Jesus and Economics, Part 1

If you ask Christians what Jesus talked about during his earthly ministry, you'd hear things like love, salvation, and repentance, and rightly so. Now, the last thing you'd expect to hear is economics.

But it's true. Economics plays a major role in much of Christ's teaching, as you're about to hear. Host Rob West welcomes economist Jerry Boyer today to help you gain a fuller understanding of Christian doctrine. And it's your calls on anything financial. 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore. Jesus and economics. That's next, right here on MoneyWise Live. Rob, we always say that Jerry Boyer is chief economist at Vidant Financial, but today we're adding author of the brand new book, The Maker vs.

The Takers. What Jesus really said about social justice and economics. And it's so packed with interesting information, we're having Jerry on for two days in a row to talk about what he's learned. Well, that's exactly right, Steve. And we're delighted to do that because we've been waiting for this book to come out. And I really think it's fascinating. People don't often use the words fascinating and economics in the same sentence, but we're going to break the mold today because this is the exception. Jerry Boyer, welcome back to the program.

Always a pleasure to be with you, and thanks for being part of this journey really from the beginning years ago at the KA conference where I spoke about this, and you encouraged me to continue to research this and communicate it. I'm so delighted you did, Jerry, because nobody really has been talking about this side of Jesus' ministry, certainly not with the kind of interpretation and research that you have put into this. I know your idea for this book came because you saw people misinterpreting Jesus' teaching about wealth from both sides of the spectrum, liberals and conservatives perhaps getting it wrong.

So explain that for us. Yeah, and it started more with the liberals getting it wrong, but then I realized also ways in which I think the conservatives, which I am one, have been getting it wrong. It really started when I was on the radio, and people knew that I was a Christian, and they knew that I believed in free markets, so a woman called in and said, well, you know, you believe in the free markets. I'm a socialist, but Jesus is on my side. He said it's harder for, you know, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven, which is a misquote, of course.

And I, you know, I had this immediate reaction, which was, well, ma'am, do you know who he said that about? He had just finished a conversation with a senator. So maybe you want to rethink whether Jesus is calling for an economic system that gives more power to senators.

You know, I think you might be misunderstanding what's going on because you're ignoring the historical context. And then once I was on that, I just felt called, pulled, dragged to go deeper and deeper and deeper, not just into that instance, but into all of the times that Jesus is having confrontations over money in the Gospels. And then every time he's talking about economic and financial matters, to see whether the same pattern held and the same pattern did hold. On the conservative side, though, there is a tendency, because sometimes if you listen to Jesus with the with the volume kind of down and he's sort of muffled, he does sound a little socialist.

And so what conservatives frequently do is they turn that volume down even more. I don't want to hear that. He's just talking about your heart. He's just talking about your personal relationship with money. He's not saying anything about the economy or about the nation or about social justice, because I think we're a little bit afraid that if we really listen to Jesus, he's going to lead us politically someplace where we don't want to go. And the answer is, you have to go wherever Jesus leads.

Don't tell him in advance where he's going to lead. We have to follow and then we see where we end up. Well, Jerry, this is fascinating, because in order to understand his teaching, you've helped us understand as in every context, not just this area of money, but certainly it applies here with money and economics, we need to understand the geography, we need to understand the economics associated with that time period, we even need to understand the audience in which he's talking to all of those things and more give us the full picture of what it is he's trying to communicate. And when we come back from this break, Jerry, we'll dive into each of those beginning with understanding the geography and why that's so important here as we talk about the maker versus the takers, what Jesus really said about social justice and economics.

Wow. Well, today, our good friend and economist Jerry Boyer takes us to college as we learn even more about Jesus and what Jesus said about social justice and economics, throw in a little geography as well. Our host is Rob West, of course, I'm Steve Moore, and we're going to take a brief pause and we'll come back and take some calls later in the program on any financial topic that's of interest to you, 800-525-7000.

And we'll be right back. 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 MoneyWiseLive.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 in 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. This is Max MacLean. What is God's standard for greatness? Listen to the Bible from Matthew 18. The disciples asked Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called the little child and had him stand among them. And he said, I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. From Matthew 18, listen to the Bible.

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800-557-1985. It's always a joy to have Jerry Boyer with us on the program today. He's the author of a brand new book, among many other things, the title, The Maker vs. The Taker is What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics.

