God Disciplines with Money

If you're like me, watching little kids do an Easter egg hunt is a pretty beautiful thing. But I always feel bad for the littlest of the pack.

It always seems so traumatizing to see that little one run for an egg she has her eye on, only to have a bigger kid sweep in and steal it at the last second. Hi, it's Doug Hastings with Moody Radio, and unfortunately this same kind of situation has become a traumatizing reality for families all across the country. Families are out searching and finding their dream home, only to have it pulled away by another hunter at the last second. Which is why I'd really like you to meet my friends at United Faith Mortgage. Unfortunately, this faith-focused mortgage team can't scare off the other hunters, but they can very quickly get you pre-approved and make it look as good as possible to sellers.

They've specifically made a commitment to this podcast and our listeners to do all they can to help you. You can find the entire United Faith Mortgage story and especially read how their direct lender advantage can often save your family monthly and lifelong money at unitedfaithmortgage.com. 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.

Go over at NMLS number 1330, equal housing lender. Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Hebrews 12-11 tells us, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. I am Rob West. We're more than ready to accept God's blessing, but we should also be willing to accept discipline when we need it. Today I'll talk about that and how the Lord corrects us when we use money unwisely. Then it's onto your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. You know, we often talk about how following God's financial principles makes sense.

He owns it all anyway, and when we follow his instructions on how to manage his resources, we usually prosper. What we probably don't mention enough, though, is that God also has ways of correcting us when we go astray. Now, we should point out that God's blessings and his corrections aren't always financial.

We should recognize that the principles taught in Scripture apply to many aspects of life, but that certainly includes how we handle money. So let's look at some verses where God blesses and also withholds his blessing, which is another way to say corrects, depending on how his people obey his commands. Deuteronomy 28 is a great example of where God clearly lays out his intended blessing for obedience. But he follows up with curses for disobedience.

These were for the nation of Israel, but the principles still apply to us. Verse 1 reads, If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

Those blessings include having children and abundant crops and livestock, everything the Israelites could expect if they were obedient. But in verse 5, we see the consequences for disobedience. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Strong enough, and we see a similar if-then statement to Eli in 1 Samuel 2, verse 30, Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. Now, does that mean that God will curse us and our families for generations if we fail to balance our checkbooks or we make a late payment?

No. But we should look at some of the practical ways we are corrected when we mismanage money. If you fail to live within your means or fail to plan for spending, giving, and saving for the future, unpleasant things are bound to happen. You'll run up debt, you won't have enough to pay your bills, or you won't have enough income when you can no longer work. And if you continue living beyond your means, you'll eventually get to the point where you can't even make the minimum payments on your credit cards. Creditors will start calling, your stress level will go up. God doesn't have to curse you for those things to happen.

They're just the natural consequences of not following his financial principles. But there's a spiritual component to this as well. God absolutely will use the pressure and the stress in your life to bring you to repentance, to make you realize you have to change your ways.

And when you do, he will bless you. So what can we learn from all of this? First, that unlike the clear warnings we see in Deuteronomy 28 and 1 Samuel 2, we won't always know what God's blessings or corrections will look like. But your outcome will ultimately be good when you follow God's path, and not so good when you wander off of it. Second, the reason we're to follow God's principles is not because it's a formula for financial success.

Following them usually puts you in a position for financial success, but that's not the goal and it's not guaranteed to happen that way. The goal is to be obedient, which makes us more like Christ and enhances our intimacy with him. That's what we're ultimately pursuing with our finances and with our lives. 1 Peter 2 tells us, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. So we hope you found this helpful and an encouragement to you if you need to get back on track with your finances.

You know, I've been doing this for a long, long time. And one of the things that I realized very early on is that your financial journey is one of the key ways that God shapes your spiritual journey. If something is going to compete for your heart to dethrone God from first position in your life, it's most often going to be money and the things that money can buy. Card yourself against it. Here's a key.

Be generous. That'll break the grip of money over your life. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, delighted to have you along with us today. Phone lines are open to take your calls and questions on anything financial. Here's the number. 800-525-7000. We've got a number of lines open. Again, 800-525-7000.

Whatever's on your mind today will apply biblical principles to your financial decisions today, be it saving or investing, perhaps wondering about that pesky credit score or some other aspect of your financial life. We'd love to assist you with that and see if we can't give you a next step to move forward. Again, 800-525-7000. Before we dive into some calls today, let's take an email. You can send these at questions at moneywise.org.

