Eliminate Useless Fees

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. What's worse than paying fees that cost you a dollar here or two dollars there or more?

It's constantly shelling out that money and getting nothing for it. I am Rob West. It takes discipline and vigilance to spot and eliminate fees for things you no longer need or perhaps never did. We'll talk about them first today. Then I'll take your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

Call it 24-7, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Tracking your spending in your bank and credit accounts is the best way to spot useless fees.

If you don't keep up with it, you're probably wasting more money than you realize. Many useless fees are quite obvious, however, starting with credit card interest, which now averages around 16%. Some store credit cards may go as high as 30%. If you don't pay off your balance in full each month, the interest builds fast and continues to grow. The longer you wait to pay off the balance, the more difficult it gets. If you have credit card debt, pay it off quickly and never purchase more with a card than you can pay in full at the end of the month. Another useless fee is the one you pay at out-of-network ATMs.

The average is now nearly $5, and that's a lot to pay for a little convenience. Next, you should never pay for a credit report. You're entitled to a free report every year from each of the three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You can get those at AnnualCreditReport.com. That's the only free site for getting your credit reports, so don't be fooled by imitators.

Let's see, what's next? How about late payment fees? These not only cost you extra money now, they can damage your credit for years and result in higher interest rates. If you're paying a checking account fee, look for a bank that offers free checking with no minimum balance.

They're out there. Many credit unions have that option as well. And speaking of banks, overdraft fees will cost you a bundle too. You can probably opt out of them with your bank. Then if you try to buy something and there's not enough money in your account, the transaction won't go through. It might be a little embarrassing, but avoiding a $30 or $35 overdraft charge is worth it.

By the way, Ally Bank just eliminated all overdraft fees, so that may be a new trend in the industry. You may also be able to eliminate many shipping fees. If you order from Amazon a lot, you can save money with their Prime option. Yeah, it costs money, but it's not difficult to make that back by eliminating shipping costs. Also, look for coupons and promo codes that give you free shipping.

We'll have links in today's show notes. Convenience fees are also something you can eliminate with a little planning. These are when you buy something and the clerk tells you there's a minimum charge to use a credit or debit card.

Just say no. Pay cash instead of grabbing items you don't need to meet the minimum charge. Always keep a little cash on you for those situations. You may have noticed when paying for insurance and other things that the company offers the option of paying monthly instead of a single annual payment. The catch is those monthly payments have a few dollars tacked on. Again, it takes planning, but having the full amount ready to pay will save you a little each month. If you're flying somewhere, the cheapest flight isn't always the least expensive.

How's that possible? Well, it's when the airline offering the lowest fare also charges you for checking bags. You've got to factor in the cost of checking bags into the total cost of the flight. You might find that a higher priced fare actually saves you money if there's no baggage fee.

So look for airlines that don't charge you an arm and a leg to bring a suitcase with you. Unused subscriptions are another money waster. Nowadays, these aren't for magazines that you don't read. They're for streaming services or other things you signed up for online. These fees are automatically debited from your account month after month, whether you need them or not. So again, scour your bank and credit card accounts and stop useless subscriptions.

A few dollars for one might seem harmless, but if you have four or five of them, and many people do, pretty soon you're talking real money. If you have to transfer money to another person, there are now many ways to do it for free. You can use PayPal or any number of apps to get money to a friend or relative. Venmo, Cash App, and Google Pay are just a few. And again, you can look for links to those in today's show notes. Consumer expert Clark Howard has a warning though about money transfer apps and advises that you set up a separate checking account for them with less money in it.

These apps have fewer consumer protections than other options if your account is compromised by a data breach. So that's a list of the many useless fees you can eliminate with a little planning and diligence, and we hope you'll start using it today. All right, your calls are next.

800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Stay with us. We're so glad you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live, a community of stewards coming together to know God's heart as it relates to managing His money. How do we do that? Well, on this broadcast every day, plus in our MoneyWise community, which you'll find in our MoneyWise app that you can download in your app store. Just search for MoneyWise biblical finance or on our brand new website at MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click on the community tab. You can post questions, perhaps an encouraging word, get responses from others in the MoneyWise community. Plus our MoneyWise coaches, they're typically responding in just a couple of hours. They're ready to go.