Well, Jerry, I'm so grateful for the work you put into this brand new book. I hope each of those in our listening audience will pick it up, read it, digest it, because I think it gives us a fuller context of what Jesus was communicating around these topics. And to better understand that, we need to see the role economics played during his ministry. So let's begin by first looking at the geography.

Why is it important to start there? Well, you know, first of all, it's important because it's in the Bible. God, the inspirer of the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, could have left the city and province names out. You know, that doesn't have to be part of the text, right? But it is part of the text.

It's often part of the text. We tend to skim it over, but the Gospel accounts themselves don't skim over. You know, Jesus leaves Bethsaida, he goes to Capernaum, he leaves Galilee, he goes to Judea.

We're given all of these stage directions. We're given all this travelogue stuff, which, you know, we basically kind of treat as not the main point, maybe even not important. But if it weren't important, it wouldn't be in the Bible. And the other thing is, frequently, there's commentary givens, you know, so this is to fulfill, he shall be called a Nazarean, or the reason that he's preaching in Capernaum is to fulfill the prophecy given through Isaiah. Over and over again, we're given actual biblical reasons why certain places are chosen. So why do we ignore that?

We ignore that because it's of no use to us if we don't understand the significance of those place names. So if I write a novel and the rabbi travels to Wall Street and he talks to a guy in a $4,000 suit who just got out of a limousine and was talking about trades, you know, you trade your earthly life, you know, for the kingdom of God, oh, we would get that, right? Oh, this guy works in finance.

This trading theme is intentional. We'd know that. Someone in Wisconsin in overalls, you know, someone in Silicon Valley in a T-shirt, but being driven around by somebody else in a Prius, right? We know those tropes. So a novelist doesn't have to tell us that, you know, someone with a blue collar and a lunch bucket, factory, right? We get all that. But 2,000 years from now, if someone were watching one of our TV shows or reading our novels, they wouldn't understand that.

Well, that's the position we're in. 2,000 years later, we're reading true history that has all these references to cities and provinces. We don't get those references, so we skim over them because they don't offer anything to us, and then we try to get to the main point. But Jesus knew who he was and knew where he was, so the main point is tailored for where he is. And so we won't really fully understand the main point unless we get these details like geography right and understand that each city has an economy. Each city has an economic base, and he varies his economic messaging depending on where he is geographically, and we'll miss that if we're not paying attention to the geography. Jerry, give us one example of where we look in Scripture and see Jesus teaching and where understanding the actual place he was gives us a better understanding of what he was trying to communicate.

Yeah, I want to give you 20 examples, but I understand the limits of radio time. So here's the example that essentially mainly drives this book. The difference in the way that he talks in Galilee, which was a largely entrepreneurial economy, largely small business, largely non-hierarchical, sort of flat, decentralized. I think of the Shire, that's my mind picture of Galilee, versus how he speaks as he travels south towards the tower and gets closer and closer to the temple and the temple elite. And the temple had become basically, God meant it to be a place of liberation, but it had become the central point of exploitation. It had become the central point of exploitation. And that's why it's in the temple environs that Jesus says, you are devourers of widows' houses.

This is a den of robbers. So Jesus' confrontations over wealth, including the first one, which is the confrontation with the rich young ruler, are directly proportional to how close he is to the ruling class and to the political and religious capital. He has no confrontations over wealth.

He does have confrontations in Galilee, but there's no denunciation of wealthy people in Galilee, even though there were wealthy people in Galilee and Jesus was their neighbor. We know that archeologically, but there's a difference between people who are makers of wealth, a tin merchant, a farmer, a builder like he and his father, his foster father. Well, his real father is also a builder.

He built the universe. And even people were involved with investment and traders and manufacturers like the stoneware manufacturers in Cana, where we have the stoneware being important in the story of the wedding of Cana. There's no denunciation of these small industrialists and these entrepreneurs. All of the denunciations, woe unto you who are rich, we're specifically told, is to a Judean audience, not to a Galilean audience. Yeah, that's so fascinating. Jerry, you make the case that studying the economics of Jesus' ministry isn't at odds with our understanding of theological issues, but actually enhances it. And you do that with one specific example of Jesus' execution.

Unpack that for us. Yeah, that's a good point, because there's a tendency to play off theological against historical or economic, and that just doesn't work. First of all, you have the doctrine of the incarnation. Jesus is fully human, which means he's participating. He's fully divine and also fully human, so he's participating in things.

