Job Interview Tips

A recruiter asks a job candidate, how long were you in your last position? The applicant replies, well, my biggest weakness is my listening skills.

I am Rob West. Preparation is the key to nailing a job interview. If you're looking for a new job, you need to be relaxed, confident, and ready for anything. I'll give you some tips today on how to do that, and it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. 800-525-7000.

You can call it 24-7. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, it's definitely a job seeker's market these days. Employers are desperate for workers, and there's no better time to try for that dream job you've always wanted. But just because the labor market's in your favor doesn't mean you can go into an interview unprepared. If it's an in-person interview, of course you want to dress well and have a neat and clean appearance. If it's a video interview, as more and more are these days, that still applies, but there's more to getting the interview off to a good start. Choose a setting, probably in your home, that's quiet so you won't be disturbed.

Make sure the background is well organized and uncluttered. It's a good idea to keep any pets out of the room. You don't want your cat walking across the keyboard during the interview. With that accomplished, your interview begins, and here's where your preparation really comes in, because you'll probably be asked some tough questions, but these are often standard and you should be ready for them. Keep in mind, interviewers don't really want to trip you up.

They ask tough, thoughtful questions, hoping you'll give a good answer. One of the most common questions is, where do you see yourself in five years? Don't just answer, I'd like to have your job, or I expect to be so successful that I'll be on a beach somewhere. Answer that way and your resume will likely end up on the bottom of the pile. Instead, use the five-year question as an opportunity to show that you're motivated to do good work and succeed. It's okay to say you'd like to be in a different position than the one you're applying for, maybe one that gives you more responsibility and a chance to grow professionally. For example, maybe your field has different levels of proficiency that require more certifications.

You can talk about how you'd like to obtain them and how that extra training will help the company. Here's another tricky question you may be asked, why do you want to leave your current job? Here's where a lot of applicants get tripped up. Never say anything negative about your current employer. It will make the recruiter think you're disloyal and ungrateful. You might also be tempted to say something like you want a shorter commute or a better health plan. Now the recruiter thinks you'll probably leave this job for a similar reason.

Instead, keep it positive. Give a few reasons why your current company is a great place to work and how grateful you are for the opportunities they've given you. Then explain how you can provide more value to a company but your current employer isn't able to provide those opportunities right now.

Use it to talk about your career goals and how you want to contribute more. Next question and you knew it was coming, what's your greatest weakness? For this one you always want to be honest with your answers but there's usually a way to be positive even if it's about a weakness. For example, you might say I sometimes tend to say yes when I should say I'm already maxed out work-wise but then turn it positive by showing how you're learning to set priorities and give an example. That way you make it about your strengths. Whatever weakness you choose to answer with, show how you're working to overcome it.

Okay, our last question is probably the toughest of all. Why should I hire you? Here's where preparation is especially important. Don't say something pat like because I have people skills. Instead, talk about how hiring you would be good for the company in very specific terms. To prepare for it, go over your resume and pick three things you've done to make an operation more efficient or to increase revenue or to reduce overhead for your current company. Also do some research so you're able to point out how those skills will help the company where you're applying.

Saying things like because I'm a hard worker or I get things done aren't specific enough. You've got to be ready with solid examples of how you do those things. Finally, the most important preparation you can do is pray.

Ask the Spirit for the right words to stay. Meditate on Jeremiah 29 11 for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future and of course end with your will be done Lord. So those are your tips for nailing your next job interview and in this market I'm sure you're going to need it.

As we said, this is a great opportunity to aim high and let's see if you can land the job you've been really looking for. Your calls are next 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and you're listening to MoneyWise Live. Biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live.

I'm Rob West, your host. This is the program where we address biblical answers to your financial questions. We mind God's word for principles in the 2350 verses that deal with money and possessions and apply them to what your aren't dealing with today. What decisions and choices are you making with God's money and how can we help? We've got some phone lines open 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you today. Let me first take an opportunity to remind you that MoneyWise Media is a listener supported ministry. We bring you this program in partnership with Moody Every Day as a result of your support. So if you consider yourself a part of the family, we'd invite you to be a financial supporter of the ministry. You can give quickly and easily.

