Facing Economic Uncertainty

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. First Peter 5-7 reads, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. God's word is filled with verses to bring comfort in uncertain times. He always does his part, but we have to as well.

Hi, I'm Rob West. That's especially true in times of economic uncertainty. We can't stand idly by when there are things we should do to prepare. Financial teacher and author Ron Blue is here to talk about that today. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

You can call it 24-7, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial peace of mind. Well, our guest, Ron Blue, is co-founder of Kingdom Advisors, and he's often called the father of Christian financial planning. Ron, great to have you back on the program. Rob, as always, it's a privilege for me, so thank you for inviting me.

Absolutely. A lot of folks, Ron, might not know this, but you're heavily involved in training the financial professionals who become certified Kingdom Advisors, CKAs, that we talk about here often on the program. And as a part of that, you've developed a series of video talks called transferable concepts that you don't need to be a professional to understand and benefit from. So perhaps you can begin today by telling us just what exactly is a transferable concept. Well, you know, I do a lot of speaking, and one of the things that I try to do in speaking is present the material in such a way that it's memorable, it's in a nutshell, that people can get their hands around, it's something that they can repeat and live by, so it's highly transferable. For example, I might say giving breaks the power of money. That's a transferable concept.

It's a truth that'll never change, and easily repeatable and easy to remember. And there are many, many transferable concepts in God's Word relative to finances. Well, we're going to deal with one of those today, and it involves economic uncertainty, which the last time I checked is still going on. So, Ron, what do we need to know about economic uncertainty? Well, Rob, one of the advantages of being my age, and I'm in my 80th year, so I've lived through eight decades, and often when I have spoken, I've gone back and reviewed my life over those eight decades in 10-year increments, and what I've found is that at every increment, there was economic uncertainty.

I was born in World War II. There was a lot of economic uncertainty, and turned 70 right after 2008, when we had the market crash, and turned 60 right after 9-11. So there's always economic uncertainty. I know that's another transferable concept, and that is that economic uncertainty is certain.

So what are the key principles that should drive our thinking and behavior during economic uncertainty? Well, I had an experience yesterday, Rob, where I was talking to a lady who is 66 years old, nearing retirement, and she had been a widow for 10 years, and she wanted to know if she was doing okay, and I said, well, tell me about your situation, and she said that when her husband died, she didn't know what to do except to live within her income. She knew she couldn't overspend. She began saving. She began putting money into her retirement plan. She ended up, over time, educating herself, and she bought a rental home that was providing about $1,250 a month of income. She was going to retire in four years at age 70, and she said, how am I doing? And I said, well, you're living within your income.

You have no debt. You were giving. She had told me that, giving generously, and I said, you have savings, so you've got liquidity, and I said, by the way, what's the value of that rental home? And she said, about $650,000.

I said, do you know that you're probably in the top 1% of Americans? And all she had done was follow just a few basic money management principles that come out of God's Word, and she's ended up exactly where God would intend her to, and that is financially secure. That is powerful, because it really illustrates this idea that there's God's part and our part, and we need to be found faithful with what passes through our hands. And as you point out, Ron, biblical principles are simple.

We just need to follow them over a long, long time. Ron, always a joy to have you with us, my friend. Thank you. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Ron Blue has been our guest today. He's the author of many books on biblical financial principles, and you can find them wherever you buy your books. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial peace of mind. Thankful to have you along with us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm your host, Rob West. This is the program where we apply God's truth to your financial decisions and choices, help you navigate your role as a steward of God's resources. We do that with the Bible as our guide, 2350 verses that deal with money and possessions.

We mind those scriptures, apply the principles we see from God's Word to what you're dealing with today, whether it's saving or investing, perhaps it's giving or debt repayment, whatever's on your mind. We'd love to hear from you. We do have some lines open. Here's the number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. You know, we started today by talking about economic uncertainty. Our good friend Ron Blue reminded us that economic uncertainty is certain.