And you also have the doctrine of providence, that God has a plan and that he works his plan in the world. Okay, so the plan was for Jesus to be crucified. Pontius Pilate thought Jesus was innocent. The mob wanted Jesus crucified. Why would Pontius Pilate give into the mob? He had all the weapons, he had all the power, and he hated the Jews and hated Jerusalem and had a history of never caving into the mob. Well, so happens if you look at Roman economic history and overlay that with the gospels, Rome had its worst financial crisis ever.

When? 33 AD, the traditional time of the crucifixion of Jesus. So while all this is going on in Jerusalem, there's an empire-wide financial collapse, very much like our 2008 collapse. Pontius Pilate was politically aligned with the equestrian order, which was in the banking houses.

He had lost his cover. He was weakened politically, and so he gave into the mob something that was very uncharacteristic of him in general. And I think also the mob itself was more bloodthirsty. When we're financially afraid, we're more likely to do evil things, including the worst thing that humanity has ever done in the history of the world, which is to crucify the Lord of life. Jerry, I love how that just illuminates the story that we've read so many times, and yet having that economic backdrop understood really just brings a more full understanding of what was going on at the time, and what is being communicated that we can take away.

And in this book, you do that throughout Scripture, helping us understand exactly what Jesus was getting at in so many of these situations. I'm so glad we're going to have you back tomorrow, because we've just gotten started. That's right. Jerry Boyer, economist, good friend, and author of the brand new book, The Maker vs. the Takers.

The ink's still wet on that one, but you'll find it at Amazon.com. Thanks so much again, Jerry, for being with us today. Your call's next, 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. 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. I want you to see verse 32. It says, For God has bound all men over to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on them all. Bound all men, he's talking about Jew and Gentile, bound them over to disobedience. Let me tell you a couple of things this does not mean.

Then we're going to see what this definition is in just a sec. It doesn't mean that God made all of us disobedient so that we would be objects of his great mercy. He did not make Adam and Eve to be disobedient. You understand what I'm saying? We have a will, we have a choice. What it is saying is that in our, it also doesn't say this, it's also not saying, boy, do we want to be clear about this. What God is not saying to us is that we just, let's sin all the more so grace may abound.

Not ever. It is the grace of God that empowers us to live differently than we were to actually change. I still, I don't know of a thought that can bring me to tears any more quickly than just the basic tenant that we really can be different than we were. That is so amazing to me.

So amazing to me. I'm really different. So it doesn't mean any of those things. What it does mean is this.

It just means that Jew or Gentile alike, it doesn't matter who we are, what our background is, what our bloodline is, what our heritage is. We've all been bound up in it. You've been listening to A Quick Word with Beth Moore. We have two ways to experience Now That Faith Has Come, a study of Galatians. The online experience is now available at BethMoore.org.

The workbook edition will release in January 2021. Either way, Beth would love to have you in Bible study. 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. Hey, really great to have you with us today. It's MoneyWise Live. Your host is Rob West.

I'm Steve Moore. We hope you've enjoyed that first segment today with our good friend, economist Jerry Boyer. Jerry joins us.

Let me try that again. Jerry joins us again tomorrow for part two of our conversation as we discuss Jerry's new book, The Maker versus the Taker, what Jesus really said about social justice and economics. But right now we're taking your calls on your personal economics.

Anything that is of concern to you when it comes to your money management, we'd like to chat about. So call right now. We have some open lines.

In fact, we have quite a number of open lines. So this would be a great time to call 800-525-7000. 800-525-7000. Rob, you ready to go? I am ready, Steve Moore.

Let us begin by going to, let's see, Burlington, Vermont. Elizabeth, how can we help you today? Hello.

Hi. Well, I have a quick question about consolidating loans. My husband and I have been married for almost five years now, and we have three different loans.

They're actually all of his. We officially paid off mine last year, and they're from both state and federal. And I just wanted to know what your recommendations were for consolidating them.

Yeah. Well, Elizabeth, first of all, congratulations on paying off your loans. With the direct consolidation loan for the federal loans, essentially, you're not going to be able to go out and get a more competitive interest rate. It's just going to be an aggregation, if you will, of the current rates where they're combined into one. The result is simplification, basically, because you'll have a single monthly payment instead of multiple payments, and it could give you access to additional loan repayment plans and forgiveness programs, although if you're on track toward a current forgiveness program, it could reset that and you could lose credit for payments, although that only applies to a small group of people.

