The Investor’s Parable and Faithful Returns

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That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live – Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, Jason Meyers, Executive Director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management and an underwriter of MoneyWise. Jason spends his time helping Christians apply their faith to their investing. Jason, always a privilege to have you back with us on MoneyWise. Always a privilege to be with you.

Thanks for having me, Rob. Absolutely. Jason, if we ask Christians which passage speaks the most to investing, they'd perhaps say the parable of the talents. So let's dive into this parable, if you will, and unpack what guidance it offers us for our investing today. Sure.

Yeah, I'd be glad to. Of course, the parable of the talents is one of the parables of Jesus told in Matthew 25. And the story goes that there is a wealthy master who has three servants.

And the master goes away, it says, on a long journey, and he leaves behind his wealth to be managed by his three servants in his absence. While he's away, we're told that these servants engaged in business dealings, and it even says trading, so you can think investing here, to generate a return on this investment. Now, if you remember the sums of money that were given, one servant got one talent, another got two talents, and another got five talents.

Now, you might be curious, what are the talents? I don't know if you've ever looked this up, see how much a talent is worth. It's actually a very large sum of money. So a talent was actually a measure of weight, and it was equal to about 80 pounds. When it was used as a measure of money, it was worth 80 pounds worth of silver. 80 pounds worth of silver was equivalent to 6000 denarii. And one denarius was the wage that was commonly given for a day's labor.

So kind of crunch all those numbers, put it all together. One talent was equal to about 16 years worth of labor, so considerable sum of money here. And the person, just for example, who's given five talents, that's about 84 years worth of earnings. And so it seems very much like what many financial advisors do today, which is the practice of wealth management on behalf of another.

Well, I appreciate you breaking that down, because a lot of folks perhaps didn't realize how much was being entrusted to these servants. So thanks for that background. Okay, so to continue the story, eventually the master returns. That's right.

That's right. So the master comes back. And what happens? We know what happens, the two servants, two of the servants, rather, were able to double the money that they were entrusted with, and they presented their profits to the master. Now, if you have ever seen an illustration of this, they're typically handing over a small bag of money to the master.

But as we said, this was a lot of money, this would be like a pallet of money being presented. We're told that the third servant, however, was lazy and wicked. And he buried the money in a field and simply presented it back to the master so that he was afraid of losing his master's money. And this passage is where we get that famous phrase, which of course all of us long to hear, at the end of our lives, where Jesus says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Well, at least two of the three servants heard it that way.

The third servant was harshly excoriated and cast out into the utter darkness. Well, Jason, how is this parable typically interpreted related to investing today? Yeah, so Christians have looked at really the plain elements of this passage and said, well, investing seems to be something that's biblically sanctioned.

I mean, right? Jesus is using investing here as an example. And if we were to take Jesus as being perfectly described by this master in the story, it seems he cares a lot about getting a return. And one notable commenter on this passage from the world of Christian finance concludes simply, quote, Christian investing means getting a return, a high return. And what's often applied on top of this parable of the talents or other biblical principles, things like diversification, which we find in Ecclesiastes, or having a long time horizon from Proverbs, seeking wise counsel, things like this. We basically walk away saying, hey, investing is about profit. It's biblically sanctioned. We just need to adhere to these biblical principles.

And perhaps you have another interpretation. So just after the break, we'll continue to unpack the parable of the talents and apply it to our investing. Jason Meyers, executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing. Much more to come on MoneyWise Live.

We'll be right back. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live. Joining me today, my good friend, Jason Meyer. Jason is executive director of the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing, an educational initiative of Eventide Asset Management. We're talking today about the parable of the talents, what we can glean from this parable of Jesus related to investing. And just before the break, Jason was sharing with us the typical interpretation for how we apply it to investing today, that we should seek a return as we manage God's money, and that we should apply biblical principles, diversification, like we find in Ecclesiastes and a long time horizon, which we find in Proverbs. And that we should see investing really being about profit, and it's biblically sanctioned. But Jason, you were sharing just before the break that perhaps you believe we've gotten the interpretation of the parable of the talents related to investing wrong.

