Free to Follow

This is Doug Hastings, Vice President of Moody Radio, and we're thankful for support from our listeners and businesses like United Faith Mortgage. My grandma loves iced tea. It's her thing. So I go to hang with grandma for a bit, and I see she's holding her big plastic cup with her tea, but the cup is literally sitting inside one of grandpa's sports socks. And I'm not making this up.

No one could make this up. Uh, grandma, you okay? Of course, dear.

The sock soaks up the sweat and keeps the tea colder. Hey, it's Ryan from United Faith Mortgage. And as I thought about it later, I thought that's the kind of mortgage team I want us to be. The kind that's willing to take any step needed to get the job done on your new home purchase, refinance or cash out refinance. And can we help everyone? No, obviously we can't.

But if you know we're willing to use grandpa's sock to keep a drink cold, you'll know we're willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you're taken care of. We are United Faith Mortgage. United Faith Mortgage is a DBA of United Mortgage Corp. 25 Melville Park Road, Melville, New York. Licensed mortgage banker. For all licensing information, go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Corporate NMLS number 1330. Equal housing lender.

Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Fifteenth century theologian Thomas A. Kempis wrote, Jesus has now many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross. He has many desirous of comfort, but few of tribulation. Has anything changed after 600 years?

Is your lifestyle keeping you from following Christ more fully? Well, today host Rob West talks with author Michael Blue about breaking the chains of complacency. And it's your calls on anything financial at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. I'm Steve Moore, free to follow Christ. That's next on MoneyWise Live. Rob, Michael Blue is an attorney and president of the Ron Blue Institute. He's written several books on biblical financial principles, including his latest, Free to Follow, Discover the Riches of a Surrendered Life.

That's right, Steve. Michael is also the son of Ron Blue, founder of Kingdom Advisors. He's a good friend, and Michael has some incredible wisdom to share with us today.

I'm really excited about this new book. And Michael, great to have you with us on the program. Thanks, Rob and Steve.

It is wonderful to be here. Michael, I really believe this is an extremely important topic for all of us as believers living in, as you and your dad have pointed out for a long time, the most affluent nation in history. But this has also been a personal journey for you. As you say, you've had a comfortable life, but tell us how you came to realize something was in fact missing.

That's a tough one. You know, I have a great blessing of growing up in the home that I grew up in, right? You mentioned my father, and he taught me how to manage money from a biblical perspective.

Some say he wrote a book on it, or many. And so I was blessed to know the basics, right? I knew how to save. I knew how to avoid debt. I knew that I was called to give, to honor God.

And so I, if you will, I did it quote unquote, right from the start. So I was doing all these things as I finished college, but something in my thirties, probably, as I was living this life from the outside, I looked like I was really doing it all right. But I realized that I really had a problem not being selfishly motivated. And so, you know, my spiritual walk, as I began to look at it, really kind of looked like this just mirage as I began to explore. And so I had an opportunity as I was trying to push into my faith a little deeper to trust God and to obey Him and a clear opportunity to follow Him. And when it came down to it, my family looked at the uncomfortability of the new situation, the challenges that existed, and said no.

And we really chose our comfort, if you will, over the call of God. And this brought me to a really devastating place where I realized that I didn't trust that God was enough for me and my family in the hard situation He was calling us into. And so I really started to look hard at where I was. That's powerful, because as you said, you were trained in these principles.

Your dad and mom modeled this for your family. You began to live this out, and yet you realized you hadn't fully surrendered. Share with us in our time before the first break here some of the practical implications of this realization. What did that begin to look like as you leaned into this new realization you had with the Lord?

Sure. The first thing was I think I had become accustomed to following a lot of rules and looking correctly in my life. And so I began to realize that my heart had to transform as well.

And that was really a process of learning to say yes. And when places where God was calling me clearly to obey. And so after this journey where I had this realization, we moved into a smaller house.

