought about by the CARES Act this year. Talk about the work of NCF and what you do.

So NCF has been around really, as you mentioned, since the early 1980s. You had Larry Burkett, Ron Blue, and Terry Parker came together to create this entity that now today we sit in over 30 cities across the country, 60 plus relationship managers that really serve as a guide to come alongside families that are looking to be faithful and generous with that which God's entrusted them. So developing giving strategies and thinking about how they might, again, be good stewards is much of what we do.

It sure is. And helping you be a wise giver is where NCF can really help at ncfgiving.com. Matt, we've just got about a minute before our first break.

So I want to begin to explore some of these scenarios. And let's start with one that really applies to 90% of our listeners. And the reason is 90% of you will take the standard deduction this year, but the CARES Act has afforded you a unique opportunity. Yeah, that's right, for sure. So givers that take the standard deduction on their personal tax return are entitled to deduct up to $300 from their income for cash gifts made in 2020 to churches and public charities. Now, that's in addition to their standard deduction. So when you think about just a straight up $300 deduction you can take, we really want to encourage everyone to be diligent in doing that. And of course, with any conversation around generosity, this one specifically, though, it's easy to look first, and we want to encourage people to consider their church or charities that they're already supporting.

Just give directly $300 and the deduction is available to you. Yeah, that's great. Well, just around the corner after the break, we'll begin to lean into some of these specific scenarios that Matt and the team at NCF are seeing some great opportunities for you to take advantage of this year and be very, very generous. NCF stands for National Christian Foundation. And if you're interested in pointedly maximizing your donations to Christian organizations around the country, or nonprofits of any type, they're the folks you want to talk to. We're going to take a brief pause and we'll come back and take some calls later in the program 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. keys to financial contentment available when you click the store button at money wise live.org. If you have money in a retirement account, or just a general investing account, you know the stock market can sometimes be like a rollercoaster. But it is possible to enjoy both profit and peace of mind and investing.

No matter what's happening in the market. You can see a short video webinar on that topic at soundmindinvesting.org. Since 1990, sound mind investing has sought to offer financial wisdom for living well. soundmindinvesting.org.

Hi, I'm Johnny Erickson Tada. And I read a few interesting facts the other day. Did you know that walking for just two minutes each hour can increase your lifespan? Handwashing can save more lives than the most costly medical intervention. Did you know that setting simple limits can grow a child's attention span, as well as help them control impulses?

Even shifting your position can boost your ability to solve problems. Now, what does this all tell me? God sweats the small stuff. Small choices and little disciplines count in a big way. But my favorite small discipline, Psalm 90 tells me to number my days, count them, treasure them, invested them, as well as in the people you meet every day. Remember, God sweats the small stuff, even the individual words we say.

So number your days and guard your words. It's great advice from the Word of God. Do you feel like your hands are tied with debt preventing you from serving God? If you have credit card debt, Christian credit counselors can help. Through our debt management program, we can get you out of credit card debt about 80% faster while honoring your debt in full. For more information on how Christian credit counselors can help, visit christiancreditcounselors.org. That's christiancreditcounselors.org, or call 800-557-1985, 800-557-1985. Joining us today on MoneyWise Live is Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at the National Christian Foundation, Matt Haims.

Rob? More than 25,000 families look to NCF's expert guidance and creative giving solutions to help them maximize their impact for the causes, the ministries, the churches that they love. And it's really just that, Matt. It's about creative giving, and that means you have to have a plan, but that also means in many cases you need to have somebody to walk alongside you, like the team at NCF, to make sure that you're not missing opportunities. Isn't that right?

Yeah, absolutely, Rob. We really take seriously the influence that we're entrusted with by our givers to come alongside them. I mean, clearly we're not telling them what to do with their money, but to the extent they're looking to have a biblical foundation for the strategy that they imply or apply to their giving, we want to walk alongside them and help guide them in thinking through how their giving aligns not only with what God's put on their hearts and their passions, the causes that they believe in and want to see advanced, but their legacy, their family, the wealth and resources God's entrusted them with. So that's really a big part of what we do. Well, I know it is, and it happens not only nationally, but also locally, with 30 local teams that you can connect with, and you can find a local office when you visit ncfgiving.com. All right, Matt, we're talking today about some specific scenarios that you're seeing, especially here in the year 2020 as a result of the pandemic in the midst of the CARES Act, which actually has enabled some of these unique giving opportunities.

