Taking Financial Risks

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. Do you play the lottery? Visit casinos? Probably not if you've read Proverbs 13, 11. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

I am Rob West. Even if you've never bought a scratch off ticket, did you know you could still be gambling with the resources God has given you? I'll explain how first today, then it's onto your calls and questions at 800-525-7000.

Call it 24 seven 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, I'm talking about taking unnecessary risks with your finances and you may not even realize you're doing it. So let's go over a list of ways you could be putting your finances at risk.

The first one is something we talk about often, and it's not being prepared for unexpected emergencies. Surveys have shown that four out of 10 Americans have little or no emergency fund. Hit with as little as a $400 emergency, they'd have to borrow. That's not much of an emergency, but that small amount could still throw their finances into chaos. Imagine how unprepared they'd be for a real emergency like losing a job.

With no resources to fall back on, they go into debt or move in with relatives or worse, maybe even becoming homeless. In cases of extreme poverty, it may be impossible to save, but for most people living paycheck to paycheck, it's a matter of discipline. Proverb 6 tells us that even insects know the importance of saving.

It reads, go to the ant, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. Also, we can't stress enough the importance of having a spending plan that guides you to live on less than you earn, so you can build up an emergency fund. They're the three staples of financial stability. Another way to take unnecessary financial risks is with insurance, or rather the lack of insurance. Surveys show that one out of five households with children under 18 have no life insurance.

The financial impact on that family could be catastrophic if something happened to the breadwinner. The number of folks without life insurance would be much higher if not for employer provided coverage. The majority of families with life insurance go with that type of group plan over individual policies. While it's good to have some insurance, those plans might not offer all the coverage your family needs. Sometimes people just check the box with the lowest premium cost without doing the math.

Luke 14 28 warns, for which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Anyone with dependents who isn't independently wealthy needs life insurance. We recommend an inexpensive term life insurance policy that pays 10 to 15 times the take-home pay of the breadwinner. Stay-at-home parents also need life insurance because of the cost of child care should something happen to them. Another financial risk is not having health insurance. Even after the Affordable Care Act, about one in 10 families are still uninsured for medical costs.

The main reason many people resisted Obamacare is the high premiums and deductibles for those who don't qualify for subsidies. If that's held you back, lower-cost alternative cost-sharing plans are available, and we recommend Christian Healthcare Ministries. They follow a biblical blueprint that enables believers to help each other with medical expenses for sharing each other's burdens.

Christian Healthcare Ministries is actually celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and they're founded on Galatians 6-2, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. You can find out more about medical cost sharing at chministries.org. Now, what if an accident or medical condition prevents the family breadwinner from working? That's another unnecessary financial risk for the one-third of working Americans who have no disability insurance. A common mistake is thinking you don't need disability insurance because Social Security has disability benefits for those who are paying into the system and qualify.

The problem is those payments probably wouldn't cover all of your expenses if you can't work. And there's one more financial risk that far too many people take, and that's not having long-term care insurance. You don't want to head into your golden years without it. Statistics show that someone turning 65 today has a 70% chance of needing long-term care services in their remaining years. We recommend looking into long-term care insurance between ages 60 and 65.

Experts call that the sweet spot for getting long-term care coverage. So those are some financial risks you shouldn't take. Forewarned is four-armed. All right, your calls are next. 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Delighted to have you along with us today. I'm Rob West, your host. In just a moment, we'll be taking your calls and questions on anything financial. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you, whatever's on your mind. Here's the number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin today in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hi, Marie. How can I help you?

Hi. First, I'd like to say how much I appreciate you taking my call and your ministry. Oh, thank you very much.

So, you're welcome. So, I'm a single mom with an adult child, and I'm wanting to make a will to allow for him to have an inheritance, especially since I'm soon to get married. I've heard that my spouse could get everything if I passed and I didn't have a will. But the flip side is I've also heard that even if, excuse me, even if I do have a will, he could contest the will. So, my question is, is it better to make the will before I got married or afterwards? Yeah, it's a great question, and you are going to need to get some legal counsel here. I'm not an attorney, but this would certainly be one of those triggering events, Marie, that requires you to not only update your legal documents, including a will, but also a durable power of attorney or a health care surrogate, updating beneficiaries. You know, this type of transition into marriage, especially later in life with an adult child, is something that requires you just to make sure you have everything in place.