They're trained and ready to answer your questions. So if you want to create a free account when you get to MoneyWiseLive.org, then post away. Share all of the questions that you have related to managing God's money, and we'll see if we can get you some responses. And I know you'll get some encouragement from other folks as well.

Again, the website MoneyWiseLive.org. Taking your calls and questions today on anything financial, applying the principles we find in God's Word. And there's a lot of them. By the way, 2350 verses.

My good friend, Howard Dayton, actually counted them all. And that's the number in God's Word that talked to us about God's heart related to managing his money that covers all of the areas. You know, when you think about your lifestyle or debt or savings or perhaps taxes, even your giving, it's all there and addressed in God's Word.

So we pull out those principles and apply them to today's financial decisions. So look forward to hearing from you. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Again, 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin today in Orlando, Florida. WKES. Hi, Randy. Good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon. How are you doing today? Very well, sir.

How can I help? Real quick. Okay. We purchased our first home about four years ago. And, you know, a lot of people have talked about withdrawing equity. People have different ways to go about it.

And I've heard a few explanations of it. But could you explain to me, so let's say we bought our home for $200,000. And now the equity, we're at $280,000. What is this whole thing about withdrawing equity, repaying back the equity? Or is it wise for me to even withdraw the equity and just to kind of leave it in there? You can kind of just explain the options of somebody to pull it out or just to leave it in.

Yeah. Well, it's a great question. And a lot of folks are facing this particular question, Randy, because we've seen such a rise in home values, which means folks that had perhaps even just a little bit of equity or they were building even a considerable amount have far more as the value of the home has risen. It obviously gives you more value versus the loan that you're currently carrying if you have a mortgage on your house. And there'll be a lot of folks in the quote-unquote industry, the mortgage industry, that say, yeah, you need to get that money back out and use it. It's very inexpensive money that you can repurpose for other things.

And I would say, hold on, not so fast. Keep in mind, we want to move toward being debt-free over time. I mean, the Bible is clear that borrowing is not a sin, but there are absolutely warnings that we find throughout scripture about the use of debt. And so we need to be careful about how we take on debt. Number one, it can be a real financial health inhibitor because now we're seeing the reverse of compound interest. Instead of it working for us in our 401ks and our investment accounts, it's working against us as we pay interest.

And we certainly don't want that. The worst of that would be credit card debt or far worse even than that, payday loans. But I would say with mortgages as well, that borrowing is not a sin, but we need to be moving toward being debt-free over our lives. And the ideal situation would be that at the very least, by the time you reach retirement, that season where you transition toward perhaps out of being paid for your work because you can't work anymore or God has reassigned you to something else, that at that point you would be 100% debt-free, including your home.

And the benefit of that is not only the freedom and flexibility, peace of mind that it gives you, but also just keeps your lifestyle at a minimum, which means you need less to live on to be able to carry your lifestyle in that season of life. And if you haven't saved quite as much as you would have wanted to, well, having that expense taken out of the equation because you no longer carry a mortgage is a real benefit. When we look at Scripture, we see clearly that the borrower is servant to the lender.

So we have to consider that it changes the relationship. There's this master-slave relationship that is involved in lending that we want to be free from over time. And even if that means perhaps we're giving up some return from somebody that says, well, you could take the equity from your home that you're paying just a little bit of interest on, especially right now with historically low rates, and you could put that to work in the stock market.

And I would say, at what cost? Because it's not just the financial side. What about the non-financial side and being unencumbered and knowing that you own your home free and clear? And so what I would do as you look at the rising value of your home, I would celebrate the fact that you have even more equity, not be looking for ways to tap into that, to repurpose that by taking on more debt. Now, if at some point you said, listen, I want to do a home improvement that's going to improve this asset, this home that I live in, that someday I'm going to sell so that I can enjoy it, but that over time it will increase its value. And I want to do that by tapping into some of this equity I have in my home. And by the way, I can fit that well within my budget and still accomplish my God-given goals, then I would say, well, certainly that would be something to consider. It's a permissible use of debt, in my view, to say, we're going to borrow for things that are appreciating, and your house would certainly fit into that category as long as you can carry the debt service.

