It's About God, Not Politics

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only 10 can be found there? He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. Well, that of course is Abraham negotiating with God about the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 18.

What lessons might that passage hold for us today? Up first, host Rob West talks with economist Jerry Boyer to find out, and we'll take your calls at 800-525-7000. Your calls on anything financial, 800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore.

Here's a hint. It's about God, not politics. That's next right here on Money Wise Live. Rob, as we often say, Jerry Boyer is our favorite economist. He's also the chief economist at Vidant Financial and a regular on the Fox Business Channel. Well, and he definitely is our favorite, I would say, in large part due to his biblical worldview and his unique ability to make the complex easy to understand. Jerry, great to have you back on the program. First time in the new year.

Yes, and a happy new year to all of you. Now, when you say I'm your favorite economist, I've got to ask precisely how many economists do you know? Yeah, let's move right along to the first question. How many economists do you have as regular guests on the show?

Hey, we ask the questions around here, buddy. All right. Well, diving in, before we talk about politics in a very generic nonpartisan way, I'll say, and since you are an economist, our favorite in fact, I'd love for you to give us your impression, Jerry, of the economy today and what we might experience in the months ahead.

And I know you're not a prognosticator, so I'm asking at a high level here. Yeah. Well, the economy today I think is expanding fairly rapidly. So the economy right now seems to be in a state of recovery. And I look at just like recent economic data that come out from the government, but also surveys in real time with people who are managing businesses.

But it's really kind of uneven. There are parts of the economy that are really booming. Manufacturing is coming back strong, for example. There are other parts of the economy that are weighed down by the continuing on and off shutdowns. So if you're someone who owns a nail salon place, a hair salon, I guess, I don't know what they call them.

If you own a place where you're doing people's nails, mani-pedis or haircuts, you're in a tougher spot, say than somebody who's a knowledge worker who can work from home. So we have an unevenness, but generally the big ticket items are coming back and coming back pretty strong, and they're likely to continue to do so. Vaccines are pretty helpful. We never thought of vaccines as a major economic driver, but in this particular odd season, vaccines are one of our major macroeconomic drivers.

Yeah. Well, that's helpful, Jerry, and encouraging. I know it should be for many folks as they think about perhaps what the future holds in light of still the uncertainties that exist around the pandemic. Jerry, we said today we're going to talk about politics, and I'd like to get into that a bit. Generally speaking, though, perhaps we start here. Does politics really play much of a role in economics? Well, only when it changes policy. So a lot of the stuff that's political, things like fights about political personalities or political loyalty, votes about impeachment or not impeachment, a lot of this stuff has an element of show to it, right?

Or political rivalry, rivalry between candidates. What really counts for the economy is what people actually do. So if you run as a conservative but you govern center left, then it doesn't matter what you ran as. It matters how you governed. If you run as a liberal but govern center right, like a Bill Clinton, but you talk like a liberal but you cut capital gains taxes, then that's the thing that really has an impact on the economy.

And is that so surprising for Christians? What really matters in terms of your impact on the world is not the way you talk, but the things you actually do. So politics, to the degree that it influences actual economic policy, is the important part.

Yeah, it makes sense, Jerry. So how then should we as believers view politics? Well, politics matter because to God, everything matters about our lives, but they probably matter a lot less than we act like they do, especially around election seasons when we get kind of caught up in the hype and maybe lose a little focus on the kingdom. Jerry Boyer with us today.

It's about God, not politics. It's a brand new year. So this is our first opportunity to pick Jerry's brain, as it were, about these kinds of things. And it's a real blessing and an honor to have him with us today. And you as well. We have to pause.

We'll be right back after this. Great to have you with us today. It's your host is Rob West. I'm Steve Moore, our guest, the chief economist at Vidant Financial.

His name is Jerry Boyer. It's always a real pleasure and eye-opening time whenever we meet with Jerry, he tells us stuff we really don't know on our own. And back to you, God, politics and economics and where they all meet. Jerry, just before the break, you were saying as believers, certainly politics matters, but probably a lot less than we act like it does. I'd love for you to flip that coin and tell us how Christians should not view politics. Well, I really like the phrase from Psalm 146, put no trust in princes or in the sons of men in whom there's no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth.

