Putting Kids on the Deed

Proverbs 13, 22 tells us, A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. Hi, I'm Rob West. We all want to leave an inheritance to our kids, but tax laws sometimes make that complicated, especially if a home is involved. I'll talk about that first today, then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7200.

Call that number 24-7-800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. It's a question we get more often than you'd think. Should I put my child's name on the deed to my home?

There are many reasons folks ask this question. Most often it's to keep the property from going through probate when the homeowner dies. The homeowner, or the parent, wants to ensure the property goes to one or more children. Having their name on the title provides peace of mind that they'll take full ownership of the property.

But sometimes the solution has unintended consequences. Having the child's name on the deed may solve the probate problem, but it creates a new problem with taxes. It's actually better for the parent to own the property outright upon death. When that happens, and this is key, the heir or heirs inherit the property at its current market value. So let's say you buy a home in 1990, picking a date at random, for say $100,000. If your child inherits the house and sells it immediately for $500,000, the profit since the original purchase would be $400,000.

And here's where it gets really interesting. Under the current tax law, the child inherits the home at its value at the time of your death. So the home is worth $500,000. The child sells it for that much, and that's also how the IRS views the value of the property.

That means, according to the IRS, your child has made no profit on the sale of the home because of what's called its stepped-up value, what it was worth when you passed the property onto your child. But now you're thinking, fine, the heir pays no taxes on the inheritance. But what about the estate? Well, there'd be no tax owed there either if the value of the estate at the time of death was less than, are you ready for this? $11.7 million, which is the current estate tax exemption. So no estate taxes.

Now, let's look at the other scenario. You put your child's name on the deed and the child becomes an equal partner in owning the home. Upon your death, your child would inherit only half the home's value and would be entitled to only the stepped-up basis for that half. If your child then sells the home, they wouldn't pay tax on the share inherited from you at the time of death.

That's good. The bad news is the child would probably have to pay tax on the other half of the home's value. That tax would be based on the value of the share the child received when you put their name on the deed and the child obtained ownership based on the value of the home when sold.

Now, let's illustrate this with the same numbers we used before. You buy a house for $100,000 and you put your child's name on the deed as co-owner. The child inherits your half of the property at the stepped-up basis of $500,000. When the child sells the home, your half is shielded from taxes, but the profit then becomes the difference between the purchase price and the sales price, or $400,000 with the child's share being $200,000.

The child would then probably have to pay taxes on the $200,000 in profit. But if the child had inherited full ownership of the house, there'd be no tax at all. I know that's all very complicated, but the bottom line is, in most cases, it's best to not put your child's name on the deed before you die. If you're still concerned about probate, a better alternative is to put the home in a living trust. A revocable or living trust allows you to control the home while you're alive, and your child will inherit the home through the trust upon your death. While you're alive, you can still do whatever you want with the home, even sell it, but you'll know that with your passing, the home will go to your child. A living trust will cost you about $1,500, but it will allow the home to be passed on to your child without going through probate. I'd recommend, of course, you talk with an estate planner or a state attorney, rather than trying to do this with one of those inexpensive online services.

You get what you pay for. You know, another related question we often get is, how much can I give my child as a gift without paying taxes? The quick answer is a lot. You can give anyone up to $15,000 a year without having to declare it on your taxes. You can also give anyone a total of $11.7 million over your lifetime, but if you go above $15,000 this year to any single person, you have to report it to the IRS.

Well, I hope that answers those questions, at least until they change the tax laws. All right, your calls are next. Here's the number, 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We're grateful you've tuned in to MoneyWise Live today.

I'm Rob West, your host. We've got some calls waiting, and we've got some lines open, so if you'd like to get in on the conversation today with whatever you're thinking about financially, we'd like to invite you to do that. Here's the number. It's 800-525-7000.

Lines are open, 800-525-7000. Before we head to the phones, we started today by talking about whether or not you should put your kids on the deed to your home. And let me just say, as you're thinking about wealth transfer, this is the last stewardship decision you will make.

It's an important one, and it will change over time. I think it's important to consider your wealth transfer plan in light of God's word. What is the right way to go about it? How do we think about leaving money to our kids or ministry or our church, and how do we decide between the two? How much goes to each, and what does that plan look like?