But again, you'd simplify it. You might be able to lower your monthly payment, although I'm not terribly excited about that because I want you to pay him off as quick as you can. And if you have any variable rate loans, you could have them combined into one fixed interest rate, which would obviously be a benefit. So, you know, apart from having private loans that you could go out and refinance and try to get a more attractive interest rate, this is really just about simplifying and consolidating, if that makes sense.

Okay. So what it wouldn't do is, by consolidating, it wouldn't necessarily lower the interest rate that we're paying? Not with federal loans, no, because unless you have a private loan out there on the open market where you'd go out to another private lender and if you qualify based on your credit score and your income and that type of thing, that's where you could perhaps improve your interest rate. But if you're staying in the federal loan program, that's going to, you know, afford you the income-based repayment options, which if you got into a hardship and you needed to take advantage of those, you don't want to give those up necessarily. But in order to do that, you have to stay with the current rates. And again, they would just all be combined into one at the prevailing rate of the combination of the three.

So put them all together and whatever kind of that aggregate rate is, is what you'd receive. Still worth looking into, again, unless you have a unique situation where you've been paying toward a loan forgiveness or something like that, it could provide some simplification. But the key for you all, Elizabeth, is probably what you did to pay off yours.

Keep your lifestyle in check, live on a budget, and pay just as much as you can toward those student loans over and above the minimum payment every month and see when you can knock those out. Elizabeth, we appreciate your phone call today. Thank you very much. If you're just tuning in, it's MoneyWise Live and here's our phone number. We have four open lines. This would be a great time to get on if you've tried in the past and weren't able to get through, more than likely you can do it today.

800-525-7000. Let's go to Carlos in Ocala, Florida. Carlos, what's your situation, sir? Yes, I've got about $30,000 on the bank account and my mortgage is about $22,000 and me and my wife are trying to figure out if it'll be a good time to pay off the mortgage. We don't have no credit card debt and we only got a car payment that we bought last year but FDC, I wanted to get an opinion, a third opinion because I'm trying to pay it off and she's telling me to hold up on it.

Okay, yeah. Well, it is a balancing act. Clearly, we want you to be debt free but we also want to do it in a way that doesn't cost you to be cash strapped in a sense. If this is your emergency fund, you know, we don't want you to spend that all the way down and you also mentioned a car note. What is the balance on that? About $27,000. You owe $27,000 to your car and what's the interest rate on that?

$2.75. Okay, yeah, so I think you could go either direction. You mentioned you have $30,000. Is that in checking and does that include your current pay periods check or is this a savings account separate from your funding account? No, it would be from every account I have, my savings and my checking. Okay, well, I think the thing you need to do is separate out into a separate savings account and I'd encourage you, Carlos, to use perhaps an online savings that you link to your checking. You could use Marcus, you could use Capital One 360, Ally Bank, one of those.

No fees or expenses. You'd get about 0.6% right now on a high-yield savings and it would be linked to your checking and what I want you to do is get the portion that is truly savings out of your checking account. Let's just operate based on what you need for one month's expenses, which means you got to have a spending plan. If you don't have one, go download our brand new MoneyWise biblical finance app in the App Store.

Whatever phone you have, it'll be there and you can build your budget right in there using a digital envelope system. The key is figure out what your need is on a monthly basis. Keep that in your checking account and that's what you're going to spend from. Then with your savings, I want you to move what's truly savings over and above what you need for a monthly period.

Then we decide what to do with that. Typically, we want three to six months expenses in that as a starting point because that's really your reserve for the unexpected. What would you say, just estimate for me, your monthly expenses are? My mortgage about $1,000, about $1,700, $1,800. All in, everything you spend is less than $2,000 for all your expenses, fixed and discretionary?

Yeah. Okay, well if that's the case and I challenge you to go back and make sure that's right, I want you to look at the things you don't get a bill for, eating out, gifts, insurance payments, all of it. Total all that up and I want you to have three months of that at a minimum before we start paying things down. Stay on the line.

We've got to hit a break here and we'll finish up off the air and we appreciate your call today. And this is MoneyWise Live. We call this investing that makes the world rejoice.

