A House Divideth

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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. Proverbs 1322 tells us we should leave something to our heirs. It says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but it doesn't say how to do it.

Hi, I'm Rob West. Often when parents make out a will, they simply divide their assets equally among their children. That includes property, but some experts will tell you that's asking for trouble. I'll talk about that first today, then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

Call 24-7-800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. So, one of the most common sentences you'll find in any will goes something like this, my estate will be divided equally among my children. That's fairly easy to do when the estate consists entirely of financial accounts that can be quickly converted to cash for distribution to heirs. It's quite another thing when the estate contains property, as most do.

It immediately forces your heirs, usually your children, to make a difficult decision. Do they continue to hold the property in joint ownership, or do they sell it and divide the proceeds? A third option exists if one or more heirs are willing to buy out the others. Ideally, the heirs will all agree on a fair and equitable settlement.

That usually means selling the home and splitting the proceeds, but it could also involve dividing up other assets in such a way that one or more heirs are able to hold onto the property. But too often, heirs have trouble reaching that kind of agreement. Deciding as a group what to do with the property becomes a complicated business. There are serious financial and emotional considerations. Financially, what you think is a blessing may actually become a burden when you factor in maintenance costs, taxes, insurance, HOA fees, and other expenses.

Who makes decisions about maintenance and hires contractors to perform needed work? Will the heirs divide those expenses equally? What happens if one heir doesn't pay his or her share? Does the property become something like a timeshare for the various heirs and their families?

Who determines who gets to use the place and when? Emotionally, inheriting real estate may cause heirs to make unwise decisions based on feelings rather than facts. In many cases, the ancestral family home becomes a money pit that breeds contention among surviving children who can't agree on things as mundane as the color of the new carpet. Children often have different ideas about what to do with the family home.

Based on their experiences growing up, resentments that were hidden for years may boil up to the surface when mom and dad aren't around anymore. This is often exacerbated when one sibling is made executor of the estate. That person is then in a position to lord it over the others. Or the opposite, handling the estate becomes a nightmare for them as siblings squabble. So, as a side note, consider appointing an outside executor or personal representative for your estate. But back to the main point, what do many experts suggest you do instead of bequeathing real estate to your children or other heirs? Well, their advice is to handle it like any other asset in your will. You simply stipulate in your will that upon your death, all property be sold and that the proceeds be divided equally among your heirs. When you do that, some heirs may decide to take the proceeds of that sale as a part of their share in the estate. Others may want to buy out the others if they want to take on full ownership of the home or the vacation property. By the way, you don't always have to divide the proceeds equally among your heirs. In his book Splitting Heirs, financial teacher and one of my mentors Ron Blue says that if you love your children equally, you'll treat them uniquely or differently in your will. Some may have greater needs than others. Some may not be able to handle money as well as others. In those cases, dividing things equally may not be best for your heirs.

But the key to making any of this work is transparency. You should discuss your wishes with your family so that no one is surprised after you go home to the Lord. Everyone needs to understand not only your decisions but why you made them. By having serious discussions about your estate ahead of time, you can eliminate the potential for infighting and resentment later, especially if you make it known that all property is to be sold upon your death.

That's one big thing lest squabble about. If you need help drawing up a will or changing one, it's important to work with an estate attorney who shares your Christian worldview. You can do that by finding a certified kingdom advisor. Just go to MoneyWiseLive.org and click Find a CKA.

Well, I hope those have been helpful suggestions for avoiding conflict within your heirs. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West taking your calls and questions today.

Here's the number, 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open as we deal with whatever's on your mind, saving or giving. Perhaps it's lifestyle, setting a spending plan, or saving for the future. Maybe you want to know a more effective way to be generous. How do you align your passions with your giving resources and do that in a way that's most effective?

Whatever's on your mind today, we want to mind the Scriptures, apply it to what you're dealing with, and see if we can give you some wise, practical counsel. Again, that number, 800-525-7000. Before we go to the phones, let me just remind you we do have wonderful MoneyWise coaches ready to serve you. You can connect with a coach at no cost apart from a small charge that will ask you to purchase the electronic workbook. But the time that you'll spend with the coaches over several weeks working on your spending or debt repayment plan, perhaps your giving plan, whatever you need, that's free. It's part of our ministry here at MoneyWise Media and our team would love to serve you. Just head over to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click connect with a coach, and we'll get you in line to be connected. We'll look forward to hearing from you. All right, let's head right to the phones today. Nicole is in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nicole, thank you for your patience.

