Our True Source of Hope

Jeremiah 29.11 reads, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I am Rob West. Do you fear the future and the uncertainty that comes with it? We never know what tomorrow will bring, but we can be confident if we know our true source of hope. I'll talk about that first today, then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his disciples, Do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And in Philippians 4-6, Paul gives us a prescription for confidence.

He says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. We never want to put our hope in our bank account, because that would be putting our trust in our money. And the Bible is clear, you cannot serve two masters, both God and money.

America is the richest nation in history. Most of our poor are far better off than most people around the world, yet we often find ourselves in despair and without hope. It could be that our expectations come from looking at others around us and then falling into the deadly comparison trap. Our expectations become relative to the Joneses next door. We assume that God will make us at least as successful as the guy in the cubicle next to us.

That leads to another problem. If we begin to think that we're not blessed because we aren't spiritual enough, then we begin to worry that others will think we aren't very spiritual. Otherwise, God would bless us.

Well, this is entirely unbiblical. God promises to provide for our needs, not our wants. And we will have difficulties in life, financial and otherwise. And the Bible tells us how to deal with them. In James 1, we're told, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. And in Romans 5, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. God uses trials in life to shape our character into the image of Christ.

Because you are saved by faith and not of your own works, you're already spiritual enough. We're to follow the financial principles laid out in the Bible, earn, save and give, and then rely on God for the results. God's will for you may not be a six figure salary. When Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5-8 that a Christian is to provide, he obviously didn't know how much provision it would take for us today.

But God knows, high prices and rising inflation don't negate his principles. Still, when the primary provider in a household can't provide as much as those around him or her, discouragement and fear may set in. And that can be especially troublesome for parents if they're unable to shower their kids with expensive gifts like the neighbors do.

Too often, they resort to credit cards and debt, hoping to not disappoint the kids. And sometimes those around us, maybe even in church, have real needs and are struggling. They're discouraged by the lack of support from fellow believers.

Many of us are too busy to even notice, or we don't want to get involved in someone else's problems. But what if their financial needs could be helped by the abundance God has blessed most of us with? What if that's the exact reason God's given some people more than they require? The church in Acts 2 is our model for helping, supporting and feeding one another. There we read, They had all things in common and began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them all as anyone might have need.

Of course, that doesn't mean we should live communally. But meeting each other's needs when someone is going through a difficult time is the minimum God expects. Proverbs 17 reminds us, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

And our love for one another is supposed to be the chief sign to the world of our changed lives and whom we serve, God, the source of all our hope. Well, we hope you find that encouraging as you face the trials of everyday life, especially financial trials. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000.

You can call that number 24-7-800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. We're so thankful you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live. Our team has prayed for you, and now we're ready to take your calls. We want to know what's going on in your financial life, and let's do that together.

We have an incredible community of folks out there who listen to this show regularly. And together, we want to find God's heart for his money as we take on this incredibly important role that he's entrusted to us, that of Stuart. Here's the number to call today, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. We've got several lines open, and we're looking forward to hearing from you. Let's begin today in northern Idaho. Terry, thank you for your call today. What's your question about your local church?

Hello. Our church is a 501c3. We're incorporated. And one of our members has the Ministry of Counseling and would like to use the space in our building until their office is built this summer. She would charge for her services.

The exception would be for members of the church. And our question is, are we legally allowed to do that? And if so, does the room need to be rented or used for free?

Yeah, that's a great question. You are certainly allowed to rent her the space. The question is whether that rental income, Terry, is taxable related to something called unrelated business income, UBI.

And the question as to whether or not it is taxable depends. You can rent out the space to a third party, whether that third party is a nonprofit or a for-profit. However, the church could be taxed on that rental income. It's going to boil down to whether the tenant's activities are related to the church's purpose.

And with counseling, you could likely make that case. If so, the activities contribute substantially to the organization's purpose, the not-for-profit purpose, and the income would not then be taxed. I'm not an attorney, so what I would recommend is, although I'm saying directionally this sounds perfectly appropriate, I would run this by a tax attorney who's knowledgeable with nonprofit activities, especially since you're just getting this set up to make sure that you do it the right way so that you're not caught off guard and you don't have the IRS coming on the back end saying that you've somehow jeopardized your nonprofit status.

