Mobile Pay Scams

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For all licensing information, go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org, corporate NMLS number 1330, equal housing lender, not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Do you use one of those mobile pay apps like Venmo, Zelle, or Apple Pay? They sure are convenient. Unfortunately, scam artists have learned they're a convenient way to separate you from your money.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Anytime you have a lot of money changing hands, even digitally, there's always a danger of fraud, and mobile pay apps are no exception. I'll talk about that today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

Call at 24-7-800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial security. So, the first mobile pay scam is a variation of one we've talked about many times. Phishing with a PH is when scammers send out emails pretending to be from a legitimate company, trying to get you to give up your personal financial information. Smishing is when scammers send you a text, and in this case, it's to tell you that your mobile pay app, Venmo, Zelle, or some other, is about to be charged, but you can stop it by clicking the link and logging in. Of course, the website is fake, and now that you've tried to log in, the scammers now have your username and password, so they can access your real account and take your money.

Obviously, you want to be vigilant about the domain name of any link you're sent. If it looks suspicious or has typos, it's probably a scam. The safest thing you can do if you think there's been an unauthorized charge to your account is to use only the official app or website to check it out. The next scam involves phony sales. Not all mobile pay apps are designed for business transactions. In fact, Venmo explicitly says its basic app shouldn't be used for transactions like buying or selling on Craigslist. That's because, unlike with a credit card, there's no way to get your money back if someone scams you, and it works both ways.

If you order something and it never shows up, you're out the money. These days, the best example of this involves rental cars. You need to rent a car, so you search online for deals.

You see an ad for one you like and click the link. It takes you to something that looks like Avis, Hertz, or National's website, but it's fake. You don't realize that, and you fill out a reservation form. Then you're told to pay in advance with a mobile app or a gift card, so you do. You may even get a confirmation number so you think everything's fine. It's always best to use a credit card and not a debit card or mobile pay app to buy something online.

That way, if there's a problem, you can file a claim and get your money back. Mobile pay apps like Venmo, CashApp, and Zelle aren't required by law to have buyer protections in place, so they don't. Okay, so next we have the money transfer scam, and this one can get you if you use just about any mobile pay app, including Venmo, CashApp, Apple Pay, or Zelle. For this scam, con artists use a stolen credit card. They'll use as much balance as is on the card to transfer money to random people like you. They will then claim the transfer was an accident and ask for the money back. Because you're an honest person, you'll probably return the money, but before you can do that, the scammer changes the card information from the stolen one to his own, so he gets the refund.

So far, you're even. But later, when the stolen card owner notifies the issuer about the fraud, the transaction will be reversed, meaning the money comes out of your mobile app account a second time. You've been scammed, and there are no protections in place to help you.

Finally, keep in mind that credit cards usually cover fraud costs, but many digital wallet vendors do not. Perpetrators of our final scam are like digital pickpockets. You might be walking through a mall or a parking lot, just about anywhere really, when a stranger politely asks if they can borrow your phone to make a quick call. Theirs just died, or they forgot it at home.

It seems harmless enough, so you hand it over. The scammer then pretends to call someone who doesn't answer. The scammer then says he'll just send a text.

But all that button tapping isn't a text. He's really transferring money out of your Venmo or Zelle app to himself. The odds are you won't even notice that the money's gone until much later. Obviously, you never want a stranger to have access to a smartphone loaded with financial apps. You can simply say no if you find yourself in that situation, or offer to make the call yourself. The bottom line is mobile pay apps are very convenient and a great way to transfer money to and from people you know, like family and friends.

But you're taking a risk using one to buy merchandise unless the app is linked to a credit card that provides buyer protection. And this is a great opportunity to remind you to keep those passwords new and fresh and never conduct business on public Wi-Fi. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. Call it 24-7-800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial security.

We're so thankful you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, taking your calls and questions in just a moment on anything financial. Here's the number with lines open 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is the program where we recognize that God owns it all, and we're stewards, and therefore, money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes.

