Giving Breaks the Power of 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. If you are familiar with the treasure principle, you know it means that when your money is flowing toward the kingdom, well, your heart will follow.

Hi, I'm Rob West. It's a timeless financial principle. As we break the control that money has over us, God is free to use money in our lives more fully for his purposes. Financial teacher and author Ron Blue is here to tell us how to do that today, and we have some great calls lined up, but we won't be taking your live calls today because we're pre-recorded. This is MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. Well, our guest Ron Blue has written a whole shelf full of books on God's financial principles. He's also co-founder of Kingdom Advisors.

He's a mentor of mine and a great friend. Ron, welcome back. Well, thanks, Rob.

It's always a pleasure to be here. Ron, you're still involved in training certified Kingdom Advisors. Your content is really the basis for that training, and today you're going to let us in on some of the teaching you give these certified Kingdom Advisors. Isn't that right? Well, that's right. One of the concepts that I'd like to share whenever I have an opportunity—and God's given me some opportunities recently, and it's like it's always the same message.

It hasn't changed. And that message is that giving is not because God needs the money by any means, but it's in order to break the power of money in my life. We used to attend a church where Dr. Charles Stanley was the pastor, and he really illustrated that well. Every Sunday, he would talk about giving, and he would characterize it by showing an open hand. And he said, we need to hold our money with an open hand, and that allows God to put in what he wants to put in and take out what he wants to take out. And I think that's a terrific illustration of the whole concept of financial stewardship.

Yes. You know, this idea that giving is the way that I can release God's power to change me and to impact others is a big idea, and clearly it's on the heart of God. We see it throughout Scripture. Ron, as you know, Jesus talks about this in the Sermon on the Mount, but sometimes people confuse his words, don't they?

Well, they really do. He says in there, Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where the thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. And here it is, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It begins with, Where do I put my treasure and my heart follows? So, if I treasure the material, if you will, or the success, or whatever it may be that I treasure, that's where my heart's going to go. So, I think it's reasonable for us to ask ourselves, What do I really value? What drives me?

What do I really hold dear? Because my heart's going to be involved in that. You know, from a really positive side, if I'm a parent, I think a lot about my children.

And my heart is engaged in thinking about my children. And Jesus was specifically talking about mammon or money and the power of money in the Sermon on the Mount. So, there's a principle that can be expanded. But he was really talking about money when he talked about treasure.

Yeah, this is a big idea. My heart follows my money. And it also really reveals what I value, where I've placed my trust, I guess we could say. And in no uncertain terms, he says, We can't have it both ways. Ron, as you know, in verse 24, he says, We can't serve two masters.

We'll either hate the one and love the other, be devoted to the one or despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. What does that particular passage say to you?

Well, I tell you, that's really powerful. And it doesn't say it's hard to serve God and money. He said, It's one or the other.

And it's black or white. And that's a powerful thought in terms of how I view money and how I use money. I can't serve God and money both.

I've got to make a choice. Yes. Well, that's exactly right.

That's a big idea. Ron, how would you leave us today? Is there a particular passage that jumps out at you as we meditate and pray on what the Lord would have for us in this area of giving? Well, the whole passage of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is what I would refer people to. And there it says that those who sow sparingly reap sparingly. It also says that God will always meet my needs, but not necessarily my greed.

So I would spend some time in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and just over and over. I spend a lot of time there. Ron Blue has been our guest. You can pick up a copy of his book, Master Your Money, wherever you buy books.

It's a classic and a must read. This is MoneyWise Live with Rob West. Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us because today's broadcast is a reprise edition. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you.

So please stay tuned. Thank you for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, where we apply God's Word to today's financial decisions and questions. Hey, our team is taking a bit of time off today, so don't call in. However, we've got some wonderful calls that we've lined up in advance. I know there'll be an encouragement to you and I hope they'll meet you right where you're at and help you make a step forward in your financial life.

We're going to begin next in Miami, Florida. Mark has been holding patiently. Mark, how can I help you? Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call.

