Biblical Generosity: How It’s Different from Philanthropy

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. In Luke 6, Jesus says, Give and it will be given to you. Good measure running over will be put into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. True biblical generosity abounds in blessing much more than just giving to a cause. Today host Rob West welcomes Jamie Kuyper of the National Christian Foundation to talk about giving according to scripture. Then it's your calls later on at 800-525-7000. Anything financial, 800-525-7000.

Biblical generosity, it's not philanthropy. That's next right here on Money Wise Live. I'm Steve Moore. Sitting across the virtual table is Rob West. And Rob, we've had many great guests from the National Christian Foundation on this program, but this is the first time Jamie Kuyper joins us.

He's an attorney and serves as president and general counsel for NCF's West Michigan office. Well, that's right, Steve. We know that Jamie and his team are doing the Lord's work, helping families and individuals across Western Michigan create giving strategies. And Jamie, welcome to the program. Thanks so much, Rob. Thanks, Steve. Glad to be here. Jamie, tell us a little bit more of what you and your team at NCF in Michigan do when you're, of course, not trying to stay warm this time of year.

Yep, yep. Staying warm definitely takes a little extra effort this time of year. But we, as you said, we help families develop giving strategies. As you guys do a great job of covering on this program, a lot of families have financial strategies, but often don't have a giving strategy to go alongside of that. And so they might miss some opportunities along the way, maybe overpay in taxes. And we help families develop giving strategies with a goal of them making the most of all they have available to give and hopefully ultimately enjoying the joy of greater generosity.

Yes. Well, and that's a big idea. You know, if we're going to have a strategy for our investments, why not have a strategy for our giving? That money is going to compound for all of eternity. And I know, Jamie, you have some principles of biblical generosity that really shows how this differs, the biblical generosity you're describing, how it differs from what the world calls philanthropy. Explain that for us.

Yeah. When I think of biblical generosity, I'm not thinking just of a kind act of one person to another, which is sort of what I would characterize philanthropy as, which is good in and of itself. But biblical generosity we view as a spiritual practice and its focus isn't just on doing good. It's focuses on advancing the kingdom of God and both advancing the kingdom of God in the life of people that are benefiting from the gift that's being given to them, but also advancing the kingdom of God in the heart of the giver and the transformational impact giving has on our heart, on our spirit as we seek to serve the Lord. Wow. What an incredible vision and something, Jamie, entirely different than what the world calls philanthropy.

That's powerful. We don't have time to get into them before the break, but I want you to set them up. You've identified there at NCF 10 principles of biblical generosity that you share with the folks you work with. And I'd love for you to begin to just frame them for us.

And then after the break, we'll unpack each of them. Yeah. So when we put these 10 principles together, the goal wasn't to unpack everything the Bible has to say about money, but to put together 10 principles that outline what we would maybe characterize as a story of change in the life of the giver, as they press deeper into the purpose that God has for their life. Certainly a lot of what the Bible has to say about money will trace back to these principles, but the focus of these is really on what kind of a journey is the giver supposed to be on in their relationship with the Lord as they give into his kingdom?

Yeah. And what I love about this, Jamie, is so often we think about generosity being all about the recipient, but just about everything you've described to this point is about what happens in the giver's life and heart as a result of the gift, right? It's one of the great joys of what I get to do, waking up every day concerned with the heart of the giver, every bit as much as I'm concerned with the good that's being done in the world. God is very interested in what's happening in our hearts. And if our giving isn't transforming us, we're missing a key part of the opportunity. When Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, he was probably thinking about both ends of that equation, and we'll unpack those principles just around the corner. Our giving transforms not only the life of the receiver, but also of the giver. Jamie Kuiper with us today, president of the Western Michigan chapter of the National Christian Foundation.

Your calls later on at 800-525-7000. Throughout the year, it's always our pleasure to speak with several different people from the National Christian Foundation, and today we have Jamie Kuiper with us, helping us understand how to effectively apply our giving, do our giving, according to God's will and God's principles as we walk through life, being concerned about these things. God doesn't just give us extra so that we can sock it away for ourselves, but more than likely he wants us to share that with others as a real ministry and a witness to who he is and what he's done in our lives.