We downsized our lifestyle. I left the large law firm, started a smaller law firm with a friend with really no clients, and began to just seek God. And through that, he led me to go to seminary.

And I really had no reason or understanding why, but that was a time in my life that I felt I needed to just say yes and trust him to move. So it began really a process, and it's still going on, of learning to surrender my decisions, surrendering my preferences, and saying yes to God when I feel him calling me clearly to do something. And it's challenging. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's powerful. Well, I'm so excited to continue to unpack this because, as you said, this has a lot to do with our walk with Christ, but money plays a key role in this. As we've often said on this program, your financial journey is one of the key ways that God shapes your spiritual journey. And I know, Michael, for you, really dealing with the financial aspect of surrender was a big part of this. So we'll connect the dots and help our listeners perhaps think about money as a tool for surrender or a stumbling block.

It could be either one, and we'll unpack that right around the corner. That's right. And later in the program, we'll be taking your calls at 800-525-7000. He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. Our guest is Michael Blue.

And we'll be right back after this. Hey, great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. Rob West is your host. I'm Steve Moore. Michael Blue is our guest today. Among many other things, Michael is the author of several books. His latest is free to follow. It has a lot to do with a transformed life, a transformed heart, and how things like, well, in this country anyway, how affluence can impact our choices and decisions and our call as we hear it from Jesus Christ.

Rob? There's no question about that. And Michael, I so appreciate your transparent description of the journey you and your wife and family have been on. And as you said, that journey continues as it does for all of us.

Now, growing up as the son of Ron Blue, the author, the teacher, the founder, if you will, of Kingdom Advisors and the father of Christian financial planning, you kind of are expected to get the money journey right. I would say so. I joke that my siblings and I grew up in this weird financial laboratory. And I think we were his test subjects. But yes, we were expected to get it right.

That's great. Well, I love how you shared just before the break that you were applying the principles. And from the world standpoint, you were getting it right. And yet you realized that there was something missing. And you began this journey of surrender that continues today.

Talk about that for a moment. What do you feel like it really means to answer Jesus calling? You know, I think that Jesus's call in scripture is pretty blunt at times. I think about his words, follow me. I once did a study on the call to follow him. And oftentimes it seems like it's accompanied by a rather, you know, call it radical or extreme obedience to begin with. And so, you know, I think about Luke 9 23, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, who forever would save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. And so as I thought about answering Jesus's call to follow him, it's this question of what does that look like with him? I think about the disciples leaving everything.

I think about Jesus and the rich young ruler who he called to sell everything. He tells others they weren't fit to follow him and then to look back. And so as I began to be confronted over and over with these scriptures, I began to realize this isn't a call to kind of believe.

This is a call to surrender everything at his feet, whatever that means. And so I kind of came to the point where I understood that this may feel costly. And the reason it feels costly to us is because it's asking us to die to an idol in our life, something that we perhaps have put equal to or above following God. And in my life, that was my comfort. That was my family and doing all these things right. That was my idol that I was putting, frankly, ahead of God and following him.

And so it was a little bit uncomfortable and painful for me to say no to that idol and begin to die to it slowly as I learned or tried to seek to follow Jesus. Yeah, that's powerful. I was just listening to an interview last week with Paul Tripp, the author. I know you know his work well.

He's written the book Redeeming Money. And Paul made an interesting observation. He said so often when we listen to teaching around money from God's word, it starts with the call to provide for our families. And clearly we're to provide. But Paul made the observation that if we start with provision, we'll end up with an unending list of needs and wants.

And we can never get beyond that in many cases. And yet the gospel story is a generosity story. And in fact, we should start with generosity and get to provision later. Has that been a part of this journey for you?

Absolutely. Yeah, provision, I think, is one of these things that is a good thing. Like you mentioned, we are called to care for our families.

We're called to share with those around us that are closest. But it can really be a slippery slope. We can justify just about anything as a need. I heard it said one time that the genius, if you will, of capitalism is it turns our wants into needs. And I think that's the creep that happens in a lot of our lives.