On that very day, his plans perish. Put no trust in princes is a phrase we throw around a lot here at Boyer Research and in the Boyer household, because there is a very strong tendency for humans to start to transfer the trust that we have in God, or the resistance we have to the devil, and take that and bring it down to earth and create a political God and a political devil. That's because I can't see God. So that's why idolatry is such a temptation.

If I can't see God, well, I can see a president, I can see a king, I can see an emperor, and they become like gods to us. And I think the Christians are as susceptible to that as everybody else. But we have the Word of God, which then corrects us. So I think we cannot let our politics absorb our religion. We can't let our politics absorb our Christianity.

Our faith transforms our politics, not the other way around. Hmm. Yeah. Well, it's such a key point. And it really is. And I think it's really leads right into how we interact with one another. What do you have for us with regard to how we should treat others who may differ with us politically? Well, I think there's actually a lot of material in the New Testament on this, and we're not used to thinking of it as political. So we just think of it as the way we treat others. But I think the Sermon on the Mount is extremely important here. When Jesus is talking about if someone slaps you on the face, an insult, you turn to him the other cheek also. Or when someone compels you to carry a pack, which under Roman law, their political enemies, the Roman soldiers, were able to do. This is, there's politics here.

And when Jesus says, if you say raca, you're in danger of the council, political entity, but if you say thou fool, you're in danger of gehenna. I think this is not just about personal relationships. It certainly is about personal relationships. But when Jesus gets up on that mountain to give the Sermon on the Mount, people weren't mostly whipped up about personal relationships.

People were mostly whipped up about politics. I think he was telling them, among other things, not just how to act in church, but how to deal with your political enemies. In this case, the Romans. And he gives a warning, which is about how you talk to and about people. And he says that if you don't do this, you're in danger of gehenna. And gehenna means hell, but gehenna also meant that garbage pit outside the temple, you know, off the cliff. And in fact, the first century Israelites, they had toxic rhetoric towards one another. You can read it in Josephus. It got worse and worse and worse, and it ended up destroying their society. And literally they were cast into gehenna, meaning the bodies were thrown down into the burning pit.

That's a symbol for hell. So I think, how should we treat each other different people who differ from us politically? The same way we should treat anybody else with love and with verbal restraint and with respect. Jerry, we know that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. And so often we look at that verse and others that are like it, realizing or believing that God's in control. Who's ever president, who's ever king, who's ever emperor is because God wanted that person there. So how do we have respect for leaders, but not let that respect turn into reverence because we love that person or dislike or hate because we think that person doesn't love God and we don't want to be part of that side either? Yeah, I think that's a good question.

It's a tough one. I think that one of the things we don't do is invoke providence selectively. So we don't say when my guy is there, then that means he's God's choice. But when the other guy is there, we kind of don't talk about God's choice. God is providentially organizing history for the good of his church and for the good of his kingdom. Every presidential election and every outcome is from that standpoint, even if painful and contrary to your desires, an expression of the love of God, part of his providence.

Sometimes it's love encouraging and blessing, and sometimes it's love disciplining, but there's still both the love of God. I like that. So good, Jerry. You know, Jerry, every time there's a change in administration in Washington, there's one group that's delighted, another group thinks we're doomed. What do you say to those folks no matter where they fall? Yeah, and there's been a lot of doomsaying from the sort of crowd that we move in. I think a few years ago, Pastor Andy Stanley did a kind of a video appeal to the parents.

Hey, calm down, we're scaring the children, I think is what he literally said. I think we have really placed too much doom around electoral outcomes. God judges, he rises up, he pulls down. But we have this wonderful passage in Genesis 18 where God lets us into the process of how it's decided. Abraham, Abraham is a member of his court.

He's a counselor. So Abraham and God reason together about whether Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed. And there is not one single syllable uttered in that conversation about whether Sodom had a good president or a bad president, or in this case, a good king or a bad king. They had bad kings.

I mean, that's a given, but that's not what the conversation was about. When Abraham was negotiating with God, it wasn't about the leaders, and it wasn't about the people in general, it was about the people of God. How many righteous does it take to save the city? And they come down to 10. If there's 10 righteous, there's hope. No matter how bad the kings are, because these were very bad kings, no matter how bad the society is, because this was a very bad society, if there's 10 righteous, there's hope. And I think that's a little nod to the Jewish practice of a minion, that's 10, that's the basis of a synagogue. If there's enough people who are righteous, that there's an institutional voice that can say, don't do this anymore.

