Misusing the Bible

2 Timothy 3.16 reads, All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Hi, I'm Rob West. That verse is comfort to all who want to live the Christian life, but it's also a reminder that we ought not misuse scripture. I'll talk about that first today. Well, let me start by giving credit to our friend Michael Blue at the Ron Blue Institute for his series of articles on ways the Bible is misused.

We'll put links to them in today's notes. Before starting, the Bible is something called proof texting. Simply put, proof texting is using a verse or passage out of context.

Unfortunately, this is often done in the area of personal finance. Proof texting makes the Bible appear as a collection of handy statements to justify whatever behavior is desired, and it's often at odds with what the Bible actually teaches. A case in point is Jesus' statement in Luke 14.28.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Contrary to popular belief, this verse has nothing to do with saving or planning. If you read the entire passage, you see that Jesus is actually warning his followers to think carefully about the extraordinarily high cost of following him. We must be prepared to lose everything, to be his disciples, even our families. He says, who ever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Taken in context, it's clear that Jesus isn't talking about financial planning. He's warning that we'll face tribulation as his followers, and that we must be prepared to lose everything. Another example of this is his interaction with the rich young ruler in Mark 10. That man hadn't counted the cost before deciding to follow Christ, and could not give up his wealth. Let's turn to Proverbs, which you know is commonly cited for financial wisdom, and we often use it ourselves here on the program.

There's nothing wrong with that. Proverbs is filled with wise advice about money and possessions. But to use them properly, we understand what the author, King Solomon, is actually saying to his original audience. With due diligence, we can avoid misinterpreting what a verse is actually saying.

Here's an example of how we can misinterpret the deeper meaning of a particular verse. Let's look at Proverbs 13 22, which reads, What exactly is a good man? Does leaving an inheritance make you good? Or do you leave an inheritance because you already are good?

And finally, does not leaving an inheritance make you a bad person? Here again, we have to take the verse in context. What is Scripture saying immediately before and after? Well, a deeper reading of Proverbs 13 shows that the author defines the good man as righteous. What kind of inheritance, then, does the righteous man leave?

And who was Solomon writing to at the time? Ancient Israel was an agrarian society with more than its share of poor farmers. If they couldn't leave a financial inheritance to their children's children, were they bad people?

Not at all. If you understand that an inheritance can mean much more than money, it's something of value that we leave to our offspring. And there's nothing more valuable than wisdom. That means that even the poorest farmer or lowliest servant could leave something of great value to his heirs. He could teach his household how to worship, honor and obey God, their true provider. And certainly, there can be a financial interpretation of this verse as well.

But it doesn't have to be limited to that. A poor but righteous farmer could be diligent about the practice of farming, working hard and not falling into debt so that his heirs could hold on to the family land. Even there, we see the real inheritance is wisdom. The righteous man set an example of diligence and hard work, and that's wisdom we should still pass on to our heirs 3,000 years later. Well, I hope this helps as you study the Bible.

Take every verse in context. And by the way, these articles are in today's show notes. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. Rob West, your host.

So glad you're along with us today. We're taking your calls and questions on anything financial. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you with whatever is on your mind financially speaking. As we said in the opener today, we'll apply God's Word to your financial situation.

We'll try to do that in context, not proof texting, but do it in a way where we can understand the heart of God through the collection of passages throughout Scripture, Old and New Testament, so that we can use money as a tool to accomplish His purposes and ultimately be able to give generously. Again, the number 800-525-7000. A little later in the broadcast, we'll be hearing from our good friend Bob Doll, who's chief investment officer of Crossmark Global Investments. He joins us each Monday with his market commentary.

And today is a great day for Bob to join us. If you didn't see what was going on in the stock market earlier today, well, it was quite a ride. They're calling it the big reversal.

Here's why. At one point, the Dow Jones was down 1100 points. The NASDAQ was off more than, well, nearly 5%.

Guess what? All of the major indexes ended up positive on the day, hence the great reversal. We'll talk about that and what led to that incredible selloff and the massive rise that came when buyers stepped in to say, well, enough is enough.

