Do You Have a Health Care Directive?

It's a subject not many of us like to think about. How will our final days play out and what happens to our earthly possessions when we've gone home to the Lord? Estate planning answers some of those questions, but not all of them. Bills and trusts are important components of estate planning, but they only go so far.

They apply only to your assets, not you. First up today, financial planner and teacher Rob West explains why you also need a health care directive. Now, today's program is prerecorded, so please hold your calls for another time, another day. I'm Steve Moore.

Really happy to have you along for today's edition of MoneyWise Live. Well, Rob, health care directive seems like a fairly new term, but if everybody needs one, why are we just hearing about this now? Yeah. Well, the term may be relatively new, but the concept is certainly not. A health care directive, Steve, is also called a living will.

You might hear it as a medical directive or even a durable health care power of attorney, although sometimes the medical power of attorney is a separate document. Hmm. Okay. Now, you said living will.

I have heard of living trust. Those aren't the same things, are they? That's correct.

Very different. Okay. All right. But, well, why do we need one then? And we'll get back to the trust in a bit.

All righty. A health care directive, Steve, is a legal document that spells out the individual's wishes for care during illness, as you said at the top of the program, and especially during the unfortunate event of dementia. It also specifies end-of-life decisions. The purpose is really to give guidance if the individual can no longer communicate with caregivers and family. Ultimately, it can provide instructions on how the body should be handled after death. So, it's a very important document that can, frankly, be a real blessing to your family because it takes all of the guesswork out of end-of-life decisions. Yeah.

And that would be a blessing. Too often, family members disagree in whether various treatments should be continued or not. A health care directive spells out your exact wishes so you can avoid any confusion during this already difficult time.

Well, that's exactly right. So, it's a little surprising then that only about one out of three of us have drawn up a health care directive. It's not an expensive process. Most states, attorney generals, websites offer a legal form you can use. Processing one of those forms costs $50 or less.

You can have an attorney draw one up for about $250 to maybe $500. But even at that price, of course, it's well worth it in my view. When you consider all the trouble, it will save your surviving family members. Yeah. Okay. Maybe we can talk through this process a bit.

And maybe if we do, it'll encourage more folks to do it. So, where do we start? Okay. Well, the first thing you need to do is choose your agent. This person is often a family member but doesn't necessarily have to be. The agent will, of course, act on your behalf making decisions according to your wishes if you can't act yourself. So, for example, your agent will speak for you in deciding whether treatment should be continued or if you should simply be made comfortable with hospice care during your final days. In most cases, the spouse is chosen as agent followed by other family members if the spouse is unable to fulfill that role. But sometimes a friend is chosen as the agent and, of course, that can work as well. All right. So, let's say I've decided on my agent. What's next?

Yeah. Assuming that you've already drawn up the directive specifying your wishes for end-of-life treatment and what should happen with your body afterward, then you need to go over it in detail with your chosen agent. This is your chance to explain your decisions should the agent need to step in and advocate on your behalf. And the agent's role continues after your death to make sure your postmortem wishes are carried out. That would include things like funeral arrangements, organ donation and burial, cremation.

All of those things can be specified in your living will or healthcare directive and then overseen by your agent following your death. Okay. That's good. So, is that pretty much it then?

Not quite, actually. The idea behind all of this is to eliminate confusion and family conflict in your final days. Springing a living will and agent on unsuspecting family members would be counterproductive to that purpose. So, I would just encourage folks to communicate ahead of time with your family members about the healthcare directive and why you've made certain decisions. If your final wishes are made clear, I think it'll go a long way toward ensuring a smooth, conflict-free end-of-life process and of course that would be the goal.

And while estate planning in general and end-of-life choices and decisions in particular are uncomfortable to think about and plan for, it is something you'll have great peace about once you do it, right? Exactly right. All right. Great information. As always, you're listening to MoneyWise Live.

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Welcome to Money Wise Live. Rob West is your host. He's taking your calls, questions, and comments today at 800-525-7000. This is a program about God's wisdom for your money and your finances and we'd love to help you with that today if we can.