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You'll find a form to give securely online, a phone number to give that way, or a mailing address if you'd rather send something in. Again, MoneyWise is entirely listener supported and thanks in advance to so many of you who give on a regular basis. We're grateful. All right, let's head to the phones today. What's on your mind?

Saving or giving? Investing? Whatever it is, we'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000.

We're going to begin today in Chicago, Illinois. Hi, Tom. How can I help you, sir? Hi, thank you.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. My wife has invested about 30 years ago in a 401k at her place of business where she no longer works. It has grown to approximately 370,000 right now. The company is a bank.

It's more than 30 years old. It's still privately owned and seems very stable. So, it is in that 401k is in all stock. Recently, she spoke about pulling the money, some of the money off to pay her condo, which would be around 140,000. We are aware of the 20% tax that we'd be hit with, but she really would like to eliminate this mortgage. She bought the home in 2018. Her interest rate is 4.5 and she doesn't want to refinance. I suggested maybe we move the money into something safer and maybe pull out of it to pay off the mortgage sooner, but she has watched it go up and down over 30 years and has not touched it. And so, she's not willing to risk or really even change what she feels has worked.

We're just wondering what your thoughts are and the best scenario for us with this. Yeah. So, you said, Tom, and I appreciate that thorough explanation. You said she no longer works for this bank. Is she retired at this point or did she just change her place of employment? She has changed her place of employment.

She's 62 and I'm 63. Okay. And you're both continuing to work. How long do you plan to continue to work? I am retired. She is planning to work probably until around the age of 70. Okay.

All right. Age 70. So, she's still got a good bit of time here. She has 370,000. What other retirement assets do you have? I have a pension.

She will have a pension. Yeah. I have some money, but it's kind of separate at this point between the two of us. So, we're just kind of looking at her, if that makes sense. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, we would advise to put all of that together. I realize this is probably how you've handled money for a long, long time. But just generally speaking, we would say, you know, really two become one flesh when we unite under Christ. And so, oneness is the goal and that includes our finances. But I recognize you've got some ways of doing things.

And again, I suspect this has been the way you've been doing it for a long time. So, we'll deal with it separately for now. So, you're talking about a home that she owns. You said she bought it in 2018. What is the balance on that mortgage?

About 140,000. Okay. So, essentially, if we were to take this 370,000 and she were to pay it off, she'd have about 230,000 left.

When you look at the expenses that she has, so if we were to take her budget for what she has expenses on a monthly basis, is the pension enough to cover that or is she looking for a portion of this investment account to generate additional income to supplement that? Well, that's not quite sure yet, but I would guess she would probably need some additional. Okay. And do you know roughly how much? My guess would be maybe 1,500 a month. Okay.

All right. So, if we were to take and pay off this mortgage, she has 230,000 left, what we would typically look at is and say, okay, based on a 4% rate of return, and that's just a kind of good starting point for somebody who's no longer working, who's got an income-based portfolio, meaning where they're looking to first preserve the capital that they have, and second, generate a reasonable income such that a conservative investment portfolio would be able to offset that income and not decline in value over time. You'd at least be able to maintain the principle.

That would at least be the goal. And in order to do that, you'd have to have a portion of it that was at the risk of the stock market and probably a larger portion that's in more of a fixed income type approach, and it would ebb and flow over time, but the goal would be to achieve at least that 4% rate of return to offset the income that you're pulling out. At that point, with 230,000, that would not quite get you there because that'd only be about $765 a month. So, that would require that she bump this up a bit. At 230,000, if she were to pull 5% a year, that'd be 11,500, which is still not quite what you're talking about. So, I think from that standpoint, she'd perhaps have a little bit less than she needs, and I think that's really the key.