So share with us your thoughts. Yeah, there's a couple of problems with the reading that you just summarized. First, if you think about it, pursuing maximum risk adjusted returns through diversification, having a long time horizon, seeking wise counsel, etc.

This is just the conventional wisdom of investing practiced by nearly all investors in the world today. And anytime you see no distinction in living between those that are seeking to please the Lord, and those that are living only for themselves, I think that should just give us pause and cause us to reflect a bit. But secondly, and more importantly, Jesus himself told us that his parables are not plain. Do you remember what he said about his parables? He said that the parables contain the knowledge of the secrets about the kingdom of heaven. They're not about the plain elements of the stories he's telling, but they explain the mysteries about the kingdom of God. This is why Jesus would almost always accompany parables with this thing. He said, He who has ears should use them. He's telling us repeatedly to thoughtfully consider, to contemplate the parables, to ponder, to think deeply about them, to reflect. I love the way that the late great Pastor Eugene Peterson puts it. He said that Jesus was often not the type to tell it straight.

He wasn't a straight talker. Rather, as the title of one of Peterson's books reads, Jesus liked to, quote, tell it slant. Jesus spoke more like a poet than a scribe, than a straight ahead teacher.

Yeah, I like that. Perhaps there is more to it that we should be looking deeper at how we are handling God's money and what investments we're choosing. Jason, what other parables jump out at you as you think about investing through the lens of Scripture? Yeah, you know, if we think about this interpretation of the parable of the talents, I think you can see why taking the plain elements in the story would be a problem. So take, for example, the parable about the pearl of great price, if you remember that one. So there's this merchant of pearls who is seeking the rarest of all pearls, the pearl of great price, and he finds it. And having found this pearl, he goes and sells everything that he has, and he buys this one pearl. Now, we don't take the plain elements in this parable and conclude that Christians today should be investing in rare pearls, right?

I think that would be a very strange practice. No, the pearl is about the preciousness and pricelessness of Jesus and his kingdom. And in the same way, there's a deeper meaning to this parable of the talents.

Let's talk about that for a moment. What do you think that is? If we were to really dive into this parable and apply it to investing, what do you see?

Yeah. So there's a parallel parable in Luke's gospel called the Parable of the Menas, which gives us a bit more information. We learn, for example, that this master's long journey, he's going away to be crowned king, and when he comes back, he will reign. This is King Jesus who is coming again to reign over the whole of his creation. The wealth that the master entrusts to his servants is the good news about the kingdom of heaven, and we are to proclaim this good news in a world that is hostile to him. This is something else we notice in the Parable of the Menas. The community hates the master. And so identifying with him as the servant would have meant opposition.

It would have meant risk. When the servants take this wealth and put it to work in the marketplace, this is about Jesus's followers publicly identifying with him and witnessing about him to a world that hates him. Remember, Jesus said, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before the Father. But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father. The kingdom message is to be proclaimed with the whole of our lives, right, publicly, conspicuously. We're not to be like that servant who takes the message, buries it in a field, but we're to be like the two faithful servants who get out there in the marketplace of the world and proclaim the master with the whole of our lives, speaking the words about the kingdom and also displaying the kingdom with our radically different lives. Yeah, that's powerful. And if we come back to the Parable of the Talents for a moment, perhaps as steward of the master, King Jesus, we should think differently about how we manage his money.

Right, right. Even though the parable is not about the plain elements, about simply about investing, it's about the secrets of the kingdom of God, that's not to say there's nothing we can glean from this passage for our investing today. And I think if we, in my opinion, the key insight for our investing would come from a deeper reflection on what it means to be a steward, a steward of the master. To be a steward of the master means to be faithful to the master's character. In an article that Dr. Amy Sherman wrote for us at the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing on this very parable, which I'd encourage everyone to go read, she said that in Roman culture, this is a quote, the ideal servant is one who knew his master's mind so well that he could anticipate his master's wishes and take initiative. The good and faithful servant acted with the mind of the master, understanding his priorities and passions, close quote. In other words, the good and faithful steward makes the kind of investments that the master would make if he were present on the scene.

