6 Reasons Not to Get Rich

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Not licensed in Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. Proverbs 23 warns, do not toil to acquire wealth. When your eyes light on it, it's gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. Hi, I'm Rob West. From risky investments in cryptocurrency to buying lottery tickets in the 45 states that offer them, society is obsessed with acquiring wealth. But I'll talk about six reasons not to get rich today. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Now, I certainly hope that none of you faithful listeners are buying lottery tickets or falling for any other get-rich-quick schemes. Even if that worked, which it almost never does, you'd still be heading for trouble. Proverbs 1311 tells us what happens when money is easily acquired. It reads, wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. So obviously, it's better to accumulate wealth the old-fashioned way, by earning it.

But even then, you still have to decide how to use it. And before we talk about the only right reason to acquire wealth, here are the six reasons you shouldn't. First, some people want to get rich simply because they're told to, by friends, family, or society in general, that glorifies money. Lacking godly counsel, they acquire wealth for its own sake.

But Proverbs 14 says, the naive believes everything, but the sensible man considers his steps. The second reason not to get rich is envy. Envious or jealous people see the opulent lifestyle of others and lust for it.

They pursue wealth to the exclusion of all else. It's no wonder that envy is one of the seven deadly sins. It shows discontent with God's provision. In Luke 12 15, Jesus says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The third reason is looking at wealth accumulation as a game, like it's a winner-take-all contest, often at the expense of family, friends, or business associates.

Jesus also warns about that in Matthew 16. It reads, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? The fourth reason not to get rich is for self-esteem. Again, society promotes this misguided belief that money makes you better than others by glamorizing the wealthy. People are taken in by that because it feeds their egos. They may even give a lot of money to charities, but only if they're recognized for it.

Their giving is really self-promotion. Compare that to 1 Timothy 6, which says, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. The fifth reason not to acquire wealth is pretty simple and the one you hear about the most, simply for the love of money. Those poor souls hoard wealth because they love it, and they won't part with it for any reason.

Losing just a bit of it is a disaster for them. The truth is, they worship money. But again, we see in 1 Timothy 6, the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Our sixth and final reason not to get rich is for protection against any and all adversities in the world. Here we see a lack of faith in God to provide, putting faith in money instead. But we're blessed in knowing that God will provide.

His word tells us that over and over. In Psalm 50, we see one example, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble.

I shall rescue you, and you will honor me. Okay, so those are the six reasons not to get rich. And we're left with the only reason believers should acquire wealth. The only good reason is to be generous. It's perfectly fine to build wealth to meet our needs and to enjoy a portion of it ourselves. But the only reason God gives us a surplus above our needs is to give it to others and thereby advance His kingdom. When we do that, we enjoy God's blessing. Sometimes that's an even greater financial return. Other times, it's a priceless spiritual blessing.

This is spelled out clearly in Luke 6, give and it will be given to you, for by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. In fact, the only way to break the power that money has over us, the only way to overcome all of the six reasons not to acquire wealth is to give some away. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. Call it 24-7, 800-525-7000.

And if you've been having trouble getting through on the phone, you can always email it in. We'd love to hear from you at questions at moneywise.org. I'm Rob West and you're listening to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live where we apply biblical wisdom to today's financial decisions so you can move forward with confidence. We want you to recognize your role as a steward so you can hold God's money loosely and live with contentment and joy and peace of mind. That's what we're after here. And ultimately, as we said, you know, one of the primary objectives, I believe that God entrusts to us any more than we need to provide for our families and to sustain ourselves would be to be able to respond to the needs around us, the people that need our assistance, where God is at work, both in your community and around the world.

And so we talk a lot about generosity here as well. Wherever you find yourself on this journey, we'd love to interact with you. We've got some lines open today, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin today in Greenville, South Carolina. Hi, Rose. How can I help you? Hi. Yes, I have a question about if this is a good time to have debt.

I just have a question. I want to get a loan. I want to get the best rate and the lowest payment. Yes. Let me ask you, Rose, what type of loan are you seeking?

I would be a personal loan. Okay. Yeah. For what purpose, if you don't mind me asking, what are you going to use the money for? Yeah, no problem. So the purpose would be for a small dwelling place, a 12-by-12 cabin, 12-by-18 cabin.

