Maybe You Don’t Need a Reverse Mortgage

For all the hoopla about reverse mortgages these days, it's surprising that only about 2% of folks eligible for them take one out. Hi, I'm Rob West.

Maybe the 98% know something the others don't. Not just that reverse mortgages have high fees and lots of rules, but that there are alternatives. I'll talk about them today, and 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 decisions. Well, no doubt the idea of getting a lump sum payment or a nice monthly check from a reverse mortgage company could be a big help to someone who has all or most of their house paid off, but still struggles with day-to-day expenses. It could seem like a real lifesaver, but there is no free lunch. To get that money, you're giving up equity in your home, and that might be a concern for a lot of seniors who'd like to leave something to their heirs, not a mortgage company.

So what sounds good doesn't always work out that way. Reverse mortgages typically have higher interest rates and other costs and fees attached to them. You also pay the usual closing costs that you would for any mortgage, an appraisal, loan recording, credit check, and title insurance. But then you'll also have to pay a mandatory counseling fee, a 2% mortgage insurance fee up front, and then an annual mortgage insurance fee plus a monthly loan servicing fee of up to $30 if your interest rate adjusts monthly. But there's an even bigger thing you have to watch out for with a reverse mortgage, and that's the company trying to sell you one through TV ads and mailings. You have to know who you're dealing with. As I said, the pitch may sound good, but the reverse mortgage companies haven't always lived up to their promises.

Some years back, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined three of these companies for deceptive advertising. No wonder that Consumer Reports says you should consider a reverse mortgage only if there's no other way to stay in your home and pay your bills. And you should only reach that decision after exhausting all the alternatives.

And there are four of them to consider. First, sell your home and buy something smaller, leaving you with the difference in cash. This can be difficult from an emotional standpoint because a home you've lived in and raised your children in can hold a lot of memories. If you can overcome the emotional attachment, not only will downsizing give you the cash you need, but the reduced expenses may just be what you need to balance your budget. The next alternative, if you haven't entirely paid off the home yet, is to consider refinancing the balance you owe. Interest rates have been climbing, but they still may be low enough that you could reduce your monthly payment and free up cash. If you go that route, you want to avoid, if at all possible, extending the term of the loan. If you have ten years left on your current mortgage, you want to refinance with a new, lower-interest ten-year mortgage.

And you really want the new interest rate to be at least one point lower than the old rate. The next alternative to a reverse mortgage is a little outside the box, but how about selling the home to a family member, perhaps children who would be heirs anyway when you go home to the Lord? If you sell the property to a family member, you get cash out and then you can lease it back and remain living there. The family member or members could then take advantage of certain tax deductions for landlords.

Now, the last alternative is something of a variation of selling to a family member. Just as before, that person buys the house from you, but with what might be called an inter-family mortgage. In other words, you owner-finance the purchase. The family member makes the monthly mortgage payment to you instead of a bank, giving you the cash to meet your expenses. There's another advantage to owner-financing the sale of your home to a family member, or anyone else. You would reduce the amount you could potentially owe in capital gains taxes.

If the outright sale of the home would generate a profit of more than $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a couple filing jointly, then spreading out those payments over a number of years could reduce the amount of capital gains you'd have to pay in any given year. That part can get pretty complicated, so it's best to consult with an estate or tax attorney on how to do this so you pay the least amount in taxes. Many of these alternatives are worth investigating if you're struggling with day-to-day expenses, but you don't want to sign your home over to a reverse mortgage company. So beware, take your time, pray, and then decide the best option for you. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and you're listening to Money Wise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. We'll be right back. Delighted to have you with us today on Money Wise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions. We've got lines open. We'd love to hear from you. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is the program where each afternoon we come together to mind God's Word, to apply His timeless wisdom to our role as stewards or managers of God's resources. As you seek to find God's heart and be found faithful in setting your lifestyle and managing your spending and giving generously and paying down debt and thinking about the appropriate amount to save for the short and long term.

What does that look like? Well, we want to help you apply timeless biblical wisdom to those decisions so you can make decisions with confidence. We'd love to hear from you with lines open. 800-525-7000. In addition to your phone calls today, we'll have a chance to dive into at least one of your emails.

