The Bible on Retirement

Google Christian and retirement plan, and you'll find plenty of options to choose from. But it begs the question, is retirement actually biblical?

Hi, I'm Rob West. When you come right down to it, it depends on what your definition of retirement is. And for believers, that should be different from how the world thinks about retirement. I'll talk about that first today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. So the world has plenty of euphemisms for retirement, the golden years, hanging up the cleats and getting the gold watch, also sitting back in your rocking chair. The world's concept of retirement is saving as much as you can so that someday you can stop working. The world sees work only as a negative thing, toiling under a mean boss for years so that one day you have enough to kiss work goodbye. But that is absolutely not a biblical view of work or retirement. God is our true boss. Colossians 3 tells us, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

You see, work predated the fall. The Lord put Adam to work in the Garden of Eden. And nowhere does the Bible say we can quit our service to him when we have enough money saved up to live a life of leisure. God himself is a worker. In John 5.17, Jesus says, My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. However, the Bible actually does address retirement one time, and only in a narrow instant circumstance. Regarding the Levites, Numbers 8, 24 and 25 reads, From twenty-five years old and upward they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But at the age of fifty years they shall retire and not work any more.

God's word doesn't tell us why they were to stop their labors, but one thing we can be pretty sure of, that passage doesn't apply to us. So how should Christians today think about retirement? Well, it's helpful to realize that the world's view of retirement, that is ceasing all work, is a modern concept. Before the 20th century, people generally worked as long as they could. Then along came social security and pensions, and retiring at 65 came to be seen as an entitlement. But as Christians, our service to the Lord never ends. The Apostle John was still writing and preaching in his nineties.

Second century pastor Polycarp testified that he'd serve the Lord eighty and six years as he was martyred. Those are two excellent role models for how we should view retirement. By now you're probably thinking, why are we saving all this money then, if we're not supposed to retire?

And the simple answer is, because it's prudent and a wise use of God's resources. You see, people are living longer now than in previous generations. Many of us will reach a point where we are physically unable to work, or work as many hours as we can now.

We have to prepare for that. Proverbs 21-20 reads, Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Of course, that's prudent for everyone, believer and non-believer. But as Christians, ideally we want to save for the day when we can increase our service to God. Think of it as retiring to something, and not just from something.

A good example might be a businessperson who retires and then goes into the mission field, or finds another calling to serve the Lord. Or it could be that your lifelong investing gives you resources later in life to give more generously. The more you've saved from the resources God's entrusted to you, the more time and treasure you can give back to further his kingdom. So here at MoneyWise, when we use the word retirement, we're definitely not talking about ceasing all work. Our goal is to help people be faithful stewards of God's money, so that one day they can serve him more fully. The bottom line is, it's prudent and entirely biblical to save for the day when you can no longer work as diligently as you do now.

But knowing that in some capacity, you want to serve the Lord as long as you can. So start saving for quote-unquote retirement as early as you can to achieve the benefit of compound earnings, we recommend putting away 10-15% of your income. Do this in a tax advantaged retirement plan like a 401k if your employer provides one, taking full advantage of the matching employer contributions if they're available. If your employer doesn't offer a 401k, open up a traditional or Roth IRA.

That way you'll be prepared for whatever the future brings. And by the way, as you're planning for retirement, go ahead and set a financial finish line, both for your lifestyle, your income, and your assets, so you know how much is enough and you can give more generously beyond that. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Stay with us.

Much more to come just around the corner. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today on anything financial. We'd love to hear from you. Here's the number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's go right to the phones. We're going to begin today in Brandon, Florida. Hi, Eva. How can I help you? Hi.

I want to make this as brief as possible. So the area I live in, I see a lot of small churches, congregations of 100 people or less, and a lot of pastors are saying that they want to leave their secular jobs and go into ministry full-time, which essentially means that, you know, they would, I guess, want to collect some type of a salary based on what comes in through a small congregation. But based on the scripture you just mentioned about the Levites, should pastors leave a good secular job and be financed by small organizations?