Or, at least for that income, there should have been taxes paid and there weren't, so therefore there's going to be penalties and interest. But I think what you're going to find is this is perfectly appropriate, but I think getting that professional counsel on the front end to make sure you do it appropriately is going to be something that will be prudent. Does that make sense? It does, but how do I find a lawyer who's familiar with 501c3 stuff?

Yeah. I would probably contact a certified Kingdom advisor in your area. If you go to our website, terrimoneywise.org, and just click Find a CKA, contact a couple that are close to you and just ask for a referral to an attorney that has expertise in this area. A tax attorney would be great, somebody who regularly works in this situation, or a CPA who's knowledgeable in this area could likely help you as well, and any one of those certified Kingdom advisors you contact should be able to make that referral. This is going to be an individual who has significant experience as a financial professional, helping businesses and individuals plan their finances, but they also have met high standards as believers and in terms of integrating biblical wisdom into their advice.

And so that would be a trusted person that could then make a referral to the appropriate professional specifically related to this issue. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, Terry, thank you for calling and listening.

God bless you. We appreciate it. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. That's 800-525-7000. We have several lines open today, perhaps one for you. We'll look forward to hearing from you.

Chicago, Illinois, WMBI. Dana, thanks for calling today. How can I help you? Good afternoon. How are you doing? Doing great.

Thanks for calling. Okay. My question is, I have, out of two previous jobs, 401k money that is pretty much inactive, and it's totaling over about $5,000.

And what I want to know is, is it a wise thing to do to go into Bitcoin technology to kind of get the most bang for the buck or getting as much money exponentially as I can? Yeah. And you're talking as an investment with these retirement dollars, is that right? Correct.

Yeah. The first question is, can you? And the second question is, should you? Can you invest retirement assets into Bitcoin? You could through a self-directed IRA, which is a special kind of IRA that allows you to invest in non-marketable securities.

So outside a typical stock and bond portfolio, you could invest in real estate and oil and gas and things like even Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Then the second question is, should you? And I would say, no.

In my opinion, I wouldn't do that. And here's why. The volatility in the crypto space is unlike anything most investors have ever experienced. If you just look at what's happened at Bitcoin, you could look at last year and say, yeah, it was up 67% in 2021.

That sounds amazing. But that masks the fact that it fell 31% in January, 27% in a single day last May, down 55% during the summer, and then finished the year amid a separate decline that reached down 50% in January. So it's just incredibly volatile. And these are still very early days, and the go-to-zero risk remains rampant. New technology curves, Dana, are exciting, but partly because we can look back at prior cases and see the incredible potential of catching the next Microsoft, Apple or Amazon. But what we fail to remember is that there's a large portion of these new technologies that don't materialize, and I think it's just way too early for you to be putting dollars in this type of investment, given the volatility. Number two, I think as you think about just your role as a manager of God's money, the idea that we would try to get rich quick through something that's going to see a sharp increase that's highly speculative, I just don't think is prudent as an investor, as a steward of God's resources. You know, the way the Bible describes how we should approach investing is steady plotting, and this would be more in the hasty, get-rich-quick, trying to take a small amount, make it a large amount in a short period of time. And I think the volatility and risk level you would have to take to achieve that kind of return is just not commensurate with, I think, at least in my view, our role as stewards of God's money. Remembering this is not yours, it's His, and the same is true with me.

What God has entrusted to me doesn't belong to me. So I would look for a sure and steady approach and a properly diversified index fund. Thanks for calling. We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise Live. We're glad you're along with us today, taking your calls and questions on anything financial, applying God's timeless wisdom to the decisions and choices you're making with your resources today. We'd love to hear from you.

