Your Home Repair Fund

Proverbs 10 makes clear the wisdom of saving money. A slack hand causes poverty but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Regular listeners of the program know the importance of setting up an emergency fund, ideally containing three to six months living expenses. The only question is, how do you define an emergency? If the meaning is too broad, you'll constantly be dipping into it for every little inconvenient expense.

Then it won't be there when you really need it. So, let's define a true emergency. A real emergency will fall into one of three areas, housing, food, and transportation. It must be absolutely necessary, urgent, and truly unexpected. Everything else should be a part of your regular budget.

Examples would be living expenses if you lose your job or have a severe pay cut, unplanned medical expenses, and unexpected home repairs. And that's where our special category comes in. You see, most home repairs are predictable.

Many you can see coming from a long way off. They're not really unexpected. And for these, you may want to consider setting up a separate category for home repairs, separate from your emergency fund. Most people understand that a home generally appreciates in value, especially these days. But consumer expert Clark Howard points out that in many cases, it's the land a house is built on that actually appreciates.

You can't really separate a house from the land it sits on, but if you could, you might find that the structure itself depreciates as it becomes run down and in need of repairs. That means your house needs constant, expected maintenance to uphold its part of the total home value. That's a strong argument for keeping your home repair fund separate from your true emergency fund.

If you need more convincing, let's look at what you might expect to pay for typical home repairs and maintenance. If a storm causes a large limb to puncture your roof, water will pour in, but just as certainly, money will pour out. But you're thinking, a hole in the roof certainly isn't expected.

But it should be. Storms happen all the time, and it just takes one to damage your roof. You can expect to pay $400 to $1500 for a roof repair. Sure, your homeowner's insurance covers that type of damage, but how much is your deductible? $500?

$1000? That money could be ready and waiting in your home repair fund. Just as common, perhaps, you might need a completely new roof. Not from storm damage, but just routine wear and tear.

Insurance won't cover that, so you could be out of pocket $5,000 to $10,000 or more. Then one morning you hit the shower to get ready for work. Uh oh, no hot water.

Is that really unexpected? A little research shows that the typical tank-type hot water heater lasts from 8 to 12 years. In time, corrosive particles inside the tank will settle to the bottom and eventually destroy the lining. That will cause a leak, and you'll be out $800 to $1500, all completely predictable. Your heating and air conditioning unit lasts longer than a water heater, but the replacement cost is a lot higher. Most HVAC systems can last as long as 15 years, sometimes even longer.

And again, it's not a question of if, but when. And when yours ultimately fails, you'll be out $4,000 to $7500. Now this next one is really predictable if you live in a house with wooden siding. It will need repainting every 7 years on average. And the average price tag? Around $3,000. Time for one more predictable expense, but only if you bought a house with a septic system.

Granted, they last a very long time, some estimates say as long as 50 years. But if you bought an older home, you could be well on your way to needing your septic system replaced. The average cost is $4,000 to $5,000. Now, after all this, you're probably wondering, how much should I keep in my home repair category? Given the repair costs we've mentioned, a good starting point might be one month's mortgage payment, possibly going up to two months. That would take most of the sting out of completely predictable home repairs, and the money will be there in your separate home repair fund.

And by the way, if you don't have a mortgage, another rule of thumb is to set aside 1% of the value of your home each year in your home repair fund. All right, your calls are next. Here's the number 800-525-7000.

Call it 24-7, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and this is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions and choices. We've got some lines open today. We're just about ready to turn to your phone calls. Here's the number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Today, our second installment of our MoneyWise weekly wisdom went out. That is a weekly email that we send with a note from me, a thought about biblical financial wisdom that I share with you each week. Our recommended reads, our trending podcasts, and our verse of the week. It's delivered to your inbox.

It's a real encouragement to you as you renew your mind around God's heart related to managing His money. It's our MoneyWise weekly wisdom email. Sign up to get it delivered to you at no cost. Just head to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, create a free account, and we'll make sure it's delivered to your inbox. All right, we're going to head to the phones. Again, I've got some lines open. Here's the number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Lori is in Venice, Florida, WKZM. Lori, how can I help you?