Yeah. Well, it's a great question, Eva, and clearly we see the model in the Old Testament and the New Testament, frankly, where those who were in full-time service—now, we're all in full-time service to the Lord, right, regardless of whether that's in a sacred context or a secular context. Really, it's all sacred if we do it as unto the Lord. But if we're going to leave and, you know, the Lord calls us into what we call full-time ministry as, you know, a pastor at a church, clearly we should see the body supporting the needs of the congregation, including the ability to pay the pastoral staff their salaries in a way that's appropriate for their responsibility and kind of the income that's in that particular community based on the cost of living and so forth. But it is very challenging, because most churches, certainly more than the majority, are very small congregations, which puts a financial hardship on the congregation to cover the expenses of the church. Now, typically a very small church would have a lot smaller staff and overhead and building and so forth, but many times we see pastors that are bivocational for that very reason. You know, they will give as much time as they can to the congregation while the congregation is growing and then, you know, have another job as well, because they realize it's just not practical for the body to meet the full needs, including what the pastor and his family should be paid, so they can not only cover their bills but have something to save for the future and so forth. So I think that's a decision on the part of the pastor that has to be made prayerfully, you know, when a pastor is leaving the workforce and going into, you know, quote, full-time ministry and really asking that question, is the congregation large enough, are there enough resources to fund the work of the pastor and his needs with his family? And it's incumbent upon the congregation to do their part and to be generous givers and to be, you know, tithers and, you know, taking care of their part of the equation as well.

But it is challenging with very small churches, which, again, are the majority, though. Does that make sense? Oh, absolutely.

Yes. Well, I mean, you raise a great point, though, and I clearly, we need, I mean, this is critical work. The local church was God's plan A, and so to meet the needs of the body and to reach the community and even to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and that's why it's really important that we as God's people take a portion of what God has entrusted to us and give, and I would say starting with our local church so those needs can be met. And so thankful for so many pastors, many of whom are probably listening right now, and last month in October we had a chance to appreciate our pastors in Pastor Appreciation but so thankful for what so many of them do and how hard they work with so little compensation, and I think we need to be making sure that we are paying our pastors an appropriate amount so they can cover the needs of their family and save for the future. But it's a challenge, and that's why God's people need to do their part, and we're so grateful for so many that get by on so little. So thank you for your call today.

You raise a great point. Let's head to Fort Lauderdale. Sasha, how can I help you? Hello, I'm calling because I would like some information on saving via a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Okay. Do you mind if I ask your age?

I'm 37. Okay, great. Yeah, so when time is on your side, and clearly it will be for you, Sasha, because if we think in terms of traditional retirement, and we talked in the opener today just about how we don't as believers automatically subscribe to the same thinking around retirement as the culture and the world does, that we should accumulate as much as possible and only to live a life of leisure, that we should, you know, be savers, but there should be a financial finish line, and we should realize that our service to the Lord never ceases. But in terms of how we take what we're going to put away and save it as wise stewards, we should be asking the question you are. And I would say first, you want to take advantage of any matching that you have if you have a 401k available, because that's free money.

So let's at least max that out. But I do love the IRA, and in particular, for somebody like you, Sasha, the Roth IRA. Senator Roth did a great thing for us when he put that into place because although you don't get the current tax deduction, you get tax-free growth on that money from now until retirement. And when you pull it out, you pay zero tax on all of that gain, which is, you know, just a really powerful force. So I would say if you at your age could get diligent about contributing the maximum amount, which happens to be this year $6,000, to a Roth IRA, and if you're married, your husband to do the same, you will be very thankful, your future self will be, that you did that because you'll accumulate quite a bit of money if it's invested properly, and you won't have to pay any tax on all that gain.

And then if at some point you can open a 401k or you already have one and you contribute alongside that, that would be tax-deferred money, and you would have these two buckets, if you will, of retirement savings growing that you could choose from in retirement depending upon what the tax code looked like and how much income you had, a variety of other scenarios that you won't know until you get to that point. Do you follow all that though? That is all wonderful information. Thank you. Do you guys have a recommendation of a company or different companies for me to look at?