We've got some lines open. The number to call is 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. By the way, if you've not created a free MoneyWise account, we'd love for you to do that. You can do it quick and easy on our website, MoneyWise.org. When you create a free account, you'll be able to post to the MoneyWise community and get responses from our coaches. You'll also automatically be signed up for our weekly wisdom email that comes out every Thursday with an encouraging note from me, our recommended reads, and our trending podcasts. That and much more when you become a MoneyWise subscriber.

And so we'd love for you to do that. It's absolutely free. Just create a MoneyWise account again at MoneyWise.org. The number to call today, 800-525-7000. Let's head back to the phones. Shane is listening to WCRF in Ohio. Shane, go right ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you for your show. I really appreciate it.

You've been quite a blessing to us. My question is, Congress is spending money at a ridiculous pace, and eventually it can't last forever. Eventually, I think the dollar is going to, if not collapse, it will dive in value so much.

So my question to you is, is it prudent? First of all, I think that it's prudent to buy silver and gold for that coming period, and I was curious what you thought about that. Yeah, you know, I appreciate that question, Shane, and I certainly concur that the debt levels are alarming. I think still at this level, sustainable, but just given the trends and the trajectory of where we're headed. As one of the largest economies in the world, we can absorb one-time GDP essentially where we are today. We still have a very strong economy, the biggest in the world, as I said, and a very strong consumer. But at some point, we're going to have to deal with this. Could we have a debt crisis down the road?

Sure. Could we have some problems with the US dollar? It's possible. We've certainly seen currency collapses in history. Are there warning signs, though, that that's on the horizon for us?

I would say no, just based on all of the data points we look at today where we find ourselves and whether something like that is a real possibility. If folks were to flee the US dollar, if it were to lose reserve currency status, folks were to make a mass exodus, you would have to answer the question, to where would they go? And there really just isn't a viable alternative at this point. Some folks say, well, that's where the cryptos come in.

Well, not so fast that we're seeing the problems with that theory all around us. And if we look at other countries and the challenges that they have as perhaps reserve currency status, there's really nobody that rivals us in terms of a likely alternative. So I think given that, even though we do need to address spending, we need to address the debt, we need to address monetary policy, which the spigot has been turned off, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, and we're going to see rising interest rates. Given all of that, would I be looking to overweight in the precious metals in this environment? I wouldn't, Shane, just because I think the long term return that we've seen on the precious metal combined with the volatility, it's greater than just a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio. If you're talking about taking physical possession in large quantities, you've got to store it safely, you've got the dealer markups on the buying and the selling, and then you've got to deal with the challenge of how you actually use it as a tangible means of exchange, based on how you are actually receiving that.

So I think given all of that for me, and that's all it is, you're the steward of what God has entrusted to you, and you need to make that decision prayerfully, but for me, I think the better approach would be to have a proper allocation, at least historically, probably 5%, to the precious metals and not try to overweight anticipating some sort of major financial calamity or collapse that would cause a precipitous decline in the value of our currency, the markets, and an incredible rise in the precious metals. I just don't see that on the horizon. I'm not saying some of these scenarios aren't possible down the road. I just don't think they're in our line of sight anytime soon. That's my view.

Tell me your thoughts. So when you said 5%, does that mean 5% of your total portfolio? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I think that sounds good. Okay. Very good. The other thing I would throw out, Shane, is that rather than taking physical possession, you could use a tracking stock, like an ETF exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of the underlying metal as opposed to taking physical possession. So I would look into that in terms of making your decision to decide which direction you want to go.

Certainly, that allows you to benefit from the rise of the price of the underlying metal without having to deal with those other issues that I mentioned, but ultimately, you're going to have to decide how you want to go in that direction. We appreciate your call today. Thanks for being a part of the program. 800-525-7000, Lester's in Sarasota, Florida. Hi, Lester. How can I help you, sir? Oh, hi. Thanks for taking my call. I haven't listened to your show very much, so I'm kind of at a disadvantage on a lot of this stuff that you talk about, I guess. What I did here, I liked. I'll try to catch you up quickly, so give me your question.