And if you're married, husband and wife are in complete agreement. If you were to do that, Randy, I would say you'd want to use a home equity loan, not a home equity line of credit. The difference is a line of credit stays open. You can pull money out, pay it back. As you pay it back, it becomes available again.

And so you have this kind of open account that you can pull from. The downside is that it's going to have a variable interest rate. So as interest rates head higher, you're going to see that interest rate move up as opposed to a home equity loan, which gives you a specific amount of money for a specific purpose. And in my example, for home improvements, you would take the money out that's needed, but you'd have a fixed interest rate at that point that's not going to move around, especially in this rising interest rate environment. So to summarize, I'd say let's only use debt for appreciating assets where the economic cost is less than the economic gain. Let's make sure husband and wife are in complete agreement. Let's make sure the debt service fits into our budget. But let's, over our lifetimes, be moving toward being completely debt-free, including our home.

And if you want to use your home equity, let's do it in the form of a home equity loan. But give me your thoughts. Does that all make sense to you? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I was just kind of, you know, was amazed at how much it went up. I'm like, well, at this time, there's no home.

I mean, we can do some home improvement, but we pretty much got everything really what we needed in the home. And we were debt-free with our credit cards, but I'm just delirious about, you know, with the market, with the housing goes down and, you know, what happens there. But all I can really do is put it in God's hand and say, you know, Lord, I've got this money in equity and it looks so far that the market is going to continue to go up.

But I think it'd be right at this time, just futile for me just to withdraw. But my question was mainly, what is it all about? How does it work? But your explanation really did it justice. And I really appreciate that. Well, I appreciate your heart, Randy, because clearly you want to honor God with what he's entrusted to you, including what is probably your largest asset, your home. We're delighted to hear it's risen in value.

A lot of folks are in that position. That's a great thing. But that's not an invitation to run out and tap that equity in the form of debt unless you absolutely have to. And so I think this is a great thing. Let's continue paying on that mortgage.

In fact, I'd look to pay a little bit extra each year, perhaps or perhaps one or two payments a year that'll help you reduce that mortgage quickly over time. And eventually you'll be completely debt-free. And we appreciate your call, sir. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

That's 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open. We're going to pause for our first break. And we come back more of your questions. What's on your mind today? Is it saving, giving, perhaps saving for the long term or improving that credit score, whatever it might be, we'd love to tackle. Again, lines are open.

800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is MoneyWise, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Stay with us.

We'll be right back. Thank you for joining us for MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Hey, I just got to preview the very first edition of our MoneyWise Weekly Wisdom. It's a weekly email that goes out to you to help you on your stewardship journey with recommended reads for the week, our trending podcasts.

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I know it will be an encouragement to you. We're going to head back to the phones. 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open.

Next up, we're going to Mary in Minnesota. Good afternoon. Hello. Hi, Mary. How can I help you today? I talked to Amy and told her what had happened.

We have a 401k, and my husband took some money out of it and put it in an annuity, and I didn't know if that was a good choice or not. All right. Well, let's talk about it. $50,000. Okay, where did it? Yeah, and it came from an investment account. Is that right, Mary?

It sure did. Okay, and do you have a sense of what type of annuity it is? Is it have a guaranteed return on it?

I honestly don't know. No, it has a certain interest rate, but I don't think it's a guaranteed rate. Okay, I see. Well, you know, the reason people tend to buy annuities is they're looking for guaranteed predictable income. So, there are fixed annuities, which have a fixed interest rate associated with them. And then there's variable annuities, which are annuities, again, which are basically just insurance contracts, a contract between you and an insurance company. And the variable portion of that just simply means that there's going to be investments inside of it.

And typically, what happens is they place a floor on it, so you can't go below a certain amount, and then you get a portion of the upside. So, as the investments grow, you get a certain portion of that. And in return for that, they'll make sure that you never lose any value.

They're not my first choice, although I would say they have a place in the sense that, you know, people are living longer. And so, folks are wanting to make sure that their money lasts throughout their lifetime. And so, if it gives you added peace of mind to know, you can turn over a certain amount of money into an annuity and into an insurance contract, and it can grow at a stated amount or a variable amount over time. And then at some point, you can convert that into a guaranteed predictable income stream that could be used to supplement other income sources.

