The Dollar: A Window into the Nation

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I was actually referred to United Faith Mortgage through my mother-in-law. We decided it was time for us to start looking for a house, and I reached out to Kelly, and we found several houses we liked, but you know, with the seller's market, things kept falling through. But any time we needed her, she was there for us. She got everything we needed as soon as we asked for it, and she made it work. She made sure that if that was the house that our family wanted, we were going to get that house. They're a wonderful company, and we're just really blessed that we found them in the process, that they helped us get through it, and we are in the home of our dreams, and our family is so happy. We are United Faith Mortgage. Have you ever taken a close look at the one dollar bill, more specifically at the back of the dollar bill?

It holds clues about the founding of the United States that still have meaning today. Hi, I'm Rob West. Today on MoneyWise, we discover the dollar bill's imagery and symbolism with economist Jerry Boyer. He's done the homework, and you'll be fascinated by what he's found. Then it's on to your questions at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical principles guide our financial decisions. Alright, my good friend Jerry Boyer is the chief economist at Vidant Financial. Lately, when not on the Fox Business Channel or writing articles for townhall.com, he's been staring intently at the dollar bill. Jerry, welcome back to the program.

Great to be with you. You better explain why I'm staring at dollar bills. Well, I'll let you do the explaining. Alright, it's actually a good time for folks to dig out a dollar bill and look at the back of it. Now, I've got mine right here, and let's get one thing out of the way. We're not talking about secret symbols of the Illuminati or the Freemasons, right?

No, we're not. I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's almost impossible to have conversations about the actual history of the great seal, which is what you find on the back of the dollar bill, without having that kind of overnight AM radio, lizard people, Illuminati conspiracy kind of thing running in the back of our head. And the fact is, this isn't hidden history, as they like to call it. This is just history.

We have a lot of historical records from the period of the founding of the United States. We know why Congress wanted this done. We know who they asked to do it. And we know some of the earlier sketches, and we know who ended up doing it, and we know what he meant, because he said what he meant. So we can kind of leave the QAnon stuff aside for a moment and just do some actual history. Now, it's not well known, because reading history is hard work, but it's not unknown because it's a secret conspiracy. Yeah, well, that's exactly right, and I'm glad we established that on the front end.

All right, let's dive in. So we're going to begin with heraldry. What's its significance on the dollar? Well, what you have on the back of the dollar are the two sides of the great seal, and they're examples of heraldry, and heraldry is a medieval idea. And I'm not sure that people understand how very much the founding fathers were influenced by medieval ideas, by medieval symbolism. I mean, even to the choice of the colors red, white, and blue, which paralleled some earlier, like, knights in the era of chivalry. So the patterns are heraldric patterns, which means they use symbolism, and there's a kind of a vocabulary that you know in advance. Like, we don't know that, because most people don't know anything about heraldry, although I know a few people who know their family seal and talk to people about it, but most don't. And so we don't know that blue in heraldry symbolizes justice, or stars symbolize authority or power, or pyramids symbolize perfection. We just don't know that language.

We just don't do a lot of that anymore. But the people who did this did know that language, and the Congress asked someone with an expertise in heraldry to basically create these images which symbolize the philosophy of the foundation of the United States. Yeah, very helpful. All right, there's a lot to cover.

We're going to move quickly. What's the meaning, Jerry, behind the pyramid in the great seal of the United States that we see on the back of the dollar bill? Well, there's a lot interesting in the pyramid, and one of the most interesting things is that it's a four-sided pyramid rather than a three-sided pyramid. And a four-sided pyramid is more stable than a three-sided pyramid, just like a four-sided stool is more stable than a three-sided stool.

Harder to knock over. So they were saying that they thought that the United States at its foundation had a certain stable foundation. Down at the very bottom level, you have Roman numerals, MCC, LM. You don't have to add them up. I'll add them up for you.

They add up to 1,776. 1776, meaning the Declaration of Independence. So they're saying the nation was founded on certain principles. Those principles are summarized in the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And that is the foundation of the American republic. A history lesson with Jerry Boyer today, looking at the dollar bill.