So interesting day on the markets, to say the least, and we'll be able to talk about that a little later in the broadcast. All right, let's head to the phones today. Whatever your question is, we'd love to hear from you, and I've got a line for you at the moment. 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin in Boynton Beach. TJ, thank you for calling. How can I help you? Yes, thank you for taking my call. I had a question regarding the capital gain tax.

I am single. I'm preparing to put my house on the market, and I'm anticipating a gain of about 500-600,000. Aside from what I have to pay to get the house ready for the market, how much would I have to pay on that capital gain tax? Yes. A couple of questions. So you said about 500-600,000. Is that what you're anticipating as the selling price, or you believe that's actually going to be the gain?

The gain. Okay. And how long have you lived in this property? Four years. Four years.

Okay. So you would qualify for the gain exclusion for a single person up to 250,000. So that first 250 would be exempt. When you're married, you get a full 500,000. So if your gain, the selling price, minus your original purchase price, minus any improvements that you put into the home that stayed with it to improve or increase the value, minus any transaction cost to sell it, you know, roughly is your true gain. And if you've lived there two out of the last five years, you'd get that quarter of a million dollars worth of exemption.

Now, what about the rest over and above that? Well, you're looking at usually 15% for assets held more than a year, and that's going to have to do with your taxable income and filing status. So it typically would be 15 or 20%, could even be zero. It just depends on how much income you have. And those brackets last year were up to $80,000. Excuse me, up to 40,000 as a single person in income. It would be at zero, 40 to roughly 440,000, which is where most people fall.

You'd be looking at 15%. So that's why that applies to most folks. Does that make sense, TJ?

Yes, it does. Thank you. I'm so relieved. Okay, very good. We appreciate your call today very, very much.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. You know, as we think about real estate, especially in Florida, we know that, well, first of all, the housing market is red hot all across the country. But certain pockets of the country are experiencing more of a rise than others. Florida would be in that category, along with, you know, certain other places like Nashville, Tennessee, and Austin, Texas.

And a few places like that. You know, if you're in one of those spots, you've seen an incredible rise. The question is always, well, what do we do with that? You know, a lot of folks are saying, should we sell and take the money and, you know, pull it out of this home? The question then, though, is if it's your primary residence, where are you going to go? And remember, you're going to get top dollar coming out, but you're also going to pay top dollar going back in. So I think the key would just be make sure you have a plan that says, you know, if perhaps you're going to take some money off the table, are you going to downsize? Are you going to buy a fixer upper? Are you going to move to another part of the country?

But here's the key. I don't think even if you were to pull that money out and rent, hoping that you're going to buy a lot cheaper later, I don't think we're likely to see a precipitous fall in the housing market. You know, the rise that we've seen has been significant, but it's not been because there's, you know, a bubble situation. It's real supply and demand issues where there are too few homes on the market given the demand that exists today nationally. And while that's just basic economics, when you've got more buyers than sellers, something is going to increase in price. And that's what we've been experiencing as a result of the pandemic. A lot of people moving out of high density areas and apartments to the suburbs where they have a little more space working from home, the millennials that are now having kids. I mean, you know, even some of the supply constraints with regard to building that has resulted in some of the rises that we've seen. And as a result, rental prices are actually very, very high as well right now. So given all of that, I think you just have to think wisely about this. And if you're entering the housing market for the first time, you're a young family just getting started, the tendency in a market like this is to stretch your budget, buy too much house that you really can't afford. Don't get caught up in that trap. That's going to put you in a real difficult spot financially.

Wait, be patient and save for a big down payment. We're going to pause for a brief break, then more of your calls. 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live. We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your finance. Laura, thank you for calling today.

How can I help? Thank you for taking my call. I was calling because I have been thinking my current mortgage rate is 4.37 and have been looking to refinance for like they are telling me like 2.75 for a 15 year to pay off my I have $62,000 left to pay on my home. It's probably worth $350,000. And I was wondering, is it prudent for me to refinance to lower my financial rate to be able to pay it off quicker or to just continue paying more towards the loan that we currently have right now, more on principle?