How can I help you? Yes sir, I purchased, I sold a property a couple weeks ago and we used some of the profits and gains from that property as a down payment for the second property for a new home. And I was wondering, should I pay tithes from the first property, the full gains, or should I take away the deposit that we put on the second property? Yeah, well I love this question, Nicole, because obviously you want to honor the Lord in your giving based on the increase that you had, and that's how we approach the tithe. Now, we do have to establish the fact that we should be generous. You know, we serve an incredibly generous God. In fact, he's the ultimate giver. He gave us his son to redeem us and pay the penalty for his sin, for our sins. We were created in his image, so I like to say when we give, it calibrates our hearts to his. We see that we're to be generous, both in the Old and New Testament, and I would say that we should give systematically, but we should also give sacrificially. Now, the tithe was a part of the Old Testament law. Clearly it actually preceded the law with Melchizedek and with Abraham, but it was clearly a part of the law of Moses. Now, that was replaced with the law of Christ, but in just about every case, if not every case, Jesus raised the bar, so I don't think we should be going backwards.

In fact, I love what the author Randy Alcorn says. He says, I would approach the tithe as the training wheels of giving. But the bottom line is we don't do it out of compulsion or because we want to be legalistic. We do it because we want it to be an overflow or an expression of our gratitude to the Lord for all that he's entrusted to us. And we realize that being a part of God's activity as we connect his resources or a portion of them into his activity is an incredible blessing for us.

We'll receive tremendous joy in that. So I believe we should be looking to give systematically, and the tithe is a great way to approach it. At the end of the day, it's between you and the Lord.

We're not trying to check a box. We want to give cheerfully and joyfully as an act of worship. Now, if you say to me, Rob, I want a tithe. I want to give a tenth on my increase, and I want to know, I want to know how do I apply a tithe to a sale of a property? I would go back to what you were saying, and that is we've got to look at this as an appreciating asset. Now, that appreciation of that asset is not realized until you sell it. So if you live in a single family home and like just about every other home in the country the last couple of years, it's seen some appreciation, but you haven't sold it yet, that's not an increase because you won't realize that until the sale. But when you sell it, as you did, then you are able to establish the gain. What was the realized gain or profit that you got out of the home, which would simply be the selling price minus the original purchase price minus any improvements that you put into the property that stayed with it that increased the value, not furniture and things that you would take with you, but things that stayed with the property that enhanced the value. That would come out as well, and then you could even subtract the transaction costs of the sale because that reduced your profit. But after all of that, you would end up with an amount that was your increase.

And if you wanted to apply the principle of the tithe to that, then you would give based on that full amount, regardless of what you did with it after, whether you invested in the stock market, rolled it into another property, or kept it in savings as part of your reserves. Does that all make sense to you, Nicole? Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Okay, you're very welcome. Listen, if you do decide to do some giving and you've got quite a bit of money because you realized, you know, a big gain and perhaps that's going to result in a large gift, I would consider opening what's called a donor advised fund. It's essentially a charitable checking account. You could do that at the National Christian Foundation with very little cost, ncfgiving.com. When you make that gift, you'd realize the full amount of that contribution as a deduction in the year that you made the contribution to the account, and then you're able to give it away as you choose at whatever time you want.

And you can do that anonymously or in your name with a couple of quick clicks of the button. So a giving fund or a donor advised fund is a great way to do your giving. And if you decide to move forward, I would at least check that out. We appreciate your call today very, very much.

Let's head to Columbia, South Carolina. Ed, you're next up on the program. How can I help you, sir? Yes, thank you for taking my call. Sure.

Yes. My first time calling and actually I'm a first time listener. I actually came across the station.

I will say nothing happened by accident, but I was driving my daughter's vehicle who was away for a while, and she had a tune to this radio station. And it reminded me so much of the labor care ministry many, many years ago. And it had always been such a blessing.