And I'd love to begin to unpack those. And perhaps one of those scenarios that you're seeing this year, which was completely unexpected, was that folks are sitting with some significant gains in their investment accounts. Yeah, for sure. Right. I mean, you guys talk about this on a daily basis on the show, for sure. But where we thought we may be this time back in March, when you look at what the market did in March, and then you turn around, see how it responded in April.

And now as we move into fourth quarter, you know, look, Lord only knows where things will wind up coming into the election in November. But there are a lot of folks that have got gains in their stock portfolio that are significant, believe it or not, you know, the just the year over year numbers. For the S&P, you know, you're you're up north of 10, 12%, depending on how things shake out on a day to day basis, year over year, and the NASDAQ is meaningfully even more than that if you've got tech stocks. So there's an opportunity to give appreciated securities from your stock portfolio, if that's something that you may be able to do. Talk to the listener out there who's saying, why would I want to do that? And how do I go about doing it? So if you've got investments in a taxable brokerage account, just for example, and you bought, you know, a stock at $10 a share, and now it's worth $20 a share, just for a simple example, if you were to sell that stock on your own, you're going to pay capital gains tax on that $10 profit you just made. But in the event that you can gift that security, that stock in kind to a charity, then the charity can sell that and not have to pay the capital gains tax on that gain. You get the deduction for the full value of the gift, but you're not having to pay the tax on the capital gain.

Very good. And how can NCF help with a transaction like that? So we've got a lot of givers that use their giving fund, their donor advised fund, to gift appreciated securities in that way. So they're looking at their stock portfolios going, man, we could give out of cash, or we could look at assets that we have that have got taxes embedded in them and then gift those to NCF and then we can facilitate the liquidation of that and then they can then give away the proceeds as they advise their giving fund.

It's an incredible opportunity you don't want to miss this year. Another one, Matt, that has been brought about by the CARES Act is this new 100% deduction of donations of up to 100% of adjusted gross income for 2020. That's up from 60%. I'm throwing out some terms here. Why don't you define this opportunity?

Yeah, right. So in a normal context, in a normal year, an individual can deduct up to 60% of their adjusted gross income from cash gifts that they make to a charity. So when you think about your adjusted gross income and giving from cash, that's a pretty dramatic, generous move if you're giving that much. This year, uniquely because of the CARES Act, they're allowing for an additional 40% all the way up to which gets you to 100% of your adjusted gross income. You could give away in cash this year between now and the end of 2020.

It's time bound into this year, but what they're trying to do is encourage generosity from taxpayers to those charities and ministries that are on the front lines of really responding to individuals, families, and businesses that have been impacted communities that have been impacted by COVID. And this would, of course, be for somebody who's high capacity. And most people listening would say, well, I need that income to live on. And we recognize that. But for those who have been blessed with far more than they need, this may be a unique, in fact, once in a lifetime opportunity to do some serious giving.

That's right. And much of what comes up in the context of the planning that we do around with our givers is they think about their cash and that being the only thing they could give from. But as we just mentioned with Appreciated Securities, you can have gains in real estate. You can have gains in a stock portfolio. There are other assets. Your business value could be increased during this season, and you can give away real assets as well.

So you could give away up to 30% and deduct real assets in a contribution, 20% of your adjusted gross income in cash, and then add on this new CARES Act additional deductibility of your cash. I love that. In the remaining time we have, Matt, let's talk about business owners for a minute, because I know one of the big opportunities at the National Christian Foundation is the way you can serve and walk alongside business owners. And as we said in the last segment, there are a lot of especially small businesses, but large major corporations that have been decimated as a result of the pandemic.

On the flip side, there are some businesses that have done quite well. Maybe they tightened their belt. They haven't been traveling. Those expense accounts are all sitting in the bank.

They're all sitting there. And so they're finding themselves in a position with excess cash, which creates a giving opportunity in and of itself. Yeah, it really does, Rob. And we're hearing that from many givers we work with. They didn't expect to be sitting on large cash balances coming into the end of 2020.

It's a surprise, given all that's happened. But now that they're here, the conversations that are being had is, how can I be generous with what God's blessed us with, even through this chaos? And so ideas like engaging your employees, talking to the folks that work with you, work for you on what causes charities, ministries that the organization may want to give to, is a great way to build community and to begin to have some really powerful conversations with your team as you think about generosity.

I love that. There's another opportunity for business owners related to the value of their business, which may be higher than they expected this year as a result of the pandemic, or it may be significantly lower. In either case, this may be an opportune time to do some giving. How does that apply here? Yeah, so and always with the caveat that you've got to get with your CKA, go to your certified kingdom advisor, go to your tax accountant, your tax professional, you want to seek their advice and counsel on this. But if you've got a business that's appreciated, unusually, and you've got an opportunity, you can give a portion of those assets of that business away.