We receive emails all the time at questions at moneywise.org. We heard from Sue, and she's asking about repairing her credit score. She had a job loss and some major medical expenses that resulted in collections and charge-offs.

She has a good job now and is current, but wanting to improve her credit score. I'll weigh in on that today. Plus, how and when to help the needy. Well, that's right. Often we will come across folks on our path in a difficult or desperate situation.

What does God's Word say about that, and how and when do we help? I'll at least give you some thoughts to think about today a little later in the broadcast. And of course, your questions as well at 800-525-7000. Let's dive in there. We'll head to the carpet capital, Dalton, Georgia. Justin, you go right ahead, sir.

Hey, how's it going? I had a question about, I was out of the country for about two years and was not receiving any income. I know that I don't have to file taxes, but I also got married and had a child.

Would it benefit me any? Should I still go ahead and file those taxes for those years? Because I just got back and missed this tax season, actually.

So I wasn't sure how to handle that or go about if that was necessary. You actually don't need to file taxes in 2022. If you would be filing jointly at 25, if you have income of less than $25,900, as a single filer, $12,950. I think the only question would be, could there be refundable tax credits that you would be eligible for?

Something like that. But otherwise, really, there is no tax due if you didn't have any income that exceeded what is essentially the standard deduction. Yeah, I wasn't sure if maybe there would be some refunds for, I guess, having dependents at the time or not. Yeah, I mean, the dependents that you now have would apply to a future tax year where you had income in that year, and you'd obviously be filing under a different status now. So, you know, it never hurts to check with a tax preparer, but essentially, you don't have to file if you don't meet those minimums. So the only question would be whether you're giving up anything. And I think that would be worth a conversation with a CPA or accountant who could give you more specific advice for that particular tax year.

But just as a general rule of thumb, if you don't meet those thresholds, you don't have to file. Okay. All right.

I just wanted to check with you. I appreciate it, Justin. Well, thanks for your call today. If we can help along the way, let us know.

Let's head a little bit south to Florida. Robert, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hey, I've always listened to you a lot, but I never thought I'd actually call you here. I am.

I'm glad you did. Hey, I'm getting ready to retire. Well, actually semi-retire in December.

I'm 64 and I'll be 65 in December. So I've got a lot of stupid stuff going on, like, you know, healthcare, a 401k. Well, I'd lost like $50,000 out of my 401k. And so I just moved it out and put it into an IRA. Right now, it's just sitting in a money market. And I'm not sure how to reallocate those funds. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I think the key is, you know, really making sure you are moving toward deploying or redeploying an investment strategy. But given that you've already made this change and when you rolled it out to the IRA, it had to come in the form of cash. Obviously, you want to recoup those losses to the extent possible. Now, the major selloff that we saw in the first part of this year, a good bit of that has reversed over the last seven weeks or so with a pretty steady climb. Most market analysts believe that we'll see another down leg. I mean, we're not clear of the possibility of a recession. There's still quite a bit of headwinds out there in terms of high inflation that's probably not returning to the Fed's target of 2% anytime soon. They're going to continue to hike rates until they see substantial easing of inflation. That means a slowing of the economy. Now, there's some good news out there. It seems like corporate earnings, for all intents and purposes, are holding up and there's still a very strong job market. And with revisions for the first and second quarter of this year, there's a chance they weren't even negative. And so there's a good likelihood we're not in a recession. Could we miss one or have a minor one? Sure.

But we could see the market sell off again. So I think the key for you here is first to determine with this money that's from the 401k now in the IRA, what is your need for that both now and in the future? If you don't mind me asking, Robert, about how much do you have in that portfolio? It's like $207,000. Okay, $207,000. And that's after, you said, roughly $50,000 that you lost? Yeah, that's after I lost. Okay. And are you fully retired now or you said you're getting ready too?

Is that right? Yeah, I'm still working full time. I'm in pretty good health, but I'm in construction in Florida. It's so hot this summer here.

Yeah, brutal. Yeah, I understand. I'm from South Florida.