That's questions at moneywise.org. We'll answer as many of them as we can on the air and we'd love to have you send one along. Today's question comes from Dylan and Christy in Cleveland, Ohio.

That's Dylan and Christy in Cleveland. Dylan and Christy are asking, should I refinance my house? And that's a great question. You know, a lot of folks are thinking about that. This has been going on now for a year or more as we've been in a position where interest rates have been at historic lows. Now, they've ticked up as of late. They're off their bottom, but still a great opportunity to look at the possibility of refinancing.

What does that look like? Well, it basically means that you need to have a couple of things in place before you move forward. Number one, you'd want to make sure that you're going to stay in this home for at least five years or more.

I'd say five to seven years. Secondly, you want to save at least a point to a point and a quarter on the interest rate. So an interest rate reduction is a part of this. I would want to make sure that you're not spending much more than two percent of the mortgage value on the cost of the refinance, the expenses associated with refinancing that property. And lastly, I want to be sure that you're at a minimum matching the remaining term with this mortgage, if not reducing the term. But of course, make sure that it fits into your budget. An interest rate reduction should help with that, but it still may push it up too high and put you in a position where you can no longer afford it. If all of those things check out, then I would say absolutely consider a refi. Now, don't just automatically go to your current lender and assume that's going to be the best offer. I would shop it around.

Keep in mind, this is the largest transaction that most of us will ever have, and it's worth getting a few bids for, I'd say at least three. So if you want to start with your current lender or bank, great, you do that. But then I would get a couple of online banks or lenders in the mix because often they will have the very best rates and fees.

So where to do that, I'd go to bankrate.com, bankrate.com, and look for who has the best loan programs with the best terms and rates for the loan you're looking for. And then perhaps entertain maybe two of those. I hope that helps Dylan and Christy. We appreciate you listening to MoneyWise Live. Thank you for sending your question. Again, the email address, if you'd like to send yours is questions at moneywise.org. All right, we're going to head to the phones here.

Still have a few lines open, 800-525-7000. Whatever's on your mind today, we're going to stay in Cleveland, Ohio, which is where our email came from. And welcome Yolanda to the broadcast. Hi there. Hi, how are you? Thank you for taking my call.

You're very welcome. How can I assist you today? So I'm actually calling for a friend. I have a friend who's going to be 61 this year and is looking to open a 401k to help her in retirement. One, is it too late to do that? And two, if not, she's single and doesn't have any dependents. So how much risk should she look to assume or avoid?

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it's never too late to begin saving for retirement, especially if you're trying to play a bit of catch up. The first question is, you know, how is the rest of her financial life? Is she living on a spending plan? Does she have some margin such that she could do salary deferral or make some contributions to an IRA, you know, after she's paid?

And would that fit into the budget? Secondly, does she have an emergency fund in place and is all consumer debt paid? If so, you know, it would be a great time to begin looking at socking some money away for retirement.

Do you happen to know Yolanda about those first items I mentioned? So she does have a budget and she does have a small margin that she's ready to put away. I think that there is still some credit card debt.

Okay, yeah, I would encourage you to encourage her to tackle that first. Perhaps go back to the budget if you need the help of one of our, or she does, one of our MoneyWise coaches. They'd be delighted to come alongside her at no cost just to help her develop that spending plan, make sure she's looked at every line item to see where she can trim because increasing that margin is going to be critical to paying off those credit cards, making sure that she doesn't have to go back to them by spending beyond her means. And the emergency fund is really key there to break that cycle of using those credit cards, three to six months worth of expenses. The other thing is the reason I would prioritize Yolanda for her, the credit cards over the retirement plan is, you know, let's say it's an average of 14% interest on the credit cards, could be quite a bit more than that. There's nowhere you're going to get a 14% guaranteed return anywhere. So there's a real benefit to getting those paid off.

But then once that's done, the next step is to say, okay, where is the best place to put my retirement dollars? Do you know if she has a company sponsored plan available at work? That's about to happen. So yes, she will have that.

Okay, great. That would be the place that I would start through salary deferral. So she would tell them how much she wants to go into that account right out of her paycheck. She'd never see it and gets invested on a pre-tax basis.

