7 Money Lies Teenagers Believe

One listener that stands out that I worked with recently was this older couple that was interested in refinancing. They reached out to a few different lenders and their credit wasn't the best. I know some of these other bigger banks, you just won't hear back from them, which I cannot stand. Not everybody has the 780 credit scores and never had any hardships in their life.

I'll walk you through what you have to do. How can you end up being able to do this refinance, whether it's two, three, six months from now? Back to that older couple, we worked with them for months and months to improve their credit. And we were able to get the loan done. We were saving them hundreds each month, thousands of dollars a year, finally got themselves into a situation financially that they can handle. And they could start saving money each month, saving for retirement.

At the end of the day, they just could not be happier, which just put a huge smile on my face. We are United Faith Mortgage. I sound like a broken record. I've been doing this for 18 years. I have never seen a market like this in my life. Home values have generally been skyrocketing the last couple of years. And with interest rates being some low, I've actually seen refinances where people are able to cash out that newly found equity in their homes, do home improvements, whatever it may be, and still save money per month compared to what their prior mortgage payment was. I like to see it as my job is to present you with a few different options.

I step back, I let you decide, and I'll let you call me when you want to move forward. We are United Faith Mortgage. United Faith Mortgage is a DBA of United Mortgage Corp, 25 Melville Park Road, Melville, New York, licensed mortgage banker. 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. Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded, so our phone lines are not open. 1 John 5-19 reads, We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Hi, I'm Rob West.

It's a scary thought, especially if you have children as the world tries to lead them astray, often with money. Art Rayner joins us today to talk about seven money lies teenagers are believing these days and to arm you with the truth. Then we'll have some great calls lined up, but since we're not live today, please hold your calls until next time. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, Art Rayner wears a lot of hats.

He's a financial author and teacher, vice president of the College at Southeastern in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and a frequent MoneyWise contributor. Art, delighted to have you back. Hey, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure. Art, teenagers are often easy prey, aren't they, for the attractions of this world?

Oh, without question. If you've ever had a teenager or if you've ever been a teenager, you know this to be true. Teenagers are just bombarded with lies about various topics, including money. The world is constantly pouring in their money principles to our teenagers, and oftentimes we don't even notice those because it becomes almost like the air that we breathe. Little do these teenagers know that what's happening to their mind is often toxic with these teachings that the world is placing in them. So if you're a teenager, you need to hear about the MoneyWise that are being put before you.

If you're a parent of a teenager, these points can be important areas of conversation for you. And so the world's certainly not going to tell you the truth. And so for us as parents, you know, it's really, it's up to us. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we've got seven of these lies today to unpack.

So let's dive in. Art, what's first on the list? Well, the first one is that the Bible doesn't really speak to money. And as you read through Scripture, you quickly find out that this is just simply not true. There's over 2000 verses about money, possessions, stewardship woven throughout Scripture. God talks about it all the time. Jesus spoke about money more than any other topic while he was here on earth. And so certainly as parents who have teenagers, we want our teenagers to know the Scriptures. And that means teaching them what the Bible says about money, because it certainly speaks to it. Because what we know is that money management is often a reflection of heart management. So God obviously finds it to be a very important topic and area to address. Hmm.

Yeah. Money issues are heart issues. I love what the late Larry Burkett used to say. He would say that money and the way we handle it is the clearest indicator into what's going on in our lives spiritually. It reveals what we value and where we've placed our trust. Art, going to the second lie, we're not, of course, saying that money itself brings contentment, right?

No, absolutely not. In fact, that would be the second money lie that we see teenagers believing that that money will make you happy. When they see the images on whether it's on their computer or on their phone, they see people that maybe they seem to have a lot of money, and they seem to be smiling.