Move, turn, repent, move in this direction. As long as there's that, there's hope. It's not losing an election. I don't know what the future is for America, and maybe we will be wiped out, but we won't be wiped out because we choose the wrong president. We'll be wiped out because God's church chooses idols rather than him. Yeah. Jerry, it's so good.

Just about a minute left. What is your charge or challenge to believers today, regardless of their political persuasion? My charge is to get re-centered on God. Listen, as a nation, we've been obsessing about Donald Trump. Half the nation has been obsessing in this way that is maybe overly respectful or putting too much trust. The other half of the nation has been obsessing in terms of hatred and dislike.

No president deserves that much emotional attention. There's only one leader who deserves our obsession, and that's Jesus. And we should be obsessed with Jesus and engaged in politics. And I think what happened is we got obsessed with politics and somewhat engaged with this Jesus, because maybe he can help us with our political goals.

Hmm. Perhaps, Jerry, and that's really good. Perhaps we should finish today with the words of the apostle Peter from 1 Peter 2.17, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king.

And if we do that, I think that puts everything into proper perspective. Jerry, great to have you, my friend. Always a pleasure.

God bless you all. Jerry Boyer, chief economist at Vidant Financial, has been with us today. You can read his commentaries at townhall.com, townhall.com. Your call is next at 800-525-7000. You're listening to MoneyWise Live.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Rob West, your host. I'm Steve Moore, and we're taking your calls today. Calls, comments, questions, conundrums at 800-525-7000.

Anything you might be wondering about, financially speaking, 800-525-7000. Rob, with your permission, shall we just jump right in? That sounds great, Steve. All right, let's do it up to Chicagoland. And Jamie, nice to have you there. How can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Yes, ma'am. So it's a bit of a stewardship question. My husband and I picked our retirement amount, how much we thought we would need to be able to retire, and we hit it, and we kind of went flying right past it, which was a beautiful blessing.

And so I, and it kind of becomes a burden at some point where it's a lot to kind of take in. So I sort of feel like we should move it into, I'm not even sure where, but something less risky so we just know it's there. My husband plans on working at least three more years, so there's going to be more money coming in and we're not retiring. But I feel like we should take that amount, our goal amount, and kind of move it into something safer. And he feels like we should just keep it out there growing. And that's what he feels like is good stewardship. I kind of feel like good stewardship is to say, thank you God, let's put this aside and then keep moving on with life.

We're just wondering what your thoughts are. Yeah, I love this question, Jamie, because there's a couple of elements going on here. One is the appropriate level of risk to take with your goal, which you've achieved, as you said, and how do you then invest that moving forward to be a good steward, to put God's money to work in a way that's appropriate, but without taking unnecessary risk because, in fact, you've already met your objective. And then the second question is, what is the plan beyond your financial finish line?

Which I agree, you've said perhaps there's other savings goals that now that this one is fully funded, you could begin to tackle. But I always like to say what other giving opportunities are there as well, because, you know, we establish a finish line because we don't want to accumulate just for accumulation's sake. We realize that we're entrusted with God's money and that we should use it to provide.

We should live with contentment. He said in 1 Timothy, we should enjoy what the living God has entrusted to us. But we also realize that part of God's intention is for us to be a pipeline into his activity. We're blessed to be a blessing to others and to others and to use that for God's purposes. So part of, I think, establishing that finish line says that, Lord, when we meet this goal or when we're on track to meet this goal, we're going to look for ways that we can take what you've given to us and use it to help meet the needs of others.

So let's talk about both sides of that. In terms of the investment strategy, I would agree with you. You know, we don't want to just, quote unquote, beat the market for the sake of doing that.

We don't have to take a level of risk that's unnecessary given what our current financial condition is. And once you achieve your goal because you had a windfall or you sold a business or, you know, whatever the reason is, I think it's an opportunity then to still be a good steward and seek a return on God's money, but to dial back the risk level because you just frankly don't have to take that level of risk. It's all about your goals and objectives given to you by the Lord as opposed to trying to match some index or achieve some return just because, you know, that's what's talked about on the news or something like that. So I think thinking and praying through that to say, you know, is it a time to dial that back and what does that look like?