I love how a friend of mine, a financial advisor, Harry Pearson, put it in a recent interview I did with him for the center. He said, if we believe that God is the owner of all things, then that makes us the steward of his things. And if we're the steward of his things, shouldn't we consider aligning his assets with his principles and with companies that bless mankind instead of cause harm? To make investments on God's behalf means, I think, to make investments that seek to maximize blessing for others, not merely seeking to maximize financial returns.

And I believe it means accordingly also choosing to forego investments that prey on the misery of others or profit off of the misery of others. Well, this is a great segue to conclude by talking about the value of faith-based investing for Christians today. So, Jason, tell us how faith-based investing can help us as we seek to be faithful to the master in our investing.

Absolutely. Faith-based investing is an approach to investing that seeks to generate an attractive rate of return by investing in companies whose products and practices we believe are well aligned with the character of the master. Understanding that the master is interested in returns that magnify blessing, faith-based investing can help us to invest in companies whose products, for example, are meeting important needs in the world today, as well whose practices really exhibit value creation, justice, and stewardship. I believe that these investments reflect the character of the master and show the world what his kingdom is like.

Well said, Jason. Thanks for stopping by. My pleasure.

Check out the Eventide Center for Faith and Investing to help you apply your faith to your investing with articles and videos, including an excellent article on the parable of the talents that we talked about today. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob Lastiros.

So glad you're along with us today. We're taking your calls and questions here in just a moment on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm grateful to have Jason Meyer along with us in the first couple of segments of the broadcast today talking about faith-based investing, an exciting and growing segment of the investing universe, and really great to see so many Christians being able to align their values with not only their financial decisions on the planning side, but also with their actual investment portfolios. If you'd like to learn more about how you can invest in a way that's aligned with your faith, you can certainly check out the Center for Faith and Investing. It's faithandinvesting.com.

Or head over to our website at moneywise.org and you can read about Eventide and so many of our great faith-based investing sponsors. All right, let's head to the phones again. 800-525-7000.

We're in Gallup, New Mexico. Hi, Marlene. Thanks for your call.

How can I help? Hi, how are you? We just received money from a payoff from our owner finance property, and I was wondering if it would be best to pay off our new home or make improvements on our new home before we do that. I see. You understand?

And the best place to invest that money or to have that money hanging around until we decide what to do with it. Sure. Yeah, so when you say a house payoff, did you sell a property?

Yes. Okay, and was that like a rental property or what was that? Well, it had turned into a rental property.

It was my rental property plus my primary home, and then I moved, so everything turned into rental. I see. But did you live there two out of the last five years?

No. Okay, all right. So did you have any gains on that that you need to account for from the proceeds? We had a few, not very much. We paid and we paid some taxes on it last year. I see.

Okay. And what do you still have left in terms of the net proceeds? Around $277,000. Okay, $277,000. And do you own your primary residence now, free and clear? No, we owe $167,000 on it.

Okay. Are you thinking about paying that off? Yes, we would like to, but we also need to build a garage and make some home improvements, and we don't want to end up taking out another loan to get the improvements.

Yeah, I like that idea. What do you think it'll cost you for all of the improvements you're looking to do together? Well, we're not sure.

We have to probably do a new well, and we want to build a garage. I'm really not sure. Okay, very good.

So the primary goal with the proceeds of this sale would be to fund those projects, and then with anything left over, look to pay down the first mortgage? Is that what you're thinking? Yes, yes, yes. Okay. All right. And you've got income sources covered that meet your monthly living expenses? Yes. Okay. And do you have an emergency fund separate from the $277,000?

No, not really. Okay. So I think that should be a priority as well. I think in my pecking order, I would say, first of all, what do we need to set aside as an emergency fund that we're going to leave intact? And I would say, depending on your situation, a good ballpark would be six months living expenses. So you would take your monthly living expenses, multiply that by six, and that would be your emergency reserve.

Now, you can make a case for having a little less than that if you're still working with a stable income or a little more than that if you're retired and you just want a little more cushion. But somewhere around that number, I would try to leave in place, and I'd put that in a high-yield savings account, FDIC insured, so it's available as you need it, but not too readily accessible, not commingled with your checking account that you pay your monthly bills out of, things like that. So I'd subtract that first, and then I would try to hang on to the rest of it until you get a real good understanding of what that's going to cost, whether you're going to go out and find a general contractor or several of them to bid the project, give you a guaranteed bid not to exceed a certain amount.