And, you know, you want to get someone to help you with the strategy of how to do that. But there's an opportunity there. The flip side of it is, if your business is depressed in value, if it's come down, it may be an opportunity if you were waiting to find a time to move more of your assets out of your estate onto your heirs or into some type of vehicle like a trust. When the value's down on your business, it's not a bad time to look at making gifts because you can move more money out of your estate quicker.

Yeah, that's great. Obviously these don't apply to everyone, Matt, but the idea is we want to be intentional, we want to be creative, we want to be thoughtful in terms of how we do our giving so we can give to the maximum. So often we just give out of cash. Unfortunately, only about 10% of our wealth is held in the form of cash and that's where NCF shines, right?

Absolutely. You know, much of what we do, we've got a tremendous amount of resources available to folks that can think about making what we would refer to as more complex gifts, gifts of non-cash assets so that they can mobilize more of what God's entrusted them with. Matt, thanks for being with us today. Appreciate you having me. Matt Hames has been with us today from the National Christian Foundation.

You'll find them online at ncfgiving.com. We'll be right back with more, including your calls at 800-525-7000. Do you know if you have enough? Enough money? Enough house?

Do you know how much is enough? If not, Ron Blue can help with his book, Master Your Money, a step-by-step plan for experiencing financial contentment. Learn how to save, invest, and give wisely, how to create a long-term financial plan, and how to get out of debt.

You'll find it all in Master Your Money by Ron Blue, available when you click the store button at moneywiselive.org. P. Blues 412 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. Ephesians 3 17, because the Lord was reminding me that we're exhorted to be rooted and grounded in God's incomprehensible love.

And I thought how important that is. You and I won't be able to figure out why we're going through certain things. I mean certain things that are going to remain a mystery to us every single second we're on this planet.

But this we can know. We're going to be rooted to the degree we are absolutely certain that God's love for us is both lavish and unchanging. I would ask you today, how convinced are you? It's something we talked about in the heart of Romans chapter 8. If we cannot settle the matter of God's absolutely lavish love for us, we are going to take one offense after another. We're going to live our lives as offended people.

We'll be mad at God continually if we don't settle in our minds whether or not we are utterly convinced to the marrow of our bones that we are completely loved by God. That there's absolutely nothing that can happen that can change that. That we've got to know. We've got to be rooted and grounded in love. Where when the wind blows there's nothing that can pull us up out of the ground. I mean we may be blown over. We may be bent for a while.

But our roots haven't come up because we're rooted and we're grounded in the incomprehensible love of God. Beth and the team are thankful for the grace gift to serve you. Your letters, prayers, and support are a vital part of this program. To request this month's thank you gift, text the word GIFT to 57682.

Again text G-I-F-T to 57682. Or go to bethmore.org forward slash donate. And thanks for listening to a quick word with Beth Moore. The financial wealth you leave behind could be the best thing that ever happened to your loved ones, or the worst. In Splitting Heirs, giving your money and things to your children without ruining their lives, Ron Blue explains why it's important to make these decisions now, instead of forcing your heirs to do it later.

Splitting Heirs will foster a real appreciation for the precious resources that God has entrusted to you. And it's available when you click the store button at moneywiselive.org. Good to have you with us today. It's MoneyWise Live with Rob West. Our phone number if you'd like to speak with Rob is 800-525-7000. We're taking your calls and questions today on any financial topic. So give us a ring. We have open lines 800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore. Let's go to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Julie, thanks so much for your patience today and how can we help you?

Hi. I just want to say quick that I really enjoy listening to MoneyWise and I thank you for taking my call. My question is, my husband and I have a $70,000 mortgage at 3%. We also have a $34,000 home equity loan and that's at 4.6 variable.

Right now we're set to pay off the house in seven years and if we pay extra on our home equity loan we could also get that paid off in seven years as well. But we're wondering if we would save money in the long run if we refinanced and rolled the two together. What are you looking at in the way of a new term, Julie?

Pardon? What would be the new term if you were to blend them together in one new first mortgage? Would it be a 10-year mortgage? What are you thinking? We would like to do a 10-year and I didn't know if it would be like if the payments were lower could we use that extra money that we'd be saving to pay it off even sooner? Yeah.