Hi, how are you? Yes, I have a question or an opinion about long-term care insurance. I'm a 72-year-old. I am a widow, so I don't have a husband that I would need to be concerned about or providing care for. But I talked to my financial advisor a couple of weeks ago, and she was asking if I considered any long-term care insurance, and so I've been reading a little bit about it and trying to figure out if that would be a good option for me and wanted to get your opinion.

Yes. Well, it's something I think everybody should consider. The statistics say that, Lori, 70% of Americans age 65 or older will need some type of long-term care during their lives. That's according to longtermcare.gov, the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and that's a big number. And the question is, are we prepared to cover that depending upon how long it's going to last? What we know is that typically folks who need that type of care, those 70% receive it for more than two years, generally three years or less, but it is expensive.

When you look at the national monthly median cost for various types of long-term care, I mean, we're talking, you know, $4,000 a month for in-home care, it could be assisted living at around $4,000 a month, a private room in a nursing home could run you $8,500 a month or more. And so that's where this becomes very cost prohibitive and can quickly erode your assets. Now, this type of policy is not cheap, and so you need to make sure that it in fact fits into your budget. And if there are increases, which have to be done in the aggregate, not policy by policy, but if there are increases, and certainly policyholders in the past have experienced that, that you have the ability to absorb that, which is why we encourage you to look at it between ages 55 and 65 because it's most cost-effective at that point to ensure that it fits into your budget. If you find one that over time you're not able to sustain, then obviously it's of no value to you if at some point you have to drop it. I would encourage you to get a long-term care insurance agent, somebody who specializes in that type of policy so they can help you determine what companies are most committed to this space.

They've been in it a while. They know how to price these policies. You're going to want to know about an inflation rider, which is typically 3 to 5 percent, which protects against losing the buying power of this policy over time.

It does add to the premium, but I think it's an important piece. There's a waiting period, which is kind of like a deductible on your home or auto insurance, but it's a number of days before the policy kicks in. So the longer the waiting period, like 60 or 90 days, the lower the premium as opposed to the pricier first-day benefits options. And then there's of course the benefit period. Most folks will say 3 to 5 years' worth of coverage is your best option just because on the average women need these policies for a little over 3 years, usually close to 4, men for close to 2 years. And so if you had something in that 3 to 5 year range, you would pretty much cover most folks' need for this type of care. And the idea is it's just offsetting this major risk of a huge expense being added to your monthly budget that you're not able to sustain in this season of life, which could erode your assets.

So I think checking into it is certainly a good idea. What did you say your age was? I'm 73. Okay.

So at 73, you can still get long-term care insurance if you have good health and a good family health record, but it's probably going to be expensive. I mean, this is something you could expect to pay $4,500 a year for, $400 a month. So I realize that's a significant amount that may or may not be able to be absorbed into your budget.

So I think you've got to look at your budget, get somebody to quote a policy for you and just see if it makes sense to you. Okay? Okay. All right.

Very good. Well, Lori, we appreciate your call today. All the best to you and thanks for listening to MoneyWise Live. Phone lines are open 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Whatever's on your mind today, whether it's saving or investing, perhaps it's long-term care or some other type of insurance, or maybe you want to know how to be more effective in your giving.

Or how to decide how much to give. We'd love to tackle any of those and whatever else you might have for us. Again, here's the number 800-525-7000. Shay is in Chicago, Illinois, WMBI. Hi, Shay. Hi. Hi, Rob. How are you? Very well, thanks. Go right ahead.

Thank you for taking my call. Just two short questions. One is, my husband and I have an excess of a profit that we made from selling our townhome. We want to know if we should take that and apply it towards our payoff of both of our vehicles or put it towards our mortgage. I see. Yeah, so this was a second property, not your primary residence, this townhome, and you don't have specific plans on redeploying this apart from just your financial goals, is that right? Yes, partly, because we sold a townhome, we actually bought a single family, but we made a nice profit from selling a townhome, so we don't have anything specific that we have to do with the money. Okay, very good.