So I get that. When you retire, have you done a retirement budget just to look at what your expenses would be? And how are you going to cover that? Are you going to need to pull an income from this $207,000 or do you have other income sources? Well, yeah, well, I've got like a rental property that I rent so cheap. And then, you know, my houses, both of them will be paid for in December, the rental house and the house I live in. You know, I don't really, like my trucks are paid for, my boats are paid for. The only thing they're paid for is my tractor and my watch car. So, you know, truthfully, and she has a pretty good job and working for the medical exam. So I think, you know, I really don't have to have the funds, but you know, to go and do a lot of extra, I probably would want to take some out of, you know, like, you know, a little bit of here and there or something.

I got part of it in a raw, not a whole lot, but a small amount in a raw. Okay, well, I think that the direction I'd go, Robert, is given that it sounds like most of your basic expenses, perhaps most of them are covered through what will ultimately be Social Security, but then your wife's income. And so this is money that just can continue to grow and perhaps for quite a long time. I mean, if your Lord doesn't call you home and he doesn't return, you know, could need this money to last a couple of decades or more. So I think the idea right now is to systematically move it back into the market, but perhaps into an asset allocation that's a little more conservative, just given your proximity to retirement, could be something like 40% stock, 60% bonds, could even be 50-50 just while you're trying to wait to recoup what you lost and get on the other side of the current economic environment, which could be a year or two. But I'd recommend you get some counsel to help you do that. I'd recommend a certified Kingdom advisor who could meet with you, do a lot of discovery, get to know you and your wife, what God's doing in your life in the future, and then deploy an investment strategy that's consistent with that.

Probably not dropping it all in the market on one day, but over the next perhaps six months. You can find a CKA there in Florida at our website, MoneyWise.org. Just click Find a CKA.

I'd interview two or three. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on MoneyWise Live. Biblical wisdom for your financial decisions.

We've got phone lines open. We'd love to hear from you, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000 with your financial questions today. Before we go back to the phones, you know, thousands of our listeners, young and old, are having great success in managing their finances, their spending with the MoneyWise app. I can't think of a better tool to help you manage your budget, pay your bills, plus have biblical financial advice at your fingertips, and it's available in desktop or mobile. So head to MoneyWise.org. You can click the App tab for more details. By the way, if you're already using the MoneyWise app and love it, we'd love for you to post a review in either the Apple App Store or the Android Play Store. That would obviously give other folks visibility into what's happening with the MoneyWise app and how perhaps they could use it as a biblically-based money management tool as well.

Again, to find the MoneyWise app, MoneyWise.org, click the App tab, or if you're in your app store, just search for MoneyWise Biblical Finance. All right, back to the phones we go with lines open, 800-525-7000 with your financial questions today. To Cleveland, Ohio, Regina, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi. First of all, let me thank you for the program.

I love it. I get a lot of good suggestions from the folks. So I am about three, yes, absolutely. I'm about three years away from three, maybe four years away from retirement. I haven't had a lot of wise decision-making with savings funds and retirement, things like that. I have a small open retirement. I have about 32,000 in savings. And I have about, I want to say about $10,000 to $12,000 in credit card slash loans that I've been working to pay off. I've paid off about, I want to say about $15,000 in loans, I mean credit card debt already.

But my question is, since I haven't been that wise in retirement savings, should I take some of that savings and put it into like a Roth IRA until I retire in about three years? Yeah. So, you know, I would love for you to really knock out the credit card debt portion of this at a minimum, Regina, about how much of that, I think you said $10,000 in loans, is on credit cards. All of it or just a portion of it?

Right. The $10,000 to $11,000 is about $9,000 in loans and then the rest is in credit card debt. So only about $1,000 on credit cards? Well, credit card debt is probably about, yeah, less than $3,000 in credit card debt.

All right. And then what type of loans do you have, the other roughly $7,000 to $9,000? Yeah, it's a Marcus Goldman-backed loan for a major improvement. Okay. And what's the interest rate on that? The interest rate now, I think it's about 11%. Yeah.

Okay. You know, I would focus on paying that whole $10,000 off first, Regina, because you're not going to get a guaranteed, you know, 11% return on anything you'd put in a Roth IRA as much as I love a Roth IRA is just because of how effective they are as a long-term retirement savings tool. And with the credit card debt, those high interest rates are likely rising. So as the Federal Reserve raises the Fed funds rate, other rates are rising alongside it. And that includes the variable interest rates that are attached to your credit cards.