I just wanted to tell people just to call in and just share how much I appreciate listening to them. And the heart of ministry that kind of financially and spiritually raised me through Larry Bequette's ministry just came through through Money Matters. And that's been many, many years ago, but it was just such a blessing. And I'm now retired in the military. I've pastored, and it was just refreshing to hear that. I've been traveling a lot. I've been overseas and have not heard the program before.

My wife says, oh, this program has been out there for a while, but me being on the road so much, I had not heard it. So I just want to call in and tell you how much I appreciate it and the quality of what you're doing and the fact that most of all that ministry comes through is just not tagging some scriptures on the end of some financial advice out of the heart of whatever, but ministry comes through. I appreciate that.

I just want to commend you guys for what you're doing. Well, Ed, let me just say how much I appreciate you making the call. I can't tell you how much it means to me for you to affirm what it is that we really have behind this ministry, which is a heart to really start with a biblical worldview. And I, like you, was deeply impacted by the ministry of the late Larry Bequette, who wore his heart on his sleeve. I just loved listening to how he interacted with God's people.

You could tell he loved them and he cared for them and he wanted to give them practical, sound advice and he knew that he could only do that if it came out of scripture. And Ed, there's not a week that goes by on this program, and Larry's been gone since 2003, that somebody doesn't reference Larry Bequette and the ministry of Christian Financial Concepts and Crown Ministries and the Money Matters radio programs. And once again, here we are, which just speaks to the legacy and the impact of the man that really centered everything he did on the Lord, including the way he interacted with callers each day.

So I'm delighted you found Money Wise Live. I'm delighted you're listening. And I really appreciate your call because those are enormous shoes that I know I will never fill, but our team is just trying to be found faithful every day and honoring the Lord, starting with God's word and serving our people with hope and encouragement to be the stewards that God has called them to be. Thank you for your call, sir. We'll be right back with much more Money Wise Live.

Stay with us. Thank you so much for joining us today for Money Wise Live. I'm Rob Less, taking your calls and questions today.

The lines are full. We have great questions stacked up, so you're in for a treat today as we cover a lot of ground today, including our next call from Sarah in White, excuse me, Whitfield County, Georgia. Sarah, thank you for your patience. How can I help you?

Thank you. Well, I was listening to the first part of the program about your heirs and making things easier. And my husband and I are in a situation where we do not have our own children. All of our nieces and nephews are well educated and well to do. They don't need our money. And we know at some point we'll probably leave it to a school or a church or some sort of scholarship fund, but for right now, I'm just looking for what we should do at this point. We're in our 50s. We have about a million dollars in assets. We have a couple of ideas, but they're kind of loosey-goosey, and I'm just looking for guidance.

Yeah, that's great. Well, Sarah, you're in a great spot because clearly you've been a responsible steward of God's money. You have enough to sustain you and your husband for the rest of your lives. You want to make sure you have the proper legal instruments in place so that no matter who pre-deceases the other, that things are passed appropriately to either spouse. And so you'll want to make sure at the very least you have a will. And I would also make sure you have a health care surrogate and a durable power of attorney and probably a living will as well. And that whole package of documents can be handled with an estate planning attorney without much expense. But obviously when the Lord calls both of you home, your last stewardship decision as you care for what has been entrusted to you is to make a decision on where that's going to go. And it's either going to go to the government, it's going to go to heirs that you leave it to, or it's going to go to charity or ministry. And I think that's the real opportunity you have is to do some giving both while you're alive as you think about what excesses you have or what the Lord might be leading you to give, and then of course at death with the rest of your estate when both of you pass to be able to decide in advance where you want that to go.

And that can be a conversation that takes place over time and it can change, but I would clearly spend some time thinking about that responsibility that each of us have as that last stewardship decision. How do you go about that? Well one of the things that I would recommend you do is you visit with our friends at the National Christian Foundation. They're one of the largest Christian charities in the world and they just help Christians be wise in their giving. Everything from the where of giving through something they call giving strategy that would help you walk through a process with a relationship manager who's just there to serve you and in that process uncover your passions and aligning those passions with where God is at work so that you know where you're going to give and you've thought that through fully and developed a plan around that, but also the how much of giving both right now during your life but also at death and then what are the most effective ways to do that? Is that cash giving or is it non-cash giving through assets that perhaps have appreciated where you can get some tax benefit and then give them away prior to selling them and you can do that with stocks and real estate and land and art and any any number of things, a business interest as well.