So we mind the 2350 verses in God's Word to pull the principles out that we can apply to today's financial decision. So whatever's on your mind today, be it saving or investing, perhaps it's giving or getting out of debt, whatever it is, we'd love to hear from you. Again, the number 800-525-7000.

We'll begin today in Toronto, Ontario. And Enis, thank you for your call today. How can I help you?

Thank you for taking my call. I need a little bit of advice. I've been taking care of my mom, just taking care of her affairs. She's been battling with cancer for the last four years, and she went from having a will to making me power of attorney. So I take care of all her medical needs, when her bills are due.

I pay everything. On November of last year, we were told because of her treatment that she wasn't going to make it. Her heart stopped, was stopping slowly, and that we needed to start getting things in order. So in my panic, I sold her house, which she was fine with because she was still coherent, and she moved in with my brother so we can take care of her. Well, this is the third time God has been amazing, and she's back to driving herself to treatment and doing really well. Her cancer's still there.

It's now traveled to her brain, and she's on heart medicine, and she is going to have hip surgery come October. She is, she wants a house, and we have the money from the sale of her property. I live in Canada. She's obviously in the States, and she wants to make sure that when it's her time to go, that I will still be able to take care of everything, and it's not going to be a burden on me or on my siblings. I don't know which way to go. I was told to do a trust so that if this does happen, I still have the ability to get into her account and take care of her business. I'm not sure what to do, and I'm worried because God has done miracles in her life, but I know that He will call her home sometime soon. I'm not sure when, five years it'd be, ten years, because God knows her plans.

No, I don't. I just want to make sure she's okay, and I don't want to make a bad decision where I'm hurting her, but I also don't want to take her life away by saying, no, you're staying with my brother until the day you depart the Earth. That's not what she wants.

Yes. Well, Enis, God is using you to be a blessing to your mom in this season of life, and it's obvious by even your question today that you want to do that in a way that's really honoring to her, and clearly He is going to give you some wisdom here. There's a couple of issues I'm hearing. Number one is just the estate planning side to make sure that you have the ability to make decisions on her behalf, both now while she's with us, in the event she's incapacitated and unable to make some decisions, and at death as either the executor or the trustee, however it's set up, and that could be handled with a godly estate planning attorney.

We'll talk about that in a moment. And then the second issue is just her housing arrangements, whether she stays with your brother or whether she moves to a home, either in a home that's in an assisted living community where she can have her own home, but then care could be provided if needed, or if she's truly on her own in a single family home or something perhaps that requires less upkeep like a townhouse or a condo. Let's start with the estate planning side for a moment. You mentioned, I believe, that you have a durable power of attorney, is that correct?

That is correct. Okay, so that allows you to make decisions on her behalf, and that's obviously a critical document. The thing that a trust would do would be for anything that's titled in the name of the trust, be it real property or other assets, there could be triggering events that allow you as the trustee to make decisions on her behalf, but that can be handled other ways, both with the durable power of attorney which has a more blanket access to her affairs, as well as for specific decisions such as a health care surrogate, living will, things that allow you to act on her behalf and for her to express her wishes regarding end of life decisions. So I'd encourage you if you have an estate planning attorney that you visited with, perhaps in the state that she resides, that you revisit with that professional, just to ask some questions as to whether or not there's a reason to have a trust or whether everything can be handled with you as her personal representative at death and then prior to that through the durable power of attorney. Do you have that relationship with a godly estate planning attorney that you could revisit these items with?

I do not. The person that did the will kind of just dropped the ball when we went to revise the whole thing because things are changing quickly, and we just really never heard back from her, and we kind of gave up on that, and my mom says, well, I just sold everything, so the money's there, take care of it, and all my siblings are like, you take care of it, we trust you, we know that you're honest, and you wouldn't do anything to hurt any of us. So verbally, everybody's okay with it, but when it comes to legal matters, I don't have a handle on much, aside from the power of attorney at the moment, which has been great, but now I'm thinking more than just now. I would agree with you, and I think it's worth you visiting with godly estate planning attorney in your mom's state, probably right there in her area, perhaps you coordinate that visit with your next visit to see her. If you don't have one, it sounds like you don't, I'd encourage you to go to our website, moneywiselive.org, click find a CKA, that stands for certified kingdom advisor, in your mom's state near her, and just contact any one of them and ask for a referral to a godly estate planning attorney. They'll all have one that they work with, and I would interview maybe one or two and find the one that's a good fit, but this is going to be a really important time for you to make sure that the will is up to date, that all of the documents are there, and that there's a clear plan so that when the Lord calls her home, whenever that is, there's not any questions or ambiguity.