I got a question. I'm going to be retiring pretty soon and I'm on the DROP program and some people are telling me that if when I leave the DROP program to leave, put the money to deferred comp or to put it into a mutual fund. Which one you think would be better for me where to put that money? Yes, do you know how much you would get as a lump sum if you were to take that option?

$475. Okay, and have they told you if you take the monthly payout, what you would get? No, because I was going to put it there and invest it, leave it there for another five years. I wanted to leave it, put it in deferred comp instead of mutual fund, but somebody was telling me mutual fund is better.

Yeah, well it all depends on which mutual fund. So the benefit of taking the lump sum and investing it yourself is you've got more investment options where you're a bit more in control, but obviously you're assuming the risk of making those investment decisions. So if you were to do that, and I don't think that's a bad idea, in fact I think it gives you more flexibility and control over the funds, I would connect with an investment professional that could help you based on your goals and objectives where God is taking you, help you make those or make those investment decisions on your behalf as a discretionary money manager, somebody making the buy and sell decisions, picking the mutual funds and actually building that portfolio for you.

You've worked long and hard for this money, this is not something you need to take lightly and that's why I think getting wise counsel, a professional who could at their, based on their expertise and experience, be able to build this portfolio. I like that option because you have access to the funds if you need it, but you have the ability to seek a higher return through some expertise of an investment professional. So I think I would go that route unless you looked at the deferred comp and you just kind of like the options in there and you'd rather keep it in the plan. I don't think one is a wrong decision, but I do like the idea of you rolling it out and having somebody handle that for you.

So that's the real upside, you know mutual funds are only as good as the performance of that particular fund and there's thousands of them, so it's not fair to say mutual funds are better than deferred comp unless you tell me which mutual fund, but that's why when you select an investment professional you have confidence in, you know that person would be charged with making those selections for you based on your goals and objectives. Does that make sense to you, Mark? Yes. Okay, I understand. Thank you. Very good. You can find a Certified Kingdom Advisor there in Miami to at least begin talking this through prior to making the decision.

When you visit our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click find a CKA. We're going to head to Illinois next. Terry has been holding and, Terry, I understand you have a question about a car, huh? I do and thank you so much for taking my call. I received a letter from the car dealership asking me to come and trade in my car and so I thought I would go by and just to see what they had to offer. Although I'm almost finished paying for my current current car, what they said was that they could upgrade me into a current year of 2021 with all the basics that I currently have on my car and but I will have to continue to pay off, you know, pay the extra for the on the notes and so I was just wondering what was your opinion about that? Should I go for this upgrade or should I just pay off my car which I only owe a couple more thousand dollars on and be done with it but of course maybe within the four or five years I'm going to need a new car.

Sure. Yeah, I like that option because what they're probably going to want you to do is to roll the amount that you still owe on the current car into the new car. Is that what they're talking about? They did say that they could do that.

Yeah, and I'm not a big fan of that approach. You know, if you wanted to buy a new car what I'd probably consider if you're not upside down, which it sounds like you're clearly not, I'd consider doing a private sale. Sell that car yourself. You're typically going to get more money and used cars are getting a premium right now. They're very expensive but what I'm even more excited about Terry would be you just staying with that current car as much as it might sound good to be in a newer model car and it would be there's benefits to that. I'm not going to diminish that but I think you know what is going to come out better financially in the long run would be just to hang on to the car you have, get it paid off as quick as you can, continue to drive it, keep it maintained and I would then take that monthly payment that you've been making to the lender and make that to yourself in a savings account so that when you're ready four or five years from now to buy that next vehicle, because this one's kind of beyond its useful life or it's becoming too expensive to maintain, that you would have the funds or a good portion of the funds already built up in a savings account ready to go. So you could make that purchase at that point. If you had to take on a loan, it would be a fairly small loan at that point that you could get paid off quickly.

That's going to come probably come out the best for you because keep in mind you've already gotten through those early years in the car where we see the most depreciation which is that first couple of years and so you'd be starting that clock over where when you drive it off the lot you lose 20% or more of the value and you know then it begins to decline from there. Does that all make sense to you though? Yes it does. It makes a lot of sense. I guess my desire was to have an upgraded car with some of the desires that I wanted on the car from the beginning and this one has and you know I just may not be able to get a car like this anymore.

