Keep Christ in Christmas

Well, it's Christmas Eve and you probably still have several items on your to-do list before tomorrow's festivities.

Have you thought about everything? You think so, but did you remember to keep Christ in your Christmas preparations? Well, we have a few items you can still add to your list to make the day not just merry, but meaningful as well.

Kingdom Advisors President Rob West fills us in, then he takes your questions, but we are pre-recorded today so please don't call in yourself. I'm Steve Moore and welcome to our Christmas Eve edition of MoneyWise Live. Well, Rob, it's so easy to get caught up in the rush to make Christmas perfect that we forget why we're celebrating the holiday, don't you think? I do, but I also think we can focus on one theme that will help us keep perspective in this season, and that, Steve, is generosity. Our Heavenly Father gave us the precious gift of his Son to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray, as the song says, and that is the most generous gift in all of history, and it should guide our thoughts and deeds year-round, actually, not just during the Christmas season. Amen, well put. And to do that, we promised some things that we could add to our to-do lists even at this late date. Now we shouldn't think of these as burdens, but perhaps a labor of love. Absolutely, and the goal is to reflect the character of Christ in what we do, to be loving and generous, especially toward those who may not yet know him. Putting Christ back into what has become a secular holiday for many is a great way to witness. But let's prepare first.

To put ourselves in the proper frame of mind, you have to add someone to your Christmas gift list, God himself. How do you do that? Well, any number of ways. Have you felt God calling you to do something, but you've been reluctant? You could start there. Another way is to forgive someone you feel has wronged you. God has forgiven you and promised you eternal life.

How can you possibly not forgive another? Here's another idea. You could promise the Lord that you will spend a given amount of time each day to reading and studying his Word. Does your family have a tradition of reading "'Twas the night before Christmas"? Well that's fine, but this year, add the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. What a wonderful way to keep Christ in Christmas, especially for the children. Just a little aside, Steve, we have made it a tradition. The kids go around the house, all the cousins, and they put together costumes and they act out the Christmas story as one of the adults narrates, and they have so much fun.

We always love to see what they come up with for their costumes. Well then on Christmas morning, before opening the gifts, spend a few moments in family devotion, reading a verse or two of Scripture and discussing the true meaning of Christmas. To emphasize that, make one of your gifts to your family members a gift of service. This kind of gift costs you nothing but a little time and effort.

Babysit for your sister's kids or run an errand for your mother. Jesus taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. That's Acts 20, 35. You know, let me mention one other that we have made a tradition. On Christmas Eve, every year, Steve, we actually make a cake for Jesus.

We have a birthday party, we sing happy birthday, and the kids look forward to that every year as well. Yeah, well, I mean cake and Christmas, I mean it's all... How can you go wrong? Exactly. When your kids are acting out the Christmas story and they're wearing costumes, are you the donkey? I've been a sheep. You've been a sheep? Yeah.

Okay. All right, how might we show the true meaning of Christmas outside the family? Well, COVID certainly poses some challenges this year, but here are a few ideas you can do over the Christmas season and they don't have to be done today or tomorrow. Adopt a single mom for the holidays.

Call her and let her know you're thinking about her and arrange to have a restaurant deliver a meal for her and the kids. You can also have a small gift delivered for each of them. And of course, always look for opportunities to share the gospel. And here's an idea for next Christmas when we hope COVID will be long gone.

Plan with a few of your musical friends and go Christmas caroling in a nursing home or the children's ward of a nearby hospital. And I happen to know a little drummer boy who could perhaps show up and join you. Absolutely. All right, well, these are good ideas. Yours anyway. Anything else?

Well, sure. Why keep all the love in your own neighborhood or town? Is your church supporting any missionaries? Perhaps send a Christmas email to them to encourage them in their efforts to share the gospel abroad. And if possible, make a commitment to give at the same time. Here's one last idea, Steve. Invite a friend or family member who doesn't yet know the Lord to attend your Christmas service with you.

If your church is meeting, I can't think of a better way to share the gospel this Christmas season. And that is, that's great information and great suggestions. Thanks, Rob.

You're listening to MoneyWise Live. We have to pause, but we'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

The crooks out there are taking advantage of the stress and the, maybe the not being so attentive as we normally are because of all the shopping and what have you. So be very, very careful with your identity and to whom you give out information like this. And again, we appreciate your call today, Rose. Let's go out to Kansas now. Joseph, what's your situation, sir?