Let's begin by going to, let's see, Chicago, Illinois. Christina, nice to have you there and what's on your mind? Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to find out if the cost would be less to change the representative that you've already appointed in your living will and your health care directive. Is that something that you can do yourself or is there a less expensive way, you know, or is it just you have to have the city attorney about that?

Sure. You know, I think, Christina, it's always good to make sure any changes are done properly. And it's a time where you can actually review and perhaps update not only that document, but anything else that you might have. If you have a will, you want to make some changes or updates, any other legal documents as well. So I would probably have an attorney give it a once over. Of course, that shouldn't be, you know, anything that would involve a lot of time, so it shouldn't be expensive, especially with someone you've already been working with previously.

That should be a very fairly insignificant update. But I just think when it's when we're talking about dealing with legal documents and making sure things are in order and have been documented appropriately according to the state you're in and the changes that are being made, it's always good to get professional counsel. And so I'd recommend we have a relationship there with somebody, preferably who's a godly estate planning attorney and understands your values, of course, very competent. And then you can revisit with that person as things change, or at least every few years to make sure that everything is up to date and in force.

But I would probably opt, despite the fact there are a lot of online tools that can be helpful to you, just for me, I'd rather have a professional looking it over. It's a good question, though. And it does underscore this idea that we need to be revisiting these documents periodically to make sure they are current and accurate. And Christina, we appreciate you listening. Thanks for your call today.

Thanks, Christina. In fact, this is our Facebook question of the day. Again, we're taking calls on anything. But the Facebook question of the day is do you have a health care directive? A number of people have responded.

Connie says yes. Faith, health directives, wills and digitizing your pictures are the best gifts you can leave your family. And that's not something I've thought about. But as I look through old pictures and as my family grows into adulthood, you know, they're great blessings to have. So I guess that's a that's a good recommendation. Absolutely. Yeah.

Charlotte says my husband and I will soon have such as we send in the paperwork, setting up our trust. And Mary Lynn says, No, don't have one. Probably should. You're right.

You probably should. And as we said at the top of the program, one out of three people are all that do have them. And so she's in good company. However, I would say let's try to change that because this is an important piece of our estate plan. Yeah, it sure is. Okay.

Jacksonville, Florida. Thomas, how can we help you today, sir? Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Well, I have a question kind of around giving and what the difference is between sacrificial giving. A quick background is me and my wife through many blessings have have gotten about twenty two thousand dollars saved up and kind of been spitballing ideas on how to spend it. So I've also been kind of hearing about sacrificial giving. And it seems like up until this point, most of the giving that has been done has been, you know, kind of not it hasn't really been sacrificial, I guess. So I just kind of wanted to get your ideas on what sacrificial giving means and maybe should we look more into giving giving this money away or doing something different? Because we're kind of just kind of not really sure what to do with it.

Yeah. Well, I love the fact that you're thinking about being generous. Clearly, Thomas, we see through the Old and the New Testament that we are to be generous. We were created in the image of a generous God, really the ultimate giver, if you think about it. So we're hardwired for giving.

I like to say, you know, he gave us his son and so he modeled the ultimate generosity. Everything we have is ultimately his, which makes us a steward. And so we have an opportunity to be found faithful in taking his resources and using them in First Timothy we see for our enjoyment.

That's clearly one of the purposes. And so we should enjoy what God has entrusted to us. We're to provide. And so provision for our family should be part of that. We should be content, meaning that we need to live within God's provision, not outside of it, despite the fact that the world allows us to do that through debt.

And we should be holding everything loosely, which allows us to be generous. And that's actually really where true joy is found, as we allow the Lord to use us to take part of what he's entrusted to us and put it back into circulation in his economy, be a part of his work, join him where he's at work is where we all enjoy real blessing. And we see that not only bear out in our own lives and just the joy that comes from being generous, but we even see science back that up. I was just reading a study a couple of weeks ago about the physical impact on our bodies when we're generous and when we're grateful.

It's profound, but that's just echoing God's design. So how do you approach that in your life? Well, I think the key is to recognize that first of all, we want to give as we've been prospered. And that's what we see Jesus talking about, that we were blessed with much. And so out of that provision, we should be, I would say, systematic in our giving, meaning following the principle of the tithe, first fruits right off the top, we should give systematically.