Sure. Well and I don't want to minimize that because if you can afford it there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, this is one of those periods of time where in some cases it makes sense to buy new versus used even because used cars are expensive right now which means you could probably, depending on the model and the condition of the car, you could probably get perhaps a bit more than you thought you could or at least more than you could have in you know a year or two ago because used cars are at a premium right now if you were to sell it privately and that's what I'd do and then you could turn around and perhaps get a great deal on a new car that you would then drive for a long long time with some of the features you were looking for. That's all going to come down though Terry to does that fit into your budget and you know given your financial condition how much you have in savings and what you're trying to save for the future and kind of how your budget balances out right now with your current needs fixed and discretionary spending you know how would that new car note fit in after you would reply you know whatever you could get from the sale of your current vehicle and does that make sense for you or is it going to be beyond you know what you'd be comfortable with. So I would perhaps do a little homework maybe go to Kelly Blue Book or edmunds.com find out what you could get on a private sale for your car and then look at what you would have to spend for the new newer model you're looking at and then figure out what the monthly payment would be based on what you'd have to borrow and put that through your budget and see if that doesn't make it clearer as to the direction you should proceed.

I don't say you never should buy a new car I just want to make sure it fits into your plan. We appreciate your call today very much we'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you make this decision. Well folks thanks for tuning in today again our team is taking some time off so don't call in today but still a lot more to come on MoneyWise Live just around the corner as we apply God's truth to your financial decisions and questions.

Stay with us we'll be right back. It's great to have you with us on MoneyWise Live today but unfortunately today we're not live. We're pre-recorded and therefore won't be taking your calls however we've lined up some calls in advance that we think you'll find helpful so stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the program. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live I'm Rob West this is where God's word intersects with your financial life so glad to have you along with us today.

Have you thought about the fact that God owns it all? Yeah that's right we're stewards or managers of God's money and here's the implication of that we have a high calling God has entrusted us with a significant responsibility you and I are caretaker of the creator of the world's resources which changes everything about how we approach his money and really should lead us to the question Lord what would you have me to do as I manage your money? Well that's the question we're going to be asking and answering today as we take your calls here on MoneyWise Live looking to God's word for answers about today's financial decision and with one of those questions or comments we go right down into Miami Florida just south of where I grew up in Fort Lauderdale welcome Michael to the broadcast you're on MoneyWise Live.