So we wanted to make the best use of it, you know. Sure, yeah. And the townhome was your primary residence prior to you selling it? Yes.

Okay, all right. So you don't have any taxes, so I would just kind of run through your priority use of these funds. First question I would ask is, do you want to give based on some of the increase? And beyond that, I would be looking to shore up your emergency fund if you don't have one or it's not fully funded, and I would say fully funded would be somewhere between three and six months' worth of living expenses that you should have in a savings account with FDIC insurance, preferably a high-yield account, where you're at least getting a little bit of interest, but it's there for you to fall back on. Beyond that, I would be looking to probably pay off consumer debt. So if you don't have credit cards, the next highest priority for me, just because the interest rate's typically going to be a little bit higher and you could probably pay these off in full, would be the cars. And I would look at continuing to pay yourself the same monthly payment that you had been paying, but put it into a fund to at least get you on your way to a car replacement fund, so next time you have to replace an automobile, you've got cash to do it and you can get out of the cycle of borrowing. If you had money left over after that and you're already saving for retirement separately, using some of this money to accelerate the mortgage payoff by just increasing what you're sending beyond that scheduled monthly payment is going to go a long way. Even just $100 a month on a typical mortgage over the life of the loan is going to cut off four years of the 30-year mortgage, so you can really make a dent by just adding something, but I would look at giving, emergency fund, car debt repayment, and then mortgage beyond that. Does that all make sense?

It does, yes. We have some savings already. We definitely have the emergency fund already saved and we have some savings in addition to that. We also have money we paid towards our retirement pension at work. And so that's why we thought, you know, if we have this money, go ahead and just pay both vehicles off, although it is a nice chunk of money, but it still would free up that money where we could start putting more towards our mortgage. Yes, I like that. I think that's a great plan and clearly we want to be moving toward being debt-free over time. Shay, thank you for your call today. We appreciate you checking in with us. 2 Corinthians 10 tells us to take every thought captive to obey Christ and Paul knew that what you think becomes what you believe and eventually what you do.

God cares about how we think about money, which is why he gave us over 2,000 verses on this topic in terms of how we should think about it and handle his money. That's what we're going to explore right around the corner. Stay with us. This is MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West and we'll be right back. We're grateful you joined us for MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We're also grateful for our partners, those supporters of MoneyWise Media that help us do what we do every day. If you'd like to consider a gift to MoneyWise Media, we'd certainly appreciate it. Just head over to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, click the donate button. You can give quickly, safely, and we would certainly be grateful.

Again, MoneyWiseLive.org, click donate. We're going to head back to the phones. We've got 1, 2, 3, 4 lines open. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We're going to be talking about paying off some credit card debt. We're going to be talking about buying a car, but Cornelius in Tampa wants to talk about a reverse mortgage. Cornelius, go right ahead. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, sir.

Oh, thank you for taking my call. I'm 53 and my wife is 52. She has a retirement. In seven years, she can retire, but we're both thinking about retiring at, well, stop working at age 52. We've got about 10 more years, so we're thinking about doing a reverse mortgage to make up for my retirement. We figure we need about $3,500 a month after retirement to live on, and her income will probably be about $2,000, and then I'll need another $1,500. So we're thinking about doing a reverse mortgage once we age 62.

Well, you certainly can do that. A reverse mortgage is a way to earn some extra income if you're 62 or older and you've got enough equity in the house. I'm not a huge fan of them just because they're typically somewhat expensive. The fees are generally higher with a reverse mortgage as opposed to a traditional mortgage. If you want to leave the home to your heirs, they would, of course, have to pay it off, but that would be down the road. If you want to remain in the home, which obviously you would, it makes it a little more difficult if you decide to downsize or no longer live there. And then you have to keep up, of course, with the property taxes and the maintenance. But I think just using debt, the equity in the home to fund lifestyle is not my first choice. I'd rather you all save as diligently as you can between now and that time. Perhaps consider working a little bit longer until you can allow Social Security to kick in and perhaps put more aside of your own savings. And then perhaps look at downsizing in that season and not using necessarily a reverse mortgage. But if you want to retire earlier, and this is really your only source of funds, then certainly that's what it's there for. And as long as you hit that 62 mark at a minimum, you can certainly convert that equity into an income stream.