That's why folks will buy them. Now, what's the downside? Everything has an upside and a downside, right? The downside would be that they tend to be somewhat complicated. So, you have to read through a lot of the fine print and figure out how the returns are actually going to be calculated.

You are locking up your money in the sense that if you try to get it back, there's usually going to be surrender charges or penalties. They do tend to be somewhat expensive as well in the fees and so forth that are built in. But again, if you are looking for that predictable income to be generated during retirement, they certainly have a place. I would want to make sure that the person quote-unquote selling you this annuity is doing it because it's in your best interest, not because they're trying to generate a large commission. And so, that's why I think it's important to have an independent financial advisor, Mary, that's looking over your whole financial life, that can consider what your income and expenses are in this season of life, look at all of the assets you have, including your investments and perhaps this annuity, and put together a plan not based on one piece of your financial life, but look across all of it and have a plan to say, here's what God's doing in your life and here's the tools we're going to use to accomplish managing his money so that it does in fact last as long as it needs to. And if you're in good health and the Lord tarries, that could be quite a bit of time from now. And an annuity may be a part of that tool set.

I would just want to make sure it's a good fit. So, you know, if it's already done, then it's done. Now it's $50,000 and that's obviously just one piece of your retirement assets. If you don't mind me asking, what do you have beyond that money?

It is a lot of money. Absolutely. Yeah. What do you have outside of that annuity and other assets investments? We just have the 401k. Okay.

And I have an IRA separately, which I do not have anything to do with. It's all separate from me, but all that I'm talking about is this 401k where the guy suggested we put 50,000 somewhere else. And I don't know if he's just trying to sell another product exactly or what he wanted really to do. That's my question.

Yeah. Well, I think at the end of the day, without knowing the specifics and it'd be too much for us to get into the details and this probably isn't the place. What I would just simply say is an annuity can clearly have a place in your tool set to manage your assets for your retirement. It's not my first choice, but depending on your goals and objectives and the annuity that was purchased for you, it may be a great fit. And so perhaps one other option Mary would be for you to go to an independent financial advisor. We recommend certified kingdom advisors. These are men and women who have significant expertise and they share your values and they've been trained to bring a biblical worldview of money to look over everything you have and to look specifically at this particular annuity that $50,000 was placed into, which I would agree is a lot of money and make sure that it is in fact the right option for you or whether you should consider something else with that portion of your investments or another.

You can find someone at moneywiselive.org. Just click find a CKA and they'd be happy to sit with you at no cost for that initial meeting and give you a once over. I hope that helps you today. Be encouraged. You all are probably making some great decisions here as you move forward and you stay on the line.

We'll talk a bit more off the air. More MoneyWise Live just after this 800-525-7000. Thank you for joining us for MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We've got some lines open today, taking your calls and questions on anything financial. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

That's 800-525-7000. In just a few moments, we're going to be talking about the difference between a trust and a will. We'll be talking about setting aside assets for your kids down the road.

But next up is Scott in Barrington, Illinois. And Scott, I understand you want to talk about a qualified charitable distribution. How can I help you?

Yes, I do. Actually, I'm going to turn that magic 72 years old here in October. And my required minimum distribution is something that I personally, I'm very fortunate. I don't need the money. So I'm wondering, I've heard you talk about giving this to charities before, and I'm wondering how that works. Yeah, well, this is a great option for what would otherwise be a taxable distribution from your IRA that you have to take out because it's mandated through the required minimum distribution. And you can get that directly to a charity, which satisfies the RMD with the IRS. And everybody wins because you don't recognize it as taxable income, which you would normally have to do. And the ministry gets the full value of the gift because they're not going to pay taxes on it either as a 501c3 not-for-profit. So you end up getting more money into whatever ministry you're using this to fund. And you satisfy that required minimum. If you needed it by chance, and I think you said you didn't, obviously what some folks can do is they'll go ahead and get that gift to the ministry and then use savings to bring into their funding account or checking account to offset that gift because they would have otherwise given a gift to the ministry or their church out of cash.