If you haven't gotten yours out yet, do that now. We're going to pause for a brief break. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West. Jerry Boyer, my guest today. Jerry's an economist and a frequent contributor on Fox Business Channel, and you'll find his writing at townhall.com. Today we're talking about the dollar bill. He's giving us a bit of a history lesson about the founding of the United States and all the imagery and what we can learn from the back of a dollar bill. If you haven't gotten your dollar bill out yet, do that now.

Jerry, just before the break, you were talking about the pyramid, the four-sided pyramid that talked about the stability. It also has references to the Constitution as well. There's a Latin phrase that we see on the back of the dollar bill, novus ordo secularum. What does that mean? That means new order of the ages, which is not the same thing as new world order.

So let's just turn down our overnight AM radio conspiracy voice for a moment. The idea of a new world order is something that comes much later. This is almost the opposite of that vision. So what is the idea of a new order of the world or new order of the ages? The idea is that all the other nations before, I'd say with the exception of Israel, were founded on ethnicity or founded on conquest or both. So you're a certain race and that's your nation or you conquer others and that gives you a nation. This nation was built on ideas and the founding fathers thought, and I think they're correct to think so, that this had never been done before in the history of the world, where there was an opportunity to build a nation and start with principles rather than start with race or conquest or just history or tradition. So that's what new order of the ages means. I like that.

Yeah, very helpful. Jerry, we were talking about the pyramid, this four sided pyramid, which you said was very intentional. We noticed something about the pyramid. It's incomplete. Why is that?

Because the nation was incomplete, because the founding fathers, for all the attacks on them about their blind spots regarding slavery and the rights of women, et cetera, they knew they were falling short. There's a lot of Christian influence there. I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to be founded on Jesus, but I fall short. My pyramid is not complete.

The main thing is that when you fall short, you say it and you try to amend your ways. The founding fathers knew that the pyramid was incomplete in that these inalienable rights had not been granted to everyone yet. So that's why the pyramid doesn't have a top.

It's still being built. And above it, there is an eye, which is in a triangle. And that triangle is complete.

That triangle is perfect. And that represents God. Now, sometimes Masons use the seeing eye of God, but they don't use it with a triangle. So this is not Masonic imagery. And so the eye of God, who is perfect, is looking down at America, which is imperfect, to see what it's going to do.

Are we going to finish out this project and evaluating us? Fascinating. The all-seeing eye gets a lot of attention. Obviously, we've got light beams in the Great Seal as well. Anything else you'd want to say about the eye and the light beams? Well, the light beams almost always represent God in heraldry, right? Or divinity.

Sometimes you get halos coming out of saints. And in this case, you have the glory cloud of God. And above, you have another Latin phrase.

Anuit quaptis. He who, or God, we see his eye, has smiled on our beginnings. In other words, it's the same idea. It's God looking down and saying, this is a good beginning that all men are created equal.

Now I'm going to see whether you're going to grow into full adherence to the principles that you have built this new order of the ages on. Jerry, it's amazing that as we walk around town with dollar bills in our pockets, we're walking around town with not only a history lesson, but a Bible lesson about a creator God. And no one really knows that, do they? They don't.

And it's really fascinating. Congress basically gave the job of this to John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. They couldn't agree on which Great Seal to do. My favorite is Ben Franklin, who wanted to do something from the book of Exodus. So much for Franklin not being biblically influenced.

But they couldn't agree, and they didn't know heraldry. So it was given to someone named Elias Bidine or Budine. And people forget him. He was a Christian apologist. He wrote a book called The Age of Revelation to rebut Thomas Paine's atheistic age of reason. George Washington wanted Budine to write a refutation of the atheist views of Paine. And Paine is remembered as a founder when the founders were actually hostile to his atheism.

But the man who wrote an apologetics book in response is the one who gave us this basic symbolic representation of what I would call a Christian-based theology of the nation state. Fascinating. Jerry, what about the other side of the seal, the eagle?

Very foreign policy oriented. And so you have the eagle. I mean, there's a lot going on here. E pluribus unum, from many, one.

Boy, we can sure use that now. From many what? From many ethnicities.

