What Your Time Is Really Worth

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. You've heard the saying that time is money. Well, that's a great motivator, but the problem is most of us don't have a clue just how expensive time really is.

But a simple calculation can show you what your time should be worth and how hard you have to work to buy things. And our host, Kingdom Advisors President, Rob West, says the answer may change your spending habits. Then it's your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore. What's your time really worth?

That's next, right here on MoneyWise Live. Okay, Rob, we've already said that this is a simple calculation, so you're not going to get all E equals MC squared on us, are you, sir? Not at all, and you don't have to be in Einstein to figure this out. All you need, actually, Steve, is your latest tax return. Okay, all right. Let's assume we have it.

What do we do first? Well, to find out what you really earn per hour, take the total or gross amount you put down on your last return. That's at the top. Jot that down, then subtract anything you paid in taxes. That would include Social Security and Medicare taxes plus the income tax you paid. Well, then you're left with your net earnings at that point.

Okay, maybe you could give us an example here. Sure, so just making up some numbers here, let's say you earned a total of $50,000 and you paid $10,000 in Social Security, Medicare and income taxes, leaving you with $40,000. Okay, got that, then what? Now you divide that $40,000 by 52 weeks and you get $770. That's what you're netting in a week. Now, assuming you work a 40 hour week, divide $770 by that number and you get, well, $19 an hour. That's your real hourly wage. Of course, if you typically work more than 40 hours a week, it means you earn even less than $19 an hour.

Less than $19, that can be a little depressing. Folks making $50,000 a year might think they make about, I don't know, $25 an hour, but it's really only $19. Okay, so how does this help us? Yeah, it helps us by letting you know what your time is worth in real dollars. Once you know that, you begin to see how long you have to work to buy something. Let's say one night you're tired and you don't feel like cooking, so you pick up fast food for the family and that costs you $40, which is pretty easy to do, $60 for my family.

When you realize that you have to work more than two hours to pay for that meal, you're much more inclined to spend one more hour making it at home and cleaning up after. When you know what things really cost, Steve, it can change your spending habits. You'll be far less likely to give into impulse spending and I think this is sometimes called value-based spending. Value-based spending, why do they call it that? Well, because it gets you thinking about spending that really matters. Let's say you've been carrying a balance on your credit card, never mind the interest you're paying, we'll save that for another day, but pull out your last several months of statements and check your spending.

Odds are you'll see a purchase here for $10, another one there for $20, maybe one for $50 and so on. Now look at each item you purchased, a dinner out, maybe some gadget that caught your eye at a big box store. Look them over and think, did they really add value to my life, especially knowing how long you had to work for each of them? Probably not because you begin to realize that you can never get those hours back.

Okay, got it. All right, so how do you take this newfound realization and put it to work for you? Yeah, well, just cutting out impulse spending is a huge step forward, but beyond that, now that time and money have become more important to you, you can begin to spend it in areas that have more value.

Which would be? Well, paying down debt could be building an emergency fund, maybe saving for your next car to buy with cash. It could even be investing for retirement or the kid's college, any number of things. You know, Steve, grasping the concept of value-based spending will do something else too. It will make you want to overhaul your budget because you'll suddenly find yourself with more money. You'll be able to cut back in some categories and reallocate that money to others, which will help you in the long term. And that certainly includes giving more generously.

Now, it'll take time for this to happen, but it's easy to get started once you've figured your real hourly wage. Just keep that number in mind before you make a purchase. It'll help you decide whether it's really worth your time. And, you know, when we start to connect our values, what's most important to us with our spending, I think it's really helpful in bringing us in a place where we can feel like we're being a faithful steward of God's money.

Yeah, I like that a lot. And as we said right at the very beginning, time is money, money is time, values are vital. So, take a look at how you're spending your time. We're supposed to be good managers, good stewards of our time, talent, and resources.

That's what God expects of us. Now, if we can help you with that, if you'd like to talk about that, we have open lines, lots of them at 800-525-7000. Give us a call right now.

Good to have you aboard today. It's Money Wise Live with your host, Rob West. I'm Steve Moore chatting a little bit today about time and money. And all of those things aren't unlimited. We're all given the same amount of time, essentially, I mean 24-7 anyway. And so, it's vital that we think carefully and thoughtfully about how we're going to spend that time. And typically, that doesn't come to the fore until later in life.

