Spotting Fake Websites

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10, 16. Turns out there are plenty of wolves on the web.

That's right. Scammers are using fake websites at an increasing rate, trying to lure you into a con that separates you from your money. Today, Kingdom Advisors President Rob West tells you how to be wise on the web.

And we'll take your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7800, 525-7000. I'm Steve Moore, spotting fake websites. That's next on MoneyWise Live. Rob, we reported on this trend a while back, specifically how scammers were setting up fake Amazon sites and getting people to buy gift cards as part of a scam, but it goes way beyond Amazon, doesn't it? Right. That's one of the biggest examples, and it's been in the news a lot. But Steve, this is a global trend involving all kinds of fake websites and different kinds of scams. In 2020, listen to this, worldwide cybercrime was estimated at nearly $1 trillion. That's with a T. Wow. Wow. All right.

But we don't have to participate. So how do we spot a fake website? Well, several ways, but many of them begin with something called phishing. We've talked about this in the past on the program that's phishing with a ph.

It's a way to get you to reveal your financial information under false pretenses by creating an air of legitimacy. A scammer might send you an official looking email from an address that closely resembles a real account. It might even have the official logo on the email, and that email address might be something like security at Amazon dot protect dot com.

I just made that up. Now, an email might say a suspicious attempt has been made to log into your account. Please update your password. It would then provide a link to a fake Web page.

You know the drill. It might even again have the logo on it somewhere to look official. If you click on the link, it'll tell you to first put in your current password before changing it. So you do that and then type in a new password.

But the change never takes place on the real Amazon site. And the scammer now has access to your account information there, including any credit card numbers you've entered. So that's phishing, and it usually involves a fake website. Never respond to a request to change your password unless you've initiated it yourself from the real website. If you get a request out of the blue, just delete it. And seems like these are happening more and more often.

Oh, more and more. As I've mentioned before, in the last few weeks I've received several from my PayPal, well, allegedly from my PayPal account, telling me there are lots of issues and problems. I just don't even respond to those. I delete them.

But nonetheless, they are a little scary. Okay, what are some other ways to maybe spot a fake website? Well, one of the easiest ways is by taking a close look at the URL. That's what you see in the address bar of your browser, and it includes the domain name. Obviously, Amazon.com is the real domain name, but a scammer might use something, again, like Amazon.security.com, which would seem real, but isn't. So you have to be suspicious of subdomains that includes a part of the real domain. Never Google Amazon, because you'll probably get a bunch of fake URLs in addition to the real one. So start any action at the real site by typing it in directly. Again, in this example, Amazon.com. Okay, watch for suspicious subdomains. Got it.

What about, well, what's next on your list? Yeah, well, at the beginning of the URL or web address, look for the letters HTTP or HTTPS. The S at the end of that string of letters indicates that you have a secure connection and your data can't be intercepted. Never input any sensitive information where you don't see the S at the end of the HTTP. Now, it's not 100% guaranteed that a site with HTTPS in the URL is legit, but not having it means the site for sure isn't secure, and you don't want to do business there.

Okay. How do we take it a step further to ensure that a site is legal and legit? Yeah, well, you can look for trust seals on the site. These are logos with names like McMcAfee or Norton Security.

Just seeing that isn't enough, though. You want to click on the verification identification, and typically they're not going to go as far as actually impersonating the guarantee that would typically appear alongside these. So if you can't find a trust seal on a website, don't attempt to buy anything there. Okay, anything else?

Well, one more thing. If you're still not sure a site is legit, Google offers a free service called the Google Safe Browsing Transparency Report. We'll put a link to that in our show notes.

You can go to that web page, type in the URL, and you'll get a report on whether it contains any unsafe content like malware that could compromise your financial information. Thanks, Rob. This is MoneyWise Live.

It's really great to have you aboard today. This is MoneyWise Live, where we remember that God owns it all. And if we can help you with all that you have from a financial perspective, using God's word as our starting place, we'd love to help you do that. You'll have to place the call, however, 800-525-7000.

That is not a fake website or a fake phone number or anything like that, but that's what we've been chatting about a little bit today, how to spot fake websites. And Rob, anything else to add to your recommendations? Well, let's go to social media for a moment, because the question we posed today was, how do you protect yourself from identity theft? And thanks to Brenda for weighing in.

She says a couple of things. Number one, she uses RFID cards in her wallet. You know, a lot of times folks are trying to scam information or retrieve information from the chip in your credit card using very sophisticated readers, and there are wallets that can protect against that.