Different states that were associated with different ethnicities, German or Irish, etc. One of the things that's really interesting about this is there's more biblical symbolism in that the eagle is holding olive branches, which is obviously a biblical symbol, you know, starting off with the with the flood narrative and with Noah. But notice, if you look closely, the eagle is facing towards the olive branches, not towards the arrows, which is a way of saying that America's default position should be peace and only turn to war in defense when it's necessary. That's another lesson I think that modern America has missed out on and become maybe sometimes a little bit more given to military intervention that isn't defense necessarily, but trying to change the world or build glory or build legacy. And this is saying, no, we should be a peace loving nation above all, following the lesson of the of the Book of Genesis and Noah and the olive tree symbolism. Fascinating.

Jerry, we have just a minute or so left. Tell us, as we wrap up today, the connection behind the symbology of the dollar bill, freedom and America's vast economic growth compared to other nations. Well, I think that we had an experiment and the experiment is a nation built this way and the nation built this way was able to leapfrog over the whole rest of human civilization in terms of human flourishing and a standard of living. And I don't just mean stuff.

I don't mean plasma TVs. I mean plunging infant mortality rates and longer lifespan, more flourishing. And I look at the dollar and I wonder, why has the dollar become the reserve currency of the world, even without a legal mandate? Why do people, why historically has the world trusted the dollar to maintain value more than any other currency? And I would say the answer is actually on the dollar itself. If you believe there are there are inherently true things and that they involve the protection of property, that a nation built that way will not debase itself, it will not debase its currency for its own purposes. Now, of course, we've departed from that, you know, in modern times, but the dollar itself should be a reminder to us of what's the importance of sound currency, private property, rule of law and the inherent dignity of all human beings, which are all interrelated ideas. Wow.

Fascinating insights on the dollar bill. Jerry, thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the history lesson, my friend. Thanks for the opportunity to tell it. All right. Jerry Boyer, chief economist at Vidant Financial, has been our guest today.

You'll find his articles at townhall.com. Get your kids to sit down and listen to a replay of this later today. Hey, your calls are next.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. This is Money Wise Live, where biblical principles guide our financial decisions. Welcome back to Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West. So glad you're along with us today. We've got some phone lines open.

We'd love to hear from you. Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Here's the number. Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. We want to apply God's word to whatever you're dealing with in your financial life today, whether it's giving or debt, investing. Perhaps you're trying to navigate this crazy housing market or you're thinking about refinancing your mortgage, whatever it might be. We'd love to tackle it today.

Again, the number eight hundred five to five seven thousand. So thankful to have Jerry stop by today. Wasn't that fascinating? I could listen to Jerry teach on history, especially as it relates to money and today's topic, the dollar bill.

I could listen for hours. I think it's just so interesting. Our Facebook question today was, what would you like to learn about the symbols on the U.S. currency? And Ed said, I'd love to know who determines what president and symbols actually go on money. And Ed, the answer actually is the secretary of the Treasury is responsible for selecting whose images are found on U.S. bills and coins. And although bills frequently are redesigned for primarily security purposes, the famous faces on them have remained the same since 1929. That's when a special Treasury committee selected them due to their, quote, permanent familiarity in the minds of the public, according to the Treasury Department.

So the Treasury Department and more specifically, the secretary of the Treasury is responsible for selecting those. And it is fascinating stuff. All right. We're going to take your calls today as we begin to dive in. We're going to start in Ohio with Marion. And Marion, what's on your mind today? Hey, good afternoon.

Thanks for taking my call. I'm just trying to determine whether it makes sense for me to refinance my home. I am 67 working full time. I have, you know, it's a multifamily house, so it's a duplex. I live on one side and I have renters on the other. Currently have a four and a half percent and 18 years to pay off.

Okay. My first place that I tried, I mean, there's stuff everywhere, but they're wanting to give me a three and a half percent fixed rate, but 30 years. And then the closing costs, I'll get thirty five hundred dollars out just for me. I don't have any credit card debt, but it's just thirty five hundred out.

But with all the closing costs, that being said, it's an additional ten thousand dollars. So it comes that I would be refinancing one hundred and seventy five for 30 years. Does that make sense? And what did you say your balance is today?