Well, that'd be the only way I'd be on board with this. You know, given that you could save quite a bit in interest, I mean not on the first mortgage but certainly on the second, you're going to need to run the amortization schedule just to see what is the total amount that you could save to make sure this is going to make some sense for you. The question is what kind of rate could you get on a 10-year mortgage, let's say?

What are they quoting you? Have you gone out and shopped this? I'm thinking a 3.0. Yeah, I mean you should do better than that if you have good credit. Obviously, you've got quite a bit of equity in the home right now. You know, with a 30-year mortgage, I've seen 2.65, 2.7 even without discount points. You know, they go down with 15-year and even more on a 10-year. So I'm thinking, you know, 2.5% or so right now in this incredibly low interest rate environment. The question would be let's say you were to blend or roll these two mortgages together in the form of one new first mortgage at two and a half percent. You'd save a half point on one, you'd save a little over two points on the second, the HELOC.

Then it would be fixed. It would be a 10-year amortization loan or a term of 10 years. Then what I would do is not pay that minimum payment. The question would be what would be the same payment required to get to the seven-year payoff so that you're keeping the term the same even though you don't have to technically. And then you'd want to compare that monthly payment with the 10-year payoff to what you're currently paying today in terms of your first mortgage plus what you're paying against the HELOC, perhaps interest only if the line is still open.

And what you'd want to do first of all is make sure that number fits into your budget. Assuming it does, then it's a function of, okay, we've got the same payback period because remember, you're committed to sending the same amount to get to the seven-year payback. The question would be, how much are you going to save over those seven years in interest versus the cost of the refinance itself?

Because there's going to be a cost there on this roughly $105,000. Let's say it's 2%, that's two grand, could be as much as 3%, that's $3,000. How long is it going to take you to save $3,000 in interest? I suspect what you'll find is, if you all are disciplined, you can live on a budget, and you can afford the payment that would get you the seven-year payoff, there will come a time in the next couple of years where you've paid back the cost of the refinance in the form of saved interest. And then for the remainder of the loan, you enjoy that lower total interest that's going to be paid. So assuming all that comes together, you get the right amount of interest. And then if all that comes together, you get the right rate with low costs, meaning you're not paying discount points, and you keep the total cost of the refinance around 1% to 2%, and you're committed to not extending the term to a full 10 years, but committed to paying what you have to pay to get to seven, then it probably is going to make sense, but I'd want you to check those numbers ahead of you. Does that make sense, though?

Right, and shop around for a 2.5 or better? Yeah, exactly. Well, you're probably not going to do much better than that, but yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood is what I'm expecting you'll find on a 10-year mortgage. Okay, well, thank you so much. You're very welcome, Julie. God bless you.

Thanks so much. 800-525-7000, if you have a question, comment, a conundrum you'd like to kick around with Rob West today, now's a great time to call Grand Rapids, Michigan. Shirley, what's on your mind? Well, my husband had an IRA that expired or matured, I guess you might say, and we could not find a better vehicle to put it in, so they gave us all the money back, it's like $160,000, and they took out enough for taxes. He'll be 90 and he's in good health, but you never know when you're going to need that immediately, if not sooner. So we want to know where is the best place to park that money. I know you can't get much interest in banks or savings accounts.

We have a Capital One 360 account, and we have a credit union account, and we have a bank account, checking account. So if I understand correctly here, Shirley, when you're talking about something maturing, did he have it in a CD that has matured? Is that what happened? Maybe it was a CD. I'm not sure what it was.

Probably so. It was something through Prudential. Okay, and regardless of what instrument it was, you said that investment was inside of an IRA?

Is that right? And he said there wasn't anything where he could get it immediately if he needed it. Yeah, and so that's the key. You want to protect the principal, and you all want ready access to these funds. You don't want it to be locked up for any period of time, right? That's right.

Yeah. Well, I think your best bet right now with interest rates so low is just a high-yield savings account. You're probably only going to get about 0.6% on that right now in this current environment. I know it's not much, but the key for you is protecting the principal and access to the funds. So I would just use that Capital One 360 until such time as the interest rates improve. Check out soundmindinvesting.org as well for a new article on some alternatives.

We'll be right back. How should we as Christians think about investing? What if we could invest our money in a way that aligns with what we believe? At Eventide, we believe it is possible to love God and love our neighbor in the very practice of investing. We design investments for performance and a better world so you can invest for the future with a sense of wholeness and purpose. We call this investing that makes the world rejoice.

More information is available at investeventide.com. Christian Healthcare Ministries enables believers to show love for one another by sharing each other's health costs. Through CHM's voluntary health cost-sharing programs, members uplift each other spiritually and financially. CHM is an eligible option under the Affordable Care Act and a Better Business Bureau accredited charity.