But they're doing that instead through the QCD. So the way you go about that, Scott, is you basically would contact the custodian for your IRA, whoever you get your statements from. Or if you work with an investment advisor or financial planner, you could have them help you in the local office. But basically you'd indicate your desire to do a qualified charitable distribution for the purposes of satisfying your required minimum, which would be upcoming in your 72nd year. And they would send you the paperwork that would allow you to make sure you're taking out enough based on the IRS table and the balance in your IRA. And then you would tell them which not-for-profit you want that money directly sent to. You would not receive that yourself. It would go directly to the ministry.

You'd want to alert the ministry that it's coming and make sure your tax preparer knows what's going on as well so that this can be properly accounted for on your tax return. But it's a fairly simple process. And as I said, it's a powerful tool because everybody wins. Does that make sense, though?

It does. I do have a Fidelity charitable account. Yeah, we lost you there for a second. Do you have a donor advised fund with Fidelity? Yes, where I can, you know, I put so much in and I do it at the end of the year. And then I I'd throw out the air like my church and whatnot. I take from that fund to for my contribution. So this would be different, though, right?

It would. And qualified charitable distributions can only be made to qualified charitable organizations as defined in the tax code. And currently, that does not include donor advised funds or private foundations or supporting organizations. So you only can send to charities. But what you would do is you would just have this money sent directly as a qualified charitable distribution to the ministry of choice.

It would go immediately. And that would all happen outside of your Fidelity donor advised fund, which is just a separate tool for giving. But it can't be used to satisfy the required minimum that we're describing through the qualified charitable distribution. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. And as far as you know, there's no change in the age. No, sir.

No, 72 is the current age, which has been increased from 70 and a half. Yeah. But I think this is a great option for you to satisfy that and get some more money into the kingdom. So we appreciate you listening and calling, Scott. God bless you in the days ahead. 800-525-7000. We've got a few lines open. Plant City, Florida. Eleonora, how can I help you today?

Hi, yes, I'm interested. I'm the one that wants to know about the difference between a will and a trust. I understand that if you have a will after you pass, it has to go into probate or a trust doesn't.

That's exactly right. And I will just say, prior to answering your question with some general information, it's always a good idea for anyone who's considering estate planning, the tools and strategies, as well as the decisions that you need to make heading into that process. It's always a good idea to visit with a qualified estate planning attorney who could really help guide you through this process, make sure you have all the right documents in place that are needed for your situation to accomplish your goals and objectives.

And I'd prefer you to have somebody who shares your values and can really understand perhaps your heart for giving or any other aspect of this. But generally speaking, Eleonora, a will spells out how you want your affairs handled and your assets distributed after death. It's a legally enforceable document, and it will be handled by the executor of your estate.

It does become a part of the public record and it does involve probate. The difference with the trust is it's a fiduciary relationship where a trustor, you, gives a trustee the right to hold title to property or assets. And the trust would then, for instance, your home could be retitled in the name of the trust. And with certain triggering events that can happen prior to your death, then a trustee could make decisions on your behalf and distribute those assets for your benefit throughout your life and after your death at specific or based on your specific wishes. So for instance, if you had a lifelong dependent or you had minor children, or there were specific situations or circumstances that you wanted to be triggering of releasing certain assets after your death, a trust could handle all of that through that trustee.

It happens outside of the probate court, and it's not a part of the public record. And so, you know, that is another benefit of the trust. But they are more expensive, you know, as opposed to a will, which might be three to $500.

It'd probably be three times that $1,500 to $2,000. So I think you just need to look at, is it necessary in your situation just based on the amount of typically real estate assets that you hold or your desires in terms of how your estate is handled, either prior to your death or after, and if you want certain events to be involved in the releasing of those assets. Do you follow that though?

I do. When you said a trustee, can it be one of your children? They usually like to be attorney. Yeah, well, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish, but you would name the trustee. Now, it has to be held, you know, with a trust company. And then the trustee that you designate could release that, but it would all be spelled out in the trust documents. So I would, you know, visit with an estate planning attorney to have someone look over what you're trying to accomplish.

