Debt Crisis Looming?

Today's version of MoneyWise Live is prerecorded, so our phone lines are not open. The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their own growth in our own.

John Adams. Hi, I'm Rob West, flowery language echoing from the past, warning us about the danger of a huge national debt, now at more than 30 trillion dollars. I'll talk about that with Jerry Boyer today, and then we'll have some great calls lined up.

But since we're not live today, please hold your calls until next time. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, Jerry Boyer is our resident economist here at MoneyWise, and he's known as a glass half full kind of guy, often holding a more optimistic view, and others see only doom and gloom in the economy. Jerry, welcome back.

Pleasure to be with you. I guess I'm a cup runneth over kind of guy. I'll take that.

Yeah, glass all the way full and running over. That's right. And you are usually optimistic. But now, Jerry, concerning the national debt, well, perhaps your position has shifted just a bit, so why don't you explain? Well, the situation has shifted, right?

So as the situation shifts, we have to kind of update our knowledge and kind of know the season that we're in. And, Rob, you and I know, and anyone who's listening to Christian Radio knows that there have been a lot of warnings about the imminent collapse, the coming economic earthquake, the coming economic collapse, the hyperinflation, the collapse of the dollar. I mean, in the 80s, going back to the 80s, there was a lot of talk about this. And as an economist, I looked at the underlying data and I said, well, this debt is not a good thing, but if you kind of put it in context, we can handle it. The US economy was strong enough and our borrowing capacity was great enough that even though I didn't like all this borrowing, it didn't seem to me that it would trigger an event.

And we even had some stuff more recently with the blood moon of Theria. We've had a lot of false positives on the end of the world. And my job has usually been in media to say, no, this is, you know, it's not happening. There's no imminent danger. Maybe there's a danger down the line, but not yet.

And that's not where I am anymore, because in fact, I think we are entering a different season. Well, Jerry, I'd love to dig into that. What factors make you think a debt crisis is now more of a possibility? Well, there's a couple of major factors. One is the debt. The debt crisis is driven by the debt. And I know there was a lot of conversation about the deficits and the debt under Reagan. But, you know, under Reagan, the debt to GDP ratio, what does that mean? The amount that we owed compared to the amount that we produced of economic growth.

So think of it was about 30 percent of 30 to 50 percent, depending on where you were in the 80s. So if somebody has 30 thousand dollars in debt and they go to an adviser and they say, am I in trouble? Then you're not just going to you're not going to answer if you have 30 thousand dollars in debt. Are you in trouble? Well, I don't know.

I need to know more. What's your income? Oh, my income is one hundred thousand dollars and I'm not going to retire for 20 years. Oh, OK. You're probably not in trouble. Oh, I'm unemployed chronically or I'm I'm on disability and my income is fifteen thousand dollars a year.

Well, yeah, you kind of are in trouble. So in the 1980s, we had a growing economy. We had strong demographics and we had that debt to GDP ratio at 30 to 50 percent. But now it's more like one hundred and thirty percent. So there's a point at which the debt really matters.

And I like to say debt doesn't matter at all right up until the moment when it's the only thing that matters. And that moment is closer than we've ever been in my lifetime. Yeah. Well, fascinating. And we're going to dig into this a bit more.

Jerry, we've got a minute before the break. Talk about the Fed's role in this. Have their money policies contributed to this? Absolutely, because the Fed is the enabler. We are not savers as Americans, by and large.

I mean, you know, may your influence and that of Ron Blue, you know, continue to grow. And we become savers and not overspenders and borrowers. But Americans do not have not yet internalized biblical financial practices. So we're not savers. So we can't we don't save enough to lend to our government. So when they borrow, they don't borrow from us. They borrow from the central bank and they do it with newly created money. So the Fed is the enabler of the national debt.

Well, when we come back, we'll continue to unpack this. At what point does a debt crisis become real? What does that look like and how would that affect you? Also, what policy changes do we need to see out of Washington to avert a debt crisis?