Hopefully there's some matching either right away or over a period of time that she could take advantage of. And the key will be to try to figure out, you know, how long she plans to work and what is her savings goal, which will give her an idea of how much she needs to be putting away every month. Now she may not have the ability to fully fund what she wants just given, you know, how close she is to that season of life, but at least she'll know kind of what the target is and she can try to do her best to hit that. In terms of how to invest that money, you know, I'm thinking that she's probably going to want to have maybe 50-50 in terms of stocks to bonds, perhaps 60-40. Keep in mind, even if she's five years from retirement, the idea is that once she reaches retirement, if the Lord tarries and she's in good health, she's going to need this money to last several decades. So, you know, that's why we, you know, would take perhaps even just a bit more risk than you would typically think of even as you're approaching retirement, especially if she's trying to catch up and if she's got other sources to live on early in her retirement, perhaps lets this grow a little bit longer. Inside that company sponsored plan are going to be a number of investment options to options to choose from. And if she doesn't have any idea which to pick, you could direct her to a certified kingdom advisor there in Cleveland.

Just go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org and click find a CKA. I hope that helps. We appreciate your call today. May the Lord bless you and thanks for being such a great friend. Alright, one more before we take our first break today.

Let's head to Tampa, Florida. Paula is calling next. Before we, though, welcome, Paula, let me say we do have some lines open.

Here's the number 800-525-7000. Paula, how can I assist you? Yes, sir. Can you hear me okay?

I sure can. Okay. I was just wondering when you're talking about trust and wills and all that stuff, what is the payable upon death? What does that mean to me? Yes.

Yeah, it's a great question. Basically, that's just a type of account that provide a way for assets to be transferred to a named beneficiary after you pass away without going through probate. So that POD, or what's called TOD, POD is payable on death, TOD transfer on death, same thing, basically bypasses the probate and can be set up at most financial institutions for checking and savings accounts, as well as CDs, even money markets and savings packages.

Savings bonds, they're generally accepted under state law. So it's a basically a wealth transfer and estate planning tool that just allows particular assets that are titled with those types of accounts to pass outside of probate. Does that make sense?

Yes, it does. Is there anything negative about setting up that compared to something else? No, other than, you know, keep in mind, you'd update your will periodically as your life circumstances and situations change. I'd say, you know, whenever there's a major change or, you know, if you've gone over a number of years, you know, kids are getting older, you move to a different state. I mean, all of those would necessitate an updating of the will. You just can't forget to update the POD because that's going to happen separately, not necessarily according to the will. So it's just one more thing to stay on top of if you want those beneficiaries to change over time.

But apart from that, there really shouldn't be any issue for the average person who has just a typical size estate. We appreciate your call today. Taking more of your calls and questions on MoneyWise Live just around the corner, here's the number 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Stay with us. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live.

So glad to have you along with us today. Phone lines open for your calls and questions. We're applying God's wisdom to your financial decisions. Here's the number 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. You know, each day, one of the resources we produce here at MoneyWise Media is called the MoneyWise Minute. That's right, the MoneyWise Minute.

60 seconds of biblical truth related to an issue that you're going to encounter on a daily basis. It airs here on Moody Radio and other parts around the country. You can listen to it daily in the MoneyWise app. And so if you haven't downloaded the MoneyWise app, right there on the home page every day alongside your spending plan and our community and our Discover tab with all the great content on biblical finance is the daily episode of the MoneyWise Minute.

You can download it in your app store. Just search for MoneyWise biblical finance. Today in the MoneyWise Minute, we tackle a great topic called Rise Again, looking at the words of King Solomon and why bad things happen to good people, so to speak, in terms of how we deal with that from a financial standpoint. How do we process that when difficult things are happening financially and yet we're striving to be found faithful in managing God's resources? How do we approach that? Well, God knows our needs. He promises to meet all of them.

So how do we reconcile that? Well, we tackle that in today's MoneyWise Minute. So we'd love for you to download the app and listen to the MoneyWise Minute each day.

Hopefully it'll be a source of encouragement to you. All right, back to the phones. Wesley Chapel, Florida. Elizabeth, thank you for calling. How can I help you? Hello? Hi there. You're on MoneyWise Live. Go right ahead.

Oh, hi. I am calling because I currently am refinancing my home, and I heard your previous advice, and I'm refinancing my home with cash out in anticipation of acquiring an investment home. And so I'm taking $50,000 out of the current equity at two and a half percent to get another investment property.