One sixty four. Okay. Yeah. You know, I'm not a big fan of that for a couple of reasons. Number one is I'd like for you to save at least a point in the interest.

You've done that. I'd prefer for you to save a point and a half. I realize because you're financing this duplex and that includes not only the portion that you're in, but also the rental portion, you may not be able to get the most attractive rates out there. But I'd still love for you to shop this around and see if you can't come up with something that would get you around three percent so you could save a point and a half. I'd also like for you to look at a 20 year mortgage instead of a 30. Even though that would add two years to the 18 you have remaining, you could get them to run the amortization schedule to tell you what you need to send every month to make it an 18 year payoff. But with that point and a half in interest savings, that's going to be key. I really want you to commit to the best of your ability, staying in this home for at least five to seven years.

If you don't think you can make that commitment, that would be a disqualifier for me. Beyond that, you want to look really hard at the closing costs. So on one hundred and sixty eight thousand, I'd like for you to try to keep that at two percent, which would be around thirty five hundred dollars, not ten thousand. So I suspect what they're doing is they're giving you a higher interest rate, but then putting what are called discount points in there in addition to whatever loan origination and appraisal and doc fees and all the other things that they have in there.

They're adding some discount points for you to buy that rate down. And, you know, it could be, again, because of the duplex, you're not going to find the very best rates. But I would want to make sure that your closing costs are around that two percent number, three percent at the most. And I'd want to make sure you're saving at least a point in interest, which you should be able to do. And I'd like for you to go for that 20 year loan. If you can't find those things, I'd probably stick with what you've got, but don't give up.

I'd probably do a little bit more shopping. Perhaps look at some of the online lenders bankrate.com is a great Web site, Marion, for you to look and see who has the best programs right now, depending upon how much they have to lend and kind of how many how hungry they are for the business. Very various online banks will, you know, have better programs than others at any given time. And so, you know, there's not one lender to go to. It really is just a matter of the type of loan you're looking for. Who's going to give you the very best rate? And I'd always get at least three quotes before you make your final decision. Is that helpful to you? Now, if it's very helpful, if I was if I really didn't think I was going to stay here five years, you would say no go no matter what.

I would simply because, well, I mean, you're going to need to run the numbers. It's just probably not going to be worth the hassle because the amount of time it's going to take for you in the form of reduced interest to repay the closing costs that you're going to have on any loan. You've got to stay in the home long enough for it to make sense for you to actually repay those closing costs and get kind of quote in the money so that you're actually realizing some savings. And if you sell it too quickly, you probably barely, if even at all, haven't paid off the closing costs yet.

And at that point, it's just a big hassle that really didn't accomplish anything. So that's why I'd really like for you to stay in that home five years. It's really a math equation you can run yourself once you know what loan program is the very best offer. You can determine, OK, how many months is it going to take me to pay off these expenses associated with refinancing? And, you know, that'll be your break even point. And then from that point forward, you'll be saving some money. Hopefully that's helpful to you.

Head over to bankrate.com. Let's get a few more offers, Marion, and see what you can find. Maybe something will come up that makes some sense.

Just pray about it and see where the Lord leads. We appreciate your call today. Folks, thanks for stopping by today. We do have a few lines open.

800-525-7000. When we come back, we'll talk about how do you handle an inheritance? Also, when retirement's around the corner, what do you do with that 401k? That and much more of MoneyWise Live.

Stay with us. Applying the 2,300 verses found in God's Word to your financial decisions. This is MoneyWise Live.

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And you can download it today. Hey, let's go back to the phones. Next up, St. Peter, Illinois. Warren is there and we appreciate your call today. Warren, what's on your mind? Well, first off, I just want to thank you. I listen to you.

Well, not every day, but as often as I can. And I really appreciate all the godly biblical advice on money and how to handle finances. And I really appreciate that.

And that's one of the reasons for my call today. I need some godly perspectives on what to do with the inheritance that I'm going to be receiving from my deceased father's estate. He passed away back in August of last year and I was named the executor of his estate. And I'm going to have a meeting with my lawyer next week. And we're going to finalize and wrap this up. And the inheritance is going to be divided in half between my sister and I. And it's going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a little bit over approximately two hundred and twenty thousand dollars, maybe just a little bit more than that.