And what's the biblical perspective on all of this? Jerry Boyer with us today, our good friend, economist, author and teacher. He'll be continuing to unpack this with us. Today's program is prerecorded, so keep that in mind when you hear phone numbers. We're going to pause for a brief break now, but Rob West will be back in a moment with more Money Wise Live.

Delighted to have you with us today on Money Wise Live. The national debt now stands at more than thirty trillion dollars. And as Jerry Boyer said just a moment ago, he's now getting concerned that at least the potential for a debt crisis is real. What does that mean and what does it look like?

We'll unpack that today in addition to taking your calls a little later in the program. Jerry, you know Proverbs 22 7, the rich rules over the poor, the borrower is slave of the lender. That of course applies to nations as well as individuals. So who is the government slave to?

Yeah, that's a good question. And you know, another point I kind of like to make about this is I'm not sure that this is a personal verse that also applies to government as opposed to a government verse that also applies to persons. Because Proverbs is a book written by a king, Solomon, to his son, who's a future prince. You know, the future prince, Rabom, doesn't listen to the warnings. He doesn't really learn the wisdom of Proverbs.

He becomes an overspender and it leads to the economic destruction of the nation. So Proverbs, this is really a manual for princes. So our princes ought to look at it. Who are we enslaved to? Who are we borrowing from? Well, a lot of our borrowing, I mean, there's the central bank, which we're borrowing from them, which has to be inflationary.

So that's a big problem. But to the degree that we're actually borrowing rather than just creating money, it tends to be foreign governments. Historically, that's China. To some degree, it's Japan.

China still holds a lot of it. So we are very vulnerable to other nations saying, we don't like your policy on such and such, or we don't like you talking about human rights violations and we're going to punish you because we're your banker. So we are, to some degree, enslaved to foreign governments and foreign nations, some of whom have serious evil associated with them. For instance, the government of China.

Yes, no doubt about it, Jerry. At what point does a debt crisis become real and give us a sense of what that would look like? It becomes real, not at a certain mechanical point, like here's the magic bad number, 130 percent debt to GDP or 150 percent.

That's a concern. But there tends to be a trigger and the trigger tends to be essentially a moral evaluation. The world comes to believe that you no longer have the character to repay your debt. So there's a point at which the British government after the Napoleonic War had 200 percent debt to GDP ratio, but they were seen by the world as covenant keepers.

And so there wasn't a debt crisis and they grew and they paid off their debts. So if there's a point at which we signal to the world that we don't believe, you want to say in Psalm 15, he who swereth even to his own hurt and changeth not, if the world comes to believe that we don't really intend to pay off the debt or we intend to pay it off with debased currency, which is another form of default, when they evaluate our character that way, that tends to be the crisis trigger. What does a crisis look like? It looks like very high inflation. It looks like very high interest rates. It looks like mass unemployment looks a lot like what we saw with the European debt crisis in 2010 through 14, 15, or what we saw in the emerging markets during the late 90s.

It's very socially destructive. So what policy changes, Jerry, does Washington need to make to avert a debt crisis? Obviously spending less is one, but what are the others?

Yeah, and I would go back. We actually had one ourselves just before the Constitution. The United States had a debt crisis. And John Witherspoon, who was the only Christian theologian clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he made the case that we need to back our money with something. We need monetary discipline. He saw that there was a moral element to this. We need to restore the moral element. When we debase our currency or when we put debt on future generations, we are practicing unjust weights and measures and we are practicing a covenant violation to put that debt on future generations. And it's not like we did in World War Two, putting the debt on future generations because they defeated the Nazis.

That's reasonable. But we didn't do that. We just fueled a spending spree that had no real importance. That is morally abhorrent.

And we have to see the moral element to this. Technically, it means sound money backed by something gold, silver, commodity, some kind of discipline. We can't just print as much as we want. And it means spending control. That's it. It's hard, but it's simple. Jerry, on either side of the aisle, I'm not hearing this kind of talk that we need to move toward sound money, that we need to have fiscal restraint.