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Hi, my name is Ryan Anderson, a Children and Family Ministry major at the Moody Bible Institute. The Moody Radio Verse of the Week is found in 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 9. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed.

That's 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 9, the Moody Radio Verse of the Week. 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. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. The third day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings still underway, Judge Amy Coney Barrett facing questions from senators on both sides of the aisle.

Senator Lindsey Graham has set an initial committee vote on the nomination for Thursday, the last day of hearings. President Trump on the campaign stump again, today he visits Iowa. Dry, windy weather posing an extreme wildfire risk in Northern California. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for extremely dangerous fire conditions from 5 a.m. local time Wednesday through Friday morning. With bone-dry humidity and wind gusts possibly hitting 55 miles per hour, Pacific Gas and Electric warning that it may cut power this evening to as many as 54,000 customers in 24 counties.

Stocks finishing lower, the Dow dropped 165 points, the NASDAQ was down 95. This is SRN News. Thanks for checking in with us today.

It's MoneyWise Live. Rob West, your host. I'm Steve Moore, and we do our best to remember all the time around here that God owns it all. He sees us as managers or stewards, and we're here to help you work through that.

Not always easy on a daily basis, but let's chat and see if we can help one another. 800-525-7000, that's our number. 800-525-7000. Las Cruces, New Mexico. Selena, we appreciate your patience.

What's your question? Hi, yes, I just wanted to see if you could give me like a quick lowdown explanation of lifetime annuity. I may come into about, oh, $7,000 extra, and I was thinking of just putting into something like that for future.

I'm 59, so I just kind of wanted to see what your thoughts are. Yeah, Selena, thanks for calling in today. Let me ask you just a couple of questions, if you don't mind. You said you think you might be receiving around $7,000, is that right?

That is correct. Okay, and do you have all of your debt paying off, or do you have any debt? Oh, yeah, I have debt. I have my house, you know, I have about $50,000 left in my house, and about $20,000 in credit cards. Okay, all right. And do you have any emergency funds, any savings over and above what you're spending out of your checking account each month?

Yes, I do. I have about $7,000. Okay, and what would you say the total, roughly, of your expenses are over a 30-day period?

Fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, kind of all in? $2,300. $2,300, okay. So if you've got, you said roughly about $7,000, you know, that means you have a little shy of three months expenses. So here's what I would do. I know this isn't going to be terribly exciting, but I would shore up that savings, so you have at least three months expenses. So if you're saying that's $2,300, you're looking at around, well, I guess you're there. I mean, that would be at $6,900. And so you've got that. Then beyond that, I'd start paying against those credit cards, because no matter how good the annuity is, and by the way, I'm not a huge fan.

I mean, I'd be happy to explain them to you. I'd much rather you see you get the guaranteed return equal to the interest rate you're paying on the $20,000 or so of credit card debt. And so I'd take this $7,000 and put it right against the credit cards, and then really try to dial back your spending in such a way that you have margin over and above the minimum payment to try to really go after that. Good news is you have the $7,000 to fall back on if something unexpected comes. But am I missing something? Push back on that if you have other thoughts. No, no, not really.

I've just been real blessed that my credit cards right now are the 0%. You know, I've got the... Yeah. Yeah, I've got two... Yeah, so... Yeah, the challenge here is that that's going to run out.

And I really I'm not terribly fond of the balance transfer game because you, you know, you kind of at some point, the music stops and you run out of chairs. And, you know, I'd really rather you just focus in on, you know, getting that paid off once and for all. And I think it's going to feel a lot more manageable when all of a sudden that $20,000 is $13,000. And then, you know, you do the work to say, okay, how can I free up an extra couple hundred dollars a month if possible?

Or can I work extra hours? Or maybe I get a part time job or something like that so that I could get more going to that and not just accept the fact that that $20,000 is just going to be a part of your everyday life from now on, but really go after it. And I think the $7,000 could be meaningful. In terms of, you know, an investment strategy, I'll just give you a quick overview. I would rather you see with long term money after consumer debt is paid off. But before your mortgage, you start with your retirement plan.

If you're already funding that at between, I would say, up to 10 to 15% of your take home pay, certainly up to the matching if you have any with a company sponsored plan or an IRA. If you don't have that, I'd start there after your consumer debt is paid because we wanted a tax advantage to count. And I'd rather you just be in vanilla flavored, if you will, mutual funds and ETFs.