Hey how you guys doing? Very good thanks thanks for calling. Yeah see I was basically feeling like you know sometimes when it comes to the warranty people or even the service providers these people sometimes either way you look at it sometimes people try to cut corners or get money and be lazy whether it's in any industry the doctors lawyers whatever sometimes you find someone who just went to school just for the money and they don't care about the people so I'm glad they have Better Business Bureau and Google reviews and stuff like that to make people accountable accountability is a good thing where right now when you see it even in Washington or in the churches a lot of people don't care about accountability when it comes to certain things so yeah well there's certainly a lot more transparency now Michael and I think that's a good thing do you have a question or was it just that comment today? Yeah I mean it started off as a question but it would have been a trick question because I was downloaded with the answer I kind of figured out the answer myself and it's just accountability you know like I was going to ask like how can you prevent or prevent other people and yourself from going through those things and they have these mechanisms for you. Yeah well that's a great point you know I think you bring up a great idea and that is the Better Business Bureau's one although they were caught in a scandal in recent years for not calling out businesses that were paying dues to the organization it certainly can't hurt if you are not treated properly by a contractor or anybody in a service or another profession to be able to file a complaint certainly can't hurt I think a lot of folks are finding that social media can be more effective in giving honest and legitimate reviews of a company and even getting a response to your complaint which companies are more and more apt to do these days and then writing a review on sites like yelp and trip advisor can be effective as well at letting other folks know about negative experiences that you've had as believers we always want to be honest and above board not in any way manipulate people but obviously let them know if we're not satisfied with their service so they can respond and do something about it but Michael we appreciate your call today hey we have just a couple of lines open so if you'd like to get in on the conversation today we'd love to hear from you on MoneyWise Live the number 800-525-7000 let's go to Glenn in Valparaiso Indiana go right ahead sir. Hello thanks for taking my call. Yes sir. I'm a retired navy a while back and coming like feeling like the end of my second career and my career right that my second career with US Steel offers a buyout or a pension and we were thinking of relocating and my wife has her eye on an upgrade on our house if we relocate and I was wondering is there any way to take a substantial buyout like 350,000 dollars and without a big tax cut out of it but still be able to use it for a better house? Yeah you know there really isn't because if you're drawing money out of a retirement account at work Glenn it is going to be treated as taxable income and if you're not yet 59 and a half there'll be a penalty I should say 10 penalty associated with that so that's going to be fairly expensive money for you to be able to access which is why we would tend to recommend that you leave that alone there'll be a there'll be a time and a place for taking that out either as a lump sum or as an income stream for life depending upon what other income sources you have and how it can be a best be positioned as a somebody who's been in service to your country through the military you've got obviously a great retirement program there with wonderful benefits that will be there for you as well so it sounds like you'll be in a really great spot I think as you look to this next season of life if you feel like the Lord is leading you and your wife to relocate I would look at upgrading that home out of current cash flow keeping your lifestyle at a minimum trying to save for additional money toward the home in addition to the proceeds from your current residence and then just make sure any resulting mortgage that you have fits well within the budget so I try to avoid pulling out large amounts of money from retirement because of the reasons that I mentioned but we appreciate your service to our country sir we appreciate your call on the broadcast today thank you very very much you know let me say how thankful I am for each of you that call into this program each and every day you invite us into your stories into your life into your situation and we're grateful and we get to celebrate with you and I think that is so key when we think about how we're using God's money we want to celebrate God's faithfulness and his activity in our lives so often we think you know we're working hard we're the reason that we're generating this income and remember the Bible says it's the Lord that gives us the power to make wealth and so as we work with our hands as unto the Lord and he provides provision well we celebrate that we look to give back to him and honor him in all that we say and do hey just after this break we'll be back with many more of your calls and questions if you'd like to post a question in our community in our MoneyWise app we'd love to have you do that our coaches stop by I'm in there periodically as well just download our app in your app store today search for MoneyWise biblical finance and then you can post your question I'm Rob West we're delighted to have you on MoneyWise live and we're going to pause for a brief break we'll be back with much more stay with us welcome back to MoneyWise live I'm Rob West this is where God's word intersects with your financial life so glad to have you along with us today hey our team is taking some time off today this program is pre-recorded so don't call in today wait till we're live in the studio but we're glad you've joined us looking forward to talking to Bernie and David and Wendy in just a few moments you know today we've already covered home warranties we've talked about retirement we've talked about how we handle God's money in a variety of situations next up let's talk about co-signing in debt and to do that we're going to go to Illinois and welcome Martha to the broadcast Martha you're on MoneyWise live good afternoon thank you very much I am planning to sell my