Yes. So if you're just getting started, Sasha, I would probably look at one of the robo-advisors. This is a great new development in the investing space essentially where you would have a portfolio that's built for you based on a pretty sophisticated algorithm that is derived from questions and answers. So they would ask you a series of questions that you would answer about your age and your risk tolerance and your goals and objectives and what the purpose of this money is and the time horizon. And then that algorithm would build a portfolio of what are called exchange-traded funds. Think of it like a basket of investments that mirrors the traditional stock indexes. So large cap domestic and international and small cap, meaning the smaller companies and large companies and international plus a very small allocation of bonds given your age. The nice part is that it's very well diversified and you're not going to try to pick the winners and losers. You're just going to capture the broad moves of the market, but it's very low cost.

And every time you make a contribution, for instance, if you were going to put in $500 a month to get to that $6,000 a year, every time you make a deposit, it's automatically rebalanced and invested and there's no transaction costs in that. And so that's really the power of a robo-advisor solution for somebody who's just getting started. I'll mention three that you could choose from. One is called Betterment. The second is Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. And the third is the Vanguard Advisor. So Betterment, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and Vanguard Advisor. And if you want to compare and contrast them, there's some great reviews at nerdwallet.com. But I think, Sasha, that would give you what you're looking for.

It's very low cost, very easy to set up, great websites, great smartphone apps to manage and monitor your accounts. And I think you'll be headed in the right direction. And we appreciate your call today.

Well, folks, we've already covered a lot of ground here, but we have much more to cover. Every line is full, so you sit back and enjoy as we unpack a lot of great questions, but in every case, bringing God's Word to bear so we can look at his principles, compare them to what's going on in your financial life and help you move forward with confidence. I appreciate you stopping by today. This is MoneyWise Live! Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

I'm Rob West. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live!

Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Let's go right back to the phones. We'll head next to Florida. Diana, thank you for calling today. How can I help you?

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. I'm actually calling because I'm soon to receive some funds from the unfortunate tragedy of the 9-11 World Trade Center.

And I'm wondering, I wanted to know, how can I possibly invest some of that money? Sure. So let's talk about your financial situation, Diana. Are you saving, do you have current investments like a retirement account of some kind? I don't. Okay. Do you have an emergency fund in place?

I do. I have approximately seven. Approximately what? $7,000. Okay. And would that be two months expenses more or less?

What do you think? I would say about three. Three months expenses. That's great. Okay. Beyond that, do you have any consumer debt, credit cards, student loans, car loans? I have a car note. I pay $450 a month. And I have about $2,500 in debt. And that's it. Okay.

Very good. And are you living on a budget? And does your budget balance with a little margin each month? Or are you living kind of paycheck to paycheck?

Tell me a little bit about that. I'm living on a budget. I tried to put away at least $250 monthly. Okay. All right. Very good. But you haven't ever started a retirement account, correct?

That's correct. Okay. And do you have a retirement plan available at work? Actually, I no longer work. I'm currently on disability, social security disability. I see. And so do you have the ability to go back to work? Or will your health not allow that? My health doesn't allow it. Okay.

All right. Well, this obviously is a blessing. And so you want to be a careful steward of this money. I'm glad to hear that you've got a budget that balances.

You've got a little margin. You've built up three months living expenses in your emergency fund. That's great. I'd love for you to boost that perhaps to as much as six months. And then beyond that, it sounds like you're not living beyond your means, running up a lot of credit card debt, and so forth.

So that's a good thing. With this $225,000, this is obviously going to be key for the future. So you can grow it and have something that over time can appreciate and value. And then perhaps you could convert it to an income stream down the road to supplement retirement. It's a significant sum of money, Diana.

So I'm going to encourage you, rather than trying to handle this yourself, to find an investment professional who could really take over the management of this based on your goals and objectives. So not somebody who's just going to kind of do their own thing, just trying to beat the blade, but somebody who's really going to get to know you. And where's God taking you in your life? What are your needs now and in the future? And what ultimately would this need to grow to? And what's a commensurate amount of risk to take with that? And then deploy that investment strategy.