And I think God's plan is the local church. So we should start there and support the work of the local church. But then we have the opportunity to give beyond that systematic, perhaps proportionate giving. That's where we begin to reorder our finances and find ways to do even more.

And oftentimes that comes out of the sheer joy and blessing of being a part of God's work and experiencing that. And we begin to make changes in our financial lives to say, okay, what if I dialed back my spending? What if I got out of debt?

What could be possible if I were to reorder my finances so I can do even more? And that's really where the sacrificial giving comes in. Ron Blue, the author, talks about the different levels of giving as the should give, meaning what we should give out of what God has prospered us. He talks about the could give, meaning if I make some changes, what could I do even now? And then what he calls the would give, which says, and if God blesses me over and above this, I'll do even more.

And he's almost anticipating that. So how does that apply in your life? Well, I think we need to follow biblical principles. So I would start by saying we need to have a spending plan and a budget that really says, here's how we're going to take what God has provided and allocated among provision, enjoyment, contentment, and make sure that we have our bills covered based on the lifestyle you feel like he's called you to. Beyond that, you should be, I believe, systematic in your giving. And then with excess or with money that you could create by making some changes, I think you have the opportunity to do even more. So I would start with that spending plan. I'd make sure you have some emergency savings, we say as a guideline, three to six months expenses, and then look for ways where you can advance your giving beyond that.

Tell me about this 20,000. Has it been earmarked for anything specific? Or is it truly over and above your emergency savings and really just available to be given even now?

Yeah, so it's over and above. Like I said, initially, we were maybe thinking about doing something to the house. But as I said, I heard more and more about this concept of sacrificial giving.

And, you know, we do do the tithe and, you know, we also set even as part of our spending plan, we do set aside extra monies on top of that for, you know, any needs that arise in the local church. So I was kind of just kind of keep praying about this. And I wasn't sure if maybe this is something that, you know, we can do something else with.

Well, I love the idea. And you certainly can't out give God. So I would really make this an adventure with you and your wife and take some time to continue to talk and pray about it and just ask the Lord to make it clear what he would have you to do. It sounds like this is clearly something that's been placed on your heart. And so I wouldn't let that pass. This may be an opportunity to say, you know what, despite what we thought the purpose of this money was, we're going to redirect that knowing that God can use this if we're faithful in following his leading in that.

So take some time, continue to talk and pray through it. But then if that's the direction you're going, I wouldn't hesitate to make that gift. And I'm confident that on the other side of that, you'll come back and say, you know what, that was one of the best decisions we've ever made. So this is going to be a lot of fun. I'd love for you to send you a book where you can explore this a little bit further.

It's called The Treasure Principle. It's by Randy Alcorn. If you stay on the line, we'll get your information, get that right out to you. Thomas, we're glad you called today. Stick around. Let's get some information from you.

And then we'll be back to speak with Frederick. He's filing his taxes this year for the first time as a minister, that and more when MoneyWise Live continues. 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.

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Lots of good information ahead. Let's go to Lakeland, Florida now. Frederick, you are a first-time pastor. We're filing as a first-time pastor this year, huh? Yes, that's correct. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. This year I'll file as a minister for the first time, and I don't know what to claim, and I just want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. By the way, I quit my secular job last year, and I remember I called you for some advice and gave me some advice. I'm glad I quit my job, because now I'm happy. I enjoy what I'm doing. I have more time for the Church and for my family as well.

I'm delighted to hear that, Frederick. Well, how can we help you today, specifically as it relates to filing your tax return? Yes, I want to know what can I claim. For example, that's what I'm doing for full time. I use my car for the work, and I want to know what can I claim and what I should not, because that's the first time I'm going to file as a preacher.

Sure. Well, you would generally be considered, in most cases, self-employed, and so you would obviously be able to exclude unreimbursed expenses as a minister. But the most common thing that you would have available to you that is not available to somebody else is the housing allowance. Ministers may exclude from their gross income a cash housing allowance paid or the rental value of a home provided in kind. Are you being paid a housing allowance from your church? No, no, I don't get that, and I have my own house. Okay, all right.