Number one is, what are we trying to accomplish in retirement? What are her income needs? And I realize at some point, she'll take Social Security, so that would be in addition to the pension and could help to offset some of this either now at a reduced level or later at a higher level. So, there's that side of it that you all need to work through and really have a plan for how you plan or how she plans to fund her income and expenses during this season of life while she's no longer working. But as you said, she's got quite a bit of time where she is going to continue to work, and that could satisfy all of these issues. Secondly would just be her desire to be completely debt-free. If she has a conviction around being debt-free, around the peace of mind that would come from knowing her home was paid off, knowing that she's unencumbered, if that's something that she either has a conviction from the Lord or she just believes that would be preferable, then I would say, absolutely, go for it and don't think twice about it. If, though, she would rather keep this money invested and she's comfortable maintaining this mortgage, I would then perhaps say the second option, in addition to just paying it off, would be what if we were to say the goal is for her to have this paid off by the time she reaches retirement, which means that sometime over the next eight years or so while she's still working, her goal is to send enough over and above that monthly payment to make sure that that balance is at zero by the time she retires. And essentially, then she's doing it out of cash flow and that $370,000 is continuing to grow. Not only is it there working for her, but we're not paying the tax on it now as you would if you were to take it out. So I think that's perhaps the second option, you know, in addition to perhaps just paying it all off right now.

But give me your thoughts on all that. Yeah, I agree with that, having a goal to pay it off by the time retirement comes around. And also, I guess another question I have, as far as it being in 98% or 99% stock, this 401k, what is your suggestion as far as that to move it and to make it into a safer place?

Well, I think perhaps that's a bit aggressive right now, given that she's eight years out of retirement. You know, I think especially given what the market has done over the last couple of years, certainly, you know, even the decade before that, you know, you could make a real case that this market is a bit overvalued. We've got some challenges on the horizon, namely the Fed saying they're going to shrink their balance sheet and stop buying bonds. And, you know, on the open market, we've got higher interest rates that are clearly ahead of us. We've still got a strong consumer and we've still got strong corporate earnings coming in. But there's a good likelihood that cyclically speaking, we could see this market roll over and the economy, you know, be in a recession.

We'd climb out of it and she's still got a decent time horizon. But I think to be 98-99% invested in stocks at age 62, eight years out from retirement, would be more aggressive than you would typically look for as a rule of thumb. You know, I think typically you'd be looking at a portfolio of about 50-50 at this point. You know, a good gauge from that is you take 110 minus your age and that's the portion you would typically have in stocks.

Doesn't mean that's right for everyone. You've got to decide what the right, you know, risk tolerance is for you based on your age and goals and objectives. But I think a portfolio more like 50-50, you know, in stocks and fixed income would smooth out some of the bumps that she would have if we were to get into a real correction or even a recession. And given that she doesn't have 20 or 30 years, you know, time horizon, she's got less than 10. So I think for that reason, there's a good case to at least consider getting more conservative in her investment posture. Yes, very good.

I appreciate your help very much. Okay, Tom, listen, if we can help in any additional way along the way, don't hesitate to give us a call. I appreciate you checking in with us. Well, folks, we'd love to hear from you today. We've got a few lines open.

We've got some great questions lined up that we'll tackle just around the corner. Kevin wants to talk about investing. He's closing on a house here in just a few minutes in Wesley Chapel.

Got another Kevin in Ocala. He has a probate question that plus perhaps what's on your mind. Again, the number to call 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

We'll be right back. You know, as we think about handling God's money, there's money we live on, there's the money we give, there's the money we owe for debt and taxes, and then there's the money we grow. That's our savings and our investments. Live, give, owe, and grow. That's really all you can do with God's money after you earn it and after you recognize first and foremost that he owns it all.

So how do you approach that? What's the right lifestyle? Should we have debt? How much should we be giving? And how much should we set aside for the future? Well, we can look to God's Word and find principles that really help us, but at the end of the day, we need to be on our knees saying, Lord, thank you for what you've entrusted to me. We recognize with your promises, certainly with the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation, we have an abundance before the first dollar. But with the financial resources you've entrusted to us, we want to be found faithful. And so, Lord, what is the right lifestyle for me? How much should I be giving? How much should I be keeping?

And what should I put away for the future? Well, we want to help you navigate that, and we'd love to hear from you today. We've got two lines remaining open. 800-525-7000 is the number to call.

Let's head to Ocala, Florida. Hi, Kevin. Thanks for your patience. How can I help you? Oh, no problem. Thanks for taking the call, Rob.