And the benefit is not only the expertise, but you're kind of at arm's length. So they're not going to be as emotionally driven by the decisions that are made. So if the market were down because we hit a recession and all of a sudden in one quarter the market's down 20%, you know, you're not going to rush to sell it and move it to cash as long as you're in the right long-term strategy. You know, somebody, I mean, they'll do what you want, but they'll be encouraging you to say, no, we need to stay the course.

We have the right strategy. The market will recover. You know, those kinds of things are invaluable and that's what a professional investment advisor brings. Would you be open to that idea? Sure.

Okay. What I would do then, Diana, is head to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, MoneyWiseLive.org, and just click Find a CKA. And this stands for Certified Kingdom Advisor. This is somebody in the investment area who would have significant experience. They've met character requirements and pastor reference and client references and a regulatory review, but they've also been especially trained to bring a biblical worldview of money.

And I'd interview three, probably, and find the one that you feel is the best fit, and then I would employ that person to take over management of these funds. And this will be a real blessing to you. I'm sorry that, you know, the reason that you're getting them is because of, obviously, something that was devastating, and yet this is part of God's provision to you, and I love the fact that you're trying to be a careful steward of it. So we appreciate you checking in with us today. And again, our website is MoneyWiseLive.org. God bless you. Hey, before we take our next break and we have some great calls lined up that we'll get to just around the corner, let me take a quick question that came in by email.

This came from James. He wrote in at questions at MoneyWise.org. He said, Is there a rule of thumb for when I should drop comprehensive coverage on a vehicle and go to liability coverage only? And I would say, James, the rule of thumb on that is if your collision insurance premium plus the deductible costs more than 10% of the current car value, then most experts are saying it's probably time to think about dropping it. I'll say that again. The collision premium plus the deductible, more than 10% of the car value.

Another reason to do it was when it's over 10 years old, and I hope that helps you. This is MoneyWise Live. Many more of your questions just around the corner, and there's room for you.

800-525-7000. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host.

So glad to have you along with us. In just a few moments, we'll be talking about annuities, 401Ks, a whole host of questions today. We've got a few lines open, though. Perhaps one's for you. Here's the number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

Next up, Seattle, Washington. Hi, Mark. How can I assist you? Hi. If one were blessed to have an income in excess of Roth contributions, the IRA, Roth, if you make too much income for that, what's the advantage of a SEP IRA or a simple IRA, and what is the difference between a SEP and a simple IRA? Yeah.

Very good. You're right. There is the potential challenge for some folks on the Roth IRA because of the income limitation. And so the SEP IRA is going to allow you to put away a bit more than the simple is really the main issue. So with a SEP, for an employer, they can make a contribution to an employee's simple IRA, including themselves as the owner as 25% of the employee's compensation or $58,000. And then on the simple IRA, that is going to be limited to only $13,500. They're both very easy to set up. You know, there's not a lot of administration, not anywhere close to what you'd have on a 401k because you don't have ERISA requirements for filing and so forth.

So very easy to open. A lot of folks just because of the simplicity of the simple IRA and because it allows you to do some matching, you know, that's their first choice with a small business who's trying to make a retirement plan available to employees. But if it's mainly just you and you're not looking to necessarily get money to employees, and you want to be able to put more away than you can do in the simple, that $13,500 limitation, then that's where the SEP is really going to shine because, as I said, you can get upwards of $58,000 going into that account. And for a high income earner who has a small business and, you know, wants to be able to sock a lot away and get a current year tax deduction, that can be a real advantageous tool.

Does that make sense? So is the advantage of tax deduction in that taxable year or is it just deferring tax in the future? Yeah, they're both treated the same. So you do get the current year tax deduction and then future tax on the gains is, you know, on the withdrawals is deferred.