And so the message that they're receiving is that that money, those possessions, whatever's in that picture, or whatever's in that video, that that is what makes them happy. But studies, of course, show that this perception just is not true, that that money primarily magnifies whatever you already are. If you're happy with a little, you're going to be happy with much. If you're content with little, you're going to be content with much. However, if you're not content with little, if you're not happy with little, more money is not going to solve your problem. It's only going to magnify that discontentment that you have in your heart. God has not wired us to make money fill that void in our lives.

Money cannot be our hope. It is an idol that will always lead us to dissatisfaction and disappointment. And the social media age that we live in, Art, as you well know, only magnifies these issues. Well, we'll continue to unpack this list.

This is so critical. We need to raise kids, future adults that understand financial literacy. But more important than that, God's heart as it relates to their money. So we'll continue to unpack seven money lines teenagers are believing these days with Art Rayner just around the corner. More to come on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Our guest today is Art Rayner talking about seven money lines teenagers are believing these days. And Art, this is such a critical topic for teenagers to hear, for parents of teenagers to hear.

We've covered the first two. Going to the third, you know, we just before the break said that, you know, what they're seeing on social media, what these teenagers are seeing on TV, really drives this idea that money leads to happiness. And clearly that's one of the lies. Money line number three really plays off of that.

What is it? Yeah, what the media portrays as wealth is real monetary wealth. And we know that that's not true. Going back to social media, a lot of the pictures that teenagers are seeing are fake, which has a fake background. Oftentimes when you see an individual next to a car, they don't own that car.

They just found it in a parking lot and took a picture next to it and claimed that it was their own. Did you know that they actually have Instagram studios where you can go in, set up in a scene, create a scene and get your picture taken as if you're on an airplane or as if you're at a fancy restaurant, but you're really not. You're actually paying to take a picture in a studio. So what media portrays as wealth is often not real money. Driving a nice car, going to an exotic place, living in a large house doesn't mean that a person is actually wealthy. Real monetary wealth is measured by your net worth. That's assets minus liabilities.

That gets you to your net worth. And most people who are actually wealthy based on numerous studies, those people that are truly wealthy that have a strong net worth are actually pretty frugal. You're not seeing them drive around in fancy cars and going on exotic vacations. In fact, you may have millionaires in your own neighborhood, but you just would never know it. Yeah. Odds are if somebody looks like they're a millionaire, they're probably not.

Those plain looking folk with high net worth were probably able to resist something that you're well aware of, Art, and that is FOMO, fear of missing out, that leads less disciplined people straight into debt. All right. What's next? What's money line number four?

Yeah. Money line number four is that their money, the teenager's money decisions don't really matter right now. So the decisions that they make with their money doesn't necessarily matter right now.

But you know that right now their decisions are very significant. In fact, teenagers, if they're working, can start sending aside money into a retirement account and start taking advantage of this beautiful thing called compounding, where you're making money on top of your money. And they can make a good cost effective decision on where they would go to school, making sure that that net cost, the amount that you actually pay is low so that you're not going into debt to go to college. Most importantly, they can start developing the biblical pattern for money management. Give, save, live.

They do that. If teenagers can do that, it's important for adults, it's important for teenagers that they can go ahead and start doing that. Making sure that every dollar that they get, they give a little, they save a little, and then they use the rest to pay for their day-to-day expenses. They're going to find themselves in a very financially healthy position later on in life.

So true. And good habits begun now will pay off for the rest of your life. All right, Art, what's money line number five? Money line number five is that everything will eventually work itself out. That somehow everything magically will just be okay. That the finances will just take care of themselves.

And of course, as adults, we know that it won't, right? Poor spending habits will eventually catch up with you. Debt will certainly catch up with you. A lack of savings will catch up with you. I mean, that's the number one concern for retirees.

Do I have enough saved? And so teenagers, I would encourage you, if you're listening to this show, talk to adults. Hear their concerns.

Hear what they will tell you. If you are a parent, tell your teenager your concerns, your money concerns. You will be responsible for the result of your money decisions. And it starts even during the teenage years. That's so true. Art, what role does education, or perhaps even the lack of it, play in all of this?