Brenda also uses a monitoring service, and she says not using her phone for payments. You know, I think along with that goes this idea of not using public Wi-Fi for any transactions or business online where somebody could compromise your information. And then just a few seconds ago, Steve, because that's how up to date we are here on MoneyWise Live, Donna weighed in and she said, Hey, I just heard you talking about sites with HTTPS. She points out very correctly that now the modern browsers just have a lock icon next to the address and no longer use the HTTPS. Now, you will still see HTTPS if you click into that address window and it pulls up the full address. But if you don't click in there, what you will see just to the left of the URL in the address bar is a little picture of a lock, and that just simply means you're on a secure site that has the secure feature. So again, that doesn't solve everything, but it does go a long way to saying you're in a place that is secure. Now, tell me again about this thing with the wallet.

What was it? Yeah, well, there's chips in the credit cards now. They're smart cards, right? So you can just wave them across the reader and, you know, there are devices where somebody could come up behind you and actually scrape the information digitally off of your credit card. So there are certain wallets that protect against that kind of theft. The other thing you can do is just simply keep your cards on your phone and then, you know, nothing can be compromised that way. See, that's not an issue with me because I seldom know where my wallet is, so I don't worry about that kind of thing. That's true. That goes right along with that phrase you use, analog guy in a digital world.

Is that how you describe yourself? I'm going to write a song one of these days. Remember where you heard it first. Okay.

800-525-7000. Let's begin. Chicago, Illinois. Edwin, do you know where your wallet is right now, Ed? Yes, in my back pocket. Well, you only think it's in your back pocket. Check again. Hey, how can we help you, my friend?

Well, right now I'm currently with I was in a job and I lost my job, so I took my 401K, I transferred over to an IRA and Roth. Yeah. And my wife was in there again. It was through her through a friend that recommended them. But I believe I think they're charging kind of high. On their you know, on any anything that they buy.

Okay. So currently, like they right now, I got like they got four because the 401K transferred over. So I got an IRA, a Roth IRA with like 8800 in it. My wife has her IRA with the same company, like 20 grand in there. I got another Roth. She has another Roth for 9000. And then for my turnover, I have about 330,000.

Okay. So all in, you have how much between all the accounts? How much do you have invested, roughly? I think about, let me see, maybe about 360. 360,000? Yes. Okay.

And what are you being charged? That's the thing. When I ask, it's like, oh, it's just a percentage.

You know, I get that kind of thing. And right now, with my new current job, I have a 401K and they match 3.5 and it's through a company that I hear it's good. It's better. Okay. I just want to know what I have to do. My home is almost paid off.

I'm 56 years old. I'm trying to get closer and do the best I can. So is your primary question, Edwin, whether you're being overcharged? Exactly. Okay. Now let's talk about that. Has your investment professional told you the percentage that they're charging on the assets under management?

No. When I ask them, it's like, you know, you want to get a certain percent, but never exactly any. I say, could you give me something in writing, you know? And I've been with them like three years because I lost my job about three years.

So about three years with them, but my wife's been there longer. Okay. Well, I would go back and ask that question again and say, listen, I need some transparency on exactly what I'm paying. I'd like to know what is the percentage that I'm paying as a management fee annually and find out what that percentage is. And then obviously you could calculate the dollar amount. It's not uncommon, Edwin, for an investment professional providing active money management where he or she is going in on a fiduciary basis to make the buy and sell decisions with your objectives paramount.

Right. So hopefully when you went in, there was a pretty extensive due diligence and discovery process to learn more about you, your age and stage of life, your goals and objectives, your risk tolerance, you know, what God has for you in the next season. If this is a godly individual, hopefully they understand the Council of Scripture and can apply God's wisdom to even the decisions that are being made, which is why we recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. But if at the end of all of that, then this professional is tasked with the responsibility of making the buy and sell decisions based on all of that initial discovery and the ongoing conversations you'll have each year. It would not be uncommon for them to charge a percentage of the assets under management. And I would expect that number to be somewhere between 1% and one and a half percent a year. So that could be as much as $5,400 or it might be $3,600 on a $360,000 account all in. And so yes, that's a lot of money.

But keep in mind, you've worked your entire career to amass this wealth. And so you don't want to just put it on autopilot, paying a professional for their expertise to make sure that it's managed properly to protect what you have to grow it. But also at some point in the future to help you generate an income off of it is worth, you know, paying for that expertise. And that would be a very common percentage.

