Breaking the Plastic Addiction

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded so our phone lines are not open. Often a bad habit doesn't seem to start that way. Maybe it's just something fun that you do with others and only on weekends. But before long, you're doing it every day and hiding it. You've developed a credit card habit. I'm Rob West.

Falling into the grip of plastic can definitely feel like an addiction, but like with any bad habit, there's a way to wean yourself off of it. We'll talk about that first today. Then we have some great calls lined up, but we won't be taking your live calls today because we're prerecorded. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial health. First off, let's be clear. The Bible doesn't call debt a sin, but neither does it encourage it. Some debt is acceptable if it promises a return that's greater than the cost. That might be for education, perhaps buying a home or starting a business. Credit card debt is not acceptable because there is no return. It's used to fund a lifestyle that you can't afford, and the interest payments are a huge net loss to your finances. Plus, it limits how much God can use you for kingdom work. We mainly talk about two things here on the program—God and money, specifically managing money to glorify God. You can't do that if you're up to your neck in credit card debt.

So if you're caught in a repeating cycle of using credit cards, and you're falling behind each month as your balance and interest payments grow, I want to tell you that you're not alone. Even though that's not how God wants you to manage His resources, remember, He owns everything. He'll never forsake you. 1 Corinthians 10-13 tells us, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. So the first thing you need to do is pray. Ask God to send His Spirit to strengthen you and lead you. Pray for wisdom and encouragement as you commit to managing your finances according to biblical principles.

Ask and you will receive. Next, I want to talk about a simple practical step you can take to start weaning yourself off of credit cards. It was the focus of a study a few years back with several thousand participants, all of whom were in credit card debt. The researchers asked participants to follow something called the $20 rule. They agreed not to use a credit card to purchase anything that costs less than $20. If that resulted in them spending less money, they could apply the savings to their credit card balance. But that doesn't really sound like much of a restriction because the participants were still free to use their cards for purchases over $20. How effective could it possibly be? Well, the study went on for six months, and those who followed the rule produced some interesting results. By using cash for all purchases under $20, those folks on average reduced their credit card balance by just over $100.

Now that may not seem like much, but consider a couple of things. First, even though the balance reduction was modest, it was definitely pointed in the right direction, downward. The upward trend was reversed. Second, it showed that even small changes in behavior can have a positive effect on your finances.

Remember Zechariah 4-10, do not despise these small beginnings. That $100 balance reduction was the average for the whole group. But when the researchers drilled down further, they saw even better results. It turns out that the younger credit card users, those under 40 who typically use their credit cards more than 10 times a month, had the biggest reduction. They lowered their balances by $175 over the six months.

And of course, that makes sense. We know the more you use cash, the less you spend. It's psychologically more difficult to shell out real dollars than to use a credit card. Now, if you'd like to try the $20 rule, you're far more likely to be successful if you have a partner, someone that you have to report to and who can hold you accountable. Also, if you need help arranging your finances, getting and staying on a budget that will help you lower your credit card balances even more, sign up with one of our volunteer coaches. Just go to MoneyWiseLive.org and click connect with a coach. Finally, if you're overwhelmed by credit card debt and not able to make your monthly minimum payments, there's help for you too. Our friends at Christian Credit Counselors can get you on a debt management program that lowers your interest rates and helps you pay off your debt up to 80% faster. The folks there take a biblical approach to paying off debt. You can find out more at ChristianCreditCounselors.org. That's ChristianCreditCounselors.org.

And keep us posted on your progress. We'd love to hear from you as you pay down your debt and bring your finances in line with God's principles. You're listening to MoneyWise Live with Rob West. Today's broadcast is prerecorded, and that means we're not taking any calls, but we've got some calls lined up and great information coming your way that we think you'll find helpful. So stick around for more MoneyWise Live after this brief break.

Thanks for joining us today for MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. I'm Rob West, delighted to have you along with us today. Hey, our team is taking some time off today, so we're not in the studio, so don't call in. However, we've got some wonderful calls and questions that we lined up in advance, and we'll begin with those now. Sandy is in Indiana. Thank you for calling, Sandy. How can I help you?

Yeah, quick question. I'm 52 years old, my husband is 54, and we have about 14 years left on our mortgage. We've got about $65,000 left on it to pay, but our retirement is only about $65,000, $70,000 in that. So we're just wondering, should we pay off our mortgage? Because I know you've talked about that before, paying the house off, but we didn't know if maybe it would be better for us to be putting as much money as possible into our retirement because it's kind of low.