Rob? Jamie, we're so thankful for our partnership with the National Christian Foundation and your work on these 10 principles of biblical generosity. I love this idea that God uses generosity in our lives to change us into the people he's created us to be, and that's really at the heart of these principles, just as much about what he's doing in the life of the giver as it is the recipient. Take a moment just to walk us through this narrative, if you will, that unpacks these principles.

Yeah, if somebody sat down with our Giving Strategy workbook, they'd find these 10 principles presented, numbered 1 through 10, and we're not ranking them in order of importance, but we're laying them out in a way that we believe tells a story, and that story goes something like this. We wake up every morning loved by a God that is good. This God owns everything, and as a consequence, he doesn't need anything from us, but he did create us for a very special purpose, and that purpose is to bear his image, to resemble him as much as we can in this world. When we live into that, Jesus is enough, our identity in him is enough for us, and God becomes our never-ending supply of all that we need to be who he made us to be. So our giving starts to take on an aspect of worship rather than simply obligation or duty, and the reason that those motives matter is because our hearts matter to God, much more than any amount of money we could give him. So what we're doing now is of eternal importance. We are in the process of being shaped into the kind of people we are going to be forever, and time is of the essence. This is a project that we can start anytime, but each day that passes is a day lost investing in the story he's trying to write in our life.

It's incredible and compelling. You know, I love this idea that you said, of course, giving is a form of worship, and God created us to bear his image. I like to say he's the ultimate giver, right?

He gave us his son that paid the ultimate penalty to reconcile us back to him. And when we give, we're an expression of that. And I think in many ways it calibrates our hearts to his. Has that been your experience as you've worked with givers over the years?

Absolutely. When we are purposeful in the way we approach these things, seeking his heart for the world, we can't help but be formed into his likeness as we engage these things. And, you know, I can think of several books that I've read on the topic of both worship of God and worship of idols. And frequently you'll run into the idea that we are shaped into the forms of the things that we worship. And when we worship God our Father, we can't help but be transformed into a generous likeness of him. You also said, Jamie, that giving really brings transformation.

Describe the transformation you have the privilege of witnessing day after day as you walk alongside these givers. Yeah, it can impact us in so many different ways. One of the most beautiful things is freedom.

When we start to view all that God has given us is opportunities to experience him and to know him better rather than to identify ourselves with or to find our security in our stuff. I think we're freer to deploy it into that purpose because we know that we're taking hold of something that's worth far more than what we're letting go of. And it has a way of freeing people from their stuff. And it doesn't mean they take a vow of poverty and give every nickel they have away, but they hold it differently.

And it has a way of breaking its hold on them. Jamie, earlier at the beginning of the program, you mentioned that one of the things you'd like to help people do is to find the joy of greater generosity. What does that mean? Because I would imagine most people that contact you are already generous people. So what's the joy of greater generosity all about? How does that manifest itself? I think it manifests itself the most richly when people realize that they are taking hold of something special. When giving becomes routine to the point of it being automatic, almost duty bound, it doesn't mean that God can't do anything good with that giving.

He can use it to touch his world in a lot of different ways. But when we recognize that God has made us for this purpose and we start to live into exactly what he made us to be, we become more fully alive. And there's joy that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. And so as we join his Spirit in the transformation of his creation, we can't help but become more joyful because we're becoming more of who he made us to be. Yeah. Amen. It's powerful. Jamie, I know one of the opportunities you have is to walk alongside not only individuals, but families who really have embraced this and been intentional on casting a vision for biblical generosity that goes beyond those that created the wealth and extends even into the next generation.

Describe what that has looked like. There's so many different ways that people can approach it. But I think the fundamental idea is to be purposeful about it, to not sweep conversations about giving or the resources we have available under the rug, but to look for ways that are age appropriate to engage our kids, to talk to them about it, to share the joy that we've found in our giving with them and to draw them into that life because it's who God made them to be as well.

Yes. Just a real practical example that my wife and I do each year around the season of Lent. We're going to be focusing on the sacrifice of Jesus for the redemption of the world. And one of our practices is with our kids who are our oldest is just 12.

Our youngest is seven. And each each Lent we pick a Sunday to talk about the sacrifice of Jesus, its purpose in healing our world. And then we ask them, what is something that is broken in God's world that you would like to join him in restoring? And then we give together to that and they can get some money out of their share boxes. And mom and dad match those gifts and we do it together. And it draws us together around his purposes and the way those are uniquely expressed in the lives of our children. And there's lots of different ways to explore, but it's a lot of fun. That's powerful.