And it is going to vary by state. In some cases, what you may be referring to as a will can be invalidated if you marry later and have a child. So, both the marriage and the birth of the child have to occur after execution of the will for it to be invalidated.

But it doesn't sound like that will be the case here. However, as I said, you need to get some legal counsel just to make sure first that you've decided, and this is going to need to involve communication with your future spouse, for you all to be on the same page about how you want to handle your finances as you enter marriage. Obviously, two become one, but when you marry later, especially when you've had a previous marriage and or a child, you just want to think through that and be open and honest with one another, recognizing that once you marry everything is shared, including your finances. But you may want to approach in this situation certain assets differently that are brought into a marriage later in life.

And as long as there's open communication, there's trust built, and everybody's on the same page about that on the front end. Promoting togetherness, but also honest dialogue about a child that is from outside this marriage, I think that's okay. And then you go visit with the attorney once you've talked through that, and you all are on the same page to say, okay, now how do we execute this plan in a legal document? And that's where an attorney can draw that up for you, including perhaps, well, we'll most certainly include a will, and you may want to include other legal instruments as well. So I would encourage you to go ahead and visit with that person prior to marriage once you and your fiance have discussed that and decided how you'd like to proceed, then talk through it.

And then based on the laws in your state, it will be drafted and executed at the appropriate time. If you don't know a godly estate planning attorney there in Chattanooga, Maria, I'd encourage you to contact a certified kingdom advisor on our website and then ask for a referral. You can do that on our website at MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click find a CKA. But I'm glad you're thinking about this beyond though the estate planning. I would make sure that you and your fiance have talked at length about finances in general. You know, what are your money personalities? How was money handled even growing up and in seasons prior to now your marriage?

How do you then join all of that together? What are you bringing into the marriage both in the way of assets as well as liabilities? What lifestyle has God called you to? What about giving? You know, all of those things need to be discussed in advance so that you all can really begin to establish God's plan for your marriage. So together as you pursue, you know, where he's taking you, then money can support that and not become a source of conflict by any means. So I want to do, I want to send you a copy of Howard Dayton's book Money and Marriage God's Way. I think it will be an encouragement to you if you can read through that.

But absolutely go ahead and talk through and then take care of those estate planning issues prior to marriage. And we appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000 to Chicago, Illinois. Hi Lupe, how may I help you? Hi Rob. I had a question and I was a little skeptical about how we were doing this. There's a bank that offers like a bonus payment if you deposit so much money and they allow two spouses to do, you know, they're each individual accounts. And my husband likes to, he's very careful with how we spend our money and how we, you know, make it more you know, make it grow. So this is one way of making it grow a little bit more for us since there isn't really many much options with, you know, making your money grow. So I was wondering if that was, if that was okay. Yeah, well the thing I want to be sure of though is that you don't inadvertently end up with two accounts where you separate your finances and try to manage the them in the sense of this is mine and this is yours.

And you know, that's just going to foster something other than I believe oneness, which is God's design for marriage. Now if you want to take advantage of a special offer, I'd look at the fine print pretty closely just to make sure that this is the account you're going to want long term. The bonus is nice, but what are you going to be left with? Is it an account that has any kind of interest rate associated with the savings portion?

Are there maintenance fees? You know, are there a certain number of, is there a certain minimum balance you have to keep and are you limited to how many withdrawals you can take or checks you can write? You know, those types of things because that bonus will come and go and then you'll be left with, you know, perhaps more fees than you'd like moving forward. So I would just evaluate this on the merits of the account. Now as to whether you'd want to do two, I assume just to get the bonus twice.

I mean, you could certainly look at that. I can't imagine that it's enough money for it to be meaningful. And I think at the end of the day, what I'd want you to be left with is one account where you all have a shared vision of your finances, complete transparency between both husband and wife. One bookkeeper is fine. The person that has the greatest propensity and wiring towards administration and details would be the one to handle the finances, but clearly jointly set goals, open communication, if not weekly, at least monthly and operating out of one account. So it's all together with one plan and everything gets combined no matter who earns it or who incurs the expense or liability.