And I think they can advise you pretty quickly as to whether or not this fits in your situation. And Eleanor, we appreciate your call today very, very much. Folks, we're going to pause again for just another moment for a brief break, but a lot more to come still on MoneyWiseLive. You know, as we think about handling money God's way, we know we want to be found faithful, right? Those who have been given a trust must prove faithful is what the Bible tells us.

The question is, how do we handle God's assets in a way that glorifies Him, seeing money as a tool to accomplish His purposes? Well, that's what we look for here on MoneyWiseLive. And we'll do more of that just around the corner.

800-525-7000. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWiseLive. So glad you're along with us today, taking your calls and questions on anything financial.

Let's head right back to the phones. Scott is in Anderson, Indiana. Scott, how can I assist you? Yeah, I had a question. My father's 84, mom's 82, and dad was talking about IRA they have, and he brought up just last week about making contributions to the church to save, you know, taxes on that. I don't know if it's 30, 40,000 in that.

And I didn't know, but that gentleman two calls ago, you answered many, many questions on that. Well, it's a great tool that we were talking about, Scott, as long as you are of the age where you require a required minimum distribution out of your IRA, which anything over 72 will put someone in that category. It allows you to take money out of the IRA and get it directly to a qualified charity. And you can donate up to $100,000 to one or more charities directly from your taxable IRA instead of taking that required minimum.

So it gives you an opportunity to do some significant giving and save what would otherwise be a taxable event, which could be quite a bit of money that is getting into kingdom work in the case of giving to a kingdom building not-for-profit charity versus paying that in the form of taxes. And so and so I think this could be a great option, Scott, for your dad to do some hilarious giving here in this season of his life and do it in a tax advantaged way. Well, that's great. Yeah. He's looking at that.

He's getting with his financial advisor, I think this week or next. Just curious what IRA is that put in post-tax or pre-tax? So the IRA was put in pre-tax. He got a deduction when it went in. And the way the IRA's work is, as you take that money out, you know, typically in retirement after you're 59 and a half, you would recognize that as taxable income. In this case, though, it wouldn't be because the qualified charitable distribution, while it exists, allows you to get that money directly to a qualified charity. And it's not going to be recognized as income by your dad. And the charity gets the full value of the distribution.

So everybody wins and it satisfies his required minimum at the same time. And that gift amount of $100,000 per year allows you to do quite a bit of giving. So I would ask him to ask his advisor about that, given his charitable desires. Okay, well, that makes sense.

And like you said, let him know it's coming to look for it and get the right contacts to where it's going, where they decide, you know, to donate. So that's great. Yeah, very good. Well, excellent. Let us know how that turns out. I'd be delighted if you called me back and said my dad was able to give the largest gift he's ever given because of a qualified charitable distribution.

We've heard that from a number of folks in the past. God bless you, Scott. Thanks for looking out for your dad.

Let's head to upstate New York. Frank, how can I help you, sir? Yes, sir. Um, I do not collect social security yet. And the way I am semi retired in the way I kind of structured it in my head was I received payments until I'm 69 and a half.

And I have a 401k that I that has a fair amount of money into it. And so I just figured I'd wait till I was 70 71. And I just had a conversation with a sibling. And he said, I should take it now. So it's got me thinking.

Yeah. Well, so when are you going to need this money in terms of being able to meet your, you know, monthly obligations? Will there be a point where your budget is such that you don't have enough income without this social security? When I reach 69 and a half or 70, the payments that I receive every month will end.

I sold a company and that's when that payment ends. So the Social Security will semi take over then we have other investments that will also be receiving money. So it almost equals out.

So yeah, very good. Well, I would say I mean, obviously, you've got to look at both sides of this. But I would say that's a great opportunity for you to begin taking social security at that point.

Because here's what happens Frank. Every year you wait beyond full retirement age up to age 70, that check is going to increase by 8%. So that's a guaranteed 8% increase, which you're not going to get in the stock market. Now the argument against that is, well, you've got to live long enough for that increased monthly check to pay you back in a sense for those months that you didn't take it. But if the Lord tarries and you're in good health and you live a while, you're going to get that back and then some because you'll enjoy that higher payout for the rest of your life. And the good news is you don't need the money at that point, because it's going to line up pretty nicely with that other retirement income running out. And you'll get that higher check kicking in. Keep in mind once you reach age 65, life expectancy increases to 83 for men, 84 for women. Now that's of course on the average and only the Lord knows how much time each of us have. But if we're just looking at planning for the rest of your life, I think there's a real argument for you saying, I'm in good health.