Once you decide who that is going to be, you'll know how much these projects are going to cost you, the garage and the other renovations that you'd like to do. And then I think at that point, you'd then be free to take the balance unless there's some other short-term goal I don't know about, other than the emergency fund and these renovations in the garage. Take the balance and then use that to pay down toward the mortgage to accelerate the payoff of that. Once you pay that off, that's obviously going to be probably your largest expense coming out of your monthly budget, which just creates more margin as well.

So how does that sound to you? That sounds good. Where do you suggest I would put the money in like Capital One or a savings, just a normal bank savings or what? I would use one of the online banks because you're not going to pay any fees and they're going to give you a little bit of interest.

Right now, they're paying about a half of 1%, but that's better than 0.001% that you're getting from a lot of the brick and mortar banks. I'll give you three to look at. One would be, you mentioned it, Capital One 360.

A second would be Marcus, M-A-R-C-U-S, marcus.com. That's the retail operation of Goldman Sachs and they have a great online bank. And then the third would be Ally Bank, A-L-L-Y. Any of those three will give you a great customer service, no fees, FDIC insured savings accounts and they'll pay a little bit of interest. So if that money sat there for a year, you could get one half of 1% on the money while you're waiting to use it.

You could also, Marlene, link it to your checking account electronically so that whenever you do need the money to pay bills on the renovations or whatever it might be, you just, with a click of a button, without any cost, will transfer over to that checking account that it's attached to. And usually one to two, at the most, three business days. Okay? Okay. Okay. Very good. And do you think it would be wise to go to Capital One Banking and the savings?

I would be fine with that. Yeah, Capital One 360 is what you're going to want to look for and they have all the banking operations. A lot of folks want to use the brick and mortar bank for their checking just because they want to be able to have access to an office if they need it. But you certainly don't have to as long as you can access an ATM network for your deposits and withdrawals.

But certainly for the savings, I would use an online bank for the reasons I mentioned. All the best to you, Marlene. Thanks for calling and listening today.

God bless you. 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open. We'd love to hear from you. And we'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host. This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

What are you thinking about today in your financial life and how can we apply God's timeless wisdom to those decisions? Well, give us a call. We'll do that together. Here's the number. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's head right back to the phones.

Lakeland, Florida. Hi, Cindy. Thank you for calling. How can I help you? Hi, thank you.

I've got a question. My 94-year-old stepfather and I are co-owners or joint on his checking account. And my mother passed in September and that's what he wanted from me. They were married only like for 10 years.

And I did a lot of running and blah, blah, blah. You know, he's got five children. My mother has four. And since I have been like the main character, I guess if you will, and doing, you know, all the running, he said, I want you to have all that money. And he, it's only $20,000 in his bank. I was wanting, I was advised to buy my or his niece, take some of that money out and move it.

So, you know, it's not so great at his death. Should I just leave it there? He doesn't need that much money to live on. He's got ample, you know, with his monthly income. So it's just, it just keeps growing larger. It's not going to hurt anything, of course, staying there. But should I move some of it out?

And of course, if he needs it, you know, it's right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I think Cindy, a couple of thoughts. Number one is it sounds like the fact that you're on the account as a legal co-owner to this account is really more from an operational standpoint in terms of why that was done initially so that you would be able to, you know, have access to the account to pay his bills and do things on his behalf, as opposed to making you a legal, you know, 50% owner of these assets. Was that the original intent? That's what he wants. And I keep asking him, I asked him again today, I said, can I just give your kids some of this money?

He said, they haven't done nothing for me. You've done it all. I want you to have this money.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I would think the best thing to do would be to put this in writing through a will. You know, that would be the most effective way to preserve the relationship down the road, because I can pretty much assure you, there's going to be some questions asked as to what was, you know, dad's intent.