I appreciate that. My wife and I, because our children are older, we're going through redoing our will and all that. We started thinking about our house and what the best way to be able to, you know, to give that to them without any issues of probate. And also here in Florida, they have a thing called the Lady Bird, and I don't know if you're familiar with that, but I just wanted to know what your thoughts would be just so that, you know, we can save them any issues with probate. Yeah, you know, just generally speaking, and I'm not an estate attorney, I'm not an attorney at all, so I would always get legal counsel when you're thinking about, you know, this last stewardship decision you'll make, which is your wealth transfer. How do you pass what God has entrusted to you to either your heirs or to ministry?

Because the only other option is the government. We certainly don't want to give more than we have to. And so from a probate standpoint, when it comes to a home, Kevin, you know, I think, you know, many folks in your situation will put their kids' names on the deed to avoid probate. The challenge is that really creates a problem because if the kids are co-owners, they'll assume the basis you have on the house. So if you bought the house for $100,000 20 years ago and it's worth $400,000, they'll have to pay capital gains on $300,000. But if they inherit the property, they'll get a stepped up basis, what the home is worth at your time of death.

So no capital gains would be owed if they sold the property immediately. And frankly, it's pretty easy to bequeath a home to your children in your will. Probate usually isn't a problem. If you really, really want to avoid probate or do it anonymously, you can create a trust, a living trust, and put the house in that trust. It would require you retitle it. But then that would give the house to the kids without going through probate. A ladybird deed is just a way to transfer a property to someone else outside of probate while retaining what's called a life estate in the property.

So I think you could, again, certainly check with an attorney as you either draft a will or a trust, update ones that you already have and or just get some counsel. Does that help though? That does. I appreciate it much. All right. Very good, Kevin. Thanks for your call, sir. Another Kevin, Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Kevin, how can I help you? Thanks for taking the call. My wife and I are going to be closing on a house next week. And after we close, we're going to be left with about $75,000 to $85,000. And I know the wise course is to have six months of reserve in case anything happens. But we've never really invested and we wanted to take some of that money to invest so that our eight-year-old daughter would have something in the future besides the house. Yeah.

Well, I think one option, once you set aside that emergency fund, and I'm glad you mentioned that, if you can't get that into a retirement account by maximizing retirement accounts that are available, perhaps beyond even what you would be able to by supplementing your income out of that, a simple way to do that would be to open a joint account and invest it in a target date fund. I'll tell you more about that off the air. This is Money Wise Live.

We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning into Money Wise Live. If you'd like to find a financial professional that can bring biblical counsel, that is financial advice at a professional level that aligns with your values and priorities as a Christian, we trust the Certified Kingdom Advisor designation. You can find a CKA in your area when you visit our website, moneywiselive.org. Just click find a CKA. Let's head back to the phones.

Lakeland, Florida. Hi, Joy. How can I help you?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I am 10 years away from retiring. I have $200,000 saved up between two accounts, a 401k and a 403b. I put into my accounts with every paycheck, I put at least 10% in automatic for my paycheck. And I was wondering, would it be wise, one of the accounts lost $4,000 last year, and it's a very diversified account. Would it be wise to just go to an IRA? To an IRA? Yes, I lost you there at the tail end. Did you say to combine them in an IRA?

Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, that can make some sense. I mean, once you separate from the company, you're able to typically roll that out under certain situations. You can roll it out before you separate, but certainly when you leave. And yeah, rolling it to an IRA is not going to trigger a taxable event. The benefit of having them combined into one is that oftentimes you'll have lower fees and more investing options when you have more in the way of investable assets. And it just makes sure that you don't have unnecessary duplication and that it's being handled in a way that really fits your ultimate goals and objectives.

Plus, it's just one less account to keep up with. You know, that's a significant sum of money, $200,000. So I'd probably think about hiring an investment professional joy to make the buy and sell decisions for you with your goals and objectives in mind, unless you wanted to do it yourself, you had the time and expertise to do that. But if not, I think this would be a great opportunity if you haven't already done so to connect with an advisor who could do that. But as to the idea of rolling it to an IRA, combining the 401k and 403b, I think that makes a lot of sense.

So long as they're both traditional in their tax deferral approaches and they weren't Roth 401ks or something like that. Okay, so the advisor that comes to my employment told me that with an IRA, your money will not go down. You can't lose the money. But if I kept it the way I'm doing it now, you do risk some loss, like I've experienced.

