Home Title Theft Insurance

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. It seems that identity thieves are no longer content with just taking out a credit card in your name or emptying your bank account. Now they want your house. It's a growing form of identity theft, home title fraud.

Lender notifies you that they're about to foreclose on your home. So today, Kingdom Advisors President Rob West tells you how to protect yourself. And it's your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore. Do you need title theft insurance? That's next on MoneyWise Live.

Hi, Rob. You know, most of us have seen or heard the ads for insurance against title theft. But now we're starting to get questions about it here on the program. Before we get into the insurance part, tell us how this type of fraud actually works. Yeah, it can take several forms, but all of them start with identity theft.

There's a very sophisticated version involving wire fraud that has the FBI's attention, and that's something we can cover in another program. Today we're talking about a much simpler and more common variety that we'll just call title fraud, and it works like this. The thief simply strolls into your county deeds office and, faking your signature, files a false deed transfer in your name to someone else. Then the thief takes out a home equity loan or refinances with cash out and skips down. After a few months of non-payment, the lender then begins foreclosure proceedings against, of course, you. This is absolutely frightening, and it sounds like an awful lot of work as far as the fraudster is concerned.

Maybe you should just get a job instead. Anyway, all of this is happening without the real homeowner knowing about it, I presume, until it's too late. So, many companies today are advertising that they can protect you from this kind of fraud, so what exactly are you buying when you get title fraud insurance that usually, as I understand it, costs about $15 a month?

Right, and first we do need to clarify something, Steve. This isn't what is typically known as title insurance, which you should always get when you purchase a property. In fact, title fraud insurance really isn't insurance, and it doesn't lock your title, as the name sometimes implies. Real title insurance protects you against any claim involving the validity of your ownership of the property, and it's a one-time purchase, usually several hundred dollars. Title fraud insurance, on the other hand, is a completely different product. It won't protect you if a scammer forges your signature and transfers your title.

Well, then what does it do? Well, these products will usually just monitor whether your deed has been transferred out of your name at the county records office. That might be helpful if you're able to react in time and challenge the deed transfer at the records office before the scammer takes out a new loan, but that's, of course, a big if.

Also, there's no way to actually lock a title in any state, at least not yet. There's nothing to stop a scammer from forging your signature and transferring a deed out of your name. By the way, you can monitor whether a fraudulent transfer has occurred all by yourself.

Most counties now allow you to view the status of your deed online, and some counties even allow you to sign up for automated alerts involving any deed changes. What if you don't challenge a deed transfer in time? How do you protect yourself at that point from fraud? Yeah, in theory, Steve, you don't really need protection against it because it's fraud. So if someone forges your signature, transfers your deed, and then takes out a loan against it, that's all still fraud. The con artist didn't legally own your property, so the lender doesn't have a legal claim to it. If they tried to foreclose on you, it would be wrongful foreclosure and it wouldn't hold up in court. Plus, and this is kind of strange, the lender almost certainly required the scammer to buy lenders title insurance at closing, protecting them against law, so the lender would be covered and might not even take you to court.

This is kind of crazy. And that's somewhat reassuring, but can we do any better than that? Yes. Take out your title insurance documents from when you purchased the property, look to see what it covers and doesn't. It will always protect you from legal claims against your ownership, but not necessarily against fraud. And if it doesn't, you can purchase a title insurance policy that protects against fraud, even if you bought the property years ago. And if you notice, Steve, I mentioned lenders title insurance earlier. You usually have to pay for that whenever you refinance the purchase of a property, but it also protects only the lender. So it's important that you also get owner's title insurance when you buy a home. That will not only protect you from a loss, but it will also cover any legal fees involved with defending your ownership. In most cases, the title company will actually provide an attorney to represent you. Okay. Bottom line, title insurance, always a good idea.

Title fraud insurance, probably not worth the money. We'll be right back. You're listening to MoneyWise Live. Your host is Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. We're taking your calls today on anything financial, so whatever you might be wondering about, struggling with, give us a call.