No seven-year-old is concerned about that, but sometimes when you're 70, you're still not concerned about that. So, how do we work through that? In fact, our Facebook question, Rob, is how much do you think about how long you'll have to work to pay for something? And we have a few responses, huh?

Yeah, we sure do. Bob said more and more. The older I get, I didn't used to appreciate how much I have to earn before taxes to pay for something.

And Manuel and Christy both agree. They think a lot about how much they'll have to work to pay for something before buying it. I've seen this play out recently, Steve, with my boys who've started to work.

I think I mentioned a week or so ago that both of my boys have started to referee games at the church that we go to on the weekends. And so they're starting to earn some money, which has been great because we're able to use that to teach some really valuable principles. But one of those is this idea that they begin to equate how much time they have to work to buy things, which is the whole idea of what we're talking about here. But as that light bulb goes off, it starts to change your decision-making, even as a teenager, because, wow, if I have to referee three games to get that, maybe I can do without that and use that money elsewhere. So this is an important principle that we have to teach not only our kids, but also learn ourselves.

Yeah, amen to that. All right, again, our phone number 800-525-7000. Anything you want to talk about financially speaking is fair game. Let's begin by going to Lake Worth, Florida.

Marie, what's on your heart today? Hi, we have no mortgage, but our house is like 43 years old. It could stand to do a few major repairs like a bathroom and some windows and maybe a roof. But my husband is considering moving to a different area.

And I'm just wondering, should money be spent for these things? Or should we just sell as is and go to a different location? Yeah, I would be very careful, Marie, making big renovations if you're planning to move, or at least that's even a consideration at this point.

You know, as long as all of the systems and appliances are working in the house and the roof isn't leaking, if it is, you're going to want to go ahead and repair that. But other than that, it's probably best to confine your sprucing up to maybe a fresh coat of paint where needed. Also, in terms of selling, think about the front yard, you know, curb appeal is pretty important. So you want to do your best to make the property look as good as possible without spending a lot because you probably won't get your money back if you do a substantial rehab. So I think, you know, apart from you telling me you were going to move, I would have said, yeah, let's start to think through how much money you have and what's the priority order of these repairs. But as soon as moving enters into the equation, it really does change things quite a bit because you don't want to put a bunch of money into a home that you're not going to recoup, especially since you won't be able to enjoy it. So I think the next step is for you and your husband to really seriously, if you haven't already, pray and think through this potential move.

And then if so, then I think I would get a professional realtor in there, perhaps somebody who specializes in the area your home is located, to be able to give you some professional counsel on what actually you should do in the way of any minor repairs, any sprucing up of the property, things that in particular will help improve the value of the home and get it sold quickly. So that's where I'd go next. Marie, I hope that helps you. We wish you guys the best as you consider moving to another location there.

Thank you very much. And we hope wherever you move, you can still hear our program. 800-525-7000. If you have a question today for Rob West, it's a Friday. We're excited. I'm not sure why.

It's just that Friday thing that sometimes happens. So I'll call right now. 800-525-7000.

Port Angeles, Washington. Charlene, how can we help you? Oh, thank you so much for taking my call.

Happy to. I just visited with a friend yesterday and she has lived a low income all her life and had a severe injury and was compensated for that. So she has had a win for, you know, she has some money now. And it's just, I didn't get to find out how much she had left of it.

So I was wondering if there is somebody in our area that I could put her in touch with that could give her some good guidance. Yeah. Well, I love that you're thinking this way, Charlene. You know, that's exactly the right move to make, especially somebody who has struggled to have much and now has all of a sudden a windfall.

It can be somewhat overwhelming. And so having somebody who can guide her, somebody who has professional expertise to walk alongside her and helping her to protect this money, but ensure that it lasts as long as it can while at the same time meeting her needs, which she clearly has, is really critical. You'll hear us on this program talk often about a designation in the financial services industry called CKA, Certified Kingdom Advisor. Basically, this is a professional, men and women who are specialists in biblically wise financial advice. They meet significant experience requirements, character and integrity requirements, as well as extensive specialized training in the application of a biblical worldview to financial decision making.