Interested? Learn more by calling 800-791-6225 or online at chministries.org. Hi, my name is William, a communications major at Moody Bible Institute. The Moody Radio Verse of the Week is found in Proverbs 10, 4-5. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. That's Proverbs 10, 4-5, the Moody Radio Verse of the Week. God cares a great deal more about our money than most of us imagine. In fact, Jesus says more about our use of money and possessions than about anything else, including both heaven and hell. In Managing God's Money, author Randy Alcorn breaks it all down in a simple, easy-to-follow format that makes it the perfect reference tool if you're interested in gaining a solid biblical understanding of money, possessions, and eternity.

Managing God's Money is available when you click the store button at moneywiselive.org. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. Six people have been charged in federal court with plotting to kidnap Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer at her vacation home.

Separately, seven more people have been charged with trying to target police in the Michigan capital. Hurricane Delta gaining strength as it bears down on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Forecasters warning that Delta could blow ashore Friday with winds of up to 105 miles per hour. They place most of Louisiana within Delta's path, including the area around Lake Charles, which is under a mandatory evacuation order.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits falling last week to 840,000. Stocks closing higher on Wall Street, as hope remains that Washington can approve more aid for the economy. The Dow today gained 122 points, the NASDAQ ahead 56, the S&P up 27. This is SRN News. It's MoneyWise, MoneyWise Live. We're live, which means we're taking your phone calls at 800-525-7000 Before we go to Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, though, Rob, I know you're excited about some newish information regarding the MoneyWise app, huh? Well, we are, Steve. We've been talking about this. If you're just hearing about it for the first time, you know, our team since the first of 2020, literally for eight months straight, three full-time developers have been working on the MoneyWise app. And it's out, it's live.

You can go get it today, whether it's the Apple store or the Google Play Store. Just search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance. At the core of it is a digital envelope system where you can connect to your institutions, download your transactions automatically, categorize them by envelope. And I'll tell you, we built it in such a way that it solves for every feature I wanted in an envelope system.

I couldn't find one, so our team created it. We'd love for you to check it out. But here's what we just launched today, and we're so excited about it, is the web app.

So here's what that means. You have it on your phone or your tablet, and your phone, your smartphone is probably the best way to manage it day to day, you and your spouse logging in, checking your envelopes, filing your transactions. But the web app is great when you're sitting at your desktop, maybe at home or at the office, when you're setting up your plan month to month, you're filling out your spending plan, you're building your envelopes, creating custom envelopes, all of that really easy to do with your keyboard and mouse there using the web app. So it's all available today. We also just launched a brand new feature as well where you can split transactions. So remember the last time you bought something at Amazon and one part of that transaction goes into one envelope and another part goes into another envelope? Well, you can now do that as well.

So hey, go download the app today in the Apple Store, the Google Play Store, just search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance, or you can create an account at app.moneywise.org. Now, if I heard you correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong. Oh, you know, I will. Yeah. You were suggesting that if you're at work sitting at your desk, using your cell phone to do your personal work. I mean, is that what you were recommending people do?

The company's dollar? Definitely not. No, that would be before or after hours for sure. Oh, maybe during lunch, perhaps. Or it could be during lunch.

Yeah, or a break. Okay. Just want to be sure about that. All right.

Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. Ahmed, we appreciate your patience. How can we help you today, sir?

All righty. So I'm a recent convert from Islam. And I got let go from my job about a year and a half ago from doing medical condition. And I moved up north to Pequot Lakes to just kind of get my life together.

This year has been kind of crazy. I ended up starting a food truck business. And that's what God's helped and a lot of prayer.

He made it happen. Three weeks into the business, I lost an uncle, my mom and my dad within approximately a month apart. So something came telling me I should sell everything that I have and just get on the road and take my family and go and grow my relationship with God.

My question is, you know, being on the road, do you guys have any insight on how I can make money? I know that we're supposed to depend on God. I know that's hard to do that. It's hard to do that sometimes. But where do you know the limit where, hey, as you know, you guys kept talking about as a man, you're supposed to take care of your family. And, you know, where do I keep depending on God for everything?

Yeah. Well, Ahmed, first of all, let me just say how delighted I am to hear that you've placed your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. That's the beginning point for all of us when we go from death to life and recognize that as sinners, which we all are, that Jesus has paid the price for that through his death and resurrection on the cross. And we can be reconciled to God through his what we call substitutionary atonement, when he atones for our sins by taking our place and then offering that as a free gift to us. And so that's just wonderful.