But that's a ballpark figure. And anyway, I owe about I think it's like sixty two thousand dollars on my mortgage yet. OK. And I need to know if I need to pay that off or continue to make payments so that I can deduct the interest for tax purposes. Or I just want to make sure I invest if I should do it in the stock market or what I should do, because I'm going on fifty nine years old.

And if God blesses me with 20 or 30 more years of life, I want to be able to provide needs for my family. I'm unable to work right now because I had an issue with cataract and glaucoma in my eye and it rendered me almost blind in my right eye. And so I used to drive a semi truck and I'm unable to do that right now. So I'm not working. Yes, sir. Very good. Well, I really appreciate your call today.

Thank you for your kind remarks about the program. And I think this is the right question to ask. You know, as you think about the resources that God is entrusting to you by way of this inheritance, you want to make a wise decision. You want to be found faithful with God's money, applying his principles to your financial decisions and trying to move forward with peace of mind and confidence, knowing you're handling God's money appropriately. You mentioned you have about sixty two thousand remaining on your mortgage.

You're fifty nine years old, not working currently. Perhaps that could change, Lord willing, down the road. What did you say you would expect to see receive your portion of the inheritance, Warren? For mine, it would be just about maybe two hundred twenty one thousand dollars approximately. And then the total amount is four hundred and forty two thousand and something in the estate account.

And that gets divided. OK. Do you have any other debt other than the home mortgage? No, that is it. Other than my wife's credit card, but we are working on pay it off. I've paid a good substantial amount to it. And every time she uses that, we've been trying to pay the monthly charges plus a little bit more than that to whittle away on that. But that is the only two debts that we have. Yeah.

OK, very good. And what about other assets, either emergency fund savings and or any other retirement nest eggs? Well, all I have is just a. Thousand dollars in a just a savings account in our local bank, and that's the only nest egg I have right now, because for many, many years, I was very, very bad at managing money. I was a practicing alcoholic and now I am and I squandered lots of money. And by the grace of God, I found AA and I've been sober for a little over four years now. And so that's why I'm trying to do things God's way instead of my way. Well, I'm delighted to hear that, Warren. Tell you, we can lay all of that at the foot of the cross and Jesus watches our sins clean and we can purpose our lives to pursue him with everything that we have and be among the body of Christ and diligent and studying his word and grow in our relationship with him and overcome even the stronghold of addiction. And I'm delighted to hear you say that you've been able to do that if you were to take this money and invest it, let's say between now and retirement.

Here's what I would love to see one or two things. Either if you have a low interest rate, let's say something less than four percent, and you would be comfortable putting this money to work such that you could have this mortgage paid off by the time you fully retire, but get this two hundred and twenty one thousand working for you so you can begin to grow it and have a nest egg. That's something larger than that amount when you reach retirement so that you could use that to convert it to an income stream to supplement retirement. And if you're living, excuse me, Social Security, and if you're living modestly, you know, perhaps that covers your bills.

You would keep the principal intact, draw an income off of that, you know, whatever that two hundred twenty one thousand grows to over the next, you know, let's say, you know, five to ten years between now and when you hit that season. You know, that would be option one. But I think the counterpoint to that is to say, you know, if because of your health situation, if you don't think you're going to be working and therefore have the money to be putting away in addition to this. And you would need then to take a very conservative posture with the investments because you're going to need it, you know, in five years or less. And, you know, you don't have a whole lot else to fall back on.

Just, you know, really anything to speak of. Then I think the trade off is is not as great. In fact, I like the idea of you paying off that mortgage better in that scenario because you get the peace of mind, you get the security and you know, you're guaranteed the return equivalent to whatever that interest rate is today. So I think from that standpoint, that's the direction I'd go.

Once you pay it off, you've still got one hundred and sixty thousand dollars to put to work. And with that, I would connect with a certified kingdom adviser there in St. Peter, Illinois, and see if they can develop an investment strategy for you. So let's do this. I want to talk a bit more with you off the air and pray with you.