Well, there's a great resource that we talk about often on this program that I'd like for you to think about picking up if this is something you're considering, and it's a book by our friend Ron Blue called Splitting Errors, and it really doesn't deal with the how-to, the mechanics of estate planning, but really the why, the questions that you need to ask in advance to make sure that you've given thoughtful consideration to how you're constructing your estate plan. And let me just say, other than the financial capital that you will pass, what's even more important is the spiritual and character capital that you should pass. And that needs to come first. And keep in mind, money in the midst of a family member who is not showing responsibility with handling God's money wisely or perhaps making difficult lifestyle choices can really make problems even worse. And so you'll want to think through that.

How are we going to transfer our wealth, and what implications might that have, and have we prioritized passing spiritual capital and character capital first? Perhaps Splitting Errors would be a great resource during the next couple of weeks for you to pick up and read. I would highly recommend it. All right, two lines open. 800-525-7000. We'll head to Minnesota first today. Frank, thank you for holding and being our first caller.

How can I help you, sir? Well, thank you for the introduction that you did on transferring physical property like a home. What our attorney has suggested is to do a TOD, transfer on death.

And I wonder if that's better than what you were suggesting. Yeah, I like a TOD or a transfer on death. It's a very effective tool to make sure that your wishes are carried out with particular accounts like a brokerage account or an asset like your home.

And it's a simple way to do it. It's less costly than a living trust. The only reason you may want to consider a living trust is if you wanted some of the other things that come along with that that your estate planning attorney can talk you through, whether that's anonymity with regard to how your estate is handled, avoiding probate, if you want to have the assets that are inside the trust given out beyond your life based on certain triggering events, if you have a lifelong dependent or minors that you want to reach certain milestones. If you want somebody to be able to come in and handle your estate prior to your death, if you're incapacitated, those would be additional reasons you could consider a living trust. But in terms of just the efficiency and expediency of transferring an asset, in this case, your home, a transfer on death is a very effective tool. So I think that's great, counsel.

And as always, I really encourage you, which you have done, to seek legal counsel as you establish your plans, put the documents in place and then be sure, Frank, to update those as things change or every couple of years. We appreciate your call today. Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand. Angelina is in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Go right ahead. Well, the most likely reasons, Angelina, would be either A, you've had a late payment, B, you've authorized someone to pull your credit for the purposes of evaluating whether or not they will extend you credit, like taking out a car loan, applying for a new credit card, something like that. You know, those would be the primary reasons. There's obviously a number of other factors there.

So can you think of anything that has changed or have any of those things occurred? No, but there's one thing in my mind that possibly would do it because I had a good credit score, but I had a settlement, I guess you could call it. So if I accepted a settlement payoff of debt, maybe that would decrease it that much? It could. I mean, obviously, because you had a settlement, I assume you had some late payments that led up to that. Is that right? Well, it was in collection.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, there's just so many factors that go into that algorithm and that very well could have when that, even though it's, you know, hopefully it's been settled in full, shows a zero balance, or at least that's forthcoming, that in and of itself could have resulted in this decrease. You know, you have to go back to, Angelina, kind of the factors that make up your credit score. The most important factor is your repayment history.

That's 35% of the score. Then second to that is the amounts owed. And the key there is what's called credit utilization. So you want the total you owe less than 30% of the available credit that's been extended to you. After that, it's your credit history.

How long have these accounts been open overall? Next would be the credit mix, the fact that you have different types of account, revolving accounts and installment accounts, those types of things. And then thirdly, or excuse me, lastly would be new credit, which makes up 10%.

So those are the things to kind of keep in the back of your mind. Some triggering events that could reduce the score. One would be closing an account, because that changes not only your credit history, but also potentially your credit mix. If you apply for credit, again, approving or allowing a lender to pull your credit is going to temporarily reduce your score. And then obviously a late payment would do that as well. So I'm not terribly concerned about that 30-point drop.

It'll come back. The key is focusing on moving forward, being an on-time payer, keeping those balances low. And I would also encourage you to check your credit report for free a couple of times a year. You can do that at annualcreditreport.com. If you find any errors on that, make sure you dispute it. And by the way, with this settlement, once it's settled in full, I'd really encourage you to make sure that that is noted as settled in full, and that it shows a zero balance. Because a lot of times that does not get updated, especially with those accounts that have been in collection.