Hello, yes. My dad just recently passed this year and in his final days, he did a... He had an account with Fidelity and he did a... We asked him to do a wire transfer into a savings account and he had a... I'm looking at one of his statements.

He had a... I guess it's a Fidelity rollover IRA. And so the man at Fidelity when he did the transfer said, he asked my dad, do you want us to take out your taxes now?

And my dad said, no. And so then he said to us, he said, just hold, I guess, hold back 25% for taxes. So my first question is, is there taxes on that? And my second question is, at what point does the siblings pay taxes on what we receive? Yeah.

Well, it's a little different here. You're going to need to get some professional tax advice. You'll also need... Has the estate been settled or is that still in process? No, it's already been settled. The money is just sitting in a savings account until the tax is done.

Okay. So obviously there'll be a final tax return that will be filed by the estate. That's where you'll need to get some counsel on that. I'm not a CPA, but I'll just tell you, typically if you would have gotten this as an inherited IRA that's held in your name, then you would make sure the annual RMD was taken for your dad. And then you would begin taking the RMD over your life expectancy beginning no later than the last day of the year following the builder's death, assuming the RMD was satisfied for that prior year. And then obviously if there's multiple beneficiaries, separate accounts would be established and the distributions would be based on the oldest beneficiary. In the case though, where the money was taken out prior to his death, I believe that is going to be taxable to the estate prior to the money being distributed. And so that would be handled by the estate in terms of paying the tax that was due and then whatever is left would be paid out according to the will and as a part of the estate to the heirs. But again, that's where you're going to need to get some counsel on this to make sure this is all done correctly, that the taxes are paid properly, filed on the appropriate returns and make sure that everything is settled and satisfied before any funds are distributed to the heirs.

Do you have some professionals you can look to that could help either a CPA for your father or yourself that could weigh in on this? No, I guess Fidelity said they would just go ahead and I said, apparently from what I understood, I talked to somebody at Fidelity and they said that they would just send me some paperwork and my sister some paperwork as far as what the taxes will be next year in April. Okay. And then I guess they would go ahead and send that to us. Okay. All right. I would get a CPA, Joseph, to weigh in on this, somebody who can represent you. And I would recommend you do that by going to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Click on Find a CKA and find someone who is a tax professional who can look over this and make sure that it's done properly. Joseph, thanks very much. We wish you the best. This is a reminder that today we're not live, so if you hear that phone number, please don't call, but do stick around.

Lots of good information ahead. If the heavy burden of debt is robbing you of freedom and peace of mind, Christian Credit Counselors can help. We're a nationwide nonprofit credit counseling organization that has helped over 300,000 individuals in the last 27 years get out of credit card debt 80 percent faster while honoring that debt in full. To learn how Christian Credit Counselors can help you, visit ChristianCreditCounselors.org.

That's ChristianCreditCounselors.org, or call 800-557-1985. You probably have a strategy for your finances, your career, even your retirement. But do you have a strategy for your giving? At the National Christian Foundation, we can help you create a giving strategy to inspire your family, maximize your resources, and leave a lasting legacy of faith. To learn how, visit MoneyWise.org slash N-C-F. People's 412 says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.

Here's Beth Moore with a quick word. Are we not compulsive about it? Will we not do almost anything to keep from being face with somebody we need to say goodbye to?

Does anybody want to resist that but me? Our overwhelming resistance to something that ends. We will stay with something that has so long outlived its wholeness and health it's not even funny because we just can't stand an end.

What is wrong with that? Eternity set in our hearts, that's what. Something in us is so allergic to endings, we hardly know what to do. Why don't we hate series endings and we wait for next fall for them to start up again because we want it to go on and on. We'll wonder in the summer how they're all doing.

They're not real. You know it's true. Keith constantly said to our daughters, you will be so wise to learn that goodbye is a necessary life skill. Learning to say goodbye is a necessary life skill but boy it hurts and we hate it. We hate it. What makes us so resistant to endings and goodbyes? Eternity is set in our hearts.

We know that something about it just does not seem right. Beth and Tim are thankful for the grace gift to serve you. Your letters, prayers and support are a vital part of this program. To request this month's thank you gift, text the word GIFT to 57682. Again text GIFT to 57682 or go to bethmore.org forward slash donate. That's bethmore.org forward slash donate. Merry Christmas from Beth Moore and the team at Living Fruit Ministries.