I mean, you hear it in pockets, but it's certainly not a consistent drumbeat. What is it going to take to get to that point? Yeah, at this point, I'd say there's a bipartisan consensus in favor of easy money and continued borrowing and spending. I mean, I'm not saying each party is equally bad or whatever, but there's no party that's really for biblical principles at this point.

And we need to have that. But of course, if the church doesn't lead, we're the moral voice of the nation. If we don't say this is a biblical issue, this is a moral issue. The prophets talked about it. Jesus talked about it. Jesus warned about debt accumulation and not practicing the Shemitah. He warned Jerusalem. They disobeyed, and Jerusalem was later destroyed in a war that started with a debt crisis. 66 AD, they had a debt crisis and it ended up with the destruction of Jerusalem, which Jesus had warned about.

I know that sounds odd. You can read my book if you want that detailed out. So we need to make that case morally. And we also need to lead by example.

I don't think this is happening now, and I don't know for sure that it's happening ever. But if we have a few years, I sure hope the church doesn't waste the opportunity here in individual Christians to be ready, which means work hard, be a good earner, be thrifty, save up, continue to give, because during hard times you need all the more to give to the poor. But we should be the people who should be ready so that if a crisis does come, we can step forward and say, we knew this was coming.

We violated biblical principles. We're here to help. But help isn't just helping you financially. Help is getting our nation going in the right direction. Yeah, very well said, Jerry.

What an opportunity for the body of Christ. Jerry, let's go back to this idea of sound money for a moment. So are you actually recommending that the best move for us as a nation is away from a fiat currency?

Absolutely. Fiat currency is by definition unjust weights and measures. The word fiat appears in the Bible as in fiat lux, let there be light.

That's the Latin Bible, because God can create something out of nothing. Fiat money is the government creating something out of nothing, but only God can create something out of nothing. So when we create money, we don't create wealth. We just debase money. It's almost like the state is taking on divine prerogatives. Money should be disciplined and it should be backed by something. So yes, I would say that we should get away from fiat currency because we need to go back to the biblical teaching that unjust weights and measures are an abomination to the Lord. They hurt people, they hurt everyone, and they hurt the poor most of all. Jerry, are you of the opinion that it would take a real debt crisis for us to get serious enough to actually head in that direction as a nation?

Yes, I am. I'm of the opinion that we lack the wisdom and self-restraint on our own to see the look ahead and see the danger as a nation and hide ourselves. So I think the church, by God's grace, might have that wisdom, but I don't think the nation has that wisdom.

And that's how it works. God disciplines people, God disciplines nations. One of the founding fathers says, well, people live forever, so we can be punished or rewarded forever in heaven or hell. But nations, they're here in the world. So the only punishment can be here in the world.

I think James Wilson said that, and I think there's a truth to that. So I think that the nation, if it's disciplined, is something that we need to be ready for. And I think it probably would have to be external discipline. And God allows these things to happen because he loves us and he wants us to learn. So I think the church can prophetically look forward and get ready for this.

But I expect external discipline to be the only thing that triggers real learning because we didn't listen on our own. Oh, wow. Well said, Jerry. We're going to have to have you back to unpack this a bit further.

But in the meantime, we're out of time. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. My pleasure. Economist Jerry Boyer. Check out his book, The Maker vs.

The Takers. What Jesus really said about social justice and economics. We'll be right back with much more on MoneyWise Live. Stick around. You're listening to MoneyWise Live, and you can find us online at MoneyWiseLive.org. However, today we're not live, so if you hear that phone number, please don't call. But do stay with us.

There's lots of great information ahead. Welcome back to MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. This is where we take an hour each day to really look at our financial resources through the lens of scripture. That means we recognize God owns it all. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. That's what the Bible tells us. And therefore, we're a steward or a manager of God's resources, and we're charged with being found faithful, living with contentment, providing and enjoying, but also giving generously. And then we see money as a tool to accomplish God's purposes.