Is that true? It's not if you're talking just about an IRA. Now, if he was talking about an IRA annuity, you can essentially take an IRA and stick it inside an insurance product. And that insurance contract can have guarantees that basically say there is a floor where it can't lose value. And then on the upside, you get a portion of that upside peg to some sort of index or perhaps a guaranteed rate of return. Through that annuity contract, there could be provision for you not to lose money.

It's still not my preferred approach. I'd rather you keep full access to your money and just build a prudent investment portfolio that is consistent with your goals and objectives, having an advisor that you select make those buy and sell decisions for you. But there is the risk of loss. Anytime we're investing and we're outside of some sort of annuity contract, the market can go down, the investments can go down. And so you just have to recognize that. And that's why the investment strategy is matched to the appropriate time horizon and risk level that you desire for the expected return you're seeking. And you'd realize that it's going to go up and down over time.

But over the long haul, the stock and bond portfolio properly allocated is the very best place to build wealth consistently over time. Does that make sense, Joy? Yes, sir, it does. And I appreciate you answering my call. Thank you. OK, you're welcome. Thank you so much for listening and calling today.

Eight hundred, five, two, five, seven thousand is the number to call. We've got a couple of lines open. Brian's in Indiana. Brian, go right ahead. Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I appreciate your show. Thank you. Yeah.

So so I have a couple of questions. First off, so I've been pretty good about investing. My IRA is is at a good point for my age. I'm 60 years old, but we have wife and I have been lacking on our emergency fund.

And I recently had a medical issue that's put me out of work for a couple of months. And so that's pretty much depleted. My question is, would it be wise to I was investing 15 percent into my work for one K and my employer matched seven percent would be wise to maybe reduce my contribution to maybe 10 percent and to help build up my emergency fund again? That's very wise. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the reason you have the emergency fund. So I'm delighted you had that in place.

Obviously, an unexpected expense can certainly include you being out of work for a period of time, especially for the reason you're describing. So that's why it's there. And yeah, we want to replenish it as quick as we can. You know, you almost always want to maximize contributions to your retirement plan, but not at the expense of having your emergency fund in terms of the priority order. That would certainly come first.

So I'd say, you know, whatever number you're comfortable with, I'd perhaps even think of putting half of that 15 percent in each paycheck until you replenished your emergency fund and then bump that retirement contribution back up at that point. OK, that sounds good. Excellent.

Needed that reassurance. All right. Very good. Did you say you had a second question, Brian? Yeah, yeah. If you got a minute.

Go right ahead. I've been looking on the Inspire fund that you talk about on your program. And I don't know if you're familiar with their fund ratings of like a zero or negative 100 to a plus 100 for funds. Yeah, you're talking about Inspire Insight, where they rank companies based on their adherence or the lack thereof to Christian values.

Right, right. OK. And my IRA is in Fidelity. And I was looking at a lot of those funds are rated probably zero to negative 40, according to the Inspire score. So I'm definitely going to try to drop some of the lowest rating ones and maybe look to investing in one of the Inspire funds. But my concern is about losing diversity, you know, with my portfolio. Yeah. It's like how far do I take this site? I just don't know.

Yeah. Well, it's a great question, you know, and I think this is a question that a lot of believers are wrestling with. We would say this is a conviction matter. You know, there's not a Christian portfolio and an unChristian portfolio. It ultimately comes down to Romans 14.

Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. So I think as owners and companies, we need to be thinking about how we want to invest God's money. And if we have a conviction that we shouldn't be investing in things that are misaligned with the Council of Scripture, either as their primary business activity, something that we disagree with, you know, could be any number of things from, you know, producing alcohol and tobacco to, you know, how they use their corporate dollars in terms of what they're supporting and funding. Well, inspireinsight.com brings clarity to some of those things. So you can make a decision. There's not going to be a perfect portfolio. So I think the question is, you know, first of all, what is your conviction around this? And then secondly, as the number of faith-based investments grow, be it through Inspire ZTFs, or E-tides Mutual Funds, or Praxis, or Guidestone, or any number of the others, and you'll find many of those on our website at MoneyWise.org, there are options for you to either avoid companies through your investments or to engage or opt into companies that are promoting human flourishing and even kingdom values.