Yeah, I actually like the idea of you prioritizing, Sandy, the retirement, assuming you've got an emergency fund, you don't have any consumer debt like credit cards, you're living on a balanced budget. If you have some margin, I would put it toward retirement before I would put it toward paying off the house, and here's why. I like the idea of you paying off the house, but not at the expense of missing out of the benefit of the compounding in a tax-deferred environment for the long term. Because if you could get money working for you over the next 15 years on a compounding basis with tax advantages inside that retirement account while you're paying your mortgage and you were to time the payoff of that mortgage with your timing on entering retirement, which I realize may require you to accelerate it a little bit, but not a whole lot, that would be ideal. Because then we're building our assets between now and retirement, and all the while we're continuing to pay the mortgage payment. And by the time we hit retirement, we're pretty close to having it paid off if we haven't already done so. And the convergence of those two things, you know, as much as you can save to supplement Social Security and other income sources, combined with a lower lifestyle based on you being debt-free, I think is the optimal scenario, versus you not contributing to retirement or as much as you should be now and prioritizing the mortgage payoff. I just think that the retirement account will do better for you over the next 15 years than the benefit of you being completely debt-free, as long as you don't have an absolute conviction that we just want to be out of debt as soon as possible.

Do you follow that, though? Yeah, and I think that's what we're thinking. I actually just finished nursing school, and so I do have a student loan, but I'm also about, I'm starting a new job as a nurse. So, and we've been living on just his income for two years, so we've been able to live without my income. So now, as a nurse, I'm going to have this income, and we just want to make sure that we're doing things right and start on the right foot with this new job. Yeah, no, I think that's a good thing, and you know, I applaud what you're doing there on living on one income, because as you add your income, it's going to give you the ability to really dedicate those funds to, you know, the priorities that you have and the goals that you have and really be able to work on funding, you know, either debt reduction or long-term savings or additional giving or a combination of them, and I think the priority use of that right now is toward trying to make up for some lost time on saving for retirement.

So that's a good decision. All the best in this new field that you have. Appreciate the service that you're going to bring to many as a nurse, and I'm delighted you guys are going to be able to fund some of these goals, namely long-term savings. So hope that's helpful to you, Sandy, and thank you for your call today. John is in Indianapolis.

John, how can I help you? Hey, sir, I'm 58 years old, and I'm retired military and retired civil service, so I've got about $72,000 of income coming in every year, and our mortgage is paid off, and we live on about 65% of our income. We've got about $890,000 in the market. 186 of that is in aggressive ETFs and government ETFs, and then we have liquid savings of about $100,000, making up that $890,000.

So I just want to know your opinion about, and we also have term life, myself, $600,000, my wife, $500,000, and if I should die, this $72,000 goes away, but she would have Social Security to live on at age 62 with no debt whatsoever. So I guess I'm just concerned about or have an idea about is there anything that I should do at this point in my life to maybe be more aggressive, maybe look at that second home in Florida? Yes.

I just don't know if I'm, it seems like it's doing everything right, but. Yeah, well, I'm like what you're describing here. First of all, thank you for your service, sir, for our country.

We're grateful. Secondly, I would just say, does the term life carry carry her through age 62 or beyond? It goes, it expires when we're both 73. Okay, excellent. I like that because you really won't have a need for it at that point, and so that gives you plenty of time. Did you mention a second home?

That's something you're thinking about buying or you already have? No, we're thinking about going in with my son and going down there and use that for vacations. We go down there in the winter and then on the off season, we rent that out to vacationers or part-time renters or whatever. Okay, and that would come out of the roughly $900,000?

Yes, sir, and my son would go in half of it as well. Okay, yeah, so I think that's the only thing to look at is the right timing on that. Really do your homework because, you know, housing prices obviously are very high right now in Florida, and so you're going to be paying top dollar, perhaps above market prices. Just make sure that with any debt service that you're going to have that you can, in fact, cover that with the, you know, seasonal rentals and, you know, just don't take somebody's word for it.

I'd do a good bit of legwork on that so you know what you're getting into, but otherwise, I think everything sounds good. The $600,000 roughly that's not in the aggressive ETFs or the savings. How did you say that's invested? So I had $300,000 in a G-fund with the TSP and then my wife's moderately aggressive within the market.