Well, Jamie, we've just been able to scratch the surface today. What resources do you have for folks who want to go deeper into these principles? Well, a great one your listeners could tap into would be a brief devotional that you guys have generously allowed us to post on the site money wise dot org forward slash NCF.

And it will walk the listeners through those 10 principles with some supporting scripture that they can search out for themselves. Excellent. And I know you have 30 offices across the country and relationship managers like you who can work with givers in those markets and everywhere in between.

You'll find a link to those locations at money wise dot org slash NCF. Jamie, thanks for being here. Thanks so much, gentlemen.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Jamie. Your calls next at eight hundred five to five seven thousand on any financial topic.

Call eight hundred five to five seven thousand. This is Money Wise Live. Hey, great to have you with us today.

It's Money Wise Live with your host, Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. This is a program where we really begin right at the beginning, which is that God made it all.

God owns it all. And we just try to manage it well as stewards, as managers. And if we can help you do that, well, we'd love to try eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Rob, you want to jump in, sir? That sounds great, Steve. Absolutely. All right. All right. Let's go out to Illinois. Ishmael, nice to have you there, sir.

How can we help? Hi. How are you guys doing? Great. Thank you.

You, too. Yeah, I have. I'm going to try to to have a couple of questions. I'm going to try. My English is not perfect, but I listen to you guys program and I love it. I like it. It's a bless for me.

Thank you. And my first question is about investing in Robin Hood. I've been investing in Robin Hood in the last 18 months. So so you guys recommend I still I mean, I've been putting like over, I'm going to say a little over four thousand in the last 15, 18 months. But I mean, in the last in the last three months, I like.

Almost 10,000. So so I double I more than double my the what I've been investing. So it's a good thing because the way I do I've been buying stocks and selling like in like a week. I don't know if it's a good thing. I'm now I'm learning.

But I also want to when the owner got by doing this and what do you recommend? I'm sure. Sure. Well, I appreciate your question, Ishmael. And I can certainly understand where you're coming from.

And I think you're getting it kind of two sides of this. The first is what's a prudent and appropriate investment strategy? And we always look at those questions on this program through a biblical lens to start with.

What does God's word say about all of these issues? And then secondly, how do we take those principles found in scripture, Old and New Testament, the Council of Scripture, and then apply it to the practical everyday financial decisions we're making in the area of spending and giving and saving and investing and all of it. And you're asking about investing.

So we'll talk about that. And then specifically, what about the custodian Robin Hood, which has obviously gotten a lot of press lately as a result of what's going on with these folks from Reddit that are pushing up companies that have been really down for good reason based on their underlying fundamentals, but really moving into them to buy lots and lots of shares which had been inflating these particular companies. And that's resulted in Robin Hood having to put some restrictions on how many shares you can actually buy of certain companies. With regard to investing in general, clearly, we need to start with this idea, Ishmael, that you are managing God's money.

He is the owner, you're the manager. And so just like all of us, we need to be effective and faithful stewards of God's resources. The good news is he's given us 2300 verses in his word that tells us how we should go about that.

And so you need to be really exploring those. And when we're done here today, I'm going to ask you to hold on because I want to send you a book that will get you started on really understanding these principles. But when we understand that money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes and a part of that purpose is to provide for ourselves and also to save for the future and to be a conduit into God's activity through our giving, it begins to put money in the proper context because the way we use God's money really says what we value and where we placed our trust ultimately. Now, in addition to providing for ourselves and those who depend upon us, our family, we should be saving a portion for the future.

And that includes, I believe, investing. The parable of the talents would indicate that we should seek a return on God's money as long as we have the right time horizon and we're not taking unnecessary risk and we're not speculating hastily that we're steady plotters is a word or an idea that you'll see in God's word with a really a proper focus on long term investments. That should be how we approach our investments. And if we go to the Book of Ecclesiastes, we see that we should be diversified, which means we're not highly concentrated in a single company. We shouldn't put all of our eggs in one basket. We should spread our risk so that if something happens in the case of investing to one company, that's okay because we have many other investments. And when we're diversified, we reduce our risk and we have better long term performance. So when I go to your question, number one, should you be investing? Yes, I think that's a prudent use of God's money.