And I'd like to maximize that check over time. And so I'm going to delay taking that until that point. For me and for most folks, I think that makes a lot of sense. Does that make sense to you, though?

Yes. And that's the same reasoning that I had it. And like I say, after talking to my sibling, he said I should be taking it. And I still after talking to you, I think I'll still hold off till 70. Yeah, very good. I think that makes a lot of sense. And I would absolutely move in that direction. So we appreciate your call today very much. Thanks for checking in with us. Let's head to Fort Myers, Florida. Mary, you're up next.

How can I help? Yes. My question is, I hope I'm wording it right. I owe IRS like $15,000 and I've been seeing advertised on TV. Let me reduce your rate payment to IRS. I'm inquiring to save, to contact one of these commercials whose commercially say I can help you save money. I'm trying to pay less to IRS. I see.

Yeah. You know, the key there, Mary, is to connect with an enrolled agent or a CPA that has some experience in negotiating with the IRS. There's no question that through the offer and compromise, there's an opportunity for the amount that you owe to the IRS to be reduced. If you work through somebody who understands this, I would typically not go with a tax relief company where you can often be required to pay thousands of dollars upfront.

And the things that they're describing, most taxpayers don't qualify for anyway. And so what I would prefer you to do is connect with a reputable CPA or enrolled agent who can look at your situation and based on your ability to either offer a settlement, an offer and compromise where you'd pay it in a lump sum at a reduced amount, or work out a payment plan, perhaps that's better than the one you are. Now, you know, if company that, you know, is going to charge you quite a bit of money up front, I would not go that direction. If you look at the attrition, we will see that there's a lot of folks that find that complex after these companies paying literally the dollars up front, and they took more money than they were actually even able to recoup for them. So that would not be the direction I would go.

I would kind of set those advertisements aside. I think you certainly could connect with CPA. And if you want to find a godly CPA or accountant, you could go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org and click Find a CKA and then ask for a referral to someone who could assist you at that point. And Mary, we appreciate your call today very, very much. We're going to finish today in Cleveland, Ohio. Mike, how can I help you?

Good afternoon. I'm in the PRS retirement system. I'm hoping to retire this year, but I would like to get a part-time job after I retire. I'm wondering if I should find another part-time job in the PRS or just the Social Security. Would there be a difference as far as getting retirement after the fact?

Well, I think the question is just where can you earn the most money? Are you worried about the impact of your Social Security checks or some other consideration as you're thinking about where you'd like to go back to work? I was just wondering if I went back into the PRS retirement as a part-time job or something. Would I get more back as opposed to going into a Social Security type job?

Yeah, I'm not totally following the question in terms of getting more back. It really is just going to depend upon what compensation you get, how much then you're out of that able to put away. And the question then is, if you're taking, you know, once you start to take Social Security benefits down the road, you, you know, have those reduced based on what you're doing. Have those reduced based on the amount that you're earning under full retirement age. Have you opted out of Social Security along the way? No, I haven't filled out anything yet.

Okay, all right. You know, generally speaking, I like for folks to stay in the Social Security system. I think, you know, anytime we opt out of that, typically our best intentions don't allow us to save perhaps as much as we expect to. And I think, you know, the opportunity there is to make sure through Social Security, you at least have that base of income, which is intended to account for up to 40% of your pre-retirement income during that retirement season, as opposed to opting out to something else.

So I think if you have the ability to pay in, as long as you're going to get enough qualifying credits, that's probably the direction I would go. Listen, all the best to you, Mike, in this next season of life. We appreciate you thinking of us. That's going to do it for us today. So glad to have you along with us today.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between MoneyWise Media and Moody Radio. Want to say thank you to my team today, Gabby T on phones, Dan Anderson Engineering, Amy Rios was our producer today, Robert Sutherland helping with research today. Thank you for being here as well. But Lord willing, I'll be back tomorrow. We'll do it all over again. I hope you'll join me. In the meantime, may God bless you. Bye-bye.