Let's chat about it. 800-525-7000, chatting for just a couple of minutes about title fraud insurance. And I was thinking during the break, Rob, which isn't always a profitable thing, what if the company I buy the title fraud insurance from, what if they're fraudulent themselves?

What if, can I buy insurance against that? See where I'm going with this? I do, yes. Right.

And I don't have the answer to that, but maybe we can put our research team on that, Steve, and see what we come up with. I sure hope so. Well, today it's rich, and I see he's already furrowed his brow and sharpened his pencil, so I'm sure he's right at work on it right now.

800-525-7000, Somerville, South Carolina. Welcome to the program, John. What's on your mind? Yeah, I have a question about, I have a rental property, and I have a mortgage on it. I have a renter in it that actually produces about a $300 profit after I pay the mortgage payment insurance and property taxes. But I'm wondering if I should pay that off, or try to pay it off. I personally have a minimal income, I guess you'd say, but I have enough money to pay it off. But I don't know whether to do that, and put the cash that I have out there, and not have the cash in reserve.

Sure. Let's talk about this as an investment for you, John. How has it done for you in terms of your ability to service any debt that you have, keep it maintained, and perhaps over and above that, generate some income for you?

Give me a sense of how that's gone. Well, just to let you know, the house payment is like $1,300, and the renter pays me $1,700. I owe probably about $140,000 on it, and it's probably at a value of around $250,000, but I have a $4.25 interest rate.

And I just can't make up my mind whether or not it should be something to pay off, because of course I'm not earning $4.25 on any of my cash money. Yes. Okay. Right. But obviously you are slowly paying this off through the mortgage payment with the renter, and it's generating some cash flow for you over and above that though, right? Correct. That is correct. And then of course, between the insurance and taxes, it costs about $400 a month.

It's crazy. But I'm just wondering whether it'd be better to get rid of that interest that is paid, because it takes forever to pay the interest down, but also I think I get a tax benefit by having a mortgage. Yeah. You may. That just depends upon your situation. I think the key in terms of whether or not to pay it off is what else you might have going on. I mean, do you have a proper emergency fund on your personal side? Do you have any mortgage debt on your personal residence?

Tell me about those two things to begin with. My personal house is paid for. And like I said, I have a small or normal, I guess you would say, income from Social Security and some investments. But if I tried to pay this house off, it would pretty much eat up all my cash, any cash I had.

Yeah, yeah. And I really don't like you being in that position, especially given you've got this business, I'll call it that, with this rental property, you're living on Social Security. So I'd really love for you to have a minimum of six months in reserves that's liquid and stable and accessible if you need it, in addition to some reserves on the rental property. And if you don't have either of those, I'd rather you hang on to your cash and really shore those up, even though you're paying this four and a half percent interest, especially given the property is cash flow positive. I just don't want you to get cash poor, even though you're moving toward being completely debt free, which I like. But I don't want you to be left without any reserves, either personally or on the business side with the rental property. So if it came down to choosing between the two, I'd probably hang on to your cash and then just let the mortgage be paid off by the rental income coming in each month.

If you get to a place, though, where you've got your six months expenses on the personal side, you've got a couple of at least three months reserves on the rental side as well, and you've got excess over and above that, then I think that's the time to start accelerating the payoff. John, great question. Hope that works for you, or helps you at least. Thank you very much. Muncie, Indiana. Hello, Mike. Welcome to MoneyWise Live. You're on the air with Rob West. Hello.

Hello. Yeah, I have some stock I found of my grandfather's when I was cleaning out my mom's house, and they go back to 1951. Wow.

There's 475 shares, and the 400 are from Red Rock Bottlers, and it looks like they all come from Fulton County, Georgia, or Atlanta. And I wonder, is there any value, and am I entitled to it, and where in the world would you go? Yeah, yeah. So this was passed to you as an inheritance. Is that right, Mike? Well, I found that cleaning out my mother's house, and my parents are both dead, and this was my dad's dad, and he died in 1956, but these have a 1951 date on them. And I'm just holding them, and I don't know. Yes.