condo here in Illinois and moving to Iowa and I'm looking to buy a residence of some sort there I have co-signed on a loan student loan for one of my grand it's ten thousand dollars I'm hoping to be able to just pay for this residence they move into in Iowa but if I don't or if I can't will this student loan get in the way of a good loan for myself yeah well the answer Martha is it may but it also may not let me explain you know it's not the act of co-signing itself in the case of a student loan or any other debt that can affect your credit it's the amount of the loan and then the payment history that follows that will really have the score or have the impact on the credit score so you're taking on the debt just as much as the primary signer in this case the student and that can impacting impact what's called your revolving utilization so student loan is a revolving type of debt as a and you know with this type of utilization we're looking at anything that's above 30 percent would impact you and if there's ever a missed payment of course that negative payment history would affect you as well so you just need to make sure that the payments are on time otherwise that will hurt your credit score which payment history makes up the largest percentage of your credit score at 35 percent you know I think the bigger issue Martha is just understanding what you're committing to you know the reason the bible is pretty clear on not co-signing is because you know we see the relational and financial damage that just often occurs following the best of intentions for people going in to a co-signing situation the bible says in proverbs 17 one who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor proverbs 11 king solomon again whoever puts up security for a stranger will suffer harm now does that mean that was the wrong decision no i think it's just a warning to say let's be careful before we go into this you know the federal trade commission says that 50 of the time when we co-sign on another's behalf because they can't qualify themselves the party that's co-signing will have to step in and either make the payments or suffer the consequences from the negative credit when the payment is missed so i think you need to understand that be ready willing and able to step in if your child at the appropriate time when they have to start making payments even outside of their control are unable or is unable to make that monthly payment and then secondly just recognize that the debt that was taken on is going to be factored into the overall ratios that the lender will look at on your behalf as they're evaluating your credit worthiness going into this loan so perhaps a next step would be to talk to a mortgage broker or your bank you don't necessarily have to let them pull a credit report until you're ready but just to get pre-qualified you know to understand based on your current situation this new debt that you're taking on in the form of a student loan what impact might that have on your ability to qualify with the most attractive terms interest rate the best loan programs out there which clearly you're going to want to have so i'd do that as a next step and then if you have any other questions along the way don't hesitate to give us a call we appreciate you weighing in today let's go now to chicago illinois the windy city and welcome bernie to the broadcast hello sir oh thank you you guys are great you had the best show on and i learned so much from you guys in the past i just wanted to say thank god for bringing you guys together and bringing this show out thank you my question my question real quick was yeah if you have like these uh home and uh you know the home improvement store credit cards and it was you know the zero balance and there's no monthly uh fee or anything but you just don't use it for a long time what happens the does that hurt your credit or does does it close itself out yeah a couple of things there regarding uh the second part first could it be closed because of inactivity and the answer is absolutely yes and so if you're wondering whether it might be closed based on inactivity you'd want to either check the uh the documents the fine print if you will that you received when you open the account or request that or you could simply place a call to customer service to find out how your card handles that because each one is slightly different as to whether or not it'll affect your credit obviously it's not having a negative impact on you to the extent that there's not a payment that's being missed because you don't have a balance as long as it's a zero balance that piece of it is fine it's not affecting your credit utilization because there's a certain amount of credit that's been extended to you on the card and as long as you're not using any of it that's causing your credit utilization to go down uh perhaps the only negative to keeping it open if you don't intend to use it and with those store cards i'd recommend you don't because the interest rate is typically very very high the only negative is just that it's one more account you need to stay on top of every month because even if you're not using it in the event it was compromised and used fraudulently you would want to identify that by seeing that on the monthly statement so that a it doesn't create problems with your credit report because you're then not paying back a charge that you didn't know about because you didn't charge it and b you just don't want to be responsible for that amount at the end of the day and so i think from that standpoint it's a a bit of a hassle just to stay on top of it so from that standpoint i'd probably go ahead and close it out make sure you call them first then send a letter and then you're going to want to get confirmation that it was in fact closed i'd then pull a credit report at annualcreditreport.com at least 30 to 60 days after to make sure that that was updated on your credit report and we appreciate your call one more call before the break we head down south to west palm beach florida and welcome david to the broadcast go right ahead hi so we have some savings and if we scrape up we'd be able to pay off the home um the thing is that we have a kid that is finishing college and another one that's about to start college and we would have to reduce our emergency funds from like four months to about two months in order to pay off the home i'm not sure if that's worth