Again, the website to pull your credit report, annualcreditreport.com, I'd get one of each of the three bureau reports every four months, and that way you're less than four months at any given time away from your next report. That'll ensure that you stay on top of this, and if there is any negative information that's incorrect, you can dispute it and get it removed. Thank you for your call.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. As we head toward year end, let me encourage you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry here at MoneyWise Media.

We do what we do each day because of listener support. We rely on you to be able to bring you this broadcast, our app, our MoneyWise Coaches, our website, our Certified Kingdom Advisors, all that we do as a result of your support. If you would prayerfully consider giving here as we head toward December 31st, we'd certainly be grateful. It's quick and easy to do on our website. You just head to MoneyWiseLive.org and click the donate button, MoneyWiseLive.org, and click the donate button. You can give online securely. You can also find our mailing address if you'd like to send in a check or a phone number, or you can contact somebody directly.

Again, just head to our website, MoneyWiseLive.org, and you can click the donate button, and thanks in advance. All right, let's head back to the phones. All the lines are full. We have a lot of great questions stacked up.

Next is York, PA. Hi, Eileen. How can I help you? Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. Your ministry has really been special to me and my husband, Tom.

I appreciate that. We're in a situation here where when we first bought this home, it's a parcel of a fourth generation farm, so it means a lot to me because I work the land. We put a lot into it. We've sunk 100K into our house.

We were wondering, we're in our 60s, we were wondering, and we still have a mortgage, that's our only debt, if it would be wise to move into a trailer, because I know there's not much value in a trailer. Yeah. Why would you be selling it? Are you looking to try to reduce your overhead? Yes. Okay. Talk to me about kind of how you all are doing right now, and is there a shortfall every month that you're trying to make up a gap on? Well, we're able to make our mortgage payment. It's a third of our income, and we're not able to save. That's my concern. We do have money in savings, and we have money. John has invested 20% in his work because it's a match program, and so we heard that this is a good time to sell. We were just wondering what to do.

I have MS, so I can't work. I see. Okay. And have you done some planning, Eileen, where somebody has looked at the assets that you have, the retirement account your husband has, the real estate that you have, the savings you've accumulated, and really looked at that in light of how that might fund your retirement income that's needed?

Uh-huh. Well, we still owe $150,000 on the house, and we thought about a condo, but you have to pay fees for maintenance, and that would be foolish, too. So given what we've sunk into the house, we're going to lose a lot if we sell. We do have a financial counselor, and we need to meet with him again, and would you suggest meeting with him and going over everything? I really would because, I mean, although it seems like it makes sense if you're unable to save, we want to try to reduce your overall spending, so we've got some margin there that you can then use to commit toward long-term savings. But before we even do that, I'd love for somebody to look over the whole picture just to say, you know, what does your husband's projected work years look like? How long is he planning to continue to work? Based on your current track, how much might you have available at that point, and how does that match up with your needs in retirement? What would your retirement budget look like?

And in addition to Social Security, will you have enough in the way of assets to be able to fund that need? And if not, we need to accelerate it, then, you know, clearly a change is in order. But given that you started by saying, listen, this property is really meaningful to me, this is some place that I love, I just want you to make sure that this is the right decision to sell it, and it may be. But I'd like for you to do that in the context of a plan that gives you some peace of mind to know that you're headed somewhere, and you know what the ultimate goal is, and you know what it's going to take to get there so that you've got, you know, a goal in mind as you solve for reducing your overall spending. And part of that, and clearly one of the biggest levers you can pull in doing that, is reducing what, as you said, is the largest expense you have, a third of your budget being your home. But then I think it's a matter of, okay, what do we do about it next? And, you know, it would be a pretty radical change for you to go from a farm with land to a mobile home or a condo. And so you just need to think through the implications of that. Are we prepared for that?

Is it a small single family home that would be better for us where we can, you know, reduce our overall spending? So I'd give some thoughtful prayer to that, perhaps engage some real estate professionals, but I think the starting point is to really spend some time with that financial advisor or counselor to really make sure you understand where are you today? Where are you headed? Are you on track?

And what is it going to take to get there? And then the decisions to sell the house and to make changes in your financial life are just the way that we're going to solve, you know, for where you're ultimately headed. Does that make sense? Yes. And the other thing I wanted to mention is we're putting $700 into whole life a month.