And so if we assume everything is provision, we begin to let this creep happen. But if we begin with, I think generosity is a good place. But I would even take it farther back than that and say it begins with really this heart of surrender in our lives, which means my strongest desire, I need to get to a point where I really just want to know God.

And I want to know him as deeply as I possibly can. And so what does that mean for every one of my decisions that I'm going to make after that? And out of that depth of love for God, the decisions of my money and provision will begin to flow. And I believe honor God and pretty profound in radical ways. I love that.

So let's lean into that even a bit further. What does it look like then, Michael, for each of us? And it's got to be a journey that we each go on with the Lord. But what does it look like to financially surrender to Christ for our listeners? Well, you know, financial surrender, I think, is a little bit of a loaded term, perhaps, because we often try to come up with rules to fit into the box. And that at least that's my tendency.

I tend to find, you know, if you can give me a box, I'm going to get in that box. And so financial surrender is this place of saying to God, I want to honor you with everything that I have. But I have two other aspects to it that I've been thinking a lot about recently, and that is, how do I use my finances to fuel my faith or feed my faith? How do I use my finances to grow into a person who trusts God more? And then the other thing is, how do I use my finances in a way that helps other people see and savor God as the ultimate provider, the one who gives us all things, all good things for His glory? And so can I use my money in a way that is surrendered, that I'm honoring God, I'm feeding my faith, and I'm drawing others to see God for who He is? And so I think that's kind of where surrender begins. It's this heart attitude, but it definitely moves into action. We can't leave it there, but we move into obedience through those things.

Yeah. Does that mean, do you think then, Michael, that all of us as believers are called to live a life of austerity, of simplicity and plainness when it comes to how we handle God's money? You know, I don't think when we look at Scripture, we see asceticism as the norm.

I think that that can be a really dangerous perversion. I can be a miser with my money, and that doesn't honor God. I may make decisions with my money that I buy a more expensive product for a number of reasons, maybe where it's manufactured, maybe how it helps other people flourish in the world. So I don't think that we are called to asceticism or austerity. We look at the Old Testament and think about all of the festivals, all of the celebrations. God calls us to celebrate the good things that He has.

We think about the breaking of the perfume over Jesus in preparation for burial, because that is a celebration, a lavish celebration. So I think our celebration is of God's good creation, but it should point towards Him as our provider. And it should also not just be this norm for everything that we do.

It should be periodic, and they should be intentional moments of celebration. And then, sure, I do think we should live more simply, not because it's the hard way to go, but because it's a better way to live. It frees me up to engage with people around me. It allows me to engage with people who presumably have much less than I do. And so it opens up all of these doors, and I think we think about simplicity in this really negative term when I think God invites us into simplicity because it's a good way to live, not because it's hard.

Yeah. Well, and the end result is not only are we able then to be fully surrendered to have a more intimate relationship with the Father, but we're able to love those around us more fully because we have the capacity to do it. Well, Michael, I'm so excited about this project. We're going to have to have you back because we've just scratched the surface. But let me challenge each of you listening today.

Pick up a copy of Free to Follow, Discover the Riches of a Surrendered Life. And Michael, thanks for joining us. Thank you, Rob. Great to be here. Thank you, Steve.

Michael Blue has been our guest today. He's the author of Free to Follow, Discover the Riches of a Surrendered Life. Check out Amazon.

You'll find it there. Your call is next. This is MoneyWise Live. Stick around.

Great to have you aboard today. It's MoneyWise Live with Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. Now, if you have a question for Rob today, anything financial is fair game, give us a call. There's one right there. 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. We have four or five open lines. Now is a great time to get in. Rob, with your permission, sir, we'll dive right in.

This is from my hometown, Rochester, New York. Hello, Jacqueline. How are you today? Hi. Good, good. How are you? I'm fine. Are you still shoveling snow up there? Oh, no, no. We just got a lot of rain. Oh, okay. Happy to hear it.