With another $300,000? Yes, sir. Okay, all right. Yeah, I think that sounds good. I think the key is if you all have all that you need, there's not any need to take any more risk than you should because, you know, we're clearly, you know, we've come through an incredible bull market here. I mean, if this thing were to roll over and that aggressive, you know, you could wake up one day and the aggressive ETFs could be down 30 or 35 percent. So I think you need to kind of check that against would you be comfortable letting that ride and waiting for it to come out without kind of making an emotional response of just pulling out all together.

And if not, you may want to get a little more conservative with that. But just know what you're getting into there based on where the market has been and where it's likely to be over the next several years. But obviously, you've got plenty of stability here, $100,000 in savings.

The G-fund is as stable as it gets a moderate portion at $300,000. And this is truly all surplus because your lifestyle is covered and then some with the $72,000. And even if that goes away with her Social Security plus the term life insurance, you know, and this roughly $900,000, she should have everything you need. She needs. I think the last thing I would say, John, is, you know, is there additional giving you all want to be doing?

I'd be thinking and praying through that. And then secondly, might you want to consider long term care insurance? You know, I know you probably have some options through the VA, but, you know, that might be something to look at, because if there was going to be a major cost that could erode assets in a hurry in this season of life, that would probably be it. But other than that, sir, I think you're on the right track.

Well, okay, I appreciate that. I have considered long term life. But as you know, that's just a gamble. So I'll definitely look into that.

Well, 70% of Americans 65 years and older will need it for probably an average of two years. So and it's expensive. So I would definitely check it out. And I appreciate your call today very much. All the best to you. And again, thank you very much for your service. We appreciate it.

Well, folks, we're going to pause for a brief break. Let me remind you before I do the Money Wise app is available for your download. It's in your App Store. Just search for Money Wise biblical finance. It's a way to track your spending and manage your money. Jump into the Money Wise community and ask questions or share encouragement with other listeners. And our learn tab, which has all of the best content from all the leading content providers in Christian finance, all in one place for your encouragement and edification.

It's the Money Wise app, Money Wise biblical finance. We're going to pause for a brief break, but much more to come just around the corner. Stay with us.

Welcome back to Money Wise Live. So glad to have you along with us today. Hey, our team is taking some time off today. This program is prerecorded, so don't call in.

But we've got some great calls all lined up in advance. And we're going to start today with Almond, is it Almondra? Am I saying that right?

Yes. Very good. How can I help you Almondra? Thank you for taking my call.

I enjoy so much your show. And I'm calling because I have my teenager. He just turned 17. And he just got a job as well at McDonald's.

And he doesn't have any responsibility with me to pay anything. But I would like to give him between $500 and $1,000 for him to invest. And somehow for him, you know, in the future maybe the money can grow. But I don't know where to start.

I heard that we can invest as little as $1 through Amazon and through Apple. But honestly, I just don't know what to do. And he's been asking me. But I think to ask you, it will be better. And then we'll know what to do after that.

Yeah, very good. Almondra, do you have a sense of how you'd like this money to be used? I mean, let me give you some examples. So one option would be you see this as long term money, meaning 10 years or more before he would take it out. But you'd want it available for any purpose. It could be to buy his first car. It could be a down payment on or a first last insecurity for an apartment. You know, at some point it could be, you know, extra expenses at college, not college related expenses necessarily, but spending money. So that would be kind of bucket number one. Bucket number two would be specifically for college. You want this, you know, available to pay qualified educational expenses.

So tuition, room, board, fees, books. That's bucket number two. I think bucket number three would be because he has earned income, he has the ability to start a Roth IRA. So this would be really long term money. I mean, we're talking, you know, 40 or 50 years down the road. But if he could understand the importance of starting a Roth IRA today, you know, with the money he's making for McDonald's and he contributes to it, you know, systematically over the years, he could be, you know, he could have a lot of money built up in that retirement account if he were to stay, you know, disciplined and diligent in contributing to it. So which one do you think sounds like what you're looking for?

I think we can do two of those. It could be, I'm not thinking about college because I don't know how everything is going to be. What I'm saying is because I'm probably going to be able to pay for college. And I'm going to try my best for that. So this money will be a network card either or apartment because I would like him to stay with us as long as he can to have finished his career or something. Because education is the main thing right now for him. I would like to pay for that.