Okay. Well, I kind of started late in life with a mortgage, and so I was like 52 years old when I took a mortgage. It's my wife and myself, and we took a 30-year mortgage because we were like, you know, hopefully we can pay down on the principal as we go along and not be locked in because, man, I didn't want to be 82 years old and still have a mortgage.

So as it stands right now, we still owe $61,000, and we actually would have the money to pay off the mortgage, but I would like to ask you if that would be a wise thing to do because I got a payoff from the mortgage company, and it's actually showing almost exactly what they send out each month as our payment. It shows the balance, and that's about what the payoff is going to be. So our actual payment is like $573 a month, and we're doing $1,000 a month. The rest goes on principle. So I'm not sure what your thoughts are on where we should head with this. Just keep doing what we're doing or pay it off or I don't know.

Yeah, let me clarify a couple things. I'd be happy to weigh in on whether or not it makes sense to pay it off, but let me get to the discrepancy if there is one about what you're being told around the payoff. Did you believe that the payoff would be less than what they're showing based on what you expected? Well, see, I had no idea how that works because we have paid off so much in that short of a time. So yeah, I had figured the payoff would be less according to what it shows on our monthly statements. Okay. Well, I think that's the first step is to determine whether or not they have been applying this extra amount to the principle. I would call and ask that specifically.

So I would like to see an amortization schedule and see how this extra amount I've been sending every month has been applied to make sure that in fact it did go against the principle. Let's do this. We're going to hit a break. We come back.

I'll deal with the second part of your question. This is Money Wise Live. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'd love to hear from you today.

We've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000. Just before the break, we were talking to Lester in Sarasota. Lester owes $61,000 on a mortgage. He got a payoff, which he was surprised about, thought perhaps he might owe a little less, but secondly is wondering if it makes sense to go ahead and pay that off. So Lester, as I was saying before the break, I would contact your mortgage servicer to have them give you a breakdown of how those extra payments have been applied. Hopefully what you'll find is that they have in fact been applied to the principle with each payment over and above that scheduled monthly payment, which would change the amortization schedule because with an amortized mortgage or amortized loan, the interest is based on the outstanding balance. So as that balance comes down every month ahead of schedule, given that you're making additional principal payments, there's less interest to be paid on that smaller balance, and that should help you pay it off a little bit quicker. So let's get that settled, and a call to that should allow them to give you the documentation to show you where you stand and why.

Secondly, as to whether or not you should pay it off, my question would be, first, are you in retirement or are you all still working? Lester, I lost you. Are you still there?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we are. We are still working. We're not retired. Okay. What are your ages?

I'm 57 and my wife is 60. Okay, great. And you said you have about $61,000 in savings, which is equal to the payoff. Is that right? Well, we do have a little more than that, but yeah, we could pay it off. They actually do show the principal going to principal, and we're definitely paying a lot less in interest than the beginning, so I guess they are crediting that.

Yeah, that sounds right. You know, being as we just got the loan in 2016, that's why I was thinking the payoff would be a little less. Sure.

No, I certainly understand that. How much do you have in savings right now? You said you have a bit more than $61,000. Yeah, we have between all our accounts is like $120,000. Okay. And is that all liquid right now or does that include some investments?

No, it's all liquid. All right. And then separate from that $120,000, Lester, are you all contributing to retirement plans at work?

No, I'm self-employed, so no, I haven't. And that's the other question that I was going to get to. You know, instead of paying the mortgage off, should we like start investing into retirement instead of trying to get this pay down? And so, yeah, that's where I'm going. Yeah, that's the direction I would head. You know, unless you were to tell me, Rob, we have a real conviction as we prayed about this and thought about this, we have a conviction around being debt-free.