And they have to recertify all of that annually. So we encourage folks to look for somebody who has the CKA designation as they're seeking a competent financial professional. I would always interview two or three, perhaps you might even want to go with her if she wanted you to, just to hear each of these professionals out, ask a series of questions, find the one that you feel like is the best fit. So you can do that quickly and easily by going to our website MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click the button that says Find a CKA.

You'll be able to put in city, state or zip code, do a search, and then you can visit with two or three again that are close to you and your friend. And I think this will be a great next step. And after you do that, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to give us a call. Thank you, Charlene. We appreciate you calling and getting through today. Again, if you're having trouble getting through, well, keep trying because I know we have at least four or five extra open lines, 800-525-7000. And Rob, we also have an email that's been sitting here for a few days. So this is from, let's see, this is from Dolly. Hi there.

We're thankful for your program. My husband was laid off due to COVID. He's been unemployed since last October. We badly need to refinance our home but can't because he doesn't have a job. Is there another way to access the equity in our home?

Yeah, Dolly, it's a great question. I'm so sorry to hear about the fallout financially that you and your husband have experienced as a result of the pandemic. Certainly many in our listening audience are in the same situation. I want to encourage you, though, not to think about the solution to these hopefully temporary financial challenges as being your equity in your home. You know, the reason you can't qualify because he doesn't have income is the very reason that's where I don't want you to go because if you take this hard-earned equity that you've built up by paying into your home and whatever down payment you put down and any extra you put down along the way, not only is that then at risk but also if for some reason because of these financial setbacks he's not able or you together are not able to make the payment, which would be higher when you refinance and pull equity out, now your home is at risk.

You could lose the house and so I'd love for you to just see that equity and keep it right where it is and let's look for other ways to make it through this difficult period. Let your church know about the situation that you're in. Look at doing a May Day budget, which you'll find information about that on our website MoneyWiseLive.org. Just search for that and it'll talk about how you put a May Day budget, a temporary budget in place that focuses on the big four, keeping your house paid, the utilities on, gas in the car and food on the table and everything else is subject to being tossed out of the budget just during this period of time.

So let's go there first and see if you can't find ways, especially by working with your creditors who may be able to offer a forbearance and other options to reduce costs during this time and then let's pray that the Lord would provide additional employment for your husband in the very near future. Let your church know about that as well. Oftentimes they'll have a job board and can be a source of networking. Okay, good information. Thank you, Rob. And Dolly, we hope you were at your radio today able to hear that. If you'd like to contact Rob with a brief email so that you can hear it right on the air, the address is questions at MoneyWise.org, questions at MoneyWise.org. Okay, we have some loaded phone lines and we'll get to all of those when we return. This is MoneyWise Live.

Really good to have you with us today. It's MoneyWise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore and we're talking about all things financial.

Typically, we try to focus on what God's Word says about things like, well, you might be surprised to know the Bible addresses savings and generosity, work and career, the use of your time, your faith in God, budgeting, that and much, much more in the Bible. And that's where we start. And if we can help you in that regard, we are poised and ready to jump in when you dial 800-525-7000. Let's go down to your home state, Rob West, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And Viv, what's going on in your life? Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. I just have a real quick question for you. I'm looking to purchase a home at the end of the year and just wondering, I'm interested in… Oh, it looks like we lost Viv. Viv, are you still with us? All right. Let me, yeah, there, you're back. Go right ahead. You said you're looking at purchasing a home this year and then we lost you for a moment.

Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, looking to buy a home later on this year. I'm interested in maybe purchasing a foreclosure or short sale. Is there a website or a place that I can go to look at those type of properties? I call the local bank and they weren't able to help me. They said they referred me to a realtor.

But is there another way to do it? Yeah, you know, real estate agents who specialize in that could be a source for you. And so that would be the first place that I would go. I might call around to some of the local offices in your area and see if there's somebody who in that particular office specializes in these types of transactions. You know, beyond that, Zillow, newspapers, bank websites, the auction houses, public records, all of these would be sources of this type of information. So I would just start by googling where to find house foreclosures and you'll see, you know, all of these sites and options that I mentioned. I think you want to be careful when you're looking at a foreclosed property, especially if this is not something you've done yourself. You want to determine how much house you can afford. Again, I'd hire an experienced real estate agent.