So I would actually walk through that process. There's not going to be any cost to do that but I think that exercise of you and your husband going through and developing a giving strategy with somebody who really shares your heart for generosity and can help you align your resources with what God has really placed on your hearts, you and your husband uniquely and together could give you perhaps some further insight into where you want that to go so that you can have that plan down in advance and then of course it can change over time as the Lord leads. Does that all make sense though?

It does make sense. The first part of what you said with the living will and the, I don't know, there was a list of things you talked about before you got to this part, that's kind of where we're struggling is we just don't have anyone in our lives that, we live a thousand miles from my family, his entire family lives in Israel and in Europe and we just don't have anyone near us that could be an executor or be, you know, are there like public executors or is there, do you know what I mean? Yes, yeah you could have a trust company that would be a corporate trustee that could make those decisions for you, it could be an attorney but it could be also a trust company and there are some Christian trust companies out there as well. So if you stay on the line, let my producer get your information, I can make sure our team gets you a few names and some options on where you could go from here because obviously the Lord is going to call one of you home first and then once you're both gone you want to make sure that somebody is going to handle that the way you intended and all of that can be spelled out in advance through a trust or a will or a combination of the two and so I think visiting with a godly estate planning attorney who can help walk you through that, make sure not only the documents are in place but that you've thought through the strategy, you've wrestled with the decisions and then you have a plan beyond both of your lives to see that carried out is where you want to go next. So you stay on the line, we'll get your information, I'll get some information to you and I'll also send you a book called Splitting Errors that not only talks about how do you give it to the people in your life but what are those considerations you need to be thinking about.

It's Ron Blue's book on wealth transfer that's probably the best one out there. So we appreciate you thinking of us and calling today and I know as you ponder what God has in store for you all beyond your lives, he'll give you some wisdom in how to effectively transfer his resources to the next steward which is a pretty big decision. Sarah we appreciate your call today, you stay on the line. Folks a lot more to come on MoneyWise Live today in just a moment we'll be talking to Randy and Darian about bankruptcy or debt management.

Elizabeth is in Cleveland, she wants to know the difference between an exchange traded fund and a mutual fund. Randall had a really difficult season, his son passed away four months ago and he's trying to get things squared away including the bank that won't release the information about his son's accounts. We'll talk about that as well. Stay with us, a lot more to come on MoneyWise Live just around the corner. This is MoneyWise Live where God owns it all, we're stewards and money is a tool to accomplish his purposes.

Hi I'm Rob West taking your calls and questions today. Thanks so much for listening and calling for inviting us into your lives and your stories as we celebrate together God's activity and in some cases you know it's a difficult season that could be especially brought on by the COVID shutdowns. I know many of you listening right now have lost jobs, your hours have been reduced, you're struggling, you're saying how do I get through. You know what, we have to trust the Lord, we have to recognize that he is our provider, we're to be found faithful with what passes through our hands and there will be seasons that are difficult and that has nothing to do with our relationship with the Lord. But it also means that those of us who have more than we need in any given season should be looking for opportunities to share with those in need because as the body of Christ we come together and support one another ultimately placing our trust not in our things but in the Lord himself who said he will never leave us or forsake us. And so if you're struggling right now, you're discouraged, I'd encourage you to renew your mind in the promises of God.

Go back to his word and be found faithful with what passes through your hands and don't run to the credit cards. Spread all the bills out on the table and say Lord you see the need and we're asking you to provide and then see him work in miraculous ways. If you have a question today, we'd love to hear from you.

In fact, we've got a number of calls all lined up. Next up is Kelly in Nashville, Tennessee. Kelly, thank you for your patience. How can I help you, sir? Thank you, Rob. I appreciate you taking my call. I called you about a year ago, almost a year to this date. My wife had been going through school and she finished that, thank God, and she found a job and we for the first time employed. That first year that we just started going, you made some recommendations, built our emergency fund and increased our giving and do retirement, maxing out both our Roths. We've done all that this first year, thank God, we've got all that done. And also was saving for a car because I need a car pretty quickly, but it dawned on me that the money left over every month after our giving and our retirement and some money to spend on things we want to do.

If I applied all of that to the mortgage, Lord willing, I could pay our house off in about three and a half years. My question is, is that what you would do if you were in my shoes? Am I missing something? Is that too hard at it? Or should I reduce that a little bit? I'm just trying to get some wisdom here before we go into year two.

Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, congratulations on the progress that you've made in putting that financial foundation under you, which is really so key. You've prioritized, I think, the right things. You know, as you move forward, keep in mind, there's only five things we can do with money. There's the money we save, the money we give, the money we pay for taxes, for debt, and then our lifestyle. And if you've essentially capped your lifestyle and said we don't need to spend any more there, then we take that off the table. And if you're debt free except your home, then obviously that's the one debt we have to prioritize. You're not going to pay any more taxes.

In fact, the more you give, the less taxes you'll pay. So ultimately it's going to come down for you to how much do we save and how much do we put toward debt reduction. And once the house is paid off, it's really just going to be between saving and giving.

How much more do we need? What is our financial finish line and what is the Lord leading us to give away? Now, I love the idea of you being completely debt free, including your home, and to do that at the very least by the time you enter retirement. And if you have the opportunity to do it earlier than that and still be on track for retirement, meaning not robbing yourselves of reserves that you need or money that you want working for you, compounding in tax deferred retirement accounts, as long as you believe through some planning, either on your own or with a professional, that you're on track to have what you need so that Social Security plus the income you can generate off your assets will fully fund your lifestyle in retirement and whatever God has for you. And that's going to be a reduced lifestyle because at the very least you won't be paying a mortgage payment and there'll probably be a few other expenses that'll come down as well. Then, you know, if you're on track, I would say, yeah, the next best thing other than any additional giving you want to do is to focus on getting that house paid off because if you can do that in three years, that's going to give you another five years before retirement where you'll have even more surplus and you can do more saving and more giving and you'll need to really pray through kind of the priority order of how you use those surplus dollars. So I think the bottom line is I love you taking that approach to pay off the house. The only question I would ask is how confident are you in what you're putting aside and that building up to what you ultimately need in retirement to fund your expenses?

Yeah, that is a great question. And like I said, we have maxed out our Roth each year, which is a blessing. And that is one thing I'm a little nervous about because what if something happens, but I do get, I can get to my Roth in a year and a half tax are penalty free if I need it, but definitely prefer not to. And I just thought if I could get that to that point at the end of 2025 or 24, then wow, I've got that behind me, which is an incredible blessing if we get there. And then we have, like you said, five to six more years to to do some other things.

That's right. I mean, the only trade off there is the compounding that can occur prior to that. You know, the only downside, I love the Roth. The only downside is you're limited to, you know, if you're over 57,000 in each account, so you're putting away 14,000 a year. And I would typically say the target on what you would want to be putting away is 10 to 15 percent of your take-home pay. So a 401k or a SEP IRA or a 403b or a 457 allow you to put more money away each year. You're limited in that Roth. So I think it's probably worthwhile to look at, you know, how well are you on your way to having what you need, given what you've been putting away in these Roth accounts? And should you take a longer approach to paying off the house so that you can maximize what's going in, perhaps even in another account beyond the Roth? Or if you have a conviction to be debt free, and that's certainly a great thing, then go for it. And then as soon as you're done with that, redirect all of that money into additional savings. Do you not have a 401k at work?

No, I don't. I just have a Roth. My wife's a school teacher. She has a pension that's building. Plus, she's maxing her Roth.

Okay. So what I'd love for you to do, Kelly, is to connect with an advisor. If you don't have one, you could find a Certified Kingdom advisor there in Nashville and just do a couple of hours of planning where you all look at what assets you have. What do you expect to have in the, as far as income sources in retirement, your wife's teacher's pension? What do we expect the Roths to grow to on a reasonable basis given, you know, a reasonable market appreciation between now and the next eight years, plus what you'll add to it. And then on top of that, what you all might be able to expect in social security, and then compare that with your lifestyle need in that season to the best of your knowledge, and just see how you're doing and whether or not you need to accelerate some of that savings. And if you do, you may decide you want to prioritize that even over paying off the house in three years, just because these are some valuable compounding years that you'll enjoy over the next eight years.

