6 Questions for Your Will

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 best friend is blessed with three kids and a big house. All the kids have their own rooms, but recently life in that big old house has been different. In an effort to solve kid boredom, my friend bought one of those massive blue tarps and created a full room tent in the spare bedroom.

They put each of the kids' mattresses under the tent in the shape of a T, and every night for now five weeks the kids have slept with their heads feet apart instead of rooms apart. It's Ryan from United Faith Mortgage, and when I see a home, I can't help but see interest rates, escrows, and trying to help listeners pay the least amount possible. But for me, that story was a needed reminder that it doesn't matter whether our homes are big or small.

It only matters whether we're willing to enjoy the little things that God gave us today, like a tarp tent. If you happen to be looking for a new place to put up a tarp of your own, 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. It's a funny thing about wills. Almost everyone will tell you that they're important, but less than half of adults in the US have one. Do you have will paralysis? Hi, I'm Rob West.

Maybe you just don't know the right questions to ask. Well, today I welcome financial advisor and financial teacher Ron Blue to find out how to overcome the fear of making out a will. Then, of course, on to your questions. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Well, my guest today is Ron Blue. He's a personal friend and mentor of mine. He spent many years helping folks align their finances with God's heart and his principles for managing money, which, by the way, as you well know, is what this program is all about. I thought we would start there today. Ron, welcome back.

It's good to be here, Rob. Thanks. Does God's Word have something to say about money? 2,350 verses, according to Howard Dayton. That's right. He actually did the math, right? Right. I'll take his word for it. Right.

That's great. You know, you have spent your career a long, long time really investigating these principles, not only teaching them and writing about them, but allowing them to be proven out at a professional level, which, you know, when you apply them in a professional context, giving advice to clients, you really begin to see how these principles work, don't you? Yeah, they really do. I spent 40 years really giving financial advice to Christians. And what you said a few seconds ago about where biblical wisdom meets financial knowledge wasn't exactly the words, but God's Word does speak to making financial decisions at the highest level of professionalism. And now I can say after 40 years, it's irrefutable that God's Word speaks to every money decision that anybody will make at any time under any circumstance.

Yes, that's right. And I quote that often, and you've said that for a long time. Ron, as believers, why is this even more important? Because this isn't about applying some timeless principles that are going to help you perhaps just build bigger barns or end up with more in your investment accounts.

Why as a Christian do we need to talk about this even more so? Well, for one thing, I think everyone is searching for something. And probably it's around the area of contentment. And the only way to have contentment when you're talking about money is really two things. Number one is to have an eternal perspective, so you put everything into perspective. And then secondly, that you apply timeless principles that have been proven to work for thousands of years. So now I can have confidence also. So it's a really important thing. And we live in a world that is very confusing when it comes to money. That's right. I didn't even know what I needed until I went to the mall. They have a plan for your life.

They do. And they're spending billions of dollars to make me discontent. What about the connection between our money, our financial journey, and our hearts? How does this actually affect our walk with the Lord? Well, actually, it all begins with my heart. And until I deal with the heart question of who owns it, and do I believe God's word, then I can't really move forward to reach this level of contentment and confidence in my financial thinking and decision. So we'd like to say that we'd like to say that all behavior follows belief. And so what I believe will drive every decision that I make. And if you give me your checkbook, I can tell you what you believe.

I love it. And one thing I've come to realize that I know you would agree with is that your financial journey in many ways shapes your spiritual journey. Oh, absolutely. In fact, I think that the financial decisions you make are the most objective measurement of your spirituality. It shows me what I really value in life when I make a financial decision, because that's where I allocate my time and my financial resources and my thoughts even. So if I'm not spending time every morning listening to what God has to say, I don't know how I would function during the day.

That's exactly right. Well, as we begin again, money-wise, and relaunch this program, and think about why we do what we do. I know I'm convinced, Ron, that this is a critical topic that we need to deal with from a biblical perspective, because it has everything to do with our hearts and our walk with the Lord.