Well, obviously... Same last name, but... Sure. So I think the first thing to do would be to find out what the value is of the certificates. Typically, I would say start with a Google search, see if the company still exists. If it does, beyond that, you're going to want to contact the company and ask for the transfer agent. This is the person that will help you get registered, assuming you're entitled to this property as an heir, or perhaps the sole heir, and if not, you and the others that would have claim to it.

Getting registered as the owner of the certificate, collect any uncollected dividends, then you identify the CUSIP number, and that's the unique identifier for your certificate. And then you would contact a brokerage or stock search service to see if you can get the shares deposited and then liquidated. The transfer agent would help you do all of this. So I think I would start by establishing the value, Mike, just so you know what you're dealing with. And then you're going to have to work back through, perhaps, whoever handled your parent's estate, just to make sure you can justify the claim to it so that when you work through the transfer agent, you can document the fact that you are entitled to these shares as the heir. But you're going to want to understand what the value is first, just so you know how to prioritize this against everything else you probably have going on in your life, just based on its value at this point.

So I would start there after you get a little further down the road. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to give us a call back. Hey, Mike, while you and Rob have been talking, I've been fiddling around on the interwebs and found out that the company appears to have vanished. The company was disestablished at some point. The recipes to the product, which is ginger ale, are still owned by someone in the Dominican Republic.

And at one time, Red Rock Cola was endorsed by Babe Ruth. So that's kind of cool. So keep Googling and you might find out whether you're a trillionaire or not. It seems unlikely by what I'm reading here, but a really interesting question, some interesting history there.

And we wish you well as you as you work through that. And that's kind of fun to find something in the attic like that. One hopes that it'll turn out to be something really financially worthy. Well, that's right. And I suspect it was probably purchased before it was shut down. So it's probably now in another name.

Who knows? Mike, God bless you. Thanks for your call. We'll be right back.

Hebrews 11 6 reminds us, And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. If we can help you today as you see God's wisdom on your money or finances, that's kind of why we're here. And we'd love to chat. Eight hundred five to five. Seven thousand.

Chicago, Illinois. Sandra, thanks for holding. What's your question? Hi. Thank you, Robert.

It's such a blessing to talk to you. Thank you. I have two accounts from previous employers and they total about sixty thousand. One account just recently grew 200 over the other account. Now, should I combine the two accounts and to the one that was a higher yield?

Or what would you suggest? Yeah. So there's two separate questions here.

And by the way, thank you for for listening and for calling, Sandra. You know, the first question is, should you combine them irrespective of the investments in them? Do you work for either of the companies associated with those 401ks currently? No, I used to about six and nine years ago. OK. Are you retired? No, I'm still working. I'll be 65 this year. OK. How long do you plan to continue to work at this point? Goodness, I might work way past 70.

And that's another question I wanted to ask. Would I be able to keep the money in the account until after I retire? Do I ever have to take the money? Because can I just let the money keep going? And after I die, my children get it or? Yes.

The question is in what form? So I would prefer you take these two 401ks and either move them into the 401k in your current employment. If they'll allow it, you'd have to check with the plan administrator or roll them to an IRA. You know, oftentimes leaving old 401ks where they are, they tend to raise the fees slightly when you leave. You're limited to the investments inside those 401ks. And it's just something, you know, one more account to keep up with as opposed to combining them. Do you have a 401k with your current employer?

No, I only work part time and I get no benefit. Okay. And how would you feel about moving the two out to an IRA and then having somebody manage that for you? Would the fees be about the same as they are now? My fees are not high at all.

Okay. Yeah, it's really just going to depend upon how you go about it. I mean, you could have almost no fees by using a service like soundmindinvesting.org where, you know, based on what type of investment strategy you're looking for, you know, you could choose from their recommended mutual funds and essentially do it yourself.

Another option would be using one of the robo advisors where you'd answer a series of questions. They'd build a very low cost, but very well diversified portfolio using exchange traded funds. These are indexes of both bonds and stocks, very well diversified. But if you'd feel more comfortable staying in the 401k, they're probably not going to let you combine the two, given that you don't work with either of those companies.