And did you coerce him into doing any of these kinds of things, and you just want to keep yourself separate from that, and do everything above board. So typically, the way you would do this is the account if these are his assets would stay in his name only. And then you would be given power of attorney, you know, to make decisions on his behalf, and to conduct business again for his benefit as needed. And then he would have a will that spells out clearly his intentions for how any of his assets, whether those are personal, you know, effects or his finances, how that would be passed at his death. And that would be a part of the public record. And there would be a, you know, someone that would work with the probate court to the executor to facilitate that at his death, but it would all be, again, done above board, and based on a legal and binding will that would be put in place, as opposed to you saying, well, let me just tell you about some conversations I had with your dad prior to his death, which, you know, that just seems like it opens you up to a lot of scrutiny that you probably would rather not deal with. So if it were me, I certainly wouldn't move anything out into your own name. I'd leave it all there.

I would, in fact, see about putting it, if you can get a power of attorney in place, then I would encourage you to put that back in his name only, as long as you have the ability to act for him in that capacity, and then put a will in place that, again, can be a part of the public record, be done in a way that reflects his wishes, but it's done through the legal process. As opposed to just side conversations. Does that all make sense, though, Cindy? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, it does. It's pretty clear.

Yeah. So I think where I'd go from here is perhaps sit down with an estate planning attorney. This doesn't have to be very, very costly. I mean, a basic will and a power of attorney are pretty, you know, rudimentary, you know, legal documents that would be created and can be done, again, based on him being of sound mind. And, you know, wanting to do the things he needs to do so that he's properly cared for in terms of financially. And then at the same time, a durable power of healthcare surrogate could be done and living will to make sure that end of life and healthcare directives can be made on his behalf by the person he selects as well, which will be just as important. So I would take those steps.

I think you'll be glad you did down the road and it'll just keep the relational collateral damage, hopefully to a minimum. We appreciate your call today. Thanks very much.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Grace, thank you for calling from Wisconsin today. How can I help you? Hello.

Hello. Well, I've got almost a dozen grandchildren and we have seven that are fairly close in age from two different children. The oldest in that group is going to be getting his license pretty soon. And we have an older vehicle that we can give to him. But then my concern is, or our concern is, would we be able to do the same thing for the other family? And we're not sure that we would. And we're trying to not cause difficulties between the two families.

So what would your advice be? Yeah. Yeah. Well, is there a plan apart from you to for him to have transportation? Have you talked to his mom and dad about what their plan is? Yes. And I think they do want to get a vehicle for him. So, yes, we know that much that they are interested in having a big vehicle for him.

Sure. Well, you know, I think you're wise to think this through, Grace, because clearly you want to be a blessing to these grandchildren, but you don't want to create a relational hard in the process. And that can easily happen. And, you know, that's most important at this point. So I think the key is how do you move forward in a way that honors what you're trying to accomplish in your desire to provide for everyone? I think one option would be you sell the vehicle if it's not needed any longer. And, you know, you perhaps take it and begin to start an account for each of them. Determining how the best way is to save for that will be determined by whether you want the money freely available for any purpose, like a car or specifically for something like college.

If you wanted it for college, you'd probably use a different account to save for that. But I think you're right. I mean, the key is you're not going to be able to give every child a car. You just happen to have an extra vehicle that's not needed.

He happens to be the first one perhaps reaching age where he needs one. And so it seems like an obvious opportunity. And yet you need to think a bit longer term as to, you know, are you prepared for the fallout of that and how, you know, if you want to treat each of them the same, then will you have the ability to do that? And if not, maybe the opportunity is to say, OK, we're going to take this money and start a fund for each of them. And then we will add to that over time.

Tell me your thoughts on that, though. Yeah, that sounds like maybe that's a better plan. That might be a better plan.

Yeah. Well, the nice thing is you could open if you want it generally available, you could just open savings accounts for each of them at like Ally Bank or Marcus or Capital One 360. There's no fees for those. And that way, as you contribute to them, you could automatically fund each one the same.

And that money would be available when the time comes that you feel like they're ready for it and a need has been identified, then you could make the gift. Stay on the line. We've got to hit a break, but I want to make sure we finish up off the air. This is MoneyWise Live. Much more to come just around the corner. Stay with us. We're grateful you tuned in to MoneyWise Live today. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. So Grace and I had a chance to talk off the air and finished up.