That's going to be worth its weight in gold. Somebody who can help you navigate this process, especially with the unique complexities that come with a foreclosed property. And they can also help by determining what is the real value of the property and helping you put in a competitive offer. Then the home inspection is going to be really critical because so often you're buying these as is. And so, you know, that's really important to get that home inspection before you proceed.

But any of those options, again, bank websites, newspapers, public records, real estate agents, I think would be a great starting place. Thank you, Viv. We wish you the best as you ponder that. You know, Rob, someone might be asking, or at least wondering, as a Christian, is it okay for me to consider buying a foreclosed home because might it be taking advantage of someone else who was in the middle of a bad or a tough situation? No, I don't think so because, you know, they're going to need to resolve that issue one way or the other. And if the bank chooses to foreclose on the property, that's between the borrower and the bank. Now, hopefully they'll be able to work out another option, you know, putting perhaps a certain amount on the back end and getting them current, especially during the pandemic where people have reduced income, perhaps working on a short sale agreement where they'll agree to take whatever it can be sold for to make sure they don't have a deficiency balance when it's all said and done. Recasting the mortgage, I mean, any number of things can be done. But that's between the borrower and the bank.

So somebody who's coming in to buy a foreclosed property, I think, again, it's on the market, the circumstances are what they are. And so I don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to proceed in that regard. Okay, good. Appreciate that. Let's continue on.

Chicago, Illinois. Hello, Frank. And what's going on in your life today? Yes. How are you doing? Great.

Thank you. I was calling to find out I'm 65 years old. I just started receiving Social Security in October. I had to because of health issues. I had some money put away. I didn't know Ira, no 401 or nothing like that.

At least like maybe about 40,000. And I don't know what to do. I want to get some godly advice as well as what to have for like, you know, they call it emergency. But, you know, just to have in case of things come up.

Yes. Well, I think you're thinking the right way here, Frank. You know, I think the starting point when you're on a fixed income like you are living on Social Security is to really focus on that spending plan. Try to do your best to dial back your lifestyle and make sure you have a budget that balances because there's not anything to turn to if you run over each month. And then beyond that, yeah, you want to have some margin that you can start setting aside for emergencies because the unexpected will come. Starting fit with $1,500 I think is your first goal.

Then three months expenses and then ultimately it'd be great if you could build up six months worth of expenses in your emergency fund that's liquid and available if needed. Frank, great question. We wish you the best with that. Thanks very much for listening to MoneyWise Live.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Let's go right back to our phones. Cheryl is in Birmingham, Alabama. How can we help today? Hi, Cheryl. Hi, I'm sorry. Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? We can. Yes, ma'am. Go right ahead. Oh, good.

Thank you. I'm recently retired and I had a 401k at work and I listened to your program for years now and so I sought out a kingdom advisor and he wanted me to roll my 401k over into an IRA and it has done well where it's at. I just wanted to know if it's not legal to leave it in the 401k or if it's tax wise, is it better to have the IRA?

Yeah, great question, Cheryl, and we appreciate you listening for so long. Certainly no problem with you leaving it there in terms of either it not being permitted or there being any adverse tax implications. There are none of either of those, so you can leave it there. The only reason why I typically recommend and I suspect this certified kingdom advisor recommended that you roll it out to an IRA is a couple. Number one, the fees may go up slightly when you separate from the company and you leave a plan with your previous company's plan administrator, so you may end up paying just a little bit more. But the biggest reason is inside that 401k, and I realize you said it's done well investment wise in terms of the performance, but inside that 401k there's a limited universe of investment options. So each 401k will give you kind of a menu of some investments, usually mutual funds to pick from, that you can invest in. There might be life cycle funds based on a target date, might just be some bond funds or some balanced funds or growth funds, and then you choose from the usually, you know, anywhere between five and 20 different investment options. Well, as soon as you roll it out to an IRA, you open up the whole universe of investment options. You can basically invest in any stock, bond or mutual fund or exchange traded fund you want. You can also, frankly, invest in real estate too through a self-directed IRA. So you just have a whole host of investment choices to pick from, which allows an investment professional to really tailor the portfolio, especially during that season where you're moving perhaps out of the workforce, asking the Lord what he has for you in this retirement season of life, perhaps getting much more conservative, trying to protect what you have, but also generate a reasonable return that might even result in you taking an income stream from the portfolio. It gives the professional many more investment choices to build that portfolio with.

