Talking to God about Money

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. One listener that stands out that I've worked with recently was this older couple that was interested in refinancing. Their credit wasn't the best. 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? 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, and they could start saving money each month, saving for retirement, which just put a huge smile on my face. Philippians 4-6 is an open invitation to talk to God. It reads, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

I am Rob West. Of course, there are conditions. We must pray as the Bible teaches, especially about money. God isn't an ATM machine. I'll talk about that first today, 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. Some people might question whether it's okay to ask God for financial help or pray for money. So first off, let's dispel the notion that God doesn't care about money or that it's wrong to pray about your finances.

Nothing in the Bible says that. If it's important to you, it's important to God. He wants to be a part of your life, your whole life. And besides that, you might as well talk to Him about your finances.

He already knows them down to the last penny. 1 John 5-14 reads, Now, let's unpack that. There are two key points in that verse. First, you can ask God for anything. Second, He will hear your prayer if it's according to His will.

That's where things get a bit trickier. How do we know what God's will is for us so that we can ask for things within it? It's critical to understand that throughout the Bible, God promises to meet your needs, not necessarily your wants and desires. If you feel a prayer has gone unanswered, you could be mistaking a need for a want.

Also, God may answer your prayer in ways you could never dream of. So let's look at a need versus a want. A home and roof over your head is a need.

A want could be a four-bedroom house with three and a half baths, a downstairs rec room, three-car garage, and a jacuzzi. Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with any of those things, if it's God's plan for you and your family. Every circumstance is different, and God's plan for every family is different. The key is to find His will for your life and to learn to be content with what He provides, even when you see others in the neighborhood with more. First Timothy 6 tells us, Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. You see there, the Apostle Paul isn't even asking for a house, just food and clothing, so he can continue to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. I'm not saying you should take a vow of poverty and head into the mission fields, necessarily.

I'm just trying to give you perspective. Contentment and gratitude are important because God owns everything, and He is our ultimate provider. John 3 27 says a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You see, we are simply his stewards, and as such, we're expected to manage his resources according to his principles.

If you're not doing that, it's a good place to start. Otherwise, how can you expect God to provide more? First Corinthians 4 2 reads, Something else to keep in mind, God's plan for you may only be for a season. He may someday give you a big raise, make you the head of the company you work for, or send you to the mission field.

You must practice patience and wait on the Lord. You see, God is always faithful to meet our needs. He's not some rigid divine scrooge who delights in our struggles. Paul says in Romans 8 32, he did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? Okay, now that you're making sure that you're praying for help within God's will, is there anything else to consider?

Well, yes, there is. If you're really struggling to keep a roof over your head and food on the table, it could be that God plans to meet your needs through the abundance of a fellow believer. He gives abundance to some so they can share with people in need.

And by doing that, his love and glory are demonstrated to an unbelieving world. Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 8 14, at the present time, your plenty will supply what they need so that in turn, their plenty will supply what you need. That means if you struggle with an unmet need, let your church family know about it. You'll have to set aside your pride, but God will be glorified as your needs are met through the church family. Present yourself and your need with humility to your church leaders and be grateful for whatever course they decide. God has not abandoned you or overlooked your needs.

His plan is to provide for you in a way that meets your needs according to his will. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Thanks for joining us for Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. So glad you're along with us today. In just a moment, we'll be taking your calls and questions on anything financial. I've got some lines open for you though, if you have a question and you'd like to get in on the conversation today, we'd love to have you. Here's the number, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. So why do we take an hour each day to talk about money? Is it because we want more of it or we feel like we need bigger barns or something other than that?

No, not that at all. It's because God's word dedicates so much time in the way of so many passages to this topic. You know, my experience is that our financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes our spiritual journey. You know, the way we allocate God's money, and that's the starting point, it's all his, it reveals what we value, where we've placed our trust. And I think when we get this area of our lives right, meaning we've put it under the Lordship of Christ along with everything else when we surrender our lives to him, it has a meaningful effect on every other area that will ultimately lead to a more intimate relationship with the Father. The key is we want to get it right. We want to know God's heart as it relates to our money and bring all of that in line with biblical truth, which by the way is always right, always relevant, and will never change.