You'd have to check with them to see. But typically, once you separate, they're not going to allow you to roll new money in, even if they'll allow you to keep an existing account where it is. So, you know, when you get to the IRA, Sandra, you have complete control over how it's managed, including the fee structure. It's just going to come down to do you want to do it yourself with some guidance from somebody like soundmind investing? Do you want to use a robo advisor that's going to essentially use an algorithm to determine what the investment should be based on questions and answers you provide? Or do you want to hire an investment professional, although with $60,000 you may be below the threshold of what is possible in terms of hiring somebody to manage it on a discretionary basis. So I think you're ultimately going to come down to do you want to just leave them where they are and then choose from the available options inside those plans.

And if you're not in the right investments inside the plans, you could make some changes or roll them out to one new IRA and then choose from those investment options that I mentioned. Does that make sense? Yes, but actually the higher yielding account, they said I can roll that over. Okay.

All right. Well, you know, again, if it's something that, you know, it's been working for you, you're comfortable with it, you'd rather not go out and kind of change the investment strategy and have to work through those options that I just mentioned. You know, you could certainly do that. And I like the idea that it would simplify it going from two accounts to one.

And I would just maybe have somebody who has some knowledge and expertise in this area look over how it's currently invested in the 401k that would be the recipient of the second to make sure that everything is appropriate given your age, risk tolerance, goals and objectives. But at the end of the day, I don't have a problem with what you're describing. Sandra, thank you very much. Great questions on your part. We're happy to hear and hear that you're doing so well. We appreciate your phone call today.

Thanks. Let's see. I should probably tell you how to reach Rob if you'd like to send him a brief e-mail because I have one ready to read here from Teresa. We'll get to that after the break. But if you'd like to send Rob a brief e-mail, the address is questions at MoneyWise.org, questions at MoneyWise.org. Keep it brief and we'll be right back after this. We have three open lines. No waiting today. If you have a question or a comment for Rob West, this would be a wonderful time to get in. Eight hundred five two five seven thousand eight hundred five two five seven thousand.

Let's go to Chicago again. And Anthony, you have a question about crypto, huh? Yes. What's on your mind?

So I'm kind of questioning, you know, how do I wear this? What does the church think about cryptocurrency? Because I know the concern about a cashless society and I'm just kind of seeing how that correlates with cryptos. Yeah. And so are you just talking, Anthony, about using these in general or are you talking about investing in cryptocurrency as an investment?

Well, since it's in its early stages and seems like it will grow since I don't know if you've heard, but MasterCard is kind of taking a step into it in terms of allowing them banking with it. So, yeah, I'm thinking more of an investment. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, first of all, what is it? I mean, basically, these are digital assets people use as investments and for purchases online. You know, you exchange real currency like dollars to purchase coins or tokens of a given cryptocurrency. There's many forms. Probably Bitcoin is the most well known.

And you're right. In some respects, we are starting to see these going more mainstream. I know some major retailers like Whole Foods and Nordstrom are experimenting with accepting Bitcoin as a valid source of payment. But for the most part, it's really still a fringe type of transaction means. You know, I think at the end of the day, you know, why they have become so popular is they are decentralized, which also adds to the risk of them because no government or bank controls how they're produced, what their value is, how they're exchanged. And they probably, you know, this the technology behind it is probably here to stay.

It operates on something called blockchain, which is really like a long receipt that keeps a record of all of your transactions and has a particular key aside to every coin that's been issued. And, you know, it's I would imagine going to be a means of exchange that will grow in popularity over time, especially in our digital economy. I don't have any problem with the direction this is headed necessarily in terms of this being a means of exchange. You know, apart from maybe a few concerns, one is it's ripe for fraudulent activity because you remain completely anonymous and you avoid regulation from banks or the government. When you use crypto currencies, which allows them to be really ripe for money laundering, as well as shady deals on the black market. I would absolutely, though, Anthony, stay away from it as an investment. They're very volatile. There's lots of unknowns.

You know, nobody even knows who the founder of Bitcoin is. And, you know, my typical rule of thumb is if I can't explain it to someone, I don't invest in it. I think, you know, there's also in terms of a rate of return, it's very unproven, which would put it in more of a gambling type of category because there's no pattern for its rise and fall in value. You can't predict the changes just because it's not tied to any kind of regulatory standard. So bottom line, should we be fearful of it as believers?