Perhaps instead of trying to achieve a seven or eight percent of return each year, you're only trying to achieve four or five, which also means that if you get a more conservative position, then if the market were to head down for a period of time, we get into a bear market because there's a legitimate recession not brought on by a single event like a pandemic, but something that could last two or three years. You wouldn't see anywhere near the declines with God's money in that kind of portfolio, even though you could still have a growth component to it and you just leave that alone and wait for it to recover. But then the second side of this is the opportunity you and your husband now have to begin praying through this to say, Lord, given where you have us today financially, what do you have for us to do and how should we be thinking about the funds beyond this goal that we feel like we've established through prayer and lots of conversation and should we be saving for other goals or is there an opportunity to increase our giving? So lots of ideas there, Jamie. Tell me your thoughts.

I totally agree with you. My husband feels like one of his gifts in the Kingdom is to be an earner and a giver. So that's part of the reason he likes to stay invested and just kind of keep the money growing. So we definitely are talking about that and we are praying about this. It's an amazing blessing and it's an interesting place to be. Yeah. Well, let me just affirm one piece of that.

I didn't mean to cut you off, but so hold that thought. But there are some people that just have the gift of making money. And what's great is that you don't automatically have to assume that you have to exit the working world or exit the market and go to work in full-time vocational ministry, because perhaps for some people, many people staying right there in the marketplace, whether that's through passive investments or through enterprise, can be the biggest catalyst for Kingdom activity and Kingdom funding work of anyone. You know, there's this idea that we talk about a lot with our friend John Reinhart, that there are gospel proclaimers, those charged by the Lord to share the truth and get the word out. And then there's gospel patrons, the people behind the proclaimers that are funding their work. And that's one of the positions you all might find yourself in as God continues to bless you. Does that make sense?

It does accept that. I think that my husband's actual gift is actual ministry. He knows the word well, and he's a great discipler of other men. And I feel like he's a little bit afraid.

His identity has been in his profession, and he's a little bit nervous to make that move to, you know, not be the moneymaker, but literally just be the Kingdom worker. Yeah. Let's do this. We're going to have to hit a break here, but I love this conversation.

So you stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air and we appreciate your call so much today. Yeah, we do, Jamie. Thank you very much. Stay with us.

You're listening to MoneyWise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. We'd like to take some more calls. Maybe yours, 800-525-7000. We have open lines.

In the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 8 verse 10, God says, choose my instruction instead of silver knowledge rather than choice gold. We're chatting a bit today with Amy at 800-525-7000. Well, Jamie, we're so glad for your call today. And as you were explaining just before the break, you're 52, your husband's 57.

You've gone through the process of selling a business, which has resulted in a cash out of that business, a financial windfall as a result of the sale that allows you to kind of in one fell swoop achieve your retirement goals, financially speaking. And so, as we were talking about before the break, given your role as steward of God's resources, this is a stewardship conversation in terms of stewardship of those financial dollars, but also stewardship of your time, you and your husband together in terms of his vocation, your vocation together and your ministry. You were pointing out that you see perhaps giftedness in his life that might lead him more toward ministry activity.

That's exciting. So I think it really does come down to looking at, okay, first of all, with the financial resources, what is the appropriate level of risk now that you've achieved your goals? Your husband obviously has had a gift of making money, whether that's through business enterprise or in the stock market.

And perhaps you do take a bit more risk than somebody who would just all of a sudden be trying to convert this to a passive income stream because the goal is to make more money to be able to give more away. But I think you all need to have a meeting of the minds on that after a prayerful conversation. But then there's the stewardship of your time together as a couple, but also his time moving forward. He's still a young man at 57, lots of opportunity, whether that's in business that's going to continue to generate dollars that could be redirected into the kingdom or perhaps into more full-time vocational ministry. You said you've identified a teaching gift that he has. So I think that's really the thing that you need to consider.

And I want to mention one perhaps place to go that I think might be a real blessing. I don't know if you've heard of Halftime, founded by Bob Buford. There's a book by that title. The Halftime Institute has for 20 years been equipping leaders to think about these things. You know, for leaders who have been gifted with the abilities you're describing, the question is in that second season of life, how does God want you to use that? And they give you a process and a strategy to really come up with and envision what that could look like.

And it doesn't automatically mean you're going to or he's going to come out of the marketplace. In fact, Halftime alumni, 60% of them stay in the marketplace with greater clarity and purpose. But the other 40% either shift to something new, perhaps more aligned with true vocational ministry or something else all together.