To be honest, I just don't know what I'm going to be able to, but I'm going to try my best to because I love my son and I trust in the Lord and I know the Lord will help us because I have my job and somehow I have some savings. Okay, but you're saying specifically you don't, the money you're calling in about today that I think you said you had 500 to start with, you don't want that earmarked for college. You'd like it for one of the other two purposes, is that right?

Correct, yes. Okay, so I'd probably use one of the robo-advisors. There's one called Wealthfront that, you know, there's no minimums. Well, actually, the minimum is $500, but the first $5,000 is managed free and it's very low cost after that as long as you go through NerdWallet.

So you'd go to nerdwallet.com, search for Wealthfront and then connect to it through there. But basically, you'd set up two accounts. One would just be a taxable account in your name and then you could give it to him at some point down the road. And the second would be a Roth IRA in his name. And the Roth would be the money that you want to be for retirement.

Remember, this is way down the road, beyond the age of 59. And then the other portion would be long-term money, meaning, you know, 10 years, but it could be used for anything. And then, you know, I think as you do that, you could systematically contribute, starting with a minimum of $500 to each of those accounts. And it would invest it for you in ETFs, exchange traded funds that are indexes. So you'd have a broad cross-section of the market.

And then you just capture the long-term trends of the market with that portfolio that they would build for you. Now, the difference here is, Almendra, is you're not buying an individual company. And I realize there's something kind of fun and novel about saying, I'm going to buy one share of Amazon and one share of Apple, and he can track those companies. But the problem with that is we're just not promoting the right type of investing, because although it's fun to watch, it's not properly diversified. I mean, he would be at the risk of two companies and they happen to be in the same sector of the economy and technology. And if technology is out of favor or those companies have a bad quarter, it could be down significantly.

And that's why he should be broadly diversified, capturing the long-term market trends of the overall market, as opposed to just two individual companies, which might be more fun, but it's just not the right way to invest because there's not enough diversification. So do you follow all that? Yeah.

All right. So here's what I would do. I'd head over to NerdWallet.com and I would search for Wealthfront. And if you go through NerdWallet to Wealthfront, the first $5,000 is free to be managed.

Beyond that, it'd be a quarter of a percent a year. The minimum is $500. You can get started, set it up.

They have a great app, a great website, and I think you can open that Roth and that taxable account and then start making contributions. All right. I hope that helps.

All the best to you and your son. Folks, so we're going to pause for a brief break and we come back much more just around the corner. This is MoneyWise Live.

We're delighted to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. We're taking some time off, so our team is not here. So don't call in. However, we have some wonderful calls lined up in advance that I know you'll enjoy and benefit from.

Beginning today in Texas with Lee. Lee, how can we help you? Hi.

Yeah, I just love your program. Thank you. Yeah, I have a daughter who's 34, dating a young man who's 38. And she is, it's her second marriage and he's never been married. They are both God-fearing, wonderful Christian young people. But he is much more unstructured about money and lifestyle than she is.

She has a sales job from Israel, but she works remotely. And then he is more freelance. He's very knowledgeable about plants and he grows and sells plants and does some landscaping. But it just seems like when he has enough money, he's very generous. Like this weekend, he drops something to go on a weekend mission trip when he actually should be taking care of some other of his own business. She doesn't feel like he's structured to, you know, talking about providing for their future before he very generously gives away what he doesn't have.

So I'm asking for advice of where they could go to get some counseling or something maybe with this. Yeah, very good. And so she sees this as a concern.

It's not just you, correct? Oh, definitely. Yeah, okay. And how close are they to marriage? I mean, are they actively talking about engagement? Yeah, they've been dating 10 months and they are planning to go to see a wonderful marriage counselor, pre-marriage counselor. But these concerns are, you know.