Well, that would be one of the unique opportunities for a minister. I think it's important to take a look, and perhaps for this first year, did you come previously from an employment situation where you earned W-2 income? Yes.

Okay. So I would recommend that you get a CPA to prepare your return, at least for this year, just so you can walk through. You know, any time you have a major change, Frederick, in your financial life, it's always good to make sure you're getting professional counsel so you have the opportunity to really ask some questions and take full advantage of the tax law in this case, just because this is not going to be your typical filing year.

And once you understand what's available to you, it'll become more simple moving forward. Is there a CPA in the church or somebody you've worked with in the past? Yes, there is somebody we normally use to file our tax, yeah.

Okay, very good. So I would start by connecting with that person just to walk through and make sure that if you do need to do quarterly filings, if you are considered self-employed that are not filings, but quarterly payments, that that's being done, that you understand what deductions are available to you, and you've structured everything properly, and that'll just be really helpful to you in this first year especially. But delighted to hear you've made this change and that you're serving the Lord in this way.

It sounds like he's really using you tremendously. If you have questions after you visit with your CPA, don't hesitate to give us a call back. And Frederick, if you don't mind, if you have a pencil or a pen handy, you can go, here's a website you could check out if you have a couple of minutes, thetaxadvisor.com, thetaxadvisor.com slash issues, and that will take you to back issues.

And I know they've had several articles in the past that may help you get your arms around this, in addition to what you'll find on the IRS's own website, which these days is pretty easy to understand, IRS.gov. And we're glad you called. Thanks very much. Parma, Ohio. Hello, Kathy. What's on your mind?

Hi. Hey, I recently visited my credit union, and I was told that I'm meeting all the requirements to get 2% interest on my checking account if I would just use my debit card 20 times a month. And it was recommended to transfer everything from savings into checking, because that's the only one that's eligible.

Savings is the normal.000 interest. So normally I use my credit card and get rewards. So this month I did make the switchover, but I'm nervous having all my eggs in one basket, my savings and checking all in now one account, and having that something that's accessible. The person at the credit union told me there's no more risk doing this than there is using a credit card.

Yeah, Kathy, you know, I don't have a problem with debit cards. In fact, I like the idea that you can only spend up to what's available in your balance in the account. Where they will be a bit more challenging is related specifically to fraud cases. You're only responsible for up to $50 of unauthorized transactions, but that's only if you report it within two days.

If it's not within two days, it could go up to $500. And then beyond that, you have to, in some cases, you'll have unlimited damage. But also you have the kind of just the hassle of the money being out of your account. And now if you're paying systematically, things are bouncing and there could be expenses associated with it, as opposed to a credit card where you're not liable for those charges and the money isn't coming out of the account.

So those would be the main differences. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back. When it comes to investing guidance, you want advice grounded in God's word. That's the approach offered by Sound Mind Investing. SMI has helped tens of thousands of Christians acquire investing wisdom and confidence. Regardless of your investing experience or how much you have to invest, you can learn to be a wise and faithful steward in the area of investing. A short video webinar on profit and peace of mind is available now at soundmindinvesting.org.

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You'll find it all in Master Your Money by Ron Blue, available when you click the store button at moneywiselive.org. With SRN News, I'm John Scott. The death of Louisiana's newest Republican member of the U.S. House from complications related to COVID-19 stunned the state's political circles and offered the latest brutal reminder of the risk of the coronavirus. Luke Ledlow passed away on Tuesday. He was 41. The new coronavirus variant has been found in a Colorado man, a member of the National Guard that has triggered a host of questions about how the first reported U.S. case of the new version showed up in Colorado.

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The NASDAQ was up 19 in the S&P 500 ahead five. This is SRN News. Here at Money Wise Live, we do our best to remind ourselves and remember that God owns it all. If you kind of start there, the rest of it makes a whole lot of sense and those pieces to the puzzle start to fit together just a bit easier. 800-525-7000 up to the Toledo, Ohio area. And Lee, what's your question for Rob?