I brought a quick email. This is from Faith. She says, is it better to give our four kids, all under age 10, allowances? We don't want to pay them to help around the house doing family chores but we do want them to learn about earning money for hard work.

What's your advice? Yeah, well I would agree with you there. I like the idea of allowances but I also like the idea of kids having responsibilities. So our kids have things that they're responsible for on a daily basis and then they have their weekly chores as well and we've got a list in the kitchen of what everybody's responsible for and just part of being part of our family is you have these responsibilities.

You don't get paid for it. I do like the idea of in a sense paying a commission to your kids for certain extra chores and I would pay based on the quality of the work. So they associate the idea of hard work equals more pay and there are some guidelines out there for how much that should be based on the ages of the children. Last thing I would say is begin teaching the idea of give, save, spend as the money comes in for those jobs that you designate. Go ahead and have them allocate a portion for giving, a portion for saving and maybe even have a specific item that they're saving for. Maybe even print out a picture of it and tape it on the jar so they know what they're working for and then a spend category for money that they're spending in the short term. Let's go back to our phones.

Idaho and Dwight, what's on your mind? Yes, I was about to sign a debt consolidation agreement today with the reputable company recommended to me by Bank of America to reduce the interest rate but not the principal on my debt. I've also compared that with debt reduction companies that actually negotiate or reduce debt with credit card companies. I'm wondering if you have any recommendations about which of those two to proceed with or if there's a third alternative you recommend or someone you recommend I talk to to more specifically fit what I do to my situation.

Yeah, let me just clarify the alternatives you're suggesting here, Dwight, because terms get thrown around and they mean different things. When you talk about a debt consolidation, are you talking about taking a new loan and paying off the existing loans? No, I'm talking about there are four companies Bank of America cycles through and someone says I'm having trouble managing this debt and they send you out to them. The one I was sent to, I was very favorably impressed with the way they handled my situation, explained circumstances, but it appears to me that basically what they do is they negotiate a considerably lower interest rate.

My payments would come down from 600 to about 375 and tell you how many months it will take to pay off and that most of it will be going to principal. It's to the credit card company's advantage to work with them to get something rather than nothing. And apparently in the contract, it says that some of the credit card companies and pay them a portion of what payments are being made through them.

The other companies, they tell you that, all right, you sign up with us, you pay this much a month, you default on your contract. Yeah, that's that's that's settled negotiate with the company. Right? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So one we call debt management one we call debt settlement. I don't like that settlement at all. It's going to trash your credit. I don't like the idea of stopping the payments where you get into collections that may issue a judgment on you. You know, the goal is there to settle for pennies on the dollar or get into a monthly payment.

And so I'd stay far away from that. There's also a lot of fraud in those services as well. Debt management is something I like a lot. We actually prefer a company called Christian Credit Counselors and basically they have they have pre-negotiated reduced interest rates with the credit card companies. It is a not for profit.

It is a registered credit counseling agency. So they all get the same rates. You'll pay one monthly payment for the life of the payback. It won't decline with the balances. But with that reduced interest rate and with the consistent monthly payment, you should be able to pay that back 80 percent faster.

These are believers, Dwight, who would be delighted to work with you. And they'll also get you set up on a budget as a part of that. Make sure you can afford it. So I'd give them a call and just compare that as you check it out. You'll find them on the line at Christian Credit Counselors dot org.

But I would stay far from the debt settlement. Dwight, thank you very much. Wish you the best with that. Down to South Florida now. And Tanya, we appreciate your phone call today.

What's your situation? Yes, ma'am. Can you hear me? We sure can.

Go right ahead. Thanks for taking my call. My husband passed away recently, three weeks ago. Well, going through some of the things that he had and we have I have a lease on my name. It will be until November of next year. And he had purchased recently a car and I cosigned for the car. He still owes around twelve thousand dollars and they will only give around seven thousand dollars. So I'm trying to decide what would be the best thing to do.

Yeah. Well, Tanya, first of all, let me just tell you how sorry I am to hear about your husband's passing. We'll certainly be praying for you and ask our Money Wise Live community to do the same. Ask the Lord to be near to you during this season. I know that's got to be incredibly difficult, not to mention the financial implications of that as you sort through all this. I hope someone is able to walk alongside with you. And if you haven't asked for a family member or a close friend, perhaps someone from church to help you navigate all of these decisions, I'd encourage you to do that. Ask the Lord to send just the right person as you pray and think through that. The first thing I would always do is call the leasing company if you haven't already to see if a death qualifies for an early termination.