You can find out more online at HalftimeInstitute.org. But regardless of how you do it, I think it's a season where he and you together need to think and pray through and perhaps with a real intentional strategy, what this next season of life can look like for the two of you. And here's what I'm confident in. God is going to use you all in significant ways. Jamie, we're glad that you called today. We'll be praying for you and your husband as you seek God's perfect will. May happen real quick, may not happen for several years, but that's a nice problem to have and we wish you the best. Thanks. Knoxville, Tennessee. Hello, Scott. What's on your mind? Hi, thanks for taking my call. Yes, sir. My wife and I are first time home buyers and we have about 5% saved up for what we expect to pay for our home, but we're wondering if rent to own might be an option for us.

We're not really sure what that is. Yeah, well, you know, I'm not a big fan of rent to own, Scott. I'd really rather you just kind of stay put, continue renting with the goal of keeping your lifestyle at a minimum, really focusing in on that spending plan to try to generate as much margin as you can that could fund or continue to fund this down payment savings account that you have, assuming you don't have any credit card debt, that you're carrying a balance on and that you have an emergency fund already in place.

And just, you know, take the time, perhaps longer than you want to, to get up to that 20% or at least as close to it as possible. The challenge with rent to own is you typically pay more in rent every month than you would as a renter. And not all of that extra payment is going to be applied to the purchase price. You're also typically responsible for repairs even though you don't own the home yet. And if you're late or miss a payment, the deal could be canceled without any refund. So I think, you know, unless it's a part of a scenario where it's a part of a government run revitalization project that protects you against some of the things I just mentioned, typically, rent to own is not the preferable option.

So again, as much as you might desire to get into that home that you own quicker, I would just kind of stay it out, wait and, you know, continue to save so you have the right down payment going in. Scott, thank you for that question. I'm sure it's one that many others have wondered or are wondering about today and perhaps that's helped them as well. Thank you so very much. Nashville, Tennessee. Lori, what's on your mind and how can we help?

Okay, hi there. I have a couple of CDs that are maturing very shortly, less than 30 days, and I'm not sure what to do with them. I mean, they're really sizable, so I don't know whether to put them back into another CD, buy environmentally responsible stock, pay, let's see, buy gold. Let's see, I have my list here. Set up an annuity for a favorite charity, pay my property taxes a year in advance, pay my utilities, try to do that a year in advance, so just anything that'd be interested in what you might think.

Yeah, well, that's fabulous, Lori. You've obviously given this some thought. So you said it's a sizable amount of money and what is the purpose of this money? I mean, how does this money relate to, let's say, you know, the retirement income sources you're looking for for the future? Is this a part of that or is this separate and aside from that?

No, it's separate. Okay, so you have, and are you working currently? I'm retired. No, I'm retired. You're retired. I'm almost, next month I'll be 68.

Okay, very good. And you have income sources covered through Social Security and other means, is that right? No, I do not have Social Security. No, I'm a retired federal employee. Okay, but what you have coming in from the federal government retirement system is covering all of your bills. So far, yes. Yeah, okay.

All right. And, you know, I think the opportunity here is to really think in terms of, you know, having the reserves you need and then whatever's beyond that, being able to put that to work in a way that is reasonable. And really think about this in terms of, you know, what might come your way and what's an appropriate amount that you need to have on hand because you've even mentioned some giving opportunities here. And I think in terms of your reserves, I'd love for you to have in this season of your life at least six months. Some folks would like to have, you know, even as much as 12 months.

It's really a peace of mind thing in reserves. Now, where do you put that? I wouldn't put that into a CD in these low, low interest rates. I'd rather you just park that in a high yield savings account where you can get, you know, 0.5, 0.6%, something like that, about a half of 1%. With the rest of it, apart from anything you designate for giving and, you know, with that, you could look at a charitable annuity, but I'd prefer you to look at what's called a donor advised fund with the National Christian Foundation, which is a great tool to use for your giving dollars. But anything that you're not allocating for giving or that's not in the reserves bucket, I think then the question is, how do I have that working for me in a way that's appropriate for a steward where we're seeking a return, but where it's commensurate to your age and risk tolerance goals and objectives.

