Making Better Decisions

Proverbs 12.15 says, �The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.� That�s right.

The Bible tells us to take counsel from others so we can make better decisions. And that�s the title of a new book by Andy Stanley. Today host Rob West sits down with the author to find out how we can avoid mistakes in life, especially with our money. And it�s your calls and questions on any financial topic at 800-525-7000. I�m Steve Moore making better decisions.

That�s next right here on MoneyWise Live. Well Rob, our guest today is Andy Stanley. He�s a well-known pastor and founder of North Point Ministries based in Atlanta. He�s the author of more than 20 books. His latest coming out this month titled Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets.

Five questions to help you determine your next move. Well, that�s exactly right, Steve. And who wouldn�t like to have fewer regrets? Andy, a true delight to have you with us on the program today. I appreciate the invitation and this is going to be a lot of fun. So thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Well, we�re thrilled to do it. You know, before we dive in today, because I�m excited to unpack these questions, make the connection for us at a high level. How do our decisions shape our lives? Well, really our decisions determine the direction and quality of our life. We are really in some ways nothing more than the result or the sum total of the decisions we�ve made. And you know, all of us have had people make decisions that have affected us, but then we respond to those decisions, which those are also decisions. So our decisions are like the steering wheel of our life. And so you get decision-making right. You get life right for the most part. So this is a really, really big deal.

Well, it is. And as you said, we�re writing our story, whether we realize it or not, and that is the sum total of the decisions that we�ve made. And as you point out in the book, really good questions lead to good decisions, whether you�re dealing with money decisions or any decision for that matter. So let�s talk about the questions we�re asking and why that�s so important. Yeah.

And just to back up and make one comment about that. This is something that is easily overlooked, that really our decisions are no better than the questions that we ask. And everybody, all of your listeners have some sort of decision-making template, some sort of filter they use to make decisions. And we ask questions. We don�t ask them out loud, but subconsciously we ask questions like, �Will this make me happy? Will this hurt me?

Will anyone find out? Is this habit forming? Has this led other people to a good place or a bad place?� And especially when it comes to money. So since we�re asking questions anyway, the point of the book is, �Hey, here are five questions you should add to your decision-making filter. Here�s five questions you should add to the other questions perhaps you ask when you�re making any kind of decision, but particularly when it comes to money.� So the questions are, do you want me to just hit them real quick? Yeah, let�s do it.

Yeah, the questions are, there�s five. Why am I doing this really? Why am I doing this really? Why am I leasing this car really?

Why am I borrowing money really? The second question is, what story do I want to tell? When this incident, when this situation, when these circumstances are nothing more than a story I tell, what story do I want to tell? The third question is, is there a tension that deserves my attention? And this question really intersects in a big way with our financial decisions, because when we say, is there a tension that deserves my attention?

And our culture, culture so confirms a specific way of handling and managing money, especially debt, that if we�re not careful, just because everybody else does it, just because it�s the way things are done, there�s going to be a tendency to just follow along with everybody else. But as we allow God to invade our and to shape our conscience, oftentimes when we�re making a decision, there�s going to be attention. There�s going to be what my dad called a red flag. There�s going to be an inner hesitation.

So the question is, is there a tension that deserves my attention? Then the fourth one is what is the wise thing to do? This is the maturity question. In light of my past experience, in light of my current circumstances, in light of my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do? And then the fifth question is the relationship question.

What does love require of me? Well, those are obviously critical decisions. And as you said, we all have a filter. The question is, our decision can only be as good as the questions that we�re asking. And so perhaps by rethinking that, reframing each of these decisions and understanding the implications both now and in the future, we can make better decisions and live a life with fewer regrets. So right around the corner, we�ll unpack each of these for a moment and see if we can help our listeners make some better decisions. Author, teacher, pastor Andy Stanley with us today. We�re discussing his brand new book, Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets.

Let�s hope so. This is MoneyWise Live. We�ll be right back. Good to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. Rob West, your host.

I�m Steve Moore, and we�re pleased to say that our guest today is author, pastor, teacher Andy Stanley. We�re discussing his new book, Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. It applies to lots of areas of life, including our finances.

Well, it sure does. What are the questions you�re asking yourself as you�re making decisions? You know, your life is determined by the decisions you make, and perhaps with this brand new resource, you can ask yourself a different set of questions. Andy, just before the break, you unpacked these five questions, starting with, �Am I being honest with myself, really?� You know, we�re experts at perhaps convincing ourselves to do the wrong thing or arguing a case for why we should do something perhaps we know we shouldn�t.