So that's my primary concern, how you get there and what kind of bonuses you take advantage of along the way. That's of little concern to me as long as you end up with the right accounts, meaning I want low or no fees in them, and you end up with a scenario moving forward where you can operate jointly as a married couple with regard to all of your finances. Does that make sense though? Yes, yes.

And there are no fees or anything like that. And this is strictly just for making our money work a little bit more. This isn't really an account that we would use. And, and we do have all our accounts as a joint. Yeah, so this would be, you'd only keep it open as long as you needed to, to be able to keep the bonus and then perhaps you'd close it at some point? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I certainly don't have a problem with that as long as you read the fine print and understand what you're committing yourself to in order to get it. But at the end of the day, if you can find some free money, that's just good stewardship. So I like the track that you're on here, Lupe, and we appreciate your call very, very much.

Thanks for listening and your encouraging remarks. You know, folks, as we think about managing God's money, we certainly want to be wise. And that means taking advantage of opportunities to earn more and save more and certainly cut back where possible. Living a life more simply, I think is always a good idea. You know, the paradox of prosperity says this, it says, the more you have, the more choices you have, and the less real freedom you have. Think about that.

You know, our lives get fairly complex, which robs us of perhaps time for the more important things in life. And we'll be back with much more after this. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

I'm Rob West, your host. We started today by talking about financial risks. What does it look like to take financial risks and what areas should we avoid taking financial risks? Well, actually, one of our featured articles at MoneyWiseLive.org today is on that very topic, four areas to avoid taking financial risks. If you'd like to revisit that, perhaps think a bit more deeply about whether these are areas that should be of concern to you. I'd encourage you to check it out. Again, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just scroll down to our featured articles on the homepage and you'll see four areas to avoid taking financial risks. We'd love for you to check it out today. Let's head back to the phones.

Crystal City, Missouri. Hi, Diane. How can I assist?

Hi. My husband passed away back in May and I sold my house and gave the proceeds, most of the proceeds to my son so he and his family could move because they're very unhappy where they're at and he's very unhappy in his job and he wants to move out of the state. So I have left my income, which is $3,000 a month and about $410,000 in stock and he thought that I should probably cash out the stock because of the way things are going in the country and I don't know what to do about that.

I don't know whether to leave it alone or cash it all out or some of it out. Yes, all right. Well, I appreciate the background, Diane. Are you still working?

No, I'm retired. Okay, I see. Okay, thank you. Okay, I see. And so you're living off of social security alone or what else makes up that $3,000 a month? I have a pension. Gotcha. Social security and a pension. I see.

And that social security? I bought another house. Okay.

And it's paid for. The house that I'm living in is paid for. Okay, very good. I downsized. Excellent.

And are you able to cover your expenses every month with your social security and pension? Yes. Okay, very good. And so the $410,000 is money that's available for down the road if you need it for medical expenses or you needed some long-term care or, you know, something like that. You don't anticipate touching that money unless something comes out that's unforeseen, correct? Correct. Okay, very good. And the money that you gave to your son, was that a gift or a loan of some kind?

Yes. How is that money? It was a gift. It was a gift.

Okay, very good. You know, I like the fact, Diane, that you have your expenses covered. I assume you operate on a budget. You know exactly what it takes to cover your expenses. You live very fairly modestly, it sounds like. You've got guaranteed income sources that will last for the rest of your life to cover that. Obviously, it's great to have the assets to fall back on if you need them for something down the road. And as I mentioned, the thing that would perhaps erode your assets more significantly than anything else in this season of life is going to be medically related, probably due to care that you might need down the road. So clearly, it's a great idea to have this money working for you.

The question is where? Now, your son mentioned, doesn't like the direction of the country. I assume he means, you know, perhaps with political decisions or economically. We do have some headwinds. We're 12 years into a raging bull market, which means stocks, except for a few speed bumps in the last couple of weeks, have recently been at all time highs. Is that going to continue and going straight up from here?