$700 a month. Okay. All right.

Yeah. And so you've built up some cash value there, obviously. And so we need to look at that just to say, is that the best place for that money to continue to grow for the future? Would it be better to take that cash value and reallocate it somewhere else so it could continue to grow outside of an insurance policy? And how much life insurance do you need right now and into the future? And that's obviously going to become more and more expensive over time.

And then with your medical condition, we need to understand the implications of that as well, although if you're not bringing any income in, you know, there's not a risk there that your husband, you know, would bear if the Lord were to call you home. So I think all of this really just warrants a plan. And so I think that would be my next move. If you have questions after you do that, don't hesitate to give us a call back. And Eileen, God bless you. We appreciate your call. We'll ask the Lord to give you some wisdom as you make these decisions. Joe's in Kansas. Joe, you're next up on the program.

How can I help you, sir? Yeah, I'm a single guy, and I don't have any children. I've got a couple houses and just assets. And I was wondering, there's a couple places that I would like because I'd like the money in the event of my death to go to the Lord. And I was wondering what would be the best way to set up a trust where there was an auction and they just sell everything and then they send the money to allocated places?

Or what would be the best way to handle? Well, if it's a it's a fairly simple situation, you know, a basic will will accomplish that through the probate process. The other option is what's called a transfer on death, which just transfers the these properties or assets to a named beneficiary or case charity or ministry on your death or a living trust, which for real estate can have some benefits.

So I think your next move, Joe, is to find a godly estate planning attorney there in your area, talk through all of this and the right instruments to go along with it. And I think you'll be glad you did. We appreciate your call. Stay on the line.

We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We want to help you apply God's truth, his principles to whatever you're dealing with in your financial life today. Give us a call. We've got some lines open.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Hey, before we head back to the phones, let me just mention if you'd like to find a financial professional, either an estate planning attorney or financial planner, investment advisor, an insurance professional or even a tax professional, someone who shares your values. That's why we recommend the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. You can find a C.K.A. in your area quickly and easily on our Web site. MoneyWiseLive.org. Just click find a C.K.A.

and you can search locally. We think you'll be glad that you have somebody who's giving you competent professional advice that aligns with your values and priorities as a Christian. All right. We're heading back to the phone.

Chicago, Illinois. Hi, Cheryl. How can we help you? Hello.

I love the show. The question I have. My father passed away earlier this year in January. He had a house. He has a house, had a house that I'm paying the mortgage on. I want to know about probate. Is it something that I can do and just go to court or go to the courthouse and file paperwork? Or do I have to hire an attorney?

That's the first thing. The second thing is how long do I have to actually go through the process? And then the last question is, if I wanted to rent it out, do I have to go through probate first?

Yeah, great question. You know, you don't necessarily have to hire an attorney to take your father's estate through probate. But depending upon the size of the estate, you may be better served with an attorney because they know what to look for. We need to make sure you have life insurance proceeds and real estate and bank accounts and IRAs.

And if you have stocks and real estate, we've got to make sure you have a good handle on everything that's there. To find out who inherits assets for which no beneficiary has been formally named, such as a house, you would need to consult state law, which again is where an attorney will be helpful. Every state, Cheryl, has what are called intestate succession laws that parcel out property to the deceased person's closest relatives. But I think the key is that you recognize you want to get all this taken care of. The probate court is ultimately going to determine who gets what if he has passed intestate, which means without a will. But an attorney could be your advocate there to help you make sure everything is nailed down.

It's used anywhere between a couple of weeks and six months to file for probate. After that, it can cause some problems. So you want to get on this pretty quickly. No problem. Alrighty. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you for your call today and God bless you. Greg's in Little Falls, Minnesota.

Sounds like a beautiful place. Greg, how can we help you? Greg, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Yep.

Yep. I'm here. All right. You're welcome.

Go right ahead. Yeah, Rob, thank you for your program. My wife and I listen to it regularly and it really helps us. I'm in Little Falls, Minnesota. Like I said, we, my wife and I, we were fortunate enough that when her parents passed away, they gave us a cabin on one of the lakes up in northern Minnesota. And we live on a farm in Little Falls that's about 10 acres and my wife just loves it. And the question I have with the supposedly transitory inflation that's going on, if that keeps getting, if the transitory inflation keeps going and say that it takes more and more to live. And my wife and I have a seven year plan to get the mortgage on the farm paid off.