And I do have a tenant in line to rent the next property. Do you think it's a good investment to do this if that person is in line to do the same kind of business that I'd like to do? You think that's a good investment?

So let me just make sure I understand the last part. So you have a rental property now that's currently rented and bringing in some cash flow for you, is that right? No, I own a home that has equity of 150 plus right now. Okay, so this would be your first investment property. And so I'm taking $50,000 out.

Okay, all right. My first home, yeah, has acquired quite a bit of equity. So I'm refinancing at two and a half percent.

The closing costs are going to be somewhere around $5,500. And I want to purchase another home nearby to run a little tiny business out of it. And I'm hoping that it'll be a mixed use property, where it will be dual loaned for both a rental where I can rent it to somebody, but they're also in the same kind of dog related industry.

I see. Okay, so you're planning to rent it to somebody that's already lined up and they're going to use it as a business property and actually breed dogs or something. Yeah, we'll have like a little daycare for dogs and she's also a groomer. So I thought it would be a great investment type of next thing, but it's not anticipating making a lot of money, but ultimately selling it somewhere down the line. But do you think that that's a good investment?

Yeah, the only challenge I'm hearing in this, Elizabeth, I mean, let me back up. I like real estate in terms of the asset class of real estate as an investment opportunity. I think it's a great way to diversify, assuming you've got the right pieces in place.

You're giving at the level you'd like, you're living within your means on your budget, you have margin every month, you've paid off consumer debt, no credit cards, hopefully cars are paid off, things like that. And then you're saving for the long term as the kind of your base of that in the stock and bond market. But then if you have the ability to go beyond that into real estate, I like that a lot. Now you're adding a couple of dynamics here that perhaps raise the risk level a bit that I just want to call out. The first would be that it sounds like you don't have any of that down payment to go in in savings, that you're taking all of it out of the equity of your home.

I don't love that. I'd rather your home stay your primary residence and you eventually pay that off as opposed to taking out money from your home where you live to start a business. Second, you're adding to the complexity and the mixed use piece of it because she's starting a new business that may or may not work out.

Most of the time, new businesses, small businesses don't. And then I think the third piece is we're just in a really high real estate market right now, so you're going to pay top dollar for this property, which means a bigger mortgage, which means more rent is necessary to make it cashflow positive. So I'd put all of that into the hopper as you pray through it.

And those are enough warning signs that I'd probably push the pause button. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us on MoneyWise Live today, taking your calls and questions at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Back to the phones to Indiana. Debbie, thank you for your patience.

How can I assist you? Yes, I'm eligible for full Social Security at 66 in four months. I would, I'm planning on retiring shortly after that, but before I reach 67. If I wait until I reach 67, do I get that full 8% increase in my Social Security?

Yeah, that's a good question. It would be for every year you wait beyond full retirement age. So waiting a partial year would not help you there. You'd need to wait a full year beyond your retirement age. And for every year you wait beyond that, you're going to realize that 8% increase. So it sounds like if that's something that's going to make a meaningful difference for you and you have the ability, Debbie, to cover your lifestyle and expenses apart from collecting Social Security for that first year, I would wait. I think that's a great idea. And then you get that larger check for the rest of your life.

But if that's something you're depending on to be able to make your retirement budget work, so to speak, then it sounds like you need to go ahead and start collecting it, even though it's a bit early and you would forgo that 8%. So it's a great question. All the best to you in this exciting season of life coming up as you ask the Lord what your next assignment is. And we'll be praying that he gives you some real guidance there. And thanks for your call today. Another Debbie calling this one from Spokane, Washington.

Debbie, how can I help you? Yes, I was calling regarding helping my mom with estate planning. And I remember you speaking to within the next couple years, there might be a change to the tax laws regarding additional capital gains. And that sometimes her gifting things prior to her death would be beneficial.

Am I remembering that right? Well, you know, there's obviously we don't know what's coming from a legislative standpoint. I mean, currently, Debbie, the federal estate tax only kicks in of an estate is valued at more than $11.7 million. And the state of Washington doesn't have an estate tax. So, you know, if your mother has stocks that would be passed on, there wouldn't be capital gains until they're sold. And the basis would be set at the value of the stock when it's inherited. But again, the estate wouldn't pay any tax. Could any of this change? Sure, it absolutely could. As a part of his American families plan, President Biden is proposing to nearly double the top tax rate on capital gains and eliminate a tax benefit on appreciated assets on that stepped up basis that I mentioned.