And it is for the purpose of me to live in on my parents' property. I see. Okay.

Very good. In terms of the rest of your financial life, obviously this is for you to live in, so this is pretty important. But I'm curious just kind of what the rest of the financial house looks like. Do you have an emergency fund? Do you have any credit card debt? Are you living on a budget? Give me a sense of where you're at. I try to stay within a budget.

It's kind of loosely, I say within one. And I do have a little bit of credit card debt but not too much. Okay.

Very good. And how quickly are you looking to borrow this money? And is this some place you're going to build or somebody's going to build for you or is it an existing structure? It's already built. It's an existing structure that's been moved to the property.

It's not like an automated log cabin. Okay. But you're going to be purchasing it from your family? Yeah. So I have a distant relative and she has two of them. And my family members are purchasing one and I am purchasing the other one.

I see. And is it on its own parcel of land where you'd be able to get a mortgage on it? Where you'd be able to borrow and collateralize the cabin to the loan? Or is it on someone else's property and that's why you have to seek the personal loan? So it is currently on someone's property but we would be moving it to my parent's property. And I'd be pretty much just paying expenses for using their property. But I would have a personal loan for the structure itself. Okay.

But then you'd actually relocate it. Right. Okay. Very good.

Well, here's the key. I mean, I think, number one, I think this is a great idea. I love that you're going to be close to family. I think the key is though you said I'm kind of loosely living on a budget which means you have an idea of what you're spending but perhaps not totally and maybe there's not a process in place to track the flow of money in and out. I'd love for you to get beyond that and actually have a plan and then have a way to control that plan because you and your ability to live within your means is going to be critical to you not incurring any more debt, namely credit card debt which is a way we fund overspending and to make sure that as you borrow even more money to purchase this cabin that's going to be relocated that you don't find yourself in a position where at some point you're not able to cover that loan or even if you are, you don't have any margin left over to save for emergencies. I'd love for you to have an emergency savings account of three to six months.

You don't have margin to give like you want to or to save for the future in a company-sponsored retirement plan, something like that. Living within your means, Rose, is really key to you having the margin to accomplish those priorities and to make sure that when you take on additional debt that it makes sense, that it's something that you can support and cover without any trouble in your current income and having that plan is critical. So, I want to give you a six-month subscription to the MoneyWise app where we give you a way to build that plan and then track all of your spending and transactions against it to stay on budget. So, if you hold on the line when you're done today, we'll get your information and make sure you get a subscription to the MoneyWise app. Beyond that, in terms of how you position yourself to get the best terms and rates for that loan, the key is to have the best credit score possible. So, you want to pay your bills on time. You want to make sure any balances that you have hopefully are at zero but at the very least that they're less than 30% of the limit which is what's called your credit utilization and that you shop around to find the very best loan program and I would use bankrate.com to do that, bankrate.com. So, I think those are the things you need to do.

Get that spending plan in place, get a system to track the flow of money, let's get that emergency fund in place and then put yourself in a position to get the best rates and terms as you go out and seek this loan and listen, all the best to you. I'm excited about this next season of your life and I'd love for you to keep us posted along the way and thank you very much for your call. Well, folks, a lot more ground to cover today. We're just getting started but there's room for you in our conversation. We'd love to hear from you. Here's the number 800-525-7000, whether it's saving or giving, perhaps you want to talk about retirement investing or credit cards, whatever it might be, give us a call. Again, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West. We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live today, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

I'm Rob West, your host, and hey, would you like some help setting up a spending plan or getting on a budget? Well, we have coaches that can help you do that. These are men and women who have been especially trained to do just that.

Many of them, this is their ministry. They love helping God's people get on top of their finances, bring it under God's financial principles, and help you practically set up that spending plan or debt repayment plan, whatever it might be. We'd love for you to connect with one of our coaches. You can do that online quickly and easily. Just head to MoneyWiseLive.org and click Community. You'll find right there in our community where you can connect with an expert, including a coach or a certified kingdom advisor if you need professional financial advice.

Again, MoneyWiseLive.org and you can connect with a coach. We'd love for you to do that today. We're going to head back to the phones.