We certainly can't say that about the economy, the markets, or the tax code. So let's do that together today. Perhaps we'll dive into Scripture and see if we can apply these principles to what's going on in your financial life. Here's the number 800-525-7000. We'll begin today in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Jean. How can I help you? Hi. Yes, thank you so much for your show.

I listen to it on the radio every day that I'm at home. Oh, thank you. I'm delighted to hear that. And I'm in my later years and I'm cashing in a life insurance policy because it will be decreasing in value. And I know first I'm going to tithe on it, and the second I know I have to pay capital gains on the entire amount, and I just would look for a safe place to put it. Yes.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you mentioned the capital gains because you would typically have gains in there, and on the earnings is what you would typically be taxed for on the capital gains. So just be aware of that and make sure you know what that amount is so you can set it aside and perhaps even pay it in in advance. Jean, what do you expect to receive in the way of proceeds after the taxes are paid? What do you think you'll have left?

Probably, I'm thinking maybe 25,000. Okay, very good. And do you have separate from this some emergency savings that's liquid?

I do. Okay. And you feel like you have enough, perhaps somewhere between six and 12 months worth of savings? Probably not that much.

Probably three months. Okay. Yeah, you know, I think in this season of life, I'd love for you to have more, and you know, a lot of that comes down to just what your income sources are. Are you living exclusively on Social Security or are you drawing another source of income alongside that?

No, it's Social Security and a very, very small part of my part of my husband's pension. I see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Alrighty. And is that enough, Jean, to cover your expenses each month?

It is. I don't need that much because the older I get, the less I really want. Okay, I understand that.

Sure. Simplicity is a good thing. You know, I think having as much as six to 12 months worth of expenses in emergency savings is a good thing.

You know, you mentioned, where do I put it that's safe? And I think that's really the key. If you don't want to have this at the risk of any of the, you know, in what we call risk assets. So stocks, there's risk, obviously, there's more conservative companies and more aggressive companies that are more growth oriented, but they all have the ability to lose value.

The same with bonds, right? So there's a coupon, an interest rate associated with them, but the underlying price of the bond while we're collecting that coupon rate can lose value. And so you could invest it in a stock or a bond, and you could open your statement one month and see that your principal balance has declined below what you put in.

And if you don't want that possibility, then you really only have two options. Number one would be just to put it in a high yield savings account. Number two would be to put it in some CDs, certificates of deposit.

Neither of those are paying a whole lot right now. You might find, you know, with a high yield online bank savings account, which I would be comfortable with, it carries FDIC insurance. Right now you're paying, you're going to receive about a half a percent.

So with inflation, you're actually losing purchasing power every year, although we expect to see interest rates rising. CDs aren't much better and you have to lock up your money for a stated period of time. Beyond that, you'd need to look to another insurance product, probably an annuity, where in exchange for you putting some money in, maybe this $25,000 or some portion of it, they would tell you that they're going to guarantee that you don't lose value and then you'd at least get some guaranteed return on it, some interest rate that's attached to that policy. Those tend to be a little expensive in terms of the fees and so forth that's built into that and they're very complicated.

They also make your money illiquid, meaning as you're seeing here, you can't get it back, you know, without paying a surrender charge and other fees. So if you want to hang on to your principal gene and you don't want any risk associated with it, I think the thing to do right now would just be to put it in a high yield savings account. If you're comfortable with an online bank, that's where you're going to get the best rate. You could attach it to your checking account and then as the interest rates head up over the next six to twelve months, perhaps we could move it into a CD at that point and get a little bit more. But it's not going to be very exciting in terms of the way of returns go, but at least you'll protect your principal. But give me your thoughts on that and tell me, were you thinking something different than that?

Can you give me some names of high yield savings? I can, I'd be happy to. Yeah. Are you comfortable online? Would you be open to an online bank? I'm not really right now.

I do have online, but I just do it by phone. Okay. Yeah.

Internet I have is a little bit on my telephone. I see. Okay. Yeah.

And you could do that as well. The reason the online banks pay more, Jean, is just because they don't have to take the money that they're earning by loaning your money out and pay for all those brick and mortar buildings. And so they're able to pass that along. So there's one called Marcus, M-A-R-C-U-S. You'll find it at marcus.com. That's a division of Goldman Sachs. They're paying about a half a percent right now. Another is Ally Bank, A-L-L-Y.