No, it just doesn't work like that. And so we will have some bumps in the road. Clearly, there are some situations going on with regard to the national debt and other issues, including inflation that has creeped up as of late as a result of a number of factors, including the pandemic and the money creation that's going on in this country that we're dealing with. And that could cause, I think, some choppy markets ahead. Now, is there something that's going to become crashing down?

I just don't I just don't see the base case for that. You know, inflation, if we continue to see that ahead of what the Federal Reserve looks for, which is a target of about two to two and a half percent inflation, a bit above that actually promotes the stock market increasing. You know, we have a very strong economy, the strongest in the world. Our debt is, even though it's a lot higher than it was a decade ago, is still relatively modest, given the size of our economy versus the other nations in the world at one hundred and thirty percent to GDP. You know, so I just don't see the case for you pulling out of the market and going somewhere else, because if you go to cash, especially with the inflation we're dealing with, you're going to be losing purchasing power every day.

So that money is not working for you and therefore it has the potential to buy less over time as the prices of goods and services increase. So I would just say conservatively invested, given where you're at in terms of you being in a retirement season, you having your income covered and this just being money for you to fall back on if you need it down the road. There's no reason for you to take unnecessary risk. But I still think that portfolio to grow that money even conservatively, and I would put a target on that of maybe four percent, not six or eight or ten, where you're taking a large amount of risk, but a smaller amount where you're trying to outpace inflation, allow this to continue to work for you and bring in some income over time. I think that's the right approach. And I would look to do that with an investment advisor, somebody who could build that kind of portfolio for you. But for you to pull out and go to cash or gold or something other than a conservative portfolio of stocks and bonds, I just don't feel like is the right move, given where we're at and given the possible scenarios that could come down the road.

I just don't think this is a house of cards that's going to come tumbling down anytime soon. So you stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air as we head into this break, but I appreciate your call today. I'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you make these decisions. And we'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West. We were talking just before the break about where the country's headed, where the economy's headed. What if you don't like some of the decisions being made in one way or the other? And what about all this money creation?

And oh yeah, our national debt has skyrocketed. What do we do with that? Well, you know, I think the starting point for all of it is to recognize ultimately we're God's money manager and he's not concerned. We place our trust in him as our provider. He will never abdicate his responsibility for provision to anyone or anything else. But we're to be found faithful with what passes through our hands.

So what does that look like? Because we should be making wise decisions and we should have our eyes wide open, not our heads in the sand. At the same time, we have a tendency as believers, I think, to rush to doomsday scenarios. Again, we trust the Lord. But what do we do about inflation and the national debt and where the stock market's headed from here? Well, we're going to be doing a series on those hard conversations coming up in the next several weeks that I'm really excited to unpack. You know, is the U.S. dollar going to be reported to be replaced as the reserve currency?

Well, no one knows, but let's talk about it. What should we make of the fact that we're at 130 percent debt to GDP, meaning our national debt versus the gross domestic product in this country? That's a significant rise over where we were just a year or even two years ago. How should we think about inflation?

Should there be a point where we pull out of the stock market? Well, we'll cover all of those things. And I think what you'll see is that when we look to history and we look to God's word, we can proceed cautiously and wisely without getting fearful and ultimately trusting the Lord. But continuing on and again, as I said before the break, we have an incredibly strong and resilient economy. And whenever you have to play these scenarios out, you have to think about the alternative. What would be the alternative to a falling or a crashing U.S. dollar? Well, we saw a situation in 2008 where there was a real financial crisis here in this country. And guess what?

The U.S. dollar rose because when we start to think about where else we're going to go, we don't have very many options. So we'll unpack all of that, hopefully give you some encouragement, take you back to God's word and get you to a place where you can operate with confidence, peace of mind and ultimately trust in the Father. And that's our objective here at MoneyWise Live. Hey, we've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. Here's the number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We're going to go to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, my hometown. Hi, Renee.

How can I help? Hello. How are you today? I'm very great. Thanks.

Can you hear me all right? All right. Yes, ma'am.

Yes. I have a husband and myself are using the program as best as possible, the Crown Financial. We've put our all of our credit cards and everything we put on the index cards. We put the amount we owed and all that kind of stuff.

And we hit kind of the next thing that we're going to aim to pay off. He wants to pay off one of the high credit cards. And I want to pay off the condo.