Talk to us about this question and why it�s so important. Well, we are all salesmen and saleswomen. We are all salespeople when it comes to selling ourselves on really bad ideas. And you know, the people in your audience, they may not feel like they can sell anything to anybody else, but they have spent a life selling themselves on ideas. And here�s what I say in the book, and this is so important, when we catch ourselves, when we catch ourselves selling ourselves on an idea, we should hit the brakes, because you rarely have to sell yourself on a good idea. We sell ourselves on bad ideas. And the way this works is, you know, we get our hearts wrapped around something, especially when it comes to our money, because as you guys know, you talk about it all the time.

Money is so emotional because stuff is so emotional. So we get our sights set on something we want, and then our hearts say to our brains, �Hey, come up with some reasons for this, because I need some reasons.� And basically they�re not reasons. They�re just justifications. We believe the justifications. Next thing we know, we think we have a rational argument for purchasing something.

We have no business purchasing. So we basically lie to ourselves because we sell ourselves. So I say to folks all the time, this is why when you catch yourself selling yourself, you should tap the brakes because you rarely have to sell yourself on a good idea.

And the other exercise I take people through in the book is this. I say, imagine going into a retail outlet and the salesperson saying to you the same sales pitch on you that you use on yourself. If an actual salesperson were to say those things to you, you would be so offended you would walk out of the store. I mean, imagine you're in a store of any kind and the salesperson says to you as they try to sell you on something, �Hey, if you get home and don't like this, you can always just donate it.� I mean, who would say that? Or they may say to you, �Well, you know what?

You already have one of these, but this one's newer. What kind of sales pitch is that?� But these are the kinds of things we tell ourselves all the time. So am I being honest with myself? Am I being honest with myself really?

That puts the brakes on a lot of really bad spending decisions. And again, if you have employees and if you run a company or a division or department, you know it's impossible to lead a liar. You have to fire the liar. So in the book I say, �Hey, it's time that we fire the liar inside of us and tell ourselves the truth, because if we can't lead ourselves, we're going to have a really hard time leading anybody else.� Well, it's so true. And as you said, it really intersects appropriately with the money conversation. And if we would just, as you say in the book, say what we're trying to convince ourselves of out loud, perhaps from time to time, we may make a different decision. All right, the next one you call the legacy question and you said it's, �What story do I want to tell?� Now, if we're going to think about the bigger story that we're writing with our lives, we need to lift our sights up from the here and now.

Why is this question so important? Well, because we don't think about the arc of our lives as a story. We just think about the situation we're in right now. But every single circumstance we face, and maybe for some of your listeners, they're in a difficult season. They're in a difficult season when they're married.

They're in a difficult season financially. Eventually, this season is all it's going to be is a story that you tell. So the question to ask in the midst of a difficult season or really any season is when I'm looking back on this season and it's nothing more than a story I tell, what story would I like to tell?

And what story would I want to tell my children one day when I'm explaining this, when they're old enough to understand, or my grandchildren? So when we realize that we're writing the story of our life one decision at a time and we get to write the future of our lives one decision at a time, it helps to stop and say, �Hey, what story do I want to tell? Do I want to tell the story that I racked up so much credit card debt that I had to, you know, we lost our home or I, you know, I lost other opportunities or I wasn't able to send my kids to the school. I ultimately wanted to send them to me.� Nobody wants to tell that story. So what story do I want to tell? And I want to make sure I have a story I'm proud to tell and a story that, you know, I don't mind my kids telling about me someday. So what story do I want to tell?

The book is called Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets. Delighted to have Andy Stanley with us today talking about five questions to help you determine your next move. We've talked about the first couple of questions that are really key. Am I being honest with myself?

Really? What story do I want to tell? Next up, Andy, and you touched on this a bit before the break in those red flag moments.

The question is, is there a tension that deserves my attention? What else would you share with us here on this question? Well, again, oftentimes in the decision-making environment, everybody says, �Hey, this is what everybody else is doing. This is industry standard. This is how people buy cars.