That's the best news we can possibly hear. Beyond that, we want to grow in our walk with the Lord. And part of that is the stewardship responsibility. Beyond giving our life to Christ, then we recognize we're stewards or managers over everything God has entrusted to us, our time and our relationships. We're stewards of God's word. And yes, we're stewards of God's money, the resources that he entrusts to us, however little or much. And we need to find a way to live with contentment in that.

As the apostle Paul says, in times of plenty and in times of want, we need to enjoy what God's given us. But yes, we're also not necessarily as a man, but just as followers of Christ. We're to provide for our family, all of us, to the extent we have families that are depending upon us. We see in 1 Timothy that we're to provide.

And that's part of what God calls us to as followers of him. The question is, how do we do that? Well, first, we have to recognize that God owns it all. So we are the manager. And then secondly, that God is our provider and sustainer, that it's not the government, it's not your employer.

God is your provider. But we're also to work, right? Work happened before the fall of man. We were created to be productive, to take God's creation and improve it, and to be producers. And we know that that's good, that we should be working. We see that clearly throughout the Scripture.

The question is, what does God have for you? And I think we need to all be asking that question. You've clearly been through a difficult season.

I just can't even imagine losing both parents to this pandemic. And so obviously, at a point where I can imagine you're asking a lot of questions and just asking the Lord to be near to you, trying to guide and direct your family during a difficult season, as well. So I think the starting point is just to find yourself on your knees. I think when we go through something traumatic like that, we shouldn't necessarily rush to make a lot of major life changes.

I think it's a time to take a deep breath and say, God, what do you have for me? And follow as he leads. And I think part of that leading is, where is the income going to come from that God provides? But what is the work that you can do? And do you have relationships right where you are, where that may be a better place for you to go to work?

Until such time as you see a plan, or you have reason to believe that by making a change in location, that there's a better opportunity for work or even something waiting for you before you set out. So I might, again, I don't want to get in the way of what God is doing. And clearly, if you hear from the Lord that you're to go, then you need to be obedient to that. But apart from that, I think going through a traumatic season like this, it's an opportunity to stop and say, how can I provide? What skills has God given me?

What relationships do I have? What opportunities do I see in front of me that I could take advantage of to provide for my family? And through that income, how do I then use that wisely applying the principles from God's Word that we talk about on this radio broadcast every day? So I think that's perhaps the next step for you is just to continue to pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom for that. And before we head to our next break, I'd like to actually pray for you, Ahmad, if that's okay.

Let's do that now. Father, we just commit Ahmad and his family to you. And first of all, Lord, we just thank you that his eyes have been opened to the reality, the place that we all need to come to recognizing, Lord, we need to place our trust in you as our Savior, our Lord and Savior.

And that's the beginning point when we move from death to life. And now beyond that, Lord, I pray you give him wisdom as he navigates, leading his family well as a follower of Jesus, how he can be found faithful in that I pray for provision that you would bring provision to him, that you would bring clarity as to what he's to do from a work standpoint to bring income into the home and that as you do, as you provide, Lord, that he'd be found faithful in managing that. We want to tell you today we trust you, we love you, we're most thankful for your son Jesus, and we ask this in Christ's name. Ahmad, we have less than 30 seconds, but give me one or two very quick strengths that you have that relate to the food truck business. I'm a people's person and I love to cook. And plus, I get to use the money from the food truck to, you know, provide, send money out to Africa, to Iraq, to help alternatives. I'm going to have to cut you off here.

We're out of time, but lots of people just heard you say that Pequot Lakes will continue to pray. Buying a home is the largest, most nerve-wracking purchase most of us ever make. It doesn't help that you're entering a maze of unfamiliar words and confusing options that can leave you intimidated, frustrated, and afraid you've been taken advantage of. Navigating the mortgage maze by Dale Vermilion helps you clear up the confusion, unrack your nerves, and make the best mortgage decisions possible with confidence. Navigating the mortgage maze available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org.

Hi, I'm Barry McGuire. I'm here to help you understand how urgent and how fun it is to share your faith at every opportunity through the eyes of a layman. Even with all our problems, America remains the most prosperous and generous nation in the world with a world full of people wanting to live here. That's why it's so easy to forget about the eternal destination of those around us. Empathy is hard to find these days, even among Christians too busy living their lives to think about the lives around them. What must Jesus be thinking of us who are most blessed? In Acts 1 8, Jesus said, you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. If you knew the rapture is going to happen tomorrow, who would you reach out to and what would you say? Keep that in mind with everyone you're with today from family members to co-workers to clerks and stores to servers and restaurants to operators on the phone. They're all your mission field. There is nothing more exciting than knowing God is using you to move people closer to Him.