The condo is actually an extra, it's our income property. We're down to $30,000 on it, 32. And we have a $15,000 credit card and a $12,000 credit card yet to go. And he wants to pay those off first, because that's what the program has said. And I'm like, but since their income, once we pay this off, we'll be able to make larger, you know, double the payments, not just the payment that we would normally have.

And so that's why I was calling. Okay. So if I understand correctly, you're on track, you're making some progress financially.

You've accomplished some of your initial goals, but you're trying to decide between paying off an investment property versus credit cards. Do I get that right? Correct. Correct. Yes. Do you already have emergency savings, Renee?

We have some, yes. And I'm glad that you made us do that because our car got hit. Okay, good. I'm glad to hear that.

Yeah. You know, I typically say if you have credit card debt, I'd start with a goal of $1,500. And then let's get to the credit cards first.

And so I'm kind of tipping my hand here on where I'm going to go with your next move, because I want to get out from under that high interest credit card debt. Then I go back to the emergency fund, get that up to a minimum of three months expenses. Then I would start to think about the investment property. Listen, if you're able to cover the expenses on that investment property, then somebody else is paying the mortgage.

And as long as you're putting something aside for maintenance and reserves, and I'm hearing you even have a little bit perhaps coming back to you, that's a good thing. And I guarantee you the interest rate on that condo is a lot lower than on these two credit cards. So in terms of the total money you're spending to service the debt, the credit cards are the obvious next choice. I'd start with the $12,000 balance, regardless of what the interest rate is, because that's the one you're going to get paid off the quickest. When you get paid that one off, let's take the minimum payment on that plus what you were sending extra. Let's go to the $15,000 credit card debt. And then I'd probably go back to the emergency fund, get that up to four to six months expenses, then to the condo and get that paid off.

I just think that's the right priority use of that, especially if, again, the condo is cash flowing in such a way that you're at the very minimum covering the debt service and the expenses. Does that make sense, Renee? Okay, well then, Greg wins. Okay, tell Greg that he and I are thinking on the same page today, but only this time.

Let's not let it go to his head, okay? All right, thank you so very much. All right, God bless you, Renee. We appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000. I love it when I'm in the middle, right? You know, I get that call all the time.

Normally they don't tell me which one is saying what they want to do and I have to pick and usually I'm on the side of the other person and that doesn't always go well. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you. Let's head to Illinois. Amaya, how can I help you? Yes, hi.

Thank you for taking my call. My question is, well, I'm a single mom. I'm 38 years old and I'm currently renting. I have two girls and the only debt that I have right now are student loans that I, after creating my budget, I figure I'm going to pay it before I start incurring interest, which is in March. My question is, after I pay off this student loan debt that I have, which is the only debt that I have, should I start saving for retirement or for a house?

Ah, yeah, great question. So tell me your age. 38.

38, okay. And tell me what retirement options you have at work. Do you have a 401k or 403b?

I had the 401k until I started going intense with saving to pay off the student loan, so I stopped the 401k. Okay, but you have an option to contribute to a 401k? Yeah.

Okay, and do they offer any matching? Six percent. Six percent, so they'll match you dollar for dollar up to six percent, is that right?

Right. Okay, well listen, I would absolutely take full advantage of that. Now, if you have a conviction that you want to be debt-free as soon as possible, then I'd say go for that, in the sense that you'd, you know, tackle that student loan debt. But as soon as that's gone, I would fully fund, at the very least, that six percent on that 401k, because there's nowhere you're going to get a hundred percent return on your money, and that's what they're giving you, Amaya. Every dollar you put in, they're going to give you a dollar, and that's phenomenal. And that compounding effect over time, as it's invested and as you continue to contribute out of your, your compensation every month, it's just going to build and build and build over the next, perhaps 30 years, and you'll have quite a nest egg down the road. Now, when you get to the six percent, let's stop there and take the rest and fund the down payment for the home. But I would get to the six percent first.

Once you've got the home, let's try to get that up to 10 to 15 percent. We appreciate your call. More to come on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us.

We'll be right back. We're grateful to have you with us on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. Hey, have you joined our sponsorship program? That's the opportunity for you to come on board as a partner of MoneyWise Media.

