2021 Ministry Impact Report

First Thessalonians 5-11 reads, Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

I am Rob West. That's a call to action that we take very seriously on this program. It's why we're here, to equip you to manage money according to God's financial principles. I'll give a report on how we're doing. Then I'll take your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical principles for your financial journey. So we're very excited about our just released 2021 MoneyWise Ministry Report.

We're also grateful for all the Lord has allowed us to accomplish in the past year. MoneyWise exists to help people learn and apply biblical wisdom to their financial decisions. With over 2000 verses on money and possessions, God has provided us incredible wisdom to manage money based on the fundamental truth that God owns everything. We're to be humble stewards content with his provision and joyfully generous.

MoneyWise Media is built on the radio ministry of Larry Burkett and Howard Dayton, giving us the unique opportunity to educate literally millions of listeners each year with the wisdom and truth of God's financial principles. But we do more than just equip people with knowledge. We also provide incredible tools and resources to help people actually apply the Bible's wisdom in their personal finances, and I'll get into those in a minute. We've also intentionally and prayerfully expanded beyond just a radio ministry to ensure that we're doing everything we can to help as many people as possible become wise and faithful stewards of God's resources. We hope you'll join us in celebrating what the Lord has allowed us to accomplish in a short time.

And consider how you'd like to continue partnering with us in the future. Together, let's help God's people experience the life transformation that takes place when they surrender their financial decisions to his unending wisdom. So let's look at our audio content. Of course, there's the MoneyWise Radio Programs, MoneyWise Live on the Moody Radio Network, and the syndicated MoneyWise and MoneyWise Minute. These are the most listened to programs on biblical money management anywhere.

One million radio listeners tune in weekly on more than 1,700 Christian radio outlets, and our podcast had 900,000 streams in 2020, and those numbers continue to grow. But we also have written content by the leading authors in Christian finance. We bring together practical biblical financial content to help God's people confidently align their financial decisions with their Christian values. In addition to our own MoneyWise articles, we have content from gospel patrons, Compass Finances God's Way, the Christian Stewardship Network, Faith Driven Investor, the Ron Blue Institute, Generous Giving, and Art Rainer. The MoneyWise website and mobile app are now the premier destinations for the best content in biblical money management with over 10,000 views per month.

Videos, podcasts, and articles are curated for users to help them take the next step on their stewardship journey. We're especially encouraged by the response to the MoneyWise app. It's an innovative money management tool that's now helping over 20,000 registered users apply biblical principles to their daily financial decisions. The app is available on web, iOS, and Android, and can securely connect to over 12,000 financial institutions, providing unique insights and reports to ensure they are being wise stewards. One of the best features of the MoneyWise app is that it's completely customizable. It offers three unique money management systems to help you steward your finances in a way that works best for you. There's an envelope system that's a digital version of the cash envelope system, a monthly spending plan to show your progress, and a tracking system that easily categorizes your income and expenses.

But we never want to lose sight of the human connection. MoneyWise offers a vibrant community of stewards for encouragement. Also, our certified kingdom advisor professionals and trained MoneyWise coaches are always there to guide stewards in implementing biblical financial wisdom. Users and listeners have access to trained biblical financial coaches offering one-on-one and group coaching.

Now more than 50 coaches have answered more than 3,000 questions in the last year and are now moderating our community forum, providing answers and encouragement to users on the web and in our mobile app. Our heart is that you'll take advantage of all of these resources. It's an incredible honor and a pleasure to provide them to you as we all seek to wisely manage God's resources. All right, your calls are next at 800-525-7000.

800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host. So glad to have you along with us today. We've got some phone lines open. We'd love to hear from you. Whatever's on your mind today, financially speaking, the number's 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

Let's begin today in Cleveland, Ohio, WCRF. Hi, Dan. Thanks for calling.

How can I help you, sir? Hey, thanks for taking the call. Before I start, I just want to say, great app. My wife and I are using that now, and it's been a huge help for us. Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. What do you enjoy most about it?

What's working for you? Well, I remember the envelope system many years ago. We did when we first got married. Over 20 years ago, we did that.

And then we went away from it because of all the digital transition the banks did. But now this app has let us do that again, and it's been very nice. So that's been helpful. Well, glad to hear it.