You see, folks, if we recognize God owns it all, and we're a steward, and money is a tool to accomplish his purposes, well, that changes everything. I couldn't be more excited about my guest today for this program. When we come back, we're actually going to turn the corner and get real practical and begin to talk about some wills. Then we'll take your questions at 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Welcome to MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West. Our guest today is Ron Blue, the author of Generous Living, Finding Contentment Through Giving, which we're diving into today, because it has a lot to say about wills. Just before the break, we were establishing why this topic is so critical. Why spend all this time every day talking about money from a biblical perspective? Well, as Ron said, it's because God's Word has a lot to say about it. There's a real connection between the way we handle our money and our hearts and our walk with Jesus, and because it's practical, and we're going to get real practical here for a moment. Ron, we're going to talk about wills today and specifically some questions that you encourage folks to ask when they're dealing with wills. But why do you spend so much time on wills in this particular book, and why is this an important topic to address? Well, number one, it's irrefutable that everybody is going to die, okay? And if I don't plan the disposition of my estate, or the estate that God has given me, I can't after I'm dead.

So, it's just a road map. It says, this is what I would like to see happen, and it's my last testimony as a steward also. I've heard you say that before. This is the last stewardship decision you'll make, and it's important that you take that verbatim. That you take that very, very seriously. Now, for folks who are listening today, Ron, who perhaps haven't taken the plunge yet to make out a will, how might you encourage them? Well, it's not that difficult. People tend to think that I've got to have some wisdom that I don't have. But sitting down with an advisor of some sort, or an attorney, or CPA, or Certified Kingdom Advisor, they'll ask you the questions that will help you to design the disposition of what God has entrusted to you.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And this is one of those areas where a professional is well worth the price of admission. All right, Ron, you've broken down making out a will into answering six important questions. And I want to dive into those because I think this will help to frame up the key pieces you need to address as you think about your own will. Let's start with the first question.

What is it? Well, the first question is the most important question. And that is, how do I want to treat my children? And I find when I speak that that's the number one question that people come up to talk to me about is their situation. And, you know, when you have small children, it's less difficult. But as they get older and older and make financial decisions, it becomes more and more difficult. And then they get married. They bring a spouse into the situation. They bring your grandkids into the situation. So as time goes on, how much I want to leave to my children is the most important decision that I can make.

And it's the first decision I need to make. Two things—I know we could spend the rest of the program on this one alone, and we've got to move on—but two things always jump out at me when I hear you teach on this. One is the fact that if we love our children equally, we will treat them uniquely. And so we may actually address the inheritance question for our children differently, one child to another. The other is that this decision as to what you're going to leave to your kids may change over time.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the idea that treating your children uniquely, they have unique or differing needs. You know, for a long time, we had a single mom as one of our children. Well, her needs were a lot different than her older sister who had married an entrepreneur. So it's a difficult thing to do.

But as time goes on, it becomes more and more complex because they built their own families. And I asked the question, what's the worst thing that can happen if I leave and you name the amount to a specific child? That'll get you start thinking about the consequences of what you leave your children. Really important.

So important. And so often that goes unaddressed. Question number two, Ron, how do I leave my assets to my children? Well, you can leave them outright through your will. You can leave them in the trust. But, you know, as time goes on, Rob, I recommend a lot that you begin dispersing your estate earlier rather than waiting until the time that you die. In fact, I've got another principle in the book that I wrote called, do your giving while you're living so you're knowing where it's going. And that applies to charities and that also applies to your family. My children can enjoy whatever we might do for them better now than 20 years from now or whatever. Yeah, perhaps you can be a better steward by being alive and actually seeing what's happening with your giving dollars.

All right, quickly on to number three, how much do I want to leave to other family members and friends? Well, that's a unique answer to that answer to that question. But it's a question, you know, I say this, Rob, and you've heard me say it.

If you don't ask the right question, you'll never get the right answer. So the right question here is, is there anyone else that I want to bless or anyone else that I want to take care of or anyone else that should be recognized by my estate and distribution? Certainly charity is in there, too. And charities change over time. So I think that that question, do your giving while you're living so you're knowing where it's going, there's something that happens, and that is joy in my heart when I do that.

Well, and that's where I want to go next, Ron. I want to combine questions four and five because they both relate to charity, ministry, the giving we want to do from our will. And the questions are how much and how do I want to leave my assets to charity or ministry?

