Job Hunting: The New Normal

Rethink how they do business, and some of the changes may be here to stay. But what exactly does that mean for job hunters? Well, despite a remarkable economic comeback, many experts say that some jobs won't come back.

That means more competition for available openings. So if you're looking for work today, Kingdom Advisors President Rob West has what you need to know. Then it's your calls on any financial topic at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore, job hunting, the new normal, next, right here on MoneyWise Live. And Rob, just how fierce is this competition for jobs these days?

Well, it's remarkable to look back at where we were before the pandemic, Steve. There were something like a million job openings that employers couldn't fill. Many of these openings disappeared when the economy shut down. And while unemployment has improved greatly in recent months, competition for jobs remains high. For example, these days the average online job posting gets several hundred applications, and highly desirable tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, they're all reportedly getting more than a thousand resumes for every opening. So there is pretty fierce competition out there. Yeah, and I've sent out a lot of resumes. I haven't had one person respond.

But that's for another day, Rob. All right, so job seekers these days really need to focus on a few key strategies to improve their chances. Where do we start? Well, where we usually start with advice for job hunting is that is networking. Depending on whose study you look at, anywhere from 70-85% of jobs are filled without being advertised.

So who you know is still very important, Steve Moore. If you're able to have someone recommend you or put in a good word for you, you're already far ahead of the competition. So make a list of people who may be in a position to help you by getting your name and resume in front of a hiring manager.

These could be former work contacts, perhaps friends at church, neighbors, just about anybody. And there are some remarkable statistics about how effective this is. According to Career Pivot, you have a 50% chance of getting an interview with a referral. If your resume is just another one in the pile, your chances go down to just 3%.

So a huge difference. But as you contact folks on your list, remember that networking has to be a two-way street. So I would just encourage you to always offer to pass along to your contacts any leads that you come across. Yeah, good suggestion. Okay, now you've mentioned that just having a resume in the pile with everyone else has a slim chance of landing an interview.

Anything you can do to improve those odds? Yeah, well a lot of job seekers don't realize that the initial resume screening process is automated at many companies these days. Your resume or application is fed into a computer program called an application tracking system or ATS. So to get noticed, you have to use keywords from the job ad when writing about your skills and work experience. That's going to improve your chances of getting your resume in front of an actual human being, which is always a plus.

Okay, yeah. So keywords are in. Anything you should leave out of your resume? Definitely. With this new ATS, gone are the days when making your resume look flashy would get you noticed.

That means no picture, no fancy graphics, eliminate columns, tables, and graphs. These days, it's all about the text. The closer it matches to the job ad, the better your chances of landing your resume before that hiring manager.

Okay, alright. Let's say you do all that and it works. You get the interview.

How do you prepare for that? Well, it should come as no surprise that most interviews now are being done online and it's proving to be good and bad for hiring managers. The efficiency of online interviews, as you might imagine, means they can conduct more of them, but they can't get to know you as well as they might in an in-person interview. Okay, so how do you take advantage of that? Yeah, I would say just by making yourself more personable. So appearing over Zoom or some other video platform makes everyone seem a little stiffer than in person.

So do your best to relax and forget about the camera as best you can. And stories are still a powerful way to convey a message. So instead of saying, in my last job, I did this or that, tell a story that shows how your skills helped the company.

People love stories. You should use one in your elevator pitch as well. That's the 30 or 60 second practiced response to a question you'll almost certainly be asked. And that question is, of course, why should we hire you? And you can respond with, well, here's why, because I did this and here's what happened as a result. This is where you can use all the creativity that you took out of your resume using stories to give real life examples of your accomplishments.

Alright, we'll come back and talk about the importance of social media in a job hunt as well. This is MoneyWise Live. For 30 years, SoundMind Investing has been helping Christians reach their financial goals with step-by-step guidance for investors at every stage, from those just getting started to those getting ready for retirement. Through scriptural principles and practical suggestions, SMI offers financial wisdom for living well.

More information, including a short video webinar on profit and peace of mind, no matter what's happening in the market, is available at soundmindinvesting.org. Now, Mr. Smith, if you take away all the witnesses and the murder weapon with my client's fingerprints, there really is no evidence. Is that not true? Well, there's the written confession.

Okay, other than that, too. I guess without all that evidence, there is no case. Thank you, Your Honor! I rest my case. That's it? Are you sure you don't need to defend me a little more? Oh, trust me, this case is in the bag. If there are no closing arguments, we'll excuse the jury for deliberation. Your Honor, I speak for the rest of the jury. He's guilty as sin. Oh, yeah. Very well.