Thanks for mentioning that. How can I help you? Well, our third son is a freshman in high school now, and he's showing some interest in investment. I just want to get some advice and the best way to start doing that with him, maybe teaching him and myself along the way.

I love that. Well, Dan, this is a great idea, you know, especially when there's interest expressed. But even if they don't, I think training the future adults in our homes is absolutely critical. And that includes both the financial literacy side, the power of compound interest and hard work and setting a budget and the fact that resources are limited. I mean, all of these key ideas, but also the biblical side that God owns it all and that money is a tool to accomplish his purposes and that money has a way of competing for devotion to the Lord and can dethrone God from first position in our lives if we get it out of his design. So allowing them to understand all these big ideas are just so critical toward them being adults that can handle and view money in the proper context, according to biblical wisdom. But leaning into an interest in investing can serve him really well.

A couple of ideas. Number one is if he's going to work at all over the next few years through high school, even with a part time job, you know, it's a great opportunity to not only help him understand how to handle money, getting a checking account and setting up a budget, perhaps using the free version of the Money Wise app to that you mentioned to handle money and give, save and spend. But also to consider Dan opening a Roth IRA, because as long as he's had has earned income, he could get started, you know, putting something away every year, maybe not the full six thousand, but at least a portion of it into a Roth. And I'll tell you, if he starts as a freshman in high school funding a Roth and does that throughout the rest of his life and when he gets married someday, he and his spouse do that. Boy, think about what he could have built up that's growing tax free that he'll have available down the road. As to the nuts and bolts of investing, I want to send you a gift today. It's a copy of the sound mind investing handbook that I think would be a great resource, Dan, for you and your son to begin working your way through to understand a lot of these big ideas. What is a stock? What does it mean to be a fractional, very small percentage owner of a company? You know, what does it mean to trade and what's the difference between a mutual fund and exchange traded fund and a stock? What about a bond? What does it mean when Ecclesiastes talks about the idea of diversification? You know, how do we apply that? What about time horizon?

I mean, all these big concepts. And then I think what would be key is whether it's a straight taxable account because he's not working or a Roth IRA if he is, I think beginning for him to become an owner in some of these companies. Now, one of the challenges is, you know, he's probably going to want to pick the companies that he's investing in just based on companies he knows. And I think there's some merit to that because you could allow him to do some research and think about what companies he thinks are going to do well, you know, five and ten years from now as the economy changes and so forth. And I think that's a good thing because it's more exciting.

But you also want to teach the concept of diversification at the same time because if he has all of his eggs in just two or three baskets, obviously that's going to add a lot more volatility and really a better approach, especially with a very small amount of money would be to buy the indexes where you're participating in the broad moves of the market, not just trying to pick the winners and losers. So I want to send you this resource. I think as you guys begin working your way through it, it'll be very helpful. And then I'd love for you to check back in along the way. But tell me what questions you have on all that I just shared. Yeah, it sounds I wasn't expecting that.

So I appreciate that. I think he has shown interest in more of an active investment. So I don't know if the Roth IRA is exactly how we might go because that may be less actively managed. I'm just guessing to be honest with you. I'm not real sure.

Well, let me just clarify that one piece, though. That's just the type of account that it is. So a taxable account would be a non-retirement account where you're not getting any tax benefits by putting the money in and you're going to pay tax along the way on the gains as capital gains and it'll be offset by your losses. A Roth is just a retirement account that you can buy the same investments in. He can buy some shares of Apple or Amazon or whatever he'd like in that Roth IRA. It's just that it's money that's long-term in nature. I mean, you're looking at this as something he's not going to touch until retirement, but the benefit is as he gets winners along the way, there's no tax paid on any of that gain.

So it really just has to do with the tax structure and the time horizon, nothing to do with the types of investments or the actual investments that can go in the account. Does that make sense? Yes, it does.

Yes, it does. Thank you for that. Very good. Sounds like we both have a lot to learn from this.

Yeah, and I think this book will be a great help to you. So let's do that. You hold the line. Amy will get your information. We'll get that right out to you as our gift.