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When it goes blank, it's a good idea to turn off the sound. The Bible says a lot about pride, how it causes us to stumble and fall, and how God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humility is being willing to say, I don't know. And this is David Jeremiah encouraging you to get on the road to new life. Discover God's humility on Route 66. Good to have you aboard today.

It's MoneyWise Live. Rob, I just feel that I need to mention, I'd like to mention one more time about our last caller, Ahmed, who came to Christ, I guess, fairly recently coming out of Islam. And then after starting his new food truck business within months of that, his uncle and his mom and his dad all died from COVID. And now he feels led to move south out of Minnesota where it can be difficult, I'm sure, during the winter to have a food truck business. So let's just remember, Ahmed, I'm sure often when we come to Christ very early on, God puts us through a season of testing to ultimately strengthen us. It may seem discouraging at the time, but ultimately, I believe it will test us and make us all the stronger forward as we go further in our relationship with him. So let's just remember him and see what God's going to do in his life and that of his family. Chicagoland, WMBI. Tracy, what's your question for Rob West?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. A family member of mine told me about, mentioned about investing in cryptocurrency, something I've never heard of. But they said that it has recently become really popular and the banks are, I guess at some point it wasn't approved, but now banks are using it and so it's approved. And just want to know if you have any thoughts on that.

What would you advise, you know, like how if it's something, a good idea to do, how would I go about learning about it? Because they mentioned some company, one company called Ripple. So just want to know about that. Sure.

Go ahead. Just quickly, also, my husband and I, we're going to possibly sell our home. It's only two years old. I'll possibly sell our home when he retires in about seven years. But we've been making extra payments towards the mortgage, attempting to pay it off in full.

And just wondering, should we do that since we're planning to sell in seven years or should we just put more payment towards our car note? Yeah, very good. Well, let's tackle these quickly here, Tracy. Number one, you know, the technology behind cryptocurrency is here to stay. There's hundreds and hundreds of them. You know, we may know a few name brands, if you will, like Bitcoin that are very popular, but there's many, many cryptocurrencies. And basically, as we move more and more to a global digital economy, in means of exchange, we're going to see more and more of this. There are some inherent challenges with cryptocurrency because there's no central bank behind it. There's also some security issues because of the fact there's no central bank, so it's unregulated.

And so you've just got to recognize that. But it's not going anywhere. And in fact, I think that's going to be a bigger and bigger part of our economy and means of payment moving forward. In terms of an investment, I just don't like it. Way too volatile for the average investor to try to move into this type of investment class. It's just going to see wild swings because of the fact that it's new technology.

In some cases, you know, countries have considered outlawing it or have actually done it just because of some of the fraud and things going on with it. And, you know, we just we're looking at investing, we want to take a more sure and steady approach with a long time horizon, in my view, as opposed to something that has wild fluctuations like you would have with cryptocurrency. So although, you know, folks tend to be attracted to things like that, because we hear some of the, you know, the sizzle, if you will, about some of the stocks that have gone way up. But I would rather you take a much more broadly diversified approach, and really just look at capturing the broad moves of the market as opposed to something like this that has could have dramatic swings up, but at the same time, the risk on the downside is significant as well.

So if it were me, I would stay away. In terms of selling the home and applying extra payments, you know, I love the idea of pursuing a life that's completely debt free, including your home. I think it's just all about managing the priorities of the uses of funds that God has given to you. And when we look at the priority order of how we use this, there's not a right and wrong approach, but I think there are some priorities that perhaps come first. Number one, are you giving systematically? Number two, do you have an emergency fund of three to six months expenses? Number three, are you living on a balanced budget with some margin left over each month? Number four, are you funding your long term retirement strategy in a broad, diversified tax advantage portfolio at, let's say, 10 to 15% of your pay? Do you have any other short term goals that you're pursuing like putting away for college? Or, you know, are you still working on other consumer debt that would have a higher interest rate than your mortgage?

If any of those are true, you might want to look at prioritizing those over the house. Now, if you said, No, Rob, we're on track with retirement, we have the emergency fund, you know, we don't have any kids, and you kind of run through that list, and you've still got some extra money available, then does it make sense to go ahead and prepay the mortgage beyond the minimum payment? Absolutely.