Now, if I heard that that number was higher than one and a half percent on the management fee that was being charged to you, I'd say, yeah, you might want to ask for them to bring it down or look for another option. But at the very least, they need to be very transparent with you about how they're being paid and in what ways and are they earning anything beyond the management fee, like from the mutual fund companies or anything like that. So you want full transparency about everything that they are earning. So then you can make a decision as to whether that's fair and appropriate. So that would be my next question. Once you get that information, don't hesitate to call us back. Hmm. Edwin, we hope that helps you. We trust it does.

Thank you very much. So Rob, are there more than I mean, is there more than one way for a financial planner to make his money as they look at your account and provide you with wisdom throughout an annual period of time? Absolutely.

Yeah. And you use the word financial planner, which is really another set of services where they're actually doing comprehensive financial planning. Often that will either be rolled in as a part of the investment management fees, or it will be charged separately based on an hourly basis or a set fee annually based on the complexity of the planning needs. That would often be in addition to a management fee that's charged as a percent of the assets under management. Beyond that, there are ways to be paid off of the individual investments themselves. Certain mutual funds and classes of mutual funds will pay a commission to the investment professional if there's any insurance products involved. Those have their own sets of commission. So you just need to go in saying, I need to know exactly how you are being paid and at what amount and from what places so that I can make sure that it's fair and that your interests as the professional are aligned with mine.

Not that you're seeking the highest payout, but you're doing what's right for me, which is what's really known as fiduciary responsibility, doing what's right for the client and not in their own best interest. And if you're a couple of years into a relationship and you start to get a little fuzzy on how they're charging you or why they're charging you, it doesn't hurt. It's not offensive to ask that question over again, correct? Shouldn't be at all.

If it was, I'd be concerned about that relationship. All right. 800-525-7000 if you'd like to speak today to Rob West. This is MoneyWise Live.

We'll be right back after this. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live where your checkbook and God's book meet to have an impact on your life and the lives around you. Don't forget, keep your hand on your wallet because scofflaws, bad guys, crooks are out there pointing their their apparatus at your wallet through your pants pocket to get to the chips. This doesn't even sound real, Rob.

This is something you made up. The chips in your cards that are in your wallet and they're from a hundred yards away. They're able to point.

They would typically be very close to you. I think I've been watching too many movies. Okay. Miami, Florida, WRMB. Hello, Isaac.

Thank you for your patience, my friend. What's on your mind? Hello. I actually come from the radio station down the road.

I was on Chris Fabry talking about dating. Now we're on to finances. All right, Isaac. You're making the rounds today, Isaac.

I like it. I have a question. It's a bit different, but it's still it's the question that's been concerning me. All right. If it's finance, I've got it.

If it's dating advice, Steve's the one who takes those. So let's see what you got first. I'm good. This is finance.

This is finance. Okay, so currently I'm in college living with my aunt and uncle since my parents are with the Lord. But I'm struggling with certain thoughts and I find myself too idle.

I've made a plan where in like a month I will move on my own where I can pursue my passions. I see myself accomplishing very big things. But one thing that keeps me hesitant is what the Lord may think of this.

I'm not greedy, but I've seen myself in the past being very prideful and I'm afraid of that. The Bible tells us a pastor should not be a new convert because he may become conceited and receive the same condemnation as the devil. So my question is, would God be proud of me if I pursue these types of careers so I can help others and work hard in life without elevating myself?

Yeah, wow. I appreciate that, Isaac. It sounds like you really thought through this and clearly you want to honor the Lord with your endeavors. We realize, first of all, that God owns it all, right? So everything that you have and will have forevermore until he calls you home will belong to him, which gives you the honor and the privilege, Isaac, of being the money manager for the creator of the universe, just like I am and everyone listening to my voices, which gives us a high calling and a real responsibility as to how we handle God's money. Now, is it inappropriate to have a desire to earn more, to work hard so that you can, and as you said, clearly pointed out, give more?

No, that's very appropriate. In fact, I was just talking about this on a morning show this morning as we were talking about really the why God gives us wealth in the first place. And we were talking about Ephesians 4 28. Listen to this. It says, Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with their own hands. Now I'm going to stop there. I'm going to finish the verse in a second. That's exactly what you were talking about. You want to work with your hands and with your God-given talents to earn an income. Now, you might think that the rest of this passage says so that he or she may provide for themselves.