It's very significant. In fact, money line number six that's told to teenagers is that they don't need to know that much about money. And what we see in our nation is the result of that money line. Financial literacy has plummeted in the United States.

The statistics are staggering. As parents, we need to make sure that our children, that our teenagers are the exception, and that they are taught not just how to manage money, but how God wants them to manage money. And so they need to learn about the money in their wallet, how it works, and how to make sure that they're giving, that they're saving, and that they are then living on the rest. Yeah, so true. And that brings us to money line number seven, which is one of our favorite topics related to generosity.

Tell us about that. It's that a little bit of money that they do have. Teenagers often feel like they don't have much money, right? That the little bit of money that they do have can't really make a difference through generosity. And I understand you're working maybe a minimum wage job, and you're thinking, this little bit of money that I get, what difference, if I give a portion of it, what difference could it make in somebody's life? How could God use that? And what I would encourage teenagers to remember is the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, remember?

He took just a few fish and a few loads of bread and fed 5,000 people. We serve a God of multiplication, and He can take whatever little that you can give and make a difference in the world that you would just never even imagine. You may never even know the difference that you are making through your generosity, but all that God asks you to do is just trust Him. Obey Him, trust Him with your financial resources, and watch Him do what only He can do.

In God's economy, the amount sacrificed always supersedes the amount given. So give, even if it's numerically little. Yeah. All right, we've got just about a minute left.

Let's finish with something really practical. How do you advise parents to begin allowing their kids to manage money as 16, 17, 18-year-olds? Do they need a checking account? Do they get a credit card? You know, what are some of those practical first steps before they leave home?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I provide a lot of those answers in a book that I put together called The Money Challenge for Teens. And certainly getting a checking account is an important step. Getting a retirement account, if they're working, is another important step. The biggest thing that we can do as parents is to make sure that we understand it's our responsibility to teach our children about money. They're not going to just figure it out on their own. If you leave it to them to figure it out, they're going to end up with a ton of debt and a very poor understanding of what God desires for them and the money. And they're going to find themselves frustrated and discontent, all because we didn't step up and explain to them what God teaches about money. This is so helpful, Art. Money lies are everywhere. We don't want our kids to fall for them.

We know that can lead them down a path of spiritual and financial ruin. Art, delighted to have you with us today. Appreciate you stopping by. Thank you so much for having me. It's always a pleasure. Art Rayner has been our guest today.

You can find out more about him and his books and articles on God and money at artrayner.com. Hey, before we go to our break, let me remind you that we're not live today, but we do have lots of good news for you. We're going to but we do have lots of good information coming your way, so please stay tuned. It's great to have you with us on MoneyWise Live today, but unfortunately, today we're not live. We're prerecorded and therefore won't be taking your calls. However, we've lined up some calls in advance that we think you'll find helpful. So stay tuned and enjoy the rest of the program. We're so glad you've joined us today on MoneyWise Live.

We're going to head to Greenwood, Indiana. Valerie, thank you for your patience. How can I help you today? Hi, thanks for taking my call.

I couldn't believe this is my first time I got it. Anyway, I just retired in January and I have a car payment, $420 a month. And my husband and I used to have horrible credit. So this loan had huge, just like 17% interest. I took the loan out for like six years. I still have two more years to pay for it. Anyway, what I'm wondering is should I take my money from my emergency account and pay off the car or should I just keep paying the payments?

Sure. How much is left on the car? About $7,000. About $7,000. Okay. And how much do you have in your emergency? Did you say $13,000? Yeah, about $13,000. Okay.

All right. And what are your total expenses in a 30-day period, over one month, roughly? About $3,000.

Okay. So if you were to pay off the car, you'd have $6,000 left, you'd have two months worth of expenses still in the bank. How much margin would you have every month over and above your expenses once the car is paid off? Are you right up to the edge and so you'd only have the equivalent of that car payment or do you have a little bit extra every month?