So you hold the line. This is MoneyWise Live. We're going to pause when we come back. More of your questions. Stay with us. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live.

Well, I had a chance to chat with Warren off the air, so let me just close that story loop for you, if you will. We decided, you know what, it probably makes the most sense for him to go and pay off that mortgage. So he's got some health challenges. He doesn't have anything saved up, but he's recommitted his life to Christ. He wants to handle money God's way. And so given his position and the fact that he would have to be very conservative with that inheritance, which really wouldn't produce a whole lot more than the savings he's going to realize by paying off that mortgage. And by the way, that's guaranteed savings. That makes the most sense, which is also going to free up a bit from his budget every month that he can put into savings.

So he's going to pay off that mortgage, invest one hundred and sixty thousand and try to save as much as he can moving forward. And so thankful to be able to chat with Warren today. All right. Let's go back to the phones and welcome Cindy to the broadcast in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Cindy, what's on your mind today? OK. Hello. I love your program.

I listen pretty much all the time. Yeah. Yeah. About a year ago, my husband retired and he had a 401k, has a 401k from the from the employer. And it's just I'm just wondering, can we stay in that 401k or do we have to put it in another qualified fund like an IRA or something? Or can that 401k just kind of keep writing? Because we don't need it to live on.

It's just kind of we probably need to just kind of keep it growing. Yes. Very good.

Well, that's a great question, Cindy. Let me ask you, how much have you accumulated in that roughly? How much is in the 401k? Oh, it's not a whole lot. Ninety five.

OK. And have you been happy with it? Do you feel like it's invested appropriately, meaning is it conservative enough given that you're now moving into a retirement season or is it all in a stock mutual fund, which has been doing well? But if it you know, we got into some harder times economically, you know, it might take a beating. Do you have a sense of that?

Yeah, I think it's 70, 30 right now. OK. That's in bonds, I guess. And I don't know whether that's a good mix. Maybe we should go more into the bonds.

I don't know. But it's great lately with the market. It's gotten like a 12 percent return. But yeah, I'm sure it's doing quite well. Right.

Yeah. 70 percent in stocks as you head into retirement, even though you don't need it right now. By the grace of God, your bills are covered.

That's phenomenal. But what we want to recognize is we want this money to last. Now, if the Lord tarries and you and your husband are in good health, you know, you could need this money the last several decades.

Right. You know, people are living longer. And so we want this money to be around for a long, long time, which means we want to have some growth component to it. But 70 percent in stocks as you're heading into retirement with a nest egg of, you know, maybe just around one hundred thousand dollars is a bit much. You know, you could see a 25 percent decline if we got into a real recession and the market was down significantly. So you could open your statement one day and instead of ninety five, you could all of a sudden have, you know, seventy three thousand dollars.

And, you know, that would, I'm sure, be concerning to you. So I think from that standpoint, you're going to want to move more heavily toward the fixed income side in terms of leaving it there. Yes, you probably can. Most companies will allow you to leave a 401K there when you separate from the company. But I like the idea of rolling it to an IRA. You're going to open up many more investment options at that point and you'll have more control over the fees and expenses. But I would encourage you to find an investment in financial planning professional to help you manage this money. So you're not kind of putting it on autopilot or trying to make those decisions yourself. That's a lot of money. You've spent a long time building it up. And so having a professional walk alongside you and helping you address anything else financially, you know, whether or not you need long term care and do you still have some life insurance?

And is that necessary? And, you know, just kind of looking at all those issues as you're a state in order and are wills updated and do you have health care surrogates, those types of things. That's where a professional could really be helpful as you think about the transitions that are still to come where money is going to be in motion. So I would connect with a couple of certified kingdom advisors there in Idaho.

Just go to our Web site, MoneyWiseLive.org. Click find a CKA and I'd interview two or three as you all have time to decide who's the best fit. And once you do, then you would just move that 401k over to an IRA with the institution that that investment professional works through.

And then they would manage that based on your goals and objectives, not something that they come up with on their own. So that would be my best advice. But in the meantime, you can leave it right there.