And I think you just need to be well planned, but I would just count the costs, realize there's an embedded interest rate plus all the fees and so forth, and think through all the implications before you make that decision to retire at 62, as opposed to waiting where you can save and perhaps let your Social Security build up, which could cover that gap. Does that make sense, though, Cornelius? Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. Listen, God bless you, buddy.

You've got some time, obviously, so just pray through this and think through it, but in the meantime, keep your lifestyle modest and try to save as much as you can. 800-525-7000, Noblesville, Indiana. Hi, Joel. Go right ahead. Rob, I just want to say thank you for your ministry and need some guidance today.

All right. So I was an addict for about 20 years. God saved my life with my wife, but kind of got into a pickle financially. Didn't do the best things in my life.

I've been walking with Christ for about four years now. I'm really working on getting my credit rebuilt. Just recently got full custody of my daughter, who's turning 16. I've got a car that's paid off. My wife has a car that's a lease we're looking to purchase. We spent all of our funds, all of our emergency funds, on an attorney to get my child back. So right now we're in a pickle with lenders.

Obviously, with the car market being the way it is, everything's a little price more than it is. So I heard an episode, I want to say a few months back, where you had talked about Christian lenders that lent their own personal money still went off of our credit scores. And I couldn't find anything on that on the website.

Yeah, I don't recall that episode. You know, we've talked a good bit just about this move toward investing that is aligned with your faith, and we talked recently about even bonds that use debt, where the source of funds is meant to be serving a kingdom purpose. But not necessarily lenders. I will say, though, first of all, I'm delighted to hear your story, Joel. So thankful that we serve a God who's in the business of restoration, and that's certainly your walking testimony of that.

Delighted to hear about your daughter and that reconciliation as well. You know, you could certainly look toward a Christian credit union. That would be a great option. I could throw two out ECCU, the Evangelical Christian Credit Union, and Thrivent Credit Union. Both serve Christians at large.

Both offer automobile loans, and you would know that you're using a Christian organization, a Christian credit union in this case. So we've got to hit a break. Stay on the line. We'll talk some more off the air, and we'll be right back. Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. Here's the number to call today. Taking your calls on anything financial. 800-525-7000. Hey, would you like a financial professional, an investment advisor, a financial planner, tax or accountant, a estate planning attorney, an insurance agent who shares your values? Well, a certified kingdom advisor has met high standards in terms of experience and integrity and character, and yes, training in delivering professional, biblically wise financial advice. You can find a CKA in your area. There's more than 1,200 of them around the country.

By going to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, just click Find a CKA. 800-525-7000. Back to the phones.

We'll be in Tampa in a moment, in Chicago, but first, Canton, Ohio, WCRF. Hi, Therese. Hi.

How can I help? Well, I didn't know about this number, but my brother gave it to me. I was working and I was paying on my credit card. I am now 7,000 down to 7,700. And I had to quit working because of the pandemic. My pulmonologist told me to get out of the field and get out right now because I have COPD with emphysema. So anyways, to make a long story short, I don't have the money that they are expecting for a minimum payment now that I'm not working. Yes, yes.

Well, a couple of thoughts on that. First of all, I'm sorry to hear about your health status and we'll certainly ask the MoneyWiseLive community to pray that the Lord would touch and heal you of what you're describing. Secondly, as it relates to managing these bills, namely the credit card debt of around 8,000 on a fixed income, I realize that can be a real challenge.

Because this was due to the pandemic, even though some of these benefits are beginning to close, I would at the very least, if you haven't already, call your credit card company to let them know of your status. And they're very willing to work with you, especially in light of what's happening around us. And they may be willing to reduce those monthly payments. I'd also like for you to connect with my friends at Christian Credit Counselors. It's christiancreditcounselors.org. And what they will be able to do is look at each of your debts and determine if through a credit counseling program, they would be able to get the interest rates reduced and get you on one monthly payment that would cover all the credit card companies that actually fits into your budget. They may not be able to, but they may. And if they could, that would be huge because the combination of you paying that one monthly payment every month with the reduction in the interest rates that they're often able to get for you would allow you to pay off. Well, on average, this debt would be paid off 80% faster than if you just go it alone. So the number is 800-557-1985.