What's your question? So I was wondering, so I invest in stocks. I'm 21 years old, and I was kind of venturing into options. And I was wondering if it's a safe bet. Because I know as you're young, you know, you can do the most risk. But would call options or put options be the best? I've been trying to educate myself on it, and I just don't know if it's the best bet for me. So I just want to know, like, your guys' opinion on what is the best for a young kid to invest in?

Yeah, yeah. Well, first of all, Jacqueline, I'm delighted to hear that you're already thinking about investing. That's a great thing, because as we talk about often here on this program, the power of compounding works most effectively over a long period of time. So if you can get some money working for you now, you know, on a systematic basis, which means that as you make those systematic investments into whatever it is, mutual funds or stocks, you're going to what's called dollar-cost average, which means you're going to buy in at different points, highs and lows, and over time, you know, you'll be able to benefit from the long-term trends of the market. Is option trading legitimate? Sure. But is it the best thing for the most investors, novice investors in particular?

I don't think so. The biggest difference, Jacqueline, is, you know, a stock represents shares of ownership in individual companies, or in the case of a mutual fund, a basket of stocks, again, where you're an owner in a company. But an option contract with other investors basically gives you the right to either buy or sell based on an expected price. So you're, in a sense, betting on the direction you think the stock price is headed. It adds quite a bit of complexity to the investment process, and requires a much more hands-on approach. It's also quite a bit riskier. Another downside is the trading or costs, or the related costs of buying and selling the options.

Generally, it's going to be higher than for stocks, although some of the online brokers now offer free options trading. There's also capital gains on your earnings, which are higher for assets you've held for less than a year. So, you know, my recommendation would be that you stay away from this type of investing, just because, again, without professional training and really a lot of time to dedicate to it, I don't think it's the right approach. But if you, again, take a systematic approach to your investing in a broadly diversified portfolio, and for someone just starting out, I would tend to look at indexes as a way to do that, and you could even use one of the robo-advisors to, basically after a series of questions and answers, automatically build and over time rebalance a properly diversified portfolio that's going to include ETFs with domestic and international stocks, small and large cap, emerging and developed markets, but also some bond exposure, although at your age, probably a very little bit of bond exposure, if any. And then as you make those investments, it's automatically rebalanced into the right allocation.

Very low cost, very heavily diversified, so you're not at the risk of one or just a few companies, which is a biblical principle right out of Ecclesiastes. So that would be the direction I would encourage you to go, but I don't want to in any way kind of stifle your enthusiasm because this is the time to be thinking about beginning to establish the discipline of investing. Does that make sense, though?

Yeah. So I already have a diverse kind of profile in stocks, in individuals, in ETFs, so that's why I was just curious if I should kind of branch out into options. Yeah, and for the reasons I mentioned, I would encourage you not to do that. I think I would be looking at how you can put more away on a tax-deferred basis. I would also not forsake, even though it's not very exciting, to see money growing at a half a percent. Make sure you have enough in liquid savings, so if you had an unexpected expense, then you're not selling investments at a loss. I mean, right now it seems like everything's going up and has been for quite a while.

That won't always be the case. I think the other thing is be sure you're giving attention to those short-term needs, or even medium-term. You're ready to buy a house at some point, so you're saving for that, and the car wears out.

You want to buy it with cash. If you have margin, this is the time to be putting money toward those things. And go ahead and establish the discipline of giving as well. But Jacqueline, it sounds like you're doing a lot right. Stay on the line. I'm going to send you a copy of Ron Blue's book Master Your Money that will hopefully give you a good, healthy perspective of financial planning from a biblical perspective. That'll be our gift to you, and you stay on the line. Amy will get your information. Jacqueline, we're glad that you called today, and I think you'll be blessed by this book.

Thank you very much. Sarasota, Florida. Hi, Stan.