And as you guys work through it, perhaps next time you call, maybe have him on the line and we can talk about it together. But I think you're doing a great thing, Dan, as you're teaching him not only these key principles, but also some of the biblical principles along the way, which will be essential. In fact, let me send you a second resource. I'll also send you a copy of Howard Dayton's book, Your Money Counts. So as you guys are learning these principles of investing, you can also learn some of these big concepts related to God's perspective of how to handle money. Thanks for your remarks today, especially your kind remarks about the MoneyWise app. If you'd like to check out the MoneyWise app that Dan and his wife are finding so successful, you can find it online. It's MoneyWise Biblical Finance. We'll be right back. We're so thankful you've chosen to tune in to MoneyWise Live this afternoon.

Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host, and we're taking your calls and questions on anything financial. The number's 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open today. Gabby T. taking your calls today.

You'll enjoy speaking to her for just a moment before we get you on the air. Again, 800-525-7000. In just a moment, we're going to be talking to Rod in Chattanooga about moving money from a 401k to an IRA. He's recently retired. Senti is thinking about downsizing in Tampa, wanting to know about paying cash for the next home or financing it.

But first, Crown Point, Indiana, WGNR. Hi, Debbie. I understand you have a question about double-E bonds. Go right ahead.

Hi. We purchased some double-E bonds for our daughters to offset college, and one of them didn't decide to go. And the bonds don't mature, some of them, until 2030. And we have roughly $27,000 and we're getting 0.5% interest. Just wondering if we should cash these in and is something better to invest the money for right now?

Yeah, I like that approach, Debbie, just because, as you said, they're not earning a whole lot. I mean, if you were to purchase new double-E bonds, now that 0.1%, they earn that interest for 30 years, but it's, you know, one-tenth of 1% is not very good. If you cash them in before five years, you lose just three months of interest, which is not going to be a whole lot, and then you'll pay the federal income tax on the gains accrued when you cash them in.

You could do it at treasurydirect.gov if it's digital, if it's paper, you could go into your bank to satisfy this as well. But I think you're right in thinking about perhaps reinvesting this somewhere else where it can do a little better. I think the next step, now that you've clarified that it's not going to be used for college, is to really decide what the time horizon is on this money. Is this money you'd like to have available in the next two or three or four years for them to buy a car or put a first-lasting security down on an apartment or something of that nature? Is it saving for their first home purchase? Or is it money you envision they'll use down the road much further, like this is money already earmarked for retirement, something like that? Tell me what your vision is for that, because that has a lot to do with where I suggest you go to invest it. Well, we're not really sure exactly what all those are possible options, what you just mentioned, but we just weren't really sure either whether we should cash them all in at once or are we better off to kind of spread it out?

Yeah, yeah. Well, it really doesn't matter apart from any taxable event that you would incur. What do you have? What's the total amount you have invested in these double-E bonds? Do you know roughly? 27.

27,000? Yes. Okay. All right.

And how long have you owned them? I think 2021. I'm sorry. Let me look at this. 2002, I'm sorry. I was looking at this wrong.

2002. All right. Well, there's not going to be a whole lot of interest associated with these, just given the low interest rate on this, so the taxes will be negligible. So I think once you decide how you want to use the money, I just go ahead and cash it all in at once. You'll want to make sure you factor in what the taxes will be so you can set that aside. But I don't see any issue in trying to spread that out, given the amount of money and the potential gain that you have here. I think the bigger question is just, you know, number one, do you want to control it? It sounds like you do in terms of when you let the kids have it and under what situation. And then secondly, is the time horizon greater than five years?

Preferably 10. And if so, then I think you could begin to invest this money. I'd probably put it in one of the robo-advisors that's going to use indexed ETFs where you'd essentially buy the market, where you'd get a good cross-section of the stock market indexes and probably a smaller portion of bond indexes.

You'd capture the broad moves of the market as opposed to trying to pick individual stocks with a small amount of money, and then you'd be more highly concentrated and therefore have the potential for much greater volatility. But if you believe that this is money you want to be able to bless the kids with in less than five years, I'd say just stick it in a high-yield savings account at Ally Bank, at Capital One 360, maybe at Marcus. Right now, they're paying a half a percent per year, FDIC insured. The money is available at any time if you want to use it.