I realize you cosigned. It may not. But even if it's not in the contract, they may be willing to make a deal. Another possibility would be to ask for the payoff and buy out the amount of the vehicle. You may be able to purchase it to end the lease or arrange someone else to buy it.

But I realize if you're upside down, that's going to be challenging in the sense that you owe more than it's worth. The option of returning it is really a last resort because of the penalties, the early termination plus the remaining depreciation. Again, ask if they'd be willing to work with you given the circumstances.

I think the best option is if they won't work with you on an early termination and giving you some concessions, can you just continue to make the payments until it's done? But this is where I'd be talking to your local church to see if they could help and certainly make the case to the leasing company. And we'll be praying that God will give you some wisdom here. Yeah, Tonya, if you have adult children or again someone in your church that might be able to hold your hand through this process, that would be all important.

Thank you for calling. We wish you the best more money wise 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 the 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.

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That's moodyjobs.org. God cares a great deal more about our money than most of us imagine. In fact, Jesus says more about our use of money and possessions than about anything else, including both heaven and hell. In Managing God's Money, author Randy Alcorn breaks it all down in a simple, easy-to-follow format that makes it the perfect reference tool if you're interested in gaining a solid biblical understanding of money, possessions and eternity. Managing God's Money is available when you click the Store button at moneywiselive.org.

With SRN News, I'm John Scott. House Republicans say no to a Democratic bid to pass President Trump's end-of-session demand for $2,000 direct payments to most Americans. Some Republicans had voiced their potential support for the $2,000 payments, but only if the money is offset by cuts to wasteful spending they see in the $2.3 trillion bill.

California becomes the first state to record 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases. Britain and the European Union have struck a free trade agreement that should avert New Year's chaos for cross-border commerce and bring a measure of certainty to businesses after years of Brexit turmoil. Now comes the race to approve and ratify the deal before the UK leaves the EU's economic structures on January 1. Stocks closing slightly higher. The Dow gained 70 points.

The NASDAQ was up 33. This is SRN News. We appreciate you being with us today.

It's MoneyWise Live in case you're just checking in. Rob West taking your calls and questions today. I'm Steve Moore. However, today's program is pre-recorded, so I misspoke there. We're not really taking your questions today, but almost any other day, so give that some consideration and then give us a call back when we're actually here live.

Let's go to Kokomo, Indiana. Byron, how can we help you, sir? Hey, thanks for taking my call today.

You bet. I had a situation where there was some fraudulent activity or attempted fraudulent activity on a major credit card. Someone had tried to make, actually, they did make a small payment by phone one day, and then the next day they tried to refund the last couple of full payments I made. It's a credit card I use quite a bit, but I pay the balance off every month. The credit card caught that, all straightened out.

I got a new fame account, but new credit card, so that's taken care of. A few days later, I've got a debit card in the mail from one of these non-traditional type of accounts, you know, like one of those pay cards or something. So I understand that I can check a credit report to find out if someone opens new accounts where there's a debt, you know, like some kind of loan or where I'm obligated to pay. Is there a way to find out if someone's trying to open up banking accounts and items like that?

Yeah, it's a good question. You know, when you open a credit, excuse me, when you open a bank account like a checking account, banks generally don't check your credit when opening an account. They will generally run something called a checks systems report. It's like a credit report for banks, and that's where they'll find previous banking problems, like if you've had frequent overdraft fees or bounced checks or fraud or negative balances. And so that's where they get that.

So you could check to see. I'm not exactly sure whether you can get a consumer version of that. I don't think you can, actually. But in either case, you know, the credit report is not going to do you a whole lot when it comes to banking accounts. Now, it doesn't mean, though, given what you've experienced, Byron, that you shouldn't go ahead and pull a copy of your credit reports to review them to make sure other accounts haven't been opened, because what we would commonly see is if your information has been compromised, these fraudsters would tend to open credit accounts to be able to charge in your name, and that would show up. And to combat that, I would, given what you've experienced, probably go ahead and put a credit freeze on each of your three credit bureau reports. And so what you do is contact Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Tell them you want to put a credit freeze on.