No, I don't believe so. We place our trust in the Lord and, you know, the fact that we're moving into more of a digital economy, I think is just natural, given some of the things that are happening around us. But should I be as a manager of God's money, putting my investment dollars to work there?

No, I think it's far too volatile and speculative and unproven for me to consider that as an investment option. Anthony, interesting question. We'll just have to sit back and watch and see what happens with this.

And lots of other related kinds of currencies are out there as well and where they're heading, no one knows. But good question. Thank you very much. For Lauderdale, Renard, what's your question for Rob West? Renard, are you with us? Yes, yes, I'm here. How are you guys doing? Great, doing great. Thank you. Yeah, this is my first time calling, so I've been listening to you for a while, but that's my first time. Excellent. We're glad you did.

How can we help you, sir? Yeah, so my question is, I'm planning on getting a house, planning on getting it this year, but I have $22,000 saved and my credit is like $700 right now. And I'm still waiting for my two years in employment history, but I was talking to a friend of mine the other day.

She said that the market is a seller market right now, it's not a buyer market. So I was wondering, is it a good time now to get a house or should I wait? Well, I appreciate the approach you're taking here. You are obviously saving diligently. You've saved $22,000 toward a down payment for this home. It says, I know you've been working toward being able to show documented employment history of at least two years. That's really going to help you in terms of qualifying for a mortgage. And, you know, it sounds like you're taking the right steps.

Your friend is correct. Most markets, and I would certainly put Fort Lauderdale in this category, are in a seller's market position, meaning the housing prices have been moving up rapidly. There's not as much inventory out there because people are buying homes just as quick as they go on the market, which makes it very good if you're selling a home because you can get top dollar.

It makes it difficult if you're buying a home. Now, keep in mind, if this is going to be your residence, yes, you want to buy in a way that's appropriate for your financial condition. But as long as you plan to live in this and you plan to stay there a while, I wouldn't be terribly concerned about the market necessarily. Again, as long as you're not looking to buy it and sell it within the next five years.

If you have the ability to wait, especially if it's going to put you in a stronger position in terms of a down payment, you certainly could do that. I mean, could the housing market cool off? Could we be in a recession in the next couple of years?

Sure. That's very possible, especially given how far into this current bull market cycle, both in terms of the economy, the stock market and the housing market. Being cyclical, you would expect that sometime in the next three years, we would have a downturn or a recession. I would suspect, though, it would be short lived, but it could create a buying opportunity. But typically, that's not the way we purchase our homes because, yes, we would expect them to appreciate in value over time. It's not a true investment because that would mean that as soon as it accomplishes the investment purpose for which we bought it, we'd sell it. And that's not what we do with our homes.

We live in them. And so, again, it should be an appreciating asset, but that's not the only consideration when it comes to a home as we think about it being an investment. So I think the main thing for you at this point, Renard, is just are you in a good financial position to make this purchase? How much do you plan to spend when you do buy the house?

I'm not too sure yet. Probably $10,000. Okay, but what would be the selling price of the home you'd be looking at? Probably something between $300,000 to $300,000. Okay, somewhere around $300,000. All right, I want you, if you haven't already, I think your next bit of homework is to find out exactly how much mortgage you can afford. Because I don't want you to spend more than 25% of your take-home pay on the principal interest, taxes, and insurance. So connect with a mortgage broker or get online and use a calculator and find out what that number is.

That'll tell you your purchase price and then how much you need to save to get 20% for a down payment. We appreciate your call. MoneyWise Live will be right back. This is MoneyWise Live. Really glad and happy that you're out there today. Thanks for tuning in. Let's continue on by going to, let's see, how about Lawrence, Michigan and Alicia? How can we help you today?

Hi. I was calling to ask, we own our home. It's worth about $130,000 and we have no other debt besides $70,000 in student debt.