And typically in this season of life where you're looking to preserve what you have and then grow it modestly, it would either be a stock and bond portfolio with the majority allocated to fixed income, a smaller portion to stocks, or if you wanted something guaranteed where you transfer the risk to an insurance company, then an annuity. So I'm going to recommend you connect with a Certified Kingdom Advisor there in Nashville. We have some great ones to do some planning. You can find one in your area at moneywiselive.org. Just click find a CKA. Nice to have you joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

Let's go back to our calls. Juneau, Alaska. Christy, is it sweater weather up there today? Oh, very much so. Beautiful, sunny, clear. Oh, that's great.

Well, if it's going to be brisk, it's nice to have the sun out. What's your question today? I have a question about blockchain. I received a message on my phone that said another user has accessed your blockchain account. To my knowledge, I don't have a blockchain account, and so I figure this is a phishing scam. But when I went to look up what blockchain is, it talked about a shared ledger with thousands of computers and it talked about, well, it said a verified transaction can involve cryptocurrency contracts, records or any other valuable information. So I began to wonder, can they be trying to access my bank accounts or my investment accounts? Yeah.

Well, Christy, I would suspect your initial inclination was correct. This is essentially a phishing scam, where they're just kind of blanketing emails out there trying to get you to respond first and then in doing so, provide sensitive information, your own personal information, financially or otherwise, that they can then use to compromise other types of accounts. It's probably not anything other than that, because if you had a blockchain account, even in one of the more popular brands, you would know about it.

And, you know, in that case, you know, or in this case, you don't. So I think just ignoring this is probably the best thing to do. Now, anytime you see something like this come along, it's a good reminder that you need to be following some important steps just to safeguard yourself generally, including pulling a copy of your own credit report from the three bureaus regularly. I do that at annualcreditreport.com. If you do see some suspicious information or you find out one of your accounts has been compromised, probably not a bad idea to do a free credit freeze with each of the bureaus, which just means that there's going to be a four digit pin number that needs to be provided by anyone who tries to pull a copy of your credit report. They won't be able to do that without that four digit pin and it will stop them from opening accounts fraudulently in your name. And then beyond that, just monitoring your other active accounts, changing your passwords regularly, using strong passwords, not just, you know, repeating the same, you know, passwords that don't pass muster, if you will. And then other things like and you're already sounds like aware of this clicking on links in emails or doing business, providing financial information over public Wi Fi. You know, if you're doing those things, I think, you know, you should be okay.

But I would just disregard this and use it as a reminder just to stay on top of these types of things. Does that make sense? Christy? Yes, it does. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Thanks for your call. Thanks, Christy. God bless.

St. Louis Moe. Hello, Dan. Welcome to MoneyWise Live. How can we help?

Good afternoon. I have a question about what would be best to do with a 401k I have with an employer. And I'm part time with them.

I don't work full time with them. But I understand, first of all, that you can't roll it over into an IRA unless you're 59 and a half or unless you I think, leave the company or quit the company. And no wonder that's right, you would need to separate from the company in order to roll that out.

That's correct. But can you roll it over when you are 59 and a half? It just depends upon the plan. So not all 401ks are created equal. So you would have to talk to the plan administrator just to find out if you have options beyond 59 and a half, it would ultimately be up to them. In some cases, you cannot roll it out under any condition until you separate from the company.

In other cases, you may be able to after 59 and a half, it really just comes down to your particular plan. Okay, because I don't work very often with them, even though technically, I'm still an employee. And they stopped contributing to the employees 401ks. And what they did was they became an employee owned company. And we have shares in the company.

And I have money in that too that I've earned. And if I do quit, do you know if I could roll both of those over into an IRA? And the other question is from listening prior programs, I'll be 59 and a half in another month. And is it better?

Would it be better? The main question is to roll it over if I do that into a regular IRA or a Roth IRA? Yeah, it's a good question, Dan.

A couple of things on that. Number one, yes, anything that's in a qualified account could be rolled out to an IRA. So as long as you determine that it is in fact in a qualified account, meaning a retirement vehicle, then you could roll it into a single IRA, even though it's coming from multiple accounts with your company. When it gets there, you then have the option to convert it to a Roth. But when you're nearing retirement, you typically are not going to get as much benefit from converting it because you simply just don't have the time for it to benefit from the tax free growth. And arguably, and this may not be true for you, but in many cases, when you're nearing retirement, even though you're only working part time from them, your total income is going to be perhaps at or near its peak, which means you're going to be in a higher tax bracket. Whereas if you were to wait and pull this out in retirement at a lower tax bracket, because you have less income, less earned income, then you know, you would benefit from having it remain in the traditional IRA. Now, a couple of things may not be true for this situation in your case, meaning A, you may not be at the highest end of your earning potential, and you may be earning actually more in retirement, that would be a consideration or, and we won't know this, but if we think there's going to be higher tax rates down the road, which clearly there could be, then there may be a benefit to rolling it or converting it to the Roth now.