Yeah, that's a great question. What is your current interest rate? It's 4.37. Okay. And what were you quoted at? 2.75. All right.

And what is the term on that? That one would be 15 years, which we don't anticipate waiting that six years. We would, you know, continue to pay more on it. But yeah. How many years do you have left currently?

I think 18 or 19 on our loan because it was a 30 when we originally did it. Okay. But you're down to 62, which means obviously you've been paying more along the way.

Yes, we have. Okay. Yeah, I think that's the key. Yeah, I like this plan.

I think the most important thing is, first of all, you plan to stay in the home based on everything you know today. Number two, that you are going to continue to accelerate it. I like the fact that you're reducing the existing remaining term, you know, from 18 or 19 down to 15.

But obviously you've been accelerating it. You plan to continue to do that and you're going to save, you know, well over a point. You know, my rule of thumb is typically I'd love for you to save a point in a quarter.

You're going to do even better. And if you can keep that down at two or three percent at the most, you know, I would feel really good about that because essentially what that's going to do for you, you know, with a $62,000 loan, you know, that's somewhere around two grand. And then the question would be, and you can have them run this amortization schedule, is to say, you know, if you do nothing more than just to continue to send the same amount you're sending right now, what are you going to pay in total interest between now and the payoff?

And that's obviously going to be less than 15 years because you're accelerating it. And then compare that to a fresh amortization schedule on your current loan showing the total amount of interest you're going to pay. If you continue on the same track at the 4.37 rate, you'll see how much total interest you'll save. And the question will just be, how long will it take you with that monthly interest savings to offset that, you know, roughly $2,000 in expenses? And then from that point forward, you're kind of in the money, so to speak. Does that make sense?

It does. And they quoted us about $3,500 to close the loan. Does that sound too much? It's high, yeah, because, I mean, you're talking on $62,000, you know, you're talking about 5.5%.

And, you know, I like to keep it around 2 or 3. Now, it's normally going to be on the higher end just because you have a smaller loan balance. But having to pay 5.5% in fees tells me either their expenses are high or they're getting you to buy down the rate. You're essentially prepaying some of the interest upfront to get the rate that you are, which you really shouldn't have to do if you have a really good credit score and you've got tons of equity and you're looking for a 15-year mortgage, which should still be very low. So I would get at least three bids, Laura.

I'd get two from online lenders using Bankrate.com to find out who has the best rates and loan programs today and see if you can get the same rate with less closing costs, again, your target being around 3%, you know, four at the most with this smaller loan, but certainly not up at 5, 5.5, okay? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Okay. We appreciate your call today.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. You know, one quick thing as it relates to mortgages that I was reading up on this weekend. Yeah, for my spare time, I do read some financial articles every now and then.

But here was the question. It was the wisdom of getting the 30-year mortgage versus the 15 even if you plan to pay it like a 15. And the argument for that is typically, well, if I get the 30-year mortgage, I have the ability, even though I'm planning to send more every month, if I lose my job or I have a reduction in income or I have unexpected expenses, I could always drop down to that lower monthly 30-year amortized payment rather than the 15. So that gives me flexibility and that's true. The question is how much are you paying for that flexibility because remember, it's going to be at a higher interest rate. You know, with a $350,000 mortgage at 3.5%, you could probably get about 2.6, 2.75 for 15 years. So the question is what is the cost of that cash flow flexibility and I think we often miss that. In this example I was looking at, it costs about $150 a month in added cost for the flexibility of having the ability to drop down to that lower monthly payment.

So I think you just have to look at that and say, should I just go with the 15-year mortgage or is it important enough for me to have the ability to pay that lower amount if I need it to pay the added cost and there's a way you can calculate what that is actually costing you. So I would check that out. If I've lost you, I apologize but it's at least something to look at. All right, we've got four lines open. 800-525-7000. Laura's in St. Louis. Oh, excuse me. I think we just talked to Laura.

So I think we're headed to Miami. Linda, thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Yes, good afternoon.