Combining the estate tax, the new higher capital gains rate and the repeal of the step up in basis could bring total effective marginal rates as high as 61%, according to some analysts. So, yeah, I mean, you know, is all of that going to pass through Congress? You know, that remains to be seen. But it certainly is a possibility down the road. Currently, there would be, you know, no issue unless she had a very sizable estate above 11.7 million.

Does that make sense, though? Yeah, and then we wouldn't be at that threshold for sure. So it doesn't sound like, you know, dividing that or giving that away at this point would be any benefit to her or even the recipients of the, you know, the gifting.

So sure. Now, obviously, that could change. And the only thing I would mention is, you know, there's something to be said about getting that into circulation in God's economy sooner rather than later. So I think, you know, doing some analysis to say what is actually needed to support her lifestyle for the rest of her life. And if there if there is excess, given the desire to be generous now to support the work of ministries that she's passionate about, and given that we could see a very real change in the tax code with regard to many of these things, including the elimination of that stepped up basis, which would mean that, you know, if she has low basis securities, and if there was a change that was passed through Congress, you know, the those could be inherited and have significant taxes that have to be paid on them versus, you know, them being gifted. So you may want to consider that again, a lot of that has to do with the overall planning and what her needs are versus the assets that she's accumulated as to whether or not it makes sense to go ahead and begin getting that into God's economy today.

But from a tax standpoint, at least that the way it stands today, you shouldn't have any issue. I hope that helps. And we appreciate your call today to Holland, Michigan. Luke, thank you for your patience.

How can I assist you? Hi, Rob, I have a quick question regarding a simple will. My wife and I had a will done by an attorney several years ago.

And we've had some additional children and just need to make some minor changes. What are your thoughts on like the online legal, you know, just like a simple will online, like legal zoom or stuff like that versus an attorney? I mean, it's like $90 versus $700. Is an online simple will sufficient?

You know, it's better than nothing, Luke, but it's not my first choice. You know, yeah, you could save a few hundred dollars. I mean, the average will done by an attorney should be 500. You know, that you may find them in some cases a bit more than that, depending on the complexity.

Whereas as you said, you may be able to get one online for less than a hundred dollars. And again, if you don't have anything, I would say that certainly would suffice. I just think it's an important enough process to go through that to make sure it complies with all of the laws in your state, to make sure that all of the appropriate questions are asked and answered that you may not have thought of that an attorney can bring to bear. Not to mention, you know, are there other documents, legal documents that need to be put in place at the same time that an attorney could draw up for you? I'm thinking a healthcare surrogate or a living will to make sure that end of life decisions are made and taking that pressure off your family, even a durable power of attorney that could be put in place so that it's there if needed for certain folks to act on your behalf or your wife. So I think, you know, having an attorney, a godly estate planning attorney help you navigate all of that and not to bring unneeded complexity, but just to make sure that everything's done appropriately is a good thing. So if it were me, that would be the direction I would go.

But again, you can have a fully valid will and save a few hundred dollars by doing it online. You just, you know, may not fully consider all of the implications. Do you follow though?

Absolutely. That's pretty much what my wife was thinking, but I, my, my wallet was opening a little creakily, so I was trying to, you know, cheap out, but, but you're, you're, yeah, I follow 10-4. All right. Tell your wife, you know, one in her side of the ledger for me and she wins this round, but I appreciate you calling and thanks for listening, Luke. God bless you, my friend. Well, folks, we're going to pause here in just a moment.

Much more just around the corner. We're going to be talking about savings accounts, how to restore your credit, and what to do with some excess funds once the mortgage is paid off. That and perhaps your question, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise, where biblical wisdom intersects with today's financial decisions. Hey, by the way, we can't do what we do without your financial support.

We rely on listeners like you to support our work here. Would you consider a gift? If you'd like to consider a gift, we'd encourage you to head over to MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click the donate button and you can become a one-time giver or monthly giver, whatever it is the Lord leads you to do. We would certainly be grateful. Again, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click donate. Much more to come just around the corner. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us on MoneyWise Live. Delighted to have you along today. We're going to head right back to the phones.

Streamwood, Illinois. Fina, thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Well, I was wondering, is it okay to have only one savings? Yeah.