And you have a lot more control over the fees that you're paying as well, because you can decide to take a very low cost robo advisor approach or, which I don't recommend in your stage, or what I do recommend is you going with a professional who's probably going to charge a fee based on the assets under management. So again, no problem with you staying. It's just, you know, my preference would be that you move it out for the reasons that I mentioned, but does that all make sense to you? Oh yes. Thank you.

That's very clear. Thank you. Okay, Cheryl. God bless you. And thanks for calling today. Thank you, Cheryl. And if you're wondering about finding a Kingdom advisor in your area, more than likely we have one, just visit MoneyWiseLive.org, scroll toward the bottom of the page, and you'll find a section that says, connect with a coach, that's for a budget coach, or find a CKA, that's a Certified Kingdom Advisor. MoneyWiseLive.org, Chicago, Illinois. And Josie, what's your situation? Hi, good afternoon.

I just want to ask some advice from you guys. I got scammed. A guy almost got almost 90,000 from me.

Did you say 190,000? Josie? Oh my golly.

I did know that it was a scam. Yeah. Josie. Every time he asks me for help, he asks me for help. It's like I've been hypnotized. I'll go to the bank, I pay out some money for personal loan and everything, you know? Yes.

And now I'm totally praying out. Yes. Did this person try to build a relationship with you over the phone or over the internet, and that's how this happened?

Yeah. Boy, I am so, so very sorry. Tell me what you've done thus far.

What was your first step once you discovered what was going on? I haven't done anything, so I owe this person. I have a friend that I owe her cash money, and I've been trying to pay it, and then I lost my job. So everything, all my cards now are closed, and my checking accounts, some of them were already closed. It's just hard to find. I'm getting some depression, you know?

Yeah, I can certainly understand that. Josie, how are you paying your bills right now? How are you keeping the lights on, food on the table?

Tell me what you have. I have a part-time job, and then I'm struggling paying my rent. I want to move out from my two-bedroom because my daughter moved out from my apartment, you know?

So it's like every two weeks I'm struggling, and every time this person calls me that I owe the money, I have anxiety attack. Yeah, yeah. Have you reported this to the police, Josie? I don't know where to go, how to work on it, you know? Okay. Well, here's what I want to do. I'm going to ask you to hold on the line. We're going to get your information. We're going to connect you with some folks who can help you. Just think through what are the next steps.

Pray with you, encourage you, check back in with you along the way, and help you put the pieces back together. Here's the thing. The Lord is on the throne. He loves you. He is your provider, Josie. Somebody has taken advantage of you. That's not your fault.

This happens every day, and so what we need to do is just take the right steps moving forward to notify the authorities, let them know what's happened, notify your credit card companies, notify your mortgage companies, everybody you do business with, put a fraud alert on your credit report. I mean, there's some very specific steps that need to be taken to make sure that you move forward appropriately. I hope you're connected to a Bible-believing church there in Chicago. We need to let them know so they can come alongside you and be a source of encouragement, counseling, but also perhaps some assistance financially, maybe even somewhere to live, if you need to move out of this home. I mean, there's some clear next steps we need to take, and we want to help you do that, and we're going to walk alongside you to make sure that is all done. Let me pray for you, and then I'm going to ask you to hold the line, Josie, and we're going to get right back in touch with you and get somebody to walk with you. Does that sound okay? Yes, please.

Okay, very good. Father, we just lift Josie up to you right now. Thank you that you love her, Lord.

You are her creator. Lord, you are on the throne, and we can trust you in this situation. Josie, as you know better than us, is brokenhearted, and we'd ask you just be near to her right now. Lord, we ask that you would provide. I pray that you'd give us wisdom, give us people to walk alongside her that can be an encouragement to her, to point her back to you. I pray that against the evil one who might use this as a foothold to discourage her, to even separate or draw a wedge in her relationship with you, and Lord, we're just going to look forward to seeing how you're going to work in this situation to bring justice, to bring provision, and Lord, to take this precious creation of yours and draw her unto yourself, and at the end of this, may we look back and see that she's able to walk even in a more intimate relationship with you, her Heavenly Father. We tell you today we love you, Lord, and we would just ask that you would intervene miraculously in only the way that you can, and we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Josie, you stay on the line. Let's chat a little bit off here. Thank you very much, and God bless you, and if you are in a church with elderly people who are often targeted for these kinds of things, look for someone and reach out and help them. We'll be right back.