What's on your mind? Yeah, I was just wondering, I'm in the process of wanting to open up my own business, and I also want to buy a house, and I've been told that you basically want to buy a house before you open up a business and use the equity from a home to help build a business, but it should be the other way around, get a business and then buy a home. What do you think of that? Regardless of which one you do first, I'm never going to be a proponent, Stan, of using the equity in your home for a new business venture. There's a reason that 70-plus percent of new businesses fail. That doesn't mean I'm trying to scare you that you shouldn't start a business. I love small businesses, and I think the desire to be an entrepreneur, if done the right way, going into a business with a real plan and having the proper reserves and all of those things are going to perhaps set you up for success, but doing that by using your equity in your primary home is not the way to go, in my view.

I'd rather see you keep everything separate. So if you haven't bought a home yet, I think it really comes down to where are you in this process? Do you have stable income right now such that you could start this business and get it going while you're still earning a paycheck? If so, I'd say go for it.

Otherwise, maybe you push that down the road and focus on saving up for the house, but if you do that, make sure you have at least 20% for the down payment. Stan, God bless. Thank you very much. 800-525-7000. He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore.

Back with more after this. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Again, our phone number, 800-525-7000. And Rob, as we close in on Good Friday and Easter, it's also the end of the month, the 31st. Any thoughts about that for our listeners?

Well, yeah. A month end always brings about a look back just to say how are we doing with our giving? Because if you aren't doing that, what are we doing with our giving? Because if you aren't aware, MoneyWise Media is brought to you each day only by the generous support of our faithful listeners and donors, our partners, if you will. And this is a good time to ask you if you've not given this year and you count yourself a part of the MoneyWise community. If you'd consider that prayerfully, we'd certainly be grateful, especially here at month end. If you'd like to give one time or monthly by heading over to our website, moneywiselive.org, just click the donate button and we would certainly be grateful.

We certainly would. Okay, moving along to West Palm Beach, Florida. Emilio, what's your question for Rob West? Good afternoon. Thank you for your show. It's very informative and we really, really do appreciate it.

Long-term care insurance, a good idea to purchase. I've gotten thoughts both ways and I just don't know. Yes.

Well, it's a great question and, yeah, I am a fan. I think it's got to be for the right folks. Typically I would say this is somebody who has assets somewhere north of $300,000, probably less than a couple of million in assets. I realize that's a large swath of people, but here's the idea is this is probably in this season of life as you head into retirement, the biggest risk in terms of the largest expense that could really chip away at your hard-earned money because it can be very, very expensive depending on whether you need in-home care or assisted living or nursing home or adult daycare, whatever that looks like. And the statistics will say that the majority of folks will need this. Now, typically only lasts between 18 months to three years, but again, it can be very, very expensive. So as long as you buy the right policy that's either going to cover this need for you or offset it, giving you the ability to perhaps take off some of the sting, if you will, of the impact that it will be on your finances, I would say it's a great thing to have. You typically want to look at it between the ages of 55 and 65 to get it where it's most cost effective. And I think in terms of what you can expect to pay at age 65 in good health, the average policy is running around $2,100 annually, maybe $3,100 if you have health issues but you're still accepted.

And as you look at it, I would consider some of the riders, in particular the inflation rider. You also want to look at long-term care insurance companies that are really committed to this space. And they've been rated highly and recognized depending on any health issues you have. One company may look at that particular health issue different than another. So I would get quotes from multiple. In fact, I'd prefer you even to look at getting a long-term care insurance agent who's independent and can really understand your needs and then go out and quote it with all of the big players and find the best fit for you.

So I'm a fan. The last thing I'll say, though, Emilio, is that you really need to make sure that it fits into your budget because it does you no good if down the road you have to drop it because you can't afford it and then all that money is wasted. In terms of alternatives, the one thing you could consider would be if you have life insurance and you want to add it as a rider, you can certainly do that. You can look at a hybrid life insurance long-term care that's asset-based where you use the benefit to pay for nursing homes tax-free. You could also get an annuity that would throw off enough for long-term care insurance premiums, but that's not for everyone. So I would start the process of investigating it, get some quotes, see if it fits into your budget.