You know, this is what everybody who buys a house does. This is how, you know, this is just how it's done.� And as we allow our Heavenly Father and our faith in Christ to shape our conscience, there are going to be times when what's fine for everybody else just doesn't sit well with us. And in those moments, we have to pay attention to that tension. And the problem is there's generally very little reasoning to support the tension initially. But if we refuse to brush by the tension, rush by the tension, and just sit on it, then eventually, what doesn't make sense initially, makes sense eventually, and we make better decisions. So the question is, as I'm making this decision, especially as we talk about finances, as I consider this home, as I consider this rental property, as I consider whatever it might be, is, you know, everybody else says it's fine. My financial advisor says it's fine.

But is there anything inside of me that is hesitant? And if so, pay attention to that tension until it goes away, or until it makes so much sense, you realize this really isn't the thing to do. And you know what, the three of us have lived long enough to be able to look back on some financial decisions we've made. And isn't it true that we kind of knew this is not a thing to do. We just knew and nobody else was saying anything.

We just kind of knew, but we just did it anyway. So is there a tension that deserves your attention? Yeah. Well, that leads right in, Andy, to the next question, which you call the maturity question, which is, what is the wise thing to do? You know, as we think about, again, this story we're writing with our lives and where we want to be financially, perhaps 10 years from now, this wisdom question is pretty important, isn't it?

Yeah. The apostle Paul says, don't live as unwise, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. We live in a dangerous culture. Just pick up your feet and allow culture to sweep you away. And you will have so many financial problems that you may never come out on the other end. So I tease this question out in three dimensions in light of my past experience, in light of my current circumstances, in light of my future hopes and dreams. What is the wise thing?

And here's the kicker. What is the wise thing for me to do? Because my past isn't like everybody else's past. My current state of mind isn't like everybody else's and my future hopes and dreams aren't like everybody else's. So, especially when it comes to money, in light of my past experience, my current circumstances, my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing for me to do?

Well, you write the story of your life one decision at a time. This book will help you make better decisions and live a better life. And so, Andy, we're so glad you joined us today. Thanks for stopping by.

Absolutely. Thank you. And we'll be right back with your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. This is Money Wise Live.

Great to have you with us today. It's Money Wise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. This is a program where God's timeless wisdom meets today's financial choices and decisions. And if we can help you with that, again, our phone number, 800-525-7000. Call in about anything, 800-525-7000.

Anything financial, including making better decisions and better choices. And always a great thing when Andy Stanley joins us, which is not all that often. He's one of my favorite pastors and authors.

What about you, Rob? Oh, there's no question about it. I've been a big fan of Andy's teaching for a long time, including his leadership materials that have just been a real influence on my life.

So a joy to have him. And we're going to make better decisions today, Steve, as a result of spending some time with Andy Stanley. So we're grateful. Amen to that.

Again, here's the phone number, 800-525-7000. Rob, rather than jumping in with the phone call, if you don't mind, you know, every day I sit here with kind of a small pile of emails that we eventually get to. But I thought maybe today we could take a deep plunge, a little deeper plunge into them than we normally do. Is that okay?

Yeah, maybe a couple. That sounds good. All right.

Let's see. Let's begin with Larry. He writes, Dear Rob, we listened to your programs and heard you offer help with budgeting. We own our own business. Our income fluctuates each month. As a result, we're having a hard time putting a budget together. Thank you. So I think he wants help with that.

Absolutely. And you know, this is one of the challenges, Larry, when it comes to putting a spending plan together, and that is income that fluctuates. So here's what you want to do. The first key to this, beyond recognizing that God owns it all and you're a steward, which changes your thinking, is practically capturing all of your expenses over a 30-day period, preferably even 60 days. So perhaps get a little notebook out or something that's going to allow you to capture every expense. I'm talking about those things you get a bill for, and what we call discretionary spending. Those things like eating out or just shopping that you do where you're not going to get a bill in the mail, and those non-recurring expenses. Try to capture those things you need to be saving for so when they come around twice a year, you have them in the budget. Once you know the minimum that you need in order to cover all of your obligations, that's the starting point. Now for the income side, let's look back, Larry, over the last 12 months and take an average of what you've received.

The key will be to build your income off of that, recognizing in some months you may have a lot of income and other months lower, but if you build it off of a conservative average and you know you have some margin there, then as you get those high months, it goes into savings and the lean months, you draw from savings, but it should smooth everything out. Next thing I would tell you, Larry, is our brand new MoneyWise app should be a big help to you. If you go to your app store, type in MoneyWise Biblical Finance, it'll allow you to build your plan right there in the app, and then when you're ready, you can start tracking those envelopes.