This court finds Mr. Winklemeyer guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Oh, that is so not good. Bummer for you. You'll get my bill in the morning. God will eventually be your judge. Are you prepared? The Bible says that Jesus speaks to the Father in our defense.

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That's christiancreditcounselors.org or call 800-557-1985. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Rob West is your host, taking your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. Chatting for just a couple of minutes today about the difficulties of finding a job in this new environment we find ourselves because of COVID. And Rob, I think we were just creeping up on the importance of social media in your job, Hunt.

What do you have for us there? Well, at least one social media channel in particular, Steve. Let's call it business media, and by that I mean LinkedIn. You need to have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile that's search engine friendly. Here again, use keywords in your headline and text that will put your profile in front of a hiring manager. And this is where you should include a picture of yourself. Almost all recruiters now say they use LinkedIn to find prospects for their job openings.

Certainly, once you apply, they are going to check all of your social media channels, and so while on LinkedIn, it's about what you put on there. With the other ones, it's about what you don't want on there. Make sure there's not things that are overly charged or political or things that are going to automatically disqualify you from a position that you might be seeking. Okay. Good information.

Rob, I have to say, I hate to take the extra time, but I just can't let this go. I've done a bit of hiring myself over the last couple of decades, and to get my attention, I can remember one cover letter and resume that was done in black paper with handwritten silver ink. Oh, wow. How did that work out for them with you? Well, I got to be honest. It got my attention. I mean, here we are talking about it 15 years later. I mean, it got my attention. But did he or she get the job?

No, I was scared to death to even consider hiring them, but it definitely got my attention. So there you go. Give that prayerful consideration. And again, if you'd like to talk with Rob today about anything financial or to apply for a job, who knows? We may have positions here that I'm not even aware of, but Rob knows. So call him right now. 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. And as soon as I say that, Rob, I'm having trouble with my computer. So if we have a call up that I don't see, do you happen to see that person? Oh, there's calls coming in right now.

Why don't we take an email, though, before we dive into these calls? Okay. Let's do Tim's.

All right, let's do Tim's email. It says, I've only heard bad things about reverse mortgages. Are they always a bad idea, even when you are house rich and cash poor?

Yeah. You know, reverse mortgages are not my favorite, Steve. Certainly not my go-to when it comes to generating income in that season of life.

But I wouldn't automatically disqualify them. If you're sitting on a large asset like your home, it's paid off and you're short on cash flow, I would prefer you to perhaps sell that property, downsize, try to right size your budget, get everything in line. And at that point, then you're not funding your lifestyle with debt. There are some downsides to reverse mortgages. For instance, it may affect your eligibility for needs-based government programs.

We're talking about Medicaid and SSI. The fees tend to be high. So reverse mortgage closings carry fees like any mortgage, but they tend to be on the higher side. And not to mention insurance premiums that are going to be added in there. All of that pushing the total amount you're borrowing up.

The internal interest rate, the imputed interest rate inside the reverse mortgage tends to be higher than what you might think about in terms of prevailing rates. And it's going to create challenges for heirs who perhaps want to hang on to that property if they did. So I think just given those factors, they tend to be expensive. They're going to limit your flexibility, may affect eligibility for needs-based government programs.

I would look for other options first if at all possible. Okay. How about one more? This comes to us from Al. It has to do with what a lot of people refer to as the cashless society.

This is an interesting variation on that. My local supermarket gave me a hard time when I tried to make a small purchase with cash. They asked me to use my debit card or a credit card instead. When I told them I wanted to use cash, they wanted to give me a gift card instead of the change. Is this why people are afraid of the cashless society? What is going on? Yeah.

Well, I would just say kindly say no, thank you. You know, we are moving more and more digital all the time with electronic currencies and cashless payment systems. But that doesn't mean the coins and the bills are necessarily a thing of the past, even though especially in light of COVID, we're seeing them used less and less, which has, by the way, resulted in that coin shortage you probably heard about. Yeah.

But the bottom line is if you still want to pay with cash and use a traditional envelope system, you should be able to do that very effectively, even though you're probably in light of the medical side, you're probably going to be encouraged more and more to use digital forms of payment, whether that's a digital debit or credit card, or some other means maybe paying through an app, but we don't have to necessarily go all in on the digital payment if we don't want to quite yet. Steve. That's right. Okay. And if you have a brief email that you'd like to send to Rob for him to answer on the air, the address for that is MoneyWise, excuse me, the address for that is questions at MoneyWise.org. Questions at MoneyWise.org. Okay, to our phone lines.