That, by the way, is an entirely different perspective than what you might hear from the world in terms of the purpose of money. It's not an end. It's a means to an end.

And here's a little secret. It's most effective when it's a means to an end, and that end is something other than you, meaning we're looking outward and we're thinking eternally. Remember, this is not our home. We're passing through. This life is but a vapor. And so we actually have the ability as we manage God's resources to be laying up treasure in heaven.

And that's the little secret that we call the treasure principle that Randy Alcorn wrote about in that great little read. And so as we think about our money today, we want to together try to find God's heart for the decisions and choices you're making. All right, let's head back to the phones. North Carolina, we go and thank you for calling.

Go right ahead. Hi. I have a father who was 96 years old and he cannot read or write. And last year he came to live with me and my husband. And over that year, we have uncovered missing assets. Two hundred fifty thousand missing from one bank.

Four hundred ninety five from another. He'll fill out his income taxes and someone goes back in after he's completed and turned everything in and they do amendments where he has a full time employee, which he doesn't. Taxes for vacation rental property that he doesn't know anything about. And then the IRS is sending him letters where he doesn't. His earned interest income is not 93000, but actually 147000. And he owes penalties. Now, somebody is paying the penalties because somebody is using this money. My mother was an employee at R.J. Reynolds, and she's the one who bought stock, invested. And even from what we can find there, there may or may not be a pension that's going somewhere.

And I can't seem to get any help. While he was living with me, I was questioned by the North Carolina. I guess it's team integrity for Medicaid fraud. Where has your father been living? And I told them he had been a nursing home and they said, well, he's not living there.

No, that's the old time. And he doesn't even own it. He signed a paper. He didn't even realize he pays taxes. He has a life estate, but he you know, it's not his. And I did confront my siblings about this.

And a new P.O.A. was drawn up that said if any of the accounts basically were put in their names or any money used, that they couldn't be prosecuted. And I thought, if that's not an admittance of guilt, I don't know what is. And I hurt because my mother and father worked hard for what they had and they were honest people. And I I'm hoping that you can direct me.

Yeah. Have you engaged an attorney on any of this? I mean, there are attorneys that specialize in elder fraud. And I think that's what you need to do is to really begin to try to follow the paper trail, figure out exactly where all this money is going and having the assistance of an elder fraud attorney who specialize in this specializes in this. Obviously, you'd have to pay them for their time. But I think it could go a long way in trying to chase down exactly what's going on here, identifying the source of the problems, whether that's family related or it's external, shutting that down, getting the Federal Trade Commission involved, where there's reports that need to be made, even filing police reports where necessary. I mean, you know, I think it's time to really dive into this. Have you visited with somebody in the legal area?

Yes. Early on, when I when I discovered this, I met with one attorney. She immediately looked at it and referred me to a forensic attorney in Winston-Salem.

And she called us in and she asked my dad point blank if he would be willing to press charges against a family member. However, my siblings had told my dad that it was my son that had done this. And I said, if my son has stolen from them, he needs to know right from wrong. I'm not going to stand by and allow a child that I brought into this world to be a thief. I didn't bring him into this world to do that.

That's right. And my dad refused to press charges. I let it go. But then when he came to live with me and I've uncovered accounts that was in his name and my mother's name, and now one of my siblings has her name on the account with him as though it's hers and that he has no money. And as far as tracking it, the attorney that they have, when I mentioned his name, it took me six weeks to get find another attorney this past year to help me because it was a conflict of interest.

Well this is obviously a really difficult situation, Christine, because first of all, we don't know exactly what's going on and it's going to take quite a bit of work, which is why you referred to the forensic attorney in the first place, because of the amount of work that will go into just trying to follow the money, so to speak, and figure out where it's gone. And that's going to require quite a bit of time that I would say you should put in as much as you can on your end. And then you've really got to decide just how willing are you to pursue this because obviously damaged relationships will come as a part of this. And the key is, is your dad willing to support you and is he even in the state to be able to do that?