Awfully good to have you hanging with us today. It's MoneyWise Live with Rob West. Our phone number is 800-525-7000. Now, Rob, born and raised in the state of Florida, knows, well, he knows a lot of stuff, but he knows about sunblock, and he also knows about, there's this city. It's like Mississippi.

It's got lots of S's in it and M's and E's. It's like Kissimmee or Well, it's Kissimmee. Oh, Kissimmee. Unless Pamela says that I'm saying it wrong and have my whole life, I always called it Kissimmee. What do you think, Pam?

How's it pronounced? Yes. Yes. Yes, Pamela. Oh.

Hello? Pamela. Okay.

Pamela, it's Kissimmee. Okay. Thank you. What's your question today? Okay.

It's nice to meet you. Okay. I bought a house in 2018, and I pulled the money out of my mutual fund, which is $142. I put down $105, $105,000 on my deposit. My guy filed taxes for me, and this year I got back a letter from IRS requesting from 2018 $53,859.

And I'm trying to figure out, is it something that he missed? Yeah. So if I understand that correctly, when you bought that house, Pamela, in 2018, you put $105,000 on it. You pulled the money out of a mutual fund. Is that right? Yes. All right. And was that mutual fund inside of a retirement account, like a 401k or an IRA?

No, it wasn't. Well, after I retired, I took the money out from the 401 into a mutual fund. Right. But what was the type of account? When you took it out of the 401k, did it go to an individual retirement account, or did you just take a withdrawal? No, I went directly into the mutual funds with the other company.

Okay. But the question is around the titling of the account. You see, a 401k can have mutual funds and IRAs can have mutual funds, but so can taxable accounts, non-retirement accounts. They can all hold mutual funds. So the question is not what type of investment vehicle. The question is how was the account titled?

Do you know if the mutual fund that you moved it into was inside of an IRA, or was it inside of a taxable non-retirement account? Do you know that? No, I do not know. Okay. All right. Because I retired in 2015 and I had a transfer into that company. And then you sold the mutual fund and you used that to buy the house. Right. I withdraw it.

Yeah. So what's probably gone on here is what you didn't realize at the time is that as you took that money out of the probably IRA, or it could be when you took the distribution from the 401k, either one, you created $152,000 worth of taxable income on top of any other income you earned in 2018. And that meant that you had to pay income taxes on all of that, which puts you in a bit higher tax bracket than you had been with it with a portion of that. And if you didn't pay in based on that, you know, the taxes that were due on that both federal and state taxes, well, you're in Florida, so there is no state tax. But if you didn't pay in the federal income tax on that withdrawal, that's what they're now asking for. I'm not sure why it's taken so long.

But regardless, that's probably what's going on. I think your next step, Pamela, is to connect with a tax professional, somebody who can evaluate what you've received from the IRS, get into the details of your situation and advise you on where you go from here. Because if in fact, this is tax that you legitimately owe a, either an enrolled agent or a certified public accountant can represent you before the IRS, and they can work on either an offer and compromise where you'd pay less than you owe in full and satisfy it, or get you on a payment plan. But in either case, you're going to have to begin working with the IRS on a plan to get this paid back if in fact, you owe it and you probably do. And having a professional to help you navigate that and represent you before the IRS is probably the best next step. So if you don't have a tax professional, connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in Kissimmee.

If there's not a CKA in the tax and accounting area, then just call any of those CKs and ask for a referral to a godly CPA. And I think that'd be the best next step for you. Thank you very much. Probably God bless you.

Chicago is next. Cheryl, welcome to the program. What's on your mind? Thank you very much for taking my call. I'm 80 years old. And I receive a required distribution from my 401.

I don't need the money. So I called the company to ask if I could send that money back to them. And they said yes. I was talking with a friend of mine and she said, I don't think that's a good move.

You should probably put it into a new product. Can you help me with that? Yeah. Are you still working Cheryl?

No, no, no, no. I'm 84. I'm retired.