Now, I know it's a seller's market. Do we sell our house, pay off our student loans in full, and then do our three-month emergency and then put the deposit down onto a house? Do we make a lateral move and we just go $130,000 to $130,000 and then just keep the student loans and continue to be homeowners? I just, I lost, our family lost our house in the 2008 recession and I'm just a little nervous of what the economy and things like that. What should I do and how do you prevent losing your house?

I don't want interest rates to increase, things like that. Yeah. Yes. So tell me about your current home that you're in. You said it was appraised for $130,000, is that right?

Correct. We bought it five years ago at $14,000 and remodeled it and we've been living there and, yep, and so we know it's going to sell higher right now than it had been prior, like four or five years prior. So we don't know if we should take advantage of that kind of high appraisal price and high sell price while it's a good time to sell.

That's incredible, Alicia. But it's hard for us to buy. Yeah. So you bought it for $14,000 and it's appraising for $130,000? Correct. Yeah. Wow.

And so you've done a lot of work to it, obviously. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you put a lot of money into it? Correct. Yes. We put about $35,000 to $40,000 into it and stayed at my parents' house and, yep. Yeah.

That's still an incredible return. All right. And so are other houses selling in the area? I mean, I would assume the appraisal is based on closed sales of comparable properties, but that doesn't seem out of line to you based on what you know about the area? Correct.

We did get a comparative mortgage analysis, I believe it's called, from a local real estate agent and, yep, he said, you know, listing price $120,000, $130,000 or $140,000. All right. Now, why are you moving? Are you looking for more space?

Do you want to reno something again? Correct. More space. Correct.

Yep. More space. We live in town and in a small village and we would like to have maybe two, three acres of land. And the same size house, we just had our third child, so we want to have a little bit more space. But right now, land is very expensive and houses with land are expensive, and so while it's great to sell, it's not looking so hot for us to buy, so we're just kind of thinking, you know, yeah.

Yeah. How much would you be looking to spend if you were to try to buy what it is you're actually looking for? Well, I did a mortgage assessment on Dave Ramsey where you can calculate how much you can afford based on ours. We're a one-income household and it's about $45,000 gross a year. And so I think it ranged, depending on how much we threw on it for our deposit, around $100,000, but we can't get a house anywhere with land for $100,000. And so we're kind of at the point where, like, we could sell, but there's really nothing for us to buy. So do we rent or do we purchase a rental property that's at, like, $80,000 and then, you know, kind of divvy up our equity in our home? Okay.

This is helpful. Tell me about the rest of your budget. So you own this home free and clear, which is great. You've got the $70,000 in student loans. Do you have any other debt? That's it. That's all we have. All right. And do you, after you pay the minimum on the student loans every month, do you have anything left over at the end of the month?

Yes. Well, right now we're in forbearance from last year because I just recently resigned from my job. But, yes, we would. We could afford, I believe, the full payment and interest for mine because mine is $48,000 and then my husband's is about $26,000.

It would be about $400, which would be affordable for us. And there's not much left over after that, but we can afford the payment. Okay.

On both of the loans? Yes. On total. Yep. It would be lumped up.

Correct. And are you putting anything away for retirement? Currently, before I resigned my job as a school teacher, I have $4,300 in my retirement savings. My husband is putting away, I think, like not really anything right now.

And it's really not growing. I mean, I got a report a couple months ago and because I'm done with it, I'm not working anymore. So I didn't know if we should invest it somewhere else if I pull it and just pay the penalty and just throw it on my loans. Yeah. The last question is, do you have an emergency fund? Yes, we do.

Yep. How many months' worth of expenses do you have? Let's see. We probably have a full month of expenses.

One month. Okay. All right. Well, a couple of thoughts here. I mean, the challenge with selling the house is, yes, you're going to get top dollar on the sale, but you're also going to pay top dollar. The opposite is true. If we get into a downturn on the housing market, you might get a better purchase price on this land and home that you're looking for. But at that point, you're not going to probably get as much on your house because your house will decline with it.