And if he's not willing to support you, then you're going to continue to find dead ends. We've got to take a quick break. Let you and I finish up off the air. We'll certainly be praying and asking our MoneyWise community to as well.

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And I'm Valerie Neff-Hogan. What is your financial confidence quotient? We know that many women lack confidence regarding financial matters, and we oversee 51% of all the wealth in the United States. Two important biblical facts address this. 2 Timothy 1.7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and love, and a sound mind. And in Matthew 25, God has entrusted these finances to us, trusting us to use them wisely. With God confidence, we can learn biblical guidelines. We live within our means, invest, and spend wisely. We ask for His wisdom, and we learn. Our competence and confidence is in Him and His wisdom and guidance. This feature at wisewomenmanagingmoney.com. Delighted to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live, where biblical wisdom meets today's financial decisions. As Ann and I talked off the air during that break, she's going to contact the North Carolina Office of the Attorney General just to report all of these really heartbreaking details related to her dad and these financial accounts that have been drained of financial resources. It's obviously complicated, and anytime family members are involved, it makes it even more challenging. And so would you pray for Ann as she navigates all of these really tough issues as she tries to honor her dad and seek justice, given what's been transpiring.

I'll certainly join you in that. Before we head back to the phones, let's talk about our work for a second. You know, as we think about the opportunity we have to work, often we subscribe to the world's thinking in this area, which would be, well, work is a burden. And, you know, I'm not even sure work is ordained by God. And yet when we go back to the scriptures, we see that before the fall, well, God was a creator, a worker, and he assigned tasks to Adam and Eve as workers to tend to the garden and to name the animals.

So work is ordained by God even before the fall. And as we're image bearers of God himself, a worker, a creator, we're then in response to that and as image bearers of him to be workers, creating and engaging in meaningful work ourselves. But the key is not to allow our identity to be found in our work. Author and Pastor Tim Keller says this, if our identity is in our work rather than Christ, success will go to our heads and failure will go to our hearts. You know, the desire to do productive, meaningful work is in our DNA.

And as Tim Keller reminds us, we need to remember where our identity lies. You know, in Colossians 3, 23 and 24, we see the key to successful work is, well, I'll read it. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving. So are you unhappy in your work at the moment? Well, work at it with all your heart. Do you love your job? Well, work at it with all of your heart.

Are you a stay at home mom with six kids? Well, work at it with all of your heart. Do you have a long commute into the city for a frustrating job? Well, I would again say work at it with all of your heart. The point is not what we're doing. It's how we do it. And I'm not saying we have to stay or be satisfied with a lousy job situation. By all means, get additional training and look for a promotion or figure out how God has wired you in search for a job that's a better fit. But for now, remember that what's important is your identity in Christ.

You belong to him. Your job doesn't define you. And we're to work for an audience of one, not for men, but for God himself.

Think of it this way. Jesus is your ultimate boss. Your attitude at work should reflect that knowledge. But how could this perspective affect the way you do your job? Well, I would say be honest, whether someone is watching you or not. Be on time. Complete your work to the best of your ability. Always speak the truth.

Be helpful. When Christ is your boss, you can afford to help your co-workers, even if they're competing with you. So look for ways to make things better at work and be ready. When someone asks you about your new attitude, be prepared to tell them about the hope that you have in Jesus. After all, our most important work is showing lost people the way to God.

I hope this is an encouragement to you today as you think about the fact that your identity is in Christ and your work is ordained by God. All right, back to the phones we go. Cedric, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Yeah, I'm in Louisiana and I want to know if I can use y'all's resource to read my wife's credit card.

I need the money for bills. She's in a nursing home and she's not exactly responsive, sir. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for taking my call. Happy to do it. Do you have power of attorney for your wife?

I called one resource and they said your wife didn't leave any executive of the estate. Okay. Thanks, sir.

Yeah. Well, if you don't have a POA, you could pursue becoming a court appointed guardian and I think that's really the next step. What is it you're looking to do? Are these credit card accounts in her name only or are they joint? Well, my credit card, my credit card is empty. I had a credit card that's about $500 or something and I need that money. I'm late on the rent, sir.