There's no cost to that as of September of last year. And you'll have a four-digit PIN number that will be required to be furnished any time an account is open in your name. It's going to create a little more hassle for you if you open an account, but it'll prevent somebody from opening an account fraudulently because they won't be able to access the credit report, the lender won't, and they will be stopped in their tracks without that PIN number. But in terms of the banking information, I'm not sure there's a whole lot you can do there. You could Google check systems just to see if there's a consumer version of that. But at the end of the day, I would just stay on top of your information and continue to check that credit report regularly. You know, if you feel like there's a potential problem, you could add one of the monitoring services. I don't generally recommend them unless you have reason to believe that your information has been recently compromised and accounts are attempting to be opened in your name. So hopefully that's helpful to you.

I'm sorry to hear you're going through this and hopefully you'll get on the other side of it. And if Byron wants to check out Check Systems, that's the one spelled C-H-E-X, is that correct? That's correct.

Yep. All right. Byron, God bless your brother. Thank you very much for contacting us today.

Out to Indiana. John, what's on your mind, sir? Hey, good afternoon guys.

Thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir. All right.

I have a bonus coming at the end of the year and I asked my employer to allocate 50% towards my 401k and I was told that they can't do that. Yeah. I'm just wondering if that, is there something weird about that or? Yeah. Well, are you already contributing the max amount currently? I'm contributing 15% gross.

Okay. Yeah, it could be. I mean, obviously you can't make a lump sum contribution, but you can change your allocation in terms of your contributions. And so they, you know, depending on who your custodian is and what's permitted there, you could perhaps use the bonus as a regular part of your budget in the coming year and just increase your contributions moving forward, which would be kind of a roundabout way to do it. But they generally will not do kind of a one time increase of contributions just because of the way 401ks are set up.

So I would go back to them and find out what options you have. Are they able to increase it one time for you in the month of December? Still as a salary deferral, but where they would take a larger amount out in this month and then next year revert back to what you had been putting away? Or if not, could you again take that bonus, you know, use that over the next, let's say, six months or so and or even 12 months and then in direct proportion to that amount that you would be adding to your budget out of savings, have them increase the contributions for next year going into your 401k. Obviously, subject to the contribution limits for 2021, which for a 401k is going to be a $19,500 unless you're over the age of 50. Does that all make sense?

Yeah, it does. I just didn't want to have to give the, pay the extra tax on it, it would be a significant bonus and a significant amount would then go to taxes. Sure, sure. Well, obviously you're already putting in a healthy amount and they can only put in so much for the year, but if at 15% you're still not hitting that contribution limit, I think it'd be worth asking whether they can do a one time increase in the salary deferral for the month of December commensurate to at least what it would take to push you up to the limit that's available to you and then the rest you could spread out over next year. I certainly understand why you'd want to do it. I guess let me throw one other option at you. What about opening an IRA and making a contribution for this year to an IRA, which would allow for a deduction when you file your 2020 taxes?

You know, that's very, I'm glad you brought that up. I do have a Roth IRA already opened. I'm wondering if I could possibly have them redirect the money to that. Well, no, it would come to you and keep in mind with the Roth, you're not going to get the tax benefit on the front end, you're going to get the tax free growth. So you would take it, recognize the bonus as income and then you'd make the contribution to the Roth after tax and then you'd get tax free growth moving forward. But what you could do, John, is open a traditional IRA and then make a 2020 contribution, which you can do all the way until you file your 2020 return of up to $6,000 if you're over age $57,000 and then you would get a deduction. So even though you'd recognize it as income, you'd get the deduction when you file your taxes. So you may want to think about opening a new traditional IRA. John, thank you very much.

We have to hit a break. You're listening to MoneyWise Live. It sounds like you need the MoneyWise app. It's a free app that will help you find those answers and more.

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This is Barry McGuire. I'm a car guy here to help you understand God's purpose for your life through the eyes of a layman. Almost every Christian is gone on a mission trip or is planning to go on a mission trip in the future.

It's the thing to do. The problem is that most mission trips are more like sightseeing trips and mission trips, opportunities to get your hands dirty, actually share the word of God with people who are becoming almost nonexistent. While your heart may be touched and your generosity increased, individual lives are seldom changed during the course of most mission trips. And even when your mission trip is a missions trip, the joy brought you and the lessons learned fade with time as you hunger to do it again. But when you make every day of your life a missions trip, every day becomes an adventure and the fun never stops as you live every day in the joy of leading people to Jesus.