Absolutely. And even though you're planning on selling in the next seven years, that's just going to be more equity that you'll have to roll into the next property. So that doesn't give me any pause whatsoever. I think the key is, you know, what priorities do you have?

And what order do they come in? That would be the only consideration I would give to it. Does that all make sense to you? Yes, it does.

Yes, it does. Thank you so much. All right. Appreciate your call, Tracy. Thanks, Tracy.

Kewanee, Illinois. Christian, you have a question today for Rob? Hi, my name is actually Kristin, but Christian. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. I'm getting it's my eyes.

It's my eyes. I apologize for that. That's okay.

Thanks for taking my call. I just have some notes scratched out. I'm soon to be 71 years old. I'm single. I have a retirement fund, small annuity fund worth about $80,000. I have about $16,000 in a Wells Fargo account and $5,000 in a local bank here in Kewanee. And also, I have a bunch of cash. I needed to ask you about a cashless society, but if that's coming to pass, then my cash won't do me much good. I need to know what to do with that. I'm on Social Security, about $700 a month, and I'm still working full-time as a caregiver.

My income is anywhere between $400 and $700 a week. Okay. All right. Well, as to the cashless society, I don't think we're going to be there anytime soon, meaning zero cash where money is fully digital, fully traceable, fully controlled. I mean, that's not something that I feel like is anywhere close to being a reality. Now, as COVID-19, the pandemic is upon us. Clearly, it moved us further in the direction of a digital means of payment. As we go for health reasons that are very appropriate, I think, to less physical currency, we're doing more business at home and online. We're using smartphones and electronic or digital credit cards, things like that, that don't require you to actually come into physical contact with someone or something else.

And so, clearly, that has moved this along. But this idea that it's kind of imminent that physical cash is gone, I don't think that we're anywhere close to that. So I think we just need to conduct business in a way that's smart and safe and make some sense. And in fact, I would say, you know, the average person should have some cash at home, all things being equal, probably, you know, rule of thumb is maybe two or three days worth of expenses up to a week, somewhere between $500 and $1,000 for most folks. And then we should have an emergency fund on deposit, probably in an online bank linked to our checking account, I would say, of three to six months expenses. So, you know, that's kind of where I think we're headed there.

And I think the key is for us to be wise and be smart about how we handle conducting business online, whether that's, you know, on the internet, or in increasingly digital forms. But as to your question here, Kristen, what specifically are you wondering just how to manage your money within the income that you have, or something related to investing? I need to know, do you think I should put more into my retirement fund? And also, I forgot to tell you, I have an Edward Jones account with a sum like $4,000 in a money market account, and then about $7,400 worth in mutual fund account. Okay.

Yeah. Well, apart from having that emergency fund that's readily available, we certainly want to be contributing to, you know, an account that would be available in retirement when you stop working. And I think if you have discretionary income, you know, that you can allocate to that while you're working, that makes a lot of sense, because that's just going to give you more in the way of assets that you can use when you completely stop working, if you are still working, that you can convert into an income stream.

So I would say yes, if your consumer debt is paid off, and you've got your emergency fund in place, and you're giving at a level that you feel is consistent with where the Lord is leading, then absolutely being able to sock some away in a tax advantaged means that you can then use to supplement Social Security down the road makes a lot of sense to me. And we appreciate that phone call today. God bless you.

Thanks so much for calling in. And with that, we're going to have to put a bow on it for today. We're pretty much out of time. Rob, any parting thoughts here with just 30 seconds to go?

Anything you want to leave us with? Well, I think, you know, for so many of us, we just want to be found faithful with managing God's money. And I think a question to ask is, why would we spend an hour a day talking about money on the Moody Radio Network and all across the country? And I think the answer is because it's on the heart of God. You know, 2,300 verses relate to how we deal with God's money, recognizing he's the owner, we're the manager, and how do we operate as a steward marked by this idea of faithfulness? And I think that's what we're all striving for. And money is just a tool. It's not that we're doing this program to say, how can we get more of it? The question is, how can we lean into what God has provided as a tool for his glory and to accomplish his purposes? And when we can think about it that way, it changes everything, Steve, about how we focus on what God has entrusted to us. So hopefully today's been an encouragement to our listeners. Yeah, well said, Rob.

Thanks very much. 2,300 plus verses in the Bible about money and finance. And Rob has memorized a couple of them.

Dozens, maybe? Hey, thanks again for listening. Please remember Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media. Please tell a friend about us and join us again tomorrow for a brand new edition of Money Wise Live.