And if you do, I think you need to proceed in that direction. But if you're comfortable just paying this mortgage out the way you have been and even accelerating it, which is great, I would prefer you to go ahead and start getting some money working for you on a compounded basis in a retirement plan. Now, given that you're self-employed, don't have a plan available at work, I'd probably look to start with at a SEP, I-R-A-S-E-P. That's going to allow you to put away a bit more money than the traditional or the Roth IRA would allow you to do. You can put away $61,000 for 2022, and you can make both the employer and the employee's contribution the lesser of either 25% of your compensation or $61,000. So that allows you to put away quite a bit of money. Not that you'd fully fund that, I realize that's a lot, but it gives you a lot more room than, let's say, a $7,000 IRA contribution would. So that would be a great option for you. And then what I would love to see is you all to maximize what you put away each year between now and retirement, and then let's focus on trying to get that mortgage paid off in time for retirement so that as you're entering retirement, whenever that is, as you think and pray through that, then that mortgage is gone and that largest expense that you have every month is now off the table, and so you can keep your lifestyle spending as low as possible, which just means you don't have to have quite as much income.

So right now, I just stay on the track that you're on with the mortgage, but then let's try to start really jump-starting the IRA contributions through the SEP. And to get started on that and get some advice on how to invest that money, I'd connect with a certified Kingdom advisor there in Sarasota. Just head to our website, MoneyWise.org, and click Find a CKA. Lester, we appreciate you listening and being a first-time caller today. God bless you, sir.

$800, $525, $7,000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open. Robert's in Chicago. Robert, go right ahead, sir.

Hi. Thanks for taking the call. I'm going to be coming up this summer looking at some outdoor house repairs that are not going to be able to be ignored, and I need to pull some money together to do that. I've done a home equity line of credit, so I know what that involves, but I'm starting to hear more about like a cash-out refinance, and I'm wondering what you think about comparing those two options. Yeah, well, the first question would be whether a refinance makes sense in your situation. Tell me about your first mortgage in terms of what do you owe, how many years are left on it, and what's the interest rate. The interest rate's about 265 right now. I owe about a little over 170,000, so I'm figuring probably paying that down will probably next four or five years still. It's still got a little ways to go, and we did refinance just a few years ago. Yeah, okay.

Now, I wouldn't touch that, Robert. I mean, you'll spend to refinance that probably somewhere between $5,000 and $7,500 just for the cost of the refinance, especially if you're adding to that 170 for these home repairs, and you're going to end up with a higher rate. I mean, that's a phenomenal rate.

So I just don't think that makes sense. You're not going to be able to make up the cost anytime soon in that. So I'd probably hang on to that mortgage, and then for these home repairs, I'd probably look at a home equity loan, not a line of credit, because with a home equity line of credit, it's going to typically have a variable rate, and as rates head higher this year, which they will, that rate's going to be heading north on you.

So I'd try to lock in a low rate on a home equity loan, pull out the amount that you need and no more, and then just try to get that paid off as quick as you can. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, Robert, we appreciate your call today. God bless you, sir.

Quickly to Minnesota. We've got just a minute and a half left before our break. Lisa, thank you for calling. How can I help you? Hi there.

Thank you for taking my call. My husband is full retirement in about six months here. Our house is paid off. We have about $600,000 in that 401k that we're planning on taking out about 4% a year out of. That with Social Security, and then I have to work probably about eight more years because I'm a little bit younger than him. My question is, is the social and the 401k, I realize there's some increase with that, but I'm wondering about paying tithes on it, because we've always paid tithes on the gross, you know? Yeah, it's a great question, Lisa. And you know, what I would just say is for me, and that's what it is, this is ultimately between you and the Lord.

I don't want to be legalistic about it. I don't try to drill down on how much is considered increase, how much is a return of capital. You know, I said before in the farming economy, the biblical times, they didn't subtract the amount of wheat they had planted in computing the tithe. With that said, the tithe is based on the increase. So if you were able to determine what you put into that 401k, then you could determine how much is gain. And then you could tithe off the true increase.

It's going to be harder to do with Social Security. I'd look at it all as God's provision, but ultimately I'd pray about it and talk to the Lord. Hang on the line. We'll talk off the air and we'll be right back. Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host. Thanks for calling and listening today. We're grateful. Let's head right back to the phones.

Franklin's in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Franklin, thanks for calling. How can I help you, sir?

Hi, how's it going? Thank you for taking my call. Yeah.