Those could be up at 18, 20, 22%. So given that amount that you're spending on those debts, I'd get those both knocked out with any surplus you have. So I'd go back to your spending plan and look at, you know, what you can do to dial that back. Now, you mentioned you had 32,000 in savings. If that's just liquid savings, and you know, I would say you really only need probably six months in emergency reserves. So anything over six months worth of expenses, perhaps you could just go ahead and wipe that debt out as well.

And then you could take what you were sending to the loans plus any other surplus you have. And I do like a Roth IRA a lot. Let me just ask though, you said you're three to four years away from retirement.

Do you have a company-sponsored plan at work or no? Well, we have the OPERS, O-P-E-R-S, retirement. And so there is some funds in there, but it's not like where I would like it to be.

And you know, it's small there. And I guess, you know, my concern was, you know, I could go ahead and pay off the loans and the credit cards and a lump sum, but it greatly reduces the savings till about 22,000. And by the beginning, only three, three and a half years away from retirement, that kind of bothered me a little bit because that's why I was thinking about the Roth and trying to generate some additional income long term because I won't have to mess with it. Yeah. How much would that free up though? How much are you sending across all those loans and credit cards each month?

Probably about a thousand. Yeah. So you could, you know, over 12 months, you could replenish all of that that you're spending right now toward the debt service. And, you know, then, you know, you could build that back up. So, cause if you're spending a thousand a month, that'd be 12,000 over a year and 10,000 wipes it out. So I think to even go ahead and tap into that, you've still got, sounds like way more than six months expenses in that even after the 10,000 get that paid off, you could replenish it to the cut level you're comfortable with. And then let's start funding the Roth IRA up to 7,000 or if you're over 50, 7,000 for this year. So I liked the plan with the Roth IRA. I would just use the funds you have for the debt first. Now if you wanted to get it in for this calendar year, you just have to contribute the 7,000 between now and when you file for 2022. So that could go as far as next April before you have to get that contribution in.

So I balanced those two with a priority toward the debt. Regina, we appreciate your call. Stay on the line. I want to send you a book as our gift and thanks for calling. We'll be right back on MoneyWise Live. We're so thankful you've joined us today for MoneyWise Live.

Phone lines are open 800-525-7000. Hey, have you contributed to MoneyWise Media before? If not, we'd love for you to prayerfully consider supporting this ministry. MoneyWise Media is listener supported, which means that everything we do from our MoneyWise app to this broadcast every day and our free MoneyWise coaches are a direct result of your generous support. You can become a monthly patron or give one time. Whatever you'd like to do, we'd love for you to consider that and then head to MoneyWise.org. Click the donate button. You can give online securely. You can give over the phone with one of our team members or through the mail. We provide the address there. Again, MoneyWise.org, and we would greatly appreciate your prayerful support of this ministry.

MoneyWise.org, just click donate. Thanks in advance. All right, heading back to the phones today to take your questions. Are you thinking about reining in your spending so you can accommodate for inflation right now? Is it your long-term savings and investing given the volatility in the market?

Maybe it's your giving strategy or debt reduction, whatever's on your mind today. We'd love to help you apply timeless wisdom to those decisions and choices. So give us a call. Our team is standing by, and we have several lines open.

800-525-7000 is the number to call. All right, let's head to Ohio. Gary, you're next on the program, sir.

Go ahead. Yes, thank you for all the valid information you give us, but my question is this. I understand the government is going to hire 87,000 more new IRA agents.

Why? What is the internal revenue going to do? Yeah. Well, first of all, I think you've got to recognize that this has become a political lightning rod of a conversation here in the last several weeks since this has come out. I'm not saying that one side or the other is right or wrong, but we've got to always step back and look at kind of what's the source of the information that's being cited and referenced. The 87,000 number in terms of additional employees that are being claimed to be coming on as IRS agents comes from a report from 2021 from the Treasury Department that said if 78 million in new IRS funding was approved, it would enable the IRS to hire 87,000 employees by 2031. So that's 10 years after the report. Now, keep in mind, around 50,000 staff members at the IRS are eligible for retirement in the next five years. So a lot of that is replacing these folks. Of course, a lot of that is for the hiring of new folks, which they haven't said specifically how many that is. I think the latest I heard was somewhere around 7,000 to 12,000 new staff would be added in, well, at least increments of 7,000 to 12,000. And then a good bit of that is for advances in technology and customer service folks. So these aren't all enforcement agents by any means. What they're trying to solve for is closing what they call the tax gap, which basically the figure that's believed to be the closest to accurate based on a number of sources is that there's somewhere between 350 and 400 billion a year that is due to the IRS that they don't receive because of underreporting of income.