So tell me a bit more. You have a checking account and you have a savings account. And what is that money earmarked for? Is that your emergency fund or is that for some other savings? Yes, it's for emergency funds, but hopefully it stays that way. And if I pass away, I'm planning to give it to my grandchildren because my children, I've already given them their share.

So I'm planning, yes, I'm planning to pass it on to my grandchildren. Great. And how much have you accumulated in that savings account, Fina? So far, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's 14,000 something.

Okay. Well, you know, what we would typically say is at a minimum, you'd want to have three to six months worth of expenses. So whatever the total that you spend on a monthly basis and multiply that by three or even better, six, and that would be your goal. You know, in the retirement season of life, I'd love for you to have as much as a year of expenses that you could fall back on if you needed it unexpectedly. It sounds like, though, that you have a purpose for this money beyond just emergencies because you're continuing to try to accumulate money that could then be passed on as an inheritance. So I think the only question would be after you get beyond six months or a year of expenses, is there something else you want to do with it? Is it money that you don't expect to use? It really is for inheritance purposes, and therefore you'd want to put it to work so you could get a little bit more in the way of return than, you know, the half of one percent at best you could get from an online savings account with FDIC insurance, although with that would come more risk with the, you know, possibility you could seek a higher return. Tell me about that piece of it in terms of, would you want to take some risk and invest it beyond at the most 12 months of expenses, or are you wanting to keep it very safe in a savings account? Okay, I'll just tell you the bank. It is an Ally Bank. Okay. And I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure they, what do you say, they use that money to put it in a, what do you call that, you know, when a person. Are you thinking a money market? Yes, yes.

Okay. Yeah, well Ally Bank is great. They have great customer service, very good rates, and it is FDIC insured, so it's protected. I guess the only question would just be once you get beyond a certain threshold, and I'm going to say if you're a retired person living on a fixed income, and this is really your only fallback, I'd love for you to have as much as a year in that savings, but when you get beyond that, if you wanted to put that to work to invest it, to try to grow it a bit, you certainly could do that, or you could leave it right there. But I think you're, what you're doing is a great thing.

I'm glad to hear you're living well within your means, which is evidenced by your ability to add, as you said, 200 a month to the savings account, so I would say keep it up. It'll be a great blessing to your grandkids down the road. We appreciate your call today.

To Mississippi, Sidney, thank you for calling. How can I help you, sir? Well, what I want to ask you is I'm just trying to get my critic established back. I lost a lot of ground on my critic over the years, and somebody got something in my name, but I was just trying to, I got it all straightened out now, but I'm trying to see how to get my critics back, get my credit rating picked back up.

Okay. Sidney, did you put a fraud alert and a credit freeze on your credit reports? Yes, I did. Okay, and were you able to get the accounts that were open fraudulently in your name deleted from your credit report?

Yes, I have. Okay, great. And what is your credit score today? It's 628. One of them is 611 and the other one is 628. Okay, and are you seeking additional credit or are you just wanting to have a better score just for your own peace of mind in case you needed something down the road?

I want some of my peace of mind, you know, just pick my critic up. I'm on a verge of trying to buy another home. Ah, I see. Okay, very good. And what active accounts do you have today that are legitimate? Any? I don't have any, only zero. Only thing I have is an account at the hospital. I think it's $1,800 I had open heart surgery. At the hospital, yeah, but that's probably not being reported to your credit file.

So yeah, what's hurting you now, now that you've gotten all this cleaned up, and I'm sorry you had to go through that, I'm sure that was not fun, but I'm delighted to hear you're beyond it. What's hurting you now is a lack of credit because, you know, a portion of the score is determined by your credit mix, be it installment and revolving account. Well, you don't have any credit mix because you don't have any active accounts.

The largest portion, 35% of your score is your repayment history, but the newest information is what impacts you the most and you don't have anything. So you've done a good thing in the sense that you're debt-free. I love that except for this, you know, hospital bill that you're taking care of, but it is hurting you from a credit standpoint.

So here's what I'd recommend. It probably makes sense for you to open a credit card, either a secured card if you don't want to have an open line of credit available where you'd put a certain amount on deposit at the bank and then they'd give you a limit up to that deposit and you could use that like a credit card or an unsecured card, but just commit to only using it in either case, secured or unsecured, for budgeted items and it doesn't have to be a lot that you charge each month. It could be a very small recurring bill that you have that you put on that credit card.