You have the ability to act on her behalf, both at death and even prior to that if necessary, and so I think that's going to be a really important visit. As to the home, obviously in this season of life, taking on her own single family home just brings with it a lot of maintenance and upkeep, especially without family members nearby to take care of that, although perhaps your brother could help with that. I guess I would just wonder, should you consider a home in an assisted living complex, or perhaps something like a condo or a townhouse where there's going to be less upkeep, where she can, you know, literally lock the door and doesn't have to worry about the grounds outside and some of the extra things that come with a home.

Talk to me about your thinking there. Well, I did want assisted living. The state that she lives in is very expensive, and my mom in particular, she wants her privacy, and I told her that there's different stages. Where she is, nobody needs to come into her home until that time comes, because when things happen to her, they happen fast, and everybody's scrambling to get her that everyday help that she needs, and so she gets better.

So I would be happier with her accepting this assisted living, let's just say not having much of assistance now, because she does not need it at this point in her life, but it will come. And I keep telling her, let's pray about this, let's give it to God, don't rush, don't push those doors open. He will show you where you need to be, and I feel that this is the place for her, but I want her to tell me that she feels the same, because maybe I'm doing it because I'm paranoid, because I'm in Canada, and she's in the States, and it's a bit of a distance, but I do want to make sure she's taken care of when she does have those dips in her health.

Yes. Well, I certainly understand that, and I think you're on the right track there. Perhaps her visiting a place to realize that if the funds are there, and she has the financial means to do so, having a private residence with access to assistance would be the best of both worlds, because she'd be on her own and feel like she has her independence, and yet you'd have the peace of mind, and she would as well, that with just a phone call or the touch of a button, there's somebody that can provide that help. And so I think it's time to begin doing some research in her area for options that perhaps you and she and your brother could go visit, and then we'll just trust that the Lord will give you all some peace of mind to know which is the right place for her to go, whether it's one of those or something where she truly is more on her own, at least for this season.

But I would encourage you to think about the upkeep and the maintenance that perhaps might get difficult for her in the near future. I'm going to ask our MoneyWise Live community to be praying for you, give you wisdom as you navigate this. You are carrying a load, but just know that it pleases the Lord what you're doing, and I know your mom appreciates it as well. Keep us posted, and we appreciate your call today very, very much. A difficult situation, one that none of us are prepared for as we care for aging parents.

We know clearly it's on the heart of God for us to bless and honor our parents, and this is one of the ways we can do it. But being prepared, both in the conversations leading up to it so there's not unmet expectations, but also legally to make sure we have the right documents and the right plan in place is so very critical. Much more to come on MoneyWise Live, 800-525-7000. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Taking your calls and questions, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

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Just search for MoneyWise biblical finance, whether it's the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, MoneyWise biblical finance. Let's head back to the phones. Jackie's waiting patiently in Chicago, Illinois. Hi, Jackie, how can I help you? Hi, how are you guys doing? Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

Hi. So I call because I have an IRA set up. I got about maybe $18,000 in there. I have a retirement fund that I have when I used to work for a hospital, USC.

And they always start us off a retirement fund that we donate into. And then when you leave, it just grows whatever the money is left. So I just left it there. So it's just there and it's still growing. Maybe at about, I think, 4%.

So it's still over there, just still going. I haven't touched it or anything. And then I have $25,000 in savings. The thing that I'm concerned about is I don't do anything as far as like do something with it. Like I have the IRA, I don't have it invested in anywhere. So it's just money just sitting there.