So you take the deduction as it goes in, it grows tax deferred, and then just like a 401k, you're going to pull it out and pay tax on it as income in retirement for both of them. Okay. Thank you very much.

I appreciate that advice. Okay, Mark, thank you for calling today. God bless you, sir.

We're going to head all the way across the country and south to Florida. Hi, George. What can I do for you, sir? Good. Hi.

How are you doing? Great. Okay.

Well, I have a couple of questions. And thank you for that because you mentioned something about the 401k. I want to take advantage of that.

However, I was telling them that I am a bit skeptical because during the market crash, when the 401k is kind of like went to, you know, got affected, if you will. So rather what I've been doing since then is I work in real estate. I've been investing directly the money into properties and things like that and growing it through that way.

And obviously that's been working pretty well. So I guess I want to get advice. Perhaps I should probably continue that. I do think I do property management also. We sold to a company, so maybe I was going to join their 401k. But I thought that the best way that I can grow the money is to continue doing what I'm doing and getting more properties. And that way, when I retire, I can utilize that for growing the income and using that for whatever mission trip or whatever we're doing at that point in time. But I thought that was the quickest and smartest way, particularly because I do that for a living and I kind of know what I'm doing.

Yeah. Well, I like that. And I think you're exactly right. I mean, you have a unique insight into this particular market segment and asset class, if you will, because that's your business and you see it every day. Now, I will say, though, that you can do very well in the market.

And had you not gotten out when the market saw that sharp decline during the first part of the pandemic, you would have seen a complete recovery and then a doubling of the market. So I think it's prudent to have a long term, properly diversified strategy that you stick with through the ebbs and flows of the market. And you'll be rewarded if you can have that long term perspective.

But I do like having these two asset classes represented. So I think you've done well in real estate. You're up close and personal because it's your primary business. But having also the ability to contribute consistently to a 401k and building that portfolio as well, I think is a good thing. And I wouldn't be scared necessarily of the market because over the last hundred years, it's been perhaps the best place to build wealth. As long as you've got a long term strategy and you're willing to stick with it and not trying to jump in and out and time the market. The other benefit of being a consistent investor in a 401k, even when the market's down, is something called dollar cost averaging. So as the market declines, if you make the same contribution every month, think about it like this. You're buying more shares with the same amount of money. And so you're taking advantage of those dips so that as the market recovers, those larger number of shares that you bought when the market was down are now worth more.

And that's a good thing. So I guess bottom line is I'd say stick with your strategy. It's working, but absolutely take advantage of a 401k as well as you're able to, and especially if there's matching because that's free money. Okay.

Yeah. I think I'll certainly do that because there is matching in my company. So and we're about to jump into the re-enrollment, so I guess I'll try to take advantage of that as well. I would absolutely do that.

And look, perhaps even get some counsel on which of those mutual funds inside that 401k would be the best fit for you. And George, we appreciate your call today. Let's head to Sioux City, Iowa. Hi, Diane. How can I help you? Hi. Hi.

Nice to talk to you today. My question is more in regards to like tax consequences. I know like in 2025 our tax brackets would be changing again. And right now I'm in a lower income tax bracket, but I was trying to figure out what would be an advantage of having more Roth conversions between age 65 or 72 when you have to do the required minimum distributions on any investments. Well, you just have to be careful there and see if it makes sense because essentially when you do the Roth conversion, yes, you're bypassing the required minimum, but you're also taking a pretty big tax hit in that year as opposed to just letting it continue to grow tax deferred.

And there are ways to offset that required minimum when you reach 72, notably what's called the qualified charitable distribution where you can do your giving that you perhaps are currently doing out of cash instead out of the IRA directly to a ministry or your church and you reduce your adjusted gross income by that amount and satisfy your required minimum at the same time. So that would be one way. And then perhaps the cash you were going to give you hold back because you've done it another way. So I think there are ways to do it without taking that huge tax bite on the front end.