Well, clearly this is something that needs to be addressed, and it can be, you know, because this is a part of what needs to happen. As a part of godly premarital counseling, they need to really lean in to this area of finances, especially given the concerns that she has, beginning with just a lot of dialogue around how was money handled growing up, and what are their thoughts on the way money should be handled, and what lifestyle do they think God is calling them to, and, you know, as a married couple, if that's the way the Lord ends up leading, and what about giving and generosity, and what is that spending plan going to look like? I mean, I think that conversation is going to be key for them getting on the same page. Then second, I would encourage, you know, once they decide they are going to move to engagement, I would have them connect with one of our MoneyWise coaches at MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click connect with a coach and have a third party that can walk with them, and not only teaching some of these biblical principles we talk about here on the program, but actually helping them develop their budget, their spending plan, and talk about how they're going to control the flow of money, you know, on a monthly basis, and some of the decision-making processes that are going to take place. That's going to be really key, making sure that they're on the same page with regard to transparency as well as oneness, that they're going to combine their finances and develop a shared vision, even if there's one bookkeeper for where they're going moving forward. And then I think the last piece is, you know, if they would be willing to have a mentor financial couple from their church, so perhaps, you know, pray and think about who might be an older couple that would walk with them for the first year financially, just to help them deal with kind of the issues that will come along. And I think if they're willing to take those steps, a good bit of talking and dialogue, really unpacking a lot of the things that, you know, lead to how they both handle money, and they're going to be different. You know, we each bring our money personalities to the table, but it's about recognizing each other's strengths and weaknesses, and then developing a shared vision moving forward. Then working with the coach to get the actual plan. It's one thing to have a plan, then you have to stick to it, and that's where the mentor couple will come in. If they would be willing to do those things, I would feel a lot better. The last thing I would say, Lee, is I'm going to send you a copy of Howard Dayton's book Money and Marriage God's Way, and I want you to ask them to perhaps, you know, go through that. Maybe we'll actually, we'll send you two copies, and they can each read a chapter, and then maybe they come together on a date night once a week and talk about it. I think if they do those things, they'll be in a, you know, a real good place to at least identify where there's going to be a real conflict moving forward that needs to be addressed, or whether or not they can come to a shared vision moving forward.

Does that make sense though? That's excellent. Would you repeat how to get hold of that coach again? Yeah, just go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, and click Connect with a Coach. And these are volunteers that are specially trained in all of this that would be willing to walk with them for six weeks or more to not only teach these principles, but to set up their spending plan, debt repayment plan, giving plan, and work all of that out in advance with them, okay?

That sounds wonderful. Do you want me to hold onto the line? Yes, ma'am.

You hold the line. My producer, Deb, will get your information. We'll get those books out to you today, and we appreciate your call. To Chicago, Illinois, Maria, thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Thank you.

I was calling. I'm 58 years old, and I want to retire at 60. I'm not sure, like, wanted to know if I'm on the right track. I have some savings. My home is paid off, and I have a condominium that I rent. Okay. And just wanted to see if I should be currently in my, with my employer, I have a 401 that I put in, and I have a former, another 401 plan from my, my previous employer.

Okay, very good. So what do you have saved up in retirement assets, Maria? I have, in the savings, I have 1.8 million.

Okay, and we, go ahead. My home is paid, and it's, right now, it'll, it appraises at about $348,000. My condo, I have a mortgage on. Okay, and is that the rental?

That's the rental property, yes. Okay, and are you, do you have good cash flow coming off of that? I make about $400 on it. Okay, after all of the expenses are paid.

Right. Okay, and do you plan on collecting Social Security when you retire in a couple of years? Well, I don't think that I could do that at 60. No. Okay, I didn't realize how old you were.

Very good. Yeah, you need to wait till at least 62, and I'd probably wait till full retirement age if you can. Maria, have you put a budget together? Do you know what it's going to take to fund your lifestyle once the house is, well, the home has already paid off? So, given the rental income that you have coming in without taking Social Security, what do you think you need, either monthly or annually, in order to fund your expenses? I haven't put a budget together. Do you think it's more than $6,000 a month?

No, not at all. Okay, great, because here's the thing, you know, not counting the rental income and not counting Social Security, you know, with $1.8 million and whatever that grows to, over the next couple of years, I mean, you should easily be able to pull off $70,000 a year out of that without ever touching the principle. And so, because you've kept your lifestyle modest, you've paid off your debt, you know, or you're working toward it, you know, I think you're in a really good spot here. And then when you begin to collect Social Security sometime down the road, that'll just be additional funds that you'll have available. So, I think you're in a great spot to really ask the Lord to give you a vision for this next season of life. I would connect with a financial professional if you don't have somebody managing that money.

It's going to be really critical. That's a lot of money the Lord has allowed you to put away to fund your needs moving forward as you move into this exciting future. To fund your needs moving forward as you move into this exciting chapter, I would encourage you to connect with a couple of Certified Kingdom Advisors and find the one that's the best fit for you if you don't already have that covered. If you do, that's great.