So you're just capturing the broad moves of the market. You know, if you have money beyond that, that has at least a 10 year time horizon, an annuity is simply a way to put money away into an insurance contract, where you're allowing them to assume the risk. So they might give you a guaranteed rate of return better than a CD, but not as good as the, you know, historical performance of the market, where you're going to be guaranteed that amount every year, and it's going to have some tax benefits. And then down the road, you could convert that to an income stream.

You know, it wouldn't be much because you're only starting with 7000. But if you add to it over time, it could be or a variable annuity, which basically just means that you're getting some portion of the upside of the market, the stock market without the downside. The idea of a lifetime annuity just means that once you convert it, what's called a new ties it, you'll generate an income stream based on the amount you put in and what it grew to for the rest of your life.

And they would pay you some stated amount each month or each quarter based on the amount you have in the contract. But you know, for the average person, Selena, because of the complexity of these annuities, the cost factor, the limited flexibility in terms of getting your access to your money once you put it in, I prefer you not use an insurance contract for your long term savings. I'd rather use a company sponsored retirement plan or just a good old brokerage account with some high quality, you know, mutual funds where you're just investing for the long haul. You always have access to your money.

And you know, the stock market has been the very best place to build wealth over the last hundred years. But despite all that, my priority for you when you receive the 7000 is really those credit cards. And we appreciate your call today, Selena. Thank you very, very much.

Let's see, 800-525-7000. Rob, why don't we do an email if we can? This one is one that crops up from time to time. It's a succinct, it's from Joe. He says, What are your thoughts on the development of crypto currencies? Yeah, Joe, well, I think the technology buying cryptocurrency is here to stay. Certainly, we've seen an acceleration toward, you know, cashless payments in COVID. I think, as with many industries, we saw kind of the fast forward button move ahead four or five years, whether it was the move away from brick and mortar retail or the move away from big corporate buildings where everybody went to work, and now we've got a lot more remote work. And I think one of those accelerations was in this cashless payments.

So that's here to stay. It's not going anywhere in terms of digital currencies. I don't like it as an investment, though way too volatile for a variety of reasons, I think for our steady plotting approach that the Bible talks about to investing, so I certainly wouldn't look at it in that way. Okay, well, speaking of things that are changing in the marketplace, Rob, obviously 2020 will be a year to remember. Are you seeing anything from a technological standpoint or just basic Wall Street stuff that you think is going to change going forward, based on all that we've had to adapt to in regards to COVID? Well, you know, one of the things I was just reading about this morning, Steve fascinating article about this move toward what they call ESG investments.

E stands for environmental, S for social and G for governance. It's this idea that the next generation plus just today's investors are more interested in making sure that their values are reflected in their investments. By 2022, they're expecting $53 trillion in ESG investments.

Well, why would I bring that up? Well, a subset of the ESG space is faith-based investing, and this idea that people want to be owners in companies that they believe in, that are operating with integrity from a governance standpoint and from a social standpoint, aren't using sweatshops and aren't taking things with their corporate profits and supporting them that are counter to your values and making a difference in the world and loving their neighbor. You know, that is now a front and center issue when it comes to investments. It's no longer a fringe issue and COVID is accelerating that.

So I think that's something we're going to continue to see more and more of in the days ahead. And that is this idea that my values can be reflected in my investments through faith-based investments and more and more advisors are offering that to their clients. Okay, thanks, Rob. He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore and we're chatting today about God's perspective on your money, your resources, and we'll come back with more. In fact, Marla in Uniontown, Ohio, we're coming your way.

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The water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. And then he closes, adding, oh Lord, from such folly deliver us. Spurgeon said that over a hundred years ago, and it sure is true today. Friend, if you want spiritual vitality, a rich harvest, then start by grinding the proverbial wheat of the word of God. I'm Johnny Erickson Todd. Would you like your life to be infused with joy? Would you like to interject an eternal dimension into even the most ordinary day? Author Randy Alcorn says you can when you discover the Treasure Principle. In a concise, power-packed style, this newly revised and updated book offers a six-step plan to finding the immediate pleasure and eternal rewards of the Treasure Principle.

And once you discover it, life will never look the same. The Treasure Principle is available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Money Wise. It's a blessing and a joy to be able to speak to you each day and to discuss God's word and God's principles when it comes to our personal money management. Let's continue with that out to Uniontown, Ohio. And Marla, thanks for your patience.

How can we help you today? Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I have a business that I do commission artwork and of a variety of kinds, and I've been doing it in an unfinished basement for several years. I'm to the point where I would like to finish off spaces in this basement so that I can bring clients down and possibly even do some art teaching. I'm wondering if I'm taking money for my business to accomplish the remodel. Is that something that is a wise thing to do? And is it something that I can strictly claim as a business expense? Yeah, yeah.

Well, Marla, it's a great question. You know, I'm not a CPA and there's some so many nuances with regard to deductibility and it's changing all the time. I'd encourage you to check with a tax advisor, tax professional on the ability to deduct it.

I would say typically speaking, for instance, if you just generally, if you repair a loose floorboard to make a home office safer, that would generally be tax deductible. If you renovate with brand new flooring to make it look nicer, that would not be, you know, I think there would be some question as to the personal use of this improvement there by finishing out the basement versus it being exclusively for business and whether that renovation is deductible. And then moving forward, obviously, you could claim within the limits, you could claim the deduction for the space that's being used exclusively for business purposes. But again, I would check with the tax advisor on that. In terms of, you know, using the funds, were you asking whether it makes sense to pull the money out, you know, given the current state of the business, or was it simply just about the tax deductibility? Well, it was that, you know, that I have the funds to do this, but if I can't put it against it like a business expense, would it be better for me to look for somewhere to rent?

And then, you know, I have that money set aside, and I'm paying rent on a monthly basis, and I'm taking that against my profits of the business. Sure. What is the amount that it would take you think to do the renovation? About 12,000. About 12,000.

Okay. And when you look at spaces that you would be renting, that would be in an area that would be desirable, and, you know, give you the space you need, what do you think you'd be looking at in terms of the rent? Probably about a grand amount. Yes, about a thousand a month. So, you know, within a year, obviously, you could pay yourself back even if nothing was deductible, and then you'd be able to have that space from that point forward without the added cost.

So I feel like, you know, that sounds pretty reasonable. I mean, make sure you get a contractor in there and get a real bid that has all in numbers because construction projects tend to grow, speaking from personal experience, but as long as you really feel like you've nailed down the cost, if you could pay yourself back, in a sense, you know, within 12 months and be able to enjoy that moving forward, even if nothing was deductible, that seems to make some sense for me, and not to mention the convenience of just being able to walk down stairs versus having to drive there and just everything else that comes with that. I think the key, though, is really to take a hard look at, you know, with a new business, is this, you know, the right time to pull the money out? Are you dependent upon the income? Could there be a disruption in the income, you know, moving forward that would put strain on your personal finances? Do you need to build up a little bit more in the way of reserves before you do this?

I mean, those are things you need to be looking at, but assuming you feel like, yeah, I have this money to spend, I like the idea of you, you know, having it right there just for the convenience sake, but also because of the long-term cost savings on no rent, but I would absolutely check with a tax professional who could give you some advice on what portion of it, if any, could be deductible. All right, Marla. All right, thank you. Thank you. God bless you.

Thanks so much. Next, it's Marianne Walhalla, South Carolina, and what's your question for Rob West? Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

And I have a question. I heard the other day you're talking about to take advantage of the tax thing regarding to contribution to the charitable contribution. Now, so is that only applicable to the person that is in the age of you have to withdraw for IRA or is applicable to across the board?

Yes, no, no. This would be specifically in terms of a qualified charitable distribution, Mary, which I think you're referring to from an IRA directly to a qualified charity. That's for an individual who's over the age of 70 and a half who would be subject to a required minimum distribution has the ability to make that gift directly from the IRA, satisfy the RMD and have 100% go to the charity. However, what I would say, though, is that, you know, there's still plenty of opportunity for you to make gifts of stock and accomplish essentially the same thing. If you have appreciated stock that you would otherwise pay capital gains on, which is different than the distribution from the IRA, which would be ordinary income tax. But let's say you have appreciated stock or mutual funds where you would pay capital gains. You can avoid that by giving those shares of stock directly to your church or a favorite ministry or charity. They could then sell it, take 100% of the proceeds and you get the full deduction before any taxes are paid because they wouldn't be due because you'd gift that prior to realizing the sale of that particular investment.