It's a planned expense. You're already paying it every month. It's just you'd pay it to the credit card, paying it in full every month. That's going to establish a positive payment history every month and over time that's going to help you build up your credit. So that's probably the easiest thing for you to do, Sidney, is open one of those accounts, get a recurring charge, and just make sure it's paid in full every month so you don't have to pay any interest.

Does that make sense? Yes, I tried at my local bank that I got my money, my savings at, and they turned me down. I don't, they said because of the credit, because of my horsepower bill, I think it would pull up. Well, I'd pull a copy of those credit reports to see if there's anything showing past due. You can go to AnnualCreditReport.com, annualcreditreport.com, pull each of the three bureau reports, see if any of them are showing anything that's delinquent or past due that needs to be corrected.

Apart from that, you shouldn't have any trouble with a 628. And so I think the fallback, though, if you do have trouble opening an unsecured credit card would be a secured card, which takes all the risk away from the bank because you're putting a deposit down and then they're extending credit against it. So they, you know, if you don't pay, they can just take your deposit.

But the whole purpose of it is to establish credit. So I would give that a shot if you can't find something that is unsecured and a great website to find the best secured or unsecured accounts is NerdWallet.com. Kind of a funny name, but a great website, NerdWallet.com. And Sydney, we appreciate your call today.

Nadine is in Miami, Florida. You're next up on MoneyWise Live. Go ahead. Oh, hi. Good afternoon. Hi.

My name is Nadine. My question is that I'm 43 years old and I'm married. But my question is the mortgage is being paid for. I mean, we're done with mortgage. We don't have any mortgage payments.

And we have me and my husband. We have about $160 in savings. I want to know what's the best way to invest that money, you know? Well, the first thing we need to do, Nadine, is to define the purpose of this money. So $160 is the total savings that you have.

And that includes your emergency fund, what I would call, you know, money that you're going to use first if there's an unexpected expense. Is that right? Yes, correct.

Yes. Okay. And how much do you all spend roughly? I realize this is a moving target, but on a monthly basis, what do you think your total expenses are?

Right now, since we don't have any mortgage payment, I think I probably, we have car insurance payment, it'll be like, let's put it up, $1,500. Okay. Let's say you're wrong and it's $2,000.

Okay. Six months of that would be a $12,000. So what I would do is put $12,000 at a minimum into an online savings account, Ally Bank, Marcus, Capital One 360, link it to your checking and that we're going to call your emergency savings. That's bucket number one. That's going to be your first line of defense if something goes wrong with an appliance or the car or a major medical event that you don't have the money for. That's where you're going to go first. Then the balance, if you don't have any other savings goals, you're not trying to buy a bigger home or you've got to fund a college education down the road, or you need to buy a new car.

If you have some of those, let's put those in buckets too and beyond. But if you don't, then with any money left that you have a 10 year time horizon on, meaning you don't expect borrowing something completely unforeseen, you don't expect to use that money for 10 years, then I think that's the money we want to look to invest. And I would connect with either a certified kingdom advisor there in Miami, just go to our website, moneywiselive.org, click find a CKA, do a zip code search, I'd interview two or three. And then that professional would invest that money based on your goals and objectives and with your input and full knowledge.

And the goal would be to grow that money over time. And so that'd be the approach I would take. If you want to do it yourself, I would avail yourself of the great resources and material at soundmindinvesting.org, soundmindinvesting.org.

They can allow you to direct your own investments through a mutual fund strategy and they do a great job with it. So I think you've just got to decide do you want to delegate to a professional to manage it for you? Or would you like to handle that yourself? If you want to delegate, just search for a CKA.

If you want to do it yourself, you can do that with soundmindinvesting.org. We appreciate your call today. Thank you for checking in with us and may the Lord bless you. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us today. We have covered a lot of ground, dealt with a whole host of issues.

Here's the good news. You know, God's word speaks to all of these issues. You know, there's only five things you can do with money. We can save it, we can give it, pay taxes, pay debt, spend it on our lifestyle.

God's word speaks to all of it. So that's what we do each day here on this program. I want to say thank you to my team, Dan and Deb and Gabby T and Jim. Couldn't do it without you. Thanks to you for being here.

MoneyWiseLive is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow. I'll be here for the Friday edition of the program and we'll see you then. May the Lord bless you. Bye-bye.