Thank you for taking the call. So my question is again for mortgages. So I'm currently shopping for a good rate to get a new house. I was wondering what would be a good interest rate to look for or to shop for and the other question is, well, it's the same question. Now, what does it mean when like lenders or when, for example, the HUD puts like a note that means you have to sign a second note in mortgage. What does that mean? Okay.

Yeah, very good. So essentially with the rates right now, I mean with a credit score above 740, rates are still in the low threes. So you should be able to find something around 3.25 or less. Bank rates even showing some lenders down around 3 or 3.01. So I'd be looking in the low threes with the excellent credit score that you have of 771. In terms of what is a second mortgage, essentially it's a subordinate mortgage. So while you still have an original mortgage in place, this one is essentially a second in line to be repaid. If something were to happen, you were to default on the loan and because of that, the interest rate is typically higher. So I think as you look at the possibility of a second mortgage, you just recognize it's obviously collateralized by your home and I would try not to take on an additional mortgage if you don't have to. Although for folks that have plenty of equity looking to do home improvements, not cash out, but improve the value of their home, things like that. It can be a real benefit to get a low interest rate and hopefully pay that off in a much shorter period of time than your full first mortgage. I would look though for most folks at a home equity loan, not a line of credit because you can get a fixed rate, especially in this environment with rates heading higher.

I don't like that variable rate. We appreciate your call, Linda. Thanks very much. We've got some lines open. We'd love to hear from you. Just on the other side of this break, here's the number 800-525-7000. This is Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Stay with us. We'll be back just on the other side of this break.

Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West. We've got a few lines open. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000. Let's head right back to the phones. Catherine is in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, WMBI. Catherine, go right ahead.

Hi. I'm looking at the potential of investing in some silver coins. I know the value of silver has been going up and the one projection that I found said it's supposed to continue going up. And I'm wondering, A, if you agree with that, that silver will continue going up, and B, when I do get to the point that I'm looking at maybe selling some of those, what am I going to need to know for tax purposes?

Yeah, okay. It's a great question, and as we think about the precious metals as an investing category, they're a store of value, so when things are really tumultuous and we've got economic uncertainty or a falling dollar, it's a place, a safe haven where a lot of folks will go during difficult periods. It's obviously tangible in the sense that if you take physical possession versus there is a way to own the metal through what's called a tracking index, which basically just follows the price of the underlying precious metal, but you don't actually take possession. The challenge I have with it is that just historically it has not done over the long haul as well from a performance standpoint, and it's had more volatility than just a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio that's appropriate for your age and risk tolerance. So I think from that standpoint, I don't like trying to time the market, so to speak, in this case trying to jump in believing that we're going to get a short-term rise in any investment, whether it's precious metals or oil and gas or stocks and bonds. I just don't think that's the most prudent way to approach it because for as many people as you'll find thinking silver is a great buy right now, you'll find just as many saying it's not, and so I think what's more effective, what has been proven to be a more prudent approach over the long term is to say I'm going to take a diversified approach. If you want to have an allocation of precious metals, I'd say for most folks having an allocation of gold is a good idea, but I would say not more than 5%. So being highly concentrated in a precious metal, hoping for a short-term rise, I just don't think is the best investment strategy, and I think longer term you're not going to see as good of a result from that, both in terms of volatility and ultimate performance.

In terms of the taxes, the way the IRS handles that is gold and other precious metals are collectibles, which are taxed at a 28% long-term capital gains rate, which is a little higher than what folks are typically paying with long-term capital gains of 15% or 20%. So you will likely pay a bit more in taxes if you have a profit. The other issue, Laura, is just security.

You've got to have the safe and have a plan to store it securely, and then there's the markups on both buying and selling if you're taking physical possession with a dealer involved who's actually facilitating the purchase on either side, buying and selling. Does that help you, though? Yeah, that's helpful. It was only a very small amount that we were looking at investing anyway, at least at first. We're actually buying from my grandfather, who's been collecting coins for a long time, so we wouldn't have a dealer to worry about either. But that is helpful to think about. Thank you.