All the lines are full, so just sit back and enjoy. We have some great questions coming up. Mary wants to know what cryptocurrency is. Mike's asking about paying down his mortgage, but Mimi is in Phoenix, Arizona and wants to talk about estate planning. Mimi, how can I help you?

Yes. Hi, Rob. I appreciate you taking my call. I've heard you talk about the wills and living trust, and so I'm trying to figure out which one would work out best for me. I am a single lady on Social Security, retired, and I have a home, some savings, a little plot of land down south here, and I've done the beneficiaries, trying to keep the costs down, but I don't have any of the what is the POD, is that right? Payup loan? Yeah, so the power of attorney, perhaps, POA.

Yes, yes, yeah, and I'll just finish with this. I did the beneficiaries. I don't know if they're correctly, hope they're correctly done, but anyway, I was told that if I did a will and it was worded correctly, that it wouldn't go through probate.

So I'm wondering what is the best to do? Does it depend upon what I have to leaving to my daughters and how to do it? Yes, well, basically a will is the way in which you carry out your wishes after your death, and you don't always need to use probate to be able to deal with an estate, but typically that's the way that that happens. The probate court working with the executor handles the distribution of your assets according to your will, and it's an important document to have. It doesn't go into effect until after you die, but whereas a living trust, for instance, is active once it's created and funded, and that means it could provide protection or direct your assets if you become incapacitated, something a will is unable to do. So assets are put into a trust, and those assets specifically don't have to go through probate, which is what typically happens with a will. So I would make sure if your situation is fairly simple, you're just bequeathing assets to family members, to heirs, you have no special needs, a will should suffice, but I would look to have some of these other documents in place as well. For instance, a living will or what might also be called an advanced directive is a document that states your wishes for end-of-life medical care. A power of attorney could allow someone to make specific decisions, including financial decisions on your behalf if you're incapacitated, and even a health care surrogate would name someone specifically to make health care decisions. Those types of documents and that advanced planning is just really important to make sure that your wishes are carried out, in the same way a will would be in terms of how your assets are passed. Now anything that has a named beneficiary, like a retirement account for instance, or something like that, an insurance policy, that would obviously pass outside of the will according to who was named on those accounts. So you want to keep that up to date, but a will would cover everything else, and in a fairly simple situation, that should just about cover it. Does that make sense to you though?

Yes, and one other thing. A friend of mine referred me to a gal who is certified by the Supreme Court here in Arizona and licensed with the State Bar, but she's not an attorney. Now is that a safe way to go? I mean it's very cost effective for me, you know, compared to going to an attorney, but I don't know if that's really a safe way to go. Yes, and tell me what her credentials are. She is certified by the Supreme Court, licensed with the State Bar here in Arizona, but she's not an attorney. Yeah, well I would just ask her whether she feels like she can draft a document of this nature that complies with the laws of your state. She'll give you that counsel. This is somebody who's obviously quite educated and with a significant experience, and so I think she would be able to weigh in on whether or not she had the ability to do that. If not, typically you'd expect to pay around $500 for a will, but I understand you want to save money and yet make sure that it's done right, which is why I wouldn't use an online tool.

I'd make sure you have somebody who's a professional, has legal knowledge and expertise. Sounds like she probably does, but I'd verify that with her first, and we appreciate your call today Mimi. Thank you for listening to the program. Let's head to Sarasota, Florida. Hi Mike, how can I help you?

Hi Rob, how are you? Great, thanks. My question today is concerning mortgage, and I have about $30,000 I want to apply to my mortgage. I have a copy of my amortization schedule. My question is, what would be the difference if I just plop down the $30,000 towards the mortgage, or should I write an individual check to the amount of principal that I can make within that $30,000? Yeah, so you're asking just whether or not the principal amount you want to apply to principal reduction should be written separate to your monthly payment? Is that your question? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I would call your mortgage servicer and just ask how they want that to be done. Just tell them that you want anything above that month's required payment, which has already been determined how that's going to be allocated in terms of what portion to principal and what portion to interest, how they want you to give this additional amount. Do you pay online or do you send a check? How do you typically do that?