It does not. Let me finish. I'll go back. You must work doing something useful with their own hands so that, listen to this, Isaac, they may have something to share with those in need.

Isn't that interesting? That says to me that the starting point for my money is a generosity story. The beginning point is not my provision. You know, if you start with your provision, you'll end up with an endless list of needs and wants. For God so loved the world, he gave.

It's a generosity story. And so if you begin with that motivation that, Lord, I want to take the gifts and talents you've given me to work as unto you very diligently, very hard. And as you provide whatever that is, large or small, I want to use that to give back to you and certainly to meet the needs of myself and my family, which is caring for those around me, both in my immediate family and beyond, and then saving a portion of that for the future so I can provide for myself. And continue to share down the road.

That's a very appropriate motivation. And so I think you're setting out in the right way. The only thing I would encourage you to do is to search the scriptures, because God has a lot to say about how you should handle his money.

So what I want you to do is hold the line. I want to send you a copy of the Stewardship Bible. It's a Bible with every one of the twenty three hundred verses on money highlighted in green. And I want you to start meditating on those passages so that as you move forward and God blesses you and provides for you, you can align your spending and your allocation of his resources with God's heart, which is clearly articulated in scripture. Isaac, we're glad that you called. We're glad that you got through.

We're glad that you spoke to Mr. Fabry earlier on, because he's a smart guy. So whatever he told you to do, do that. And whatever we tell you to do, pray about it first.

But you stand the line. We're going to send you something. And Rob, you know, it really is all kidding aside. It's great to hear from young people who want to serve Christ and who have their priorities in order. Well, that's exactly right, Steve. We need to be seeking God's heart for how we manage his money. And starting at a young age, imagine what Isaac's going to be able to do if he gets this right now. Before God continues to provide.

Yeah. And Isaac, you asked about God being proud of you, my friend. He is already proud of you. He couldn't love you more than he does the day he saved you.

Whatever you do or don't do, he still loves you wholeheartedly. So remember that. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. 800-525-7000. If you'd like to speak with Rob West today, give us a call right now. We have a couple of open lines. 800-525-7000.

Valparaiso, Indiana. Hello, Liz. What's on your mind? Well, I received an inheritance because my father passed away, and some of it is in gold and silver. And I don't really know what to do with it, and I'd like to tithe on it.

Yeah. Well, the first step, Liz, and I'm sorry to hear about your dad's passing. The first step is to find out the value of what you've inherited, because that's going to drive everything in terms of how you proceed in terms of getting a fair price for it if you liquidate it. And I would encourage you to do that in an appropriate time and way.

And then secondly, once you establish the value, then you know what the increase is, and then you can give as unto the Lord as he directs, whether that's a tenth or some other amount. So where do you go to get it valued? Well, you want to seek out a reputable appraiser.

You could ask friends and family. I'd probably visit the websites of the American Society of Appraisers or the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers to find out about appraisers in your area. And then they'll charge you a small amount, but basically you'll come back with the property being described. It will detail what the value is or at least an estimate, and then it'll have the signature of the appraiser and that will be able to be used. You know, typically people use that either for tax purposes or insurance coverage or just to know kind of what they have.

So then they can proceed in finding a dealer that would actually purchase this or facilitate the sale of it. So I think that's your next step just to figure out exactly what you have. And obviously, in the meantime, you'll want to make sure it's secure and whether that includes putting it at the bank in a safe deposit box or if you have a safe at home or something like that.

So I think those are really your next steps from here. Liz, in what form is this gold? Bars and coins.

Bars and coins. Wow. Okay. So your advice, Rob, you wouldn't change your advice knowing this information? No, I mean, you could obviously go to somebody from the Numismatic Association, you know, who specializes in coins. Numistitist. You know, because if there are rare coins, you'll want somebody who has a specialty in that area. But if it's just valuing what you have, you know, I think that's the place to go first. Alright.

Liz, we're glad that you called and we wish you the best with this. Thank you very, very much. Numistitititititititititititititititititititititititititit. Is that a person who likes roses? What is that? That's somebody who specializes in coins. Coins. Okay, there you go. Coins.

Miami, Florida. Hi, Ron. Welcome to MoneyWise Live. Hello, Gentlemen. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, we spoke a couple of weeks ago and you use the term. I explained to you what kind of budget we were on. You said that was the may day budget.