That's 800-557-1985 or christiancreditcounselors.org if you use the web. And I'd like for you to start there. And then depending upon what they say, we can kind of take it from that point. Does that make sense?

That makes sense. And what was the number? 1-800-577-1985? Let me try one more time.

Here you go. It's 800, you're close. 800-557-1985. 557.

1985. Yes, ma'am. And listen, all the best to you. Let me pray for you before we let you go. Father, we just lift up Therese to you and you know her situation.

You created her, Lord. And we're just going to call on you as the great physician. We just ask for healing for her body. And Lord, we ask you to give her wisdom as she navigates her financial journey using your resources for your glory, Lord.

Help her to have a plan that can allow her to get out from under this credit card debt. We're going to trust you in the process. Thank you that you are our provider and you never leave us or forsake us. And we love you. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, Therese.

On to Chicago, Illinois, WMBI. Hi, Frank. How can I help you, sir? How are you doing?

Yeah, that's great. I'm 66 years old. I'm collecting Social Security. I don't have no 401K.

I have like a savings of thirty five thousand. I do have health problems. I just wanted to get some Godly counsel for, you know, while I'm still here on this earth. You know what to do, you know, because, you know, I don't know what to do.

Well, I can certainly appreciate that, Frank. So you are not working, is that right? No, I'm on Social Security right now.

I just collected about a year. OK. Do you have the ability to work with your health issues? So and so, but I'm kind of the work that I do. It's kind of hard because of the pandemic as well, you know. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, the good news is there's a lot of jobs out there. You know, a lot of companies, restaurants and all sorts of industries are being impacted by a shortage of workers. So I would love to see you work at least part time in something that maximizes your skill set, gives you some enjoyment, gets you out of the house, but gives you an additional source of income because, you know, once you reach full retirement age, you can earn as much as you want from working and not impact your Social Security benefits. So I think that's the first opportunity is just to ask the Lord to give you some wisdom there as you try to find a job, either part time or full time to have some supplemental income. Then on a fixed income, the key is obviously keeping your lifestyle as modest as possible and really taking a hard look at those expenses as you build your plan around, hopefully, your Social Security benefits. But then if you are able to work, perhaps, you know, that goes right into savings. So that beyond that thirty five thousand, which is a great start, you can start building up something that perhaps gets invested so that, you know, down the road, if you have further health issues that are problematic or you need some some care of some kind that you've begun to build some assets. And so while you're able to, I would look to be working while you can. Also, consider reaching out to one of our Money Wise coaches on our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

They can look over your plan and actually give you perhaps some ideas on how you can put that spending plan together in a way that works for you. But I know this can be a challenge. Just know that the Lord is there and he is your provider, Frank.

No one else. So trust in him and try to be found faithful as you manage what you have coming in on a daily basis. And we appreciate you checking in with us today.

On to Tampa, Florida. Hi, Pat. How can I help you? Well, hi, Rob. What a pleasure to talk to you.

Well, you're sweet. I'm delighted you've called today. Well, actually, God told me to call you.

I was praying this afternoon about a decision that has to be made. And my husband's been constantly asking me, you know, I want to we want to he says, I want to pay off the house. And he approached me about this probably a couple of weeks ago. And all of our we're I'm 75 and he's almost 70. And so and he works a part time job two days a week because he had health.

He had no open heart surgery a few years back. So as it stands right now, we could do it. But I I'm hesitant only because this house is had a. You there? Yes, I sure am.

The music that you hear just means we're headed to a break. So let's do this, Pat. I want to hear the rest of your question. And I definitely want to be able to weigh in on where God is leading you and what might make the most sense from a financial standpoint.

So I got the first part of it and I'll let you finish your question right on the other side of this break. And then we'll chat about it. This is Money Wise Live biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We still have more to come just around the corner, so don't go anywhere. We'd love to hear from you. We've got some great calls. We'll be right back.