That's an option that hasn't been available in the past. We'll be right. Welcome back to Money Wise Live. Delighted to have you along with us today, taking your calls and questions on anything financial. Let's head right back to the phones. Tim's in Michigan. Tim, how can I help you, sir?

Oh, thank you for taking my call. My question is, based on what I have saved in my age, do you think I'm on track to have a million dollar nest egg for when I want to retire? Okay, tell me what you got today. Okay, so in my IRA, I have about $540,000. My wife and her 403b has about $200,000. She will have a pension because she works for school district, and then we'll both have social security. We're both 50. I will for sure work till 65.

She may not. And we only have about $45,000 in debt. Okay, all right. So how much longer do you have between now and retirement, roughly? Well, I have 15 years. I'm 50.

We're both 50. Okay. I'm not sure how long she's gonna want to work. Okay, and what are you adding to these accounts each month, roughly, dollars? Well, so we're putting 10% of our income so annually she's probably $6,000 to $7,000, and I'm probably $9,000, right? Okay. 10% of that, yeah. Yeah, so about $16,000, you think, per year? Yeah.

Okay, all right. Well, I mean, if you just run a simple calculation, essentially, you know, at $740,000, if you were to just look at a return of 6% a year, adding contributions of, you know, roughly $1,300 a month, you'll be in a million dollars in about four years. So it's not going to take a whole lot of time, given, you know, what you guys are adding to this, what you already have accumulated at a reasonable rate of return.

So, you know, and then there's any number of investment calculators out there where you could, you know, play with these numbers, you know, till you're blue in the face. But I think the bottom line is, given that you have three quarters of a million dollars now, you're arguably 15 years out from retirement, you're continuing to contribute 10% of your income, plus a pension, you know, you've got quite a bit of money that you have today, and you certainly will have when that time comes. I think the key is, for you guys, number one is, how much is enough? So we've got to define the finish line for both lifestyle, which is, you know, your income and how much you're spending on a monthly basis. And it sounds like you're living within a modest income. And then secondly, your finish line for your accumulation.

What is your ultimate goal? And perhaps it's that million dollar number. And I assume there was some rationale, you know, as to how you got that, but the key would be then, okay, if that million dollars is going to throw off, let's say 40,000 a year, plus your pension plus social security, is that enough to cover your lifestyle in retirement? If you're living on, let's say, 80% of what you're living on today probably is, but, you know, you'd have to run that number. And perhaps is it too much?

You know, I mean, do you not even need that much? And perhaps what that means is you could either, you know, start giving more today, you know, or put away less, which means, you know, you'd obviously have that money available for some other goal. But I think the idea here is that when we set finish lines based on reasonable targets and a lifestyle that we believe God has called us to, you know, what I said earlier is there's only four things you can do with money, essentially. There's the money we live on, the money we give, the money we owe, the money we're growing. Well, eventually we're debt-free, so owe's gone. Eventually, you know, we've capped our lifestyle.

We said we don't need anything more than what we have right now, so live's off the table. Eventually, the grow is off the table because we've either saved enough or we're on track to have enough saved. And again, we don't know what the future holds, but ultimately our trust is in the Lord, not our stock portfolios. But when you eliminate those three, the only one left is give, which is an incredible thing because when you give more, your taxes actually go down and you get to participate more in God's activity, which I think is part of his design by which he blesses us. So anyway, I've thrown a lot at you there.

Give me your thoughts. Well, no, I understand exactly what you're saying. And now that we just turned 50 that we're just starting to think about more of those things. So the only complicating factor in all of this is we will be debt-free because that's a huge goal. And then the second thing is we want to set up how we live so that we do not become a burden to our children as we age. So probably not interested in assisted living or nursing, that type of thing. So then you got to find a house that could handle a wheelchair if needed, or a nurse could come in if needed, or you could hire someone to do the lawn or the driveway. So those are the things we're trying to wrestle with. And the housing market as it is, yeah, we could sell our house for a lot of money, but where would we go? So that could potentially be an added expense, but I just feel it's really important because having parents that haven't thought that through, it's going to be brutally hard for our siblings to deal with when that comes.