We do what we do only because of the generous support of our listeners. And if you'd like to become a partner of ours here at MoneyWise, you can give beyond the gifts to your local church one time or as a monthly gift. And if you give 25 dollars or more, our gift to you between now and the end of the year is Paul David Tripp's amazing book, Redeeming Money. You'll see a way that you can donate right at the top of the page. Again, MoneyWiseLive.org, and we would certainly be grateful. All right, let's head back to the phones today. We're going to, let's see, Ohio, Medina. Dawn, thank you for calling. How can I help? Hi. Thank you so much. My husband will be retiring by the end of the year, okay?

And he's driving a little bit early due to COVID complications. I am 60. I am working, okay? I have an investment account for my previous employer at $149,000. We owe $114,000 on the house, okay? I was wondering whether I should pay off the house or not, and I'm only 60. I know that I'm going to get dinged on it, but I also have a $21,000 medical card to cover any medical costs. Okay, I lost you there for a second.

So I heard your husband's retiring at the end of the year. You've got $114,000 that you owe in a home, and you've got about $150,000 in investments. Is that the sole amount of your investable assets, or do you have, let's say, retirement accounts and other investments in addition to that?

That's it. Okay, all right. And what is your plan to fund your budget, your monthly expenses in retirement? Well, we're going to be relying on Social Security and my paycheck, which in Social Security would be $1,400.

Okay, all right. And how long do you plan to continue to work? Five or six years. Five or six years, okay. And are you contributing to a retirement plan at your work?

Well, right now, just got bought out three weeks ago. We're going to, we're still haven't found out what they're doing, so. Okay, I see.

Well, you know, I wouldn't do anything right now, Dawn. I think the key is you all have to develop a plan moving forward that's going to work. You know, we've got to get a retirement budget in place so you know exactly, and maybe you already know this, but you need to know exactly what your expenses are, you know, once your husband retires, and then what your monthly need is. And obviously, we need to make sure that that's covered with a little bit of margin, you know, between your social, his Social Security and your income. Then we need a longer term plan that says, okay, once you get to retirement age, what is your plan beyond that point? So if you're not continuing to accumulate retirement assets right now, we need to be able to live solely on your Social Security and his. The challenge is Social Security was only intended to cover about 40% of what your monthly need is going to be.

And so typically, it's not enough. And I realized that might be part of the reason you want to get this house paid off. And that would be great. I'd love for you to be debt free in this season of life. I just don't want you to do it by eroding all of your assets.

Because now, although you don't have a mortgage payment, and that's great, you don't have anything to fall back on if you had an unexpected expense. And, you know, I want something growing for the future. And so if you all could, either by him perhaps thinking about praying about working part time, once he retires from his current occupation to bring in some additional income, whatever you could do to pay down the mortgage using current cash flow as opposed to assets that are invested, which depending on what kind of account they are in may involve taxes and other types of of triggering events, you know, I'd love for you to do that without just, you know, pulling everything out of the market, and in paying it off only because you really wouldn't have anything left to fall back on. So I think you need to push the pause button and do some planning. Perhaps sit with a retirement planning specialist, a certified financial planner, who's also a certified kingdom advisor, and really just look at what's going on today, where are you headed both at the end of the year as well as five or six years down the road into, you know, when you're both retired and make sure that you have a plan that you can, you know, buy into. That will give you, I think, some confidence, but it'll also tell you what your needs are. Because, again, your current trajectory may not work, you know, without you all finding a way to bring in some additional income either through him working perhaps part time, delaying his retirement, or you doing that as well. So I certainly don't want you to pay off the mortgage today without doing some planning to figure out where you guys are headed.

Does that make sense? Absolutely. Thank you so much. Okay, we appreciate your call today. If you want to connect with a financial planner, you can do that on our website MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click find a CKA. We appreciate your call today.

Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Hi, Mike. How can I help you? Hi, Rob.

Thank you for taking my call. I am 32. I'm a teacher. I have no debt. I'm currently renting and saving up for a house.

So being a teacher in Illinois, we were part of the teacher's retirement system. And I also contribute the minimum to a Roth IRA. I'm just wondering, is that enough? Is that, am I on the right track? Should I be doing more?