I pay online. Okay, yeah, and in some cases they might even have a way for you to put it in a separate box that, you know, applies it directly to principal reduction. But I give them a quick call.

It should be fairly simple. This happens all the time. We typically don't see prepayment penalties anymore. So, you know, anything you would send over and above the payment should be applied to principal, but it's worth a call, especially given the sum of money you're talking about putting toward this mortgage. It's worth a call for you to verify that you're doing it the way they want it to be done so that it can be recorded properly. You could get it straightened out, but you probably don't want to deal with the hassle on the back end if it wasn't handled the way you wanted it to.

So I would give them a call, but good for you, Mike, that you're putting a significant sum against your mortgage, which is going to help you get paid off even that much quicker. We appreciate your call. Mary is in Managa, Minnesota. Hi, Mary.

How can I help you? I want to know what cryptocurrency is, a very specific definition of what it is. Okay, very good. Well, it's a digital currency, Mary, essentially that can be used to buy goods and services. But what makes it unique is that it uses what I'll call an online ledger with something called cryptography to secure the transactions. So there's something behind it called blockchain, which is really the technology that drives it, that allows these transactions, these digital transactions to be documented across peer-to-peer computers all over the world, which makes it very secure because it can't be manipulated.

And it's decentralized in the sense that it's outside of government control and central authorities. The technology is here to stay. Where it's been getting a lot of press lately is not around how it's used as a means of exchange, but as an investment, just because one of the most, if not the most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin has just been incredibly volatile, but had incredible rises in value as of late. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air and we'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. We're so glad you're along with us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Hey, we've got some great featured articles on the moneywiselive.org website, the seven-day financial makeover, and five things that often lead parents into debt.

That's right. Having kids can be expensive. I'll tell you firsthand with four of them, but we want to help you out with that. A great new article from Art Rayner might be just the ticket. Head to moneywiselive.org. By the way, when you're there, create a free account. That'll ensure that you get my weekly MoneyWise Weekly Wisdom email, which has our trending podcasts, our newest content, a note from me, and anything we need you to know to help you manage God's money wisely. While you're at moneywiselive.org, you can also jump into our community where you can post a question, get answers from our coaches. You can also find broadcast archives and search for a certified kingdom advisor in your area.

It's all there at our website, moneywiselive.org. We've got the phone stacked up today. All the lines are full. Let's get right back to it. Chicago, Illinois. Margarita, thanks for calling today.

How can I help you? Yes, I have a basic question about whether to continue renting or buying. As a senior, it's such a hot market.

It's a difficult decision, but I'm concerned about interest rates rising since I would need a mortgage. Yes. Okay. So have you been renting your whole life or tell me kind of what's been going on in the housing area? No, I own the home and sold it and have been renting the last four years. Okay, very good. And what is your monthly rent, roughly? It averages probably $2,000 a month.

Okay. And tell me about your income sources in retirement. Are you living off of retirement accounts? Yeah, yes, retirement account and Social Security.

Okay, very good. And what you're pulling out of that retirement account, do you have reason to believe it's not going to impact the principal and you should be able to maintain the balance or is that, are you drawing that account down? No, it's a defined pension. Oh, defined pension. Great.

Okay. And so the pension plus Social Security covers your expenses. What do you have that you could put toward this home purchase? I have 20% depending on the home price.

Yeah. And what do you think you'd be looking to spend roughly? Well, what I'm comfortable at would have been $250, but I think I can go to $300. Okay.

And you've got about... But that would be about, that might be at 40% of my income. Forty percent of your income, meaning the payment would be up at 40%? Yes, yes.

Okay. Yeah, that'd be quite high. So you're thinking you have the $60,000 to put down on $300,000. But would that take away your emergency fund or is that in addition to it? No, no, that's separate.

Okay. But what you're saying is, though, that you've done the math and the payment would be roughly how much on that $240,000 loan? About $2,000 a month.

Yeah. So about the same as what you're doing now with taxes and insurance. And you're saying that $2,000 that you're spending right now is about 60% of your income every month? No, 40%. 40%.