And as interest rates move up, the interest rate on that high-yield savings would move up as well. And then when the kids are ready for it, you could let them have it. If at any point you decide, no, I think we want to give them this money as longer-term money that's the beginning of an investment portfolio, well, in that case, I'd look at Vanguard Advisor or the Schwab Intelligent Portfolios where, again, you could set up one of these accounts.

It'd be a taxable account, probably in the name of you and your husband, but earmarked for each child. And then based on the questions that you answer, they would build a very low-cost, very well-diversified index portfolio, again, of stock market indexes, and then you'd let that money go. The downside, though, of pulling that money out, if you were to take that approach in less than five years, let's say a year or two, you decide down the road, you say, I don't want to give them this money to buy the car or the first-lasting security in the apartment. And let's say the market's down at that point because we're tipping into a recession that we'll climb out of eventually, but you may have to sell these investments at a loss. And that's why we typically like to say, if we don't have a 10-year time horizon, we're not going to invest the money.

We're going to keep it more liquid, and that's where I think the high-yield savings could be a great liquid alternative to these bonds that just aren't paying a whole lot. Do you follow all that? Yes. One other thing, though, the total value on these is just a little over $23,000, and the total interest is just a little over $12,000. So you still have the same ideas? I would be surprised if it's that much. I guess perhaps it's because you said you bought them in early 2000.

I guess it's possible. And yeah, I guess at that point, depending on what the tax liability is, and I'd check with your tax preparer, perhaps you do it over two years, but it's not really going to make much difference in terms of what you ultimately pay on this interest. So I think the key is, again, deciding how you want them to be able to use it and when you want them to access it.

But run it by your CPA and just see if there's any benefit from extending it over a couple of tax years, but I wouldn't do it over two at the most. Debbie, I hope that's helpful to you. Listen, kudos to you guys for putting some money away for the kids. I know that'll be a real blessing whenever you decide it's the right time to give it to them, and thanks for your call today. Tampa, Florida is where Cynthia is.

Cynthia, how can I help you today? Yes, I was calling to find out, is it best for me to, I'm downsizing and I'm selling my house and I have an offer on it that I'm going to sign, a cash offer, probably a day or so. Should I finance my new condo, or is it advantageous for me to pay cash for it? Yeah, you know, I like the idea of paying cash, Cynthia. You've got the money, you're downsizing, which means you want things simpler, both from a financial standpoint and an upkeep standpoint. So if you've got the money, let's buy it free and clear.

You can always take a mortgage out if you wanted later, but it's going to keep your budget at a minimum, give you all the peace of mind and security you've been looking for, perhaps. So I think that's the way I'd go. Stay on the line. We'll talk a little bit more off the air. This is MoneyWise Live.

We'll be right back. Do you have a budget? Do you have a system to track it where if you're married, you and your spouse can stay on the same page and see what's left in each budget category? Well, the money management system inside the MoneyWise app is incredibly flexible because it allows you to pick the approach that works from you. If you're more directional and hands off, well, you can use our track only option just to see your transactions organized by category. But if you're more detailed and hands on, the digital envelope system can work great for you because you actually build your plan as your transactions automatically download and automatically get categorized in your envelopes. You'll see in real time what's left in each envelope so you don't overspend. It's all available online. To learn more, just go to MoneyWise.org slash pro to read all about the MoneyWise app. You can download it today for free wherever you download your apps.

Just search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance. We've got some lines open today, 800-525-7000. We'll be talking to Dan and Chattanooga here in just a moment.

But Rod's also in Chattanooga. And Rod, how can I help you today? Thank you for taking the call.

I appreciate it. I'm 72. I retired a couple months ago. I have a 401k with principal, but my son-in-law does a little investing with Schwab. I was thinking about changing to an IRA over Schwab. How would I do that without paying taxes on it or whatever? Well, you can do a rollover, Rod, from a 401k once you separate from the company right into an IRA, and that is not a taxable event. In fact, that money would just be journaled from the back office of your 401k administrator to the back office of Schwab, if that's where you open your IRA. And the money would show up in the account, and that is not taxable whatsoever. And that would just continue then in a tax deferral strategy as you reinvest it in whatever investments you select. The tax trigger would happen when you begin to withdraw it from the IRA at any point. It would just be added to your taxable income in the year in which you withdraw it.