And so essentially, they're trying to close that gap through modernizations, through replacing workers that are going to be rolling off and yes, adding some new staff because they've been significantly under-resourced. Now, a lot of this political rhetoric comes in when they say, well, who's being targeted here? And U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen sent a letter recently saying this would not be used, this is what she's saying, would not be used to increase the share of small business or households below 400,000 in terms of increasing the percentage of audits, which is still very small. I mean, most of the audits where you get higher percentages is with the wealthy, but also those who are self-employed typically just because they're not on W-2 income and those who have a disproportion of, let's say, giving to their income, which would be a lot of believers as well. So I think, you know, at the end of the day, obviously, you know, the IRS is trying to close that tax gap.

I don't think we're going to see anywhere near 80,000 new tax agents. I think we're going to see a replacement of a lot of folks, some addition, but also some modernizations. Now, beyond that, it does get political and the proof is going to be in the pudding in terms of how is this actually used and does it generate more revenues and from what sources, you know, as the government looks to generate more. So it's going to be an interesting debate that will continue and monitored very closely. And I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about it, but that's at least what I can tell you based on what I know. Gary, is that helpful?

Very much so. Thank you for your kindness. All right. God bless you, my friend.

Eight hundred five to five seven thousand. Looks like we have two lines open to Florida. Kathy, thanks for calling. Go right ahead.

Yes. Hi, Kevin. Thank you so much for your program.

I try to listen to it all the time and I learned so much from it. Thank you for taking my call. My question today is about filing income taxes. We just got married in May.

So next year in twenty twenty three, we'll file married filing joint. But the problem is my husband lived and worked in Italy for thirty eight years as a violinist. So his income is from the Italian government pension.

They're imps. They call it is that their Social Security over there is what they call it. And so he gets his pension from Italy.

And I just, you know, have any idea what we're going to be looking at when we go to file our taxes this year in America. We're still waiting on the Italian government to get it through their heads. He is over here and has been here for for two years this October living and retired. We're filling up paperwork for that right now. And as soon as he stops paying Italian taxes. But right now he's paying taxes in Italy.

So sure. Well, a couple of thoughts. I mean, one would be just related to the tax situation. I'm not a CPA.

And so I wouldn't want to get into that. And it gets pretty complicated pretty quickly when you're coming from one country to another. So I would absolutely get some counsel from a CPA in the preparation of the returns for the next couple of years. And I would specifically select a CPA who has experience in these international situations, you know, to be able to accommodate your husband so that that is filed appropriately with regard to credit and the transfer of credit to America. You know, I don't know a whole lot about them.

We really haven't vetted them. But I've seen some reviews on some organizations that will claim they can essentially translate or transfer your overseas credit history into U.S. credit history. So if you go to NerdWallet, which happens to be a pretty helpful resource just on ratings and, you know, looking at an honest evaluation, a lot of these companies, both in the fintech space as well as credit cards, but also in credit reporting type issues, you'll see that a company called Nova Credit is actually pretty highly rated. And essentially what they claim to do is through technology translate international credit data into the U.S. equivalent score.

And then it can be shared for the use of securing credit products here. Again, I don't have firsthand experience with it. So I do your research and due diligence. But that is an option.

And there are folks out there that really specialize in that. So I'd read up on that at NerdWallet.com and see what you can find again for the tax situation. This is the year, Kathy, for you to make sure that you have some really wise counsel there from a CPA.

I hope that's helpful. And we appreciate your call today very much. Folks, we're going to take a quick break and we come back for our final segment. We've got some great questions lined up. We'll tackle those and I'll weigh in on the question that we hear often.

How can you and when should you help the needy? We'll be right back. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Let's head back to the phones.

Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cora, thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Hi, Cora.

You there? Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Go right ahead. Okay.