And that's because I don't know anything about the market, no stocks, bonds. I have no idea what to do with that or how to do it. So I'm just kind of confused.

I just let it sit there to be safe. Yes. Okay.

Very good. Well, you've come to the right place. I'd be happy to help you. Number one, I'm glad to hear you have some savings. I'm going to consider that your emergency savings, that $25,000. You don't have anything in addition to that in liquid savings, do you?

No. Okay. Now, how many, what do you spend on a monthly basis? What would you say is your total expenses if you had to guess? On a monthly basis, I would say about $1,500. $1,500.

Okay. Let's say it's 2,000. So we take 2,000 times three. So we'd want at least 6,000 if we wanted to have three months expenses. If we took that out for a full six months, that would be 12,000. So you've got twice that with 25,000 in savings. So you've got plenty of liquid savings, which is a great thing. So that should cover, you know, as much as a year's worth of expenses if you needed it for the unexpected.

In fact, we could probably take a portion of that and deploy it for either a specific purpose. If you're saving to buy a home someday, or you need to replace a car, or if you have truly surplus, you could look at giving opportunities or even additional retirement savings. Let's talk about those retirement accounts. Do you have, other than the old retirement account and then the IRA that you have right now, do you have a new plan at work where you work today? No. And only because I have a 401k at my new job, I don't have it. Only because it's not matching, so I didn't see any benefits from that. Okay. And are you actively contributing to the IRA?

No, I haven't did anything to it. And that's another thing. I don't understand the IRA. Like, it's just money's in there, but can I contribute money to it? And if I contribute money to it, will they like do something with taxes or something?

All these questions that I really don't know about. Sure. Okay.

Well, so here's the thing. So there's the type of account, and then there's the investments inside the account. And what's key is it doesn't really matter which of these accounts you're contributing to. The key is that you get something going into them on a systematic basis because that's going to take something out of every paycheck and get it into either the IRA or your new 401k at work and allow that to grow over time once it's invested properly. And I understand you've probably been hesitant to put new contributions in because you just don't know what you have and you don't know what to do with it.

And so the natural result is just to not do anything. So let's talk about the accounts that you have first. The first thing I would do is consolidate that old account into the existing IRA with your previous employer.

I would look for an opportunity to roll that together so you have one new IRA that has both of the current IRA's money and the previous employer's money. And then I would be looking to contribute to that moving forward. The goal would be to get you up to 10 to 15% of your take-home pay going into that every month. If you can't get up to 15 right away or even 10 starts somewhere but let's start getting something going in on a systematic basis. So that's going to be the starting point. Now we've got to take a brief break here but when we come back I'll talk to you about the investments inside that account and how you should think about getting that money working for you in a stock and bond portfolio. So you hold the line and we'll talk more about that right after this. This is MoneyWise Live 800-525-7000.

We'll be right back. We're grateful you've joined us on MoneyWise Live today. I'm Rob West taking your calls and questions on anything financial 800-525-7000.