We can count on it. And as we do that, we recognize that, you know, we have to recognize the difference between what we can control and what we can't control. You know, as we go through life, there's God's part and our part, and I think that applies to, you know, the economic uncertainty around us as well. You know, we can't control the U.S. gross domestic product or the stock market or the tax code or the interest rates, but what we can control is what passes through our hands.

Are we being found faithful with what God has entrusted to us, however little or however much, beginning with the idea that we recognize it all belongs to him and we're stewards, that we should give careful attention to how we manage his resources, and that we should look to God's Word for those instructions. You know, I think we can boil effective godly money management down to really five simple ideas that we can build on these at least. One is we should spend less than we earn. Number two, we should avoid the use of debt to the best of our ability and over time move toward being debt-free. Thirdly, we should have some margin or liquidity in our lives, meaning we're living on less, and therefore that surplus is allowing us to accomplish our goals thinking beyond the today toward the future. So spend less than you earn, avoid the use of debt, have some margin or liquidity.

Number four, set long-term goals because when we have a longer perspective we're going to make a better decision today. And then five would be to give generously because giving breaks the power of money. When we give it requires us to hold what God has given us loosely, and I believe it calibrates our hearts to his. If we apply those five simple ideas, whether we're acting on behalf of a nation or just your individual finances, I believe it puts you in a position to experience God's best. Now, that doesn't mean it's always going to be, you know, where you're in a surplus situation. You will have difficult and desperate times.

We, through this journey, the Christian life, we will see different seasons, but we trust in the Lord, we live with contentment for what he's provided right now, and if we find ourselves in real need we have to rely on the others around us, the body of Christ, to step in and provide some assistance along the way. You know, that's I think the big idea and what's neat about it is that it's incredibly practical and relevant to our lives today. All right, let's get to the phones. Here's the number 800-525-7000. Joanne is in Chicago listening to WMBI.

Joanne, how can I help you? Hi there, so I am 59 and a half, so my kingdom advisor had called and said I could transfer monies from my 401k over to them so that they could, I guess, take care of that money better than maybe what's happening with my 401k, but then somebody told me every time they move that money you're going to keep getting hit with fees, so if you do move that money you need to let them know that they shouldn't trade with anything that's going to have fees, but I feel like the reason I'm going to them is because I should trust in that they're going to do whatever is best, even if there's fees they have to make money for what they do, and I shouldn't be concerned about it. Yes, well I would agree with your thoughts there in the latter half of that question. You know, the process of selling out of the investments that you hold in your 401k should not generate any fees. You're paying an embedded management fee inside those mutual funds that were made available in that 401k and liquidating those positions to go to cash so that it could be then rolled out to an IRA shouldn't really generate much in the way of additional cost. Now, once it's redeployed on the other side in another environment with the custodian of that kingdom advisor, then you know the fees associated with how that advisor manages money would then come into play. As the client, I would want to know how they get paid, but it's probably through a percentage of the assets under management that's charged to take discretion and make the decisions with your goals and objectives in mind, and it could be if they're using mutual funds, it could be a management fee that's built into the fund, or it could be just a straight percentage that's applied.

There may be some transaction costs, but yeah you're right. I mean whatever's being charged, obviously the returns have to warrant that fee that you're paying, and you know they realize that they need to provide the returns on a net basis beyond what they're charging so that you see an appropriate rate of return, and the good news is that after you've spent a lifetime amassing this wealth, you're now entrusting it into the care of a professional money manager who can give careful attention without emotion to the investments that are selected, and I think that's a great place to be. The primary reason, Joanne, that they're probably recommending that you get it out of the 401k is because you can do that without tax consequence, and you're opening up the investment universe as soon as you do that. You know, keep in mind in a 401k you're limited to just those few investment selections made available to you through the 401k that keeps it simple, but as soon as it gets to an individual retirement account managed by an advisor, now any stock bond, mutual fund, exchange traded fund, bond, you name it, is now available, which obviously allows them to tailor the portfolio a little more finely to the needs, goals, and objectives that you have. So I don't think you're making a poor decision at all, and to the extent you, there are pieces of this that you don't understand, I wouldn't hesitate to ask lots of questions about both how they're getting compensated as well as the strategy they're going to deploy on your behalf.