I like Ally a lot. Great customer service and they offer high yield savings as well. And then a third would be Capital One 360, Capital One.

And any of those are going to be paying about the same right now at that 0.5 to 0.6 percent. But as I said, it's going to give you FDIC insurance backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. And if you want to do most of your business over the phone, I would recommend probably Ally Bank. They have tremendous customer service.

And right there on their website, they tell you at any second how long you're going to wait when you call the toll free number to speak to somebody, which is really nice. So Ally Bank would probably be the way to go. That's going to protect what you've got.

And then as the rates head up, you could look for some other options, perhaps a CD down the road. Okay. Okay.

And Ally is spelled A-L-L-Y? Yes, ma'am. And you'll find it online on your phone there at Ally.com.

And right there at the top of the page, you'll see the phone number. Okay. And CD? I would look at an online savings account right now where you have access to your money at any time. CDs perhaps down the road, there's just not enough additional yield there in order to justify you tying this money up for the next 12 or 24 months.

So I'd stick with the online savings account. If you have further questions along the way, you give us a call back and may the Lord bless you. Jean, thanks for your kind remarks and for listening today. We appreciate it very, very much. Quickly to Omaha, Nebraska. Hi, Jane.

How can I help? Hi, Rob. I appreciate your program. And I have a question today regarding loan modification. I would like to retire, but I would like to get my mortgage loan down because it keeps growing with, you know, the property tax and insurance amount.

And to retire, I would just like to get that down further. And I currently owe 65,000 on it. And I haven't had luck finding a bank who wants to deal with that amount of money. And my loan company had said for like $250, I could get a loan modification. But does that have a negative effect on credit?

Or it could? Yes, it could have a slight negative effect on your credit score. What is the interest rate attached to this mortgage, Jane? 3.659.

All right, so you're not going to save a whole lot. You said you only owe 65,000. What's the remaining term on it? How many years do you have left?

I have about 20 years, and I'm 65. And I just really don't want to be paying till 85. I have been putting down like an extra 50 a month. And recently, I moved that up to an extra 100 a month. But once I retire, and no longer working, I think that's gonna, that's gonna be a good portion of what I will have to retire on with Social Security and investment. Yeah, well, I look at both options, you know, the problem with loan modification is some of them are a debt settlement and for people in a hardship situation, what you may want to be asking about is essentially a re-amortization where they would take either because you have a lump sum or because you have more equity in the house, and just recast the remaining payments, recalculate them based on this new lower principal balance or the more equity that you have. And, you know, do that at a lower cost. But I'd also check to see if you could find a mortgage company that would do the refinance as well, as long as you could get that down, you know, under 2%, excuse me, under 3%, it'd be worth looking at to compare.

But I'd call your mortgage company and ask about a re-amortization to see if that would get you the payment you're looking for. At the end of the day, we want to pay this off as quick as we can. We'll be right back. Stay with us. So glad to have you with us on MoneyWise Live today. I was able to finish with Jane off the air there.

Let me just tell you where we landed. She's wanting to get that payment down, but she does have the ability without touching her savings to add another $20,000 or $30,000 to the mortgage. And she just needs that payment a little lower. With her low interest rate of around 3.5%, it's going to be expensive for her to refinance and it's going to take a long time for her to make those costs back up because the reduction in interest on a new 25-year mortgage is not going to be enough to cover those costs anytime soon.

So she's going to look at a re-amortization where after she puts down this $20,000 or $30,000, they'll recast the payments, which will give her a little more breathing room and hopefully keep her on track to get this mortgage paid off as quick as she can without adding a lot of additional cost through a refinance. But Jane, we appreciate your call today very much. We've got a couple of lines open, 800-525-7000. Before we go back to the phones, let me remind you, we'd love for you to sign up for our new MoneyWise Weekly Wisdom email. It goes out every Thursday night, that's tonight, and we want to make sure one is delivered to your inbox. It's our Weekly Wisdom, it's a digest of the best articles and podcasts for the week on biblical money management. There's an encouraging scripture passage in there, I share a thought for the week with you, and I think it'll be a great source of encouragement and education as you learn to handle money God's way.

The easiest way to sign up is to either download the MoneyWise app in your app store at MoneyWiseBiblicalFinance, wherever you get apps, and just create a free account, or go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, scroll to the bottom of the page and you can quickly create a user account, there's no cost, and then we will be sure to deliver our MoneyWise Weekly Wisdom to you this evening. Look forward to that. All right, let's head back to the phones.

Bloomington, Illinois. Hi Brian, how can I help you? Hi Rob, thanks for taking my call, appreciate the show. I had a couple questions on annuities. One of them is a pension annuity, I guess, that's the best way to say it. Neither one of them are them, I mean one's $38,000 and the other one's $37,000, but I'm wondering if I should take the money and roll it over into an IRA or take the monthly payments. One of them, like I said, that one would be considered a pension, is about $202 a month only, but the return is like 6.24%, which isn't bad, and the other one is about 5%, and that's more of a traditional annuity, I would say. Okay, yeah, I mean you do have the ability, as long as they're qualified annuities, the pension certainly would be, and if the other is, then you could roll those annuities established with pre-tax dollars into a traditional IRA. And there are some advantages there, you of course get control over the investment decisions, you can pass it to a beneficiary, the fees are lower and easier to understand, frankly, and you can also pick the IRA that will help your particular tax situation. But I think the key is, you know, why someone would want to annuitize is if perhaps they had a shortfall in their monthly income versus expenses, and this guaranteed amount would solve that, and they just have peace of mind knowing that that's going to do the trick. If you don't need this though, and you're willing to take some risk over the long haul, I think the question is could you do better, but depending on the season of life you're in, if you'd be in a very conservative posture, especially given probably what we're going to see with the market over the next several years, you know, there's something to be said about a six percent return guarantee.

So I could go either way, I think it really just comes down to what gives you the most peace of mind, what fits into your plan and your budget, do you want to take risk with it, and if so, are you willing to trade that additional risk for a potential higher rate of return? So you pray and think about that. If you have other questions, give us a call back. Stay tuned, we'll be back after this break. Well, we've got some great questions lined up here on MoneyWise Live. We're going to cover a number of topics, the difference between deposit insurance between banks and credit unions, what happens to your 401k after someone passes away, what about debt that your parents have out there?

What about debt that your parents have outstanding after they pass? And a whole host of issues we're going to be covering here today, but I've got room for one or two more between now and the top of the hour. We'd love to hear from you, 800-525-7000. Our team is standing by, we'd love to hear from you, 800-525-7000.

Let's go to Tennessee, WMBW. Hi Larry, how can I help you, sir? Yes, I've got a book coming out within the next few days. It'll be a new release and the companies that are selling the book, you know, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and such, they've got a price of what their price is, but if I buy the book myself and sell it, I can get it for a reduced price. Yeah. If I sell it for the full price, is that usury?

No, no, no. So Hebrews in the Old Testament were forbidden to charge interest from one another, so believer to believer, which was called usury, so in that sense it meant charging any interest of another Hebrew. Today the term has come to mean charging an exorbitant or illegal interest rate, although it was redefined as truth in lending a number of years ago, which basically just said there is no more usury as long as you disclose what the interest rate is, you can charge whatever you want, which I have a problem with. But there's no connection, Larry, between usury and what you charge for your book. You're entitled to ask whatever you want and to give discounts wherever you wish, so long as you're using your author's discount appropriately based on your contractual agreement with the publisher, whether you self-published or not. But apart from you being prohibited from selling it and undercutting somebody else, you can do whatever you want. I think the key is you're worthy of your hire, you spent the time to write the book, people want to buy it. I think it really comes down to what is the value there, and obviously you're going to have to compare that against other titles and what people are paying for books these days. But you know, frankly, you can set that wherever you want and let the market determine whether or not they're going to buy it, but it really wouldn't be connected to usury in any way.

Okay, that's all I needed to know. I'm not going to go over the price that the publisher suggested. I just didn't want anyone to be able to say, hey, that's usury, you know, I just don't want to do that. I want to be honest with everybody and I want, okay. What's it on, Larry, if you don't mind me asking, what'd you write on? Well, the title was, can I say the title? Sure, go ahead.

Upon the Throne, Chambers of His Imagery, and it deals with the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of Satan, and the nature of Holy Spirit. Wow, very good. Well, listen, congratulations on that coming out. I'm sure it was a labor of love. And yet, I'm glad it's, I'm sure you're glad it's behind you and you can get it out so people can enjoy it. Well, we appreciate you checking in with us today and all the best on your upcoming release.

To Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Hi, Marvin. How can I help you, sir?

Hello. I was calling about a warranty on a car. I bought a vehicle about, wow, 2017.

It was new, but it was used and that I rented it for two months while my car was under a recall for an airbag. But anyways, I'm the only owner for the car and the warranty ran out. And so, I waited a little while and I bought, bought another warranty recently. And I'm just wondering, I thought I heard you say something on the radio the other day that you wouldn't advise you doing so.

Yeah, yeah. Well, extended warranty is based on the research and obviously there's always exceptions and I'm sure there's plenty of people listening to the program right now that would say, no, it was great for me. I had a transmission go out and the extended warranty covered it and it would have been a huge expense.

But on the average, based on the Consumer Reports studies and others, extended warranties are terrific for the companies that sell them, but not so much for the consumer. One study that our team looked at recently showed that these companies only use about 12% of their revenue on claims and overhead. The rest is profit, which means there's a lot of margin in there based on how people actually use these things. So, I think for most folks, it's better just to put that same amount of money in your emergency fund and earmark it for needed repairs, then it's there. And once you've built that up, you know, you don't have any more expense on an ongoing basis. And if you don't need it, obviously you could reclaim it down the road, perhaps put it toward your next car. So, you know, ultimately it's a peace of mind thing.

Would you feel more comfortable having it and do you have the funds available? But I would just say on the average, doesn't tend to make a whole lot of sense, at least based on the data. So, I think a whole lot of sense, at least based on the data. So, hopefully that helps you, Marvin. We appreciate you checking in with us.

WGNR Indianapolis. Hi, Joe. Go right ahead. Hey, how's it going, Rob? I have a budgeting question. Basically, we're pretty good with our snowball and we have a decent emergency fund and we've been kicking some butt with some debt. But even through all that, we've had a tough time using the budget correctly. Currently, I use an online program that, you know, you can set the budget and you can track, it's linked to your bank and you can track what you've spent. And it turns out to be more of a tracking expense than it does a budgeting. So, it seems like we're easy to just spend and then go, well, we spent over, so I'm just going to make the numbers look right.

What advice do you have on the actual how to set a budget and stick with it? Yeah, it's a great question, Joe. And it's why we built our new MoneyWise app that's been out for about a year now. And I'd love for you to give it a try. In fact, I'll give you a pro subscription for six months so you can get it connected to all your institutions using Plaid, the largest financial aggregator in the business.

Venmo uses them and Amex and all the big ones. But here's the difference in why we built what we did. It's for exactly what you're talking about. There are different styles once you determine your budget of actually tracking and managing the flow of money in and out. You know, there's the tracking function, which is just, you know, what am I spending and putting it in categories just for your own awareness. And for some people, that's the starting point because they have no idea, frankly, where their money is going.

They know the big rock, so to speak, especially those things they get a bill for, but not much else. And then the second approach is what I call plan and track, which is what a lot of the apps on the market do today. You build a budget in the software or on paper, and then you track against it. How am I doing?

Well, I didn't do so well. And then it resets and you start over the next month. And then there's what I call the envelope system. You know, Larry Burkett, the late Larry Burkett, loved the envelope system back in his day.

They used, and many people still do. It's very effective physical envelopes where you actually cash your paycheck or a portion of it for the discretionary spending and literally put the bills in envelopes. Some people use kind of a small accordion type file, carry it with them wherever they go. And then you spend out of it when the money's gone, it's gone. It's really the most effective way because like I say, when the envelope's empty, you're done.

Well, we just took that and built it in a digital format. So in an app on your phone that you and your spouse can share, you're always in sync with your funding accounts in real time, and you know exactly what's in each envelope and you set it to fund automatically based on your pay schedule. So I think you should check that out. And then I'd love to hear how it's working for you. So stay on the line. You're going to download MoneyWise biblical finance from your app store, and we're going to give you a six month pro subscription. And then I want you to call me back and let me know how it goes.

All right, hang on. We're going to take a quick break, folks. We'll be back with much more on MoneyWise Live.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. So glad to have you along with us today. I'm Rob West, your host, and we've got some great questions lined up here. Let's go right back to the phones.

We'll go next to Kansas. Hi, Kevin, how can I help you? Hey, good afternoon. Hey, I've got my wife. Basically, she's thinking the BlackRock, whoever runs the whole stock market thing was corrupt. So she basically took her money out of 401k.

And I'm like, you know, you got to have something for retirement. And so, needless to say, she hasn't reinvested the money. I know she's going to pay taxes heavy, follow all that.

But is there anything, basically Christian-wise, what we can do instead of just taking money out and spending it? Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I think the first step is to get to the bottom of what it is she's wanting to avoid. Is it the risk of loss because she thinks the market's going to decline? Is it some other thing that she feels like she's misaligned with her values and in terms of the investments themselves?

Where do you feel like the issue is, Kevin? Well, I believe, you know, when you have a demonic guy up in the office, you know, she thinks the whole thing's gonna crash. And I'm like, basically, I guess that was her synopsis of the whole thing, you know, stock market's gonna crash. Yeah. Yeah, I see.

All right, well, that's helpful. So you said she just cashed out of the investments, but the money's still in the 401k? Or she actually took a distribution? She took the whole thing.

Like actually took it out of the 401k, not just moving to the cash position. Oh, boy. Okay. Yeah. So I mean, obviously, there's big, you know, what is your ages? She is like 65. Yeah. Okay. So there's gonna be a penalty there.

And obviously, a lot of taxes do. You know, I think the key is just to kind of refocus on, you know, from a big picture, I mean, recognizing God owns it all, and we're stewards, right? And so she wants to be found faithful in managing this money. And she's going to do that according to convictions. But I think the two of you need to really maybe take a step back before you do anything, and come together as husband and wife and really pray through this and seek the Lord and say, Lord, we ultimately want to put our trust in you.

And I'm not saying she isn't, but that's obviously the goal. And we recognize this is yours. We don't want to live in fear. We want to hold this loosely. And we realize that we as a part of being good stewards need to, you know, be wise with how we make decisions and seek a return, especially with inflation going up. I mean, obviously, this money is going to be eroded by taxes and penalties, but then it's further going to be eroded by inflation. And I think, you know, the key is, you know, the Lord is in control of this. Obviously, you know, there's sin in the world, which is why we need a Savior. And that permeates every facet of our lives, including the financial system.

So there's nothing that's perfect. But I think as she looks toward perhaps where you all go with these investments, I might like to introduce this idea of what we call faith-based investing, which is a really exciting and new aspect of the investing landscape, where you all could actually redeploy these funds in fund families, meaning mutual fund families and exchange traded funds, with the explicit purpose of glorifying God and having a kingdom and a social impact as a result of the investments, while also seeking a tremendous return on investment. And there are some wonderful investment outs out there. Yes, they're going to be a part of the stock market. And if she feels like everything's going to crash, well, this isn't an answer to that. But it also is, I believe, you know, dealing with the value side of it. Now, with regard to the crash, I mean, I would just say, listen, ultimately, if everything crashes, it doesn't matter whether it's in cash under the mattress or in the bank or anywhere, because the financial system would be in ruin. Do I think that's what's going to happen?

No, I don't. I mean, yeah, we've got some some challenges out there. We always do.

We always have. We live in a fallen world. But I think if we look at the United States and just the strength of this economy and, you know, where these companies, which is that's what you're investing in when you invest in the stock market, these are real companies with real sales and earnings where this is all headed.

I don't think it's a house of cards by any stretch. And I think if you were to evaluate that, you know, opportunity to invest in companies, especially where there's an alignment with your values, it's going to be the very best place for you to seek a return, at least historically speaking, better than anything else over the last hundred years. And yeah, there's going to be ups and downs. But what we know is that if even if we were to get into a deep recession in this country, we'll work our way through it. You know, when our backs are against the wall, we'll make the right decisions. And I believe we would eventually over time move to higher ground.

We always have. And that versus any other asset class in terms of risk and potential reward, I think is better than anything else. And at the end of the day, as long as we've been found faithful and following God's principles, I think we leave the results to him because the only thing we can control is what passes through our hands. And, you know, so I would start there. What I want to do is I want to send you a copy of the new Sound Mind Investing Handbook.

I'd like for you to ask her to read that. It's a biblical approach to investing. And then I want you to check out some of the fun families that you'll see on our website at MoneyWiseLive.org.

Companies like Praxis Mutual Funds and Eventide Funds and Inspire Investments and begin to read about these incredible investments that seek a phenomenal return that will align very closely, you know, with your heart as a believer and see if between those two, God's perspective on investing and these faith-based investment options, if that doesn't give her perhaps a little bit more confidence to move forward and potentially over time back into the markets. Does that make sense, Kevin? Larry Burkett, when he mentioned the five envelopes, I actually have five checking accounts. Basically, I want the same one. It's kind of like savings, but I actually name them, you know, this gave me a great hat off to Larry, you know. There's not a week that goes by, Kevin, that someone doesn't mention Larry Burkett. It just, I think, is a testimony clearly to the impact he has and continues to have to this day.

I will say, though, you can do exactly what you're doing with one account if you were to use the MoneyWise app because you could set up envelopes digitally for each of those. But hey, here's the key, you got to do what works for you. Listen, you stay on the line, we'll send you that book, you talk, maybe pray before you talk to her that the Lord would just give her some insight into what his heart is for her and for you moving forward so you all can be in unity on this. And if you have any other thoughts, give us a call back.

Let's head to Florida. Hi Carl, how can I help you, sir? Yes, my mother just passed away recently, and she had a 401k, and I just assumed that that would then go to my father, but I'm not sure how that works. Yeah, so a federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ERISA, governs most pension and retirement accounts, and under ERISA, if the owner of a retirement account is married, upon death the spouse is automatically entitled to 50% of the money regardless of what the beneficiary designation says. Other than that, the beneficiary designation determines who inherits the retirement assets, and that designation trumps anything written in a will. Do you know if there was a beneficiary named on the 401k?

I'm almost sure it's him. Yeah, so then everything would go to him automatically, and that passes outside of the will and probate just based on that beneficiary designation. Okay, so we just have to get a hold of the company that is with, and then get it to... Yeah, provide the death certificate, and they'll tell you exactly what they need, and they can take care of getting that transferred over as, you know, upon his death. So that's your next step is to make that phone call. So sorry to hear about your mom's passing, Carl, but we appreciate you checking in with us today.

To Elgin, Illinois. Hi, Lewis, how can I help you, sir? Thanks for taking my call.

I've listened to your show for some time, and I've learned a lot, so thank you very much. Absolutely. The question I've got for you is the difference between FDIC and a bank, and in a credit union, I understand that there's something similar in insurance coverage. Can you explain that? Yeah, I mean, they're basically identical. So the NCUA, the National Credit Union Administration, is the one that insures deposit accounts at federal credit unions, and the FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is the government agency that insures consumer deposits in banks and thrift institutions.

But really, it's all exactly the same. They're both backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. They both offer insurance up to 250,000 per depositor, per institution, per account category. And, you know, I mean, really, you can't tell any difference other than it's just two different agencies in terms of how it's protected, which gives you then the freedom to say, okay, what's the right fit for me?

Do I, you know, which credit unions do I qualify for, and which ones are in my hometown, and what are the interest rates they're paying versus what I could get in an online bank? But in terms of the protection, there's really no difference, Lewis. Thank you very much for your answer. I appreciate it. All right. Yes, sir. We appreciate your call today. Quickly to Florida. Hi, Angela. I've just got about a minute left.

How can I help you? Yes, I just bought a car at the end of July, and I think I overspent myself. How do I get out of it but get a decent car at a lower cost? Yeah, you know, it might be challenging right now because, you know, was it a new vehicle when you bought it?

It was a 2018 with 23,000 miles. Okay, well, that's a little better because the only reason I say that is new vehicles can depreciate by as much as 20%. But, you know, used car values are sky high right now, so you may or may not be upside down.

So that's the first step is to look at whether you're upside down. Do you have a loan on this? Yes, I do. It's financed through same tenders. Okay, so you check on the value of this just to see whether you have enough to be able to sell it on a private sale or through a dealer.

Get out from it, cover the loan, and then you could buy that next car. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air.

Unfortunately, we're out of time. And, Angela, thank you for your call. Folks, thanks for joining us today. We covered a lot of ground.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I want to say thank you to Deb and to Amy and to Jim Henry today for their assistance. Thank you for being here. We'll come back and do it all again tomorrow. Hope you'll join us. We'll see you then. May the Lord bless you. Bye-bye.