I love it. The MoneyWise app, as long as we're there, Rob, again, how do people find out more about it? Where do they get it?

Yeah, just go to your app store, whether that's the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, type in MoneyWise Biblical Finance. It's everything I ever wanted in a digital envelope system. Our team spent eight months building it, and it is phenomenal. It's getting rave reviews. Go check it out. Is your picture there, Rob?

It's not, which makes it a little bit better, I think. Oh, my gracious. Okay, all right. Larry, thanks for that email.

Here's another one. It's from Gloria. She says, Dear Steve and Rob, I'm a regular tither. I've put my house up for sale. I'm wondering now, how do I tithe on the sale? Do I tithe on the asking price, the price that I bring home after realtors' taxes, closing title, et cetera, or what?

Well, I love this question, Gloria, because you obviously are a faithful giver. You want to clearly honor the Lord with what you're doing in terms of your tithes and offerings, and we want to help with that. Let's go back to the principle of the tithe, which is really a tenth. That's what the word means, and it's based on your increase. So the question is, after you sell your home, what is your increase? Well, you could equate that to essentially your capital gain. Whether or not it's taxable or not doesn't matter, but essentially it's the selling price minus the original investment, the purchase price, plus any additional improvements that stayed with the property and subtracting any expenses that it took to actually sell it. So your true profit after expenses, after deducting the purchase price, after deducting any improvements is really your increase. So if you wanted to apply the principle of the tithe to your increase, that would be the number.

Figure out what it is and then give generously to the Lord. Okay. And Rob, I think we have time for one more email.

Then we'll get to our phones after the break. Again, our phone number, 800-525-7000. Rob is asking, I have two or three credit cards I'd like to close. Is it better to close the oldest one first? Also, I was told I should have a time interval between closing the accounts and not to do them all at the same time.

Do they have different limits? Does this really matter? Yeah.

Well, Bob, here's the thing. You know, if you want to close credit cards, I would say absolutely do it because every time you close a card that you're not using, that's one more account you don't need to track. And what I mean by that is if it's open, it can be compromised and there can be fraudulent charges.

Therefore, any open accounts you need to monitor, even if you're not using them regularly, that means checking those statements or online balances every month. As soon as it's closed, you no longer have to do that. How do you close them?

Well, I'd call them up, perhaps send something in writing so you have documentation. And yes, I would close. Well, if you only have two or three, I'd say you could go ahead and close all three at once.

If you had five or six, I'd probably space it out over six months. And by the way, if you have a choice, close the newest one before the oldest, the older accounts are actually serving you well in terms of your credit score. Let's talk a bit, if you don't mind, about credit cards, particularly for some younger folks who may be just, you know, getting into the world of credit cards, maybe college students. We know for a fact that on college campuses, credit card companies show up. They know that the first credit card that you get is likely to be the one you'll keep for a long time.

So what do you think? What kinds of credit? Well, you know, maybe we're going to run out of time on this. When we come back, we'll find out what Rob thinks about credit cards, what kind to get, credit card, debit card, pros and cons, your calls too. It's 800-525-7000. Give us a call right now and we'll be right back with more after this.

Good to have you with us today. We're taking a look at, well, whatever interests you and we'll try to apply God's wisdom to it as we find his wisdom and God's financial principles all through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. And here's our phone number, 800-525-7000. Before the break, we were just chatting for a moment about credit cards, the whole deal with credit cards, particularly for a young person, maybe going off to college for the first time. And Rob, there are credit card companies there giving out hats, t-shirts and hoping to sign you up for their credit card.

What do I tell a 19-year-old? You want a credit card? You want a debit card? Do you want a black or titanium credit card?

You probably have to wait till you're a little older to get one of those. I don't know. I don't know too much about those, but it's probably true. Yeah. So here's what I would say, Steve.

It depends here and here's why. You know, if you have been training these high school students while they're under your roof, which by the way is what I recommend, how they set up a spending plan, the dangers of credit and the resulting debt that can come when you live beyond your means. If you've been working through all of that and they've had a debit card and they understand how it works and perhaps a secured credit card, then I would say perhaps they're ready for a credit card at that point because they need to be able to use that wisely.