Just before the break Jackie in Chicago was sharing with us about a previous employer's retirement account that's just sitting out there kind of dormant earning about four percent. An existing IRA with some money in it but she's looking for some direction on how to move forward to get this money actually invested for her so she can make additional contributions that are growing for retirement. And Jackie as I was saying the first thing I'd love to do is consolidate the old account into the new IRA and then I want you to begin contributing on a systematic basis and that's going to be dependent upon first making sure that in addition to that emergency fund that you have that you don't have any credit card or consumer debt but then we want to get up to ultimately 10 to 15 percent of your take-home pay going in to a retirement account whether that's your IRA or your new 401k at work even though there's no matching. With regard to how it should be invested the first question I would have is would you like to take a more active approach to this where you're getting some guidance and direction and actually making the selections yourself or would you like a more automated kind of hands-off approach to the investment strategy? I would say a more automated hands-off. Yeah okay there's a great option out there called robo advisors for somebody in your situation where you're fairly new to investing you're just kind of getting started in terms of the what you have in terms of assets under management that is very effective and very low cost and there's two robo advisors in particular that I would direct you to one is called Betterment and you'll find it online at betterment.com or the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and that's from Charles Schwab which is most people are familiar with been around a long long time but the Intelligent Portfolios are their robo advisor solution in either case Jackie what would happen is you would move your IRA there and you'd roll your new you'd roll the money from your previous employer into the new IRA there as well so all of that would just get consolidated into one new account at Betterment or Schwab you would answer a series of questions about your age your life stage your goals and objectives and then they would build an automated portfolio for you using what are called index funds which basically just mirror the broad market indexes so as the market moves over time up and down your account would move with it and it's a very low cost very tax efficient way to invest that I think would do quite well for you you're not going to try to pick the winners and losers you're basically just going to capture the broad moves of the market but it's going to be done in a portfolio that's consistent with your goals objectives and age and I think that is really what you're looking for so I think your next step is to research those two Betterment Schwab Intelligent Portfolios open your new IRA transfer your existing IRA there move your old retirement account there and it'll all be in one new account get that money invested using their robo advisor solution and then you can start making new contributions moving forward does that make sense yeah that does one question though yes you did say that I could I should use my 401k here at my job even though it's not matching well you're going to be limited in terms of how much you can put into that new IRA you can only put in among all your IRAs you can only put in 6,000 a year so if you're going to try to get 10 to 15 percent going into retirement at some point you're going to hit the ceiling on the amount you can put in your IRA in a given year and so that's where you're going to have to go back to the 401k just to be able to put more money away even though there's not any matching okay all right gotcha all right very good listen you hold the line we're going to send you a copy of the sound mind investing handbook that I think will be an encouragement to you get you on the road to learning more about investing and we appreciate your call today to Chattanooga Tennessee Joan thank you for your patience how can I help you well it might be a silly question I have a it's about our life insurance and our will okay my husband has life insurance than I do he has two children from another marriage I have two children from another marriage and the way it's worded now is if I don't survive he dies and I don't survive him I guess if we die together it's worded I give the rest and residue of my estate 71% to his children 29 to mine I guess I'm not getting the rest and residue of my estate I would have just thought if we die together his children would be his life insurance and yes mine and then and then everything else we have would be split by four but the way this is worded I don't quite understand it yeah interesting so what what have you let's back up for a second what have you all decided in terms of how you want things to be passed given that you have children from a previous marriage have you decided you want your estate to pass equally or are you separating certain assets out for each of your children not really no they're they all they're fine get along we just thought we'd assume they would sell the house and split it we would assume they'd sell the cars yeah I'm thinking like our checking account our savings all that would be split four ways okay and is that the way your will reads well I'm kind of reading and it says if we die together 71% of the estate goes to his children 29 to mine and that's what was kind of yeah see that that's confusing to me but what's gonna you know you have to consider as well is that life insurance proceeds will have a named beneficiary that will pass even outside of the will so it seems like it's a it's a great opportunity for the two of you to come back together and perhaps visit with an estate planning attorney where you can update all of these things to make sure that your wishes are truly reflected because what you're describing to me as to what you believe your intentions are and what you're reading don't seem to be compatible and so I think you know we all need to revisit these things periodically and make changes especially if there's questions