Yeah, no problem. Well, listen, God knows where you're at here, Cedric. And I think the key is for you to try to be found faithful with whatever you have passing through your hands. And I realize that can be challenging at times. So I think right now what you need to do is really go back and look at all the income sources you have and get an accurate accounting of what your obligations are, both your fixed expenses, but also those debts. And we've got to really start in the situation like this with keeping the big four, I'll call them current. So you've got to keep a roof over your head. We've got to keep the utilities paid. We've got to keep gas in the car so you can get to work. And you've got to keep food on the table. And everything else is really subject to whether there's funds available.

But we also want to try to make progress toward those debts. Here's what I'd like to do. If you just hold the line, Gabby T will get your information and we'll have one of our coaches call you. This will be somebody that will come alongside you free of charge. It's just our ministry to you to help you sort through what you have, what obligations you have, and how you might order your finances in a way to get current and to keep those current. Obviously, the ones that are in your wife's names, given her physical state right now are going to be challenging. And I think as a part of that, you may want to pursue becoming a court-reported guardian in that case.

But Cedric, you hang on the line. We'll get your information and see if we can't get you some assistance. And God bless you, sir. Let's head to Oklahoma. Sue, you're next on the program. Go right ahead.

Hi, this is Sue. I have some questions about the I-Bond fund. I would like to know if you think it's a wise investment and exactly where we could go to on the website to get information about that. Yeah, we have talked a good bit about I-Bonds recently, just because this is an unusual time. Keep in mind, these I-Bonds are issued by the U.S. Treasury, I standing for inflation.

There's two components to it, the fixed portion, which is at zero, basically, and then the portion that adjusts every six months based on the consumer price index. Well, as a result of what's happening right now with inflation, that portion has driven the annual yield currently up to 9.62 percent. And given the safety of these, that they're backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, it makes it a pretty attractive investment right now.

You can put in up to 10,000 per year per person. They're electronic bonds. You can't get them through your bank. The only place you get them, to your question, Sue, is at the Treasury's website, treasurydirect.gov, treasurydirect.gov. You'll open an account there. You'll click on the series I-Bonds, and then you'll fund that to purchase the electronic bonds through a checking or savings account with an automatic transfer.

Now, here's the key. You've got to keep the money in for at least a year. These are 20-year bonds that mature or have an additional 10 years at renewal, but you can take the money out after a year. Now, if you pull it out in less than five years, you'll give up three months' worth of interest, but still a very attractive return on these.

So I'm a big fan. You'd head to treasurydirect.gov if you have liquid money, not retirement money, but liquid money that's not part of your emergency savings. I'd say with a one-year time horizon, this is a great investment. We'll be right back on MoneyWise. Stay with us. Today's program is prerecorded, so keep that in mind when you hear phone numbers. We're going to pause for a brief break now, but Rob West will be back in a moment with more MoneyWise Live. This is MoneyWise Live with Rob West.

Hey, if you hear a phone number mentioned today, please ignore that number and don't call us, because today's broadcast is a reprise edition. But we think the upcoming information will help you and make you a wise steward of what God's given you, so please stay tuned. Before we head back to the phones, let me remind you, even though the kids are starting back to school, and mine certainly have, they're a couple of weeks in already here in Georgia, it's still summer for all intents and purposes, and we're featuring a unique early reader fiction series called The Secret Slide Money Club by Art Rayner for summer reading. It's a fun read.