The cabin is free and clear. The thought came to me the other night that if everything went south, would it be smarter to have the mortgage on the cabin and get the resident this primary farm as our place? I think. Do you understand my question? Yeah. So you've got the farm and the cabin, but they're they're separate or are they located in the same place? No, they're separate.

The cabin is an hour and a half away on the lake up in northern Minnesota. And we have, you know, we've been able. We got that paid off. Actually, it's kind of a little bit of a form of income for us.

We do Airbnb and DRBO with it. But we we're not wanting to get rid of either one of the places. But the thing is, if if everything in the economy and I know we're supposed to have faith that that's not going to happen. But if it did go bad, would it be smarter to have the mortgage on the cabin instead of having the mortgage on the place that we want to make our primary farm?

Yeah, and not necessarily. I mean, other than the fact that, yes, I mean, you want to make sure that where you ultimately want to live, you have most peace of mind, most safety, if you will, by having that unencumbered. And so, yeah, to your point, you know, if something were to happen economically and you all experience a loss in income and you're unable to make your mortgage payment by having a mortgage on the farm, where you ultimately want to live, that does put that property at risk versus the cabin, which, as you said, you'd like to hang on to it. But if you were going to lose one, you'd want to lose that. Yeah, that would be out of an abundance of caution.

I think a wise move. I think the question is just what is the cost of that and is that worth it both in terms of the refinance cost itself? So you're going to have to get a new mortgage on that property that's currently free and clear.

And there's going to be an expense to that. And then secondly would be getting a mortgage on a property that is not your primary residence is going to add a little bit to the rate that you're going to be paying. But if that gives you greater peace of mind to know the place we really want to hang on to is the place that is the farm and we'd like to just know that that has no mortgage on it, we own it free and clear, then absolutely, I would concur with that.

And you may decide it's worth the extra expense to change this around, move the mortgage over to the cabin and pay the premium, even if it's slight, on the rate associated with a property that's not your primary residence. Does all that make sense? Yeah, it does. I think it's really good because we heard today too that they're talking about three prime rate interest rate hikes next year. And it's like, okay, where are we going with this with all the trillions of dollars that we're printing? And they just kind of want to have a peace of mind, which the Lord has been good to us. And we do have a good peace of mind.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and keep in mind that, you know, farm loans have certain benefits that you don't get with a home loan. But again, that may not be as important as just knowing this is free and clear. And you know, I don't have to even think about that. So I would make sure you get three offers, Greg, before you ultimately decide on a mortgage for that cabin.

So you can compare those and make sure you're keeping your costs low, no more than two to 3% in expenses, and obviously get a very attractive rate. But sounds like you're headed in the right direction. I appreciate your call today.

Lizette is in Lakeland, Florida, but we're heading into a break in here in just a moment. So Lizette and Cheryl and Sheila, I'm going to ask you to hold tight so we can get to your question right after the break. In the meantime, let me just remind you, as you think about handling God's money, and you think about your role as a steward, here's what I want you to consider. Number one, God is the owner, you're the steward, which gives us a really important job as we manage money for the King of Kings.

And as we apply God's principles, we want to do five simple things. We want to live within our means. We want to avoid the use of debt. We want to have some liquidity or some margin in our financial lives, not spend all that we bring in. We want to set long-term goals. We want to give generously.

If we do that for a long time, we've at least put ourselves in a position to experience God's best. Well, if we're going to live within our means, we've got to have a spending plan, and one of the best ways to do that is to have a system to track the flow of money. So let me encourage you to check out the MoneyWise app. That could be a great way for you, as you plan for a new year, to get your budget set up and have a system to control the flow of money in and out. It's the best digital envelope system I've ever used, and it's available in your app store.

Just search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance. We're going to pause, but we'll be right back. Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise Live. We're so glad you're along with us today. We're going to head right back to the phones. Lakeland, Florida is where Lizette is.

Lizette, how can I help? Yes. Wow, it's so great to talk to you. So I want to say something really quick, though. You said something to me that touched my heart, that the money that I have is God's money.