So I'd connect with your CPA and just kind of talk through this based on the specifics of your situation. And I think you may find that it makes sense to leave at least a portion right where it is. Thank you for your call. This is MoneyWise Live. We've got more questions just around the corner. We're glad you're along with us today. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. So glad you're along with us today. We've got a few lines open.

We have room for you. Here's the number 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Hey, did you receive our MoneyWise Weekly Wisdom email yesterday? If not, I'd love for you to receive it. It went out with some comments from me, our trending articles and podcasts, and it's a great weekly dose of God's word as it relates to your financial journey.

I know it'll be an encouragement to you. The best way to receive it is just to head to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, and just sign up for a free account. That'll ensure that you get the Weekly Wisdom email and you'll be able to post to our MoneyWise community where our coaches will answer your questions.

That's MoneyWiseLive.org. Let's head back to the phones today. Shelly is in Indiana. Hi, Shelly.

How can I help you? Thank you for taking my call. I'm so glad.

I'm so happy to get you. Do you know anything about this life lock? I think I'm saying it wrong, but it's where it's a title insurance where they look at your credit report, and it's supposed to be some type of scam that's taking place where people are putting their names on your title. Then they're going to the county or state having a false notary public claim that the document they're signing is correct, and then they're taking people's property because the state or the county, they don't research anything.

They just automatically assume that this is correct. No, I'm very familiar with it, Shelly, and I'm not a big fan of this particular type of protection that's being offered. It'll be referred to as title lock or title theft insurance, and the companies that are selling this as a monthly subscription claim that it will protect you if somebody signs a false transfer of deed at the county courthouse. The problem is nobody can prevent that, and you simply can't lose your property that way because the transfer is invalid. It's fraud. So if the identity thief takes out a loan on the property and the lender attempts to foreclose, which they probably wouldn't even try, it wouldn't stand up in court because they took the property from you in a fraudulent manner. It would be unlawful foreclosure because you're the rightful owner and didn't sign anything. So the fact that they're saying they can protect you from this is really, I think, a half-truth. What's better would be, number one, for you just to kind of monitor that yourself, and many county records offices are offering a service where you can sign up for an alert if there's been any change to your deed status, and you may want to check on that. But even if it's not available, again, paying somebody's money each month to do this, I just think, is an unnecessary expense because bottom line is if somebody tried to do this and it's remote, although we're hearing about it more these days, again, nobody would be able to foreclose on your property because they're not the rightful owner.

Does that make sense though? Well, my thing was, I kept hearing that they fraudulently signed off on something. So I'm thinking, well, that's an illegal transaction and I should be able to prove that in a court of law.

Well, you sure will. And for that reason, they won't be able to foreclose because it's unlawful foreclosure because you're the rightful owner. So why pay somebody to protect you from that when you don't really need any protection?

Now, it would be a hassle, no doubt, but I don't think it's worth the expense of, quote unquote, the title theft insurance. So I'd pass on that if it were me, but I appreciate your call today to Idaho. Hi, Robert, how can I help you? Hi, I am looking to, me and my wife started a business in February, right before COVID started. We barely had any money to survive or anything like that. And we, we've overcome it. We've started a business.

She was going through a custody battle. And we pretty much overcome everything that Satan has thrown at us and with the Lord's help. And we've got a clientele base and all that with our business. And we use the Lord in our business when we have clients, we talk about God and everything. We are looking to invest our money in a better way to help our family and our clients is what we're basically doing.

All right. So are you looking to take a portion of the proceeds? And by the way, I'm delighted to hear your story and how the Lord is blessing your business. As you talk about investing, are you looking at starting a retirement plan that would benefit not only you, but your employees or did you have another investing question?

How can I help you? My investment is to help my, me, my wife, my kids, I hope are willing to take over when we're pretty much done with our time with it. And we can move forward and do more ministry work with what we're doing and stuff. Like I said, the Lord has blessed us in many ways because we use our minds for him, our souls, our work with him and all that. I'm delighted to hear that.