Assuming you're already giving and assuming you have your consumer debt under control, namely credit card debt, and assuming you have an emergency fund of at least fifteen hundred dollars, but I would say three to six months expenses, then, yeah, you should be investing for the future. But the concern I have is when you're buying individual stocks and you just own a few of them, you're considered highly concentrated. So your investments are at the risk of one particular company or a couple of companies.

I think that's really not wise based on the Council of Scripture. We need to be diversified, which means if you're just starting out, I would use a mutual fund or an exchange traded fund where you own a basket of investments, a number of investments, not just one company, especially not one company that's very volatile and moving incredible amounts on the upside and the downside, like some of those that have been in the news lately. With regard to the Reddit, not scheme, but the Reddit debacle, I guess I should say, and what's going on in the markets right now. So that would be my first advice is make sure you're investing for the right reasons. Make sure your financial foundation is shored up and make sure you're properly diversified.

Now, as to the custodian you can use, you mentioned Robinhood. It's been very popular with millennials and new investors because they offer free trades. And that's just part of what's happening in the fintech space as fees come down and investing becomes more accessible to everyone, which is a good thing. Now, why are they restricting access to some of these stocks? Well, the bottom line is, and this can get complicated quickly, the federal agencies that oversee all of this place certain restrictions on companies related to how much they need to have in the way of capital reserves. And so basically because of what's happened in the run up of these stocks, they needed more capital in order to be able to take the orders that many people were putting in, which just simply means they're still growing. And this huge run up has resulted in some folks having to crack down on them. And although they're lifting some of those restrictions, I think it does point to this idea that although you're protected against the loss of the company, I think you ought to be looking toward more tried and true names.

I would throw out TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab as a couple of those. So hope that helps you stay on the line. We're going to get your information and get a book that I think will be a real great resource for you. You're listening to MoneyWise Live on what we trust is your favorite Christian radio station. He's Rob West.

I'm Steve Moore. Rob, we were chatting with Ishmael just a few minutes ago. He wanted to know your assessment of, well, the Robin Hood situation, the GameStop thing on Wall Street.

It's kind of crazy, kind of wild to watch it. Any final thoughts in that regard as far as those of us who really want to invest and are wondering if that's legit? Yeah, absolutely. I would just say stay away from these high flyers that are getting swept up in a lot of emotional trading, which is never a good thing. Again, we want to be long term focused with a proper and prudent investment strategy. And that doesn't mean daily speculation, trying to buy in and see a price run up real quick and then jump out.

That's really more akin to gambling, I would say. You know, what we're seeing here in terms of the restrictions, it really just has to do with financial requirements that the SEC and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation places on these brokers, where they have to have a certain amount in reserves according to how much they have on money in play in the market. And those capital requirements have been increasing as a result of what's going on here, which has caused Robin Hood and others. And Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers all put restrictions on many of these names in the same way because of these financial requirements. And so it's not unexpected to see this. Now, the reason Robin Hood is getting so much blowback on this is because it's a popular platform with a lot of the Reddit users, which tend to be younger millennial type newer investors. And they don't like the fact that they're told they can't buy something because that's really part of this frenzy. So this will all blow over. I think at the end of the day, as long as it's a brokerage firm that has SIPC backing, which means that it's protected up to a half a million dollars against the brokerage firm failing.

Not your principal loss in your investments, but a failure of the firm, then I think it's safe to proceed. And again, I wouldn't want to be buying these restricted names anyway. Hmm.

Okay. So not a real big fan of these kinds of things. Lottery tickets. You okay with lottery tickets? I'd stay away from those as well.

Gasless engines, gasless engines, a diamond mines. No. Yeah, no, I'd throw all those in the same bucket and go the other direction. Well, you're no fun at all. Okay. 800-525-7000. Just joking. No emails, please.

Just joking. Barbara Chen, Ohio. Hello, Teresa. How can we help you? Hello.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. Well, I'm receiving my, I'm receiving a pension fund from my ex-husband and I do not have really any kind of retirement at all, except, you know, what you get when you're working for Medicare. And so I wonder what I could do with the $600 a month I'm going to get to save for retirement.