But generally speaking, Dan, you know, better just to leave it at this age in the tax deferred environment, let it continue to grow, and then take it out as income when you need it down the road. Dan, thank you very much for your call today. Let's see if we can get to one more. Greensville, Indiana. Hello, Robert. What's on your mind?

Hi. My mom is wanting to sell her house. My dad's passed away, and they all, they got a $29,000 bloom payment, and she wants to move into a condo, but my dad didn't believe in life insurance.

What should we do? Yeah, so what is the value of the home, Robert? It's probably about $170,000. Okay, and what is the total of the note that will have to be paid?

Uh, $29,000. Okay, so there's no other mortgage on it whatsoever. So if this is her primary residence, sounds like it has been for quite a while, there won't be any taxes due on the gain, so she would sell it, take the proceeds, satisfy as a part of the closing the balloon payment that is coming due, and then the rest could be used, you know, for another purchase. Ideally, you'd buy for cash, you know, what would be the next property, but if she can't find something for the proceeds, you know, of a roughly $141,000, then at that point, she may need to get a small mortgage.

The question then would just be cash flow and how that fits into the overall budget, but the idea would be, she sells it, she satisfies the note, takes the proceeds and moves on to whatever the next place is, which you said you think would be a condo or a townhome of some sort. So that would be the typical approach you'd want to take at this point. Does that make sense? Yes. The thing is, she's 80 years old, and we're looking for what she would have after when she would retire. Okay. And the money-wise, that's what we're looking at, you know, what we ought to, you know, buy for and with the payment and everything. Okay. Is she going to have enough?

Sure. I think the next step, Robert, prior to even the sale, is to really look at the budget side of this. And so look at all of her expenses, look at the various assets and income sources she has, whether that's social security, hers, or, you know, a portion of your dad's, and whatever other income she has coming in, and compare that to the budget, the expenses that she's going to have, looking at the proceeds of the house and figuring out what she can afford moving forward in terms of a new home, but also, you know, making sure that fits in the overall spending plan. And I think to help you do that, it would be really wise to connect with one of our Money Wise coaches. You can do that on our website, Robert, at MoneyWiseLive.org.

There's no cost. Right now, there's just a couple of weeks wait to get matched up with a coach. These are volunteers that have been trained. This is their ministry, helping people do these types of things, walking alongside you and your mom to help her set up the spending plan. Look at all the numbers, both on the income and the expense side. And then as a part of that, beginning to think through what might be the right plan moving forward with her home in terms of this next purchase. So I would encourage you to do that. If you have other questions along the way, don't hesitate to give us a call back.

And again, website MoneyWiseLive.org, just click Connect with a Coach. You know, Rob, Robert mentioned that his dad didn't believe in life insurance. We have no idea why exactly, but a lot of people of that generation, the Boomer generation, maybe even a little before, a lot of people think that way.

What would be your thoughts? I mean, does everyone need life insurance? Ever a time when you should just ignore it? Well, not everyone needs life insurance. However, most people do. And what I would say is while you're still in your working years, while people are still depending upon you, and in the event the Lord calls you home, while you're still working and providing for those in your family, life insurance is a way to continue to provide beyond your life, because you can replace that lost income. So there's not a hardship created. So I believe it's entirely biblical. And by using term insurance, buying pure insurance, you can do it in a way that's very cost effective and where you can get the proper amount of coverage. So it's not about transferring your trust away from the Lord. Ultimately, our trust is in the Lord for everything.

But life insurance, I believe, is a great way to provide beyond your life financially. Rob, thanks very much. We'll come back and do it again tomorrow. All right. Sounds good, Steve. Thanks. This program MoneyWise Live, well, this program is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Also with you wrapped up in that triumph for it there. Without your support, prayerful and financial support, we just wouldn't be here each day. For Rob West, I'm Steve Moore. Thanks for listening. Tell a friend about the program, and then join us again next time for another edition of MoneyWise Live.