Is there something else I should be doing? Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I think the fact that you're young, you're thinking about this, sounds like you're doing things right in terms of you know, contributing to a plan, having access to that pension, and then beyond that, fully funding that Roth IRA, I think is great. I'd want to understand exactly, you know, what that pension offers you down the road. So you're going to want to make sure you know what that is ultimately going to mean for you in terms of a monthly income stream, and do some projections on that Roth IRA. I think that's certainly a good plan for now.

I think the question is, you know, is it going to be enough when you get to that point? And apart from some planning to really look at what is your lifestyle now and projecting that into the future, and then comparing that into what reasonably you could expect from these two retirement assets down the road is probably the key. So I'm comfortable for now, but let's do some planning alongside that. So I'd connect with a financial planning professional, Mike, who can really just look over your situation and at the same time, make sure that you've made the right provisions for your will make sure you have, you know, a plan for insurance, so you're properly covered in all areas, you've got enough life insurance, you know, things like that, you know, you can pay somebody for their time. And I think you'll come away with some real confidence that, you know, this plan is going to work. Or perhaps if you're underfunded, you know, what else you can do in terms of, you know, other savings vehicles. So I'd head to our website money wise live.org, connect with a certified kingdom advisor and do a bit more planning. But I think for now, given your age and the things you just described to me, I'm pretty confident that you're off to a great start. We appreciate your call today.

Fairview, Tennessee. Hi, Sherry, how can I assist you? Hello, just have a few questions and everything for you. Social Security, I'm getting to the age to where we're looking into me retiring because of health issues.

I'm needing to get off the road and not travel as much as what I have done in the past. With that being said, the income that I have, I don't know how the Social Security really works. So could you help me to understand that?

Yes, absolutely. You know, the very best way for you to understand what you need is to start by going to the Social Security's website and using the calculator that they have there. It's a benefit calculator that will give you some details on exactly what you might expect. Essentially, the benefits though, Sherry, are based on your lifetime earnings. So your actual earnings are adjusted or what they call indexed to an account for changes in average wages since you started contributing in. And then they calculate your average monthly earnings during the 35 years in which you earned the most. Okay, so whenever you have a year where you earned higher than a previous year, that replaces a year.

That replaces a year, but it's the highest 35 years. And then they take that to determine how much your income will stream will be as long as you make it to full retirement age, which is either 66 or 67 currently. But in terms of what that means for you based on what you've been paying in and where they project you will be at full retirement age, that's where the Social Security Administration can help you understand the actual dollar amount you would expect to receive if you wait till full retirement age. So the two ways to access that information are either to go to their website, SSA.gov and use the benefit calculator or schedule a meeting virtually with Social Security Administration representative who can actually pull up your file and understand that. The other thing is they do mail you once a year a document that says what your projected benefits are based on what you've been paying in, but they're wonderful and would be happy to answer any questions you have. And I think that'd be a great next step for you.

So again, that website SSA.gov. Let's quickly go to Illinois. Rob, we have just a minute left. How can I help?

Hey, how are you doing? We are a small church here in Fairmount, Illinois. We've got about $30,000 in savings spread out over a couple CDs and a checking account. Virtually they're earning no interest at all.

And the statement that you made about the inflation rate, we're actually losing money having that money sitting there in the account. What do you recommend that we do that earn more interest to maybe put that money to work for us? Yeah, well, clearly I would be looking for a savings account that can pay you a bit more. You know, typically a lot of the savings accounts that you'll hear us talk about are for consumers only. So you need to find one that will take business accounts. So you could do that at bankrate.com or nerdwallet.com. Both would give you some great options. I would also check with some of the institutions that serve churches in particular, like Thrivent or ECCU, Evangelical Christian Credit Union, I think would be two great choices. But then really just any high-yield savings account is about the best you're going to get with the safety that you're looking for.

The interest rates, though, aren't going to be very exciting. We appreciate your call today, Rob. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thanks for being here today. I want to say thank you to my team, Robert, Dan, Amy, and Eric. We'll be back tomorrow. We'll look for you then. May the Lord bless you. Bye-bye.