regarding how certain things are have been drafted and if your desire is together for your estate to pass on a pro rata basis to all four kids then it sounds like some changes are in order at the very least just have somebody look it over and explain to you why it's been written the way that it is but what's also critical that you do Joan is that you all look at all of those beneficiaries for each of those policies on the life insurance to make sure that those are updated so that you know it's it's one thing if you know he predeceases you and everything comes to you and vice versa but as you said in the event the Lord takes you both home at the same time you want to make sure that those secondary beneficiaries are correct so that the money from both the proceeds of the life insurance as well as the estate are going to pass according to your wishes so if you don't have if you don't have an estate planning attorney there in Chattanooga I'd connect with a certified kingdom advisor and ask for a referral I know there's some wonderful godly estate planning attorneys there in Chattanooga that could read through everything that you have make sure everything's up to date and reflects your wishes and it would be a great time to make sure that you have things like a durable power of attorneys and health care surrogates and living wills you can knock all of that out at the same time and we appreciate your call today very much I know having all of this in order the way that you want it to read is really important it's the last stewardship decision we'll make and so we need to make sure that we're doing things appropriately we appreciate your call today well much more to come on MoneyWise Live in fact just around the corner Bob Dahl will be with us Bob joins us each Monday to share his market commentaries with us Bob is chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments where investments and values intersect and today's been a wild ride in the stock market so I'm sure Bob will have a lot to share with us today that's just after the break stay with us more to come on MoneyWise Live we'll be right back thanks for joining us on MoneyWise Live I'm Rob West taking your calls and questions 800-525-7000 well it's Monday it's our final segment which means Bob Dahl joins us Bob is chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments where investments and values intersect and Bob great to have you with us on a Monday boy it was a wild ride in the market today hope you had your seat belt on and shoulder harness it was one of those days Rob a lot of a lot of red on the screen and as you and I have talked from time to time the surprise isn't that we got this is that it didn't happen sooner there are a lot of cracks under the surface you know I'm also the view that the bull market is not over but it could be bumpy here for a while yes well for those who perhaps are just getting caught up the market was down Bob was at nearly a thousand points at one point where did we finish yeah we finished down about 800 points so it came back from the low but still a still a tough day yes is this just a sign of what's going on with rising COVID numbers and or is it something else that's driving it well that's certainly the the headline excuse and I don't want to dismiss it because COVID cases particularly the delta variant are up that is cases reported hospitalizations and sadly deaths all three from pretty low numbers but the numbers are moving in the wrong direction so that was the excuse but as we've talked in recent weeks Rob we've got peaking at GDP growth peaking earnings growth second half will still be good but not as good and markets love acceleration not deceleration the concerns about inflation I don't think they've gone away and what's going on in Washington DC are we going to get a bill is it going to be a bipartisan bill is it going to be democratic only reconciliation bill what's it going to look like how much money we're going to spend or taxes going up just a lot of unanswered questions and so the market's just losing its altitude a bit yes but you say global growth even though it perhaps will slow you still are looking forward to remain firmly above the trend correct that's a good yeah that's a good point global growth and us growth you know we we can't grow this far above potential growth for very long otherwise there are all kinds of supply and demand imbalances and we get runaway inflation but we are decelerating to a level that's still I mean the second half of this year has put its way it's probably going to be as strong a growth which we've seen in the last 20 years with the exception of the first half of this year sure sure well it's still significant I know we saw bank earnings last week Bob what was your takeaway from the bank earnings regarding the state of the American consumer the bank earnings pointed out the US consumer and corporate America for that matter in pretty healthy shape banks reported better than expected earnings but much of it Rob came from reversing some of the loan loss accruals they put on at the height of the crisis expecting it would last longer so they over accrued so the money came back into their income statement so it's a low quality beat and that's why the stocks sold off as the interest rate picture came down which isn't good for banks banks need rising interest rates okay all right well we're still over weighting the equities meanings we should still take a long view and be allocated towards stocks but we might want to temper our expectations moving forward huh yes you know I say if you've been fully invested and enjoyed the nearly 100 gain of the last year and a half don't hesitate to take some some some money off the table and and put it aside no one ever gets faulted for taking a profit all right I agree Bob great to have you my friend we'll look for you next week god bless bye-bye bye-bye Bob Dahl chief investment officer of Crossmark Global Investments joins us each Monday with his market analysis and we always appreciate Bob's insights especially on a day like today with the market selling off nearly 800 points but when you have a bull market like we've seen the last several years and more today is just part