Does that all make sense though? It does, and I'm still working, so I'm still going to be contributing into 401k, but I'm just moving a big lump sum over. Yeah, yeah, and I think that's fine, and obviously, you know, as a part of this you'll probably want to make sure that they give just a once over to the investments you're selecting inside the 401k. They wouldn't have direct management oversight, but could advise you to the extent you're looking for that on which investments to select, and then you'll continue to fund that portfolio at some point when you separate from the company.

You'll probably roll the balance of it out into that individual retirement account, close the 401k, and then, you know, the management will continue. All right, that helps. Thank you so much. Okay, Joanne. Lord bless you, and thank you for calling today.

On to Indianapolis. Mitchell, how can I help you? Hi, so yeah, my name is Mitchell, and I am a college student getting my first credit card actually, and I'm just looking into that. I'm actually not 21 yet, so I know that there are a lot of limitations on how you can apply for credit. I have received income recently, but my main question is, is there a distinct advantage of getting a credit card from the bank with which you have like a checking or savings account?

You know, there's really not any necessary benefit to staying with your bank. You know, I think the first thing, Mitchell, as you're starting out, I love that you're asking this question, is I want to make sure, you know, you're living on a budget. You have a clear plan for how you're taking the money that you've saved and what you've saved and what you're earning by working, and you have a plan for how you're going to spend that and control the flow of money. I think the key is that when we introduce credit cards into the mix without that spending plan, you know, it gives you the potential to take that credit that's available to you and say, well, I think I'm going to do this or that that's perhaps beyond what I have right now, but I'll pay that back next month, and then you kind of get into this cycle of, you know, building up debt.

They'll keep increasing the credit limit as long as you're paying the minimum payment, and before too long now you're stuck in this cycle of credit card debt paying high interest. I don't want that, but if you can handle it responsibly and only use it for budgeted items and pay it off in full at the end of every month, it will do you a great service in that you'll begin to establish credit showing a responsible repayment history that will then increase your credit score. So when you're ready to get that first apartment or someday buy a house or a car, if you do need to seek some credit that fits well within your budget, you'll be able to do that because you've established some credit. As to where to go, I think the primary thing is I'd be with a top-tier bank, so the type of credit that you have and who you do business with is important. I would want to make sure you don't have any annual fees. That's really going to be key, but apart from that, you know, it doesn't really matter which one of those top banks and lending institutions you go with.

A couple of websites you could check out would be nerdwallet.com or creditcards.com to evaluate the various credit cards that are out there, see which ones don't have those annual fees, and to the extent you're looking for some rewards, maybe cash back, you can compare those as well. So be careful, establish your budget, and then proceed cautiously. Mitchell, thanks for calling today.

We're glad you're thinking about these things as a college student. Hey, more MoneyWise just around the corner. 800-525-7000.

I'm Rob West. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions and goals. We've got some lines open today.

We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000, that's 800-525-7000. You know, we were talking in the last segment about having a financial advisor manage your assets or resources. Often we talk here about the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. If you'd like to find an advisor who's met high standards in training and ethics and integrity and competency, who's also been especially trained to bring biblically wise financial advice to bear, you can find a CKA in your local area. Just head to our website, moneywiselive.org, and click find a CKA.

You can search by city state or zip code. I would interview two or three if you're looking for a financial advisor and you want to align your values and then pick the one that's the best for you. We're going to head back to the phones today. Judy is in Springfield, Missouri. Judy, how can I help you?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. We are in a position right now that we are wondering, my husband is fixing to retire this year, a few months in fact. He has an IRA from a previous job. We also have each two other simple IRAs that we're considering. Should we roll those over at this point into a Roth IRA? We understand it could cost us about 12 percent to do that.

It might take some recovery time. I don't know if that'd be the wise thing to do at this point at retirement. Yeah, what do you have in the combined IRAs, the SEPs and the SIMPLs? Roughly, what do you think you have? The three separate accounts, probably just around or under $30,000.