So I think you should be in good shape, and the only other question would just be once that money gets into that new IRA you open, how are you going to invest it? Are you going to make those decisions yourself? Are you going to hire somebody to do that for you? I think that will be the next question for you to answer.

But from a tax standpoint, nothing to worry about there. Would I call Schwab, tell them to transfer it over, or tell principal to transfer it over, or what? Yeah, what will happen is you'll want to open that rollover IRA at Schwab, and then you'll want to get the surrender paperwork from your plan administrator, wherever your 401k is.

I think you said principal. They'll send you the paperwork, either electronic or physical, and on that paperwork you will put the name of the institution, Schwab, and the number that tells them where to route that, and your account number. And they'll actually send a check, or it might happen electronically, right over to Schwab. So you want to open the Schwab account first, then you want to call the plan administrator, tell them you want the rollover surrender paperwork, and you'd fill it out, and they'll take care of all of it in the background. So I don't have to pay money in Schwab first, do I? Just open the account?

No, you can open the account with nothing in it, and then it will be funded by the proceeds from your 401k. So I think that will get you pointed in the right direction. Rod, we appreciate you checking in with us today. May the Lord bless you. We've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000. Let's stay right there in Chattanooga. Hi Dan, how can I help you?

Good afternoon, sir. I was wondering, you recommend 15% into the deferred comp program. Would a private pension be considered part of your deferred comp if you're paying into it?

It would, yeah. I mean, I would typically, and remember that's just a rule of thumb in terms of what ideally we'd have of our take-home or of our pay compensation that we would have going into retirement. To think about it as a percentage of what you're earning is just a helpful guideline, and so 15% would be across whatever contributions are going in, whether that's contributions you're putting in or whether, you know, it's somebody else, your employer putting it in for you. But 15% is just a good guideline, and if you have money going into a pension or that's going to be coming from a pension, I would certainly factor that in.

In terms of some guidelines to look at to know whether you're on track or not, you can use multiples of your salary. So you might say that by full retirement age, you'd want 10 times your income in your retirement account so that it could generate the income you need to offset what Social Security won't provide. At age 60, you'd want eight times.

At age 40, you'd want three times. So that could be kind of a good rule of thumb, you know, to go by in addition to this 15% guideline, but at the end of the day, Dan, it really comes down to what is your budget going to require that you have when you get to that point. Most folks will live on between 70 and 80% of their pre-retirement income, but putting that actual retirement budget together, figuring out how much you need each month, and then comparing that to what retirement income sources you'll have, a pension, Social Security, if you've built up an IRA or 401K assets, what will that be and what reasonable income could you generate from that with an income-based portfolio in retirement. And when you put all that together, it'll give you a good picture as to whether or not you're on track to be able to fund whatever that lifestyle looks like in retirement, and ultimately, you know, that's what matters most to you.

Not a guideline, but what it's going to take to actually meet your budget. Does that make sense? Yes, sir, it does. I've been trying to figure this out, so it helps a lot.

Awesome. Well, I appreciate your call today. I think putting that budget together and comparing that to the various income sources could do you a lot of good, just to give you some peace of mind that you're headed in the right direction, and we appreciate your call today.

Let's head to Minnesota. Hi, Marcy, how can I help you? Hi, I have a couple of questions.

You've often said to check with your local bank for interest rates for a new build, and you've also said to check with resources online, and I'm not familiar with the online. I'm familiar with my local bank. Sure. Are you looking for a construction loan, Marcy? Was that what you were trying to find? Yes. Okay.

Yeah. Bankrate.com would be a great resource. Bankrate.com. And basically, what they're doing is all the time, depending upon what type of borrowing you're looking to do, whether it's a mortgage or credit card or a home equity loan or a car loan, they're constantly evaluating all of the different loan programs that are out there and then making recommendations on which institutions have the best rates and terms available. And so you'd go in there and choose a mortgage, and you'd look specifically for a construction to permanent loan, if that's what you're looking for, and then you could compare what they're offering to your local bank. And what you'd want to look at is I'd look at at least two online lenders in addition to your local brick and mortar bank just to compare.