Your job is to ignite revival outside the walls of your church by moving everyone every day closer to Jesus. For help doing that, go to ROTW.com Bring it today in the Word.org More at moodypublishers.com This is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded. Thanks so much for being with us today and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of the program.

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Minneapolis, hey Julie, what's on your mind today? Well, I'll be retiring in about 14 months from teaching and I'm eligible for my pension at that time at about 57 and a half. And I'm wondering, I have heard recently that my Social Security will be impacted by my pension.

First of all, how do those two interact and how does one affect the other? And also, does it make sense to front load my pension so that I can, so that it doesn't affect my Social Security so significantly in about 10 years when I look at Social Security? Yeah, it's a good question and public and private pensions are actually handled differently with regard to how Social Security is impacted. Generally, speaking with a private pension, you won't see the impact but with a public pension, you often will because you don't have to pay into the Social Security system through payroll taxes or at least many public employees don't. So, they often have money withheld that goes to private funding for the public pensions that they receive and therefore, it does affect Social Security as you begin to receive that. Have you spent any time with Social Security talking about what you can expect and talking through this?

No, not yet. Okay, alright. I would do that. I think you'll find them to be very helpful and reasonable. You can make an appointment in your area to go through your specific situation, what you can expect, the pension you're about to receive and how that will impact it and then what options you have to minimize that impact over time rather than trying to get into the details of that right now, not having a lot of the information. I think that's going to be your best option here. So, just go to the Social Security website, schedule that meeting and I think you'll get some great information. Then, you can use that to plan for it and then after you talk to them, if you want to give us a call back, I'd love to weigh in at that point.

Sounds good. Thank you. Okay, Julie. Thanks for calling.

Thanks, Julie. And that's important to remember, isn't it, Rob, that there's a big difference from Social Security's perspective. There's a big difference between a public pension and a private pension. Well, that's exactly right because often with the private pension, you're still paying into Social Security out of your payroll tax and so you would be entitled to both.

But with that public pension, you will generally see a reduction commensurate to what you're taking there and it does make an impact for sure. Yeah, interesting. Thanks. All right.

Stuart, Florida. Irene, what's your question today for Rob West? Yes, I've just recently been helping my dad write checks for his bills from my mom and dad and I've noticed that they are over $100,000 in credit card debt and I don't have a power of attorney or anything like that and I was just wondering what a good first step would be to try to help them. Yeah. Irene, you said you've taken over your parents' finances. You don't have the power of attorney but your mom and dad have let you step in and begin to make some decisions for them or with them?

I write out the checks and then my dad signs them. Okay. And have you called this to his attention?

Have you all talked about what you've seen here in the credit card debt? Yes. Okay. How has that gone? What conversations have you had about what's currently happening? I'm pretty much ignoring it and just saying that it'll just take care of itself. Yeah.

Okay. Are the credit cards currently being paid? Are the minimum payments being paid?

And are they current? We were trying to pay the minimum payments but over the last six months, I've just been sending $100 a month to five different credit cards. Yeah. Okay.

All right. What I would recommend to start with is that you contact our friends at Christian Credit Counselors. You can find them online christiancreditcounselors.org. What they'll help you do is work through a budget for your mom and dad to get that on paper, which you're going to need no matter what you do. And then they'll be able to analyze each of the debts, figure out exactly what's owed, what are the current interest rates, and is there a way after the accounts are canceled, and that's what will happen when it goes into debt management, is there a way that you could get them onto a payment plan with dramatically reduced interest rates that's going to allow them to pay this money back? Is there a good income stream that if there was a payment that was agreed to, that there's a possibility that they could keep that up for the foreseeable future? They are both on Social Security, and their monthly income is about $3,300 a month.

Okay. And do they spend most of that on fixed expenses before the credit cards? How much is left over after the credit cards?

I mean, before the credit cards, excuse me. Maybe $500. Okay.

All right. Yeah, we're probably going to be significantly short. I mean, I would expect that payment is going to be around 2%.

So that put it around $2,000. So let's start with Christian credit counselors, get their counsel on where we need to go from here. And then at that point, they'll probably need to talk to an attorney just to find out what needs to happen there. Has anybody pursued a judgment of any kind?