And it sounds like he's certainly honoring that. What I would look at, Robert, is what's called a SEP, I-R-A, S-E-P. And basically it's going to allow you to put away up to $58,000 or 25% of your income. You'll want to open it perhaps at, you know, Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade or Vanguard and our friends at soundmindinvesting.org could be a great resource for you. They'll help you select some really high quality mutual funds.

And then you just want to be diligent and systematic about the contributions you're putting into that. And that's going to take a portion of, you know, your profit and allow you to get a current year tax deduction. I'm assuming you're organized as an S-corp. And so that's going to give you a nice deduction and get a good bit of money put aside so that it can be invested. And again, soundmindinvesting.org could be a great resource to choose those investments once you get it set up.

You can also talk to your tax preparer about, you know, setting that up and the benefits that you'll realize from a tax perspective. But thanks for sharing your testimony of how God's working in your life and your business, and all the best to you. Let's head quickly to Chicago. Hi, Jill, what can I do for you?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I have two kids who are eight and ten, and we have about $10,000 saved up to them. So I'm just wondering, what would a good investment option be for them since they already have college funds set up?

Yeah. So that was going to be my first question is what is this money earmarked for? So if it's not for college, how do you envision this being passed to them? Is it something you just want them to be take control over when they reach the age of majority there in Illinois? Or do you want more control over it than that in terms of how they receive it and when? At this point, I would look for them to be able to take control of the money when they reach majority. Okay. So you could use a custodial account. You just need to think through that because, you know, what are their ages right now? Eight and ten.

Okay. So, you know, I mean, when they get to 18, for instance, you know, depending upon their maturity, both spiritually, emotionally, but also and more importantly, financially, you know, they may or may not be making the best choices. Let's hope that they are and pray that way. But just keep in mind that if you open a custodial account and invest it, it does become their money. And so if they want to take it and buy a sports car, they can. Or if they're making, you know, some poor lifestyle choices, they could use this money in that way. Or maybe they're doing great and, you know, this would be a real blessing to them.

But I just want you to think through the implications of that because it will become their asset as soon as they reach that point. But you would open a custodial account. I do it probably at this point with one of the robo-advisors, Betterment or Charles Schwab, Intelligent Portfolios or the Vanguard Advisor.

And it would, as you systematically make contributions over and above the $10,000 you already have saved, that money would automatically be invested in a portfolio that's consistent with the time horizon on this through index funds which are just broad market indexes that are going to capture the big moves of the market but in a very low-cost way. So it's a custodial account and I would use a robo-advisor, Betterment, Schwab, Intelligent Portfolios or Vanguard Advisor and I think that will give you what you're looking for. We appreciate your call.

We're going to stay in Illinois and finish today with Janet. How can I help you? My son is 16. He has a little bit of money and I wanted him to invest it by himself so do Acorn or one of the other things out there. But we try to sign up and he has to be 18 before he could sign up for it, I found out. So do I have to sign up for him in my name and if so, what are the tax implications for me? And I also work at a financial institution that I cannot take part in day trading.

So if it's day trading, I can. That's why I want him to do it in his name. Yeah, I see.

And a couple of things here. Number one is many of these fintech companies that like Acorns or Stash would be another one or Betterment, most of them do not have custodial accounts and so you're going to have to be 18 years old to open them. So another option would be just what you said.

You open it in your name but it's earmarked for him and you certainly could pass along the credentials to log in and view it, manage it. But I don't know that I would get him in the mode of day trading. I mean, I realize there's one sense we want to teach investing and we want it to be exciting for him to be able to pick his companies. But we don't want to reinforce the wrong behaviors which is investing is jumping in and out of stocks, trying to pick the bottom and pick the top and make a quick gain. It should be more long-term in nature and according to Ecclesiastes, it should be broadly diversified. So I'd look at a robo advisor which I was just talking about that's going to systematically invest it in index funds as opposed to trying to pick the winners and losers.

I just don't think that's going to set him up well for the future and I mentioned Betterment Schwab Intelligent Portfolios and Vanguard Advisor would be the great choices there. Janet, thanks for your call today. Hey, that's going to do it for us today.

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