But if not, go to MoneyWiseLive.org, click find a CKA and you can search using your zip code. But apart from that, I think you've got a great plan here. You've obviously been a diligent saver and it sounds like you're right on track.

So, all the best to you as you move forward. God bless you and we appreciate your call. Folks, we're going to take a quick break when we come back much more on MoneyWise Live, where God's word intersects with your finances. Stay with us.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. So glad you're along with us today. Hey, our team is taking some time off today, so don't call in. This is prerecorded, but we have some wonderful calls lined up that I know you'll enjoy. We're going to talk to Lori in Yuma, Arizona in just a moment. But first, Howard's in Chicago.

And Howard, how can we help you, sir? Yes, I have, I'm about 58 and I have obviously a few more years of working, but I'm wondering where I should be focusing in terms of whether I should be paying off my home, which is about $250,000 left, or whether I should focus more on 401k retirement savings. Yeah, well, it's a great question because, you know, when we think about the use of God's money, it's all about priorities, right? And we want to start with what are our values, what's most important to us, and realize that the way we allocate God's money says where we've placed our trust and, you know, really, you know, what we believe God wants us to do with his resources, because it's a tool to accomplish his purposes. And clearly part of that is to become debt-free over time and to save for the future. You know, assuming we're providing for our family, assuming we're giving systematically, I would say even sacrificially, and we've brought some planning to, you know, our ultimate savings goals. So we're not just, you know, accumulating for accumulation's sake, but we know where we're headed and we've established a financial finish line.

So all these things are good. So as long, Howard, as you have that emergency fund in place, you're giving at the level you feel like the Lord is leading you, you've taken care of any consumer debt, and you're on track with your retirement savings, then I think, you know, as you look at, you know, allocating beyond that, I would do this. You know, the benefit of compound returns is, you know, you invest systematically over time for the long haul as you dollar cost average in, you're buying into the market at high points and low points and, you know, you continue to put that money in and, you know, over a long period of time, it grows and builds wealth.

In fact, the stock market has been the very best place to build wealth over the last hundred years with systematic investments and with the least amount of risk. But we also want to be moving toward being debt free. So the way I would strike that balance is to, at a minimum, make sure that you're on track to have the home paid off by the time you reach retirement age. So if you think that's seven years from now, the question I would ask is, you know, based on the current term of the mortgage, could you add enough to it each year in terms of adding to your minimum payments so that you align the payoff of the mortgage with your expected retirement, which we know could change one way or the other. And then any additional surplus, you would, you know, continue to plow into that 401k so it's growing on a tax deferred basis. Now, your financial situation may or may not allow you to do that, but that would be kind of my starting point.

Give me your thoughts. Yeah, so you kind of described exactly where I'm at in terms of all of my other, you know, I don't have any other debt. I'm tithing as my number one priority, and then obviously taking care of the rest of my, you know, monthly expenses. So that part's, you know, out of the way. Yeah, I mean, if I just went on the path right now that the mortgage isn't due till, I don't know exactly what year it is, but it's like 2040 or 2035 or something.

So it's, I can't just play that out. So I guess what I was also thinking was, should I take advantage? I think I was planning on taking advantage of the 401k match that my company was doing as a minimum just to make sure that I get that and then focus on the house and then whatever's left I can do for 401k. Yeah, do you feel like you're on track with your retirement savings? Do you have a sense of what your ultimate goal is to be able to continue to fund your lifestyle once you retire, you know, off of the, just based on the income you could produce from those retirement savings? I feel like I'm in pretty good position, but, you know, that's a big question mark for everybody, right?

What is the right number? And then there's a level of, you know, trust in the Lord and providing when that time comes. So yeah, it's hard to talk about unless we get into all the details. So I've asked a question, but... Well, so here's my thought on that. I think you're exactly right. You know, we need to have a plan. We need to consider that plan prayerfully. As I said, I think it's important to know your finish line beyond which you'll, you know, continue to accelerate your giving and allow the Lord to change those plans over time. So what I would recommend is you connect with a Certified Kingdom Advisor there in Chicago, even if you don't use that individual for investment management, just to do some straight planning to really have a third party who understand God's heart related to money, who can really help you determine based on what you expect your lifestyle needs to be in retirement, subtracting any guaranteed income sources you might expect, like Social Security, and then projecting out based on your current trajectory where your 401k will be and what kind of income that could throw off on a, you know, using, let's say, 4% a year where you're not drawing out of the principal, you're just living off of the income with a largely fixed income portfolio, but with a smaller growth allocation to stocks, you know, would that meet your needs based on your current trajectory?