No, there's not much extra. I retired in January and I'm thinking I'm kind of bored anyway. I might go back and work part-time to, you know, make enough money to spend.

Okay. Well, I would probably not pay it off right yet. Just because what I'm hearing is that, you know, you've got two months expenses, but there's not a whole lot left over. If you can fit the car payment into the budget, I'd prefer, you know, you maybe accelerate this car payment, but I'd want you to hang on to at least three months expenses.

So that's going to be, let's say $9,000. So perhaps you take $4,000 of it and pay against the car, leaving three and then add a little bit more, you know, to every payment and let's try to shorten that payback period. But I don't want to get you in a situation where you're living right up to the edge every month and you've only got two months expenses and then something major comes out of left field. So I think if you were to do either hang on to all of your money and then let's just add something every month and that's going to require that you go back to that spending plan and either increase income, as you said, by going back to work or decrease expenses by really getting focused on what can you cut back on. And then when you do that, you know, the goal would be to free up margin to add to that monthly payment every month.

I think that's going to be a better option than you just kind of wiping that out and being left with not enough in the way of reserves. Does that make sense though to you, Valerie? Yes, it does. Thank you so much. You are so welcome. Listen, congratulations on the hard work you've been doing and we appreciate your call today very much.

To Indianapolis, Indiana, Renee, thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Hi, thanks for your time and your expertise.

I appreciate it. I have more retirement accounts than I would like to have. I had two jobs concurrently for quite some time and each one has two accounts associated with it. One of them is pensions and so I cannot roll that over but I have these three other accounts, not a huge amount of money in any of them, but I cannot contribute to them any longer. I have a new job with a new 401k and I also have a loss and the fees are low on the accounts but I don't know what I need to consider in determining whether or not I roll them over. Okay, so give me a rundown quickly of the account types that you have. One is a 403b and it probably has 80,000 in it and then the two from the other job, it was a faculty physician and I think, I'm not entirely sure, but I think one's a 401k, the other one was a Maritai, the other one was a Maritai, so they were run through through Sidelity, you know, for a company, but I don't know exactly the type.

Okay, no problem. So with the 403b's and 401k's, yeah, once you separate from service you can roll those out. I would absolutely consolidate those into one IRA, one traditional IRA.

That's going to just create some simplicity. It's less accounts for you to keep up with. It's going to be a little easier for it to be managed either by you or someone else because you're not having to do that across multiple accounts and once you separate from service the fees can increase in those retirement accounts. If you have other IRAs, as long as they're the same type, they can be combined as well, but for instance you can't put a Roth into a traditional. So you'll probably end up with the annuity which you have to leave or the pension and then the traditional IRA which is going to be the recipient of all of those company sponsored plans and then if you have a Roth, you'd still have a Roth. At that point you have to decide how to manage it, Renee, who's going to make the buy and sell decisions and you can either do that yourself through mutual funds or exchange traded funds with the help of perhaps SoundMind Investing at soundmindinvesting.org or you could hire an investment professional to actually make those buy and sell decisions for you.

You could look for a certified kingdom advisor. There's many of them, more than 30 I believe in Indianapolis, you could visit with two or three and find the one that's the best fit, but the idea of combining them makes a lot of sense to me and will really just simplify things, okay? Can I roll them into my new jobs account or do you still think a traditional IRA is more? Well, yeah, that would certainly be an option. You'll have to check with your plan administrator to make sure, but usually you can and so you would roll the, not the IRA, but the 401k and the 403b into your new 401k or whatever that is and that's going to again put everything in one place so you've got a better control over it and then as you select the investments inside the plan, which you would probably do yourself, you would obviously just do it for all of the assets inside of the account. So I would call your plan administrator, ask that question and if they're allowing you to do that, then I think there's nothing wrong with that.