Hi, thanks for taking and having me on the air today. My financial advisor is pretty convinced that I'll come ahead, come out ahead if I go ahead and get a mortgage instead of saving the full amount to buy a home. And he also says it would be unwise to drop that kind of money into a home and basically have all my eggs in one basket. He's really encouraging me just to get the mortgage and I'd rather not.

I was wondering what you guys thought about that. Similarly, tell me a little bit about your financial situation in terms of is this you're coming out of one home and into another or have you been renting previously? I am renting right now. It'd be my first home purchase.

Okay, great. And then give me a sense of what you have in the way of savings. Right now I have a little over $70,000. Okay. And then is that separate from any long-term savings you're doing for let's say retirement? It is.

I just started a simple IRA but I'm hardly contributing. I wanted to save for the house first. Okay. All right. Very good. And what did you say your age was?

I'm 20 right now and I'm not married so I'm not really in a hurry. Okay. Very good. And in terms of any debt that you have, do you have anything at all that you owe?

I have no debt. Great. And what were you looking to spend on this home?

Probably $140,000 to $160,000. Okay. All right. And so the question is, what he's encouraging you to do is to continue to rent and delay the purchase until you can or what you'd like to do is delay the purchase until you can buy with cash? Yeah.

Okay. And he's saying, no, go ahead and get a mortgage. Tell me about that desire to remain completely debt-free and continue renting. Is that just a conviction you have? Is that something you feel like the Lord's leading you to do? Is it just you just don't want to have debt? And I can certainly understand that but I'm just curious about your desire to really own this free and clear from the very beginning. Well, I'm convicted of it and I like to think of debt as a last-case scenario.

I mean, the Bible doesn't say it's a sin but it advises a lot against it. And if I don't have to, I'd rather not. Yeah. Yeah.

Very good. Well, I certainly wouldn't take issue with that, Lee. We don't see much good in the Bible regarding debt. In fact, it's all just about a warning, every area we see a debt mentioned.

So there's not a lot good that comes out of it. I think, to your point, it's not a sin, especially when we're doing it for, I think, a productive purpose in the sense that we're borrowing with the ability to repay, in the sense that we are not presuming on the future. And with a home purchase, that would look like putting a significant amount down so that the value of the home could be realized if it was sold to pay off the debt. So it's fully collateralized even in the event of a significant downturn. And you add to that the fact that in most economies, the home should be appreciating over time. So we're borrowing for something that's not depreciating but appreciating.

Now what I would do, though, if I had a conviction about this, and I think we all need to approach our financial decisions that way and really pray through them, and if we feel like or have a conviction about remaining completely debt-free, then I would set all that aside and say, you need to go for that. And I wouldn't take any issue with that whatsoever. Now, what are the implications of that? Well, it probably means you're going to have to wait a little bit longer than you might otherwise to buy the house. Sounds like you're okay with that.

Great. Secondly, it may mean that you're not able to save as much early for your retirement savings. And just recognize that the power of compounding works over time most effectively. And so you're giving up a little bit of that compounding effect. But again, if you really have that conviction about being debt-free, I wouldn't think twice about that.

God is bigger than all of that. And if that's something He's really laid on your heart, then I would say you absolutely go for that. So I don't take any issue with this whatsoever. And the fact that, you know, an investment professional could make the case on paper for you to do better over time with certain assumptions saying, well, if you were to take the same amount of money and invest it over 30 years, and if the market does this or that, then that's going to come out better than you getting a low interest rate mortgage now.

You know, that would be legitimate, and he or she could make a case for that on paper. But I don't think that factors in, A, the peace of mind that you get by remaining debt-free, and B, honoring the convictions that you have, which I think really would be preeminent in this situation. So at the end of the day, I would go with really whatever direction you feel like the Lord is leading you. Does that make sense?

No, it does. Do you have any idea how long would be too long to wait and save? Well, you know, no, there's not a right or wrong answer there. Again, I think you just have to recognize there's tradeoffs. We have limited resources, and so every decision has a corresponding effect on the rest of our financial lives. So the extent to which we're maximizing our savings means that's money that's being put aside that can't be used for another purpose, like giving in the short-term, like investing for the long-term, like using in your lifestyle, things like that. So that's where we need to develop God-given goals, and we need to sit down and ask, what do I feel like God is calling me to, starting with my lifestyle, which is going to dictate how much you spend in your budget each month. And then beyond that, what are the goals you have for both short-term and long-term savings?