Here's where we landed. She's actually going to take that vehicle that she has and make it the grandparents loaner car. She's going to pass it to this first child, not to give it to him, but to let him use it until mom and dad have time to find other reliable transportation, whether he invests in that or they provide it themselves. They're going to make sure it's in writing and perhaps there'll be a period of time where she allows this particular grandchild to use it. Then it'll be returned to her and she can pass it along to the next one.

She's also going to start some savings accounts earmarked for each grandchild. What a blessing she is. And Grace, we appreciate your call today very much. Hey, before we go back to the phones, Bob Doll is with us. It's Monday, which means Bob joins us with his market commentary. Bob is chief investment officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

And Bob, yet again, another wild ride on the markets today. This one ending green, huh? We love green.

It's preferred to red. This is a part of the reflex rally. And my view, Rob, that is to say we have the big decline. We got oversold and we're bouncing here a little bit, maybe some more to go, but I'm not sure we're out of the woods. I think it's going to take some time to repair the damage done and we're going to get a lot of sidewise volatility.

Yeah. I know you said in this week's investment commentary, Bob, that the global economy has slowed temporarily due to this latest variant of the COVID virus, huh? Yeah, we're probably going to see a weaker first quarter GDP here in the U.S., maybe two percent, rather than the three or four that we expect for the balance of the year. Is there anything to make of the significant weakness we saw in January? I mean, is there anything to January being any kind of predictor of what to see over the balance of the year or not necessarily? Not necessarily. There are a lot of wives tales and myths that go around these things if January does this and then et cetera, et cetera.

But there's not a lot of right reliability there, Rob. We just came off another amazing year and January hit and investors said it's a new year. I'm going to take some profits.

And you saw what happened. Yeah. Bob, are you seeing with these spikes and, you know, obviously the investors coming back to the table today after January's losses, is it more broad based or are we back to where a small group of stocks are driving these indexes? It is more broad based. For example, the Russell 2000, which is small stocks, was up three percent today, Rob.

So that means there is broader participation and that's normal on these reflex rallies. And as I said, there could be more to come, but it eventually will peter out and we probably have to go back down and test the lows. Hopefully we have a successful test and then we have a better balance of the year, but only time will tell. Bob, what about those in retirement right now? You know, fixed income has been challenging because rates have been so low. They hear about multiple rate hikes coming this year. How quickly does that translate into something that would be positive in terms of income investors? Well, we will get higher rates we already have that started as the bond market kind of out the curve, as anticipated, the Fed's move, and we'll probably get more of that. So the good news is down the line, coupons will be higher so investors can get more income.

But if they're in those bonds already, prior to those higher income levels comes some capital depreciation as rates go up and the bond prices go down. So be careful where you are on that income seeking pattern. Very good. Bob, appreciate you stopping by. As always, grateful for your insights and commentary. Folks can connect with you and sign up for your weekly investment commentary at CrossmarkGlobal.com, right? All the best. Thank you. All right, Bob, appreciate you very much. CrossmarkGlobal.com is the place to go. Bob Doller, good friend, Chief Investment Officer at Crossmark Global Investments.

You can learn more about the funds he managed when you visit the website again, CrossmarkGlobal.com. We'll talk to Bob again next week. Let's head back to the phones.

Margate, Florida. Donovan, thank you for calling. How can I help, sir? Hey, how are you doing today?

Very well. Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to ask you a question.

As a day trader, I day trade the currency and the index futures. I've long been told that as a believer, it's gambling and I shouldn't be gambling. I just wanted to get your take on it.

Yeah. Well, a couple of thoughts. I mean, you won't find the Bible telling you not to invest in foreign currency exchanges anywhere. But we are told very clearly we should be good stewards of what God entrusts to us. So how are we a good steward of it? I think for the average investor, that means we should take a long term time horizon. We should be properly diversified, as King Solomon has instructed us. We should be steady plotters, which means we're not trying to get rich quick or seek incredibly generous returns in a very short period of time because of the risk associated with that. I think all of that's just about being a prudent investor. I think there's, though, a difference between the average investor seeking long term returns and somebody who's a professional trader. I mean, somebody who has unique skills, who's been trained to be a trader.

I think that's a different category. And I think you just need to be careful as to whether this is something you're doing as a professional on behalf of others or if it's something you're doing for yourself. And A, are you getting emotionally involved in it if it's your own money?