What would be the best thing I could do with this $600 a month investing in retirement? Sure. Sure. So, Teresa, let's just kind of back up and talk about where you stand financially right now. Because what I would do is look at this as just part of your increase, the overall provision that you have on a monthly basis and then think about in total with whatever you have coming in. How is the best way to allocate those resources to cover your needs and move you in the right direction, which includes paying down debt and saving for the future.

So I would always be reevaluating in total God's provision in your life. Do you have any credit card debt to speak of? Nothing. Okay, great. Do you have an emergency fund, some reserve savings? We do.

We do. All right. Couple of months' worth at least? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, well over. Excellent. And tell me about the retirement plan options you have available to you. Do you have a company-sponsored retirement plan available at work? Yeah, it's a 401k contribution that I'm putting money into.

I just started that last year. Otherwise, I don't have anything. Okay. And what percent of your pay are you putting in?

Do you know? I'm putting in 10% and they're matching 3%. Great.

Okay. And because you're playing catch up a little bit, you obviously have the ability to put in a little bit more than that. So I might consider increasing that to perhaps even 15% plus the 3% match. You have the ability to put in $19,500 in your 401k and you can put an additional $6,500 on top of that once you're over age 50. So if you were to bump that up and then perhaps take this extra $600 a month and use that to offset the money that you're no longer receiving in your paycheck because you've increased your contribution to the 401k, I think that's probably going to be one of the best places to put that money. The only other option would be, and this could be the way you go with the $600, again, if you don't need the money for higher, more pressing priorities financially, in addition to the 401k, perhaps you open a Roth IRA, which would be another retirement savings vehicle that you can have on top of the 401k.

The difference would be that you don't get a deduction for it, but you get the money growing for you tax free, which means when you pull it out in retirement, you wouldn't have to pay any tax on it. You can put in $6,000 this year. If you're married, you and your spouse could each put in $6,000. And if you're over 50, you can add another $1,000 to it, taking it up to seven. So that would be, perhaps you couldn't put in the whole $600 a month, but you could put in a good bit of it, $500 a month. Going into that account, if you're over 50, you could put the whole thing in. And I think that alongside what you're doing in the 401k would certainly increase what you have going toward retirement that would be available for you down the road. You could open that account with any of the major brokerages, you could think about a mutual fund company like Vanguard, you could go to Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, open the Roth, set up an automatic contribution every month. As you receive the pension, it would just automatically be contributed.

And then I'd look for some high quality mutual funds or some index ETFs. And if you need help with that, our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could give you some really great ideas there. Teresa, thank you very much for that. We appreciate your call today.

Tinley Park, Illinois. Mark, what's your situation? We have just a couple of minutes here.

Alrighty, I'll try and be quick over here. And thanks for taking my call. Thank you. I've got a friend of mine who was on his way to work and decided to meet up with a deer on the road. And unfortunately, the deer basically totaled, well, he totaled his car. The insurance company is going to give him $12,300 and something dollars for his car. He has a loan on the car for over $16,000. He's $4,000 upside down and he has no car.

I am trying to be the hands and Jesus to him and his family. So what godly advice can I give him to be able to maneuver through this $4,000 dilemma he has? Because right now, he needs a car and there's no way he can put this amount of money into the next loan. So he's either thinking he's got to put it on his credit card, pay it off slowly, figure out some way and somehow get a car. Now, he did say he would get just something to get him from point A to point B until this is through. But that's what he's thinking. Is there any other godly advice that I could give him?

Yeah, I so appreciate, Mark, your desire to walk alongside your friend in this and give him some godly counsel. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of options here. I guess number one is if in fact you feel like that's not the proper fair market value, tell him to push back and ask for a reassessment on that.

Secondly, the lender will often give you a personal loan for the negative equity and that would allow him to pay it off. Then the question is where does he go to get the new car? We'll talk about that right after the break. Stay with us. Good to have you with us on Money Wise Live. Rob Webb chatting with our friend Mark right now.

Tinley Park, Illinois, our location. And unfortunately, a deer got between his friend's car and, well, I guess the deer. Sorry to hear about that, Mark.

Any other thoughts on this, Rob? Yeah, you know, Mark's trying to help his friend navigate what is an upside down loan to the tune of about $4,000. So, Mark, what I was saying is, you know, the first question is, does he feel like that's a fair market value of the car?