Yes, I am. I'm not sure if I'm in a pickle or not. Anyway, I am 75 years old. And what happened? I bought a car like four years ago. I went and got $25,000 that I borrowed. And now it's up to like, the interest is up to 6.4% to 14%. And I owe $28,269. And so I don't know if I can go back and try to get the interest rate down. But then I had to pay, I guess I do a reach, finance or something. I don't know.

But that's what I did a couple of times. Yeah. Let me ask you just to clarify a couple of things. Did you say the interest rate is six or 14%? No, 6.14%. Oh, 6.14.

Okay, got it. And why is the balance growing? Have you had late payments?

Was there penalties? What's going on there? No, it's just growing because I'm not paying extra on it. Yeah, but with a car loan, if that's what this is, there should be an amount going to interest but also an amount going to principal. And the balance should be declining, not increasing if you're making your payments. It's not a car loan. It was just the money that I borrowed.

I paid for my Baltimore things, you know, at that time. But it wasn't a car loan. It was just a loan. It was just a loan from the bank, Huntington Bank. Got it.

All right. Well, you need to call them and find out why the balance is increasing. Because if you've been making your payments on time, the balance should not be going up.

It should be going down. So you need to understand they need to give you a kind of an audit, if you will, of the payment history and show you where the money that you're sending is going and why it's not enough to cover the interest on the account. Because obviously they're saying essentially that what you're paying each month is only a portion of the interest and so the rest of it, the balance is increasing. Well, that's a recipe for disaster because you'll never pay it off. At the same time you do that, you also need to begin exploring, Cora, looking at refinancing this.

And I would look at refinancing it with a car loan. What is the age of the car? The car is big. I had an accident. Someone hit me.

I don't express myself. The car is gone. And I had another car accident again. So I don't have a car period right now. Oh, I see. All right.

So yeah, this is tough. Well, we need to look at what you have right now with the National Bank or Huntington Bank and find out how you get this going in the right direction. See if they can re-amortize it or you can increase the payment because right now it's increasing.

We've got to figure out why. And then beyond that, I think we need to look at perhaps getting another loan of some kind that could be – I mean the interest rate isn't terrible. We just got to refactor the loan so that there's a payment that you can afford but where it's actually reducing the balance every month. So I want you to get some more information and then reach out to one of our MoneyWise coaches. In fact, if you just hold the line, Gabby T will get your information and we'll have one of our coaches call you and they can help you process and understand the information you get from Huntington Bank and perhaps give you some counsel on where you go from here. But we need a bit more information before we can do that. So hold the line. We'll get your contact information and I'll have one of our coaches contact you to help you with this. And Cora, we appreciate your call today.

To Wyndham, Ohio. Bob, go right ahead, sir. Yes. I turned 70 a couple months ago and so I've started to need to receive Social Security. And I'm still working and I expect I'll work for another 10 years before I retire. And I'm wondering, do you have some recommendations on what I should do with the money that I get from the Social Security until I need it and in 10 years?

Yeah. How much are we talking about? How much have you built up that you could put to work and how much you receive in a month? Well, I have 100,000 from the sale of a house a year ago and I have been adding to that at the rate of 500 a month. And so I expect that I'm going to start putting an additional 1,500 away a month. Okay.

And how much do you want to keep liquid? I have a six months emergency fund. In addition to the 100,000? Yes. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So it sounds like you could put that to work. I'd probably connect with an advisor, Bob, who could really help you think about, you know, what is your time horizon on this? How conservative do you want to be with an investing strategy? But 10 years is plenty of time for you to say, let's, you know, take a little bit of risk and see if we can grow this money over the next decade.

Since you don't need it, you're adding to it and you've got plenty of emergency reserves on the side. So I'd reach out to a certified kingdom advisor there in Ohio and see if you can interview two or three, find the one that's the best fit and put together an investment plan or strategy that makes sense. I mean, the other approach if you wanted to do it yourself would be to say, you know, maybe we do a 70 30 portfolio or 60 40 of bonds to stocks and you could use indexes, you know, a total market index fund and a total bond index fund. But with those allocations I talked about where you're fairly conservative and the goal is over the next 10 years just to grow this very inexpensively. If you wanted to do it yourself, you could take that approach. Otherwise, I'd prefer especially in a market like we're in right now that, you know, is on the heels of a long bull market. We could be in a sideways market here for a while. It's really a time to have an active money manager and I think somebody who could build that portfolio for you with your goals and objectives in mind and deploy this money in a thoughtful way that's disciplined and rules-based over the next 10 years makes a lot of sense.