Okay, very good. Yeah, I mean, my target would be margarita about 25%. Now, obviously, you're in a season of life where you probably have very little other expenses because you don't, doesn't sound like you have any debt, you're living modestly, you're retired, so you don't have kids on the payroll, all that kind of stuff that tends to add up. So you could probably push beyond my 25% target for principal interest, taxes and insurance, but 40% is a bit high. Now, you're right, you know, you're already spending that on rent, rent prices are elevated, I guess, perhaps what I would be looking to do is to see if you could spend a little bit less, go ahead and get into something maybe around $250,000 instead of $300,000, where you could have a mortgage payment that's actually lower than you're spending right now. The key is, though, that you count the costs of the other expenses, the things that you're going to now be responsible for, that perhaps you wouldn't in terms of putting something away for the maintenance, I'd be putting away, you know, one to 2% a year of the value of the the home. To be able to repair things, you'd want to make sure you have a good understanding of what the utilities are going to cost. So I would really lean into that budget to make sure that you understand what you're getting into. I don't have a problem with you buying.

But I just want to make sure it fits into the budget. The other option is you give this six months or a year just to see if we get a softening of the housing market. I mean, we're still in a red hot market. I don't think it's a bubble where it's all coming, you know, crashing down by any means. I mean, the supply and demand is very real. And we don't have enough inventory in the country right now for housing, which is why prices are elevated. I see that beginning to open up a bit perhaps next year. And so it could be that you ride this out for another six to 12 months, but you begin looking for that place that may be a little less. So you'd fit into your budget a little bit better.

Okay. But would you be concerned about the interest rate? No, not in the next six to 12 months. I mean, we may be talking something slightly higher than what you have today.

But historically speaking, Margarita, these are going to be still incredibly low rates for the foreseeable future. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you for calling. God bless you. Let's head to Lake Shelan, Washington.

Hi, Peyton. How can I help you? Hi, so I'm 21. And I want to start a line of credit. But I'm concerned about where I start, because I don't want to have to close my line of credit and have that affect my credit score because I haven't started something yet. Yeah, why a line of credit?

Are you talking about a home equity line of credit or something else? A credit card. Oh, a credit card.

Okay. And so your concern is what? Not getting the right first credit card. And then later down the line, when I close this line of credit, how it'll affect my credit score. Basically, just where to, how do I start with credit cards? Yeah, that makes sense.

I wouldn't be terribly concerned about which one you start with. I think the key is that you've got a good foundation under you, you've got a spending plan, you're living within your means, you're not incurring debt, anything you charge is a budgeted expense, and you're paying it off. I might consider if you don't have credit, and you're going to have to go with kind of a lower tier of lender or credit card issuer that you can consider going with a bank, but get a secured credit card, where essentially you put a certain amount on deposit, let's say two or $300. And you would charge against it. As long as you pay it back, they wouldn't touch the deposit, but it's there to collateralize the borrowing. So if you didn't pay, they have a means of getting paid back. But the benefit is, that would be reported to your credit report every month as you and as an on time payer with a low credit utilization, because I just use it for a small recurring budgeted item. And then what you're going to do there is just begin establishing your repayment history with a top tier lender, credit card issuer, in this case, a bank. And I think that's going to get you well on your way to having what you need along with documented income so that down the road when you need to buy a house or a car or something like that, you've got that credit established.

Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. All right, check NerdWallet or creditcards.com for the best secured credit card issuers and you'll find the banks that have the best credit cards in this area that are secured. I think that'll be the best option for you.

You may be able to qualify even without a lot of credit for an unsecured card, but that would give you an option with a lack of credit. We appreciate your call today. We've got one line open, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West. This is Money Wise Live. We'll be back with much more.

Stay with us. Thanks for joining us on Money Wise Live where we apply biblical wisdom to your financial decisions. As we look at God's Word, we see more than 2,300 verses on money and possessions. Often, this area of money is the thing that competes with the Lord for first position in our lives. If we look at the parable of the sowers and what choked out the word from yielding a 30, 60, 100-fold return, Jesus told the disciples it was the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, and the desires for other things. Well, that tells me that money can compete for our hearts.

And you remember Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So our heart follows our money. The question is, how are we spending our money, and are we happy that that's where our heart is? And does that reflect what's truly most important to us?