Amy in Missouri, what's on your mind today? Hi, I actually had two questions, please, sir. I used to have a Verizon flip phone and I found out when I used to work in two prisons, it was a burn phone. But when I would go make payments on it, because I was a grandpa, he would never give me change. And one day I caught him and he said they don't give change and they did not apply that to my account. So that was one problem and I don't understand why other than the fact they claimed they had been robbed.

And the next one is this. This is money, job searching and such. Why is it when you're an insulin dependent diabetic as I am, you inform a supervisor you need to step away from the phone call and he would not allow you? Conversation happened. Couldn't remember what I said due to low blood sugar and not being allowed to leave. Months later, they called me into an office and they said, do you know you were cursing on the phone? And I said, no, I wasn't.

I couldn't remember my blood sugar was. They ended up firing me. Should I have gone ahead and find somebody to sue them or what should I have done?

Because that's against ADA policies. Yeah, well, I appreciate your call today, Amy. To your first question, you know, I think the key is anytime somebody prefers us to use a digital means of payment or take a refund as a credit, that's obviously in their best interest.

They're always going to encourage you to do that. So I would just, when possible, kindly say, you know what, I think I'd rather take the cash form of a refund or payment. You know, beyond that, and with regard to your work situation, so sorry to hear about the way that worked out. I'm not the best person.

I'm not an attorney. And so, you know, I think the key for us as believers is to try to avoid litigation at all costs, try to remedy the situation. Otherwise, perhaps just be transparent about what happened.

Make sure they know that it was medically related and see if you can't resolve in another way. But we appreciate you listening and calling so much, Amy. God bless you. Yeah, thank you very much, Amy. Here's our phone number again. If you have a question today or a comment for Rob, it's 800-525-7000. Rob, we're excited about a new resource here. And it's a little birdie told me that you might want to pass one of these on to a listener today. What are we thinking here as far as the app is concerned?

Oh, yeah. Well, we're excited about the brand new MoneyWise app, Steve. And it's out there. It's ready to go.

You can get it in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. So we'd love for you to pick one up today. The digital envelope system is at the core of it. Beyond that, there's the community where you can ask questions.

And it's been really fun to see so many listeners and users engaging each other in questions inside the community, plus broadcast archives of MoneyWise radio programs. So check it out today. Go to your app store, whether that's the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. You'll find it there.

It's called MoneyWise Biblical Finance. Okay, great information. We'll come back and chat some more about the app later in the broadcast, tell you more about some of those details. And of course, we'll come back and take your phone call as well. It's 800-525-7000.

Anything financial that you may find depressing, anything financial that you might be wondering, what does the Bible say about this? Let's kick that around a bit. Give us a call.

800-525-7000. We'll be right back. 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. Verse 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. You and I have got to learn to live life in the light, in the light. Something I just wrote down in my notes, it's not there before you, but I just wrote down in my own notes coming up to this, privacy versus secrecy. I mean, there is privacy. I mean, there are just some things that you don't necessarily just want to do in front of a lot of people, like go swimming.

Especially after what happened to myself tenor last year when it all came off in the pool and I didn't look the same when I got out as I did when I got in. It's not happy. So there's privacy, there's privacy. We don't want to do everything with the door open, but we live in the light.

Privacy is very different from secrecy. And here's what I came up with, and I thought this was profound, I don't know if y'all think it is or not, but privacy as regards modesty. They're just modesty.

There's modest living. Those are the things that just, I mean, you shave in your bathroom. That's not something you just want to do out in front of everybody. You understand what I'm saying? Because it's modesty, not because it's secrecy. Does anybody understand what I'm saying? So I ask you today, is it modesty or is it secrecy?

Live out in the light. You've been listening to Beth Moore with a quick word. The online experience is now available at Beth Moore dot org. Join Beth for Now That Faith Has Come, a study of Galatians at Beth Moore dot org.

See you next time for another quick word with Beth Moore. 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 dot org. You know, here on MoneyWiseLive, we don't just take questions and give you answers. Often we talk about what God's doing in your life in regard to finances. If there's something you've learned about managing money in the past year, if there's some way God has revealed himself to you in the past few months, and you'd like to share that as a testimony with us and the rest of our listeners, please feel free to do that. It's always fun to see how God is working in the lives and hearts of others. Here's our phone number again, 800-525-7000.

Continuing down to Boca Raton, Florida. Nicholas, how are you today, my friend? Hey, can you hear me?

I can. Nicholas, do you mind me asking how old are you, Nicholas? I am 11 years old.

You're 11? Oh, my goodness. Well, yeah. Well, why are you calling us today?