You could certainly take that approach or roll it to an IRA. Either one would work just fine for me and we appreciate your call today. Hey, we're going to pause for a brief break. We'll be back with much more. Stay with us. This is MoneyWise Live.

We're so glad you're along with us today. I'm Rob West. Hey, let's take an email. Today's email comes from Sally and she's from Eugene, Oregon and Sally writes, should all of us have our accounts frozen with our credit bureaus and what Sally is talking about is a credit freeze. Each of the bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Trans Union all by law have to offer you the ability to freeze your credit report at no cost. You will have to make that request either through their website or by calling them or through the mail, but essentially my recommendation there is typically I would say if you know your information has been compromised, which seems to happen often these days, or you know that you've been the victim of identity theft, you would absolutely want to freeze your credit. That's essentially going to place a PIN number on your credit reports so that if anyone tries to open an account in your name, then that would stop them in their tracks.

So you could do it. It's going to add that extra layer of protection, but also an extra hassle factor, if you will, when you're trying to open a new account or seeking some credit. So I typically say, if you know your account or identity has been compromised, go for it. Otherwise, it's really up to you and we appreciate you all sending those questions in. Again, the email address questions at moneywise.org.

Let's go back to the phones to Indianapolis Edner. Thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Yes, my question is because I just got married and then I am a firm believer in Christ and my wife also is, but the issue is because before we got married, she used to go out with her family every Sunday after church, but now that we married and we're trying to save a little bit money and I'm trying to convince her that we don't have to go out to eat every Sunday, but she believes she, because she used to fellowship with them every Sunday, that we should continue that. Well, I certainly can appreciate that, Edner.

You know, I think there's a couple of things here. Number one is we have to recognize that the way we handle money is largely influenced by our upbringing, watching our parents and how money was handled and what money was used for. And in the case of her family, it was used for celebration and to make memories and to build family relationships.

At the same time as husband and wife, you all are now stewards of what God has entrusted to you as one flesh. So you've got to make a plan based on the resources that you have. So I'd encourage you to start with the budget. And if that's something that's really important to her, see if you can fit that into the budget, because if it's a planned expense, then it fits with everything else. If it doesn't, perhaps there's an opportunity for a compromise.

Maybe it's not every Sunday, maybe it's every other. So, you know, that would be my approach is number one for you as the husband to recognize just the value that time with family is to her, the importance of that meal. At the same time, you as husband and wife have to decide how to use God's resources and there are limited resources so you can't do everything.

And so I think as you approach that conversation prayerfully and as husband and wife sitting down and saying, what's most important to us? Is it important to us that we stay out of debt? Yes. Is it important that we're able to provide for ourselves? Yes. Is it important that we save a little bit and that we're able to give? Yes. Is it important that we can spend time with family and around the meal table?

Yes. But maybe you can't do all of it. So what's most important? And if there's resources there, try to build it into the budget, try to build it into the plan so that you could continue to do that. And if there's not, maybe it's some portion of that.

Maybe you join them once a month. But I think the key is for you all to realize and for her to realize with you that, you know, money is a tool to accomplish God's purposes and you can't do everything because there's limited resources so you have to prioritize what's most important. And let's be flexible in that, realizing you're a new married couple and you're going to value different things doesn't mean one's right and one's wrong, but you have to find a way to move forward together.

Does that make sense? Yes, it shall do. And the thing is because before we got married she had accumulated a few credit cards bail, which is now I own.

This is my responsibility now. And I'm trying to tell her that the extra money, let's say, if we go ahead and spend $200 a month on just going out every Sunday, we can put that towards the credit cards. I told her we can go about once or twice, but we can't go every Sunday because we don't have that much. And she sees them every day and then we go to the same church. Well, I appreciate that, but I think you ought to approach this the way I said.

Be prayerful about it and let's see if you can do it perhaps maybe not every week. And we appreciate your call. Let us know how it turns out. Thank you so much. All right, God bless you. All right, let's head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Lana, thanks for your patience. How can I help you?