Okay, all right. Yeah, so this money would be added to your taxable income for the year that you make the conversion. So the question is really going to come down to, would you benefit by paying today's tax rates for this money and then having it grow tax-free from here during retirement? Or would you be better off just to leave it where it is on a tax-deferred basis? And then when you take it down the road, you'd pay future tax rates.

Now the consideration number one is, while your husband is still working, arguably your taxes are a bit higher because his income that he's earning, obviously which is taxable, is kind of the base. And then you'd be adding incremental income on top of that. And so arguably you could be paying some more now. What we don't know though is what's going to happen with tax rates.

I would imagine they're not going any lower than they are now and they're probably heading higher depending on what happens politically in the future. But in the retirement season of life, you have less taxable income because he's not working, you're not working. And so arguably you'd be in a lower bracket even if the overall rate structure was higher. The other kind of disadvantage of doing this now, Judy, is that the real benefit of the Roth is to have lots of compounding years so this money can grow over time on a tax-free basis. But as you enter retirement, you're going to get a bit more conservative typically in your investment strategy so there'd be less returns that you'd enjoy that tax-free growth on. So, you know, unless there's a real compelling reason that you have to move it to the Roth, like you want to miss out on the required minimum distribution down the road and just leave it in the accounts, which you can with the Roth, I don't know that there's enough reason while he's still working to go ahead and realize that additional income just because I think you will end up paying a bit more in the way of tax.

But tell me your thoughts and if there was a specific reason you were wanting to do this that I didn't mention. Well, he does retire in two months so this will be our last year for contributions. We understand we might possibly cost us about 12% if we were to move it, which would take some time to recover. But if we look at maybe five years to recover but not really gain till after that, right now we're fine for the next, you know, five, ten years as far as not having to touch that for five years. We don't want to get in trouble by taking it out at some point and having too many taxes at that point. We are debt-free at this point. We own our home. We own our vehicles. Okay. Yeah, here's the key.

Sure. You know, the key though is that you're going to pay the tax at some point. So the question is do you want to take it, pay the tax now when you convert it to the Roth or do you want to wait and pay the tax later when you pull it out of a tax deferred account like the SEP or the SIMPLE. But in either case you're going to pay the tax. The question is are you going to be in a higher tax bracket now or later and will the tax rates be higher now or later. So I don't see enough compelling reason to make this conversion especially in the year that your husband is still working and obviously this year he is. So I'd probably check with your CPA just to run an analysis on that and if you really want to get it into the Roth for the tax-free growth I'd probably at least wait until 2021 because he will no longer be working.

But ask that question and see what your CPA says and if you want to do it next year I think you could certainly proceed. We appreciate your call. More to come on MoneyWise Live just around the corner.

Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today for MoneyWise Live.

Delighted to have you along with us. We've got some phone lines open. Here's the number 2 in fact 800-525-7000. Right back to the phones in Chicago, Illinois is Sharon listening to WMBI. Hi Sharon.

How can I help? Hi. I have a question. Years back I opened up a 529 account for my granddaughter and I just had them to take the funds out of my checking account.

Okay. This is after taxes and this year we are starting to use the funds. So I wanted to know do we still have to report that on my taxes?

Yeah what happens is the 529 plans when they're used to pay for qualified educational expenses there's no taxable withdrawal to report on your federal income tax return. However the plan administrator whoever is the custodian for the account would issue a tax form 1099-Q and 1098-T and basically they'll list the amount of the distribution and how much was used to pay for those qualified expenses. It's up to you if you're the plan owner and is that the case? Are you listed as the account owner?

Yes I am. Okay and then it would be up to you based on those forms that you would get to calculate the taxable portion if any. But if there again if it was all used for qualified educational expenses then there is no tax to report and you would be you know you'd have the documentation but there would be no tax due. So I think that's the key as to you know how these funds are being used and then you'll receive those forms from the plan administrator. Do you do your own taxes or do you use a tax preparer?