If not, if he feels like the insurance company is not valuing it properly, he could push back, ask for a reassessment of that, perhaps provide some documentation as to why he believes that's not the proper amount. But obviously, to the extent, you know, they're only willing to pay out so much and there's a balance on a note that's much higher than that, you know, the best way to go on that if he doesn't have the cash to pay it off would simply be to ask the lender for a personal loan for the negative equity. So he would now have a personal loan to the tune of roughly $4,000.

That's going to be a better approach than trying to put it on a credit card or trying to roll it into a new purchase. You're going to get the best rates. Hopefully he has decent credit. He'll have the best opportunity to get at least a fairly competitive rate if he's not trying to add anything over and above the value of the car. And hopefully there's a little bit of a down payment that he's able to put together. I think the key is, you know, moving forward to make sure that he's really trying to save as much as he can limit lifestyle to the best of his ability in order to do that so he doesn't find himself in this situation where he's upside down.

Two additional things I would mention. One is gap insurance, you know, would help in a situation like this, certainly not after the fact, but perhaps in the future. And then secondly, we do have MoneyWise coaches that would be happy, Mark, to walk alongside your friend as he sets up that spending plan, perhaps suggesting some ideas on how he can cut back his expenses so that he'll have more in the way of margin to put away for paying off that loan, which is going to be a priority.

And then saving for that next car down the road. Alrighty, I will definitely let him know. I mean, I know, you know, we've known him for quite a while. And, you know, the one thing that we've noticed with him, it seems like whenever he takes a step forward, something happens where he has to take a step back. And it's like, can you know, my wife and I are like, can he can our friend ever get a break, you know, I mean, you know, we've been praying for him and his family for, you know, for all of this for, you know, God just to break through. And then in his in his life and his and his family's life and something just isn't something's just isn't. It's not clicking.

I wish I wish I wish I had that magic button where I could just push it and fix everything. But, you know, I definitely give this and I will definitely tell him, you know, we'll be praying for you and just keep on inviting him to church. And, you know, hopefully God will break through in his life some way, somehow.

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And we have to trust God's sovereignty in a situation like this and trust that God is working all things together for good. And that ultimately, perhaps this event, although right now somewhat painful, may be a catalyst toward something that will ultimately bring him to faith in Christ.

I mean, I think we just have to trust the bigger picture. You do what you can do to encourage, to pray, to walk alongside and at the right opportunity. I'm confident your witness to him will cause him to come to you when he has those questions that might ultimately lead to his salvation or certainly if he's already a believer to really growing in Christ. But I'm confident what you're doing is the right thing. And we appreciate you checking in with us today.

Mark, one last thought, if you don't mind. First of all, I think that your friend is already blessed to have a friend like you. So I don't say that to puff you up, but to have someone who is as thoughtful as you are and compassionate is a great blessing to him. And it blesses us to hear that. Secondly, if Mark's a member of the church, you might want to mention this to some members of the church.

Maybe some other people have some thoughts. Maybe there's a mechanic in the church who says, I can fix that car. Or maybe there's somebody in the church that has a car they've been thinking of getting rid of and they might be able to extend him some grace in regards to the price of that. Lastly, if there's any chance that this car was unique in some way, if it's a sports car, if it's a collectible car, something like that. If the parts are worth more than a typical, you know, 87 Camry, then sometimes guys like that sell those parts or want to resell the car.

And you can actually buy the car back from the insurance company if it's something unique like that. I'm going to leave you with that, but we'll pray that also God gives you guys wisdom and direction. We appreciate your call today. Thanks so much. Albuquerque, is it Mia?

Help me with the pronunciation here. Yes, it's Mia. Mia, well thank you for calling us today. What's on your mind?

Hi, so I wanted to ask you, thanks for taking my call. My husband and I are in our 30s and he's the only one that works. I'm a stay-at-home mom. We have three kiddos and our dream has always been to build our home from the ground up. So my question is, how realistic is it for us to accomplish that given that he's the only one that works and we want to have more kids and we are definitely outgrowing the home that we have right now? So how realistic is it for people with our income, our middle class, to do that or if we're better off just finding a home and then flipping it later down the road?

I see, yeah. Well, I think the question, Mia, really comes down to timing. This is a desire on both of your parts. It sounds like you all are somewhat handy given that you're thinking about perhaps building and I realize you'd be relying on contractors for that.