And if not, what changes do we need to make? Well, that's the question we all need to be asking as stewards, and I'm talking to myself as well. Let's do that together in community, see if we can find the best path forward according to biblical principles.

We're going to head to Tampa, Florida next. Hi, Janet. How can I help you? Hi, how are you?

Afternoon and God bless. So first of all, I just wanted to say thank you. A couple years ago I closed because I had an issue with—I was going through a real nasty divorce and I was acquiring a lot of attorney fees, and I had to get a couple loans and things like that. And I wanted to tap into a 401k, which I did not because I thank you for your recommendation, and just wanted to let you know that I am debt-free from that. I pay the attorneys, and then God has been grateful, and I have been able to be able to have a much more better financial situation. So that's good. Thank you so much for saying that. What an encouragement, and I'm so delighted to hear how God worked in your life, and clearly you were seeking to honor him, and he's, I think, blessed you as a result of that, and thank you for sharing that testimony today. That's an encouragement. Yeah, and I gave my tithing, which is good.

So God has been great. So my question here is now I have—so finally the Father has been paying constantly with child support, and I've been saving that money because thank the Lord I don't need it anymore, which is great. And so I have some funds, and I'd like to know how do I make, obviously, following God and being honored in him always, how do I invest that money? I got about 82 grand—I mean, not 82, $8,200. I wish I was studying 82 grand. $8,200.

$8,200, and I just want to know how do I invest, and I didn't want to do this, Lord, I'm pretty paid, because he doesn't seem like he's going to go to a Florida university. Okay, all right. Yeah. Well, but do you think, though, Janet, your best guess is that this would be used for college, even if it's not in state? Yes.

Yes, he will definitely have that. That's what he wants to do, and in my case I have two options. They go to college or they go to college.

Okay, very good. So, you know, you don't have to use the Florida prepaid. You could use what's called the 529 college savings, which is available for any accredited institution, and that way you'd get some investments built into it, you'd get some tax-advantaged growth, as long as it's used for qualified educational expenses. What I would do, I mean, you've got a great 529 there in the state of Florida, but I'm not talking about the prepaid, I'm talking about the college savings, but it'd be worth looking across the country just to see which is the best 529 for you, including which one has the best performance, because they all have different investment fund families inside their 529s, and some of them historically have done better than others. So I would go to savingforcollege.com. Savingforcollege.com.

You'll run through their little question and answer process, you know, put in the information about your son and how much money you have and where you live, and they'll come back with recommendations on the top, you know, 529 saving plans to consider, and then links where you can open those accounts fairly easily. But that would be the best option if you know you want the money to be used for college, because you could get it to grow between now and then, and you'd get some tax advantage along the way. Does that make sense? Yeah, so the only thing I was worried about those was the market, right? Is it dependent on the performance of the market?

It is, but you can be as conservative as you want. In fact, they, you know, they have investment strategies in just about all of them where you can tie it to the age of the child so that as the child gets closer to college, so in your case, you've got five years, they'll be a little more aggressive now, but as he gets closer and closer to college, it'll automatically get more and more conservative. So that would be one option. If you just want to protect it, you don't want to take any risk.

Unfortunately, you're going to give up the potential for return, but you can do that and make sure that it's there. I just put it in a high-yield savings account. You're only going to get a half a point, you know, half a one percent right now, but that would ensure that the money is there when he needs it because you're absolutely taking some risk in the 529, but it doesn't have to be, you know, aggressive in terms of its approach. You can still be fairly conservative even though at the end of the day you are putting the money at risk.

Okay, well yeah, that's, I guess being medium conservative is a good thing. All right, well great, great. That was a good advice. Thank you very much and God bless you. Thank you, Janet.

We appreciate your kind remarks today as well. Lois is in Greentown, Indiana. Hi, Lois.

How can I help? Lewis, Rob. Oh, Lewis, my apologies. I misread that.

Lewis, go right ahead, sir. That happens. You're not the only one who has made that mistake.

I'm sure that's the case, but nevertheless, I apologize. Okay, accepted. Rob, we're using a broker to invest some money and when we explained to him that we wanted to use the biblical principles of investing, he didn't have any knowledge of anyone, so he did some research and he came up with the Timothy Fund. I had not heard of them before. Would you share with me your knowledge of that? And also, I want to say thank you for the many hours you have spent gaining the knowledge that you share with us. Well, Lewis, thank you for that kind remark, sir.