I think having three bids before you decide who is going to offer the very best rates, terms and closing costs would be a great thing for you. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. I also have another question. I've got about 20 seconds. Go right ahead.

Okay. I have an annuity. My husband has an IRA, and we will have an inheritance. Is it best to pay off the house loan or to continue to fund one of these annuities? You know, I like paying off the debt as you're heading into retirement with an inheritance.

If you can reduce your lifestyle expenses because that's arguably the largest expense you have, be unencumbered, free and clear, especially if you're saving in other vehicles that's going to fund retirement, I think that puts you in a really great spot. Hey, we appreciate your call today, Marcy. This is MoneyWise Live.

We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. Are you looking for a financial professional who can offer competent financial advice that aligns with your values as a Christian? Well, the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation, CKA, is the one we trust. You can find a CKA in your area by visiting our website, MoneyWiseLive.org.

Just click Find a CKA. Heading back to the phones, Annandale, Minnesota. Hi, Shelley. Thanks for calling today.

How can I help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I have a question. We have two IRAs, one from a previous employer, and my question is one is significantly larger than the other. However, the smaller one is the one that's currently active and being added to. Do I roll them into one brokerage or do I keep them separate? Yeah, are they in the same name or two different people? Same name.

Okay, yeah. So you obviously can't combine them if they were different names because they have to be based on individuals. But in terms of combining them or not, I like the idea of having them all in one place, depending upon the amount of money. The benefit to having them separate is you could have different financial firms managing them, which gives you different exposure to different types of investments and investment strategies.

You could fine-tune your tax strategy by having multiple IRAs. But if we're not talking about significant amounts of money here, then I think the real upshot is just having them combined in the sense that it's easier management. Because unless an account gets to a certain size, you're going to limit the types of investments you can select. A lot of mutual funds have minimum investments, and it's just one more account to keep up with. So it's one statement or one account to log into versus multiple, and there can be some economies of scale in having them together.

So what are we talking about here roughly in the balances of these? Yeah, the one that's not active, not being added to, is about $200,000, and the one being added to is about $40,000. Okay, yeah.

So I don't see a real benefit of having that $40,000 continuing to kind of hang out there by itself. I would say combining those makes a lot of sense. Are you managing these yourselves, or do you have somebody handling it? Correct.

It's my husband's work. The smaller one is still active. The other one, then we manage ourselves. I see. Okay. And so is it a 401k or is it truly an IRA? An IRA. Okay.

All right. And perhaps it's a simple IRA because if it's company sponsored, it wouldn't be a traditional IRA. Correct.

It's a simple IRA. Simple. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So I think you'll want to, given that information, I'm sorry, I thought it was just two traditional IRAs that you were handling yourself. So I think given that, you'll want to leave that simple there, and then you can just continue managing the traditional IRA yourself. If at some point, once he separates and you move it out from under where it's at currently, you could look at having one company manage both. But I think in the meantime, you probably have the right scenario here. So I would say just continue on as you've been doing.

Have you been happy with how the 40,000 that you're managing is performing? I mean, yeah. I mean, it's not as good as the percentage of the larger one. But that's where I was wondering if because it's so much larger, is it better to try to combine them together to have more to work with? I guess that's where I was. It starts working itself. Well, because it's a simple IRA, you don't have that option unless it has been enough time that has passed.

So when the employer starts the account, you've got to have at least two years. And then after that, you would have the option to combine these. So you may be able to put them together. I think the key is if it's doing well, perhaps you leave them separate. And then once he retires, I think that might be the time as you're choosing who's going to manage all of this money to be able to make those decisions together and perhaps look at combining them.

But I think you're probably I would just stay on this current track that you're on for the time being until he separates from the company. Hopefully that's helpful to you, Shelley. We appreciate you checking in with us today. Let's head up to Alaska.

Kodiak. Hi, Sarah. Thanks for calling. How can I help? Yes, I just thought it would be nice to get an idea from you what would be good to do with trust when I pass away. And we have three children and in the trust, it says that they all three evenly share. And but then there's grandchildren involved, too, that I'm thinking that they're not listed in this trust. So I'm wondering how could what kind of ways could I encourage the money that would be distributed to the three children to be sent on down to the grandchildren to some extent?