At the end of the day, I'm a fan of this type of insurance. Rob, where would Emilio get additional information from a non-biased source? Yeah, I mean, I think you could start just by doing some research on the web. I mean, there's so many great websites out there now that have wonderful objective articles, Investopedia.

You could go to NerdWallet, you could go to The Balance, any of these are probably the leading financial websites for personal finance. But then I think that next step is to find an insurance agent, again, who has a specialty in this long-term care insurance area that could begin to get some quotes. All right, great. Emilio, we're glad you called today. Hope that helps you guys. Thanks very much. Let's stay in Florida and Sandra, how can we help you?

Hi, how are you guys doing? Wonderful, thank you. I have a list of questions, but I'll just ask one, one question. I've been living in my home for like seven years now, and I was thinking about refinancing my home because I want to get rid of the PMI and see if I can get a lower interest rate. So I contacted a company, they offered me a loan for 2.5% for 15 years and one for 3.2% for 30 years.

So I don't know which one to go with. However, I feel different than the 15-year loan. The loan amount increased like $9,000 more.

Okay, yeah. And so what you have to look at there is, first of all, Sandra, are you in a spot where a refinance makes sense? And I'll give you a few questions that you can answer and I'll tell you whether or not that's the case. And then if you determine that you are a good candidate to refinance, then I think you've got to really get multiple quotes. Now, you've done that, but I'd get multiple quotes for the same term, and I'd make sure at least two of the three are online lenders who are offering some pretty competitive rates.

Because it sounds like the closing costs on one of them, the 15-year in particular, are pretty high, and so they're probably using discount points to buy down the rate. So let me back up and talk about whether you're a good candidate for it. Do you plan to stay in your home for at least five to seven years? Yes. Okay. What is your current interest rate?

It's 4.25. Okay. And what is your credit score roughly, do you know? That's why I get confused because actually I have three different scores, and the highest one is like 760. The lowest one is like 700. Okay.

Well, you still have good credit no matter which one they're looking at, so that's great. How many years have you had your current mortgage? Seven years. Okay.

And was it a 30-year when you started? Yes, sir. Okay, great. And in your budget, do you have some money left over at the end of the month after all the bills are paid? Yes.

Okay, great. Yeah, so I think a refinance makes a lot of sense for you, but I would be looking probably at a 20-year mortgage. A 15-year may push your payment up higher than you want, and you can always add to it. The good thing about a 20-year mortgage for you is you're still shortening the term because you have 23 years left on your current mortgage, assuming you haven't prepaid any of the principal. So you're shortening it, but you're not cutting off so many years on it that you're going to, again, make that monthly payment cost prohibitive. You should be able to get a very attractive rate on a 20-year mortgage, well below 3%. I'd be looking to pay no more than two points, two percentage points in the form of closing costs.

So you go online to bankrate.com, find two lenders to quote you a 20-year mortgage, and then go to your local bank for the third. And if you have any questions, once you do that, give us a call back. Sandra, thank you very much. Mary Beth in Cleveland, we're coming your way. Hey, thank you for sharing your radio with us today. This is MoneyWise Live with Rob West. And Rob, before we take another call, one of the services that we're pleased to offer our listeners are the budget coaches that we have all across the country, and that aspect of our ministry continues to grow, right?

Well, that's exactly right. We have a wonderful group of volunteer coaches. These are men and women, some of whom are retired, maybe stay-at-home parents, could be any number of situations.

But they really love helping God's people manage God's money vis-a-vis setting up spending plans and giving plans and debt repayment plans. So they've been specially trained, and they give of their time to walk alongside you in a process that we've created to help you set all that up. What do we charge for it? Well, nothing other than we'll ask you to pay a small fee for an electronic workbook that will guide you through this virtual week-by-week process. But the actual coaching itself is free.

It's a ministry of MoneyWise. And we have a new group of coaches that were just trained, they're ready to go. So whereas we would normally have a two-week or as much as a two-month waiting period for you to get connected with a coach, right now our coaches have capacity. So if you want to get connected with a coach, walk through this process. They'd be delighted to do that with you.

Just head over to MoneyWiseLive.org, click the button that says Connect with a Coach, and we'll get you in the queue. Alrighty. Cleveland, Ohio, Mary Beth, thank you for your patience, and what's on your mind?

Hi. We have a, we bought a new car 2018, so we have two more years to pay on it and roughly a $6,000 balance. I just retired today, and my husband is retired, and we really only have about $15,000 in the savings account.

So I'm wondering if paying it off is wise, but that's kind of a big chunk to take out of our savings. Yeah, yeah. So this is your only debt left, Mary? And the house, that's all.

Yeah, very good. And so you've got $15,000 in savings, and what is roughly your total expenses on a monthly basis? About, well, you know what, it's changing because I did retire, so I'm going to take a guess to about $3,500. Okay. So at $3,500, you know, we would typically want you to have a minimum of three months expenses in emergency reserves. That's going to be about $10,500, up to as many as six months expenses, which would be, you know, you would be looking at around $21,000 at that point. And, you know, I think you're saying that this $15,000 is really the extent of your emergency reserves, or is this in addition to that? No, that's the extent. Okay.

Yeah. So what I would do is really keep that money right where it is. I realize you're not earning as much as you're paying an interest on the car.

But what I wouldn't want to see you do is to kind of chew through a good bit of that. You're down to $9,000, you know, which is kind of right on that bubble. But, you know, still, if you had an unexpected expense of some kind, you know, that would potentially put you in a tough spot. So, you know, I could see where maybe you accelerate this payoff by, you know, adding, you know, out of that savings, you know, an extra, you know, $300 a month or something like that, just to try to, you know, get it paid off a little quicker, because obviously, as soon as you pay it off, you can take the equivalent of that car payment and put that back into savings. But I might not do it all at once, just because I'd like for you to keep some powder dry, so to speak, and have those reserves to fall back on.

So I'd probably space it out and say, okay, if we were on a track to pay it off in three years, let's see if we can do it in 18 months, which would, you know, get you out from under that quicker, but keep a little bit more in reserves. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to.

I just couldn't come up with a decision in my mind, but yeah, that makes sense. Okay, very good. Hey, listen, I'm excited for you. What do you believe God has for you in this next season of life, as you retire today? Today is my, yeah, was my list.

Gee, I don't know. I know I want to spend a lot more time with the grandkids, and just do it. It's funny, because I already got, the church already had me doing a service project today. They heard that I was retired today, and they said, hey, we have a service project, so I'm hoping to do more of that, too. Very good.

Well, that's exciting. Listen, all the best to you in this new chapter of your life. You know, I love that, Rob. The church hears you're retiring today, and they say, hey, we have something you can do. We're going to put you to work. God bless you, Mary Beth.

Thank you very much. Tracy's in Illinois, and how can we help you today? Yes, you had spoke about the nursing home insurance, but you had said you would recommend it if you earned $300,000 to a million. What about those folks that earn less than $300,000 a year?

Why wouldn't you recommend it for those folks? Yeah, well, let me clarify that, and maybe I wasn't clear enough, so I appreciate you raising this point, Tracy. It's not your income. It's not what you earn in a year. It's your total assets. So all of your assets minus all of your liabilities is your net worth, and if your net worth is less than $300,000, you know, when you factor everything, you have all your retirement savings and your home and everything minus your liabilities. At that point, generally you don't need long-term care insurance because you would almost certainly rely on Medicaid assistance if you required long-term nursing care.

So, you know, that's typically what we would see in terms of stepping in to cover that need. It's really those kind of in that middle group where your total net worth is above $300,000 all the way up to a couple of million dollars. Beyond that couple of million dollar mark, you'd probably just self-insure. You know, if you had long-term care needs, you'd just pay for it out of your own assets. But to clarify, it's not your income. It's really your total net worth. Does that make sense? Yes, thank you so much.

Okay, thank you so much for calling. We probably have a few listeners who make between $300,000 and a million a year, but not too many. I know I took a cut in pay. I used to be up in that area, but no. Was either that or parking space? I went for the parking space.

The parking space, every time. Fremont, Ohio, WCRF, a great bunch of folks working really hard at the station up there. Hi, John. You're our final caller of the day.

How can we help? Hi, how are you doing? Great, thank you. Thanks for taking my call.

Excuse me. I'm 63 years old. I am retired due to some health issues. And we have some opportunities to invest more in the stock or in the real estate.

We have some of both right now. And I'm wondering what would be the best option for us at this stage in life. And right now, I am working with Social Security as part of my income to help supplement our monthly budget. So anyway, as far as investments go, we do have available cash to us to invest with. Okay. And so you already have a pretty sizable investment portfolio of stocks and bonds, John? You're looking to add to it or diversify into real estate? Is that right?

That's correct. Okay. What do you have that you're looking to put away? Is it a lump sum or monthly?

I'm sorry? What is it that you have over and above that that you're looking to deploy? Is it a lump sum that's sitting in an account somewhere or is it a monthly surplus? Well, it's a monthly surplus. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I love real estate and that's a great, especially once you have a substantial stock and bond portfolio and you're doing all the giving you want to do. We always should be reevaluating that. But diversifying into other asset classes I think makes a lot of sense because it's just more diversification and that's a good thing. With real estate, though, we also have to understand what we're getting into. If we're taking a direct investment as opposed to real estate investment trust or maybe a private placement where we're investing in a real estate pool and we're just generating the income and the appreciation over time, that's one thing. But if we're going direct real estate investment, you've got to make sure you have the right reserves, you make sure you understand what you're getting into if you're going to become a landlord and the upkeep and the maintenance and the marketing and everything that comes with that. And I would, again, want to make sure that you're not taking on a lot of debt in this season of life without a lot to fall back on if you needed it. So I think with a monthly surplus, I'd probably redeploy that into additional stock and bond investments that are passive, that can be easily tailored to your risk level in this season of your life.

And I think that's probably going to be the best option for you. But we appreciate your call very, very much. And Steve, let me just mention one thing, you know, we've gotten a couple of calls this week from some folks wondering about missing stimulus checks.

Let me just provide some information that might be helpful. You know, there's good news for 30 million Social Security recipients and others who don't normally file a tax return, and that is that their checks have been delayed because the Social Security Administration was late in getting the necessary information to the IRS. But that has now happened. And the Treasury Department just announced, I read it just this morning, that those stimulus payments will be processed this weekend and sent electronically by April 7th. That's a week from today. Also, the IRS says it expects to send stimulus payments to Veterans Affairs beneficiaries by mid-April.

So for those who are looking for that check, if that's you, you're a Social Security recipient, you don't normally file a return, just know the fact you haven't gotten your check yet is not, it's not you. It's that there's been a delay, but it's all supposed to happen in the next week. Well, it is good news. And as Rob pointed out, he just heard this morning, the IRS apparently has a direct line to Rob's home, and they share all updated information directly with Rob, and then you hear it on this program. That's the way they disseminate all their interesting stuff.

No, I think you got that part wrong. He's Rob West. I'm Steve Moore. Thanks for listening. My thanks to our technical staff today doing great work.

Amy, Dan, Gabby T, and Jim Henry. Please don't forget that this program, MoneyWise Live, is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks for listening. Have a great remainder of your day. And then please join us tomorrow with a special program. That's tomorrow on MoneyWise Live.