What's your question? So, I've been saving up a lot of money, and I have about $300 from saving. Wow.

Yeah. And I just wanted to get any recommendations from you guys for what to do with my money. I love that, Nicholas. Well, first of all, I'm so glad you called.

And second, congratulations. I suspect you put some hard work into saving up $300. Do you mind if I ask how you did it? Have you been doing some chores, jobs around the house, birthday money? Where did it come from?

Well, my parents give me $20 a month because they want me to already learn how to be responsible with my money. So, that's where I get it from. Love it. Love it.

All right. Well, I want you to think about this money in three buckets, if you will. Maybe three jars.

In fact, you could even break it up into three physical jars if you wanted. You might have to ask your mom to take it to the bank and, you know, if it's in large bills. But think about it in terms of give, save, and spend.

Okay? Give, save, spend. And so, we want to be generous with whatever we receive. We realize everything we have the opportunity to manage, this $300 and every dollar after it throughout the rest of your life, that belongs to God. The Bible tells us it's God's money, which makes us a manager, which is pretty cool to think about, right? We're God's money managers. We have the responsibility of caring for this money.

And so, one of the ways we can use it—in fact, we see this clearly talked about in the Bible—is to be generous with it, to give it to our church or to somebody in need. And so, I would think about the first use of this money in terms of the give jar. The second is the save jar, and that's something that it's going to—perhaps you'd like to save towards, something you're really wanting.

And I'd be sure to talk about what that is with your parents to make sure you all are on the same page. But once you figure out what that is, whether you're saving for a new bike or a new pair of shoes that you really want that are maybe a little more expensive than mom and dad have in the budget, whatever it might be that you guys agree on, then I want you to maybe print out a picture of it, put it right there on the jar. And that's something that you're going to be saving toward. And then the third thing is the spend bucket or jar, if you will, where these are daily expenses where mom and dad say, you know what, if you want that, you're going to need to pay for it. You're in the checkout line, you want a pack of gum or you want to be able to do something, you know, fun and go play putt-putt golf outside and with some friends.

And, you know, your parents are there and they say, yep, that's something you're going to need to pay for, Nicholas, if you want to be able to do that. Well, that's what the spend jar is for. I want you to think about how much you'd like to put in each. You could put a third of it in the give and a third in the save and a third in the spend. You wrestle through that and decide how you want to do that. But I think that's going to help you to think about the best way to use this moving forward.

And it's also going to establish some really healthy habits that when you get older and you have more money to deal with, if you can think in terms of I want to give to the Lord first and I want to save second and then I want to live or spend the rest after I've done those two things, that's going to serve you well through the rest of your life. Does all that make sense? Yes, it does. Awesome. Awesome.

Well, I hope that's helpful, buddy. Listen, I want to send you a book. OK, so I want you to stay on the line and our producer is going to get your information and it's called the ABCs of Handling Money God's Way. And we're going to send that to you.

It's our gift to you. And I want you to read that with your mom and dad when you have a chance. Nicholas, are you in school right now? What's the situation with your schooling and covid and all of that? School just started and yeah, and it's just really exciting to be back to school. And do you have to wear a mask all day?

What's the situation with that? Yeah, I do all day, but well, I go through it and well, at the end of the day, I went to school and that's how that matters. Amen.

That's right. Nicholas, my friend, it's always great to have someone your age call and we're going to send that book right out to you. Stay on the line. Let's make sure we have all your contact information.

And then down the road a little bit, if you ever want to call back and let us know what's going on in your life, we'll be happy to look forward to your call. OK? OK. Thank you so much. All right, buddy. Thanks very much.

You have a great weekend. Rob, you have tell our audience about your own children. You have four children. You have twins, twin girls and then boys. And what are their ages again? Well, we have a busy household, Steve. We do have four. My oldest, Colby, is a sophomore in high school.

Hard to believe. 15, about to turn 16, which means a driver's license. A full fledged driver's license is in my future. Mason is in the eighth grade and then Abby and Emma are twins. Our girls are in sixth grade and they are a blessing.

Boy, and I presume that from the very beginning you've been teaching them God's principles of money, huh? We've been trying to, Steve. Living it out.

800-525-7000. He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore, and we'll be back with more right after this. Investing is more than just returns. It's an expression of who you are and what you value. Does the way you invest your money reflect your identity as a Christian? At Eventide, we design investments for performance and a better world. So you can invest with a confidence to reach your financial goals while remaining true to your Christian values and commitments. We call this investing that makes the world rejoice. More is available at investeventide.com.

That's investeventide.com. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't have had the procedure I needed without CHM's help sharing the bills. That letter from a member displays Christian Healthcare Ministry's purpose to glorify God and serve His people.

CHM is the original non-insurance voluntary health cost sharing ministry, enabling its members to share the cost of each other's medical bills. Call 800-791-6225 or visit chministries.org. Hi, my name is Elizabeth, a communications major at the Moody Bible Institute. The Moody Radio Verse of the Week is found in Psalm 91, 2 through 4. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge.

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Letting 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 Money Wise Law. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. The Senate gearing up for a rare weekend session as Republicans race to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. Barrett is expected to be confirmed on Monday. President Trump says Sudan will start to normalize ties with Israel, making it the third Arab state to do so in the run-up to Election Day.

Northern California prosecutors will again seek the death penalty for Scott Peterson in the slaying of his pregnant wife and unborn son nearly 19 years ago. They made that announcement today. France has surpassed one million confirmed coronavirus cases, becoming the second country in Western Europe after Spain to reach that mark. Wall Street slugging off a sluggish start, finishing mixed. Stocks have been mostly higher this month.

The Dow did drop 28 points, but the NASDAQ gained 42 and the S&P was up nearly a dozen. This is SRN News. Hey, we hope it's a great day wherever you are. Thank you so much for tuning in, for listening and for dialing in. If you have a question or a comment or something you'd like to kick around, something financial would be optimum. Give us a call because we have three or four open lines. You won't get any busy signal today, at least not right now. 800-525-7000, 800-525-7000. Hinsdale, Illinois, of course, listening to our good friends at WMBI. And CJ, what's on your heart? Hi, how are you guys doing today and thank you for taking my call. Great, thanks. So I just had a question in reference to paying off debt because I've had, I made, you know, poor choices like in my younger 20s and I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it because I do eventually want to purchase a home.

So I just want to make sure like I'm doing it in the right way and probably like where I should start. Yeah, absolutely, CJ. Well, I'm so glad you called.

We'd love to help with that. Before I give you my thoughts, I want to just get a quick snapshot of your financial situation. Tell me about that debt that you have, the types of debt and roughly the balances. Okay, so to be honest, I owe, so I do owe the IRS money, about $10,000, I want to say, either $9,000 or $10,000, I think, something like that.

Um, I had to get a new car, so I, I want to say my car, well, my car is like 20,000, I want to say. All right, no problem. Do you have any credit cards? Um, I do, but they, I don't use them. Great. Okay.

I don't, I don't really use them. Um, only it's like, I absolutely need to. And then I, uh, what is it? I like, I had a, I had, um, issues health wise. Well, not, well, yeah, I had issues with my health. So I had to, like, I did get like hospital bills that I cured due to like having surgeries and stuff. So that's pretty, um, I want to say, I don't know, hospital bill wise, I don't know, maybe like, I don't know, when I calculate everything, when I calculated everything myself, it was like, I don't know, maybe like 15,000, maybe. For the medical bills.

Not 15,000 in hospital bills, not, not in hospital because I mean, all together, but I want to say hospital bills, maybe like two. I'm going to, I'm going to max maybe like 3000 max. Okay. That's fine.

That gives me a good picture of it. So here's what I would say. First of all, I'm so glad that you're calling because that means that you really want to handle this God's way. And that's really the beginning point. You see, we have to recognize CJ that everything you have has been entrusted to you by God. It all belongs to him, which makes you and me and Steve and everybody listening managers of what God has entrusted to us.

And here's the thing. We all make mistakes, right? We're all sinners saved by the grace of Jesus, and we're all trying to live our lives in a way that aligns with scripture. Here's the good news is that there's 2300 verses in God's word that speak to how it speaks to how we should handle money and all of the mistakes we've made in the past. We can invite God into our financial lives and leave all of that at the foot of the cross and say, God, I may have made some mistakes and I want to purpose myself to be faithful in managing your money moving forward.

And so I want to invite you in. I don't want to use credit cards to rob you of the opportunity to intervene. I want to trust you for every dollar moving forward, and I want to make the best, most wise decisions I can with how I use your money. And so that's the starting point, which involves a recognition of God's ownership and some prayer to invite God into your financial life. The second thing we need to do is live within God's provision, which means we have to have a spending plan or a budget.

So here's what I want you to do, and it sounds like you've done a little bit of this, but perhaps not quite in this way. I want you to get organized. I want you to make a list of all of your debts from smallest balance to largest. I want you to write them down, the name of who you owe and the exact amounts. And if you have some questions about that, you may need to pull a credit report at annualcreditreport.com, especially if there's some medical bills that have been sold to collection agencies, things like that.