Yeah I prepare my own taxes. Okay very good so you'll just know that at tax time based on the year the distributions occur you'll get one of those two forms and they will list those distributions and how they were used. Do you know if they're the funds are being used solely for qualified educational expenses?

Yes they are. We just made the first payment you know yesterday so yeah and it went directly to the university. Okay great all right so if that's the case then there won't be any tax due for tuitions fees you know other related expenses for an eligible student you know added to a university institution.

So you should be just fine and you know you won't have to think about the tax portion of this because that's the benefit of it. So grateful that you've done this for your grandkids. I know that was a huge blessing and it sounds like it's being put to good use. So Sharon we appreciate your call today. WMBW Rome, Georgia. Hi Don how can I help?

Hey yes thank you for taking my call. I have a small IRA that I was having in a money market but then there was a seminar in town a couple years ago that was credible. I researched it and made sure that it was credible. It had a track record and it's not an annuity but it's a German insurance company, a pretty big one, that allowed you to put your money into it and you were able to get the gains of the market up to six percent. You were able to pick at least six different markets but they capped it at six percent but you would never lose any money if the market dipped down. You may have heard of those previously and so and I have to take my regular distribution every month because I'm you know 73 so but I was wondering the markets gained quite a bit here. At one point I had in a Vanguard fund that mimicked the S&P which I look back of course hindsight's 100 percent and there were big gains there for a while in the S&P but I missed out on all those because I was afraid we were going to lose a whole lot and I took it out put in the money market.

So my question is I was wondering whether or not you know it would be good to take it out. There is a penalty though and put it back in the market rather than just try to inch along at those you know a few percentage points that I'm getting now even though it's kind of safe but I just wasn't sure. Yeah you know there's a number of dynamics at play here. Number one would be obviously any tax consequences. Number two would be any surrender charges and then three just the overall returns and the commensurate returns. And the commensurate risk associated with that. I mean right now you have a base under you where you can't lose money. The downside is you know you're giving up some of the upside potential of what you could make by being in you know something that is perhaps a little bit more growth oriented you know tied to U.S. investments although I think international will perform pretty well and then in the next couple of years but being able to capture a hundred percent of that upside which you're not you know in this product and that's one of the ways that they can give you the protection on the downside I think is key. So it's not something I could tell you definitively to do or not to do because of those variables. So I think you need to start by just understanding number one are you willing to take a little bit more risk for the potential of a greater return by getting out from under this product which kind of provides that floor and then secondly what are those surrender charges what are the tax consequences and then I think make your decision but if you've not been happy with the returns I think clearly the move to bring it back and redeploy it you know into a more traditional investment strategy and the risk you know take on the risk associated with that is fine just know you know what you're getting into in terms of the charges and the taxes. But I think directionally I like that idea I would just get some counsel before you make that decision. And Don we appreciate your call today.