However, if that training has not been occurring, then we certainly don't want to turn a brand new college student at 18 years old who's not prepared. We don't want to allow them to have unsecured credit. And so I would say, let's start with a secured card essentially where you put an amount on deposit, let's say two or $300 that the student has saved up. They will then get a credit limit up to that amount on deposit that they can begin using that for.

Yes, budgeted items and then paying it off in full at the end of each month. That's going to establish their credit file. It's also going to teach them that they don't need to use that beyond what's available. Once they demonstrate that they can handle that, then perhaps they're off to the races at that point. But it all has to begin with some proper training, whether that happens under your roof or as a college student, I wouldn't start with unsecured credit.

All right. Real wisdom there, Rob. It really pays in the long run to make sure your children are up to speed, that there's been good instruction. In fact, speaking of instruction, Proverbs 8, 10 reminds us, choose my instruction instead of silver knowledge rather than choice goal. I love that verse because God's instruction through us to our children, God's knowledge and wisdom, again, through us to your children is just the very best thing you can do as long as they're under your roof.

So take advantage of that time. 800-525-7000. Take advantage of that phone number if you'd like to speak with Rob West today about anything financial. Bristol, Tennessee.

Hello, Mike. Thanks for your patience. How can we help you, sir? Well, I'm married to a real godly lady, and we just got married really at the first of the year.

We're retired. I'm at the retirement age, and she's retired from her business. And the business that I've got going, she wants me to really get out of debt. And I understand, I agree with her 100 percent. But with my business, the way that I make money is actually, I actually have to go in debt to make the money, you know? And I'm just, I feel I want to do what's right in God's eyes, and I want to get it to a point where she don't have to worry about actually what's with my business or whatever. And it does cause a little problem. I'm just trying to figure out basically what God wants me to do here, you know?

Yeah. Well, Mike, I appreciate this call, and I appreciate what you're describing, because this is really where the rubber meets the road in terms of honoring God's intent for the marriage, which clearly is oneness, right? He desires for us to be one as husband and wife coming together under his lordship and to recognize that what we have in the way of financial resources belongs to him. So we, as a couple, are stewards of those resources. So how do we move forward with oneness even in this area of financial management? And I think we have to recognize we come to the marriage with different backgrounds, the way our parents handled money, whether or not we had a surplus or we were in need growing up, the personality that we have.

Are we more bent toward being a saver or a spender? Our views on debt and giving, all of that needs to be worked through in prayer, but also in lots of dialogue and conversation. And I think a couple of things that could help you all would be, number one, to begin to sit down and really talk through this, recognizing I think there are some principles we can apply when it comes to borrowing. So for instance, not all debt is created equal. We want to make sure that we recognize borrowing mortgage is the future, but there must be an economic return greater than the economic cost. Well, in the case of business debt, even though we would purpose ourselves to be debt free, even in business as quickly as possible, we realize that what you're talking about is debt where in fact we would hope that the economic return would in fact be greater than the economic cost.

Well, perhaps talking through that so she can understand how that works in your business would be key. Number two, we don't want to presume upon the future, so there should be a guaranteed way to repay, meaning all debt should be collateralized and therefore it could be paid off through the collateral behind it. Number three, God gives you a spouse to complete you, therefore we should always be in complete agreement. And I think this is a critical one where you all are going to need to wrestle through that so that you can move forward in agreement. And then finally, we want to make sure that we're never denying God an opportunity to work.

So the principle there is we want to make sure there are no other alternatives. Now once you begin talking through that and understand that, yes, debt free is the goal, but there are uses of debt that I believe are permissible following those guidelines and then come to some agreement as husband and wife, how then you should proceed with regard to your personal affairs and your business. Now, the last thing I would offer, Mike, is that if you all don't have a financial advisor, a financial professional who's a godly person who understands God's word and can really speak into these matters, I would say that would be a key person for the two of you because this would then provide someone who could ask the hard questions and really bring some outside perspective at a professional level, but also with biblical wisdom infused in that. So if you don't have a certified kingdom advisor in your life, I would say that would be a critical piece to this because again, you and your wife could come together as husband and wife, but also in the context of a financial planning relationship where you could talk through these things. She could have somebody else to bounce ideas off of so she's not just taking your word for it, so to speak, but really having an outsider's perspective in the entire equation.