Okay. My question is I'm 29 years old and me and my wife have two boys, five and 10, and we don't have a financial plan for our retirement just yet, but we do have money that we wanted to invest, whether that was into our first home or I was able to get some information from a financial advisor who mentioned me. About investing into a S&P 500, $1,500 every month for the next 20 years, earning compound interest so that I could eventually have about a million dollars in that 20 year period. And I wanted to know if that's something realistic.

Is that something that I could actually do or what would you advise that I do, whether that be the first time home or the S&P 500? Yeah. Well, I appreciate the question, you know, and it all comes down to priorities because we have limited resources and as stewards of God's resources, we need to try to make this wise decisions as we can. The good news is that God's word gives us principles that we can follow. So we want to give generously. We want to do that right off the top so we can be connected to God's activity with his provision because it's all his in the first place. And that's how we're going to break the grip of money over our lives. And then we want to live within our means.

We want to avoid the use of debt. We want to have some margin so we can fund those goals, be it investing or putting our emergency fund in place or saving for the down payment on the house that you described. And then we want to set some long term goals. And I think if we do that over a long period of time, you'll put yourself in a position, Franklin, to experience God's best in this area.

But it does require prayerful consideration as to the priority order. Now, what I might suggest is that the first kind of pecking order, once you're giving right off the top and you're living within your means with a spending plan and a method to control the flow of money in and out, that as you have margin, the first order of business is to put that emergency fund in place. I'd recommend three to six months expenses in a liquid savings account that's available for the unexpected. Then I would love for you, assuming you have no credit card debt, I would love for you to take somewhere between 10 and 15 percent and put it away toward retirement on a compounding basis.

And I think this is what this person was getting at. But I'd recommend you do that through, if you have one, a company sponsored retirement plan, because as you make those contributions, whether you invest in a target date fund or the S&P 500 or some other type of properly diversified and long term investment strategy, the taxes are going to be sheltered from impacting the returns. So it's not going to put a drag on the growth. You'll just pay the taxes down the road if you use the traditional version of that. Do you have a retirement plan available to you or your wife at work?

No, no. So my wife, thankfully, she's been able to be a full time stay at home mom. And I actually am 1099. So I don't have any company issued or sponsored retirement fund yet. Okay, so I'd probably look at either a Roth IRA to start which you can do one for you and your wife. You could put in 6000 a year for each of you with you'd have your own and then she'd have a spousal IRA. Or if you want to be able to put away more than 12,000 a year, I'd look at a SEP IRA, very low cost, not a lot of annual filings or any upkeep. And it allows you to put away 25% of your compensation or 61,000, whichever is less for 2022. So you could put away quite a bit more.

And you could invest that money, getting the tax deduction and the tax deferral, you could put all that in the S&P 500 index if you wanted to, but again, it's going to be in a tax deferred environment. So I'd get that 10 to 15% going into that. Now, I'd love for you guys to be able to buy a home and I know how expensive real estate is in South Florida. So I'd probably get started on allocating a portion of your margin to that down payment, just given how much 20%, which is what I would recommend 20% of whatever you'd be buying in Fort Lauderdale is going to be quite a bit of money. If you spend 200,000, you're going to need 40K in your down payment. If you spend 300, you're going to need 60.

You can do the math and that's probably going to take a while. So, you know, it may mean that you can't do quite 10% into that SEP IRA, you have to back that down so that you can take a portion and begin saving toward that down payment. But I'd probably split between those two and the ultimate allocation between them, I think, is ultimately your call.

I'd start with the emergency fund, though, and then whatever margin you have available, one simple way would just be to go 50-50, half of it into the down payment savings account and half of it into that retirement account. Does that make sense? No, yeah, definitely. I appreciate it.

I was kind of thinking somewhere along the lines of that, but I definitely just wanted some more professional opinion on it, so thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much.

You're very welcome. Listen, stay on the line. I want to get your information. I want to send you a copy of Ron Blue's book, Master Your Money.

It'll give you a good overview of financial planning, but from a solid biblical perspective, and I think that'll be a real blessing to you. We appreciate your call today. Tampa, Florida is where Karen's located. Karen, thanks for calling. How can I help you?