On to Dayton, Tennessee. Anita, thank you for your call. How can I help? Hi thanks for taking my call. I love the program and really appreciate what you do. Thank you. I heard last week something that you had said and someone was talking to me so I just got bits and pieces. I'm 62 and considering early retirement and I wasn't sure two things how much I could earn and still not be penalized the dollar for every two dollars I make but the and I heard you say 18,000 something but I didn't know if it's specific to the caller or if that's in general but the other one that was really that really caught my attention I thought you had said that based on like whatever my average wages or salary is for the last year that that can replace 15 years of what I've earned like on my social security statement out of all the 30 years or whatever I've worked at the 15 highest years that that average wage could replace those did I hear that correctly or yeah you're close so let me let me break it down for you so until you reach full retirement age and you'd have to look at your benefit statement to see when it is for you probably 66 or 67 social security will subtract from your benefit check if you exceed a certain amount of earned income for the year for 2021 it happens to be 18,960 so nearly 19,000 so anything over that they're going to reduce your benefits one dollar for every two dollars you earn over the limit now you'll be reimbursed for that reduction later after full retirement age but you will take that reduction in the near term once you reach full retirement age there's no limit on the amount of money that you can earn and still receive your full benefits and to the second part of your question your benefits are based on your highest 35 years of earnings not 15 35 and so you're leading later earnings years where arguably you're making more than maybe some of the early 35 years those will replace the lower earnings years which would allow you to earn a bit more because your average of the 35 years is higher so you actually do yourself a benefit by continuing to work and again any reduction will be reimbursed to you down the road so i hope that helps anita thanks for listening we appreciate your kind remarks thanks for calling today more money wise live just ahead stay with us welcome back to money wise live so glad you're here with us in just a moment we'll go back to the phones but first it's monday which means our good friend bob dole stops by bob is chief investment officer at crossmark global investments where investments and values intersect you can learn more at crossmark global dot com and bob the bulls are out the headline i saw is s&p 500 doubles from its pandemic bottom fastest bull market rally since world war ii is that right yes uh if you've been in since the covid low you've doubled your money it's hard to believe there are aren't periods in history where we can say you double your money and uh call it 18 months it's been absolutely amazing uh as the economic recovery has been as well yeah and uh more uh records today i think we hit uh what another record high for the dow and the s&p yeah the dow and the s&p up but the nasdaq down if i were just you know throw cold water on this you know it's it's inches its way you know one one day it's one average that goes up the other day it's the other average and tomorrow nasdaq might be up in the dow down um we we're we've been kind of sideways with a modest up bias for the averages but the average stock actually peaked in june and since then it's been meandering lower so the market spreads the advanced decline line however you want to look at it is not as healthy as the overall picture looks yeah well bob i know you're always looking at both uh well the macro perspective and then obviously at the individual stock level from a macro perspective what are the things that are most interesting to you as you evaluate the market and the economy this week so so the delta variant uh more and more companies are talking about it we're getting more and more delayed returns to the office and that's not great for the economy you're starting to see economists take their third quarter gdp estimates down somewhat to still healthy numbers that's the positive point the other we've talked about this many times on mondays rob is is inflation producer price index came out last week since we last talked it was up one percent for the month of july ahead of the ahead of the 0.6 expected so we've got this inflation that is uh problematic and you know one of our headlines for our weekly commentary was has and has inflation peaked and we answer the question probably not right it might come off some but we're going to be stuck in this somewhat higher range which uh markets are not paying a whole lot of attention to fixed income rates as you know ten-year treasuries they're still 125 ish and the p-e ratio on the stock market still near near high levels so maybe inflation is peaking i'd like to be wrong on my assessment that it's not peaking but that's when we've got to watch very carefully well and clearly if we thought it was transitory because we were waiting for uh supply chains to open up and pent up demand to be satisfied going back to your first point which is some companies delaying returns to the office due to the delta variant that may extend some of these supply chain constraints huh absolutely right which which aggravates the length of time where we're going to be stuck with a higher inflation rate than we're comfortable with but the longer it stays rob the more places it creeps into for example wages uh wage rates have moved up year over year to a four percent level you can't turn around and make it two tomorrow morning you know these things are are are sticky so i think we've got a fed that's got its hands full as to when to begin the tapering process that is the begin to decline the amount of first fixed income they're buying every month and eventually uh you know a year or 18 months from now begin to raise interest rates okay uh bob your conclusion today just as you summarize where you where you see us right now you know um i'll start with there is no alternative to equity equities the tina argument cash a very low return bonds not very interesting and so people back into i guess they'll own some stocks um i i hope that holds because we'll shake the trees