The one that I'm hearing is the most pressing is the IRS. You really need to get on a payment plan with the IRS, and you could connect with an enrolled agent or a CPA there in Illinois, in Chicago, through our website, moneywiselive.org. Click find a CPA in the tax area because you want somebody who can represent you and perhaps get you on a payment plan, and you don't ignore that one.

You need to really lean into that. But once you make that list of all your debts, then you at least know where you stand. Then we want to pay the minimums on everything, whatever that monthly payment is to the IRS, whatever you can work out in terms of a monthly payment to the medical bills. Obviously, make your car payment every month, and then we need to get that budget in line, meaning you might have to cut some expenses, you might have to trim some things, cancel subscriptions, whatever it is, so you can pay your bills but have some left over to be able to send extra. I want you to try to save $1,500 first, though, because that's going to be the start of your emergency fund. And then when you do that, we're going to take every extra dollar, and we're going to put it against that IRS debt, moving then on to the medical bills and finally to the car, okay?

Now, I want you to stay on the line because I want to do two things. Number one is, in addition to connecting you with a CKA in the tax area, I want you to visit with one of our MoneyWise coaches. There's no cost, and they're going to help you set up your budget. I also want to give you six months of the pro subscription to our new MoneyWise app because that means you can download your balances, set up your envelope system, and manage that every day so you don't go over on your budget. Again, that's the MoneyWise app, and when you give your information to our team, we'll make sure we get you that six-month subscription, and we'll get you connected with a coach. Does that sound good?

Yes, it does, and can I ask one more quick question? Real quick. We're about out of time. Yeah. I mean, realistically, just based off of the debt I gave you, how long do you think it would take for me to purchase a home?

Yeah. You know, I think the key is, right now, we'd probably have to set that down the road. It's going to be several years. It's really all going to come down to how quickly you can get this debt paid off because not only do I want you to pay off the IRS debt and at least be working toward being on time with a monthly payment toward the medical debts, but I'd want you to save 20% of the down payment in addition to your emergency funds.

If you need $100,000 for the house or the townhouse or the condo, that means you need to save $20,000. So that's probably going to take you a little time, but don't worry about renting in the meantime because the last thing I'd want you to do is take on a big obligation like a mortgage before you're ready. And CJ, we wish you the very best. Stay on the line. Let's make sure we have your contact information, and we'll get those resources right out to you.

Thanks very much. Coming back from our break, we'll say hi to Ray and also Jen Jay, who have been holding very patiently. But before we do that, Rob, you know, we have a group of volunteers, a very large group of volunteers, all around the country who have gone out of the way to get trained so that they can help many of our listeners when our listeners need some face-to-face help with their basic budgeting information. Talk to us about those folks, who they are, and what they're able to do.

Oh yeah, happy to, Steve. Those are our MoneyWise Coaches, and as you said, these are men and women who really see helping God's people put a spending, a debt repayment, and a giving plan together as their ministry. They've been trained to do that. Again, they're called our MoneyWise Coaches. And other than a small charge we'll ask you to make to buy the workbook, which, if you don't have the money for it, we'll give it to you.

But if you can, we'll ask you to buy the electronic workbook. Other than that, they donate their time, so they'll walk with you for six or eight weeks, maybe even a little longer, with a virtual once-a-week meeting to get you set up on a spending plan, get your debts moving in the right direction, and help you start giving. It's called our MoneyWise Coaches, and you can connect with one today at MoneyWiseLive.org. That's right, MoneyWiseLive.org. Look for the box that says Connect with a Coach. More MoneyWise Live after this.

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. Time is approaching for us to vote. November 3rd marks a critical moment in American history. Never before have we faced a global pandemic, chaos on the streets, and a belief system that eliminates law and order because as a nation we've turned our backs on God. We shouldn't be surprised that almost half of all Americans have no understanding of God and His good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. George Washington said it is the duty of nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will. One of the ways you can acknowledge the providence of Almighty God is to vote. But the best way to obey God's will is to share the good news of Jesus with everyone you meet. God placed you at this time in human history to share His love and devote His will for every issue and candidate. There is nothing more exciting than knowing God is using you to move people closer to Him.

Join us at ignitedamerica.com. Will you join me in praying for our nation? Our Father in heaven, you are Lord of all the earth.