Hi. I'm asking commercials for selling title lock for homes that you've already paid off your mortgage. Is that something you should do?

No. We don't recommend a title lock insurance is how it's often billed. It's a combination of terms that sounds important, but it really is just unnecessary. Title insurance is what you will get when you take out a mortgage. It's usually required by the lender to ensure that you have a valid claim on the title to the property.

That's very worthwhile, but you probably already have that. Title lock insurance or title locks claim that they can prevent somebody from fraudulently or will notify you if somebody tries to fraudulently retitle your property in their name. The problem is that would be fraudulent. If somebody did that and they tried to foreclose on the property or evict you, you would be able to show that they didn't have a rightful claim to that property and there's nothing that the title lock can do to that. So I think the only thing you'd want to look at is just some counties now have the ability to check the title online. You could do that and just monitor it yourself.

But at the end of the day, there's nothing that title locks will do for you that you can't do yourself, so it would be an unnecessary expense. Okay. Thank you so much.

Okay. We appreciate your call today. We're going to finish today in Mentor, Ohio. Gwen, thank you for calling. How can I help you? Thank you for taking my call. I love your program.

Thank you. I have a car that I pay $112 to the principal. I want to retire and I need that car payment paid off. Do you know how long it would take me if it's a 72-month payment? Do you know how long it would take me if I'm paying by $112 and I'm planning to increase that by another $100 every other month? Do you know how long it would take me to take that car off? No, I wouldn't. As much as I'd love to say I could run that in my head, I can't.

But here's what you can do, Gwen. If you just go online and you use whatever search engine you use and you look for a debt payoff calculator, there's going to be hundreds of them and they're all free. You'll be able to look at what your current balance is, what your current interest rate is for this simple note, and then what you're adding principal every month. And you'll be able to plug that right in and it'll tell you exactly how many years and months it will take for you to pay it off based on the balance today, based on the interest rate, and based on this extra amount that you're sending over and above your scheduled monthly payment.

So just put that in your search engine, find that debt payoff calculator, calculate that number and the variable will be the amount of time and it'll tell you exactly. And then you'll be able to play around with it to see what if I put in $120 instead of $112 or what if I have to back it down to $100? I mean, you can manipulate all of those numbers and find out exactly what that looks like, okay? Oh, okay, okay. That sounds good because I'm planning to add another additional $100 every other month, but still pay the $112, but every other month it'll be a $212. Well, there you go.

Well, you should be able to play with all of those numbers and figure out exactly what that looks like and I think that'll give you some peace of mind to know whether you're on track to get this done as quickly as you want to. Gwen, we appreciate your call today. God bless you.

And folks, thanks so much for your calls today. You know, as I shared a moment ago with our previous caller, when we look at all of the places that we're spending money and all of the opportunities that we have, it can seem overwhelming to manage God's money. How do we choose? What's the right priority use of God's funds?

And what we realize is that it tends to be quite simple. You know, you can break the areas that we allocate money down into four. There's money for living, giving, owing, and growing, and God's word speaks to each of those. And if we live within our means and recognize his ownership and understand that we're stewards and therefore every spending decision is a spiritual decision, and really the way we allocate God's money says what we value most, the question we then have to ask ourselves is, is this telling the story I want about what's truly most important to me?

And perhaps I need to make a change. Well, together each afternoon, we want to find God's heart, mind the Scriptures, and help you move forward with confidence as a faithful steward to God's money. And so we appreciate you joining us each afternoon. Hey, before we wrap up today, let me remind you, MoneyWise Live is a listener-supported ministry. That means that we do what we do every afternoon and on the website at MoneyWise.org and with our coaches and in the MoneyWise app as a direct result of the support that you give us to this program.

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Thank you very much in advance. That's going to do it for us. MoneyWise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and MoneyWise Media.

Providing research today, Robert Sutherland, Deb Solomon, excuse me, producing today, Amy Rios Engineering, and the amazing Gabby T. entering our phones. Thanks for being here. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye.