Jumpstart Retirement Investing

This is Jamin Baxter and I serve as Business Development Director for Moody Radio. The only reason we're able to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ on the radio is because of financial support from listeners like you. We also have businesses support us too, like United Faith Mortgage.

Faith and family is at their core. It's why they choose to be such a close partner with our station. It's why they specifically advertise on Christian radio stations across the country.

It's why father and son John and Ryan still lead the company to this day. Check out United Faith Mortgage and their direct lender advantage at unitedfaithmortgage.com. Thanks to you and to United Faith Mortgage for supporting Moody Radio. United Faith Mortgage is a DBA of United Mortgage Corp. 25 Melville Park Road, Melville, New York. Licensed mortgage banker. For all licensing information, go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org, corporate NMLS number 1330, equal housing lender.

Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. This is Jamin Baxter and I serve as Business Development Director for Moody Radio. The only reason we're able to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ on the radio is because of financial support from listeners like you. We also have businesses support us too, like United Faith Mortgage.

Faith and family is at their core. It's why they choose to be such a close partner with our station. It's why they specifically advertise on Christian radio stations across the country.

It's why father and son John and Ryan still lead the company to this day. Check out United Faith Mortgage and their direct lender advantage at unitedfaithmortgage.com. Thanks to you and to United Faith Mortgage for supporting Moody Radio. United Faith Mortgage is a DBA of United Mortgage Corp. 25 Melville Park Road, Melville, New York. Licensed mortgage banker. For all licensing information, go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org, corporate NMLS number 1330, equal housing lender.

Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded, so our phone lines are not open. In Genesis 41, we read, the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said, there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt, there was bread.

Hi, I'm Rob West. So Joseph planned ahead for difficult times. Figuratively speaking, retirement could seem like famine if you're not prepared. I'll talk about how you can avoid that first today.

Then we'll have some great calls lined up, but since we're not live today, please hold your calls until next time. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Almost all of us will reach a point where age or health prevent us from working. So investing far in advance of that day is critical for generating retirement income. Unfortunately, one in five Americans has no retirement savings and one in three has less than $5,000.

Obviously, we're great at procrastinating. We're always ready to open that retirement account tomorrow. And for many who do get started, it doesn't take much to derail their plans.

A slight financial hiccup and they stop saving. No question, investing for retirement takes discipline, patience, and time for compound earnings to grow. Fortunately, saving up a nest egg isn't complicated.

You don't need to be a math whiz. Just live on less than you make, invest the rest for a very long time, and 30 or 40 years later, you're there. Okay, but what if you got a late start? Can you speed up your investing plan? Or if you haven't yet begun, can you jumpstart your retirement savings?

Yes, you can. And here's a list of things to help you maximize the time left. Some will be familiar, others may surprise you. This first idea has been around since direct deposit came onto the scene. It's not new, but if you don't do it, your chances of saving successfully over time are greatly diminished.

And that's simply to do it automatically. Have the contribution to your retirement plan taken out of your check before you ever see it. If you forget it's there, and you will, you can't spend it.

Out of sight, out of mind. The next idea strengthens your ability to keep saving. It's developing a mindset called pay yourself first. You learn to view your savings as just another monthly bill, but with the same importance as your mortgage or car payment. You make that payment to yourself no matter what. You need this to prevent tampering with your automatic savings.

Now, this next idea is probably one you haven't thought of. Stop giving Uncle Sam an interest-free loan every year. The average tax refund is almost $3,000. That money should have gone into your retirement account, not the U.S. Treasury. If you haven't gotten your refund yet, and they're significantly delayed again due to COVID, put that money into your retirement savings when it shows up. Then adjust your withholdings to get as close to zero as you can for what you'll owe in taxes next year. After you do that, check to see how much your paycheck goes up and put that extra amount into retirement savings every payday. The next idea is about slamming the brakes on what you might call lifestyle creep. Too often, when folks get a raise or pay off debt, they'll develop the habit of spending that extra money.

That's lifestyle creep. Ordinarily, I'd advise you to put all of that found money into retirement savings. But inflation is creeping up, and you may soon experience difficulty keeping within your budget if you haven't already. So make a commitment to put at least half of any raise or other new money you receive into your retirement account. If you can go higher, do it. That still gives you money to deal with rising expenses while still boosting your savings. And again, out of sight, out of mind.

This next one is tried and true and definitely not new. It's using the snowball method to pay off your debt. Start paying extra on your smallest debt to get rid of it first. Then take that freed up money and put it on the next highest debt. Then you'll have even more money to put on the next highest and so on. What does that have to do with retirement investing? Well, you can't save if you're paying off credit cards or other consumer debt. So the faster you get rid of them, the faster you can start putting money into your portfolio.

All right, one last idea. Not everyone can, but if you have the opportunity to work overtime or take a second job, do it. That actually has two advantages. It gives you extra cash for retirement and it gives you less time to spend money at the mall.

So it's win-win. Over time, any one of these ideas could add thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to your retirement savings. And the sooner you get started, the more impact they'll have because of compound earnings. Now, let me encourage you to see a retirement planning specialist to help you determine what that ultimate goal is. Maybe you need to set a financial finish line.

That'll help you do more giving along the way. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Thank you for tuning in to MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host, this is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Hey, our team is taking some time off today, so don't call in, but we've got some great questions lined up in advance, like this one from Indianapolis, Indiana. Ann, thank you for calling today. How can I help you?

Hi. Yes, I was just calling to see if it's beneficial for my husband to continue working until his full retirement age of 66 and so many months, or he's 64. We moved, our house is not paid for. And unfortunately, I have some health issues where I'm not able to work. So I do get my, I get disability, my social security disability to make up for that fact. So the question I guess is, isn't it, would it be wise for him to continue working until that time or not?

Yeah, I think it would be. It makes a lot of sense, especially if the reduced social security would put a strain on your budget moving forward. But if he can continue to work, it would do a couple of things. Number one is, you know, if he takes it at 64 versus let's say 67, if that's his full retirement age, he's going to see a reduction of somewhere between probably 20 and 25% in that monthly check every month moving forward, because he's going to lock it in at a lower amount. So by waiting, getting that bump of 20 plus percent a month for the rest of your lives in that check is, could be meaningful in terms of being able to balance that budget. And if he has the ability to work, then he's able to delay it. So you all can continue to fund your lifestyle while you get those guaranteed increases. The other thing that could happen, and this, you know, may or may not be the case, but if he's earning more today than he was in the early part of his working life, you know, the the payout is based on what's called the high 35, the highest 35 years of of Social Security wages, where, you know, if he had, he was earning a lower amount, and that could be replaced, perhaps from his early working life with a higher amount for these next three years, then that also would bump his payment up even more than the increases he'll have by waiting until full retirement age. So I think for for those reasons, and unless there was some other factor that I'm not aware of, I think it does in fact make sense for him to wait. He did earn more in the beginning. He's really only working, his income is less than when he was in.

So you wouldn't get that bump, but you would get this roughly eight percent a year that he would be reduced by, by taking it now, added back in to get him to the full benefit at full retirement age. Okay, all right. Well, that makes sense. Okay, thank you for calling and listening today, and God bless you. On to Chicago, Illinois, WMBI. Sunday, how can I help? Yes, I'll do my happy folding in November, and I do have a 403b with Catholic Charities, and I wanted to know what's the best route to go with that 403b. Rollover, or when I get this other job, what would I do? Very good, yeah, we lost you right there at the beginning of the question. So you said you're leaving your current employer, is that right? No, they closed out our department.

They closed the department, okay, very good. So yeah, you've found another job, and you're going to be transitioning there, so you've got a couple of options. One would be to, I wouldn't leave it there, so I'd either roll it out to that new 403b or 401k, whichever you have at your new employer, or to an IRA. The IRA is going to require that you have a little bit more oversight of the investments, because inside an IRA you can essentially buy any stock, bond, or mutual fund, and even some real estate if you use something called a self-directed IRA.

So it just gives you a ton more options, which means you're probably going to need some help with that. If you got it into the new 401k or 403b, if the plant admitted administrator allowed it, you could then, you know, pick the same investment options from the menu of choices that you will direct your new money going toward. And it would be a little more simple, you could probably do that yourself with the help of the plan administrator. How much do you have in that 403b now?

I think about $8,000. Okay, all right. Yeah, so I would think with that balance, I would try to roll that into your new plan. Have you tried to roll that out? Have you asked them whether that would be possible? I haven't checked with them yet because we just got the, we just did a meeting and they told us that they're going to be, you know, the company is going to be... Okay, very good. Yeah, so that's going to be my first choice given the balance of what you have there.

Let's use that to kind of seed this new retirement plan with your new employer and then set up your contributions to add to it over time and make sure you pick the investments consistent with your age, goals, and objectives, all right? Okay, thank you so much. You're very welcome. Thank you for calling today. God bless you.

On to Ohio. Kathy, good afternoon. How can I help you?

Hi, good afternoon. I have a Roth IRA and I received notice from the investment company that they're no longer, the track program and my account is no longer available after the this month. Can I roll this into another Roth IRA?

Yes. Yeah, you sure can. So, you know, you can transfer assets from Roth IRA to Roth IRA, you know, at any point. Do you have another Roth or would you need to open one? I would need to open one, yes.

Okay, all right. So depending upon how you want to do that in terms of how it's going to be managed would determine where you go to open that new Roth. What is your balance roughly in that other four Roth IRA?

It's only at $27,000. I have been completely hands-off as far as managing it, unfortunately. Okay, well, you've got a couple of options. One would be what's called a robo advisor, which is essentially where you would answer a series of questions and an algorithm would generate a portfolio for you comprised of what are called exchange-traded funds. These are index funds. Think of them as a basket of investments that mirror the broad indexes in, you know, our investment world. So you might have the S&P 500, which is the 500 largest domestic companies.

You could have the the Russell 1000. You could have a bond index. And so they use these low-cost investments for you to essentially capture the broad moves of the market. So you're not picking the winners and losers. There's not a fund manager trying to do that. But essentially, you're saying I'm just going to, you know, be properly diversified. I'm going to be allocated among stocks and bonds depending upon my age.

And I'm just going to capture the moves of the market, but it's very low cost. And so you could do that at Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. You could do that at the Vanguard Advisor. You could do that at Betterment, which is more of a kind of a fintech type app-based strategy. But all of these are very easy to use.

They're very highly rated, very inexpensive. The other option is you can head over to our friends at soundmindinvesting.org, soundmindinvesting.org. And through the Sound Mind Investing newsletter, they make it very easy for you to find the mutual funds that you should pick based on your goals and objectives. And you would open an account at Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade or Vanguard, and then you could pick from their list of funds to get this money working for you. The key is you want to get all that money in one place, in one Roth IRA, and you don't want to just put it on autopilot. You want to get it invested.

So I'd use one of those two options, either soundmindinvesting.org or one of the robo advisors, and I'd look at Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, Betterment, or the Vanguard Advisor. And once you do that, if you have any questions, feel free to call us back. We'd love to help. Thanks for your call today, Kathy. Well, folks, we're going to pause for a quick break and then back with more great questions as we apply the truth of God's word to today's financial decisions. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Our team is taking some time off today, so don't call in. But we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance that I know you'll enjoy, like this one from Coconut Creek, Florida. Ulta, we're so glad to have you with us today.

How can I help you? Well, my daughter, she have a student loan, federal loan. She owe about $89,000. So she wanted to know, while lenders, they have in the private sector, they can, they can hold to like transfer the loans to them and for her to make the payment to them.

Yes. Why is she looking to move to a private loan? Well, not private loan because this has a student, this has a federal loan, but it's like then she can make the payments to direct to the federal law. So she have to pay not to like a private lender.

For instance, like Navy or it used to be Sally Mae. So that's, that's, that's what she want to see. So all the lenders out there, they can see that the she can transfer those loans to them to make the payment. Yeah. Because she's looking for a lower payment and a lower interest rate? It's sad to me. Yeah.

Yeah. The only thing you have to understand, Ulta, you can refinance these and she's would have to qualify to do so. And if she wants to do this on her own, meaning you're not a co-signer, then she'd have to have the income and the ability to qualify with the lender in order to do this. You may be able to find some more advantaged terms, meaning slightly lower interest rate or a lower payment.

The key though is you have to understand what she's giving up. With the federal student loans, there are income-based repayment options that she would lose out on. Where if she got into a real hardship situation, the federal loans allow her to drop those payments if she's unable to pay because she's had a reduction in income. She will lose some of those benefits if she goes to the private lender. So she just needs to understand that. And for that reason, I would think twice perhaps about doing that because I think she's probably not going to improve her situation very much. She'll give up the income-based repayment options. And then in addition to that, she may find that it just doesn't make sense on paper or the term will be extended.

And even though the interest rate and the payment is lower, she'll end up paying more back over time before it's all said and done. Does that make sense, Alta? Yes, it does.

Yes, it does. Okay, all right. So I would review that with her before she makes any decisions.

And a great website for her to read up on this is studentloanhero.com. We appreciate your call today. Let's head to Tampa, Florida. Karen, thank you for calling today.

How can I help? Yes, hello. I participate in the Florida retirement system. I'm in the investment plan. And so I just found out that when I retire, I would either have to withdraw all the money that's there or just withdraw funds whenever I need, but I'm never going to get like a mostly actual retirement check for life. They said if I wanted that, I would have to purchase an annuity with my life, but I don't know what that is. Yeah.

Well, yeah. You know, you're going to want to look at the lump sum option. You know, by taking that lump sum option, what folks typically do is roll these over to what's called an IRA, an individual retirement account, which allows you to, you know, keep this as a non-taxable event, have it managed by an investment advisor, and then ultimately, you know, you could begin drawing money out as you need it. An annuity is simply where you transfer the risk of the investments to an insurance company. So instead of putting it in an IRA and getting somebody to manage it for you, but you take all the risk of the ups and the downs with the market, which, you know, you have the ability to manage through how conservative or aggressive the portfolio is, but at the end of the day, it's still you bearing the risk. With the insurance company and an annuity contract, they're taking the risk in exchange for either a fixed rate of interest or some sort of a portion of the upside of the market with maybe a floor on the downside so you can't lose. The reason I'm not a big fan of annuities is they're complex, they lock up your money, and they tend to be expensive, you know, meaning the fees and the expenses that go into them. So I think you need to just figure out what it is you're looking for, and if you're looking for a monthly check for life and that's not available through your retirement system, then an annuity would be the way to go and you can transfer the risk to the insurance company. But the first thing I'd probably look at is finding an investment advisor that could roll this to an IRA, manage it for you, and then as a part of that investment strategy, make sure that you have the income coming to you that you need to supplement what other income sources you have, Social Security and anything else. Does that make sense, Karen?

Yes, it does. Thank you so much. To find an advisor in your area, go to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, and click Find a CKA, and I think that'll give you what you're looking for. We appreciate your call very much. Well, folks, you know, as we think about managing God's money, you know, these are the types of things that come up. How can I be an effective and faithful steward of what God has entrusted to me? And in some cases, that's going to be planning for that season of life where we're being reassigned, right?

Asking the Lord, what's next? Not the typical version of retirement where we think about, you know, retiring to a life of leisure. No, our calling doesn't ever expire. We just may change the context in which we're serving the Lord, and we may find ourselves in a place where we don't have the ability to work full time. But in that season where we have the most wisdom and experience to use in the Lord's service, we want to be prepared, which is why we need to take a portion of what God has given us today and set it aside for the future. And that means we need to live within our means. We need to dial back our spending so we have margin. Sure, to give, we ought to do that first, but also to save and to do that effectively. And it works most effectively when we're consistent, saving a little bit over time, being a diligent systematic saver. And by the way, when we invest that way, it's called dollar cost averaging.

It's the most effective way to invest over the long haul because we're buying in the highs and the lows, but over time we maximize our investment value. Well, we appreciate you being along with us today on MoneyWise Live. We have more to come just around the corner, but in the meantime, we're going to take a quick break. I hope you'll stay with us.

More questions right after this. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, God's wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm your host, Rob West, and we're thankful that you're along with us today. Our team though is taking some time off today, so don't call in. However, we've got some great questions that we lined up in advance. I know there'll be an encouragement to you. We're going to go to Baltimore, Maryland next. Lisa, thank you for your incredible patience today and you're next on the program.

How can I help? Oh yes. I'm a new 62 year old grandmother and this blessing has made me take a long hard look at my finances. I'm retired.

I mean, I'm not retired. I was thinking about retiring, but with these blessings, I now want to be a blessing to them, not only spiritually, but financially. And I have about $10,000 in savings. I have a closed out IRA for about 10,000. My house is paid for. And I was thinking about getting maybe a full-time job that I could possibly gain a pension.

Thank God my health is pretty good. What are some of the strategies I can do now to be a financial blessing for my granddaughters? Yes. Well, I appreciate so much, Lisa, your desire to be able to pass something on to these grandbabies as they grow, not only a financial legacy, but of course a spiritual legacy, which is the most important. And it's amazing how I'm not in that season yet. My oldest is only 16, so we've got a while, but as I've watched others enter that season of life as grandparents, it's amazing how priorities change in an instant and because it's such a blessing. Let me ask you just to review your situation. I heard you say your home was paid for though. What do you have in the way of retirement assets that you'll be able to depend on beyond Social Security when you stop working?

Well, really, that's the point. I don't have a pension. I've just kind of been coasting along until these grandkids come and it's like, uh-oh, you know, I'm retirement age, so I mean, thank God I'm in good health, but I wouldn't have a pension. I would probably get maybe a little over a thousand in just Social Security.

Okay, so before the grandbabies came, what was your plan? I mean, when you reach a point where you can no longer work, you know, if that comes before the Lord returns, were you planning just with a modest lifestyle to live only on Social Security? Well, yes, I think that this pandemic allowed me to do some reflection on my finances, so I mean, I just kind of was just coasting along and I was working part-time when I had no benefits and I did that a little bit too long, but now that I've had time to reflect, I would want to leave more.

Thank God I'm healthy and that I could probably work another eight to ten years. Yes, well, the thing that I'm wondering is, you know, as much as I love you being a blessing to these grandbabies, you've got to think about providing for your needs first, which is in turn allowing you to be a blessing for them because you're modeling, you know, handling money God's way according to his principles and it could get you to a place where you could pass something on, you know, at death. Now, if God affords you through his provision the opportunity to also begin putting something aside now for them, let's say it's a college savings plan or just a, you know, an account that's earmarked for them that you could use to be a blessing for them someday when they're getting into their first apartment or needing to buy a car. That's great and I love that, but my first and foremost concern is that you have something so that if you get to a place where you're unable to work, if Social Security alone is not able to cover all of your bills, you know, you're going to be in a real challenging spot. So I'd love for you to begin putting money aside into a retirement account over these next eight or ten years if the Lord tarries and you said you have good health and you could continue to work so that you've got a bit of a nest egg built up. Let's say you saved a hundred thousand and then we could turn that into, you know, four hundred dollars a month to supplement your Social Security for you to cover your bills, but if you say, Rob, I don't need that.

I've got to, you know, Social Security is all I need, you know, then we could talk about you putting some money aside for the grandkids, but I would encourage you to start with your own retirement savings first, just given the fact that you, although your home is paid for and that's great, you really don't have any other assets that you can depend on when you get to a place where you can no longer work. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Because part of being a blessing to them is for you to be able to cover your needs throughout the rest of your life. And if the Lord tarries and you are in good health, you know, you have decades, maybe three or more decades that you're still going to need to cover your expenses and, you know, and your obligations and you're being a blessing to your kids and your grandkids by, you know, having the resources you need. So I'd probably start by taking advantage of the retirement account in your current job so that, you know, you can, you know, begin systematically putting some money away, try to get up to 10% of your income going into that. And then if you have anything left over, I would look, if you want to fund college, I'd look at opening 529 plans, 529.

You can Google that. Go to savingforcollege.com to read about them. And, you know, you can figure out which state's 529 plan is the best for you.

And then you could set up an automatic transfer into one of those plans so that you could begin putting something away that will be a real blessing for those grandkids when that time comes and they can get an education. So I hope that's helpful to you Lisa. I so appreciate your heart and your desire to be found faithful and to be a blessing to your kids and your grandkids. And we appreciate your call today. Let's head to Nancy in Chicago, Illinois. Nancy, how can I help you? Hello? Hi, Nancy. Yes, go right ahead. Oh, hi. Yes. Oh, you said Chicago.

I'm in Florida. I'm sorry. Okay. No problem.

How can I help? Okay. We have a 30-year loan at 4%. We have about 20 years left to pay. And we've been thinking about refinancing to see if we can find something at 2% or less for 10 or 15 years.

Okay. So this is a VA loan and it's a little bit harder with them because I know that their interest rate is always a little bit higher than conventional loan. But if we get a conventional loan, how much the closing cost if we owe $147,000 if that will be a good thing to do? Yeah. How much equity do you have in this home?

Right now with the price is going up maybe $150,000. So you believe the home's worth about $300,000 and you owe about $150,000? Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Well, you can absolutely take your existing VA loan and turn it into a conventional through a refi. I think the question is where can you get the very best rates and terms including the cost? But I think you're in a great spot to do it as long as you don't increase the term. So you'd be looking for a new 20-year mortgage or less. Try to get something in the high twos, low threes, as long as you can save at least one point.