Well, it's a piece that almost nobody addresses. I think the numbers are less than 10 percent have any charitable giving in a will. And you can't make that choice afterwards. But one of the beauties of giving charitably in a will is that that's non-taxable then in the estate. So figuring out where your passions are—my church, ministries I'm involved with, missionaries that I'm involved with—don't I want to maybe take care of some of them with the assets that God has given to me? I certainly want to ask the question again, is there anybody outside of my family that I want to give, and do I want to give charitably?

Yes. Well, and having a plan is always going to allow you to do more, getting some godly counsel. I mean, we talk to our friends at the National Christian Foundation all the time about the gift planning that they do. This is an area where you don't want to just go it alone, right?

No, not at all. In fact, I do think there's three things that have to happen to maximize giving. Number one, a transformed heart. Number two, intentionality. In other words, a plan and a will is a plan. And third, accountability. So I can—I have a financial planner that asks me the hard questions. Even though I've written the books on it, I still have to be accountable to someone. Well, our listeners are probably still processing that. Ron Blue has a financial planner, and maybe that's a whole other program.

All right, Ron, just a few seconds left. What do you want to say about this last area, which is taxes? Well, first of all, I have a principle also with taxes that I believe is true.

Jesus said, give unto Caesar what is Caesar's. So I don't think it's unscriptural to give to my government and pay my taxes. And I say this, Rob, you can plan for your taxes in your estate to reduce taxes, and you should. I'm not saying you should pay any more than what you absolutely have to legally. But I do think that when you look at your situation and you do have to pay taxes, you should get on your knees and thank God.

Because if you didn't have income or if you didn't have assets, you wouldn't have any taxes. I love it. It's a whole different way of thinking. Ron, thanks for stopping by today. What a pleasure. Thank you, Rob. That was Ron Blue.

Always a pleasure to have him with us. The book is called Generous Living. We're going to pause for a brief break when we come back to your questions. Here's the number, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West. Always great to have my good friend and mentor Ron Blue to stop by the program.

And I'm confident that insightful information, those questions to ask about wills will be a real help to you. Hey, coming up a little later in the broadcast, we're launching a brand new segment today. It's the MoneyWise Market Commentary. My good friend and industry veteran Bob Doll will be here each Monday to share with us in 90 seconds what's going on in the markets. As we look back to last week, if we look forward to the week ahead, his insightful commentary on the market is something that is really well known throughout the investment landscape, all up and down Wall Street. Bob is a regular on CNBC and Fox Business. He loves Jesus. He brings a biblical viewpoint. But his analysis on what's happening in the markets is something I know you will come to count on.

So look forward to that a little later in the broadcast. We're so glad that you're out there today. And let me give the phone number. We do have some lines open. We'd love to hear from you. The number 800-525-7000. 800-525-7000. Let's dive right in today and go south to Fort Myers.

Julie, you're first up on MoneyWise Live. Go ahead. Hi, am I on here? Yes, ma'am. Yes.

Hi. I had a question on whether it's better to do a revocable trust or a will. I was told that if you do the revocable trust, you don't have to go through propane. It's just a lot easier for, you know, people left behind. Yes. You know, Julie, it's a great question, one that comes up often whenever we talk about wills.

And I would just say you're right. There are some benefits to it, to a trust, a revocable trust. The question is, is the cost of doing it worth the added benefit for you? In some cases it will be and others, folks will choose not to go that route. A will, of course, is typically less expensive and easier to set up because a trust is just a bit more complex as a legal document. A will is written basically to express a deceased person's wishes from naming guardians of a minor child or children, which is obviously critical, to bequeathing objects and cash assets to friends, relatives, or even charities or ministries. A will, though, becomes only active after one's death. Now, a trust is active the day you create it, and a grantor may list the distribution of assets before their death in it, unlike a will.

So it can go into place based on certain triggering events. If you're incapacitated, you want your trustee to take over and carry out your wishes even prior to death. There are irrevocable trusts often created for tax purposes. That's not what you're talking about. That would not be able to be altered. Of course, the revocable trust can. As you mentioned, one of the other benefits is the anonymity that goes with it. It's not a part of the public record. It also does allow your personal effects and assets to be transferred outside of the probate process. It's going to run you typically about $1,500 or more, whereas your average will would be in the 500-plus range. So I think perhaps the next step for you, Julie, is to sit down with a godly estate planning attorney, someone who can really walk you through your specific situation, ask some probing questions, help you carry out your desires with regard to the stewardship of God's resources both now and at death, and then determine the most appropriate legal instrument to carry that out.

And then I think the decision will become clear at that point. If you need a godly estate planning attorney, I'd recommend you connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in Fort Myers. Just go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click find a CKA, put in your zip code, and any one of those CKAs could refer you to a godly estate planning attorney if one doesn't come up in the search automatically. So hopefully that's helpful to you. Does that accomplish what you were looking for?

Yes, I had one short question. If I did a will or a trust in Florida, is that legal in the whole country or because we live in two different places? Yeah, you would just want to make that estate planning attorney aware of that fact and that would be a part of a normal question that would be asked when it's drafted. If you take on a residence outside the state or you move after the will or trust was created, you're going to want to have that reviewed by an attorney either in your new state or somebody who also is familiar with the state laws where you have residents because there may need to be some updates.

That would be one of those triggering events to at least have those documents reviewed to see if they need to be updated. We appreciate your call very, very much. Let's go to Sonya in Kansas City. Sonya, you're next on MoneyWiseLive.

Go ahead. I'd like to know if there are free financial advisors specifically regarding a will update in my area. Oh, okay.

You know what? With regard to making a will, there are some online tools. Now, we're typically not a huge fan of those resources. What you will find is that, yeah, there's a cookie cutter approach and it asks you a series of questions that would allow you to put something in place and clearly something is better than nothing, especially, Sonya, if you have small children because I want to make sure that there's a guardian that's been named so you're making that decision and not the court or anyone else. And using an online free will creator would certainly be one of those opportunities. But in my view, this is important enough as a financial decision that I would be looking to get some counsel from a professional, someone who can really take the time to walk you through a series of questions, understand what's going on in your life, understand your wishes, make sure that the document is drafted appropriately, and as we just discussed with the last caller, is done in a way that reflects the laws of your state. So I'm going to encourage you to spend the time to perhaps save up and visit with a godly estate planning attorney, a lawyer who can draft that for you and make sure that it's done exactly the way that it should be.

But yes, there are online tools, many of them free, and that would certainly be better than nothing. And we appreciate your call very, very much today. We're going to pause here in just a moment and take a quick break, more of your calls just around the corner. We do have a few lines open, 800-525-7000. I want to say thank you to Christian Healthcare Ministries. Are you looking for a biblical and budget-friendly answer to medical bills? Well, CHN brings faith and community together to provide health cost sharing.

You can check them out at chministries.org. Hey, we'll be right back with much more on MoneyWise Live. Don't go anywhere.

Number 800-525-7000. Welcome back to the program. This is the radio program where each day we unpack God's timeless principles and apply them to your financial life. Thanks for your calls and questions and for checking in with us online as well. We're active on Facebook and Instagram. We'd love to meet you there and tackle any questions or comments you might have. Let's continue on with the program. Next on to Texas, and we welcome Ann to the broadcast. Go right ahead.

Hello. I want to know the best way to invest my money after I sell my house as I'm going to rent instead of buying another home. Also, I'd like to know if you have a list of good, reliable charities to donate to. I've seen some where the CEOs get outrageous salaries and it doesn't go where you think it's going and so forth. I appreciate that. Certainly, we want to be a good steward of God's resources and when it comes to our investing and our giving, and I think that's wise. Let's tackle the first part first, and that was the proceeds from this sale. You indicated that you might be buying something just not right away.

Is that correct? And if so, how long do you anticipate? No, I'm not going to buy anything. I'm going to sell my house and then I'm going to rent a house, but I'm not going to buy. So I'm wondering what the best way to invest my money would be. I've talked to a tax person and they said that I don't have to worry about it increasing my income tax because I've lived here more than five years. So I was just wondering if you had any suggestions on the best way to invest money from the sale of the house.

Yeah, very good. And so this money is not earmarked for anything in particular. Tell me about your income sources and are you needing to invest this in such a way that you would draw an income from it to supplement other sources or is this money you would just see growing without you needing to touch it in any way? Well, I would probably like to have some income sources to pay the rent because I own the home now and I don't have any big expenditures for rent or anything or a mortgage or anything and so rent is going to be a new factor in my life. Are you living on social security or some other income? I have social security and other things and stuff.

Very good. And do you expect that your current income apart from the proceeds of this home sale would cover the rent or are you going to need to supplement that because you'd have a shortfall? No, no, I don't have to worry about that. I'll have enough money. Okay. And how much do you plan to get out of the sale of the home? Well, I'm hoping close to 190,000. Okay, very good.

All right. You know, I think this is a great opportunity to put this money to work in a way, Ann, that reflects your goals and priorities. I would start by really looking at a big picture financial plan. If you don't have a financial professional, I would engage one. At this point, a certified kingdom advisor who's in the financial planning discipline who can help you look across really not only your spending plan, but your investable assets.

This certainly the proceeds from this home sale as well as anything else. And also make sure that any risk you have is offset. I think, you know, you also expressed a desire to do some giving here as well. And I think being thoughtful about how that set up is going to be very important in terms of what that might look like for whatever portion is not given away or perhaps allocated toward an emergency fund if you need to shore that up a bit. And I would be looking at this stage of life to have at least six months in emergency reserves, not invested in a probably a savings account, hopefully an online savings account where you're getting a little bit of interest. But anything that's not going to any of those places certainly would be invested. And I would typically expect that you to have a very conservative portfolio, probably more than half of it in bonds or in fixed income type investments that are a little more stable and income generating a smaller portion, perhaps 30 percent, maybe a bit more in stocks to create a bit of a growth component.

But in such a way that if the market were down for an extended period of time, you wouldn't need to access those those funds and you could allow it to recover. But all of that would be worked through with an investment and financial planning professional that can look over your whole financial situation. And then after these decisions are made, help you deploy an investment strategy that makes sense. If you'd like to do some reading on the topic, I'd love to send you a copy of Austin Pryor's book, The Sound Mind Investing Handbook.

It's all about investing from a godly perspective. I'd love to send that to you as our gift, and I think you'd enjoy reading it. With respect to the giving that you want to do, a couple of thoughts. Number one is I would consider connecting with our friends at the National Christian Foundation, ncfgiving.com, for two reasons.

One is they could help you with a giving strategy that would really uncover some of your passions and desires and connect those from a giving perspective with ministries doing great work in the name of Jesus. There's no cost for that, and they could help you set up what's called a donor-advised fund. So whatever portion of the proceeds of this home sale you want to give away would go into your donor-advised fund. You'd go ahead and get the tax deduction now. Think of it then like a charitable checking account where you can make gifts out of that as the Lord leads. You wouldn't have to do it all right away, and you would then make those gifts online at your leisure. In terms of where to go to look for ministries, as you said, that are doing great work and are above reproach, I'd look at ministrywatch.com.

You could click on the tab for shining lights. They have profiles of Christian ministries doing great, great work, and I think it would give you some of the filters that you were looking for. So hopefully that's helpful to you to connect with a Certified Kingdom Advisor in Texas where you'll be moving.

You can go to our website moneywiselive.org and click find a CKA. Let's head to Lakeview, Iowa. Norah, you're next on the program. Go ahead. Hi there. Quick question for you. Was your thoughts on at what point do you have enough in savings that you're kind of hoarding it and it should be doing some work for you rather than 0.25% you know sitting in a small bank?

Yeah. Well, I think really it's about the it's about the purpose of the money. You know as we think about money being a tool to accomplish God's purposes, we want to look at the principles that he's outlined in his word. We want to manage our money accordingly, really his money accordingly, and you know for that that we would set aside as emergency reserves, what I like to call an emergency fund. I think we need to be prayerful about what is the appropriate amount. I like the number three to six months worth of expenses, not income, but if you say what do I need what does it cost me to fund my lifestyle on a monthly basis and then if I'd like to have three or as much as six months of that amount in reserves, that's where I would put it in that savings account earning you know about a half a percent and be okay with that because it's safe, it's secure, it's available, not too accessible. It'd take three to five days to ACH transfer it over to your checking account, which I don't think is a bad thing, but you're not having to liquidate investments that might be down at any given time in order to cover an expense. So I think that three to six month is a guideline, but that's all it is. I would with any of these questions make it a matter of prayer and ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you think and pray through what is the right amount for you.

Does that help though, Norah? At this point it's about a year's worth of salary, so it's a significant amount of money, so just trying to find what options are out there. So at that point I think you could look at deploying it in something that has some risk to it. I think again that would need to be considered in terms of your overall goals and objectives. Hey, we appreciate your call today.

I hope that's helpful. Much more to come on MoneyWise Live just around the corner. Thanks for being along with us today. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West.

This is the program where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions and choices. Thanks for being along with us today. We're excited today to introduce a brand new segment that you'll hear each Monday. My good friend and Wall Street veteran Bob Dahl, an equity strategist and market commentary specialist, a writer, a speaker, frequent contributor on Fox Business and CNBC, will stop by each Monday to give us really his insights and commentary on what's happening in the markets right now.

Here's Bob Dahl. Thanks, Rob. Glad to be here. Well, last week equities finished mostly higher. It was a good week.

The S&P 500 was up 2.7 percent, but small stocks were actually down for the week. Recovery sentiment seemed to be the key driver for the upside with stronger than expected March employment report. The stable interest rate environment helped drive the outperformance of growth and momentum after the meaningfully lag versus value in the first quarter.

The building tension in financial markets eased a notch as the surge in treasury level off allowing many equity markets to move to these new highs. Bond yields still have further upside in our view as the global economic expansion is strengthening. New variants of the virus may yet temper bullish economic prospects, but for now the skies are clear enough to sustain the cyclical uptrend in bond yields and equity prices. And so, no surprise, we continue to favor stocks over bonds. When earnings expectations move higher, which they are, that's traditionally a good period of time for the stock market. We'll have periodic setbacks, but not bear market-type conditions. And so, periodic bumps aside, the equity market will likely persist to the upside until inflation concerns become meaningful and the era of free money looks poised to come to an end. So that's this week's MoneyWise Market Commentary.

Thanks very much, Bob. Bob will be back next Monday with another market commentary. And what do we do with that? Well, I think for many of us, we want to know where are we at right now in our economy, in the stock market? How do we take God's money and deploy it in a way that makes sense?

Of course, with a long-term strategy, not week to week, but also understanding the times and that's certainly what Bob Doll will help us to do each week and we appreciate his contribution to the program. Now back to the phones and south to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Connie, you're next up on the program. Go right ahead.

Thank you. I have a question about my Social Security. I took my Social Security at age 67. So my question is, what are the advantages of continuing to work past 70 and the, I guess, the growth for your Social Security?

Is there any advantage to that? Yeah, well continuing to work, Connie, could boost your monthly benefit depending on how much you made in the past versus how much you're making now. So your benefit, just to make sure you understand how it's calculated, is based on your high 35 years. So the key is if you're making more now than in a given year when you first entered the workforce, let's say, the higher salary year now would then replace the lower paid one, which would increase your benefit. Not a lot, but every little bit counts.

So you are kind of locked in by taking Social Security and really the only thing that's going to boost it would be this replacement of higher wages now versus in the past or any cost of living adjustments, but you're going to get that whether you work or not. Does that make sense, though, to you? Okay. Oh, absolutely. It makes me feel better as well.

I'm happy with that information. I'm glad to hear it and we appreciate your call. Yes, ma'am. Very, very much.

On to Minneapolis, St. Paul. Sandy, go right ahead. Hi. I'm so excited to be able to see you today. Hi. Thank you.

I listen to you every day and I just kind of wanted to give a little testimonial today about how your ministry has really helped us. My husband and I were really not very wise in the way we handled our money when our kids were growing up and we never had a will. And we heard on your show one time about Ron Blue's book, Splitting Airs. And so we decided to get that and we actually read it together on vacation one year, several years ago, and we decided we needed to start implementing some some processes to as we head towards retirement.

And during that time, my husband's older brother passed away, single older brother, and left my husband with some money and a small home. And so we were able to find in a Bible study that we attend a certified Kingdom advisor. And he started working with us and set us up with an attorney and we were able to set the will in motion based on a lot of information that we had read and decided on prior to meeting with them because of Ron Blue's book. And so now we're kind of in a position where we feel like we're making some real good headway. We're settled with our will and we've also, we're almost debt free except for our home.

And I would have never believed it 10 years ago. So I think your ministry really made a big impact on us. So thank you.

I love that Sandy. Well, I appreciate a couple of things. Number one is you're applying God's truth. It's not our wisdom and insight.

It's insight that comes right from God's Word and that's why it works. Number two, that you're giving testimony to the progress that you've made. And as you've applied the counsel of Ron Blue and your certified Kingdom advisor and the principles we share on this program each day, you've done the hard work.

You sought out those professionals. You're limiting your lifestyle and paying off debt and saving for the future. And that's the way we should live so that we can live with freedom. We can live with joy, but we can also live generously.

I like to think of it as living with an open hand, which allows us to share God's resources through us as a conduit into God's activity. So thank you for making the call today and sharing your story. I know it's been an encouragement to those listening on the broadcast today.

Next up, Cleveland, Ohio. Maureen, you're on MoneyWise Live. Go ahead. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I was wondering how can I freeze my credit?

Yes. You know, this is something that can be done very easily, Maureen, and free based on legislation that was passed in 2018. You would essentially contact each of the three credit bureaus. You would do that easily online by going to Equifax.com, Experian.com and TransUnion.com. You will need to go to each separately and you'll want to then follow the instructions to freeze your credit.

Now, what's going to happen? Well, essentially, you're going to place a pin number on your credit file that is going to stop anyone who tries to access your credit file for the purpose of extending new credit if they don't have that pin number. And what that's going to protect you against is someone fraudulently trying to open a credit account in your name with, of course, no permission to do so. And when the lender whom they're seeking credit from is not able to access your credit because that individual doesn't have your pin number, well, that should shut that down in a hurry. So that's the next step for you is to go out there and initiate that credit freeze with each of the three bureaus.

And again, you can do that at Experian, TransUnion or Equifax. Quickly on to Lake George, Minnesota. Al, you're our final caller today. Go right ahead, sir.

Yeah, thank you for taking my call. We're wondering on storage of a will. We've recently had our it's been a while now had our will stored with the county. And we're wondering, we moved it over to our safety deposit box. And we're wondering, where should we store our will at home with the county wherever and appreciate your feedback? Yeah, it's a great question.

Al, we certainly started with this topic today, and we'll finish with it. You know, probably the best place to keep your will is with your attorney or executor, especially if your executor is a financial institution, you can certainly keep a copy of it in your home, you'll want to do that in a place that's safe, because often that's not going to be the safest or most private. So if you have a, you know, safe deposit box, which you mentioned, or a fireproof safe at home, that would certainly be another place. Some states do allow you to file the will with the probate court or other designated court before you die. If you go that route, you don't have to worry about something happening to your will and it not being found. And most states that allow you to file your will ahead of time will keep that document private until your death, but not all. So you have to check with your state. In some states that will make your will a public record that anyone can see right away. That's not always the case. And so you'll just want to know that.

But I would say first option is with your executor or with your attorney. And that is a great question. We appreciate you calling in and asking that today. Well, hey, thanks so much for being along with us today. Let me take just a moment to encourage you, if you haven't already, to download the MoneyWise app. It's a great way to keep up with the program, to listen when you're on the go. All of our archives are there as well. But in addition to that, one of the benefits of the MoneyWise app is that you will have the MoneyWise community right there in the app.

So you can ask questions, our coaches will weigh in on those. I drop by from time to time and weigh in. And in addition, you'll also be able to access our digital envelope system. It's all there in one great resource. We'd love for you to go check it out today.

You'll find it in your app store, whether you're in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Just head over to your app store and you can search for MoneyWise biblical finance. We'd also encourage you to check out our website, MoneyWise.org. A great feature article today there about the gospel patron behind St. Luke. What is a gospel patron? Well, behind every gospel proclaimer throughout history has been a gospel patron funding the work in almost every case. And would you believe the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts also had some gospel patrons? And you can check those out. It's great reading and something that I know you will be encouraged by as you read and think about what the Lord is doing in your life.

Perhaps you could be a gospel patron. Taking God's resources and using them for God's glory as you support his work. That's certainly one of the reasons why he entrusts what he does to us. Hey, let me say thank you to my amazing team today, executive producer Jim Henry, producer Amy Rios, Dan Anderson engineering today, and call screener was Aaron today. So thankful for their great work. We can only do what we do because of that team and your financial support.

And we're grateful for that as well. Would you come back and join us tomorrow? We'll be here for another edition of MoneyWise Live. We'll see you then. God bless you.