Longer-term for the house, longer-term for things like retirement, and then of course you need to put the giving goals in there as well, and then try to find a balance between all of it. And that's really where I think you have to exercise some faith and just understand the tradeoffs that you're making anytime you make these decisions. So I would say give it some significant prayer and thought, and then see where you land, and if we can help along the way, don't hesitate to reach back out to us.

Lee, we're glad that you called today. We wish you the best as you work through this, and it's a great question you've asked and something worth serious consideration. So Rob, my question would be, obviously it's a good thing that he's meeting with a financial planner, someone who can walk him through and help him think through these kinds of things, but what if you get a sense at some point, and I'm not saying he's there, but what if you get a sense at some point that you and the person who's managing your finances just aren't on the same wavelength, or you may disagree with this person?

When is it time to maybe start looking for someone else, or am I suggesting you pull the trigger too quickly? Yeah, you know, I think it's just like working with any professional, Steve. There needs to be really a relationship that's productive, where there's a meeting of the minds, where you have a good rapport, there's a good flow of communication, there's a high level of trust, you know, whether it's somebody who's performing a surgery on you or somebody who's managing God's money that's been entrusted to you and helping you make decisions.

And so I think if at any point there's either something that you don't feel like there's alignment that's values oriented or conviction oriented, where a professional can't be supportive of the decisions you're being led to make, then I would use that as serious cause to think about perhaps there's somebody else that would be a better fit, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. All right. You're listening to MoneyWise Live.

He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. It's a pleasure to have you joining us today.

We're going to pause for a brief break, but don't go away. Do you feel like your hands are tied with debt, preventing you from serving God? If you have credit card debt, Christian credit counselors can help. Through our debt management program we can get you out of credit card debt about 80% faster while honoring your debt in full. For more information on how Christian credit counselors can help, visit christiancreditcounselors.org.

That's christiancreditcounselors.org, or call 800-557-1985, 800-557-1985. Money and life run on the same track, but unfortunately sometimes it seems like your money is heading in a different direction from your goals. In Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment, author Ron Blue helps you to break down all your financial options to a basic four, and then shows you how to keep it all chugging along in the right direction on the same track.

Never Enough, Three Keys to Financial Contentment, available when you click the store button at moneywiselive.org. 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. Every time you say thank you or goodbye without adding the words, God bless you, it's a wasted opportunity to move that person closer to Jesus. It may make you feel good, lift their spirits, and leave them thinking you're a really nice person, but that's it. Being nice is not redemptive. There are millions of unsaved people who are nice to people, some because they're nice people. Christians haven't cornered the market of being nice. In fact, there are unsaved people who are nicer than most Christians. But every time you add God bless you to your thank yous and goodbyes, people know you're a nice person because you're a Christian, and it gives the glory to God where it belongs. And every time you fail to do that, it's a missed opportunity to move people closer to Jesus. Your job is to ignite revival outside the walls of your church by moving everyone every day closer to Jesus.

If you need help doing that, go to ROTW.com. Authors Robert and Nancy Walgamuth have heard many life stories. They all point to the same God, whose hand we see in everything, so we can trust Him to write the story. It's encouragement you need to give God the control. And He's wanting our lives to be a written, living demonstration for our good and for His glory. You can trust God to write your story by Robert and Nancy Walgamuth.

Order your copy today at moodypublishers.com. How do you reach people who call themselves Christian but don't know Jesus? Find out by reading The Unsaved Christian. Dean Ansera was a cultural Christian. Today he pastors a thriving church, and he wrote this book to offer starting points that lead to deeper conversations. You'll be equipped to confront cultural Christianity and lovingly share the Gospel to the cultural Christians in your life. Cultural Christianity is a huge mission field in desperate need of missionaries.

Get your copy of The Unsaved Christian at moodypublishers.com. And to preserve the time here, let's go right back to our phone. Springfield, Illinois. Nancy's been holding a bid, and what's on your mind today, Nancy?