It's my privilege and honor. I'm well aware of the Timothy Fund. In fact, Timothy Funds have been around. They were one of the earliest in this space in what was called, perhaps by some, is still called biblically responsible investing, primarily known for their ability to screen out companies that would be objectionable to the Christian values in terms of their primary business activities or even what they're doing with their corporate profits. So as they apply these screens, they limit the universe to companies that don't have those knowingly objectionable practices and then invest and build investment strategies around those that are remaining. The difference between Timothy Funds and perhaps some of the others that we talk about a lot, and again, nothing wrong with Timothy, I'd be fine for you to invest there, would be not only avoiding objectionable companies, but also pursuing companies that are having a positive impact in the world, even a kingdom impact in some cases.

And that's where the work of Eventide and Praxis and Inspire, where they're spending a lot of their time to make sure they're both avoiding, but then also embracing God-honoring companies. As well, all with the objective of achieving a phenomenal return on your money, because part of your role as steward is to get it to grow. And many of these funds that I'm talking about are award-winning as well. So I would head to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

You can find information on both Eventide and Praxis and Inspire. But Timothy Funds would be right in there, and I would have no issue with you pursuing these. I might also, though, Louis, think about an advisor, not that I want to cause you to leave this advisor, especially if you have a great relationship, but there's a lot that can be done in this space of faith-based investing.

And so it sounds like he's willing to do the work, but rather than just kind of picking a few mutual funds and dropping it in there and saying it's done, I'd love for you to have an investment advisor who really understands faith-based investing and can build a compelling portfolio that accomplishes your objectives, but also really aligns well with your values. Does that make sense? It sure does, and I thank you very much. Okay, Louis, thank you for your call today, sir. May the Lord bless you. Let's quickly go to, let's see, Springfield, Missouri.

Mike, I've unfortunately just got about a minute left, so give it to me quickly, and then if we have to continue offline, we can. Yeah, so me and my wife are closing on our house. We sold it, and we're closing on it next month. We stand to make $68,000 off of it. We're going to use that money to pay off all our debt. We should have close to $6,000 a month left over after we pay all our expenses after that. I need to know if I should be investing that money or using its cash flow to pay cash for a house a couple years down the road.

We do have 10 acres of land that is bought and paid for, and I want to build a log cabin on that. Yeah, so you're going to have $6,000 a month in margin and in surplus. Is that what I'm hearing?

That's correct. After all the bills are paid, we're going to have $6,000 a month. Yeah, great. And what are you doing for retirement savings? I mean, do you have a company-sponsored plan available or something like that? I have a 401k that's just a 1% match, but it's not a whole lot. I don't have a whole lot in there.

Unfortunately, I'm 46, and I started late, so that's what's boring me. Okay. Yeah, so I'd go ahead and bump that up. I mean, I'd go all the way up to 15% of your income and try to max that out. Even though you're not getting matching, you're going to have to get it in a tax-deferred environment where you get the tax-free growth. And you're 46, but you still got 20 years or so, and then the years beyond that, that that money needs to last you. So I think that could be a great option for you just to get more money working for you. Beyond that, I would be looking at any portion that you're planning to put toward this house, especially if you want to buy it free and clear. If you've got a time horizon of less than five years, I wouldn't be investing that. I would leave it liquid to go ahead and pay toward the house, okay? So put it in CDs or something along that line?

Yeah, probably a high-yield savings would be best right now, just because CDs you're not going to get anymore, and you're still going to tie it up. We appreciate your call today, Mike. I apologize. I didn't have a whole lot of time, but may the Lord bless you in the days ahead. Sounds like you guys are making a lot of great decisions. Hey, I want to say thank you to my team today, Eric Tidwell. Call screening today, Dan Anderson Engineering. Amy Rios was our producer today and providing research. Mr. Jim Henry, I want to thank you for being along with us.

Some great calls today. It was a lot of fun. Thank you for your encouragement and for being along with us. We'll be back tomorrow to do it all over again, or perhaps Monday. So come back and join us then. Bye-bye.