B, do you have the skill set to be able to do that? And are you taking unnecessary risk? Because when we recognize, Donovan, as we should, that God owns everything and therefore we're stewards or managers of God's money, we want to be prudent with that. And I think there's a place for speculation, again, if it's backed up by real training behind it. In terms of specifically Forex, the foreign currency exchanges, you know, these exchange rates are very volatile. The currency markets are extremely difficult to predict. There's limited protection on the downsides. There's a good many scams and fraud involved in Forex.

There can even be trading delays that affect the results. So again, I think it's not something that you should go into without understanding fully what's involved, the risk that you're potentially taking and making sure that you have the training. But if you've checked all those boxes and you've got the time and attention and know how to do it, I think that's different than perhaps what I would advocate for the average investor. Does that make sense? I wanted the skills over the last three or four years, but I just wanted to get your take on it, you know, to trade it effectively and manage risk.

Yeah, and I think that's the key is that, you know, again, if you feel like you've put in the time and have the training and expertise to do it, then I think that's a different category than what we would be saying for somebody who's just, you know, seeking to be a wise steward of God's money with their passive investments, as opposed to you doing this more full time with the time and attention and expertise to do it. We appreciate your call today. Thanks for checking in with us. Dave's in Huntley, Illinois. Dave, thanks for your call, sir. How can I help you?

You're welcome. Hey, I just received a settlement check from an accident that I was sitting in. We need to place it somewhere where we could get to it quickly.

We're going to do some home renovations. I heard you talking about the online banks. Is Discover a good one?

You know, the where I would go to determine that. First of all, Dave, if you have a bank with FDIC insurance, which Discover certainly does, Discover Bank, you know, that would be the first thing I'd be looking for. But then beyond that, I would be looking at how they're rated. NerdWallet, funny name, but a great website that rates and ranks, among other things, the banks, would be one place I would go. I happen to see they have a great rating right now on Discover Bank.

Five stars, which is the highest you can get for a bank. And the pros there are no monthly fees on checking or savings accounts. They actually do cash back rewards on their checking accounts. You know, they have a large ATM network. Only downside is they don't have a physical branch, which probably is not a concern to you. And you can't make cash deposits.

But overall, I think a very solid bank, very highly rated, and of course, FDIC insured. And they're given a $200 bonus for signing up now. Well, that's even better. I like it. And I think this is a great plan to put it in a savings account, Dave, while you're waiting to pay this out on those renovations.

So I would say no red flags for me. We appreciate you checking with us. Hey, we're going to finish today in Venice, Florida. Lenny, thank you for calling. How can I help you? Hi.

Yes, I just have a quick question. I don't have really wealth to speak of, and all my money is just in a savings account or a checking account. Where is there a safe place to invest when you have a small amount of money but want it to grow? What would you suggest?

Yeah. And when you say a safe place, give me more on that. Are you OK investing it and realizing that with investments comes the potential to lose money, even though you might be on the more conservative end of the investing spectrum? I don't want to lose money. I want a safe place that will earn something.

OK. Yeah. And I think that's the challenge here, Lenny, is that right now, if you're investing, even if you're on the more conservative end, whether it's conservative stocks like dividend income producing stocks or even bonds, there is the potential to lose money. So if you're saying, listen, I want a guaranteed floor on this, but I want to earn a little bit above that, your only options at that point would be a savings account that would only earn about a half a percent. If you had money to invest and you're willing to put some time into it, you could use I bonds, the I standing for inflation bonds. You can put in up to $10,000 per year. And if you add $5,000 from a tax refund, you could put in a total of $15,000. That right now, I bonds are paying a little over seven percent. Now, you'd need to leave the money in for a year. And if you pull it out in less than five years, you'd give up about three months worth of interest.

But that's backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. You can learn more about I bonds at treasurydirect.gov. Apart from that, you'd have to look at an annuity that would be guaranteed by an insurance company.

So an annuity, I bonds or savings account, I think would be the place to go with no risk. We appreciate your call, Lenny. God bless you. That's going to do it for us today.

MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media. I want to say thank you to my team today, Eric, Dan, Amy, and Jim. Thank you for being here as well. We'll look for you tomorrow. God bless you.