So that would be an option. But in terms of the qualified charitable distribution, that's specifically for those over 70 and a half. So you mean that the stock so across the board, then regardless of the age, the stock and mutual fund will treat alike, correct?

Yes, ma'am. They are for tax purposes in terms of whether there's a short term or long term capital gain. That is correct. I see. Because I used to do that and then my financial, they sell the mutual fund and then give the cash because they did not want the place they don't take them, the stock or mutual fund.

So certain place will take certain place won't take that. I see in terms of the gifting. Yes, you would typically gift shares of a stock, but I guess there could be a situation where somebody may not accept mutual fund shares, or that may not be able to be done. Certainly, it would be easier with stocks.

That's a good question. Let us look into that just to double check on that. But I think the bottom line is you're asking the right questions in terms of how do I give in a way that's wise to minimize taxes and maximize my gift.

And I think you certainly need to be looking at every available opportunity. Our friends at the National Christian Foundation are a great resource for that. Mary ncfgiving.com with any of these questions, you could certainly check it check them out. Mary, God bless.

Thank you so very much. Let's see if we can squeeze in one more Monica in Iowa. Is it Iowa or Idaho?

Monica, help me here. Um, it's Iowa. It's Iowa.

Sorry, I might it's my glasses are fogged up here. Must be COVID or something. I'm not sure.

I can be real quick for you. Yeah. So my husband and I are in our mid 50s. And we're looking at retirement, obviously a little ways out yet another 10 years or so. And my question is, quite simply, we have a house payments, a house mortgage, and we have a truck mortgage, everything else we're free and clear in terms of additional cars, etc, etc.

Or any credit card debt, nothing like that. I have started to put money away in a savings account. However, my question is, is it in my best interest? Is it in our best interest at this time to use that money to pay off on the truck and then start a savings account? Or would it be wise at this point? Because neither of us have a savings account until I just started putting money into one recently.

So I'm trying to figure out what's in our best interest in terms of the next few years. Yeah. So Monica, when you say start your savings account, are you talking about just any emergency reserves? You don't have anything currently set aside?

Correct. Other than what we have investments. But obviously, we don't want to, we have got we have investments that we have access to. And we have investments that we don't have access to at this point in time. We really don't want to use those. So this is additional, like an emergency account.

So if something unexpected came out of left field, the transmission goes out in the car, you had a major repair in the home, you'd have to sell the investments in order to cover that or put it on a credit card. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. So that's really the whole idea behind the emergency fund. And we're a big fan of that.

I know it can sound counterproductive. Why are we continuing to pay whatever the interest rate is on the truck when we're getting, you know, less than 1% on the savings and yet having that reserve there that's not in your checking your spending account, but readily available for the unexpected, which will come, you know, it just makes a lot of sense. So I'd set a goal of having three months expenses as your next priority.

And with any margin right now on a monthly basis, I'd start funding that I like the idea of opening an online savings account like Marcus Capital One 360, linking it to your checking and funding that then once that's paid off, you move on to the next goal, which I think would be paying off the the truck, probably, and then move on to the house at that point, assuming you're on track with other goals, giving and long term retirement savings. Monica, thanks so much for contacting us today. I hope that information helps you and your husband as you move forward. We do appreciate it. And with that, speaking of moving forward, we're just about out of time for today. But Rob, with about 45 seconds or so, bring us up to speed on the app. I know we've got people working on it on a regular basis and new things happening all the time. Well, here's what we did. So last January, I was ready for a digital envelope system and I couldn't find one that did everything I wanted it to do.

And, you know, I'm a pretty particular guy, Steve. So our team of three incredible developers spent eight months building the MoneyWise app. It's a digital envelope system, automatically downloads your transactions, all your institutions.

Eleven thousand of them can come right in automatically categorized. You can stay on top of everything. It's immediately synced to all of your funding accounts, including checking and savings, split transactions, everything I wanted. And it's ready and it's out. And you can go get it right now.

It's in your app store, whether that's the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. And you can listen to this broadcast live every day. You can listen to archives. You can even engage in the MoneyWise community, post a question. And I jump in there from time to time as well. I love it. Thanks, Rob. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks so much for joining us today. Tell a friend about the program and we'll see you again tomorrow for another edition of MoneyWise Live.