Yeah, you're very welcome. Again, there may be more intrinsic value here than just the underlying asset. As you said, it's a smaller amount, so it's not like you're going to be highly concentrated. When you get into coins, you've got to look at this whole area of the numismatic value. Ultimately, if you want to just collect it and hold on to it because it has sentimental value or whether it's something you're looking to see an appreciation on and then you want to sell it, that's ultimately going to come down to the underlying metal rising in value. Then you'll want to liquidate that at the appropriate time, and you'll need to have somebody who can appropriately value that for you and facilitate that transaction down the road. So if it's a small amount, there's some family history there, I would say not a bad idea.

But for your serious money, if you will, your longer term investments, I would not be looking at metals for that. We appreciate your call today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's head to Cleveland, Ohio. Grayson, thank you for your patience. How can I help you? Yes, how are you doing? I'm getting a lot of information from your radio station. I love the program.

Thank you. My question is, I work for a private contractor like DoorDash, and I got a, I think it's a W-9 form for taxes. And what happened is they don't take the money out for federal or state. And the amount that I made for the entire year was like $28,000. What I'm trying to find out is how much am I going to owe since they don't withhold the federal and the state.

Yes. Well, you're going to want to make estimated payments if you're an independent contractor, a 1099, which would mean you'd have the self-employment tax of 15.3% on top of, you know, what you would be paying in your normal bracket, and that's going to have to do with whether or not you take the standard deduction or not. So I think given that it sounds like this is a newer situation that you've got here, Grayson, I would take advantage of having someone prepare your taxes for you and then help you determine how much you need to make in terms of an estimated payment to the IRS every quarter based on the amount you earn in that quarter. And they can help you determine what that amount is to cover both the self-employment tax as well as your normal income tax. You don't want to wait until the end of the year if nothing's being paid in because certainly after the first year, you're typically going to be looking at having to pay some penalties or interest if you don't pay it in along the way. You know, I think my best estimate, but again, I would get professional counsel on this, living in Ohio would be around 21% in taxes, 6% for federal, zero for the state income, but then the 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare, just based on the amount that $28,000 that you said you made. So I think that would probably be a good starting point, that 21% on anything you made, but again, that's never a replacement for getting in front of somebody who's an actual tax preparer who can look at your situation and help you determine what exactly needs to be paid in. And you'll have that information going forward, knowing what you need to be setting aside.

So on your amount, that'd be about $6,000 total. Grayson, we appreciate your call today. All the best to you, sir.

Well, 800-525 is the number to call. We're going to pause for a brief break here in just a moment. But before we do, let me grab a quick email here. We tried to get as many emails as we can along the way.

And this one comes from Roxanne. She says, I want to go on a budget. I think I need a push and some encouragement. I have a smartphone.

I've listened a long time. Where do I start? And Roxanne, I love this question because we all need to be on a spending plan. The starting place is to figure out what are you spending right now? And you need to capture everything, the fixed expenses, the discretionary expenses, those things you get a bill for and the things you don't, but also those things that don't happen every month. Then do your budget based on what your income is and see if it balances because you may find you need to make some changes and cut back. You can do that through the physical envelope system or you can use the MoneyWise app, which is our digital envelope system. You'll find it in your app store.

Just search for MoneyWise biblical finance. But Roxanne, you can do it. I believe in you and you'll be glad you did. We'll be right back with much more. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, taking your calls and questions.

800-525-7000. Before we go back to the phones, it's Monday. I'm so glad it is because with what happened in the market today, I'm delighted that we're going to be talking now to Bob Doll, our good friend. He joins us each week with his market commentary.

He's chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments. And Bob, what a ride today, huh? For sure. I mean, if you just looked at the screen again, you see the Dow up 99 points. Okay, day, not bad at all. But what a roller coaster ride. As you know, Rob, it was down more than a thousand points and then came roaring back. Well, the NASDAQ down nearly 5% at one point, ending in positive territory as well. All the major indexes up, even though we had this huge selloff today. So give us a sense from your perspective, what led to the selloff and this incredible reversal?