So I don't know if you remember that call, but we're still on that budget. And my question is this, um, I've been on Medicare for about four years now. I also, I have part A and B and I have Medicare supplements as well.

The price just went up from around 165 a month to 190 a month. And now I am very healthy. I have a history of health my entire life. Uh, and my wife she's healthy, but she's had other issues. She had a colon cancer and thyroid cancer and the Lord delivered her from that.

She's completely clean from that now, but her health is a little more delicate than mine. So on this may day budget, my question is, should I cancel my Medicare supplements and take that money and invest it into a better health plan for my wife? Or should I put that into savings? Cause we do need to build up our emergency fund and, or buy some kind of whole life policy for my wife. I have one of myself that I pay like $93 a month on.

It's a $30,000 benefit, but my wife has no life insurance. So that's my question. That makes sense.

It does. Yeah. So obviously you're trying to solve for a couple of things. You want the proper healthcare coverage. You want to try to, uh, you know, trim the budget to the best of your ability. And then lastly you raise this question of life insurance.

Let's start with the budget and the meta gap policy you're talking about. Um, you know, basically what I might look for is a Medicare advantage plan. Uh, you know, Medicare, um, A and B isn't free. You have to pay about $150 a month for it.

Uh, so this supplement isn't a whole lot more. If you shop around for a Medicare advantage plan, you may be able to get a, B and the supplement for about the same that you're paying now. So I'd kind of Google Medicare advantage and do some shopping and see if you can't find something that would allow you to, um, you know, drop the total cost that you're paying, but still retain the same amount of coverage. I think with regard to the life insurance, the question is just who needs life insurance and for what purpose, you know, um, whole life insurance is going to be very expensive on her life, especially if, uh, you know, she has health issues. Are you talking about life insurance though for her benefit? So that would be on your life that would pay out to her if something happened to you? No, I have life insurance on myself.

I have a policy that I pay about $93 a month for. Okay. And it's a whole life policy. And, uh, and, uh, it's got a $30,000 benefit and I plan on keeping that.

Okay. And, and are you using that primarily as a savings vehicle or are you interested in the death benefit? In the death benefit. And that's for what purpose?

Uh, funeral expenses and that type of thing? Yes. And to leave just a little something for my wife, if I should go first. We're always, you know, having mock arguments about who's going to go first.

You know, we never seem to be able to resolve the issue. Yeah, no, I totally get it. Well, I certainly, I mean, if that's important to you, then it sounds like you've got to, you've got a plan for that. The one thing I would just put out there for you all to think and pray and talk about is, you know, is that necessary? Because that's probably, you know, especially given the current considerations in the budget, um, you know, do you have enough saved that if something were to happen to you, she'd be just fine, that 30,000 wouldn't be necessary. And then you could recapture that amount every month back into the budget.

If not, you feel like, you know, that's something you want to cover expenses, or as you said, just to have a little extra for her beyond what you all have saved and accumulated to this point, then, you know, that will ensure that that is there for throughout the rest of her life. I just want you to count the cost of that and make sure that it's needed and that that's an effective way to do it, given the other challenges you've got going on in the spending plan. But hopefully that's helpful to you, Ron. We appreciate you calling in again and for your listening.

Yeah. Ron, God bless you and your wife. Thank you very, very much. You know, my wife and I have the same argument, Rob, who's going to go first. And I've noticed that as our arguments get more heated, I think I am the one who's going to go first. That's, it's just, it's just the vibe that I get sometimes say, here's a quick email.

It's okay. It comes from Sue. She says, dear Rob, dear Robin, Steve, actually, my husband and I are not on the same page regarding our spending, and he doesn't want to get on a budget. Can you offer some help on how we can agree?

Well, you know, yeah, I appreciate this question. And let me just encourage you, Sue, you are in the same place that millions of people are in because we know 70% of people, uh, married couples, uh, money is a challenge. It's a source of conflict. And, you know, I think one of the big reasons why that is is that there's a misalignment of values related to the money. See, money is the way we work out what's important to us and to the extent, uh, there's not alignment between where are we headed and how can money help us accomplish that, um, either because there's truly a breakdown there or just because you all haven't communicated well enough about that. I think there's a real opportunity to come together and say, let's develop a vision for our marriage. Where is God taking us now and six months from now and several years from now?

And how is money going to help to be a tool to accomplish God's purposes? And then the spending plan is just a reflection of that, by the way, make sure there's a little bit carved out for each of you to use as you wish in that budget as well. Sue, thanks for the email. We'll be right back.