Or are you behind? Or maybe you're ahead of the game, you know, and just put all of that into the equation so that you at least know where you're headed and, you know, you've got somebody else looking at it from that perspective. So that's the direction I would head, but just generally, I love what you're hearing, you're trusting the Lord, you're prioritizing your giving, you're living within your means, you want to focus on debt reduction, and you want to save for the future. That's all good, but I think, you know, bringing that finer point of planning to the equation so you know where you're headed and you have some peace of mind that you're on track to get there, I think will really help. And you can connect with the CKA there in Chicago at our website MoneyWiseLive.org, just click find the CKA, we appreciate your call.

Let's head to Yuma, Arizona. Lori, what's on your mind today? Yes, thank you for taking my call. We are in the process of purchasing a home, and I made it very abundantly clear to the lender that interest rate was hugely important to me. So much so that because of another home that we own, she wanted to give us a rate as an investment, and so I took out the loan in my name only so that I could get it as a primary residence. So with all that taken care of, we are two weeks away from closing, and she's just sent me a letter stating that my interest rates, my choices were to lock it in at 4.375 was with no point when she already sent me a contract at 3.5 and I thought she had locked it in. My question is, is there anything that they can do now that they did not lock it in? Well, I think the question is going to come down to, and you're going to need to escalate this perhaps beyond the person you're talking to, you know, whether or not they should have locked it in based on the communication you had and whether, you know, they're willing to take responsibility for that. I suspect if it wasn't locked, unfortunately you're not going to be able to get the rate that was promised to you, and, you know, you could go back and trace your communications to determine kind of what the expectations were based on the instructions you provided, and if they failed to comply or act on those instructions, then clearly, you know, if they're a reputable company, I would hope they would make that right to you in the form of, you know, reduced closing costs or discount points that you don't have to pay for to get that rate back down to what it was.

But I suspect there was some sort of miscommunication, and therefore, you know, they're going to say it just wasn't locked, and this is the prevailing rate today. Now, keep in mind, Laurie, and I know you probably don't want to start this process over, you know, rates are lower than that. If you have, you know, good credit, you should not be paying that high of a rate right now.

So, it may be worth just going to bankrate.com to see what other problems you have, to see what other programs are out there, because you don't want to start buying that rate down. I mean, that's going to get pretty expensive pretty quickly. You know, it's going to be typically about 1% of the mortgage amount, you know, for each percentage point you want to buy it down. So, you know, one point on a $300,000 mortgage is like three grand.

So, that's going to add up quickly. And so, you know, I would start with where you're at, tell them, listen, you've been in this process, you had certain expectations that haven't been met, and see what they can do for you. At the same time, I would probably start seeing what else is out there, you know, and I'd start at bankrate.com to see what loan programs you might be able to find that could do a lot better, because keep in mind, you want to try to find, you know, the best current prevailing rate today, and you want to not really spend more than 1% to 2% of the mortgage on the costs of the refinance, because if you go much over that, it's going to take too long to pay it back.

Does that all make sense to you? Yes, it does, but I do have a couple of questions about that. One is, they did send me in writing the commitment to the 3.5, and they told me that was the best rate now, and my credit is really good. So, you can check this bankrate.com to see if they have a better interest rate, but once they do change the interest rate, is there anything they can do besides maybe offering to take some of those points on themselves? No, probably not, because the rates are moving around all the time, and if that rate wasn't locked in and guaranteed for you for a period of time, usually 30 or 60 days to give you enough time to get it closed, then they have the ability to move that around. So, just depends on how that rate was promised to you and whether there was any kind of lock for a fixed period of time that would allow you to get them to make good on what they had offered to you. So, I'd go back to the company, have all your documents in place, look at it, and then understand exactly what was said so that you can get to the bottom of it, but I know this is frustrating.

I think your best bet is to try to get somebody on the phone who's a manager who can walk you through exactly where you stand. We appreciate your call today. We'll ask our MoneyWise Live community to be praying for you as you sort all of this out. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us today. So thankful that you were along with us today. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media, so thankful for my team every day that supports me in this great work, Jim Henry, Amy Rios, Dan Anderson, and thank you for being here. We'll be back next time with another edition of MoneyWise Live, where God's word intersects with your financial life. In the meantime, may God bless you. Bye-bye.