Okay, very good. And yeah, and yeah, you're not going to be able to put that back into the 401k. The only way you can contribute to the 401k is through a salary deferral, which you're not receiving. The reason the IRS is requiring you to take it out is that's just the way these these tax deferred retirement accounts work. 401ks and IRAs, when you reach a certain age, you have to which used to be 70 and a half now 72. You have to start pulling that money out. You're not allowed to just let it continue to grow tax deferred. And it's based on your life expectancy and a table that the IRS puts together. They want you to get that money out of the retirement account. So the only way you could put it back in to a 401k, like it says through a salary deferral, which is not an option, the only other way to put it into a retirement account would probably be an IRA. But you have to have earned income in order to contribute to an IRA.

So what you're probably going to need to do is just go and recognize that and just stick it into a savings account. You're going to pay tax on it as it comes out, and then it'll just be there when you need it down the road. The other option, if you haven't already done it, is what's called a qualified charitable distribution, where essentially you make a gift to a ministry or charity or your church in the amount of the required minimum distribution. The church receives the full amount. They won't pay any tax on it. You get the full deduction of the amount that was sent without paying any tax on it because you've never recognized it as income, and you satisfy your required minimum for the year. The benefit of that is if you were already going to give this money to the church or you want to give more than you were planning to give, you can do that in a very tax-efficient way because, again, you don't pay any tax. They get the full amount to use for their ministry purposes and you satisfy the RMD at the same time.

So that'd be about the only kind of way for you to miss out on the tax liability and still use it for an intended purpose. Apart from that, I think you're just going to have to stock it away in savings. We wish you the best with that, Cheryl. Thank you very much.

Quickly, Devonport, Florida. We have just a couple of minutes. Matt, how can we help you, sir?

Hi there. So glad you're taking my call. I appreciate your commitment to valuable financial wisdom. My question is, my wife and I just received our tax refund, and we started having conversations about our values. I feel led that we need to get our emergency fund set in order and also start paying down debt in order to really start moving in the direction the Lord wants us to go. And so we're putting $1,500 of the $5,100 return into an emergency fund. And then we had started to think we ought to pay off the largest credit card, which is $2,300 balance. And then I wanted to know what your thoughts were on the best strategy here.

Should we pay off a card with the largest balance or should we go the snowball method? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, very good, Matthew. I love the way you're talking here, because as you say, you and your wife are trying to make sure that you use this money in a way that aligns with your values and priorities to be good stewards. That's exactly the way we all should be thinking about using God's money. I love the idea of starting the emergency fund.

That's great. I love the idea beyond the $1,500 of paying down credit card debt. How many cards do you have? So we have three cards of balances. There's a $2,300 balance I mentioned, an $1,800 balance, and then a $700 balance. Great.

And what would you have left over after the emergency fund, about $3,500? Yes, that's correct. Okay, very good. Yeah, I would use the snowball method just because all of the research I've ever seen, Matthew, says that that's going to give you the motivation to see this through.

So what I would do is knock out number three with $700, the smallest balance, then I'd knock out number two, the $1,800, and then I'd take the rest and put it against number three, the $2,300, leaving a balance, but taking everything you were sending to two and three, right, the smallest and the next smallest, and then attacking that $2,300 with whatever margin you can create in your monthly spending now that this $5,100 is gone until it's paid off, and you're going to immediately go from three cards to one, and then hopefully in short order with all that excitement and enthusiasm and great diligence, you'll get that third one paid off in no time, and you guys will be in much better shape with an emergency fund, no credit card debt, and poised to ask God what's next. Matthew, God bless you guys, and we appreciate your focus on what God wants you to do with your resources. Thank you very much for listening, and Rob, hope you and yours have a great weekend, sir.

Thanks, Steve. It is Friday, isn't it? It is Friday indeed, and remember MoneyWise Live, this program is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Now, as Rob mentioned, it's Friday, which means a big weekend is ahead. In fact, in fact, Rob, it's National Strawberry Day tomorrow, Saturday, and if you can't make that in Plant City, Florida, your home state, it's also National Polar Bear Day, so you might be able to figure out a way to celebrate that. Hug a polar bear. Hug a polar bear, any chance you get. My thanks to Amy, Dan, Clara, Steve, and Jim Henry for their help and cooperation today. Jim oversees access to our polar bear observation platform as well. Have a great weekend. Join us again on Monday.