So I'd go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click Find a CKA, interview a couple of them, and just tell them you're looking to do some retirement planning. Have them look over everything and together come up with a plan on what your target is, what's your financial finish line, so you know whether you're on track, ahead, or behind. And then I think once you know that information, it'll become clear whether we prioritize additional savings or we go after that house, and I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Kelly, we appreciate you listening and calling. God bless you as you make some of these decisions.

Folks, we're going to pause for a brief break. We've got a lot more to come still on Money Wise Live. Stay with us. Some great questions lined up, and we'll look forward to addressing those from a biblical perspective. We'll be right back. This is Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

I'm Rob West. We're so glad you've tuned in today. Thank you for your calls. Thank you for listening, and thank you for giving. You know, we can't do what we do here on Money Wise on the air, on the web, in the Money Wise app with our Money Wise coaches and certified kingdom advisors. None of that happens without your generous support. If you consider yourself a part of the Money Wise family and you'd like to consider prayerfully giving to this ministry, we'd certainly be grateful. You can do it quick and easy on our website. You just go to MoneyWiseLive.org and click the donate button. You can give securely. It's tax deductible to the extent you can deduct and itemize your giving, because we're a 501c3 nonprofit. But we use all of those resources to bring you all of the ministry endeavors that we do here at Money Wise, and we would be so grateful for your support. Again, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click the donate button. Back to the phones in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Randall is calling today. Randall, how can I help you, sir? Hi. Hi, Rob. How are you doing? I'm doing very well.

Thank you for your call. Our son is 44. He was living with us and he passed away about four months ago. He had a checking account with him and my wife and we got that taken care of because she was on his account. But he also had a savings account, which I don't know how much was in it. I had used it once with his permission as collateral for a loan. So I took out like $25,000 or $30,000. And I'm still paying that back because I go about $18,000 still on it. Anyway, the Vistar credit union will not allow us access to that money, nor even find out how much was in the account. So I went to a lawyer and because what we need is a letter of administer from the courts to become executor because he had no beneficiary. And so they wanted like $1,500 to $2,000 for the letter.

And so I tried going through, what was it? Like an online resource? A legal aid. They want to try to go through legal aid. And they couldn't help. And they don't do pro bono. And so if I want to find out any information, I'd have to pay them like $1,500 or more to get this letter to go through the courts. I just feel like I'm at a rock and a hard place.

Yes. Well, there are some options online. There's a number of online resources, including NOLO.com and others that would give you templates for the document that you're describing, a letter of appointment of an executor. But the bottom line is we need you established as the executor because only the executor is authorized to access the deceased assets before the estate has passed through probate. Has the probate process, is that ongoing? What is the status there?

It hasn't started now. Okay. We just found out that he did not have a beneficiary. Okay.

All right. Well, yes, I would encourage you to connect with a certified kingdom advisor there in Florida and ask for a referral to a godly estate attorney who could advise you on the best way to do this as inexpensively as possible. You know, if you die intestate without a will, then the state is ultimately responsible for making those decisions as to how the through the probate court, how his accounts and affairs are going to be handled and distributed. So you need that process to start and you're going to need some counsel on how to help move that along. So I'd head to our website moneywise live.org search for a certified kingdom advisor. This will be a godly man or woman who's a competent professional in the either the financial planning or investment space. But you're going to want to ask for a referral to an estate attorney who is a believer who can just help you navigate some of this and whether it's using an online free resource or just working through the probate court for that process to play out. Eventually, you will be able to uncover what assets are there and they'll be distributed according to either the will or the court's decisions on who the next of kin is.