when we have some sort of pullback but uh we think that with economy and earnings as good as they are it's hard to see big downside in the market sloppiness for sure big up big downside unlike and big upside unlikely more of a trading range you got to know what you own yeah excellent and uh hire a professional to do it would be my perspective bob always appreciate you stopping by folks check out uh bob doll's dolls deliberations at crossmark global.com where investments and values intersect and i rely on that commentary both in uh written form as well as here on the program weekly and you should too bob great to have you my friend talk to you next week bye-bye all right look forward to it back to the phones today evanston illinois colleen thank you for your patience how can i help you yes good afternoon uh my mind excuse me my 95 year old mom has had a long-term care insurance policy in place for decades and the premium keeps going up it's now 900 a quarter and every time i pay it i handle her finances i wince and is there a point at which it doesn't make sense to continue uh paying so much for long-term care for an individual who's in their mid-90s yeah yeah it's a great question and i can understand the concern you know she's obviously had this for a long long time because a 75 year old female applicant would pay about $7200 a year for 162 000 worth of coverage and uh you know she's 95 and paying 3500 so those premiums are extremely low for her age and yet if she doesn't need it she doesn't need it i think the question would be you know would she at some point because the numbers are pretty staggering i mean a nursing home facility in a private room nationally is going to run on average about 8800 a month you know assisted living 4300 i mean so those numbers can add up and i guess the question is you know what does she have in the way of assets to cover that if she were to need that kind of care for let's say you know two to three years which would be typical or does she have enough to cover that and therefore you could drop this policy and just continue to boost her savings so i guess that would be the key you know i'd tend to opt more toward just hanging with it because you know it's pretty reasonable given how long you've been with it and you lose all of that benefit that you've been paying for all these years as soon as you drop it and i would also want to know kind of what she has in the way of assets if she needs that type of care which again could be very costly so tell me about that side of it colleen well she has about 400 000 in investment okay and she gets social security my dad's social security uh up until a year and a half ago when we had to employ a full-time 24-7 caregiver in order to keep her in her home which was her desire she was basically living entirely off social security and dividends so we never had to draw down from her investments that's not changed since we have a 24-7 caregiver in in home she has no other debt her condos paid off yeah yeah so i'm wondering with that amount of assets and given her age yeah it's it's just a hard one yes well it's really just kind of you know do you want the peace of mind to know that you know for that 300 a month if she were to need some care that you know went well beyond where she was now because she wasn't just medically feasible for her to stay in her home and she needed you know more intense nursing home care that there would be something that could step in and offset that and i think given the assets that she has it seems like an you know a pretty reasonable amount to give you that added peace of mind that that would be covered so i'd probably tend to stick with it but you know i think at the end of the day you make a good case for you know why she could depend upon her assets she's made it you know to age 95 and to this point she's not needed that kind of assistance and when she has with 24-7 care you've been able to cover it just out of her current cash flow so i think it really just comes down to a peace of mind issue whether you know that extra expense per month is worth not having to wonder whether you know a more costly care would be out of reach or erode her assets entirely so i think you could go either way i'd pray through it before you make that decision if it were me colleen i'd probably stick with it we appreciate your call today very much to huntsville alabama mike thank you for calling listening to wmbw how can i help hey mr west um i've got a retirement question um i will turn 66 in october this year i'm planning on starting to receive my social security in january excuse me and um i've got a couple of loans uh one on a car and one uh that i had to that i had to take for a medical procedure um and i don't um have very little in savings i'm not in a 401k or anything like that uh i i'm wondering would it be better to put the social security money just put it in the bank i'm going to continue to work uh probably till the day i die yeah but uh but i i hope that i can maybe like semi-retire in about a year um but would it be best to put the money toward the loans and pay off the loans or just yeah put the money in the bank yeah um i'd probably focus on paying off the loans you can absolutely take it at 66 your full retirement age may be a bit more than that so um i would if possible it sounds like you have this ability delay the application for those benefits until you reach full retirement age but once you do take that money you can continue to work with no benefit reduction after full retirement age and then you could take that money and start applying it to the loan so that you can get rid of those before you have to stop working be completely debt-free which will give you a lot of flexibility and a peace of mind so appreciate your call today mike all the best to you in this exciting the next chapter of your life as you seek what god asked for you thanks for calling well that's going to do it for us today on money wise live where we apply biblical wisdom to your financial decisions want to say thank you to my team today dan anderson amy rios jim henry gabby t and also training today is our good friend melody mancerova we're so glad she was along answering phones today thank you for being here money wise live is a partnership between moody radio and money wise media come back and join us tomorrow god bless you