So I'm not as concerned about the timing of it being a high market versus a low market when you're going from one home to another home that you own in the same area. Really, it comes down to what's the best scenario for you guys in terms of your financial position. And my concern would be that if you try to rent right now, you know, rent prices are very high. I mean, before you even consider selling this property and paying off the student loan debt, which I realize would take a lot of pressure off, that would feel really good. But I'd want to make sure you guys do your homework as to where you're going to live, how well that fits into the budget. I mean, clearly, you'd have this extra money that wasn't going to the student loans once those kick back in. But at the same time, you know, you could be paying more arguably for rent in a market like this than you would even for, you know, the purchase of a home.

The problem is, as you've said, you can't find what you're looking for in the price range that you've got. So I think for me, as long as you can make the numbers work, I'd probably just stay the course. You own this place free and clear. The key is just going to be trying to live well within your means so that you can put something away for the future, get that emergency fund up to three months expenses and be ready to kick in, you know, the payment to the student loans as soon as you're able. But if you just have a conviction, you know, we want to be out of debt.

We don't want to owe anything to anyone. Then I would say certainly you could sell the home. You've obviously done very well on it. Pay off the the student loans, which would be, you know, take that pressure off. And you'd still have, you know, let's say 60,000 that you could put away and start continuing to add to so that you're ready to buy that next home when you feel like you can financially. I could go either of those directions.

I just want to make sure you understand how that rent payment for a home that would be acceptable for your size family in an area that you feel safe and the right schools and all of that fits well within the budget because rents are at a premium right now. So do that as a step one. And then if you have other questions, give us a call back. And I would you and your husband just kind of pray through this as you think about either option. I don't think you could go wrong either way. Alicia, God bless you.

Thank you very much. We're going to try to squeeze in Joanna here. Joanna, you're thinking about getting married. And what's your question for Rob? Hey, Rob, I'm thinking about getting married and, you know, we're not like in our 20s. So I am 33 and he is in his 40s.

And so, you know, we've already established life. I actually have a little bit more of an established life. And, you know, this year I've saved up enough to pay off all my debt and I'll have like $8,000 in student loans left. So and actually that can probably be paid off too. And he has, I think, like $40,000 in student loans and I guess like maybe stuff here and there he doesn't really know from the previous years. So anyway, we're trying to kind of have those discussions and I don't know a good start to those discussions and trying to be open and respectful where each other is, if that makes sense.

Because I also have children, but they're teenagers. So I'm kind of in that launch phase, if that makes sense. And is your primary concern, Joanna, that you feel like you don't have a full understanding of what's happening in his financial life currently?

Well, I think that's part of it. And I wouldn't even know where to start. Like, if you've moved around a lot and you just haven't really kept up with everything, I know you could pull your credit history. I guess I'm just worried about too, like being sensitive and like, how do you navigate?

Who's stuff to pay off? You know what I mean? Like those kind of questions.

Well, it's a great question. And you need to be asking this question now before you marry so you all can take an honest look at your finances. And it's really not about, you know, being respectful as long as you do it in the right way.

Nobody's coming into this trying to point fingers or point out mistakes that have been made on either side. The idea is to say, listen, if two are going to become one and that's God's plan for marriage, oneness under the Lord, that includes our finances. We absolutely have to know what is the starting place. And my debt is your debt. Your debt is my debt. My assets are your assets.

Your assets are my assets. So we put it all together and say, then under the leadership of the Lord, what is our vision for the future? Where is God taking us? What provision has he given us?

And how do we take that and put a plan together that allows us to move forward to accomplish God's purposes? Which include making sure we have the right reserves, making sure we're giving at a level that we both, you know, have been able to weigh into. And keep in mind, you have different money backgrounds and different way money was handled when you were kids. And you've got, you know, some history behind you because you guys aren't marrying, you know, as teenagers or 20-somethings. And so, but open dialogue and transparency, Joanna, is really, really key. So let's do this. Let's talk a bit more off the air.

And I want to send you Howard Dayton's book, Money and Marriage God's Way, that I think will really help you frame this and maybe be the conversation starter that gets all this on the table in the right way that's respectful. Joanna, you stand in line. We'll talk to you a bit off the air. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Again, thanks so much for being there. Join us again tomorrow.