Has there been any legal notices that have come their way? No. Okay. All right. Well, you want to get ahead of this.

I'm glad you're involved. And I think if you start with the folks at Christian credit counselors, they can give you some counsel. And then let us know how that turns out. And perhaps the next step is to talk to an attorney and get somebody involved just to provide some protection. This is unsecured debt, but these creditors will go after judgments at some point if there's not a payment agreed to. And it doesn't sound like there's enough money there to cover what would be needed in the debt management program.

But go to christiancreditcounselors.org. Let's see what they come back with. And then we'll talk about where we go from there. Irene, we appreciate your call today. We appreciate the fact that you're there and helping out. I know this is a tough one. Know it well. And we'll be praying with you and your family members over this. Thanks very much. One more. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Samantha, what's on your mind?

Hi. My son is 35 years old. I took out a student loan for him when he was in college. He's been underemployed the whole time for he can't pay it back. What I was wondering is I have about seventy one thousand dollars in a investment. Neutral fund.

Socks, I think. And but I was wondering, would it be a good idea to take that seventy one thousand, pay off his student loan, which would leave me about thirteen thousand left, and then just throw maybe like twenty five hundred dollars a month at that to make it go away now? Yeah. So this is your son's student loan. What is his age?

OK, he's thirty five. I signed for the loan. I teach. But I cannot do the debt forgiveness part of it because I was not the one who used it for education.

So I have to pay off the whole debt. OK. And is he working now, Samantha? He's underemployed.

He always has been. Yeah, I guess I'm just hesitant for you. I mean, I suspect this is a significant part of your retirement, is it not? Well, I am retired from the military and I also teach school right now. I don't do our investment here at school because the only thing they're offering us at Broward County is annuities, which is like insane. So I just invest on my own. Like I said, I have a retirement from military and also I get the one from the school board.

I'm 60. I'm retiring in two years. So I have I'll have money to live on and live comfortable. But I was thinking if I take and pay off that student loan, that's that little you know, I don't have that cloud over me the rest of my life, especially as I'm going into retirement.

Yeah. And I can certainly appreciate that. And I realize that because you have co-signed here, you are responsible as he is for this debt. And in the event he did not pay, you don't want to allow that to damage your credit, not to mention just the obligation and the commitment you have here. At the same time, the reason I'm hesitant here and I appreciate that you manage your finances in such a way that you have money to live on and your expenses are covered. I'm just hesitant from a teaching standpoint for him, for you to just let him off the hook. You know, this is a responsibility he took on. You were willing to co-sign and we won't get into whether you should have done that or not. I think the point is, how can you come alongside him to develop a spending plan to let him know that this was his obligation?

Perhaps you're willing to help. Maybe you offer to match what he puts in to pay it off. So every thousand dollars he pays, you'll pay a thousand again if you're willing to do that. But for you to just come in and wipe it out and he doesn't have to think about it again, especially if he's not been making wise decisions on pursuing working opportunities to cover his expenses. I just feel like that's not going to set him up for success down the road because perhaps we're sending the message that life just doesn't work that way.

That if we don't live up to our obligations, somebody will step in and take care of it. And I don't think that's in his best interest. He's had a string of bad luck. I mean, he's trying.

It's not that he's not trying. He's a God-fearing man. He works with his church. It's just like I keep telling him, God has a plan for him and I think that's why he's not being employed as he should.

He has a degree in accounting. But the thing is, when I retire in two years, I would like to have that debt taken care of. I mean, he's never been able to make any payments on it.

I mean, I've been helping them out, you know, as far as their family goes. So it's not like he has money to put on it. So if I have this money available now and I'm still working full time, wouldn't it be wise of me to just make this debt go away before I retire? Now I'm not trying to take care of at large at $86,000 debt on a fixed income.

Yeah, no, I get it. But if you've got this money to pull from to pay it off, why don't you just systematically pull from it and see if he wouldn't be willing to match you along the way? Perhaps it's time to show some tough love. If you decide you don't want to do that because you're obligated and you would want to take care of it, you could certainly do that and this would be the place to pull the funds.

I just wouldn't jump to that conclusion. Hey, we're out of time, but thank you so much for your call, Samantha. Samantha, thanks so very much. Speaking of tough love, that's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. Working with this guy is something else, but there's a lot of love as well as toughness there. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks for listening. Join us again tomorrow.