I probably would move it to a more conservative portfolio, though, while you're making some of these decisions we just talked about. We appreciate your call today very much. Let's head to Chicago, Illinois. You're next on the program. Go right ahead. Hello, this is Shirley. Hi, Shirley.

I'm so glad I get to talk to you. About a week or maybe a little 10 days or so ago on the program, you were talking to someone who you suggested other investment opportunities, other than just CDs, which are not performing very well right now. And I'm in that position where getting less than 1 percent or sometimes most of the time less than a half a percent.

Yeah, just is very makes me nervous. I'm I'm in my early 80s. I'm a widow. My home is paid for.

It has been for a long time. And I do have Social Security, but I use the portion I have. I am required to withdraw every year. I usually put some of that in CD for six months and then I spend the other portion of it. And I'm just wondering if you could tell me again a better place to invest in a CD.

Yeah, well, the challenge is that, you know, there's really not a lot of great options in this low interest rate environment. So how much is it that you have? I assume it's in an IRA and then you're taking out a portion for your RMD every year. Is that right? Yes. What do you have in the IRA? How much? I don't know.

I should have pulled the form out. It's close to two hundred thousand. OK. And how is that invested?

Some in stock, some in bonds. I don't know the percentage. OK, that's OK. But do you have somebody looking after that for you? Yes, I do. OK, very good.

And so you're talking specifically not about that account, but just the amount that you're required to take out each year and where you should put it when you have a surplus. Is that right? Yeah.

Yes. And I had CDs came due and I just put them in my savings. OK. And how much? What's the total of the amount outside of the IRA that you have in savings right now? Probably about sixty thousand. OK, about sixty thousand.

All right. You know, I think that you could talk to your investment professional about it. You know, in terms of CDs versus savings is really not a whole lot. There's not a compelling case to use CDs right now. I mean, a one year CD is paying about the same as a high yield savings account, except you have to lock it up for a year versus having it completely liquid. A two year CD is playing, you know, about point seven percent. So a little less than one percent to about point seven five.

You're getting one to one and a quarter on a three year CD and about the same or less amazingly on a five year. So there's just no reason to put that money. I would probably leave it in your savings, you know, and I'd look at having a high yield savings account because, you know, an ally or Marcus or Capital One 360, you know, they're all paying point five to point six percent right now with no fees and it's FDIC insured. And you can move the money anywhere you want any day of the week.

That's completely liquid. You're not locking it up. And I would wait for the interest rates to move back up on the CDs before I bought a CD. The only other thing you might want to consider is just talking to your investment professional about whether, you know, beyond the amount that would be equivalent to about a year's worth of your expenses. You know, let's say your expenses are thirty thousand a year. I'd want you to keep at least that much in the high yield savings.

But if your investment professional had an idea on something you could do with the other thirty thousand and whatever you add to it from future required minimum distributions, you know, that would be an opportunity perhaps to, you know, put it in some bonds or something that's going to get you a little bit more. The last thing I want you to talk to your investment advisor about is a qualified charitable distribution. One of the things you could do, Shirley, is to instead of taking that required minimum every year, you could have it sent to your church or a favorite Christian ministry and satisfy your required minimum and they get the full amount. Nobody pays any tax on it. You don't pay the tax. In fact, you get the full deduction and the ministry gets the full amount without any tax. And so everybody wins because you're satisfying the IRS's RMD. You're getting a nice deduction. They're getting the full amount coming to them. And you could even take the amount you would have sent to them out of your cash and hang on to it. And then everybody, you know, you're saving money at that point.

So ask about a qualified charitable distribution. And I hope that helps you today. We appreciate your call very, very much. We unfortunately are out of time.

Lupe is holding. Lupe, I'm going to ask you to continue to hold there in Oswego, Illinois. And as soon as the program is over, I will connect with you and we'll see what's on your mind today and how I can help you.

I don't want to cut you short since we are about out of time. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us. Let me remind you, MoneyWise Live is a ministry of MoneyWise Media. It's a partnership with Moody Radio and we rely on your financial support to do what we do every day. Our literally thousands of questions that our MoneyWise coaches are answering, our Certified Kingdom Advisors, our website. This program we bring to you every day. All the resources in the app that's only made possible by your generous support.

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