of what comes in stock market investing and that's again why you don't try to jump in and jump out you take the long view all right let's go back to the phone Chicago Illinois Rose thank you for your patience how can I help you so my question is my husband and I are both in our mid-50s we have two kids and so far we have not done any kind of a will or a trust and we own a home we both work so we both have 401k term insurance and some equity in our house and we just want to know what's the best way to go do we need to create a will and do we need to hire an attorney to do that or a trust is good enough yes well a will is going to be less expensive than a trust and probably all that you need Rose the key is the will is going to determine how your estate is passed at your death so that your wishes are carried out so that your property and your assets all your personal effects are passed according to your wishes and not left up to the probate court to decide there will be a probate court involved but they'll read the will and the executor of the estate will handle the estate according to the will apart from that if you die intestate then they're going to make those decisions for you and you certainly don't want that to happen the only benefit to a trust would be if you wanted to have the ability for a trustee to make decisions prior to death in the event you all were incapacitated or you wanted it to happen outside of the public record those would be you know some of the main reasons why you would use a trust but it sounds like for a fairly simple estate a simple will three to five hundred dollars would be all that you would need just to make sure that your wishes are carried out and at the same time you could deal with other things like a durable power of attorney for you and your husband respectively so that you all could make decisions on each other's behalf if necessary you could deal with some end of life decisions through a living will or a health care surrogate document those could be addressed at the same time if an attorney determined with you that you will need it to trust you could certainly do that but having a basic will i think is clearly the starting point it's critical when you have minor children because that's also going to be the document that will determine who would become their guardian in the event you both passed away at the same time but clearly they're adults now and so that's not as important at this point but having everything else spelled out in your will is pretty essential so i would take a next step by contacting a godly estate planning attorney in your area you can ask for a referral from a cka in your area or call your local church to see if there's somebody in your church that could assist you and i think you'll be glad that you have that in place and we appreciate your call let's head to illinois next arlene how can i help you hi yes thank you for taking my call sure um i was planning on putting a portion of my emergency fund into a cd instead of just leaving it in the um savings account that's not accumulating much interest and i found this uh company called community direct uh on bankrate.com that's offering a pretty nice rate you know uh at this time but i've never heard of them before is that any uh place institution institution that you've heard of and yes yeah uh so comenity is uh is an online bank they have a full range of products and uh you know there's more and more online banks all the time now uh you're going to have fdic insurance uh just as you would with a brick and mortar bank so it's definitely legitimate and that will give you insurance up to a quarter of a million dollars as of airtime today my team went and looked their high yield savings is about 0.55 percent which is slightly above even the their peers at other online banks by about five basis points and then their one-year cd is 0.7. i just don't think there's enough of a difference there for you to lock your money up for a year arlene to get the difference between 0.55 and 0.70 15 basis points i'd probably encourage you just to go with the online high yield savings account and wait because as interest rates head up and the federal reserve has indicated that's the the direction they're going we're going to see higher rates and i think um you know you'll see those first in your high yield savings and probably not necessary to lock the money up for 12 months um you know given that there's not much difference does that make sense okay yes it does and thank you very much okay you're very welcome we appreciate your call today quickly to chicago uh denise you'll be our final caller today how can i help you hi i'm a federal employee and i have uh a little bit over 600,000 in my tsp and my makeup is 60 g 30 c and 20 s and i was thinking about switching up a little bit uh but i'm just trying to figure out would i have enough money to retire in four years i have i would have 30 years of service and i'm just trying to figure out if if that would be enough money with my pension social security okay how much are you going to need to draw from this account to cover any shortfall for your monthly expenses uh after you factor in your pension and social security do you know how much you'll be needing to pull out of this um i don't really plan to uh access my tsp till i'm 68 i plan to just live off the pension i have uh when i retire and then get my social security at 67 and then draw into my tsp okay so all right well then i think you're in good shape if you can build your budget on the pension and social security and let this grow i think you're in a good position 60 in governments three years out of retirement is probably the position you want to be in right now anyway especially since you're not relying on this for your expenses but i'd go ahead and connect with an advisor to be ready for when you retire because you'll want to roll this over and have someone manage it we appreciate your call today unfortunately we're out of time money wise live is a partnership between moody radio and money wise media thank you for joining us today come back and join us tomorrow we'll do it all over again as we apply god's wisdom to your financial decisions god bless you you