So either one would be fine. If you want an advisor, you just head to our website MoneyWise.org and click find a CKA. Bob, we appreciate your call. Christine in Florida, go right ahead.

Hi there. Thank you for taking my call. I'd like some advice on how to know when to sell the house. I've already retired. My husband has two more years. We have a fully paid for home waiting for us in North Carolina and we're excited to go there, but we can't go until he retires. Right now we're in central Florida that has got crazy building going on. It's very fast as far as the real estate is concerned, but we've got this big fear and so our prices is listed as really high when you go to Zillow, but our fear is that over the next two years it's going to go into a recession and the housing market is going to fall apart and then when we go to sell our house, we're getting substantially less. If we sell it now, it would help quite a bit and then just try and rent in town, but the rentals are higher than our mortgages and just the whole double move. How do we make that decision? We're willing if we actually have to go ahead and put the house up to sale now and try and find a place to live, scale down and get ready for the move to North Carolina.

There's no way to know for sure. I can tell you absolutely the housing market is cooling after being on a massive tear over the last several number of years and that's driven largely by a slowing in the economy and interest rates rising, but the things you have going for you, Christine, are we still have a housing shortage in this country because of the folks now working remotely. The millennials are now of age where they're having kids and buying single family homes and you have an added benefit is that Florida is a huge destination right now because of high taxes in other states. You're seeing a massive inflow there. Plus, they're not making any more waterfront real estate, so you're in a strong position there.

They say location, location, location. So I think from that standpoint, you are going to weather even a cooling in the housing market in Florida, perhaps better than other parts of the country. Even if we saw a recession, most economists think at this point it'll be a mild one, at least in the near term the next couple of years like you're talking about. At the end of the day, could we be wrong and the housing market begins to have a pretty significant pullback? It's possible, but I think for the reasons I mentioned, Florida and just the lack of inventory of homes, I'd be comfortable if you guys really want to avoid the double move. You guys stay in and selling it when you're ready to go, but if you just really feel like, man, we're not being good stewards if we don't lock this in and you're willing to make the double move, you can certainly make a strong case that it's at its peak right now and it's only going to cool from here. The question is, are we just going to move from a red hot buyer's market to more of a seller's market, but prices level off, or are they actually going to fall?

If they fall, I think it's going to be minimal, but at the end of the day, nobody knows. Is that helpful? Yeah. Yeah, I see. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate your input on that.

All right. You're welcome, Christine. Thanks for calling today.

Folks, we've covered a lot of ground today, some really great calls. You know, as we wrap up, let me just share a couple of thoughts on this topic of how and when to help the needy. You know, poverty and need are facts of life in a fallen world. I mean, Jesus clearly said that in Matthew 26, the poor you will always have with you. Some poverty, of course, is self-inflicted. We read in Proverbs, the sins of laziness, stinginess, love of pleasure, greed, gluttony and drunkenness can all lead to economic poverty. Sometimes, though, people can become poor through no fault of their own. Now, generosity towards those in need, no matter how they got that way, should be a hallmark of Christian living.

I mean, the Bible clearly says that. God expects us to be generous givers, but we're also supposed to be good stewards. So how do we balance that? How and when do we help the needy?

Well, I think a couple of thoughts on that. One is the Lord is absolutely concerned about the poor, so we should all always be ready to help those truly in need. Psalm 82 says, Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless.

Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. On the flip side, Proverbs 21 says, If a man shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered. So we should defend the rights of the poor, but we should also include the poor in our financial giving. Proverbs says that as well. So I would say, you know, if God prompts you to give no matter the situation, listen to his voice. We are to give generously, sacrificially, willingly, and cheerfully to meet the needs of the less fortunate. And when we meet physical needs, there's opportunities to fill spiritual needs as well.

You think about that. Folks, thanks for being along with us today. Grateful for Gabby T and Amy Rios and also Jim Henry serving us really well today. Appreciate you being here and we'll look for you tomorrow. God bless you. Bye bye.