Yeah. Well, you have the option when you set up a trust to state how you want the money you leave to your grandchildren will be managed. The circumstances under which it can be distributed, when it should be withheld and you can determine whether they'll be able to control the money at a certain age, either as co-trustees or full owners. So you can make all of those decisions in the provisions of the trust. So I think, you know, if that's not been specified, I'd go back to the estate planning attorney that drafted this for you and just say, you know, we want to revise this or update it and we want to have provisions both for not only our kids, but our grandkids in terms of how this money is distributed and under what circumstances.

And it can be very specific. That's one of the benefits of a trust. And it's where it's especially beneficial because if they're still miners, it gives more control of the assets even after your death as to the triggering events for this money to be distributed. And the trustee would handle that and make those disbursements based on the trust document. So if that's not reflected currently in the trust, I would just schedule an appointment. Go back, make sure you've talked through it ahead of time so you have clear how you'd like it to be distributed.

But all of that can be handled inside the trust document itself. Beautiful. Thank you for your information. Okay, Sarah, all the best to you in that beautiful part of the country. Thank you for your call today. Bessemer, PA. Beverly is there. Thank you for your patience and your call today.

How can I help? Yes, I have a question. We want to downsize, but how do you buy a house if it comes up for sale and yours isn't sold yet?

Yes. You know, it can be a challenge, especially in a market like this, Beverly, where you want to be as strong a buyer as possible when you go to make that next purchase. And one of the ways you can do that is make sure you don't have what are called contingencies. So a lot of times, especially in a buyer's market, you would be able to have a contingency that says, I'm going to buy your home, but it's contingent upon the sale of my current home. Well, that's more challenging these days because there's so many buyers and so little inventory that that makes you not as desirable from a contract standpoint as somebody else who might be buying with cash.

So you've got a couple of options. Number one is you could use a bridge loan to purchase a new home before your current home is sold. That allows you to take a loan against your current home in order to make the down payment on the new home. You could rent, you could sell your home, but with the understanding that they're going to allow you to rent it back for a period of time. So that gives you the ability to live in the home without having to move twice while you're out looking for your next home. And essentially you're renting the home you just sold, but you have your cash because the home sale has already closed.

And so, you know, you've got those proceeds to make that next purchase. You could arrange for some place to stay temporarily. You could live with a family member and put your personal things in a pod or something that's more temporary in terms of storage. And then when you buy that home, you have it delivered and then the movers unloaded at that point. So there's a couple of options there that you could look at as you consider how you make this move. I realize it's, you know, the goal is to try to not move twice. And so that's where some of these other options like a bridge loan or, you know, a renting it back could be a great option that allows you to move right from your existing home to your new home.

But have your cash to go in to try to negotiate the purchase without having to wait for your prior home to sell. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. And I love your program and you're such a humble man. Oh, thank you, Beverly. It's very kind of you. I appreciate your kind remarks there. God bless you.

We're going to finish today in Tampa, Florida. Just a minute or so left. Harold, how can I help you? Yeah. Hi, Rob. I just want to find out what is the difference between a certified financial planner and a certified financial advisor and at what stage do you use them?

Yeah. Well, so there's no certified financial advisor. You may be talking about the CFA designation which is a chartered financial analyst. And a chartered financial analyst is really more about the investment space. You know, it's somebody who's a professional, you know, and it has to do with their competency in financial analytics. Versus a certified financial planner which is issued by the CFP board of standards and it has to do with the six primary areas of comprehensive financial planning. So they've achieved and met high standards when it comes to sitting down with somebody and helping them do a comprehensive financial plan which is different than a CFA chartered financial analyst which would be more in the financial analysis and analytics. We often talk about the CKA designation and that certified kingdom advisor. That builds on these other designations but adds the specialization in biblical financial advice.

So you can read more online about CFA, CFP, and CKA if you want to learn more. But hopefully that gives you some starting point. We appreciate your call today. That's going to do it for us, folks. Thanks for tuning in.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Answering phones today, Gabby T, Dan Anderson, our engineer, Amy Rios producing today, Mr. Jim Henry providing great research. Thank you for being here. Come back and join us tomorrow and look for you then. May the Lord bless you. Bye-bye.