How did we get that? Well, the selloff, and we've talked about this in recent weeks, it's the Fed's hawkish pivot. You know, a few months ago, everything was quiet and then all of a sudden, oh, inflation's not transitory, we've got a problem. And drying up the fiscal stimulus at the same time, investors concerned about inevitable slowdown in economic growth, couple that with some concerns about Russia, Ukraine and all that good stuff. And you know, the market was down 10%, like three weeks. Today's rally, a belief, and I concur, a bit oversold, lots of ways to measure that. I think the Omicron case growth has rolled over. That's got people feeling a little bit better.

Even hospitals are saying worker shortage is easing up some. So now it's going to be up to earnings, which is what blew stocks. And so far, fourth quarter earnings reports, I'm going to call them mediocre.

They need to get better if we're going to bounce out of this. Yeah, yeah. Fascinating.

So give us a window into somebody who sits in your seat, managing hundreds of millions of dollars. You see a day like today or markets down a thousand points. Are you shopping, looking for deals out there? Definitely shopping.

Our weekly commentary that I wrote over the weekend, I said, get your shopping list ready. We're going to get some sort of tactical bounce. And I think we've seen a thousand points of it already. Probably some more to go. I don't want to sound too much like a trader, but in these sorts of activities, when you get that oversold, you do a little buying and then you get the rally and the bounce. And when that starts getting tired, you got to let it go because we're probably going to go back and test the lows. We've done some damage to the market, Robin.

It's going to take some time to repair. Yeah. Well, I think one of the things that's been helpful is we're reminded why biblical principles are true around diversification and being a steady plotter. You know, late last year, a lot of folks were caught up in the crypto craze, and we've seen now Bitcoin down 45% from its high. This is just a good reminder that we don't need to be highly concentrated chasing some of these high flyers, huh?

So true. On the New York Stock Exchange, 20% of the stocks are down from their highs more than 50%. So as I said to somebody who I talked to a little earlier who was shaking in their boots a little bit, I said, remember, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Don't get caught off guard when you get this volatility. It happens.

Yes, absolutely. Bob, in your weekly commentary, you were talking about the need for bond market stabilization in order for equities to regain their footing. What's been going on in the bond market and what are you hoping to see? So from mid-December to mid-January, 10-year Treasury yields went up about 50 basis points, a half of 1%.

That's a lot in one month, Rob. Last few days, we've had some stability. We need some more of that.

We cannot take interest rates climbing that fast and expect stocks not to correct. All right. Very good. Any final thoughts, Bob, as you're just looking out from here, thinking about where we're headed? You know, I remind people, try to have a long-term view in your minds.

What's the purpose of your investment? Don't get too caught up in these crazy, wild, volatile days. There's probably more to come. Okay. Very good. Well, Bob, we appreciate you. As always, thanks for stopping by on a wild day.

I hope this week isn't quite as volatile moving forward, especially for somebody who sits in your seat. We're grateful for you, my friend. Here, here. All the best. Bye. All right. Take care. Bob Dahl, Chief Investment Officer, Crossmark Global Investments.

You can learn more at crossmarkglobal.com. All right. We're going to head back to the phones today. I know we've had a bit of phone trouble, so we're going to see if we can.

And let's take Jamie on Line 6. Jamie, thank you for holding. How can I help you?

Hey, my brother. Thank you very much for taking my call. If I could, real quick, I just want to say a prayer for you. You pray for everyone all the time. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Rob. Thank you for his organization. Thank you for his wisdom and continue to bless him. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Jamie. That's awesome. You're welcome. Thank you, dude. I love listening to you.

Hey, I wanted to make this quick. Basically, in a nutshell, I've had some major life changes. I'm 55 years old. For reasons I won't get into, I have no retirement.

It's gone. I'm trying to decide what to do. I don't understand all this stuff. I do have a Schwab account with a few stocks. But I've heard you talk about Roth IRAs. I think that's where you text ahead of time and not when you take it out and all this.

Yeah. I pay my tithes every week. Currently, I'm putting $70 a week in the bank. I do not have my six months' worth right now.