I have a question for you. I have retired last year and I find that I am going to be needing some oral surgery and it's hard to get dental insurance when you're retired. That covers things. I did find out that I have, well, first of all, I do have my three months plus a little bit of savings for emergency, but I don't want, it would take my entire emergency fund if I used it.

I don't want to do that. I do have an annuity. It's not much, it's $35,000. It's gained about $10,000.

I have it in stocks. Now, the question is, should I take some money out of that? I'm going to need about $10,000 and pay dearly for it because I found out that $10,000 would cost me $4,000 to take it out.

Or should I just look for another option, first of all, for the surgery? Second of all, is there anything else I can do with an annuity? Yeah, well, it's a great question, Lana, and I understand the predicament. I'm glad to hear that you've got that emergency fund, you've got some margin there, and this annuity has been performing for you. Certainly, ideally, we wouldn't want to take out from it because we'd want it to be there to have down the road.

I don't like the idea of borrowing from it, and we could get into that if you'd like. But the idea that you would perhaps pay for this out of cash flow would be the best case scenario. I realize oral surgery is not cheap. I would encourage you to at least contact the medical provider to see if they'd be willing to take payments for the procedure, perhaps give you a cash discount if you're going to be paying for this out of pocket.

That would be the best case scenario. What other options have you considered, Lana? Do you have a home with some equity in it?

What else have you been looking at? I do have a home and I do have equity, but I don't really have enough to use that. And I really don't have a lot of debt, but I don't have a lot of extra at the end of each month either. Yes, okay. And what is the cost of the surgery?

The cost of the surgery is close to $10,000. Okay, all right. And have you approached the provider to see if you're a cash payer, whether that could be reduced substantially, and if so, could it be paid over time? Not to reduce the cost, but she is willing to take payments, but it's a pay-as-you-go type of thing. I see, okay. All right, well, you know, I think that's the best case scenario. I mean, there are, you know, various options like, you know, healthcare lending solutions, United Medical Credit, Prosper Healthcare Lending would just be a couple of them. So you could look at an option like that.

You know, because this is a medical procedure, if it's necessary, we obviously need to get it done. And so that would be option one. I don't like the idea that you'd take a 40% haircut on a $10,000 coming out of an annuity.

That just, you know, is going to kind of put that as a last case scenario. I think, you know, the best option would be other than borrowing, just see if you can get your provider to work with you and pay as you go, you know, out of pocket, really dial back your spending. And let's pray that the Lord, you know, just provides in this situation and that through those payments to that surgeon, that, you know, perhaps as long as it doesn't cause any further problems, that it could be done in stages where you could actually fund it out of cashflow.

Perhaps you look for some additional work on the side to bring in some additional income, but I think your fallback is clearly that annuity. And I'm sorry to hear you're having to wrestle through these hard decisions, Lana, but we'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom there. We appreciate your call. We'll be right back. This is our final segment of a broadcast we previously recorded. Thanks so much for being with us today, and we hope you'll stick around and enjoy the rest of today's program.

We're going to start in the beautiful state of Montana. Mark, thank you for your call today. How can I help you, sir?

Hey, Rob. First, I just want to thank you for your faithfulness in following God's call on your life. You're blessing a lot of people, and you're blessing His kingdom, so thank you.

Well, thank you, Mark. That's very kind of you. So to start right off, my mom went home to be with the Lord in April. It's very sad, but also I can celebrate because I know where she's at, and I know that I will see her again.

So with that, the financial end of things, we're working our way through that. She gave me a wonderful gift. She left me 20 acres with a small house on it, and it's just outside of this popular ski resort town here in Montana. I understand that this is a gift from God and from my mom, and I want to manage it properly. I want to use it for His kingdom. I want to do the wisest thing I can with it. It's a huge responsibility for me, and I have a few concerns. I'm concerned that possibly we're in some sort of real estate bubble.