I thank you for taking my call, and I want to say I really enjoy your program every day. My question is, if something applies for a credit card, does that negatively affect their credit rating? Yeah, what you're talking about there is a credit inquiry, and credit inquiries, meaning a hard inquiry where you authorize a lender to review your credit for the purpose of considering whether or not to extend you credit, which would be exactly what's happening when you apply for a credit card. It does generally hurt your credit in the sense that it will reduce the score by several points. It shouldn't be significant unless there's several of them in a short period of time. But the credit scoring formula takes into account the fact that you're out looking for credit, which based on the algorithm says that you have a greater likelihood because you're out seeking credit, that you are a higher credit risk, even though that credit risk is just slightly higher, as evidenced by just a few points coming down.

So it's not something I would be concerned about. The main thing, Nancy, I would always be thinking about is, is this a good decision for me? Am I applying for any kind of debt for the right reason?

So in the case of a credit card, if you're opening a card that you plan to use for budgeted items, you plan to pay it off at the end of every month, hopefully there's not an annual fee, that's a legitimate use for a credit card. And if you have a temporary decline in your credit score by a few points or even 10 or 20 points for a short period of time, it'll come right back up. And that's just a function of what happens when we go through this. So I wouldn't let that stop you. I think the bigger issue is, is this a good decision for me and my financial life based on where I am right now and what's going on. Do you follow that though?

Yep, I do. And I'm actually calling for somebody else because they were at work, but they pay their current credit card off every month. They've never not done that. And this one, the one they're going to apply for has more perks to it. And there is a annual fee, but what's the amount of just the paying their bills and you know, the normal stuff that they charge, the point value exceeds the annual fee. So they did look at that to make sure that wasn't going to be an issue. Yeah.

And I would just say, be careful there and just make sure you do your homework. You can look at sites like NerdWallet and there's a number of other ones out there, bankrate.com that will give you ratings for all of these different cards. I prefer not to pay an annual fee. Just make sure you read the fine print and make sure the amount you charge on a monthly basis is in fact going to generate rewards that would get over and above that. So you just got to count the cost and then make sure that you're only using or they are only using this card for budgeted items so that it can in fact be paid off in full every month.

And the first month that doesn't happen, I'd cut it up and be done with it because it's not worth going into debt over. But at the end of the day, yeah, there's new cards all the time. They're getting very creative in terms of how they're offering these rewards.

So just make sure you do your homework and take advantage of some great resources online before you make any decisions. Speaking of credit cards, Rob, I received an emergency email today telling me that my Discover card has been compromised and that they have gone ahead and frozen my card. And if I ever wanted to get it back and use it again, that all I needed to do would be to contact them at a specific email address with all of my personal information and they would reenact my card. And you can't imagine how much better I felt after I did that or didn't do that.

I hope you did it. Is there anywhere in there that said that if you send a gift card, they'll call it even? No, no, no gift cards. Okay. All right. But I didn't I just didn't pursue it any further. I know you're saying that tongue in cheek. So let me just make sure our listening audience knows don't ever give out your personal information to someone who is calling you or emailing you unless you initiate that contact directly with your financial institution. And as you well, you may not know, but I mean, as an older person, I've never ever, ever, ever had a Discover card in my life.

So it just made the whole thing a little crazy, you know. All right. Well, let's move along here to Andrew, who's a younger person calling from Lakeland, Florida. Hi, Andrew. We're so glad you called today. How can we help, sir?

Hi. Well, my question for you was, well, essentially, sorry if it's on the earth, I know I've been on the air before, but fully my belief or faith in God really has been lacking or slowly going away lately. I still consider myself Catholic and like, you know, if I had kids, I would raise them Catholic.

I think I like the church and I like its teachings, but I don't know. I just I slowly stopped going to church mostly because, well, it was at the crack of dawn, it was like at five in the morning. I'm sorry. But. And I don't know, I mean, I still go on Easter and Christmas out of respect. Like, I don't know, I felt like my time Sunday morning could be spent like better elsewhere. I don't know.