Yes. God has entrusted me with this money, and so I'm paying my tithes, and I'm doing right by God's money, but I'm lost. So I have significant student loan debt, and I have credit card debt, and I'm in a situation where I'm living at home with my parents right now so I can save some money. I'm single. I don't have children.

I'm not married. I don't know where to start. I'm just lost.

I want to be a good steward of God's money, and I want to pay my debt. I don't even know where to start. Yeah. Well, let's help you do that, Lizette, and let's go back to what you said first.

Yes, you're exactly right. Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. Lizette, the cattle on the Thousand Hills, it's all His. Everything belongs to Him. And so what passes through our hands is a direct result of what He has entrusted to us. So we're a caretaker or a manager of God's resources, and we're going to make mistakes. We're also going to find ourselves in times of want where we're struggling a little bit.

Now we may also be in times of plenty. The key is, as the Apostle Paul said, is to find contentment wherever He has us and to be found faithful with where we are right now. Which means how do we order our financial lives to live simply and live within His provision and do it in such a way where we can give right up front systematically and have some margin, something left over after the bills are paid so we can accomplish our goals and objectives, which again goes back to, God, where are you taking me? What should my goals and objectives be? What lifestyle have you called me to?

So that's what we want to try to find, and we do that as we go to His Word and we pray and we ask Him to give us wisdom, and then together we can move forward in that direction. All the mistakes we've all made we can leave right at the foot of the cross, and Lizette, I don't want you to be discouraged by that. I want you to be encouraged that perhaps from this day forward you can purpose yourself to say, I want to get out of debt, I want to pay off the student loans and the credit cards so that I'm free to follow God more fully and I can follow His lead in whatever that looks like. Now, in terms of how you get these paid off, where you go from here, tell me what you've got. What are your student loan balances and what are your credit cards? Okay, let's start from the beginning. I owe tens of thousands, tens of thousands in student loans. I don't even know where to begin. How much do you owe in total? It's probably a hundred grand.

Okay, all right. Well, I think the first step is to total all those up. I'd love for you to know exactly what they are, how much do you owe in each one of them, and to whom? Are they all federal loans? No, partially, some are private, so it's Sallie Mae, it's SPED Plus, it's Utah. All right, are you current on all of them?

No. You're behind on some of them? No, I'm behind on all of them. I've gotten deferments and forbearances and that's where I'm at. And then how much do you owe in the credit cards? See, that I don't have. My student loans is my heart and soul. Credit cards, honestly, I'll tell you. If I have $5 on credit cards, I don't have credit cards, I don't have anything else. So it's just the student loans is really all you have in the way of debt?

Beating me up on the head, yep. Okay, all right, so here's the next step. I think we've got to do a little homework. Number one is you've got to know exactly what your expenses are. Maybe you do, but if not, I want you to track those expenses for the next 30 days just so you know exactly where your money's going.

And then I want you to eliminate anything you can eliminate. What we're trying to solve for is margin, the amount over and above your expenses that you can put toward this debt. And then you need to take advantage of this time where you're living at home to begin to make some meaningful progress on these debts so that when you're ready to move out, this is not hanging over you and you've taken full advantage of the opportunity while your expenses are low. The next thing you need to do beyond the budget is get an accurate listing of every one of the debts, to whom you owe it to and what the current status of it is. And then I would begin to go back to each of those once you know how much you have available in the way of margin every month and begin to get yourself back on a payment plan that works. There's income-based repayment plans with the federal loans and the private lenders will work with you as well. If you can show them a budget and what you have available, then they'll work with you to get you going. And I think once you're actually making on-time payments based on this new payback schedule you'll determine with them, you'll feel better that at least you're moving in the right direction. You know who you owe money to, you know how much you owe, and you're on a plan to get it paid back.

And then the key is just keep your lifestyle at a minimum, take advantage of this opportunity while your expenses are low, and let's try to make some headway in this direction. If you have questions along the way, Lizette, you give us a call back. And listen, God bless you, we appreciate your call today. Cheryl's in Florida. Hi Cheryl, how can I help you?

How are you today? Great, thanks. Good, and thank you so much for your information that you're sharing every day. I really appreciate your knowledge of everything that you do. Thank you so much.

You're welcome, thank you. My son is buying my truck. Okay, in February I bought a truck and he's making the payments on it. Now he's in a position that he wants to pay it off, and I don't know whether I should send the money to the finance company or how I go about doing that in the best way. Yeah, I would actually call your lender, Cheryl, and see how they would like to handle this.