Inflation and everything, and I'm wondering, I'm considering selling it to reinvest it elsewhere, or whether I should start plans to develop a plan to generate income on the property, or exactly what I should do with it, because it is worth a substantial amount. Yeah. Well, I can imagine it is. Does it happen to be near Big Sky, or is it a different ski resort? Yeah, a different ski resort, but very, very similar.

Okay, very good. Well, some good friends and I used to make an annual trip out to Big Sky. We haven't done it in several years, but it is beautiful country, so I can only imagine how special this is, and I'm so sorry to hear of your mom's passing, but I share your celebration and your celebration in the hope of heaven and rejoicing that she's with Jesus, even though I know she has sorely missed. And I appreciate the responsibility, Mark, with which you're approaching this gift, because you are now the steward of these resources. It's always belonged to the Lord.

It still belongs to the Lord, but the stewardship responsibility has passed from your mom to you, and you want to be found faithful in that. You've made it clear you want to do the wise thing with regard to the financial side, but you also want to honor the Lord and build the kingdom, and those are all the right goals, and so I think, you know, you're certainly approaching this in the right way, getting wise counsel, but also making sure that you're real prayerful about this. You know, I always like to start by just saying, you know, this is an asset, so let's not focus on what type of asset it is at the moment, but let's say as an asset that you're now charged to manage, how does this fit into your overall financial plan? I mean, do you see this as a key piece of what will ultimately allow you to retire someday when you can no longer work and be a funding source of lifestyle?

Is it something that you know you want to do some giving out of or a combination of the two? Is it to generate an income, as you said, now to supplement other income sources? Give me a sense of how it fits financially into your overall picture.

You bet. So I run my own small business. I have for about 10 years, and I am debt-free except for my personal residence, but I really don't have any retirement to speak of. I put everything into my business, and I'm working a lot. I'm working, you know, 70 hours a week is a standard week for me, so I'm looking at this as in that with what I make, I make about $70,000 a year. If I had this amount of money that the value of the home and the land is worth in the bank, would I go and buy a trophy piece of property in a resort town? And, you know, the answer is no, that I'm not in a position to do that.

Yes. So I'm kind of looking at this and saying, okay, how can I make this grow for my children, my children's children? And maybe I can back off my work a little bit and get down to 50 hours a week in the process, too. Well, I would certainly encourage you, especially if you have children, but just for your own health, working 70 hours, that's a lot of hours you're logging every week. And so being able to back off and take a breath and ask the Lord what he has for you, just to get some more rest in your life and some other disciplines, I think is always a good thing.

And I'm talking to myself at the same time. You know, I think as you approach this, Mark, really, you know, we need to determine, is this something we want to be income generating now or in the future or both? Do we want to try to retire debt? And what kind of giving do we want to do out of it? Obviously, the first question, obviously, the first question, you know, that really a lot of this hinges on is, do you want to sell this property that you've acquired? And I'm not going to be able to give you an answer to that. You're going to need to get some wise counsel on that with regard to, yes, nationally, the real estate market is, you know, sky high. And, you know, this is probably not just a typical piece of property, as I'm hearing you describing it, it's 20 acres, small piece of small improvement to home near a ski resort.

So it's a little unique. And so you're going to need to get somebody who really understands this market who can help you understand. And you probably have a good sense of this already. How is this market done for this particular type of land and its specific location? What are the prospects for the future? But just generally speaking, you know, home values nationally are about five and a half percent overvalued right now, indicating we're not really in a bubble and that the reason for that is the actual demand for housing is very high.

Inventory is very low. So it's a supply and demand issue. Millennials are trying to move out of urban areas into suburbia and beyond. And so, you know, what most folks expect is not any kind of housing bubble like we saw in 08-09 that was real systemic in nature in terms of its problem, more of a cooling off, a tapering off because these growth rates are not sustainable.