And I assume just based on what I'm hearing that would be you and your wife. So I would take that next step. I'm so sorry to hear about your son's passing and I know getting all of this behind you will be something that will allow you I think to move on perhaps even more than you have just knowing that all of these affairs have been handled and that handled well and according to how your son wished them to be distributed. So I'd make that call if you run into any further problems along the way. Don't hesitate to give us a call back. But Randall, we'll pray that the Lord be near to you and your wife during this season. And we so appreciate your call today, sir.

To Darien, Illinois. Randy, you're next on the program. How can I help you? Hi there. Yeah. Thanks for taking my call. Thanks for taking my call.

Yes, sir. Yes, I'm just, I'm having the hardest time, I mean the really, I mean the hardest, hardest time between debt management or bankruptcy. My current situation in a nutshell, I lost my job last April. It was my full-time job and so I'm currently on unemployment. In our state here, that will end next month. And so that's going to be ending soon. And I'm just supplementing it with two small part-time jobs.

Yeah. And so to help myself out, you know, I just live by myself. So I'm renting an apartment.

So I got the rent. My credit's bad. So I have a high interest, what am I trying to say, a car loan. And I've been taking out payday loans.

I know they're not the greatest. But, you know, just to make ends meet, I've been taking out the payday loan. So I have like about, it's going to sound bad, but I have like about six payday loans out.

And so it's like they say, you know, everything's starting to, I'm just falling deeper and deeper and deeper. And so I've talked with my brother because he's more of like, you know, like the realist and that, and he's just like, well, Randy, you know, in your current situation, you know, I would just, you know, the best thing for you is like bankruptcy. And I'm like, well, you know, you know what, Gary, they gave me these, you know, payday loans, even though they're high interest, they gave me money like in good faith. And so I just feel bad if I went the bankruptcy route because I feel like, you know, they gave me this money, like I said, in good faith, even though it's a high interest, you know, they still gave it to me. And by filing bankruptcy, it kind of be like saying, okay, well, thanks, you know, and I'm not going to pay this back. And so, but on the other hand, I don't have any savings at all. You know, and I, like I was saying, just in my situation, I don't know what to do.

I mean, I don't know if that is the best route, you know. I did contact a couple, I'm sorry, I did contact a couple debt management companies, and I think the lowest estimate I got as far as all my debt, including like the payday loans, was like $525 for like 24 months. And so I figured that plus my car loan plus the rent, and I'm like, that's still like, that's still real hard.

Sure. Well, I understand your situation here, Randy, and I know how challenging it is and can be and the weight that is on you every day. So we've got to get you out from under this, starting with, you know, ending that cycle of payday loans, because that's just a, such a problem in the interest rate is just astronomical, if you calculate it based on the short period that you're borrowing that money and what you're having to pay to get it.

If you annualize that, it blows credit cards out of the water. And right now, I think the key is finding that replacement full-time job. And I realize that's easier said than done. And yet there's a lot of opportunities out there right now. A lot of companies can't get the workers that they need. And so making that your full-time priority as, you know, alongside the part-time jobs that the Lord has given you, I think is key.

Working your network, LinkedIn, and, you know, the online job sites and, you know, talking to family and friends and your church family and letting, you know, your skills be known and really just trusting the Lord for that new employment that's going to get you perhaps some more income coming in. In the meantime, you know, because of COVID, a lot of these lenders are willing to work with you, probably not the payday lenders, because I would put that more in a loan shark type of category. But credit card companies and others are willing to work with you just because they know how challenging this season is. So, you know, bankruptcy is not in the Bible, but we know that it says the wicked borrows and does not repay. So we want to start with an absolute commitment to repay. And if you're forced into bankruptcy, that's completely separate than, you know, whether you'll ultimately be able to pay that back. So I would start there, try to look for that job.

I'd call Christian credit counselors or visit them online and set up an appointment at christiancreditcounselors.org for a second opinion. And then I would say, I want to set bankruptcy aside. I want to lean into my creditors. I want to try to work out a plan that works for me. And then I'm going to work really hard to try to get my income up, get out of these payday loans, and then get a payment to the credit cards that works with my budget so I can make some progress.

And let's not focus on the bankruptcy at this point. If you have questions along the way, give us a call. We appreciate your call today.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I want to say thank you to my team and thank you for listening. I hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow. I'll be here, Lord willing, and we'll see you then. Bye-bye.