Yeah. Well, Andrew, let me let me just tell you, I am so glad you called today and delighted to hear your bit of your story. You know, first of all, I think you need to recognize that that desire that you have, the sense that you have that that perhaps something is missing is a God sized space in your heart. And, you know, we were all created by our Savior, the Lord himself. And yet because of sin that entered the world, that relationship has been broken. And the opportunity that that were all presented, the free gift were given that, by the way, Andrew, we cannot earn ourselves, is that Jesus, our savior, came really to plug that hole, to fill the gap and restore that right relationship with our Heavenly Father, with God.

And he did that by dying on the cross. And that free gift, if we'll place our trust in Jesus Christ, allows that relationship to be restored so that we can be in fellowship with God and ultimately in heaven with him forever. And that's the opportunity we have. And you know what?

It's a personal relationship. If you think about a mountaintop and all of these religions of the world that say there are things we can do if God's at the top and we're standing at the base, there's all these things we can do to earn our way up to the top to meet with him and to be with him. And yet Christianity is the only one that says, you know what? He comes to us and he does that by the Lord, by God sending his son to us to die, to pay the penalties for our sin. And so when we accept that, then that allows us to be in fellowship with him. And then really, we want to be in fellowship with other people who are working on that relationship and really striving to get to know and grow in that relationship with the Lord by reading the word, the Bible, his word that he gave to us so we can know what's on his heart. We can know him more intimately by fellowshipping with other believers who also share that trust and faith in him.

And that's why we join a local church. So I'd love for you to do a couple of things. Number one, I'd love for you to go to a website to learn more about what I just described, and it's needhim.org. And I want you to learn a bit more about Jesus and understand what he's done for you and the hope that you can have when you place your trust in him and how that will change your life forever.

There's folks that would love to chat with you about that, explain things that you don't understand. And if you go to needhim.org, I think that would be a great starting point. The second thing I'd like for you to do is to get a Bible. And when we're done here today, if you don't have one, let our producers know that and we'll send you one. It'd be our gift to you. And I'd love for you just to start reading the book of John, the Gospel of John, and begin to acquaint yourself with the life of Jesus so you can understand a bit more about what happened when God sent him. And you can begin to read that account. And again, if you don't have that, we'll get it to you. And then I'd love to follow up with you and hear more about your story and see what God is doing in your life.

I'd also like thirdly for you to find a Bible-believing church in your area to explore this a bit more. And so would you be willing to do that, Andrew? Sure. Okay.

All right. Well, I want you to hold the line. We're going to get your information. Then I want you to go to needhim.org. And then I also want you to tell our producers if you have a Bible, and if not, we'll get that right out to you. And then we'll get your information as well, and I'll follow up with you. I'd love to ask you a lot more questions.

Unfortunately, the program is about over today, but I'm so grateful you called. Would you mind if I prayed for you before we let you go? Sure. Thank you.

All right. Father Andrew clearly wants to know you, and he has questions. He wants to be a good dad, Lord. But above all of that, Lord, we know that you came that we might have life and that ultimately we have a need for a Savior because sin has broken this fellowship that we have with you. We're all sinners, every one of us, Lord. And when we place our trust in you, we're just so thankful for the free gift of eternal life that you give to us.

There's nothing we could do to earn or deserve it. I pray that you would reveal yourself to Andrew even now in a really special way, Lord, that he would surrender his life to you, that you would make yourself known to him, and then he'd begin to grow in that relationship. So, Lord, we just ask that you'd send your Holy Spirit and we'd tell you today we love you and we're thankful for your son Jesus. And we ask all this in his name. Amen. Amen. Andrew, again, we are so glad that you called today. And that's such a good reminder, Rob, that, you know, we sit here day in and day out because God's given us this tremendous opportunity. But our bottom line is you can't take it with you. And yes, God wants us to be good managers of his stuff while we're here as a way, you know, as a ministry to those around us. But at the same time, when we get to heaven, I don't think God's going to ask to see our checkbook. It's all about faith and him and repentance and living the way God wants us to live. So, we have that wonderful opportunity and a great reminder today, huh?

That's exactly right. All right. Well, MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks so much for being there today. And thank you for your prayers that make this program possible. For Rob West, I'm Steve Moore. Have a great remainder of your day. Drive safely. Join us again next time for MoneyWise Live.