It's targeted for kids 8 to 12. It's a three-book series that uses humor and adventure to teach children the foundational principles of financial health, give, save, and live. It really gives parents a solid foundation for talking about money principles, and Art even congratulates readers halfway through and rewards them with some unusual money facts, so it's written with kids in mind. You can request your copy with a gift of $25 or more to MoneyWise, and your generous donation helps expand our outreach here at MoneyWise Media to share God's financial principles with others. So if you'll just head to MoneyWise.org, you'll see the banner at the top of the page. You can give to support our listener-supported work, which allows us to bring you this program every day, as well as our MoneyWise coaches and certified kingdom advisors and the MoneyWise app. That's all as a result of your generous support, and if we can send you this three-book series to teach your kids God's principles of handling money as our gift, well, we'd be delighted to do it. So again, head to our website, MoneyWise.org, click Donate, or the banner at the top of the page, and thanks in advance. All right, back to the phones we go.

Arkansas, Steve, you're next on the program. Go ahead, sir. Yes. My question is, I have a 2035 Fidelity retirement fund, and I moved it to a stable fund several months ago when things kind of went off the rails with everything going on. And I'm just wondering, I did actually prevent losing quite a bit of money when things kind of went south. Just wondering, how long before I probably need to move that back into that fund, so that it can start gaining profit again? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a tough question, just because it's really hard, Steve, to make those decisions in the short term.

If you would have called me before you made that change, I would have said, let's just stay tight, stay put. And we've actually seen the market recover quite a bit in the last four weeks in a row. Does that mean the market's going straight up from here?

No, absolutely not. We likely could see further downside. There's still plenty of challenges we have in this economy. But here's the reality is what we know is if we're looking over the long haul in how we build wealth and how we overcome the effects of inflation, which right now is sky high, apart from just a real system, systemic problem in our economy, which could we have a debt crisis down the road with debt kind of out of sight?

Sure. I mean, there's some big things we've got to address, but I don't see any reason why we wouldn't stay invested right now as a way to really grow what God has entrusted to us and overcome inflation. The problem is, the only effective way to do that is with a long term view, because you and I just simply don't know what the short term is going to hold. You know, when we hit the technical bear market down 20% earlier this year, who knew whether we were just going to keep going down to 35 or 40% or we'd have this four week rally like we've had now where we've basically made up half the ground. And I think trying to pick those entry and exit points in the market, well, the data just says it's not effective, you know, over the long haul.

So how should you approach this? Well, I would say, you know, I would probably systematically begin to move back into the market. I mean, you've got at least 13 years toward until retirement. And if you don't need the money, right, then either you're going to continue to work or you're allowing it to continue to grow. Or even if you start to draw an income, then if the Lord tarries and you're in good health, Steve, even when you get to 65, you know, you still have a decades long need for this money to be working for you, albeit it needs to get more conservative over time. A typical 2035 fund would still be, you know, probably 70% in stocks with about a 30% allocation to bonds.

And that's probably about right for you at this point in your life. So the question is, how do you re enter the market given what's happened here? And I think the only potential downside here is that, you know, you could find yourself in a position where you got out, you know, kind of at the bottom, so to speak, you miss the rally in the upside, you start to move back in, and then we get another down leg and you kind of get whipsawed there with both, you know, down legs, but not the upside.

And that's the challenge. So I would say the best approach given that we just don't know what's going to happen is to begin to systematically move back into the market between now and the end of the year. And that way, you know, you can start working your way into the market now with a properly diversified portfolio with an allocation that's appropriate for your age and time horizon. But also, if we were to see, you know, what this this rally to be temporary, which most economists and our good friend Bob doll, who's a chief investment officer at crossmark, he joins us each Monday, he really believes this is, you know, a temporary rally, we're going to see another down leg, if that's the case, you wouldn't put it all in the market today, you'd kind of do it over the next, you know, four months, let's say between now and the end of the year. And then I think the key from that point is to say, you know what, I've got my plan, I've got my strategy, it's right for my age. And I'm looking, you know, 15 years out, I'm not looking at six months or a year. Because if we were to get into another period with a lot of volatility and some real strong downward pressure, I would hate for you to again, kind of move to the sideline and try to pick the bottom. But I've thrown a lot at you there.

Give me your thoughts. No, that's that's very, very good information. I like the way you've laid that out to kind of systematically work my way back in. I really appreciate that. Yeah, happy to do it.