You can't transfer the title until the lien has been satisfied and removed from the truck. So you've got to have to figure out how they want that to be paid. If you can walk into their office with them, he could provide the funds to pay off the loan. Otherwise, what typically happens, it would be done through a wire transfer. But the key is I would contact them and say, listen, I'm trying to satisfy this lien, and then I want to transfer the title. How do we want to go about this? And then they'll tell you what the next steps are. So I would give them a call and they'll walk you through where you go from here. We appreciate your call today. Linda, you're in Illinois. You're next up on MoneyWise Live. How can I help you? Hi, Rob.

Thanks so much for taking my call. I owe about $85,000 on my mortgage. I have my interest rate right now is 4.75, and I was thinking about refinancing. I just built my credit up. I've been working on bringing my credit rate up, and I've been doing pretty good with that. My question is, will my credit score drop if I go out and search for lenders? And is it okay to search for more than one lender?

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. But keep in mind, the reason you've been building your credit score up is for precisely this reason, because you have the opportunity to improve your rate on your mortgage. If you're at 4.75, you should be able to get that down to 3.25 maybe or something like that, maybe 3.5, depending on what your credit score is.

Well, that's precisely why you've done this. So even if through this shopping around of a new lender causes your score to decrease temporarily, it's going to happen after this score is pulled, and it'll recover. Now, keep in mind, any inquiries that you authorize from potential lenders within a two-week period are seen as one. So you could go out and shop this with three or four different lenders in a two-week period.

They pull your report, you pull your score, that's all going to be seen as one. So I wouldn't worry about that drop because, again, this is why you've been doing this. And I think you'll benefit from it without a doubt, and any temporary drop from the fact that you're out seeking new credit will recover over time, okay? Okay, thank you very much.

Love you, Joe. All right, thank you. Bankrate.com is a great resource as you find the lenders.

I'd check with at least three, Linda, two online, and then perhaps one your local bank or credit union. And listen, God bless you. Thank you for calling.

Sheila's in Florida. You're our final caller today, Sheila. How can I help you? Hi, great.

Thank you for taking my call. I think I have an easy question. Based on I-Series bonds, I have been purchasing them for quite a while now, and I'm wondering, should I just hold on to them or should I cash them in? Yeah, I mean, now's a great time to have I bonds. I mean, these are 30-year bonds.

I stands for inflation, as you probably know. The rate is determined by two parts. The base rate, which is fixed for the life of the bond, that's at zero right now, but then there's the rate based on inflation.

That's what's driving them up. I bonds right now are paying about 7.1%, and you can have up to $10,000 a year in them. Treasury Department applies this formula to determine what it is. So I would look at whether yours are still earning interest. You can do that at treasurydirect.gov. If at any point it stops earning interest, you'd want to cash it in. But if it is still earning interest, you're likely getting a great rate, Sheila, and you're not going to find the rate that you're likely getting anywhere else, especially with complete safety, because this is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government, and you're beyond the five-year mark where there's a small penalty for cashing them in. So likely what it is is you're going to want to hang onto these, because these are probably paying you far more than you could get anywhere else. But treasurydirect.gov is the place for you to go if you haven't already for you to see exactly what's being paid out, what's the status of these bonds.

You can queue in the QSIP numbers and find out all the information. But I think these are going to be bonds that you'll want to hang onto and perhaps even consider buying more of. So I hope that helps you today. Listen, God bless you, and thank you for your call, Sheila.

Well, that's going to do it for us today, folks. We have covered a lot of ground. Thank you for your kind remarks and for your phone calls today. Let me tell you, MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Again, if you'd prayerfully consider supporting this ministry between now and December 31st, we'd be grateful. Just head to our website, moneywiselive.org.

Just click the donate button. I want to say thank you to my team today, Eric Tidwell on phones, Deb Solomon, my producer today, Amy Rios Engineering, and the amazing Jim Henry doing research today. Thank you for being here as well. It's always my privilege to join you each afternoon as we mind the Scriptures and apply God's principles to what you're dealing with in your financial life. Lord willing, I'll be here tomorrow, so I hope you'll come back and join me then. In the meantime, may God bless you. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.