the stretch or if we should hold off yeah uh are you living within your means including perhaps the added cost that you will take on with the cost of college do you have that covered in the monthly budget um more or less but if we pay off at home then we're gonna have we're gonna be a little bit more comfortable to pay off you know right well as long as david you don't see anything on the horizon that's going to cause a disruption in your income and i realize none of us know for sure we uh have our income and our provision based on god's providence in our life and his provision because that's his role as provider uh but to the best of your knowledge if you don't see any disruptions coming you're not in uh self-employed in an industry that's been impacted by covid or you have the risk of hours being cut i mean if all of that seems secure and you're telling me i'm going to go from four months of reserves to two months of reserves but i'm going to be able to completely pay off my mortgage in the process and then i'm going to take that mortgage payment every month and not do a thing with it apart from build that emergency fund back up to where it was and perhaps even higher to six months over time uh if all those things were true david i'd say you go for it and live with the peace of mind to know that you have the flexibility of being unencumbered to respond to the leading of the holy spirit to have more margin in your life i guarantee you i'm not going to get a call from you next week or next year saying i wish i didn't pay off that house you and your wife are going to be thrilled hey thanks for your call today we're going to take a short break when we come back more of your questions and comments right here on money wise live this is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded thanks so much for being with us today and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of today's program welcome back to money wise live i'm rob west have you thought about the idea that one of god's big ideas as it relates to his money that we have the privilege of managing is this idea of contentment you know we see it at least five times in the bible that we're to be content with what god has provided that means we're learning as the apostle paul says because we're not born with us naturally we're learning to live within god's provision to say lord what you provided for me today is enough and i'm going to live well within that and thank you that you've given me 2300 verses on money and possessions all of these principles in god's word that i can apply to my financial life so that i can be a faithful steward of what you've entrusted to me and it's not always going to be easy and sometimes i wish i had a little bit more but i'm willing to accept your provision and live within that and that's called contentment and it's a journey for all of us but that's our desire and prayer for you is that you would be able to experience that and that's what we're going to do for you is that you would be able to experience that and that's part of what we're after here on money wise live each day let's go to canton ohio and welcome wendy to the broadcast wendy you're on money wise live hey rob i love you and steve so much and we live by the rituals of god's love that he owns it all and you guys are so awesome and such a big blessing to me you're very sweet and my boyfriend and you also saved us a ton of money we're plastic free and the quite the credit or the question i have two of them is what is credit amnesty uh credit amnesty uh yeah basically wendy and thank you for your kind remarks uh some lenders especially those in the auto industry may offer what's called a credit amnesty program for potential buyers with low credit scores so amnesty in this case would refer to essentially a pardon from a poor credit score since amnesty means pardon in the formal sense so credit amnesty means certain lenders are just willing to look past your poor credit and approve a loan now why would they do that well in exchange for doing that they get to sell their product in this case maybe move a car on the lot but you are going to pay the price for that because if they're offering credit amnesty they're often going to charge you the highest interest rates and extend the term longer than they would with other borrowers and that means you'll be paying a lot more in interest than you would if you had a high credit score so i would say if you're taking a credit amnesty program i would ask why you need to and if it's because you have poor credit what do you need to do to shore up your financial life perhaps save a bit more before you make this purchase perhaps pass on this and live with what you have and continue in the case of a car repairing it and it may not be a car but i'm just using that as an example so that you don't put yourself in a situation where you're paying an exorbitant interest rate over a long term and therefore going to pay a lot more in overall interest throughout the life of the loan by the way with an accredited amnesty program you'll often have to provide personal references and some other stipulations there as well so i hope that's helpful to you wendy what was the second part of your question the second part of my question rob is we have an electric company we deal with american electric power here in canton aep and they're sending the other competitors our name and we want to know how that can be stopped because you got to opt out all these companies if once a year is get real annoying yeah no i totally get that well i think you know one thing you can do although there's going to be mixed responses on what folks say as to the effectiveness of this but you could certainly add your name to the national do not call registry i think that'd be something that you know could be fairly helpful in a situation like this on the web you'd go to do not call dot gov or you can go to triple 8 382 1222 that's 888 382 1222 you can also write a letter to the company you might even want to address it to the president of the ceo who knows what could get someone's attention you could also leave some information on social media and see if if they're active on social media they may respond and be willing to do something about it because they don't want others to think that they're not being responsive to your request to stop soliciting you so i'd give those a a chance and see if they can't work for