And though the nations rage, you are on your throne and forever will be. And Lord we particularly pray for our children as they try to navigate what is truth, what is hope, what is light in a world that is compromised in truth, in a world that faces so much despair, in a world that doesn't ever really know how to understand hope and what actually it is. Lord I pray that they might know what freedom truly is to be found in Christ. And I pray that the message of your gospel may be clear to them and that you would show us how best to do that. But I pray that you would draw them to yourself. In Jesus' name we pray and for His glory.

Amen. I'm Kristin Getty for OneCry.com. We're navigating the mortgage maze. Available when you click the store button at MoneyWiseLive.org.

Finding God's plan for your financial life. This is MoneyWise Live. Let's head back to our phone lines. Rathdrum, Idaho. Hello, Ray.

What's your question for Rob West? Well, my wife and I just pulled some property. Well, we're in the midst of selling it and we owe some money on our house. Is it better to pay off the mortgage or to roll the money back into some more investment property at 1031? Yeah. Well, it's a great question, Ray. And you could go either way.

I mean, there's not an obvious choice here, but I'd be happy to weigh in with my thoughts. Tell me about the rest of your financial life. Are you living within your means? Are you on track with retirement? Do you have an emergency fund?

Those types of things? We've got the emergency fund and we live within our means, but not much for retirement. Okay. All right. So were you seeing this rental property or investment property and now the proceeds as really the core of your retirement plan?

More just to keep reinvesting it into property and down the road. Hopefully that works out. Okay. And what is your age, if you don't mind me asking?

51. Okay. And are you self-employed or are you a W-2 employee? W-2. All right. Do you have a retirement plan at work? Yeah.

They just started it just a couple of years ago, though, so they're not a lot into it. Okay. Are they doing any matching? Yes.

Okay. So I'd take full advantage of that. And if your wife is working the same thing there, I think the idea would be... I love the diversification of having this other asset class with real property, but I also like the idea of you having a diversified portfolio in a qualified account where there's tax advantages, where you're systematically contributing to that. You've still got some time on your side, but at 51 we need to be diligently putting money away. And so I'd try to get up as possible to 15% of your take-home pay going into that qualified plan.

Both you and your wife, if you can do that. In terms of the proceeds of this property, I love the idea of being debt-free, which sounds like you could do with the proceeds of this home. But I also wonder just how you liked being a landlord, assuming that's what was happening with the other property, and whether that's something you'd like to continue doing, and whether that was working for you. Was it throwing off good income that you were either able to supplement your income with or you've been saving?

Tell me about that side of it. Actually, it was just a vacant property that we bought several years ago, and it actually, the property value went up quite a bit, substantial, and so we sold it to hopefully do the same thing over again, just reinvest in more property. Are you thinking of doing raw land again?

Possibly, yes. I actually like the idea of you investing in a property that could actually generate some income while you're waiting for the appreciation, because often raw land doesn't appreciate quite as fast as we think, unless you have a really good area that you're investing in. Plus, there's other issues. Is the neighborhood, if it's a part of a neighborhood, going to take off as everyone expected? Is it truly raw land, and we've got to wait for the improvements? Is the infrastructure in place, and the roads, and the plumbing, and the electricity?

And is it going to grow the way we think it is, or is the traffic pattern going to move in another direction? I mean, just all of those things create a bit more risk, and we don't earn any income while we're waiting. So unless you have a unique situation, I'd probably be more inclined to go toward property that can be income generating, but obviously you have to have the time and the expertise to put into that, to maintain it, market it, keep it updated and repaired, and address any tenant concerns. So, you know, although I like the idea of you becoming debt-free, and if you had a conviction about that, I would say go for it. You know, if you want to keep it invested by rolling it into another property, the 1031 exchange is a great way to do that.

I would just make the decision between, again, going toward the raw land, which worked out for you last time, or going toward something that can be income producing in the meantime. Ray, we're glad you got through today. Thank you very, very much.

Let's quickly move to Colville, Washington, Washington State. And Catherine, what are your thoughts today? Hi, guys. Hi, how are you? Great. Good. I love your program.

It's so helpful. Thank you. I just turned 62, and I just started getting widow benefits from my ex-husband, and I'm working part-time, but I wanted to have some kind of a savings for funeral expenses, and I got a term life policy thing. I didn't get it, but I received it in the mail, and I was wondering about that.

I've heard you guys talk about other sources, like burial plans or things like that, and I just wanted to have something that would not put a burden on my family if anything happened to me. Yes. Yeah. Thanks. You know, certainly the best way to save for a funeral or to pay for a funeral would be by saving, and so I'd love to see if you can live within your means and carve out a certain amount that you could earmark into a savings account that would be there and available for next-of-kin family members to be able to have what's needed.