Steve. Listen, God bless you, bud. And we appreciate you checking in with us. If we can help you along the way.

Don't hesitate to reach out a quick email actually to from a couple of our listeners. Karen writes to us. She says, we're looking to move out of our present home. Our windows are old. Will we get a good return on our money if we put new windows in our home and then sell it? Or is it wiser to sell it as is?

And Karen, I love that you're thinking about this. You know, when we're selling a property, we shouldn't automatically just do all those projects that we've been waiting to do, because the reality is, in many of them, we will not get the money back out of them. Now, there are some things that will actually hurt us in the selling process because, you know, we've actually, you know, got damage to our roof that's resulting in a leak and that's going to, you know, hurt us. Or we have, you know, some really loud colored walls that need to be painted. I mean, things like that, or things that we just know are going to return more than actually the cost things that improve your curb appeal, like some landscaping or, you know, freshening up the the front yard, making sure you, you know, get everything ready. And so it, you know, the home looks beautiful from the street.

I mean, those things make sense. But engaging in a major project like replacing windows, which is very expensive. I mean, the average home to replace all the windows, we're talking, you know, north of 16 grand, a new wood window can cost as much as $600 to replace just a single window. So if they're inoperable, there's broken glass, there's a noticeable draft, meaning, you know, there's just, I mean, older windows are obviously less efficient. But if there's a real problem where the drafts coming into your home, that might be the reason why you'd want to do this. Apart from that, I probably would not. And you always can offer some sort of credit as needed as a part of the contract, if for some reason, the potential buyer raises this issue, but in all likelihood, they probably won't. The other thing I would just offer to you, Karen, is to get some wise counsel.

God's word is very clear about the benefit of wise counsel. And in this case, I think it makes a lot of sense just to bring in a real estate professional to look at all of the various things you're thinking about help you think about staging that is how to position the property. So it's not cluttered, and there's not too much of your personal things out. So the potential buyer can actually picture themselves in the home as opposed to picturing themselves in your home because there's just pictures everywhere on every surface and things like that. But also looking at some of these repair projects and saying, Yeah, that would make sense.

And no, let's not do that one. So I would get some wisdom there from a real estate professional. We appreciate your email today. If you have an email, you can send it to us at questions at MoneyWise.org. Let's finish with one final email today.

This one comes from Marlene. She says, Should my son speed up his car payments? Our son is 20 years old.

He bought his first car. Is it better for his long term credit rating to pay the loan off early or to pay monthly to show that he's trustworthy? And actually, from a credit reporting standpoint, it does make sense to keep that loan around just because it adds to the credit mix. It's an installment loan, which is one of the loan types and that does work favorably for your credit score. It also is one account that he can use to show that he's an on time payer. The problem is, I wouldn't pay a dime of debt that I don't have to just to get a good credit score. If he has the ability to pay it off, and that's not money that he has earmarked for something else, or it's not a part of his emergency fund, I'd say, let's go ahead and knock it out, and then maybe open a secured credit card with an automatic budgeted recurring transaction, you know, that he was already planning to do that he can use to establish credit. I wouldn't spend a lot of money paying interest on a car loan if he has the ability to own it outright, even if he's going to lose 20 or 30 or 40 points on his credit score. It's just not worth it.

Let's not pay interest that we don't have to. All right, Marlene, we appreciate your email today. Very, very much.

Well, that's going to do it for us. So thankful to have you along with us today. Let me say thanks to my team today.

I couldn't do it without them. Handling our phones today was Gabby T. Engineering today, Mr. Dan Anderson and our producer today, Amy Rios, also providing great research, Mr. Robert Sutherland. Money Wise Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and Money Wise Media. And it's such a blessing to be able to join you each day on this program to mind the scriptures, apply God's wisdom and truth to the financial decisions and choices that you make every day. Thanks for inviting us into your story. Thanks for trusting us with your calls. And we hope to see you next time as we do it all over again, right here on Money Wise Live. God bless you. We'll see you soon. Bye-bye.