Yes. Well, I think, you know, there are ways, again, ultimately our trust is in the Lord, but we do the best we can to prepare. And part of the way we prepare is to make sure we've thought through these things. So as you said, having a home that can accommodate your needs as you age. Number two is making sure you have enough to cover in your case, the cost of in-home care, which, you know, can run on average as of last year, about 5,000 a month for homemaker and home health aid services. And then on top of that, having a good high quality long-term care insurance policy with an inflation rider that, you know, could step in and provide a daily benefit for you to maintain the quality of life you're talking about, stay in your home, have the assistance you need. And for a couple that can run on average, you know, at age 55, about $3,000 a year and go up from there as you age and as you get, you know, riders that, you know, adjust with inflation and those kinds of things. But if you've done your part in limiting your lifestyle, eliminating debt, you've done both of those, preparing for the future by saving and then offsetting a risk, in this case, the cost of, you know, aging and needs that you'll have related to your health in that season of life through a long-term care insurance policy, I think you've done about the best thing you can do at that point.

Well, you just made me think of another question, long-term care insurance, which I remember when that came out and that was like a huge deal and I haven't heard anything about it in years. So obviously that's still available and obviously it sounds like you highly recommend it. At what age should we start looking into that? Yeah, 55 to 60 is really when I would be looking at that. I mean, you know, 55 to 65 is where you'll see a lot of folks recommend but, you know, it's obviously less expensive when you start earlier. So average cost per year, about $3,000 for a couple at age 55 and it'll go up from there.

So I would absolutely, given what you've expressed to me today, be checking that out. Find an insurance agent who's independent, who specializes in this area of long-term care insurance, representing a number of companies that can go out and find the best one for you, give you the daily benefit that you need with the elimination periods considered and inflation riders and all of those kinds of things and make sure that it fits well within the budget because your ability to continue to pay that throughout the rest of your life, those premiums are going to be critical to it being there when you need it. But the stats say 70% of Americans over the age of 65 will need some sort of long-term care.

So the numbers would say that you'll be glad you have it in the future and if something is going to erode your assets in that season of life, it's most likely going to be health care related expenses. Tim, we appreciate your call today. It sounds like you're doing a lot right, my friend, and we appreciate you checking in with us.

Ray's in Spokane, Washington. Ray, thanks for your patience. How can I help you? Oh, hey, thank you.

Thanks for taking the call. I'll try to be real quick because I think you can answer this pretty quick. I am retired and I've been building my emergency fund and it's gotten up to close to $20,000 and it's just sitting in a savings account and given inflation that's going on, I'm wondering would you advise just leaving it in the savings account? Yeah, I would and the reason, Ray, is because the whole idea behind an emergency fund is that it's there in an emergency which means you don't know when you're going to need it and if you need it, you're probably going to need it in a hurry and you don't want it to have any risk of loss and I realize you're losing purchasing power every month in this environment. I think what we're experiencing now is somewhat of a short-term spike.

I think the inflation numbers will trend back toward historic norms, probably not at the two percent level we've been at, probably elevated from that around three, three and a half, but not anywhere near up near seven percent or six where we've been through the pandemic. So, yes, that's going to be a factor, but I wouldn't put it at the risk of the market just to try to offset that because, again, you have the potential for loss and if you need the money, you may have to sell those investments at an inopportune time or if you lock it up, you may have penalties or at least give up the interest by having to get out of whatever you're in early. So, I just take advantage of a high-yield savings account.

Hopefully, those rates will move up as interest rates do and I would be looking at Marcus or Ally Bank or Capital One 360 right now paying about a little more than a half a percent, okay? Well, okay. Yeah, that makes sense and I kind of suspected that's way to go, but I just thought, well, I better ask, so appreciate it. No problem. We appreciate your call today very much. Thanks for checking in with us.

Well, that's going to do it for us today, folks. So appreciate you checking in with us and listening in each afternoon. I enjoy being invited into your stories to be able to hear your joys and your struggles so that together, as God's people, we can explore His Word and apply it to our lives and in the case of Money Wise Live, to our financial lives. I want to thank our amazing team here at Money Wise. Today, answering our phones was Hans.

Producing today, Deb Solomon, engineering Amy Rios and Mr. Jim Henry providing research today. Really appreciate you being here as well. I hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow afternoon. I'll be here and we'll see you then. Bye-bye.