That makes sense. Make sure you're going to stay in this home for at least seven years and don't spend more than 2% of the value of the mortgage on the closing costs for the refi. So no more than $3,000.

Go to bankrate.com to look for some options. Start getting some quotes. Get at least three and this can make a lot of sense if you can meet those criteria I just laid out. Nancy, we appreciate your call today. Well folks, we're going to pause for a brief break. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. So glad you're along with us today. More to come just around the corner. Stay with us.

Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Hey, our team is taking some time off today, so don't call in. However, we've got some great calls lined up in advance and I know you'll enjoy them. We're going to begin in this segment in Minnesota with Michelle. Thank you for calling, Michelle.

How can I help you? Hi, I'm just starting to think about retiring. I'll be 63 in August and I know if I started taking Social Security now it would be the very bare lowest amount that I could.

I was hoping to hang on until I was 70, but I have a very stressful job that I just don't know how much longer I can do, so wondering if I should retire sooner and get a part-time job to supplement my income or just not quite sure what to do. Yeah, well I appreciate that question and I know, you know, stress is not good and clearly it takes a toll on your health as well, Michelle, and so I don't like hearing you're in a position where you've got a stressful job. I also see in my notes here from my producer that you're driving looks like 300 miles a week, which I know takes a toll as well, so I think this all starts with the spending plan to have a real clear understanding of what it takes to fund your lifestyle month to month as well as those non-recurring expenses that come every six months or once a year. Do you feel like you have a real good handle on that right now?

Yeah, I do. I mean, my husband's retired and so he's home, you know, just working part-time and although when I think about it with the current job I have, I provide the health insurance even though he's got Medicare, so that would be a big expense for us. Yes, well I think, you know, that's where you've got to start because, you know, then the next question is, okay, what would it take for me to fund that lifestyle without this job?

And you mentioned a couple of things. One is you could take social security. The downside there is you're probably going to take about a 25% reduction in that when you take it at age 62 or 63, so and that's permanent obviously, so you'd get cost of living increases, but you'd lock in kind of that 25% lower monthly payout. The question would be that, you know, would that be enough plus some part-time income, but then when that part-time income goes away, you know, are you going to be able to do it, you know, with your social security, your husband's and any retirement he has or other savings? So I think it's really a, you know, first it's a dollar and cents equation that you really need to work through and just understand kind of the implications of taking that social security early and then secondly, you know, weigh that against what you just said. That is the stress and the miles and everything else that's going into that and if you could find something even part-time closer to home, I think you'd be thrilled that you did that.

So I'd look very carefully at that. You can also look at other options with social security. For instance, if your husband begins to claim his, you could take a spousal benefit, let yours continue to grow depending on his age and status.

That may be an option once he claims, but that may not, you know, be an option for you guys based on kind of where he's at versus retirement. The other thing that I would mention is as you're working through this budget and trying to figure out how you solve for healthcare, I'd look at Christian Healthcare Ministries. You know, health cost sharing is a very budget-friendly way to cover the cost of health incidents and expenses in this season of life, in any season of life, really.

And so you don't have to add a, you know, major expense when you transition out of your current employer situation and that's, I think, something that could really help you balance the budget and still be, you know, have the peace of mind to know that you've got the backing if you need any kind of medical event, surgery, whatever it is, that that's going to be covered. Check it out. It's chministries.org. So I'd make this a matter of prayer, crunch the numbers, pray through it, look at CH Ministries, and if you can make the numbers work, I think it sounds like a great idea.

Let's head to Illinois. Tom, thank you for your call, sir. How can I help you?

Hi, thank you. I have a RIA untaxable and I have a required minimum distribution to take out and I understand that I can take the whole amount and give it to a charity and avoid taxes. Now, my question is, does it have to be one charity or I would like to give it to, you know, my tithes and different charities that we give to all at the same time? Now, is that possible or does it have to go?

It is absolutely possible. Yeah, you can distribute the money, Tom, with a qualified charitable distribution to multiple charities if you choose. So there's a hundred thousand per person limit that applies to the sum of all the QCDs taken, which I realize is a lot of money, so you're probably, you know, not going to hit that.