you and wendy you've been very gracious and kind in your remarks today we appreciate you listening and thanks for calling today as well back to illinois barb you're on moneywise live go ahead hi thank you um i'm trying to frame my question in a way where maybe you could give me some general christian principles um but i'm trying to not get too much into specifics because i think it would get complicated my question is my husband and i are in our early 60s and we have some adult children that we did our best to you know raise in the ways of the lord and early on we gave them these little banks that were divided up into um sharing saving and spending in other words we taught them to tithe and then also save and then also you know have some for spending anyway we we honestly try to do the right thing they're now of an adult age and um we still had to help them out from time to time in all honesty i think sometimes there's been misfortunes that were not of their doing that not of their blame but at other times i think there's been some there have been some foolish and unwise decisions that have even you know gone against your advice and they're to the point where they're actually starting to quibble over well wanting especially ironically the believer the one who's a believer is starting to demand that everything be equal in other words everything that we've done for one needs to be done for her and my my one statement that i asked an advisor financial advisor about he used this phrase that i'm wondering if you're familiar with he said love love your children equally but treat them uniquely and so what he was trying to say is you don't necessarily to the penny you know have to spend the exact same amount if you your parental and godly wisdom you know god-fearing wisdom few of it so i can you comment on that well i can and i suspect you were talking to a certified kingdom advisor because that phrase that you just said was originated in ron blue's book splitting heirs not splitting hairs but splitting heirs and it's the best book out there barb from a biblical perspective on how you establish principles on wealth transfer from god's word and by the way when we're done here today i want you to stay on the line my producer deb is going to get your information we're going to send you a copy of that book splitting heirs that i think will be a real blessing to you as you try to navigate these issues but yes i i think that's exactly right that principle from ron blue that if you love your children equally you will treat them uniquely and that often runs counter to what we believe as maybe i'll say americans because we just don't feel like that's fair and yet if you think about it your last stewardship decision is to decide is the next steward chosen and prepared and those two things are very important uh you know in and of themselves and we recognize that our kids are at different places financially different places spiritually and even though the idea of inheritance is affirmed in scripture proverbs 13 22 a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children the idea that we would think intentionally about how is this money going to affect first of all their relationship with the lord and a a child who is making poor decisions perhaps living a reckless lifestyle or maybe it's not that bad maybe they're just not quite money savvy yet dropping a lot of money in their lap could be the worst thing to do in terms of their ultimate relationship with the father and just the decisions that they're making especially in the case of children that are making poor choices regarding drugs and alcohol and and things like that and so i think we have to approach each one separately to say how do we want to handle the money that god has entrusted to us who is the next steward and remember there's only three possibilities the government ministry or charity and your heirs right your children or others that you would want to leave the money to and so i think deciding in advance how you want to approach that based on what you know today about where they're at and that will change over time as should your estate plan change over time being prayerful about that and then as you make those decisions communicating that clearly so that's not a surprise so they understand it but i also think there are certain cases where you would want to not cut a child out of the will uh maybe they're not living a reckless lifestyle but they just haven't come to the lord yet and you pulling them out may in fact drive a wedge that would make it perhaps more difficult for them to accept the claims of christ so i just think you've got to be really thoughtful ask the lord for wisdom james 1 5 if we lack wisdom we should ask the lord he'll give it to us and then communicate very clearly and then recommend recognize your estate plans need to change over time so i want you to read this book splitting errors that we're going to send to you and then if you have further questions i want you to call us back and we can talk about it and hey one more thought one great thing would be to take a portion of that money that god has entrusted to you that's beyond what you need to live on and put it into a donor advised fund and get the boys the kids to start helping you give it away now so you can model and teach how we should handle god's money i hope that's helpful to you barb we appreciate you calling today and may the lord bless you in the days ahead you stay on the line and folks that's going to do it uh for us today as we begin to wrap up let me just say thank you for being a part of the broadcast today thank you for your calls you know as we think about the responsibility we have as stewards of god's resources it's a big one and we want to be found faithful we want to handle god's money wisely we wanted to do it in a way that honors him and we want to be grateful you know and i think gratitude is so key if you've not started a gratitude journal perhaps that's your next step maybe just take a a few moments each day to just jot down what it is you're thankful for and recognize all that you have not what you don't have but what you have starting with god's love story to you which is the fact that he sent his son jesus to die for you and then come back and join us tomorrow we'll be back with another edition of money wise live money wise is a partnership between moody radio and money wise media see you tomorrow you