So be prayed up, I think. Talk through these principles with her and then consider bringing a third party, a godly professional into the equation that can provide some accountability to both of you, but also be willing to ask the hard questions when necessary. And Mike, because you guys are newlyweds, stay on the line if you wouldn't mind. We'll get your contact information and we'd like to send you a complimentary copy of the book Money and Marriage and we hope that that helps you. Thanks for calling today.

Wheaton, Illinois. Kristin, we have a little time before the break. What's your question? Hi guys, thanks for taking my call.

Sure. My question is, we were just talking about a secured credit card not too long ago and I actually do have one of those. $300 is the maximum limit per month and what I've done is put a revolving charge. I have a rent, I rent a storage space so I just put that on and pay it off in full every month, but it is $279. So I'm wondering if the ratio to which you put on the credit card matters because I'm trying to get an increase in my credit score and I'm not really seeing that happening.

You want to keep that debt to limit ratio under 30% so you may want to opt for another charge that's a much smaller amount every month. Stay on the line. We'll talk more right off the air. Thanks Kristin. You hang in there for just a little bit. We'll be right back.

Luke 16, 12 reminds us, and if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Something to think about and consider. Here's something else to consider. We have some open lines right now. In fact, we have three open lines so this would be a great time for your call to get through, almost guaranteed. So call right now, 800-525-7000.

We'd love to chat with you today. 800-525-7000. Rob, just before the break we were speaking to a caller who was concerned about her credit rating and her secured credit card. What was the bottom line there? She was trying to get her credit score up, which by the way, a secured credit card is a great way to do that. If you need to establish credit, perhaps a lack of credit is what's hurting you, but you don't want to have an open unsecured revolving account out there.

A secured credit card is a great way to go. Again, you put a certain amount on deposit, you get a limit up to that amount, you can charge against it. It doesn't actually tap those funds. You do use the line and pay it back each month.

If, though, you ever didn't pay it, they have the ability to capture those funds, but it does prevent you from taking on debt because you can't charge beyond what's on deposit. Now, given that her goal was to increase her credit score and she was charging a recurring charge every month that went right up to the limit, that's actually not helping her. So what we talked about was keeping that limit, excuse me, the charge under 30% of the limit every month. So she's going to replace that recurring charge up to the limit with a small subscription that she has, which is going to be just a small percentage of that overall limit every month. She'll pay it off in full, but she'll never get beyond that 30% threshold. And I think that'll cause her credit score to rise a little quicker. So if the limit or the threshold was $300, I'm just doing some quick math. So ideally she wouldn't want to charge more than $270 that month. Does that make sense? Is that it essentially? Well, yeah, so 30% of the limit would be 90.

So she'd want to stay under that. Yeah. Every month.

Here I am doing a financial program and I can't add 30 and 90 and 10%. And of course it is 2020 and all sorts of things seem to be happening this year. Back to our phones, 800-525-7000. Louie in California, my friend, we know you've been holding.

Thanks so much for that. And how can we help you? Well, I'm the guardian for my uncle who is an elderly person and I just sold some mechanic garages and so I have that money. And so I wanted to know about capital gains and also about reinvesting that money so that it just doesn't stay in a bank account. So that's my question.

Okay, very good. Talk to me about the business that he had. Is he a sole proprietor? Does he have a corporation? What does he have? He had two garages that he rented out.

He had been retired himself for some time. But these garages, I sold them because they have corrugated roofs and a lot of things that could happen and he lives in a hurricane alley and I was afraid that they would go down. So I decided to sell them and they were sold and now I wanted to reinvest a portion of that money, no more than 50%. He is in a home for memory care and so that's very expensive and so I just wanted to keep a few dollars coming in.

Yeah, makes sense and I'm so grateful that he has you in his life to care for these things. Louie, what type of business does he have? Is it a C corp? Is it an S corp?