You know, that's one way to go. You can also buy funeral insurance, which is just slightly different than that term policy you bought in that it's specifically for these purposes, and it would be an amount commensurate with the actual expenses of a funeral, and it gives your family more options, obviously, than a prepaid funeral because they're in discretion of how it's spent as opposed to all those decisions being made now, and then, you know, perhaps we have some unknowns down the road. Similar to the life insurance policy, but it pays out more quickly to help with those funeral costs. Of course, you set the beneficiary, whoever's responsible for organizing the funeral, and, you know, somebody who's 65 in good health, a $5,000 policy would be about $22 a month, a $10,000 policy probably just over $40 a month, and, you know, you'll have higher premiums if you went with one where they don't ask any health questions, which is basically what's called guaranteed issue, but I think those are really the two options to consider.

You can do the prepaid, and funerals.org would be a great resource there, the Memorial Society, but I think one of those three is probably the direction for you to head. Okay. Catherine? I also have access to a 401k at my work, and they do have matching, so would that be something I should do as far as savings goes? Oh, absolutely, yeah. So I think the priority there, Catherine, is you want to be living within your means, you want to be giving systematically. I'd like for you to have an emergency fund of at least three months expenses, but beyond that, assuming you don't have any credit card debt, absolutely. I'd be systematically contributing to that retirement account with or without matching. I'd be trying to put away a goal of 10 to 15% of your pay into that, and that's just going to grow every month. It's going to cost dollar cost average into the market, which means when the market's up, you'll buy less shares.

When the market's down, you'll buy more shares with the same money, but over time, it'll grow and be a real nice nest egg for you down the road. Catherine, God bless you. Thank you very much for contacting us today.

I think we have time for one more. Warren, Ohio. Josh, you're on the air with Rob West. Hi, Rob. Hey, good to have you, Josh.

Hey, nice talking to you. My question today is I'm a young man, and my family and I, we've worked pretty hard at staying out of debt since I was in debt, and then I got out of debt. I'm debt-free, and I have a nice job, got a couple thousand saved up, and everything I own that I've ever really wanted is paid for, and the Lord's blessed me.

I just don't know what to do next. I don't want to go back in debt, and it seems like if I want to advance my family's lifestyle and or future, I should take chances with my money or other people's money, and I just don't know what to do. I don't like thinking of going back in the debt. Yeah, and tell me specifically what you're thinking about there. You're talking about buying a house or borrowing to invest, or what are you talking about? Yeah, buying property, maybe even buying a few commercial properties to rent out or something like that is what was on my mind. Yeah.

Well, I think the key is, first of all, your heart attitude. Where are you and your wife at in terms of recognizing your role as stewards of God's money, and really following his principles of managing his money? Are you living well within your means?

Yes, it sounds like you are. You've focused yourself to be debt-free, even at a young age. You're starting to put some money away.

That's great. As long as you're doing those things, you're giving regularly, and you've got some margin left over, and you're contributing toward a long-term, diversified portfolio in the stock market, I think that's really a key. You've got that healthy emergency fund there to fall back on. Then, being able to move out into taking on more risk, even borrowing, assuming you don't have a conviction about not doing that, I think is appropriate as long as you do it in the right way, meaning you're not doing wild speculation, and you're not borrowing 100 percent that you have good equity in whatever you're borrowing to buy, because it's a real asset that should appreciate over time.

As long as you've taken the proper steps to educate yourself on what it means to be a landlord, and where you should buy, and how much you should spend, and are you putting the rest of your financial life at risk, or have you saved enough that you have some equity so you'd have some confidence that even if the real estate market took a downturn, you could liquidate that property and satisfy the obligation such that it wouldn't put the rest of your financial life in jeopardy. I mean, I think there's a way to take a measured approach toward adding more risk to your financial life, but doing it in a way that follows biblical principles so that if the unexpected happens, we have the ability to unwind it. We can liquidate a property and pay off debt, and we can do things to make sure that it doesn't impact us negatively down the road. So, it's something we have to approach prayerfully when we're married. We always have to make sure husband and wife are in complete agreement, including when it involves debt, especially when it involves debt, and then I think it's just about doing everything in the proper order and timing. Josh, thank you very much for calling, and we'll just suggest again that you be very prayerful about this.

It's nice to want to move forward and succeed, but you want to make sure that you're well armed, well prayed up, and get the wisdom and advice from others who've been where you are now. Thanks very much for calling. My thanks to Amy, Aaron, Dan, and Jim for their technical expertise. Our thanks to you for listening. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks again. Join us again next time.