And we may see, especially in certain pockets of the country, a dip, but probably not any kind of, you know, major collapse. What about land values? Well, a slightly different, you know, asset that would need to be considered.

And again, I think that's where getting some wise counsel makes sense. So that'd be as to whether or not to sell it. The second thing is diversification. You know, Ecclesiastes talks a lot about diversification. You are obviously highly concentrated in this particular parcel of land, which is one asset class, but it's also in one specific location. Whereas if you were to liquidate it and invest it in marketable securities, some combination of stocks and bonds and maybe some real estate investment trust, things like that, you could be very highly diversified. And so I think that's something to consider. You're not putting all of your eggs in one basket in terms of the performance of real estate in a very specific location in Montana.

Thirdly, I think, is just looking at this in terms of the income that it can generate and what it's going to take in terms of effort on your part to generate that. So you could be very passive in terms of the income it generates or the growth that you experience through a stock and bond portfolio versus active participation where you're actually, as you said, are you constructing new residences on this parcel that you're then going to rent out? Well, now all of a sudden you've gone from a small business owner working 70 hours a week to I don't know what, as you get really hands on in running a real estate business with rentals. So I think you've got to think through, pray through all of that.

I'd start with that real estate professional who really knows the area and can counsel with you. And I suspect, given the goals that I'm hearing from you, going ahead and selling it, enjoying the fact that real estate prices are very high, and then redeploying that into a stock and bond portfolio makes sense. Give me your thoughts on just what I was sharing. And let's see if we can come up with a game plan on where you go from here. I really like the idea of diversifying, you know, because as I said, this is my retirement, everything else is in my business, which, you know, my business is just me, so it's really not worth a lot.

So this is it. I want to grow this for the kingdom. And, you know, of course, I'm a tither, so right off the top, 10% of everything I make is going to go right back to the Lord and to his kingdom. After that, I do have two children that are special needs that are probably going to need my help the rest of their life. So I'd like to take care of them. And I just feel like the diversification and creating a portfolio that is going to grow, and maybe I can take a little bit of income to offset the amount of hours that I'm working in the meantime, but continue to grow that portfolio.

I think that would be great. Yeah, I think that's the right approach. And the only reason I say let's make sure you talk to a professional there is I just wouldn't want you to overlook something that, you know, you and I might not be aware of.

Is there a major development coming in that's going to, you know, be a game changer in that specific locale in a very short period of time or something on the horizon that alters whether or not this is the right time. But apart from something just glaring, I think that's wise counsel and wise thinking in terms of you going ahead and selling it, moving toward a portfolio that makes sense. Perhaps you pay off your home first, you know, and then begin to invest it in a way that's going to generate some income, or at least have some appreciation while you're continuing to work and then have, you know, resources there for your future. You may even want to consider a special needs trust, where these assets go in there and can be available for lifelong dependence, where you can give certain stipulations as to how the money is used even, you know, beyond your life or if you were incapacitated for the benefit of the kids. And so looking at that from an estate planning standpoint with an attorney, I think would be really important. And then the last thing I would say, Mark, is perhaps talking to our friends at the National Christian Foundation, ncfgiving.com, you may want to consider giving a portion, just even a small portion of this land away to a donor advised fund prior to the sale, you know, for giving purposes.

Now, because of the stepped up basis, it may not make sense or be necessary because there shouldn't be much in the way of tax here, if any. But at least just thinking about what's the best way to do your giving, given that you're going to have a major transition here and a sale of a pretty significant asset. It's worth a conversation. So I think you're on the right track, my friend.

Seek out some wise counsel, perhaps a certified kingdom advisor to navigate this with you. And we appreciate your call today very much and wish you the very, very best. Well, folks, that's going to do it for us today. Thanks for listening. Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media. This is where God's word intersects with your financial life. Come back and join us next time, will you? God bless you.