Come. Thanks for joining us on Money Wise Live. Just before the break, Pat from Tampa, Florida, was telling us that the Lord has been impressing upon her and her husband. This idea that they want to be completely debt free, pay off their home.

There's 70 in their 70s. And Pat, tell me the rest of the story, just in terms of what is the balance on that mortgage? Where would the funds come from to pay it off?

Because you said you have the ability to do it. And then kind of where you both are at with this decision. Thank you, Rob. There's about $50,000 owed on the house. And the money would come from just building up our savings and from 401K stuff that rolled over. So, I mean, we're, you know, earning an interest about not even a dollar a month, an interest on that money. And as far as debt is concerned, we pay off our cars are paid for.

We drive older cars and God keeps it running. And so, you know, the money would be there. We pay off our bills monthly. And so we don't have any except the mortgage and what we pay off monthly. OK, give me a quick rundown of the liquid assets that you have. So what do you have in savings and then what do you have in retirement accounts? Well, in our savings account, we probably have $65,000, something like that. And in retirement account, my husband's one of his is tied up in it from a rollover and he can't get that out right now. But the total of all the retirement accounts roughly would be how much? Well, I have annuity and so I don't know, probably $200,000. OK, and are you living on any portion of that? Have you annuitized and you're pulling money out of that annuity or anything out of the other accounts?

Well, every year, well, it's only been a few years, but I go ahead and take the RMD. When it comes due, I take it and I just consider that to be like my part-time job. OK, yeah. But apart from that, you're really living on Social Security, is that right?

Yes, and he works two days a week part-time. OK, yeah. All right. Well, I like the idea of you all being debt-free, especially if the Lord has really given you both a conviction around that, then do it and don't look back. The only thing that gives me pause is just that your liquid savings, which I realize you're not earning a whole lot on, would drop from $65,000 to $15,000. And I'd love for you to have at least six months' worth of expenses and you may not be quite there when you're done with this. But you could pull a little bit maybe from the retirement account.

You'd have to pay some tax on it. I would preserve at least six months or I'd prefer you to have a full year at your age and where you're at in savings. And so I think that would be the only question is perhaps you pull half from savings and maybe the other half from these retirement accounts. And then what money is freed up by you no longer making a mortgage payment, just pay that right back into your savings account to build that up.

But if you all kind of are both on the same page about this and given what you've told me today, I like the idea of you all being completely debt-free and having the peace of mind that comes with it and lowering your monthly need because now you don't have that mortgage payment. That's right, and that's what he said too. But the thing about it is our home had instability under the foundation and we had to have it – well, the insurance company paid for it. They remediated it or had it remediated it and that's a long story in itself. Has that been resolved? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. And do you have any other major repairs coming up?

No, we just – we got a new roof last year and a new hot water heater by the way. There you go. Very good. Well, listen, Pat, I like this plan. I mean the only pause I have is just that it would take your savings down a good bit. But if perhaps you balance it between the IRA and the pulling from the savings, I think that would be best.

Check with your advisor before you pull it out just to see are there any penalties and then obviously factor in the tax implications. But I think you all will be pleased when this is done and just keep your lifestyle at a minimum so you can build that emergency fund back up when that mortgage payment is gone. And listen, tell your husband hello and we appreciate you checking in with us. Lord bless you, Pat.

Let's head to Ocean Park, Washington. Hi, Kelly. How can I help you?

Good afternoon. My question is about donor advice funds. I've been doing a little bit of light reading on the internet. They seem like an excellent opportunity. I purchased some stock in the dip in March 2020 and it's become highly appreciated and my plan was always to tithe from that. But it looks like with the donor advice funds, I can take the opportunity now to move the tithe off that it's built up at this point, worry about increase later.