Do you know? It ended with period incorporated. Here's what I'd like for you to do. You really need to get with a tax professional who can understand what he has here because the type of business is going to be a factor. If it's a C corporation who pays regular corporate tax rates, that would affect capital gains differently than if it's an S corp and it flows through to him personally and whether or not you have even the ability to do a 1031 exchange into a like titled property or whether he's going to recognize this and it also has to do with how you want to redeploy it. Do you want to take this money and put it into a well diversified stock and bond portfolio where it can be a passive income generator and then obviously factoring in the taxes ahead of time to your question is key so you don't get surprised by the tax bill that's coming either personally or for the corporation. So here's what I would recommend if you don't already have a tax professional go to our website Louie MoneyWiseLive.org click find a CKA and what you're going to be looking for is a certified kingdom advisor in the tax and accounting area who can come alongside you help you figure out exactly what he's got and then you as his guardian help him redirect these funds for his benefit so you can create an income stream off of the proceeds. Again a real blessing for him to have you in his life and we appreciate your call today. Louie thank you very very much. Akron Ohio, Bonda what's your question today for Rob? I applied for a credit card and was denied because I have limited credit experience so how do I get experience without a credit card? Ah got it well Bonda thank you for calling it's a great question and you know this is you know more and more common and often a lack of credit is what's going to keep you from getting credit remember that credit score is to determine how likely you are to repay as agreed the problem is if they don't have enough information to determine your credit worthiness it can often prevent you from getting credit so a great start for you Bonda would be what we were talking about earlier and that is a secured credit card essentially you would go into your bank or another bank and say I'd like to open a secured credit card you would put a certain amount on deposit let's say two or three hundred dollars they would then give you a credit card that you could use for charges up to that amount and when you spend on that each month it is truly credit it's not being pulled from that balance like a debit card but they use that as collateral the benefit is it allows you to qualify for that card very easily because essentially they have no risk and then what you'd want to do is establish an automatic recurring charge on there if you have one a budgeted item of course so you can pay that off each month but that every month is going to report you as an on-time payer when you open that secured credit card and over time that will build your score and allow you to eventually convert that to unsecured or apply for another card somewhere else so a secured credit card is what you want Bonda and if you need help with that our MoneyWise coaches would be happy to walk alongside you just go to MoneyWiseLive.org and click connect with a coach Bonda thank you very much hope that helped you and I think we can squeeze in Karen's call she's in West Palm Beach and Karen what's going on in your life yes hello everyone so I'm calling because I'm trying to apply for the first time to buy a home but I do have a lot of debt and so I can pre-approve already with three different brands but the approval is quite low so there's not much room for me to you know choose like proper housing but then the rates are very low extremely low low yes so I'm not sure which route to take I make about 35k a year but I have school loan currently under ADR and they claim that they have to take 1% of whatever I owe from them even though they're currently on deferment okay very good let me ask you a couple of questions Karen number one are you renting currently yes I'm currently renting and the lease will be over in 60 days okay what do you owe on the student what do you own the student loans how much yes about 19,000 okay what other debt do you have the car payments okay and do you have any credit card debt I don't have no credit card I have great credit score okay great and do you have some savings to put down on this house yes ten thousand dollars ten thousand and what were you looking to spend so that kind of good and affordable ones is in the upper 150k okay that I think all right very good it's just under that the most I can approve for is 125 I see okay you know I think the key here is you know you have good credit obviously you do have some debt I'm glad to hear that you don't have credit card debt which means you're living within your means your student loans are on deferment the challenge you're going to have is you know income versus the credit obligations that you already have outstanding so I think really the key is making sure that you have the ability to absorb that monthly payment without putting strain on your financial life and often we will use 25% as really the threshold there so you want to make sure that your principal interest taxes and insurance payment typically considered your mortgage payment with escrows is no more than 25% of your take-home pay and that's going to really help you determine how much you can actually afford to borrow after you put this 10,000 down excuse me the other thing I'd want to make sure is that you have some savings beyond that so I'd want you to have an emergency fund of at least a couple of months worth of expenses and I don't want you to use all of that in the form of down payment so number one I would perhaps go to bankrate.com and look at some other lender options to apply there all the applications you make in within a two-week period of time are going to be treated as one for your credit score so you could actually check with a few more lenders number two make sure you don't even if you qualify you don't take on a mortgage that's going to push you up so high that you're going to go beyond that 25 or 30% at the most and put some extra strain on your spending plan if you don't qualify or you can't you don't feel like you can afford the payment given those parameters what I would do is just continue renting and continue saving so you can put more down down the road and that's going to be my best advice for you today we appreciate your call we sure do and Karen again we wish you the best we'll pray that God gives you his direction as you work through this thanks so much and thank you for tuning in today and for listening MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media my thanks to our technical staff Amy, Dan, Aaron and of course none other than Mr. Jim Henry Rob West I'm Steve Moore hoping you have a great remainder of the day and that you'll join us again tomorrow for another edition of MoneyWise Live