That would be about $18,000. I've got about $6,500. Okay. So I'm trying to decide what to do next. So I do a Roth IRA, $70 a week or what.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I appreciate that question. Listen, the key is you start from this point and you say, I'm going to do what I can moving forward. You don't try to play catch-up, meaning you don't take a lot of risk trying to pick the winners and losers and jumping into things like we were just talking about with Bob Doll, like cryptocurrencies or whatever the latest tech stock is. We stay steady plotters and we just, on a disciplined basis, systematically try to put money away for the long term. The good news is if the Lord tarries you of good health, perhaps you can invest for the next 10 or 15 years consistently and have something to supplement your Social Security.

And if you're keeping your lifestyle lean, you're paying off and ultimately debt-free, you should be in a decent spot. Let me ask you, I love the Roth IRA, but first, Jamie, do you have a 401k or 403b at work? Nope. I work for a union company and I'm not a union employee, so I don't have any options for any of that. Okay. I am my health.

I had open heart surgery and a mechanical valve put in a year and a half ago. Okay, very good. Well, I like then the Roth and for 2022, you can, if you're over 50, you can put in $7,000 a year. So, and did you say you are married? No, that's correct. My high school sweetheart of 33 years just didn't want the Lord and threw me away, so.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Jamie. Well, you can open a Roth IRA, no question about it. You could put in up to $583 a month, which would get you to your $7,000 and that'd be maybe more than you have today, which means you've got plenty of room there. In terms of where to open that Roth, you could look at, did you say you have a Charles Schwab account? I do and I have no debt other than my mortgage. Okay, that's great. Well, that's awesome.

You're certainly doing some things right. Well, I like Schwab, one of the discount brokers, your means low fees, high quality investments, your access to anything. You could buy a target date or what's called a lifestyle fund pegged to your retirement date, which would basically automatically get more conservative as you go, or you could use what's called their Schwab intelligent portfolios. And that's essentially a robo advisor that's going to build a low cost index portfolio, which just simply means you're going to capture the broad moves of the market with a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio that's tailored for you, your age, goals and objectives and risk tolerance. I think that'd probably be the very best option, especially with you putting in consistently every month because it'll automatically be rebalanced and invested every time you make a contribution of whatever you can put in up to that $580. And there won't be any fees associated with that. You'll just pay like 0.2% a year, like one fifth of 1%. So I think that could be a great way to go. And the key would just be to be disciplined in that, Jamie, and put away as much as you can, staying out of debt, continuing to build that emergency fund, but then being really diligent in dollar cost averaging into the market.

And I think the Schwab intelligent portfolios with a Roth IRA will be the way to go. All right? You're the best. Thank you so much. All right. Bless you, my friend. Thank you for your prayers and for listening and for your kind remarks. I'm grateful. We're going to finish today with Kathy. We have just a minute or so left. Kathy, how can I help you?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. My husband and I are, he's 65, I'm 63 and he's going to continue working. We're both in great health and he's going to continue so I can get on Medicare when I'm 65. Our house is paid for and we have already invested money that's playing the stocks or whatever, you know what I mean, a portfolio set up. We have three insurance policies, life insurance policies. One of them is his, which cash out, I just checked it the other day, is like $17,000. I have one that's around $3,000 to $5,000.

I think mine total, the two that are mine total out around $10,000. His will total out like it's $17,000 or $18,000. Should we continue paying these yearly premiums for this or should we take that money out and maybe invest it into our portfolios for retirement? Yeah, I like that option.

I think where you're sitting right now, the question is do you need the death benefit or if something were to happen to either of you, if no hardship is going to be placed on the other through a loss of income or added expense, then you really don't need it. Then the question is, is that money going to grow, the cash value grow better where it is or somewhere else? You'll probably find somewhere else.

So do your homework, know the tax implications and the costs, but if all that line up, I'd probably repurpose that into some other investments. We appreciate your call today and thanks for your patience. That's going to do it for us today, folks.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. Thank you to Eric Tidwell, Amy Rios, Jim Henry, and Dan Anderson. Thank you for being here as well. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll look for you then. May God bless you.