MoneyWise Live taking your calls today. We're so glad you're out there and so glad for the team that we have behind us today. Rob, as you know, we have a rotating group of people, all of them more professional than the last. And I mean, uh, today today it's Amy and Dan and Aaron. And of course, Jim Henry is here. Amy pushes lots of buttons, talks to people. Dan, uh, pushes the buttons that Amy forgets to push. Uh, Aaron is down the hall. We never see from Aaron, but we know he's doing a yeoman's job down there and just not quite sure what the job is. And then of course, Jim Henry, the man with two names, Jim keeps track of all of our COVID activity here at the MoneyWise headquarters. And I'm happy to say that there has been no COVID activity since Jim took over. What do you think? Fantastic. Yes, true. All right, there you go.

Strongville, Ohio. Hello, Bill. Uh, what's your question today, sir? Okay. Thanks for taking my call.

I have two short questions. One is, uh, is there a stock company, you know, of that I could buy one share at a time? Uh, yeah, so you're talking about fractional shares there, Bill, and this is becoming more and more common, uh, because you know, a lot of these, especially these big kind of high flying, uh, companies, uh, you know, you can't even afford to buy one share. Um, and so buying fractional shares means you can buy a percentage of a share.

And, uh, there are a number of places to go. A lot of the big brokers, uh, will allow you to buy infractional shares including Charles Schwab and Fidelity. Um, you will also see some of the newer folks that have entered this space through the FinTech movement that allow this as well. One that's gotten a lot of press lately is called Robinhood in particular because of their free trades. They also offer fractional shares. So I'd probably look to one of those three again, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, uh, or Robinhood.

You could also Google brokers offering fractional shares and you'll get a big long list probably at nerd wallet or Investopedia. And Rob, is that acceptable? I mean, is that a good methodology? Just well, I would need to know more, Steve. I mean, I think the idea is if it's just kind of some money you've got on the side that you want to, you know, put into a company that you believe is going to do well, this is not what I'll call your serious money. I mean, I wouldn't do this with your retirement account, but if you've got a little money socked away, you're not trying to trade the market. I'm not going to buy in today hoping to sell it three days from now when it, you know, runs up. I mean, that's day trading and, uh, that's a lot of risk and volatility that comes with that. I don't think that's a prudent use of God's money unless you're a professional trader.

But if you were going to buy into a fractional stake of a company that you believe is going to do well over time, you plan to hold that for the longterm. Uh, I think that's a great way to go. Okay. Bill, thank you very much. We appreciate that. Avon Lake, Ohio.

And Freddie, what's your question for Rob West? How are you doing guys? Wonderful.

Thank you. My question is, uh, I have a primary residence and a rental. Um, my primary has about 125 on it.

It's worth about 275 and I am looking to refi. I found a rate at a 2.89 for a 15 year, which if I did that, it would knock six years off my current mortgage. And, but I was wondering about tying the rental into it.

Uh, it is an option. They said I can do it. Um, I'm just wondering about if I were to sell this house within a year or so, you know, will I lose the equity potential equity that I have from the sale of the house towards another? So what do you owe on the rental? Uh, about 70. And what do you think it's worth?

About 130. Okay. So you'd be getting a new mortgage at roughly 195 on a $275,000 home and then you'd pay off, you'd cash out and pay off the rental. Is that what you're thinking? Correct. Correct. Okay. And then obviously if you were to sell that property, you'd walk away with a $80,000.

Let's say you sold it for a 275 you'd walk away with 80 and then the question would be, does that give you enough money to buy whatever is your next primary residence? Um, you know, without creating any challenges. Yeah, possibly not. Okay. So that'd be the first red flag. The second red flag is I like to separate business, your business interests from your personal finances. And I look at a rental property as a business, uh, because you know, you would, uh, buy it as an asset. You'd hopefully make it income producing by renting it out. You'd pay the mortgage and the reserves and the maintenance and the taxes and the insurance and the marketing.

And then hopefully you'd have something left over. Uh, or at the very least, it's, uh, you know, the rental income is paying off the mortgage, so it'll ultimately be an asset. But if something were to happen unexpected in your financial life, by paying off that rental income, I realize you're probably are paying off the mortgage on the rental property. I realize you're probably getting a much better interest rate, but you're also, uh, increasing the potential risk related to your primary residence because if something happened and you couldn't make your mortgage payment at $195,000 mortgage, you put your home at risk. Now you might say, that's a pretty low risk.