But the fact that you're even considering buying a fixer-upper and then flipping it tells me you at least have some knowledge of this and might find some joy in perhaps renovating a home. But I think the key is when, because right now is a very busy season of life. I've been there with little ones at home.

We had four in four years and the way we did that was two of them were twins. But we had a busy household and I know that time is precious during those seasons and building a home from the ground up is really time consuming. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

It doesn't mean it's not the right thing. But there's the time element and then there's the financial side because what this is going to require is if you have a current home with a mortgage, you've got to have the ability to cash flow that and cover all of your expenses and continue giving and saving for the future and making sure your emergency fund stays funded. And then you're going to need probably a construction to permanent loan on the new home which is a construction loan that allows you to build. And then that would convert to a permanent loan but you would likely be carrying two mortgages unless you are willing to sell your current home and maybe rent for a period of time.

And something like that. I just don't want you to get stuck in a situation where you're overextended. You don't have the ability to cash flow those and you really put your financial situation in jeopardy at that point.

So again, I'm not against it. I just want to make sure you don't do it too quickly and you count the cost both in time and money before you move into a project like this. And therefore, your second idea may be a better one where you all buy a home that's a little older, has a lot of potential, needs some work and tender loving care. And you and your husband would have a lot of fun after the kids go to bed redoing bathrooms and kitchens and putting additions. And maybe that's the money that you sell or the money you gain by selling that at a profit that ultimately gets rolled into this new construction project that you guys want to take on down the road.

But tell me, Mia, your thoughts on all that. See, that's exactly what I wanted to hear, all the logistics and everything that goes into place, because I had no idea. Like you said, we are actually paying a mortgage and we have been renovating a lot of things in this house. So hopefully when we sell it, we get some money for this. But yes, everything you touch base on is exactly what I want. I was looking for because patience, time and time is the key here.

Yes, exactly. And I'm confident somewhere down the line, if this is really a passion that you both share, God will give you the opportunity to do that. But let's not do it prematurely and create some challenges for you guys just in terms of time and money prematurely. So anyway, thank you for calling in today. We're grateful for you and excited about what God has for you in the future. And remember, Mia, measure twice, cut once. God bless you.

Thanks very much. That only applies to me, really. No, no.

That's prudent. Dayton, Tennessee. Hi, Joyce. How can we help you and your dad? Hello.

Thank you so much for taking my call. My dad is 85 years old. He's looking at retiring soon. He's been receiving a pension for many years and he's needing to know. He's thinking he should take it as a lump sum, considering his age. Where should he put that money?

Is there something he can put it in so that he could draw monthly and start drawing immediately from those funds? Absolutely. I just have to know, though, Joyce. So your dad's 85. He's still working. What does he do?

That's correct. He works for the local government in his town. He has a strong work ethic and he's stopping to take care of my mom, who's ill, or he would probably continue on who knows how long. I love that. It sounds like the kind of guy, Steven, I would like to have a cup of coffee with at a time. Amen. That's for sure.

That's great. Yeah, you know, I think you're right. I think given his age, he probably does make sense for him to take the lump sum. And this is where, after years and years and years of hard work, you need some godly counsel, a professional to come alongside him to manage this portfolio so that he doesn't take unnecessary risk. There's a focus on what we call capital preservation, preserving what he has. But then secondarily, a focus on capital income, which means that we want to generate some income off of this that he could then convert to an income stream to live off of. And we'd probably be talking, you know, four or five percent a year that he would want to draw out with the expectation that through the smaller growth portion of the portfolio and the larger fixed income portion of the portfolio, we could offset that income that he's pulling out so that that principal balance remains the same. He lives on the income, assuming the math works with his needs. And, you know, that money is then available in the future if he needs to dip into it for a major medical event.

He needed long term care or assisted living or in-home care, whatever that might be, which is probably his largest risk at this point. So where do you go for that? Well, I'd encourage you to seek out two or three certified kingdom advisers in your city, interview them with him and pick the one that's going to be the best fit. You can find a C.K.A. on our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Click the button that says simply that. Find a C.K.A. Hey, we're going to stick around for a couple of minutes today. Feel free to call right now if you'd like, 800-525-7000. Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media. God bless you. Join us again tomorrow.