But I'm just wondering, are there any caveats or cautions that I need to be concerned with? There really aren't, Kelly. I love the donor advice fund. It's one of my favorite tools for giving. To do just what you said, you could take the portion you were going to give as a tithe and rather than selling it, paying the capital gain, you just move the shares into your donor advice fund that's sold and then the cash can then be directed by you in the form of giving to your favorite charity or ministry. Another strategy that's really powerful when you have appreciated stock is if you're going to do some giving anyway out of cash, rather than making that gift out of cash, move those appreciated stocks into your donor advice fund. They're sold. You get the deduction and the full value goes to the ministry.

No taxes are paid. And then rebuy the same shares with that cash, which resets your cost basis. So that's another approach. If you have kind of a pile of cash, if you will, that you were going to make a large gift with, you could just replace those stocks and save the capital gains. But in either case, I think it's a great option. I would encourage you to visit National Christian Foundation, ncfgiving.com, open what they call a giving fund, which is just their name for their donor advice fund, and do it all through NCF.

It's a phenomenal ministry, one of the largest charities in the world, and they'll take good care of you. Okay? That sounds great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right, Kelly. God bless you, bud.

On to Madison, Wisconsin. Hi, Ruth. How can I help you? Hi, I have a friend who's just recently gone through a divorce. She's needing to refinance her home in order to stay in it. She's applying for that mortgage on her own. Just looking for some advice for a gal who's godly and finding herself in a tough spot in life.

Any thoughts as to and no other debt that I know of. Okay, well, first of all, I'm delighted to hear that you're walking alongside her because I know this is a difficult season. And, you know, you don't want to make a lot of decisions that you don't have to. I realize she has to solve for her housing situation, but she's not going to want to make a lot of changes until she gets, you know, I would say perhaps six months beyond this. Just for the Lord to give her a vision for what this next season of her life is going to look like and how her resources can support that money as a tool. I guess the only caution, Ruth, would be is this the home for her, meaning does it truly fit into her budget whether or not a lender will give her the money on her own or not? And has she gone through and put together that new spending plan and does it balance? And is this mortgage payment going to be, you know, no more than 25% of her take-home pay as just kind of a rule of thumb? And does she have the ability to save or is it going to stretch her and, you know, create a little bit more difficulty beyond what's already, you know, difficult in terms of the other circumstances?

So that would be the biggest issue is just is this the right place? Can she afford it? And then beyond that, I would just look at not only putting that spending plan in place, but in terms of the process of the refi, she's going to want to make sure she gets at least three quotes. So she could go to her bank, but I'd use at least two online lenders. Go to bankrate.com to find out who has the most attractive loan programs right now. It changes all the time depending on who has what money to lend. But, you know, for the largest transaction of our lives, oftentimes we just get one quote from one lender and I'd love for her to get at least three so she can get a good rate. But keep those expenses low, ideally no more than two to three percent at the most of the mortgage.

So $200,000 mortgage, you know, $4,000 to $6,000 at the most in terms of the expenses. Does all that make sense to you? Yes, it does. Thank you so much. Okay. Hey, all the best to you. And if we can help with anything else, let us know. And quickly to Sunbury, PA. Hi Ann, I've got just a minute left. I apologize.

We're close to the end, but how can I help? Yes, my husband and I are both looking at retiring and he has a 401k and I have a pension with my employer. And we're just, we don't need, you know, we have no debt and we're looking at which is the best to draw on first, whether it's his 401k or Social Security and let the 401k grow.

Yeah. The thing about waiting on Social Security is you're going to get a guaranteed 8% increase every year you wait versus the 401k. There's not going to be any kind of guarantee. And I expect the market to be somewhat choppy in the next couple of years where I don't think we're going to see the kind of growth rates we had seen in the stock market in the last, let's say two years in particular, but even over the last 10 years.

So I'd say probably look into that 401k just from my opinion and letting that Social Security grow would probably be a tax advantage, advantaged from a return standpoint just because of that guaranteed return on the Social Security. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air. Unfortunately, we're out of time. Folks, thanks for joining us today.

This was MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West and thanks to my team, Amy Rios, Dan Anderson, Gabby T answering phones today, and Mr. Jim Henry providing research. Thank you for being here. Come back and join us tomorrow. I'll be here and we'll look for you there. God bless you.