I don't see that happening. If I got into trouble, I can sell it. And all that may be true. It's just another consideration. So I'd be looking at a, do you really want to take, uh, that business interest mortgage and put it against your primary residence, which I'd love you to pay for you to pay off as quickly as possible. And you're going the other way by increasing the debt. And number two, is it going to put you in a bad spot with the next property you want to buy?

Cause you don't have enough money for the down payment to get to a mortgage that's acceptable with your budget. So those would be the primary considerations as I look at this. Freddie. Thank you. We wish you the best as you work through that.

Thank you very much. Uh, Fort Lauderdale, destiny, just a couple of minutes. What's your question? Hi, destiny. Yes, sir. We're having trouble hearing you destiny.

One more time. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am.

We can hear you now. Thank you. Okay. So my question is about investing. Okay. I, um, I received some money as a gift and I want to get into investing.

Um, I would like to know what's the safest route and the best route to start investing as a beginner. Yeah, very good. Um, well, the first thing I would say destiny is I want to make sure the rest of your financial foundation is in place before you invest. I will answer your question though, but let me ask you some questions first. Um, are you, um, in college? Are you out of college and working? Uh, you know, tell me what stage of life you're in.

I'm not in college yet. Okay. What age are you? If you don't mind me asking. I'm 17. 17.

Okay, very good. And, uh, you plan to go to college in the next year? Yes.

Okay. And how is that going to be paid? Are you, do you have money saved? Is somebody else paying for it?

How is that going to work? It's fully paid. Awesome. Okay, very good. And do you have any savings?

Have you set anything aside, uh, in, uh, outside of this money you're looking to invest in, I'll call it an emergency savings account? I do. Okay. Uh, how much roughly?

About $4,000. Okay. Very good.

Um, very good. Um, so I think the key here is to make sure that anything you start to invest, we always want to have, I'm going to use the word time horizon, meaning, uh, I don't expect to use this money for a time horizon of at least 10 years. Why is that? Well, when we invest, we don't know what the stock market, I'm going to use that term broadly. Um, we don't know what the stock market is going to do next week or in six months or even a year or two years. But we do know that it's a very appropriate place to put God's money to earn a return over the long haul.

Historically speaking, it's the most effective way to do that with the lowest risk where again, if we're willing to be patient and not, you know, act emotionally when the market's down, pulling it out and trying to jump back in at the appropriate time, but just letting it go with an appropriate and prudent diversified, meaning not all your eggs in one basket, diversified investment strategy. It's a very effective way to build wealth over time, but I want to make sure that you have the time horizon, right? So this money that you received as a gift, that's not part of your college fund and not in your $4,000 savings. Do you think that's money you'd need within the next 10 years?

The money that I'm looking to invest? Yes, ma'am. No. Okay, great. All right. So then the next step, and do you mind me asking how much you would be looking to put to work in your investments right now? 7,000. 7,000. Okay.

Very good. So the place to go, I think for that would be one of the, there's some new online brokers that have wonderful smartphone apps. One is called Betterment. One that's a newer service from an older financial institution called Charles Schwab, and it's called the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. Either one of those would allow you to open an investment account, either a retirement account like an IRA, if you have earned income, or if you're not working a taxable account and deposit the money again, Betterment or Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, you'd answer a series of questions and they would, as you deposit the money, the 7,000 all at once, and then whatever else you add to it over time, the algorithms, the computers would build an investment portfolio for you. That's very low cost comprised of what are called indexed ETFs. And basically you would just own pieces of the stock market, international and domestic and small cap and large cap and a little bit of bonds, but it would be mainly stocks because you're so young and you've got so much time on your side. And then you would systematically invest and it would be a very low cost way to start capturing the broad moves of the market. That's probably where I would go next Betterment or the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. Now I want you to stay on the line though, cause I want to send you a gift. It's the sound mind investing handbook. That's going to teach you all about investing God's way. And if you stay on the line, we'll get that right out to you. Destiny, thank you very much for your phone call today. We wish you the best as you begin and think through this process and procedures. So even though pun people do lose money occasionally, Rob, you said the stock market is an appropriate place to put God's money.

You still good with that? I am as long as it's for the right reasons with the right time horizon and you're properly diversified. Yes, I do absolutely think it's a great way to put God's money to work. Thanks, Rob.

This program MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks so much for being with us today. We'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again. We hope you'll join us. Have a great remainder of your day.