Most people don't. But as long as you're under that, you can do that as one large contribution or you can take, you know, multiple smaller contributions to one or more charities. And all of those would be done on a tax advantage basis, meaning you don't recognize the income. They get the full amount and all of that is then counted against your RMD that you need to take for the year. Okay, now, does the brokerage firm have to write out those checks or do they send me, should they send me the money and I just... No, no, it goes directly from the broker, brokerage firm or custodian to the charity. So you would call them, contact your, you know, your representative, your advisor, customer service, whoever you normally talk to, and just say, I need the paperwork to complete for a qualified charitable distribution or multiple. And they'll either send you a form or give you an online form. And once you do it, that triggers the money to be sent directly to the charity from the custodian.

You never take possession of it, and therefore it's not a taxable event. Great, thank you very much. Okay, thank you, Tom, for your call. We appreciate it.

Paul is in Indiana. And Paul, I understand you want to talk about giving, which is one of our favorite topics. How can I help you? Yes, I've been asking and trying to understand this issue about the lady in the Bible giving her last two coins, that my charitable giving beyond my tithing should hurt in some way, that it shouldn't be from abundance. Would you care to address that?

Yeah, I'd be happy to. You know, I think clearly when we go back to Scripture, we see that we should be generous people. I love what Paul David Tripp, the author, says. He says, you know, if we start with provision, which clearly we should be providing for our families, we can get caught in this trap of an unending list of needs and wants. And we never get to the generosity. So we should start with the generosity.

You know, the Gospel story is a generosity story. For God so loved the world, He gave. So we should be givers. We should be pipelines into God's activity, not a bucket where God's provision stops with us. The question then is, how much do we give? And clearly we see the model of the widow's might that Jesus celebrated, and she gave out of her poverty, not out of her abundance, clearly. And we also see the rich fool, you know, that wanted to build bigger barns. And we realize we should be rich toward God and generous and willing to share, we see in the New Testament.

So we, you know, these themes are all throughout the Bible. The question is, how much for each of us? Not how much should we give, I think it's how much should we keep? And that's between us and the Lord. And we see that's between us and the Lord.

But I think you're right. I mean, clearly we have been to whom much is given, much is required, and in this country we've been given much. Now, don't get me wrong, there's probably people listening to us right now, I'm sure there are, that are really struggling and in a really desperate financial situation. And God sees that, and He's going to walk with you, and doesn't mean we're not going to be without our trials in this life. We will have those, and God refines us, and we learn to depend on Him and trust Him. And it's not easy, but that's how He grows us. He, you know, He gives us blessings because He loves us, and He gives us, allows difficult things to happen because He wants to grow us.

Now, but most of us in this country have more than we need, and by definition are rich when we compare ourselves to the rest of the world. Well, what is our responsibility in that? And I think that's something we need to be on our knees asking the Lord about. You know, what does that look like in terms of the appropriate lifestyle for each of us? And, you know, that's, I think, for each person to decide on their knees and with their spouse and before the Lord to say, you know, what should we be giving? And should it hurt? I mean, should there be a sacrificial element?

I think there should. You know, Randy Alcorn, the author, calls the tithe the training wheels of giving. Well, that tells me it's the beginning point, not the ending point. So then we ask the question, okay, Lord, if this is kind of where we start, then what? And maybe I'm increasing my, you know, my systematic percentage giving over time. And then, you know, I'm starting to give off of my balance sheet.

And, you know, maybe that account that I was planning on for something, a vacation or, you know, improvements in the lawn, I give that money away and, you know, just say, you know what, I'm not going to do that. So, you know, I think there's not a right or wrong answer. But I think for each of us, we've got to search the scriptures, we've got to go before the Lord, and we've got to ask the hard questions. And we have to be able to stand before the Lord someday and give an account for how we handled his resources, especially given how much we've been entrusted. And clearly, we're going to be held to a higher standard because we've been entrusted so much. But give me your thoughts, Paul. How do you feel about that?

You've got great guidance. It does come down to that, everyone I've asked, and certainly the discussion with God I've had. I had a recent experience where the women's shelter in town had a need for a refrigerator, and they were more than happy to have a used one, but they wanted to have an ice maker. And so I did the first time I've ever done that before, I gave them a blank check.

I trusted the labor that had the interactions with her before, and I knew the general amount of money that it would be, and I knew that it would be covered no matter what time they used it. But everything that I give beyond my tithing means I delay my retirement because I'm drawing early on Social Security to pay down all my debt other than my car and my house. Well, I hate to cut you off. Let's talk some more off the air because we're out of time. But you know, what a testimony that you're willing to give sacrificially, and it's impacting you financially in a real way. And I know God will use that, and He's smiling on that, and it's blessing a lot of people as a result.

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